Issue 42 / March 2014

FREE 

Issue 42 

March 2014 

VEYU by John Johnson 

VEYU 

The Cyclist 

SeaWitches 

The Men

Bido Lito! March 2014 3 

Editorial 

The hoary old question of how Liverpool’s music offer is packaged and exported has been bouncing 

round my head again lately, probably for about the five-hundredth time since we started Bido Lito! At 

the risk of treading over old ground and repeating some well-worn arguments I’m going to dredge 

it up again here – hopefully I’ll steer clear of the clichés. 

We’ve always been pretty good at shouting about our musical prowess: from homegrown artists to 

adopted converts, the area has retained a strength for nurturing musical talent, for which the muchvaunted 

musical legacy serves as ample proof. In addition, the number of high quality events staged 

in the city (from Sound City to Psych Fest, and everything in between) continues to throw a spotlight on 

Liverpool and maintain its position as a bastion of creativity. But this is old news, right? 

What is interesting, though, is how that package is perceived from outside the city bubble. You can 

shout all you want, but if it doesn’t translate then what’s the point? I’m sure there’s a decent number 

of people across the world who have this image that Liverpool is full of Fabs-alikes running from one 

pub to the next and talking like old Uncle Paul. And that’s frightening. 

Which is why it was so encouraging to see three of the city’s current crop of sonic adventurers – 

Clinic, Mugstar and Forest Swords – hand-picked by leftfield musical titans Mogwai to support them 

on their recent Rave Tapes tour. Given the level of acclaim around the release of the Scots’ eighth 

album, and the fervour surrounding their near-legendary live shows, the fact that three Liverpool 

artists were given the nod to open for them on a number of dates 

across the UK and Europe is a pretty big deal. “Until recently Liverpool 

bands didn't seem to get asked to play many 'credible' indie supports,” 

says Clinic’s Ade Blackburn. “I think it's a sign that a lot of Liverpool 

music is now taken a bit more seriously and respected.” 

Does the whole thing serve as a kind of ‘seal of approval’ for the city’s 

alternative music offer then? Matthew Barnes (Forest Swords) would 

agree, having been a fan of Mogwai for a number of years, but reveals 

that it wasn’t entirely planned: “I spoke to Stuart [Braithwaite, Mogwai] 

about this and it was entirely coincidental - it didn't even occur to the 

Liverpool on tour 2K14 

band that we were all from the same place. I think in a way that's actually 

cooler than it being a conscious decision - it means all the artists they've picked were just done simply on 

what music the band enjoy and their individual merits, rather than any particular thematic decision.” 

That said, the Liverpool brand is still a powerful global pull, no matter how much it may grate 

people’s teeth. Matthew Barnes: “It does carry an extra weight, even though I'm sure it pains many 

Liverpool artists to admit it. For music fans in Europe it's a hook - to say you're from these parts 

makes people a bit more curious than if we were from a town with far less musical or cultural 

heritage. It's an easy entry point for people.” 

On the nature of Liverpool as a place to incubate this leftfield, forward-thinking talent, Mugstar’s 

Neil Murphy thinks that the current situation is an improvement on what went before. “In the past 

there was a problem with the weight of history. I think that more recently people are less historically 

aware, which has benefits and disadvantages. Also, a lot of musicians have arrived in Liverpool having 

grown up elsewhere. The cosmopolitan nature of modern Liverpool has helped revitalise the city.” 

As a building block for developing an identity, heritage is always going to be a key touchstone; 

but what’s important is how that heritage is leant on and used to move forwards. It’s encouraging 

to note that Liverpool’s unique history retains a certain magnetism in some quarters, and that this 

is key to keeping things fresh and innovative. What is without doubt is that there are an awful lot of 

creative oddballs doing their own thing in this small corner of the world, not cowed by the weight of 

the past, and forging their own paths. Perhaps this is our greatest export. Keep it coming, I say. 

Christopher Torpey / @BidoLito 

Editor 

Features 

6 

VEYU 

8 

SEAWITCHES 

10 

THE CYCLIST 

12 

MIKE BADGER 

14 

16 

SYNAESTHESIA FEAST 

THE MEN 

Regulars 

4 NEWS 

18 

PREVIEWS/SHORTS 

20 

REVIEWS 

Bido Lito! 

Issue Forty Two / March 2014 

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T 

ANTON POWERS, DJ

News 

Sound City’s Second Wave 

LIVERPOOL SOUND CITY has always strived to bring in the most exciting acts to the city's venues and, after being lauded for 

last year’s line-up, this year’s festival is set to be no different. The latest artists that have been announced include JON HOPKINS, 

(former?) Strokes guitarist ALBERT HAMMOND JR., DRENGE, Brighton duo ROYAL BLOOD and FAT WHITE FAMILY. They will join previously 

announced artists FUCK BUTTONS, KODALINE and GRUFF RHYS for the festival in May, alongside keynote speakers JOHN CALE of Velvet 

Underground fame and Sonic Youth's THURSTON MOORE. For the full line-up so far and ticket info go to liverpoolsoundcity.co.uk 

Merseyside Arts Foundation: Round 2 

The Merseyside Arts Foundation have announced that the second round of applications for its MUSIC DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME 

2013/2014 is now open. Local musicians are encouraged to apply for the programme, with twelve of the best being selected to develop 

their talents via a series of mentoring sessions and industry workshops, along with a recording session at Parr Street Studios and the 

opportunity to perform at a live showcase event. A similar course specifically for 16-18-year-olds is running alongside the Development 

Programme. The deadline for submissions is 28th March. For more info or an application form visit merseysideartsfoundation.org.uk 

Incoming Dutch Drone 

The global psychedelic village’s newest festival, EINDHOVEN PSYCH LAB, has revealed its initial line-up for the launch of the inaugural 

two-day event on 6th and 7th June. The festival, a collaborative effort between Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia and 

Eindhoven’s foremost venue the Effenaar, features headliners WOODEN SHJIPS, HOOKWORMS, THE GROWLERS and TERAKAFT, as well 

as hook-ups with Rocket Recordings and Fuzz Club Records. Also featured will be TEETH OF THE SEA, GNOD and Liverpool's own psych 

heroes MUGSTAR, with more to be announced soon. Weekend ticket bundles are available now from eindhovenpsychlab.com 

Dig For Victory 

We’d like to extend a warm welcome to DIG VINYL, the city's newest record shop, which has announced that it will be 

opening its doors on Saturday 15th March. Located in the basement of Soho's on Bold Street, the store will specialise in a 

wide range of second-hand vinyl and sealed re-presses including indie, alternative, soul, funk, punk and much more. The grand 

opening will also feature a mini DJ set from Bido Lito!, with Editor Christopher Torpey playing a selection of records handpicked 

specially from the store's own racks and crates. 

An Outfit For Everyone 

FUNNEL CLOTHING, a newly launched Liverpool-based online store for band merchandise, has pushed off into the murky waters 

of the internet. The venture is the work of a long-time Bido Lito! contributor, so it’s no surprise that the launch involves T-shirts from 

the city’s noir pop favourites OUTFIT. Sartorial threads are also available from JON HOPKINS, author of the undoubted electronic 

masterpiece of 2013, and THUMPERS, who bring their melody-crammed indie pop to Liverpool Sound City this May. Expect further 

additions in the coming months from both Liverpool and beyond. Check out the current line-up at funnelclothing.com 

Bido Lito! Dansette 

Our pick of this month's fresh wax cuts... 

Morgan Delt 

Morgan Delt 

TROUBLE IN MIND 

RECORDS 

Following the rich tradition of west coast 

psychedelia, MORGAN DELT’s eponymous 

LP is both retrospective and futuristic in 

its sound. Morgan Delt channels the hazy 

60s with jangling riffs and baroque vocals 

but this second release transcends the 

sound by injecting the aesthetics with a 

staggering array of influences which float 

to the left of the leftfield. 

St. Vincent 

Digital Witness 

LOMA VISTA RECORDINGS 

This latest offering from Annie Erin Clark 

(AKA ST. VINCENT) boasts a hook that 

would see Captain Ahab green with 

envy. What sounds like an electronicallymanipulated 

baritone sax throbs and 

grinds with uneasy staccato thrusts 

throughout. This track confirms we 

still have pop music that manages to 

remain sleazy, compelling and utterly 

danceable. Thank St. Vincent for that. 

John Butler Trio 

Flesh & Blood 

JARRAH RECORDS 

Africa Oyé 

COMPETITION! 

AFRICA OYÉ, the UK's biggest celebration of African music and culture, is to return to Sefton Park this summer on the weekend 

of 21st and 22nd June. Starting as a series of small gigs in the city in 1992, the free festival aims to celebrate all aspects of African 

culture with a huge range of food, activities, concessions and live music. Ahead of the main festival, reggae legends YELLOWMAN 

(pictured) and DILLINGER, two of the biggest names in the genre, have also announced a tour of the UK in conjunction with Oyé 

Touring & Trading. They will play Liverpool's District on 1st March. More info can be found at africaoye.com 

COMMUNION MUSIC is an artist-led organisation which aims to support up-and-coming talent and provide a hub for 

songwriters and musicians to develop and flourish within the music industry. Formed in London in 2006, the organisation 

was founded by Ben Lovett of Mumford & Sons, former Cherbourg bassist Kevin Jones, and producer Ian Grimble. 

For this month's competition, we've teamed up with the generous folks at Communion, who have been kind enough to 

offer us a pair of tickets to two of their March shows. The first features London singer-songwriter LUKE SITAL-SINGH, who 

will play at The Kazimier on 1st March alongside Eliza And The Bear, Annie Eve and Farewell J.R. Alt-rockers AMBER RUN 

(pictured) will headline the second show, with Racing Glaciers, Etches and Natalie McCool at Leaf on 14th March. 

All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning this mighty prize is to answer the following question: 

Which of the following releases was produced by Ian Grimble? a) The 1975 - The 1975 b) London Grammar - If You Wait c) Arctic Monkeys - AM 

To enter, email your answer to competition@bidolito.co.uk 

by 27th February. All correct answers will be placed into the big pink hat with a winner 

picked at random and notified via email. Good luck! 

The sixth album from Aussie roots 

rockers JOHN BUTLER TRIO Flesh & Blood 

sees a marked but not unwelcome 

shift in sound for the band. A large 

portion of the fretboard pyrotechnics 

of previous offerings are exchanged for 

a more personal feel, with single Only 

One providing a sunny and uplifting 

atmosphere with steel drums and 

cascading acoustic melodies. 

Big Head Todd & The 

Monsters 

Black Beehive 

SHOUT! FACTORY 

Veteran blues-rockers BIG HEAD TODD 

& THE MONSTERS return for their 

fourteenth album. From the brooding 

slide riffer of Seven State Lines to the 

bouncing slice of Hammond organflavoured 

roots pop Hey Delila, the band 

maintain their solid and prolific output 

with a release that's guaranteed to 

make heads bob and feet stomp. 

bidolito.co.uk

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Dropkick Murphys 

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The Connor Harris Launch 

Fri 12th Sept • £10 adv 

Definitely Mightbe 

(Oasis Tribute) 

20 Year Celebration performing Definitely 

Maybe in full followed by greatest hits 

Fri 14th Nov • £10 adv 

Antarctic Monkeys 

Fri 28th Nov • £11.50 adv 

The Doors Alive 


Metronomy 

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Space & Republica 


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ft. Interpol + Temples 

+ Royal Blood + Circa Waves 

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6 

Bido Lito! March 2014 

Words: Joshua Nevett / @JoshuaNevett 

Photography: John Johnson / johnjohnson-photography.com 

bidolito.co.uk


“It’s fucking freezing in here! Does anyone want a beer 

then?” Thirty seconds into Bido Lito!’s second interview 

with VEYU and we’re already nursing an obscure 

brand of foreign lager courtesy of their lead guitarist, 

Adam Bresnen. Outside, the grandiose architecture 

of Liverpool’s business district partially shields the 

congested streets from the leaky, blackened sky. Inside, 

we’re shooting the shit about hangovers, performance 

anxiety and major record deals, as the Andy Burrowsalike 

thrusts two beers into the hands of bandmates 

Chris Beesley (Vocals, Guitar) and Tom McCabe (Drums). 

Adam then slumps into the empty chair next to them as 

we discuss the merits of hypnosis. 

“Fuck, well, my memory would just go on stage,” 

explains Adam with regard to his crippling stage fright. 

“I’d forget my own songs, my own lyrics, my own guitar 

riffs. So, I went to see a hypnotist. It worked.” 

This isn’t the kind of affliction you’d expect the lead 

guitarist of one of Liverpool’s most exciting buzz bands 

to harbour. Nonetheless, his candid admission gives 

an indication of just how serious VEYU are about what 

they do. They want to exert control over every aspect of 

their make-up, and they’re prepared to use mind-altering 

techniques to do so. 

It’s a Saturday and we’re at the Fallout Factory Art 

Gallery on Dale Street. It’s been about a year since Adam 

acquired the building to use as a non-profit art gallery, 

and the room in which we now sit looks a bit like the 

gutted window of a destined-to-be bankrupt shop, save 

the ‘everything-must-go’ Letraset. This is VEYU’s home, 

creative HQ, rehearsal space and soon-to-be regular 

gig venue. It’s an ailing council building with a creepy 

wooden staircase from Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, crude 

promotional etchings plastered all over the walls, longforgotten 

trinkets, curious artsy knick-knacks and a dank 

basement which could well have been where the final 

scene of the Blair Witch Project was filmed. But in the 

lead-up to I/O, their first self-curated show, the gallery 

is littered with band paraphernalia as the group tinker 

about with an abundance of light and sound to make 

sure that their own precise universe translates just 

how they want it. “We’ve got free rein to do what we 

want here,” says Tom of the gallery and event. “It’s 

more of a DIY thing. It’s not fancy or plush, but we’ve 

put a lot of thought into the visual elements that could 

complement our music.” In collaboration with visual 

artist David Ogle and 3D effects maestro Deerstalker, the 

event’s amalgamation of art and music is the quintet’s 

own gentle nod towards the spirit of Andy Warhol’s 

Exploding Plastic Inevitable. Taking place after we sat 

down for this interview, the event acted as an iridescent 

lightbulb to the moths of Liverpool’s creative community 

(not to mention a handful of A&R scouts), who gathered 

round to see their latest darlings come good on months 

of promise. 

When Bido Lito! last interviewed VEYU, they were 

lamenting the difficulties of forming a band. Fast-forward 

just five months and they’ve already curated their first 

multi-themed event, and are in the process of penning 

their [“mostly finished”] debut album and exchanging 

digits with a number of major record labels. Just don’t 

ask them whether they plan to put pen to paper with 

said labels anytime soon. “We’re not going to just sign 

off on any old contract,” shrugs Adam. “We want to be 

thorough and we want to know what sort of creative 

control that we’ve got,” Chris butts in. “We’re not 18- 

year-olds who will sign our souls away at the sight of a 

lucrative contract. I think we’re just a bit more grounded 

than that. It’s about sniffing out the good eggs from the 

bad.” 

To put it plainly, VEYU have unwittingly piqued the 

interest of the industry’s biggest wigs, bleeping on 

the radar of everyone in the music biz who likes their 

choruses big, dewy-eyed, sprinkled with tropes of 80sera 

pop and sung by Matt Berninger. The twinkling, 

Fleet Foxes-like lope of Running is now bolstered by 

B-side Everlasting, a bold move towards the edgier, less 

pastoral end of the spectrum. Their reaction to all this 

interest? Dissolution, obviously. “A few months ago I 

feel we were really naïve as to how the industry works,” 

offers Chris. “But now it’s like, the more I find out, the 

more I think ‘I wish I didn’t know’. Everything has this 

methodology to it. It just seems very formulaic.” 

To fill-in between the lines, the gist is this: VEYU 

recently linked up with a management company in 

cahoots with a major label, their first encounter with the 

glass ceiling of the music industry. Thus, a raw nerve has 

been exposed somewhat. “We’ve talked to our managers 

and we’re not dead-set on signing with a major label,” 

says Chris, before Tom interjects. “The thing is, we didn’t 

just want to nosedive straight in, [but our management] 

actually wanted us to sign a contract straight away.” 

Adam sighs: “I know bands that have signed to [major 

labels] and just been discarded.” 

“We’re just precious about what VEYU is,” explains 

Chris. “We’re cautious about handing over certain 

responsibilities to the right people. It’s just a natural 

scepticism. It’s nothing personal.” This isn’t just playing 

hard to get though. VEYU really want this. And not just a 

plastic, pastiche version of rock ‘n’ roll sold to us in gift 

shops at the Hard Rock Café; they’re confident enough to 

flirt with the devil without putting out on the first date. 

“I think [the music industry] is very flaky,” says Chris with 

a raised brow. “We’re just not puppets.” 

It’s beginning to become clear why VEYU are so ill 

at ease with their interim status as major-label earcandy. 

Basically, they’re still an unknown quantity. And, 

ultimately, the cynical and morally panicked culture of no 

control = no integrity, married with the burden of buzz, is 

pranging them out. To be fair, they’ve not even released 

an awful lot of music. That said, this month’s release of 

debut single Running ought to allay any worries as to 

whether VEYU are the real deal or not. 

After we run out of questions to have evaded, we settle 

in to a discussion about their positive experience at Parr 

Street Studios for the recording of Running. The results 

suggest that the band’s first foray into the studio bodes 

well for the future, adding space and clarity to the rough 

gem of the track’s demo recording. Could history repeat 

itself for the recording of their debut album perhaps? 

“We want to keep our options open,” offers Chris. It’s as 

simple as that. VEYU are playing the long game and, you 

know what, they’re winning. 

VEYU’s new single Running will be released on 9th 

March. 

Listen to VEYU performing an exclusive live session for 

our next podcast, out on 6th March. 

soundcloud.com/veyuband 

bidolito.co.uk

Words: Richard Lewis 

Photography: Robin Clewley / @robinscamera 

The inspired art rock/post-punk alloy of SEAWITCHES’ debut EP 

Spacegun, issued in late 2012, announced the arrival on record 

of a long-standing fixture on the city’s gig circuit. Fast-forward 

eighteen months and we’re happy to report that the band’s 

follow-up to Spacegun vaults far ahead of that impressive first 

offering. The forthcoming, vividly titled EP Tear Back The Sky picks 

up the baton from the previous release and sprints headlong into 

newer, more expansive territory. 

Revolving around principal players and songwriters Jo Herring 

(Vocals, Guitar, Bass) and Laura Caldwell (Bass, Guitar, Vocals), the 

band are joined by guitarist Sophie Nicole Ellison and a steady 

succession of drummers (Jacob King is in possession of the 

sticks for the current release). The band’s profile has deservedly 

snowballed since they unleashed Spacegun, bolstered by a 

slew of live shows and radio sessions, but with Tear Back The 

Sky it feels like the stars have aligned for them, in more ways 

than one. EP curtain raiser Stars, recently released as the band’s 

debut single, is their most immediate track to date, a sunburst of 

Veronica Falls-esque jangly indie pop, backed with SeaWitches’ 

first foray into video. “It’s the first song we wrote. I think you can 

hear its naïve charm, because it’s literally the first thing we ever 

did together,” Jo explains, as dusk settles, presaging another 

wintry night in Liverpool. 

Drawn from Jo and Laura’s extensive catalogue of songs, 

accumulated and refined over years of concentrated writing, many 

of the tracks started life in the band’s former practice room in St. 

Bride’s Church. “We’ve got so many songs cos when we first started 

playing together we weren’t gigging at all. We didn’t have that 

confidence yet, we were trying to find our feet as musicians really,” 

Laura explains. “All these really old riffs that we wrote years ago just 

bubble up.” Several songs, meanwhile, evolved out of edited-down, 

lengthy, improvised jams, which are born from the duo playing 

“things to death until they arrive at their natural state,” Jo smiles. 

As ardent fans of David Lynch and Haruki Murakami (author 


of modern classics 1Q84 and Norwegian Wood), the non-linear 

narrative drift of both filmmaker and writer are elements with 

which the band strive to infuse their material. “We try to bring that 

to the way we write the music,” Jo nods. “The idea of it doesn’t 

need to make sense. Why should it have to make sense, really?” 

This effect of weaving what initially seem to be disparate 

elements into aural tapestries works brilliantly on the spiralling 

riffs that form the bedrock of the songs on Tear Back The Sky, such 

as Sleepkill, which is anchored by a clunking, almost industrial 

rhythmic pattern. “We want to be evocative, and Sleepkill is a bit 

hypnotic and nightmarish in a way,” Laura explains. “I think it’s OK 

that not all the lyrics make complete sense; we often name songs 

after what they remind us of in terms of what they sound like.” The 

Eastern, which is possibly the highlight of the collection, stands 

as a prime example, padding along with cat-like grace through a 

desert haze before deftly switching moods towards the coda and 

transforming into something more urgent. Written using Eastern 

modal scales, the track is a partner to The Western, which is set to 

be included on the group’s next release and is influenced by Jo’s 

recent immersion in Ennio Morricone soundtracks. 

Produced by Sophie, the five-track set was recorded in the 

decidedly upmarket surroundings of a certain former school in the 

city’s Georgian Quarter. “We played a gig in the old Milk: Presents 

HQ [above the Cabin Club, Bold St] and Sophie was playing that 

night as part of Wet Mouth and she was looking for a project 

and she ended up joining us,” Laura explains of the sessions. 

“Sophie was working on the finals for her degree in Sound Tech 

at LIPA and part of it was to record a live band to professional 

standard and she chose us. She’s really brought something out 

of the music; she’s made it more accessible. On the last EP, it was 

done in two days; it was rushed; and it was the first time we’d 

recorded that way.” 

“When you’re going into a high-end recording studio it can be a 

bit daunting and Sophie was aware of that and our inexperience,” 

Laura recalls. “We’ve probably got an album’s worth of material 

out of those studio sessions, but we thought we’d aim for an EP 

first. These five songs seemed to make sense as an EP, the flow of 

it, plus trying to release a self-funded album is quite a tall order.” 

With Sophie on the other side of the recording-studio glass, 

Tear Back The Sky boasts increased assurance and clarity with 

the reverb-swathed vocals, razorwire guitar motifs and slowly 

unspooling basslines that have become SeaWitches hallmarks. 

Helmed with the aim of matching the impact and tangible 

atmospheres of touchstones such as The Cure’s Seventeen 

Seconds and Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures, Sophie's 

production allows the the sidewinding guitar lines to interlock 

seamlessly with Jo’s sonorous vocals, pitched crystal clear in 

the mix. “This last year doing all these recordings I’ve definitely 

become a better vocalist; I’ve really been trying to push myself 

vocally and stretch what my voice can do,” Jo says. 

Black Bark, meanwhile, its lyrics inspired by Dylan Thomas’ 

Under Milk Wood, “along with a quote from a Nico biography”, 

possesses a febrile energy similar to early Siouxsie And The 

Banshees material. Laura takes on vocal duties for Black Bark, 

delivering lyrics loaded with religious imagery. “It’s like a fairytale 

written as though you’re being pursued, as though you’re being 

surrounded by horrible things and trying to hold it together.” 

With the second instalment about to hit the shelves, the third 

episode of SeaWitches’ continuing odyssey isn’t far behind. 

“There’s still a ton of old stuff. Once we’ve done the launch night 

for the EP the next priority is booking studio time; we’re really 

anxious to get the [new] songs recorded,” Jo says. The angst to 

hear new material should doubtless be shared by listeners, as the 

successor to Tear Back The Sky can’t arrive soon enough. 

Tear Back The Sky is released on 7th March, followed by a launch 

show at MelloMello on 29th March. 

seawitches.bandcamp.com

Friday 4 April 7.30pm £27.50-£40 

THE MUSIC 

OF IAN BROUDIE 

The Lightning Seeds & the 

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra 

WITH VERY 

SPECIAL GUEST 

PERFORMANCES 

Stay tuned to 

liverpoolphil.com/broudie 

for announcements 

Broudie has worked with artists 

including Echo and the Bunnymen, 

Miles Kane, Terry Hall, The Zutons, 

The Fall and The Coral. This gig will 

include songs from his career as a 

producer, as well as songs by The 

Lightning Seeds all performed, as 

never previously heard, with the 

orchestra and very special guests. 

Liverpool Philharmonic Hall 

Box Office 0151 709 3789 

liverpoolphil.com 

Booking fees Online/Phone Orders £1.50 per ticket administrative fee applies + 75p per 

order postage fee (if required). In Person No fees for payment by cash or debit card. Credit 

card orders incur a 2% transaction fee. Cheque orders are subject to a 70p per order charge. 

Principal Funders Principal Partners Media Partner 

Thanks to the City 

of Liverpool for its 

financial support

The 

Words: Mike Townsend / @townsendyesmate 

Design: Sam Marshall / notknot.co.uk


When introducing his new album Ghettoville, London producer 

Actress said that he “wanted it to sound brittle, as if you were an 

addict and you feel like the world is crumbling around you”. This 

kind of controlled chaos, when you know that the sound coming 

out of your speakers extends beyond anything you could possibly 

understand, is what drives Derry-born, Liverpool-based producer 

THE CYCLIST. His debut album Bending Brass, which already reaches 

beyond the Atlantic thanks to the support of Stones Throw and LA’s 

Leaving Records, is an intense, challenging and immersive listen, 

capable of completely removing you from your surroundings. 

Whether you’re on a dancefloor gurning your tits off or on the last 

bus home from town with your headphones on, all those little 

intricacies and nuances are far too much of a distraction for you to 

be able to focus on anything else. 

A third-year pharmaceutical student at the University of 

Liverpool, Andrew Morrison is a producer who strives for 

innovation. “I’ve always been a solo artist,” he explains. “When 

I was fourteen my brother bought a four-track tape recorder, and 

around the same time I downloaded an old copy of Ableton. From 

there I just started fucking around which each of those, going 

back and forth between them. It was a long, long process to pick 

it up, to be honest. It really took me ages to figure it all out. I 

didn’t use any tutorial videos or anything, just fiddled around with 

it in a trial and error sort of way.” The accessibility and versatility 

of workstation software like Ableton or FL Studio has produced 

a generation of self-taught recording artists, which has arguably 

been central to the relentless forward momentum of electronic 

music over the last ten years. I mean, “fucking around” is just 

another way of saying experimental these days anyway, and 

Morrison is certainly no stranger to it. 

Morrison speaks openly about how financial constrains have 

impacted his music career so far. And even his Bandcamp page 

warmly describes an old, £20 keyboard he used to record the 

album. “Ah yes, that keyboard,” he chuckles. “To be honest, being 

a musician and a student – two of the poorest types of people 

in the country – I’m just really fucking skint.” Furthering your 

career and furthering your wallet don’t necessarily correlate as 

much as they should do for musicians. And, whilst the argument 

of whether or not they are fairly compensated for their art is 

an important one, Morrison has found ways of making his 

lack of resources, well, resourceful; using what is essentially a 

toy keyboard to create sounds that even the most seasoned 

electronic music ears won’t be used to hearing. “Yeah, I mean, 

by this point I’ve sort of grown to love the noises of the cheaper 

things. I tend to look for hardware that can produce interesting, 

unexpected sounds that you might not get from the normal 

standard equipment. Sometimes I channel something quite 

expensive and clean-sounding, like an Ableton synth, into 

something shit like a £20 tape machine and see what comes 

out.” The results are arresting in their originality, and will sound 

like a mess for those not looking to put the work in. The rewards 

are generous though, providing a blistering, bewildering, yet 

absolutely unmissable journey into the furthest corners of 

electronic music. 

On Can, a highlight from Bending Brass, Morrison keeps the 

rhythmic pattern simple, using a thumping beat and a crisp synth 

to produce that kind of big room techno tune that deserves to be 

played on the best sound systems by the best DJs. In the context 

of the complicated, intricate album, it almost feels decadent, as if 

Morrison is allowing himself a brief moment of indulgence. “Yeah, 

Can is definitely the most old-school tune I’ve ever made,” Morrison 

says cautiously. “A lot of what I write is quite beat-less, so it was nice 

to be able to make something like that, and it’s definitely a sound 

I want to explore further.” The obvious peak of Can, though, would 

have less resonance were it not for the more subtle moments on 

the album, like the stuttering, darkly irregular Pins And Needles On 

My Face, or the snidely tuneless Technicolor!. These songs create 

an area for the blustering, confident Can to sound like a victory lap 

rather than a momentary lapse in concentration. 

“There’s two ways I want people to listen to the album,” 

Morrison explains assertively, “either dancing to it, or to be just 

zoning out in complete solitude, staring into space and totally 

detached from everything else.” When you consider the contrast 

in these settings, not just situationally but circumstantially as 

well, it’s difficult to imagine the same piece of music doing both. 

What Morrison is suggesting, though, is that he wants people to 

get lost in his tunes. I mean, we’ve all been in our own world on 

a dancefloor, sometimes on a different fucking planet. Similarly, 

we’ve probably at some point in our shit lives all drifted off sitting 

on the night bus staring blankly into a crumpled-up copy of The 

Metro (probably on the same weekend if your drugs are good 

enough). It does raise an interesting question: whether electronic 

or, more specifically, this kind of lo-fi techno, can straddle 

both high art and club culture at the same time. What’s most 

impressive about The Cyclist’s brief body of work, and what goes 

some way to achieving this kind of versatility, is its interactive 

element, where it allows the listener to deconstruct and unload 

the individual components with every listen. All the little touches 

and convolutions that make up these songs, like that metal on 

metal clanging on An Abyss Part 2, or that tuneless brass sound on 

Contorted, feel strikingly tailored, as if he’s spent hours sourcing, 

moulding and affecting them, allowing them to segue effortlessly 

into whatever state of mind you find yourself in. 

In an age of constant production and consumption, it’s difficult 

to find an artist who completely owns their sound. And whilst this 

obsession with the original might not be as important now as 

it was – I mean, some of the best albums in recent years have 

come from retreading the past – that feeling that you are listening 

to something unlike anything you’ve ever heard before is a rare 

but precious experience. It happens once, maybe twice, a year, and 

it can be the sort of moment that completely changes your day, 

maybe even your week. These are the moments that every music 

listener – from rock music to techno – truly strives for, and they are 

the ones that stay with us for the longest. 

Bending Brass, the extraordinary debut album from The Cyclist, 

moves between Detroit techno, jungle, dub, even first-wave 

psychedelia, to create a collection of songs that revel in their 

originality and innovation but in a way that’s warm and welcoming. 

“I’ve got a release lined up under another alias,” explains Morrison 

as he discusses his plans for the year. “It’s coming out under All 

City Records in Dublin, and it’s going to be very noisy, distorted 80s 

house tunes. It will play with simpler rhythms and more repetitive 

melodies, with a bit of an old-school vibe. The label is going to 

release it across a series of 12” releases around May this year. I’ve 

spent a lot of time with these tunes, so I’m really excited by them.” 

It speaks volumes for Morrison as an artist that he doesn’t consider 

himself an experimentalist. And, as he contemplates moving into 

more immediate, melodic territory for his future releases, the 

prospect of him working on top of musical templates already laid 

out for him is one of endless – and exciting – possibilities. 

Head to bidolito.co.uk now to listen to an exclusive mix from The 

Cyclist on the Bido Stereo. 

soundcloud.com/the-cyclist 

bidolito.co.uk

12 


Mike 

Badger 

And The 

Roots Of 

Liverpool 

Words: Richard Lewis 

Illustration: Hannah Cassidy / hannahcassidycreative.tumblr.com 

Music 

In addition to releasing over a dozen albums, co-founding 

a record label, regularly touring across the southern states of 

the USA and establishing The La’s, MIKE BADGER is the de facto 

authority on roots music in Merseyside. Backed by The Shady 

Trio since 2010, the singer is preparing the follow-up to 2012’s 

Lucky 13 LP with a single for Record Store Day, highlighting an 

insatiable appetite for musical activity that runs alongside his 

twin occupations as an artist and sculptor. 

As part of the Liverpool Acoustic Festival at the Unity Theatre 

this month, Mike Badger will appear in conversation with Bido 

Lito! Editor-in-Chief Craig G. Pennington to discuss the indelible 

influence roots music, country, bluegrass, rockabilly and folk 

continues to have on the city’s musical landscape. “With Liverpool 

being a Celtic city, country is huge here,” Mike explains. “Everything 

to do with Liverpool and its musical heritage is all directly linked 

with its geography. The more you read about it, the more you 

realise Liverpool was the first place in the country – even before 

London, because of the river – to get all that American music, and 

it had been since the war. It’s part of the fabric: it’s very heartfelt 

music, it’s story music, and that’s a very Scouse thing. It’s working 

man’s music and that’s such an important point,” Mike states. 

The almost mythologised figure of the ‘Cunard Yank’, workers 

on Liverpool’s shipping lines who frequently visited the States 

from the 1920s onwards, enabled the city to be ahead of the 

curve in picking up music from across the Atlantic via the influx 

of records purchased Stateside. “When people had liberty after 

World War II and wanted to express themselves, they could do 

in America and that’s what started [it all], music that came from 

African and European roots,” Mike notes. 

Mike can vividly recall his first introduction to country music’s 

more rambunctious cousin. “I remember hearing Buddy Holly in 

Kirklands [now The Fly in the Loaf] one afternoon being pumped 

out through the system when I was about 16. And I just thought 

‘Oh my God, what the hell is that?’ It really did shake me up. 


Around that time I was going to Eric’s, seeing The Undertones, 

The Pretenders, Madness, The Cure, and you wouldn’t know who 

they were, you’d just go along and see what band was playing. 

Then, in the early 80s I really got into rockabilly, which is basically 

the country end of rock ‘n’ roll.” 

Deriving its name from the portmanteau of rock ‘n’ roll and 

hillbilly (the name given to Scottish hill farmers who settled in 

the Southern states in the 1800s), the genre’s impact on Liverpool 

music in the 1950s was colossal. Johnny Burnette And The Rock 

N Roll Trio (“fifties punk” according to Mike) were cited by John 

Lennon as producing the one album he would play all the way 

through without lifting the needle. Influencing US alt. rock bands 

of the 1980s, rockabilly found an echo in the groundbreaking 

output of The Cramps and The Gun Club, who plaited the form 

with a gothic sensibility. 

The genre had a huge affect on Mike’s own music from the 

off, his original vision for The La’s being “heavily rhythmical, 

discordant rockabilly.” Early track My Girl Sits Like A Reindeer 

(later reworked as Feelin’) provides a prime example of this 

initial idea for the band’s sound. After founding The La’s with Lee 

Mavers in 1984, Mike co-piloted the band for two years before an 

acrimonious split which saw Mavers effectively becoming sole 

proprietor of the group, a situation that continues to this day as 

a never-ending series of line-ups make sporadic returns to the 

stage, despite the absence of any new material since the band’s 

spellbinding 1990 debut LP. 

Hunting down the lesser-known practitioners of rockabilly 

in the pre-internet era when only the likes of Record Collector 

would be likely to feature acts from previous decades was a 

vastly more complicated task than in the present age of AllMusic 

and Wikipedia. “Once I accessed where all this came from it was 

that that did it for me,” Mike says. “I wanted to get as far back 

as possible into the origins of it, from 1953 to 1954 when it was 

moving from country bop into rock ‘n’ roll. I went out and made 

a concerted effort to discover it; it became a passion I had to 

spend all my time getting to know. I’ve never found anything that 

resonates with me deeper than rockabilly, music-wise.” 

Fortuitously, Mike happened to be in the right place for 

exploring genres that were outside of the era’s mainstream, due 

to the city’s leading music retailer, which provided positive proof 

of roots music’s enduring influence in Liverpool. “People came 

from all over the north of England and Wales to go to Probe; it was 

the only place you could get these records,” he explains. “I used 

to walk right through Probe [then located on Button St] and go to 

the back and look at the racks there and just try and discover new 

compilations. They had a lot of obscure country and rockabilly 

comps and I’d just paw through them.” Running the gamut from 

the lesser known (Charlie Feathers, Eddie Cletro, Johnny Jano) to 

the iconic (Gene Vincent, Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins), 

Mike swiftly became an archivist of the form. 

The Viper Label (home to Edgar ‘Summertyme’ Jones), 

established by Mike and fellow ex-La and Onset guitarist Paul 

Hemmings in 1999, has issued several rockabilly-themed 

compilations, a continuation of the collections that formed Mike’s 

tastes back in the early 1980s. Assembling the albums linked 

directly to the singer’s unabated thirst for crate-digging to track 

down more obscure gems from the era. “You keep on finding new 

tracks and you go ‘How come I’ve never heard that 

before? It’s 

sensational!’” Mike enthuses. “I’ve been collecting it seriously for 

thirty years and my real interest is the core of all this, the origins 

of it, and it’s still a voyage of discovery for me.” 

Liverpool Acoustic Festival runs at the Unity Theatre on 21st and 

22nd March, with Mike Badger’s keynote discussion taking place at 

6pm on Saturday 22nd March. 

Action Packed Rockabilly next takes place on 8th March at Camp 

and Furnace. 

mikebadger.co.uk

TWOTHOUSANDFOURTEEN 

GIDEON CONN

How does a lemon sound? No, I’m not offering one; I mean 

the question very literally, as in how do you imagine the timbre, 

the pitch, of a lemon? Given the choice, would a lemon scream 

in a high, shrill voice or rumble like the quake of a bass drum? 

Go on, think about it. 

If you chose the former, you’re in good company. Most people 

have this as a mild form of sensory association, aligning acidic 

tastes with sounds that are purely conceptual, yet confident in their 

place at the higher end of the musical scale. But does the flavour 

of a lemon also have its own texture, or send colours flashing 

across your eyes? And don’t say “yellow”. That’s cheating. 

These kinds of overlapping experiential phenomena are very 

rare indeed. It is a condition called synaesthesia that facilitates 

them, an enhancement of neurological connections thought 

to exist in anywhere between one in every few hundred or 

few thousand people. Estimations vary so wildly because 

the symptoms and their potency follow suit. Shapes, sounds 

and smells can complement each other in myriad collisions, 

uncovering dormant synaptic pathways for the unique reality 

of the synaesthete. Ella Perry, a Masters student in Psychology 

at Lancaster University, is intrigued by such possibilities. Ever 

since flirting with art as an undergrad she’s been keen to find 

something that shows our creative potential in the steady hands 

of science. And it isn’t surprising when you look at the roster 

of famous synaesthetes: Geoffrey Rush, Billy Joel and David 

Hockney all have the condition, which has been through various 

periods of research and analysis ever since its acknowledgment 

by the scientific community in the mid-19th century. “It’s partly 

to do with our evolution,” she tells me over coffee, a few days 

before her own experiment is unveiled to the public. “Flavours 


and environments are 

definitely 

interlinked. 

Some studies suggest 

that a child’s brain doesn’t 

compartmentalise 

information 

as 

effectively as an adult’s. 

What we’re doing will be 

quite womb-like...” 

She’s preparing me for 

the SYNAESTHESIA FEAST, 

a five-course meal that 

will be held in Camp and 

Furnace’s Gold Room. 

Marketed as a “culinary 

bombardment of the 

senses”, the idea has 

germinated into a fullyfledged 

collaboration 

between 

musicians, 

visual artists and one 

very talented chef, all determined to blow the doors of perception 

wide open and invite diners to a night of self-discovery. 

Charged with control of the night’s visual canvas is Jess Doyle: 

as a DJ and a baker with a background in theatre design she 

was scouted for the project by The Kazimier's Clarry Mowforth 

who was instrumental in getting everyone on board. Jess 

describes her style of projections as “vague and cinematic. You 

can interpret it any way you want; the audience is meant to 

step through it and it’s really difficult, in fact, to guide people’s 

attention to certain tastes, sounds and images.” I ask if anything 

like this has happened before. “There was a DJ in the Netherlands 

or somewhere,” she says, “that designed sounds with a chef. 

But nothing in this country that I know of.” For her, the feast 

represents a playfulness that’s intrinsic to her work ethic; another 

opportunity to cast off the “dark side” of serious performance in 

favour of seeing the fun side of life, an outlook numbed by the 

pressures of our society. 

The same can be said of Simon Jones, a member of the Singing 

Bowl Orchestra and a psychedelia enthusiast, who’s due to add 

his DIY talents to the mix. Paying a visit to his house reveals a 

grotto of hippy-ish minutiae, scattered rolling papers and a 

few guys looking quizzically at half a dozen bowls in a garage. 

Venues have tasked him before with grabbing the public by the 

throat using ingenious art installations – one of his favourites 

was a bouncy castle that responded to bounces by changing the 

feedback loop of accompanying tunes. He finds the instrumental 

qualities of balloons and combs fascinating and wishes he had 

synaesthesia, if only to deepen his love for the abstract. “We feel 

atomised in a way we never have before,” he says of the modern 

world. “It’s great to analyse yourself and get self-absorbed 

sometimes. Community vibes are also really precious, though.” 

It seems this will be both. 

The day of the feast arrives. I and around twenty-five others 

are shepherded up to the chilly banquet table and greeted by 

attendants in lab coats. There is an atmosphere of expectation 

covering the room like a cloth. For the starter we are blindfolded 

and given tempura vegetables seasoned with rosemary and 

garlic, accompanied by dipping salts. They are crunchy, leaving 

a strong aftertaste, the salt offsetting the texture of the batter. 

The music for the first course weaves hypnotically round us, a 

serene introduction resembling the womb-like intimacy I was 

promised. Dish number two is all about contrast. A funky bisque 

sitting alongside a crouton of goat’s cheese 

and hazelnut pesto. The combination is bitter, 

even slightly unpleasant, while someone 

plays discordant chimes on those bowls 

from the garage. I am aware of every bite, 

the blindfold removed now, concentration 

etched on my fellow diners’ faces. 

The first experiments into synaesthesia 

were carried out in the 60s. Since then, 

interest in the condition has been revived 

somewhat, thanks in no small part to 

Oxford University professor Charles Spence, 

who plied his subjects with beer. I wonder 

what he’d make of this attempt to simulate 

sensory correlation in your everyday foodie. 

Certainly the atmosphere is impressive. Jess’ 

patterns splash across the walls, shifting 

with the increasingly 

darker 

The 

are 

soundtrack. 

flavours 

consistently 

challenging. We have 

roasted 

asparagus, 

porcini mushrooms, 

some bizarre sour 

jelly.... As time goes 

on there emerges a 

divide between those 

who chat to allay 

the strangeness and 

those who sit silently, 

looking confused. 

The night goes 

out on a sweet note: 

macaroons and tea, 

served on wooden 

stumps with All We 

Are’s Richard O’Flynn 

easing us into a state 

of geniality through 

his 

soundscapes. 

Apparently there was 

an issue over the 

proposed ‘immersive’ box that was meant to surround the 

table. I catch Ella as people are leaving. “Was it too weird?” 

she wonders. No, I say. Whether the menus on which we were 

encouraged to record our experiences yield any synaesthetic 

results is another matter. For a meal as bewildering as this, 

we might need a re-run to truly appreciate what mysteries 

our senses hide. Luckily for us this was merely Project Zero 

for Synaesthesia Feast, with more sensory experiments 

promised for the 

future. 

Fortunate 

are we also to have 

a city populated by 

those so willing 

to take chances 

on 

performance 

art, that we might 

have the perfect 

environment 

for 

picking apart the 

mind on ever-larger 

scales. 

facebook.com/ 

synfeast

SYNAESTHESIA 

FEAST 

Words: Joshua Potts 

Images: Jess Doyle

16 


Words: Ryan McElroy 

Illustration: Rebecca Currie / cargocollective.com/beckycurrie 

Indie rock is one of the most difficult genres to pin down. Over 

the years the term ‘indie’ has drifted far from its original usage in 

demarking the non-major record labels, eventually settling down 

to become a catch-all buzzword used to describe seemingly every 

guitar band and their grandmother. Yet, the capricious nature of 

the term means that 'indie' bands always have plenty of scope 

for evolving their sound in a way that few other genres would 

allow. If Motörhead released a synth pop album would they still 

be considered the heavy metal titans they are? Probably not, yet 

bands like Arctic Monkeys can easily dip their toes into RnB, hip 

hop, psychedelia and garage rock and still fall squarely within the 

indie rock category. 


The same holds true for Brooklyn five-piece THE MEN, who are 

on the cusp of releasing Tomorrow's Hits, their fifth full-length 

album in as many years. The band are a living embodiment 

of the elasticity of the term ‘indie’, having swiftly moulted 

from scrappy punk/post-hardcore upstarts into a multifaceted, 

eclectic act over the course of just two albums following their 

founding in 2008, cramming in influences including everything 

from krautrock to doo wop and surf. Tomorrow's Hits sees them 

push the boat out once again, this time with distinct classic rock 

vibes sitting neatly alongside alt-country flavours. The result is 

something that sounds a little like The Band – albeit slightly 

edgier – with hints of Springsteen, Exile-era Stones, and a touch 

of demented, visceral bar-room rootsiness thrown in for good 

measure. “We're not a country band, I'd like to make that clear,” 

says Nick Chiericozzi, who splits guitar and vocal duties with 

Mark Perro, alongside bassist Ben Greenberg, drummer Rich 

Samis and lap steel player Kevin Faulkner. “I guess I was sort of 

brought up in a loose country tradition,” Nick tells us from his 

Brooklyn home. “I'm not from New York, I'm from the Midwest, 

so I think that influence crept in on tour because, when you're 

in the van, you don't necessarily put on the most raging stuff. 

Everybody likes Woody Guthrie a lot and all that stuff. We were 

just searching out for different things to draw on; all this stuff 

just sort of filtered through.” 

Unfortunately, not everyone appreciates such radical and 

out-of-character changes, which all too often become a source 

of constant grumbling for traditionalists. Take, for example, the 

plight of American label Fat Possum Records: traditionally a blues 

label that played host to artists like R.L. Burnside and Junior 

Kimbrough, they incited the wrath of many a bellyaching puritan 

who claimed the label was “going indie” after signing a range 

of new artists including The Black Keys, WAVVES and Unknown 

Mortal Orchestra. According to Nick, The Men have had their own 

share of naysayers as a result of their metamorphosis: “Some 

people, I think, don't really like us anymore because we don't play 

punk shows. We're still totally down with those shows, but things 

have just changed for us. I'm sure we've lost some fans but gained 

others.” It's invigorating to see that The Men aren't a band in the 

slightest bit concerned with pigeonholing themselves or being 

pigeonholed; nor are they worried about public expectation; they 

are simply content to experiment and do their own thing. “We 

intended to make a different record than we had. We'd go and 

rehearse and write from noon until six and practise nearly every 

day, and the influence just kind of came from trying to play slow 

and quiet, but it ended up being a really hi-fi-sounding album. I 

think it sounds a lot like a classic rock album in a couple of bits; 

the band's changed a lot.” 

Flying in the face of adversity isn't a new concept to them 

either: Nick describes their early days as an up-and-coming act 

in Brooklyn as something of an uphill battle, with the band 

struggling against the “cliquey” nature of the New York club scene. 

“We got a lot of shit from people because we played the Music 

Hall of Williamsburg, which is a venue in Brooklyn that has a lot 

of club shows and bigger bands.” In the end, it was their DIY punk 

ethic that pulled them through, with a solid fanbase of friends 

and an unbound passion for playing the music they want. It's this 

devil-may-care attitude and acceptance of their role as being the 

square pegs in a world of round holes that perhaps is the secret 

to the band's success. “Success is relative,” Nick says. “To me, it's 

making a record. I guess we're just sort of hungry as musicians. 

We're really just chasing the same feeling you get when you write 

a good song. From [second album] Leave Home to now, it's the 

same satisfaction that just materialises in a different way, and 

everything we do is homemade.” 

So what is indie rock really? Does it belong to the foppish, 

commercial-dandy types that NME would have you believe are the 

face of the genre? Maybe it's not even worth the effort of trying to 

define a genre with goalposts so wide they're prone to shifting at 

the slightest whim. One thing for certain is that, in a world where 

music is, at a glance, becoming increasingly homogenised, we 

should cherish the artists who are bold enough to simply do what 

they feel is right. After all, isn't that the definition of artistry? It's 

the Picassos of the world who are remembered, the Van Goghs, 

the Shakespeares and the Da Vincis; those who are unafraid to be 

different and to try new things. In 500 years' time, will The Men 

be remembered as pioneering visionaries? Nobody can say, but 

they're making a ruddy good effort. 

The Men play East Village Arts Club on 28th March 

wearethemen.blogspot.co.uk

18 


Edited by Richard Lewis 

Previews/Shorts 

LEE ‘SCRATCH’ PERRY 

A legend by pretty much any 

standard you might apply, LEE 

‘SCRATCH’ PERRY is one of the 

world’s foremost producers, and the 

dub pioneer returns to these shores 

in mid-March. Famed for his iconic productions at The Black Ark in the 1970s, the 77-year-old 

legend shows no sign of slowing down, having recently remixed Forest Swords and recorded 

two albums with The Orb. 

The Kazimier / 12th March 

METRONOMY 

Joseph Mount’s quintessentially 

English modern pop troupe 

METRONOMY are back in town, 

with anticipation of their new LP 

Love Letters burning its way through 

the cyberworld. With a Michel Gondry-directed video firing online chatter, and a new single 

premiered on a stargazing app, the EDM act have cemented their reputation as one of the 

most popular groups around. 

O2 Academy / 13th March 

One of the world’s most revered 

Spanish flamenco guitarists, 

EDUARDO NIEBLA 

EDUARDO NIEBLA checks in at 

the Philharmonic Hall’s intimate 

Rodewald Suite this month for what 

will be a unique chance to see a world-class virtuoso up close. Niebla suffuses his music with 

Eastern and gypsy influences, and has ventured as far afield as progressive rock in his work 

with bands Atila and Mother Gong in the 1970s. 

Philharmonic Rodewald Suite / 15th March 

The Island Chronicles Part One: Aquaria 

Promoters everisland present Part One in a series of audacious live shows to be held throughout 2014 

under the banner The Island Chronicles, with this first show taking place in the Williamson Tunnels at the 

beginning of March. Working in harness with a collective of designers, visual artists, costume creators 

and musicians, the organisers aim to create a series of fully immersive gig experiences set in mesmeric 

environments. AQUARIA, the first of the four events, sees a host of bands plumb the watery depths as an 

aquatic theme pervades. 

Featuring a clutch of uniquely curated performances and collaborations, for the opening two hours there 

will be a chance for attendees to take a guided tour through the subterranean tunnels on a journey to 

discover Aquaria’s unnerving secrets. Headliners rising alt. folk act SOUTHERN (pictured) will be joined on 

the expedition down to full fathom five by MAGIC ARM, THE HARLEQUIN DYNAMITE MARCHING BAND, VEYU, a 

unique ten-piece ensemble performance by BROKEN MEN, and a specially-arranged line-up of GLOSSOM. 

With Three Moons Creative supplying interior, costume and performances, an exclusive soundtrack 

commissioned by Killøtto, Deep Sea visuals by Island Creators, plus Audio Voyeur DJs, the venture offers an 

inventive alternative to the straight-up gig-going experience. 

The Williamson Tunnels / 1st March 

LUKE SITAL-SINGH 

Hailed in some quarters as a 

British Bon Iver, LUKE SITAL-SINGH 

is currently riding high on the 

recent success of his BBC Radio 

1-backed Tornados EP. Credited with 

infusing the singer-songwriter genre with vital new energy, Luke headlines a showcase 

for Communion’s New Faces tour. ELIZA AND THE BEAR, FAREWELL JR and ANNIE EVE 

complete the superb bill. 

Leaf / 1st March 

THE WARLOCKS/MUGSTAR 

Heavy psych overlords THE 

WARLOCKS comprise part of 

a scintillating doubleheader 

with Merseyside prog/krautrock 

behemoths MUGSTAR. The Warlocks’ 

sixth LP, last year’s acclaimed Skull Worship, saw the cult LA ensemble continue their journey 

to the outer reaches of shoegaze and drone rock, while Mugstar have just returned from a 

European tour and two support dates with Mogwai. 

The Kazimier / 13th March 

Ambient innovators THE ORB 

are set to visit EVAC on the back 

THE ORB 

of 2013’s lauded More Tales From 

The Observatory. The collective’s 

groundbreaking mélange of found 

sounds, vintage BBC TV announcements and floating textures broke into the mainstream with 

1990’s Little Fluffy Clouds, and they repeated the feat two years later as their landmark LP 

U.F.Orb crashed into the album chart at number one. 

East Village Arts Club / 29th March 

Threshold Festival 

After three fantastic years of celebrating the best grassroots music and art in the city, the fourth annual 

THRESHOLD FESTIVAL is merely weeks away and looks to be returning bigger and better than ever before. 

The festival is set to occupy a number of venues in Liverpool's Baltic Triangle from 28th to 30th March, and 

will celebrate all the city has to offer by way of music, art and culture. 

This year saw a record number of artist submissions for the festival, and as such the latest wave of 

acts to be announced has been suitably gargantuan, with a wide range of artists guaranteed to satisfy all 

tastes. Newly confirmed acts include SHEEPY, ALPHA MALE TEA PARTY and city regulars BOLSHY. They will be 

joined by the previously announced headliners THE DESTROYERS (pictured)and DUB MAFIA, alongside funk/ 

afrobeat/reggae wizards WE THE UNDERSIGNED, post-rockers KUSANANGI and SCIENCE OF THE LAMPS. 

Spanning some of the Baltic Triangle’s newest and hippest venues, from Unit 51 and The Baltic Social 

to District and Baltic Bakehouse, Threshold will once again look to transform the city’s creative hub into 

a thriving artistic playground. The festival will also feature visual artists STEMS in addition to avant-garde 

and community-based projects encompassing music, theatre, film and performance arts. The full line-up, 

along with ticket information, is available from the festival's website at thresholdfestival.co.uk 

Baltic Triangle / 28th-30th March 

bidolito.co.uk

LIVERPOOL’S INTERNATIONAL ARTS VENUE 

WHAT’S ON 

Spring Season 2014 Full listings www.thecapstonetheatre.com 

Spring Season 2014 Full listings www.thecapstonetheatre.com 

Guitars and 

Other Machines 

Friday 21st 

February, 7.30pm 

£10 

(£8 concessions) 

Jason 

Rebello 

Thursday 27th 


£17.50 

27/02 - 02/03 2014 

The Impossible 

Gentlemen 

Friday 28th 


£17.50 

Blue Touch 

Paper 

Saturday 1st 

March, 7.30pm 

£15 

27/02 - 02/03 2014 

27/02 - 02/03 2014 

Get The 

Blessing 

Sunday 2nd 


£15 

Loka/Paddy 

Steer 

Friday 14th 


£10 


27/02 - 02/03 2014 

Martin Taylor 

Sunday 23rd 


£11.50 


Peatbog 

Faeries 

Saturday 12th 

April, 7.30pm 

£15 

BOX OFFICE 0844 8000 410 

www.ticketquarter.co.uk

20 


Reviews 

Young Fathers (Robin Clewley / @robinscamera) 

YOUNG FATHERS 

Law – Coffee And Cakes For Funerals – Fabienne 

EVOL @ East Village Arts Club 

There were suspicions that this could be the 

first ‘big’ gig of the year. A heady combination of 

industry buzz and awestruck testimonies from all 

who saw them at FestEvol last summer had built 

YOUNG FATHERS a feverish level of anticipation. 

Consequently, a decent crowd applaud the first 

support act onstage, a full three hours before 

the main event. 

Those in early are treated to a soul singer of 

rare quality in FABIENNE. With a voice of incredible 

power and suppleness, hers is a refreshingly 

honest energy; capable of lifting well-crafted 

tales of love, loss and loneliness beyond cliché. 

My hope is that her next performance features 

fully-realised versions of these songs (to be 

found on her SoundCloud page), and ditches the 

sadly ubiquitous “Live Lounge” stripped-back 

acoustic format. 

COFFEE AND CAKES FOR FUNERALS remain a 

real curate's egg; accomplished musicians who 

rarely inspire fierce emotions. I'm Fine is the 

kind of melancholic RnB that has made Maroon 

5 millionaires, and singer Joe Hazlett manages 

the admirable feat of sounding like Thom Yorke 

and Justin Timberlake simultaneously. Yet they 

never fully convince. The impressed confusion 

on my companion's face would perfectly sum 

up their set, but alas I am no artist. 

LAW is very much an artist, albeit one who 

wilfully defies categorisation. Appearing from 

the shadows with an autoharp strapped to her 

chest, her opening trio of fuzzy lo-fi ballads 

give way to an intricate cacophony of bassheavy 

beats released from a laptop. It would 

be a more appealing prospect if not draped in 

a nasal voice that often recalls Vic Reeves' pub 

singer covering M.I.A. There are times when 

her guttural roar seems appropriate – and my 

opinion appears to be in the minority amongst 

the captivated crowd – but too often it jars with 

some promising sounds. 

Young Fathers make music like no one I 

have ever seen. There is not a comparison, nor 

a soundbite, that comes close to doing them 

justice. This is a band so much more than the 

sum of their parts. Most frequently identified 

as hip hop, their tether to that genre – or any 

for that matter – is thrillingly loose, to the point 

that it's almost a surprise when they deliver 

anything as straightforward as a 16-bar verse, 

or even a chorus. 

The sheer scope of what they produce is 

dizzying. No Way's twisted eastern samples rub 

up against the celestial synths of Low, with an 

ever-present threat of a hurricane of tribal drums 

ricocheting throughout the healthy midweek 

crowd like a firework on a carousel. 

Their vitality is enhanced by the sheer 

intensity with which they stalk the stage, limbs 

flailing forcefully as though possessed. All three 

vocalists are capable of evangelical wailing, 

dexterous rap verses or a hushed murmur, which 

dovetail seamlessly. It's a truly infectious sight, 

without any hint of affectation; this is a natural 

eruption of irresistible energy. The air-raid 

assault of Effigy – all roared vocals and thudding 

drums – sends the synapses into overdrive, while 

the queasy drone of Get Up could soundtrack a 

revolution on some distant hedonistic planet. 

Suspicions confirmed: Young Fathers have 

produced the first “I was there” moment of 2014. 

Maurice Stewart / 

theviewfromthebooth.tumblr.com 

BROKEN 3 WAYS 

Sundance - Bolshy 

Galería @ The Williamson Tunnels 

After Blue Monday kick-started a week of 

miserable weather, failed dieting fads and 

calamitous financial situations, the city centre 

has become awash with dead-eyed commuters 

and bewildered consumers. Liverpool is clearly 

in dire need of a pick-me-up this weekend and 

luckily the good folks of Galería are on hand to 

transform the Williamson Tunnels Heritage Centre 

into a haven of cheer-spreading good vibrations. 

With all the night’s proceeds going to C.A.L.M., 

the night’s cheer-spreading ethos runs far deeper 

than the music offered at surface level. 

Commonly seen spreading their anti-capitalist 

message of love and unity on the streets of the 

city, the familiar sight of BOLSHY causes an 

anticipatory cheer to reverberate around the 

19th Century tunnel as they arrive on stage. 

With a powerful female lead and an acute brass 

section they justify this expectancy with their 

rowdy DIY ska punk sound. The Nolita Cantina 

catering is momentarily abandoned and the 

tunnel fills as the skanking begins. 

With a faint aroma of incense in the air, 

SUNDANCE arrive onstage, basked in a warm 

spectrum of colour. Laid-back indie melodies 

interlaced with ska strokes provide the backing 

for the Alex Turner-esque vocal style of Josh 

Roberts, as the Welsh six-piece lull the previously 

boisterous crowd into a gentle sway. Mayhem is 

soon resumed, however, as the band move onto 

Sublime’s controversial and chaotic Date Rape. 

Nebbz Nebulouz Kanzas’ bongos add depth to 

the fast and complex rocksteady rhythms as 

Jake Rutter’s basslines erupt out of the speakers 

at a tinnitus-inducing volume. The band then 

introduce elements of blues and funk into this 

bidolito.co.uk

Home School Lane and 

Bido Lito! Magazine 

present a lunchtime of 

live music including 

Natalie McCool, guest 

mixes and photography 

from the Threshold 

Festival weekend. 

Threshold Festival Sunday Brunch 

Sunday, 30th March 2014 

from 12 noon to 3pm 

14 School Lane 

Liverpool ONE 

L1 3BT 

Mon–Sat 8am–8pm 

Sun 8am–6pm 

Visit our new website 

homecoffee.co.uk

22 


Reviews 

newfound energy before they conclude their set 

with a nod towards Fat Freddy’s Drop’s Roady. 

Rounding off a fine line-up, BROKEN 3 WAYS 

give arguably the best live performance of the 

night. As the brass section explodes, the Neston 

seven-piece begin their raucous set with the 

brief yet volatile I Ain’t No Racist. Tirelessly 

juggling a trumpet and saxophone with their 

vocal responsibilities, Jay Aldred and the heavily 

dreadlocked Jay Peers-Bow seemingly have 

bottomless lung capacities. The band slows the 

pace somewhat as they move on to the dubbedout 

rhythms of Keep Moving On. The tunnel 

doesn’t return to its previous lull, however, as 

the ragga vocals and rough-edged beats keep 

the dancefloor ignited. The New Orleans-inspired 

swing of Through The Night spells an end to the 

night’s live music but the Beaten Tracks DJs are 

on hand to provide a diverse and insightful set 

that covers most of ska’s many derivatives; the 

month, year and century, along with the weather, 

are briefly forgotten. 

Josh Ray 

Your Bag? 

Catch Dillinger & Yellowman 

at District on 1st March 

get on, perform the hits, get off. No such 

compromise for BOBBY WOMACK. After returning 

with the phenomenal Damon Albarn-produced 

Bravest Man In The Universe, Womack has 

shown he is an artist not content to fall back on 

former glories. 

Perhaps quite morbidly, I feared that the 

criminally overlooked and often derided soul 

man’s legacy would only be cemented in death. 

While deserving of a place alongside his more 

revered compatriots – Gaye, Cooke and Redding – 

he has never quite found their success. Tonight's 

performance at the Philharmonic serves as good 

Bobby Womack (John Johnson / johnjohnson-photography.com) 

an argument as any as to why he should. From 

the first chorus of opener Across 110th Street, 

he comes out fighting. Any delusions that time, 

relentless drug abuse or illness had made a frail 

man of him are shattered by his sledgehammer 

of a voice. Powerful, assured and ecstatic, 

Womack uses this instrument like few others. 

His yelps, visceral moans and fierce roars mark 

what is a truly virtuosic performance. Despite 

ailing health, Womack performs with a fervour 

and commitment that would shame men half 

his age. Like a preacher in thrall to the Holy 

Spirit, he channels his energy with an intense 

singularity, every ounce of strength poured into 

his vocal delivery. Even from my seat way up in 

the back, I am hanging on his every word. 

Still clearly haunted by the spectres of his 

past, his rendition of A Change Is Gonna Come 

is particularly poignant. The words “too hard 

living, but I'm afraid to die” serve not only as a 

reminder of the passing of his old friend Sam 

Cooke but of Womack's own current battle with 

Alzheimer’s disease. Indeed, as the gig goes on 

his zeal and commitment begin to highlight 

the failings of his body. His breathing becomes 

more laboured, his movement less energised; 

his voice, however, never drops below the 

astonishing levels at which it started. In spite 

of being carried off the stage due to exhaustion 

three times, it would be difficult to pinpoint 

a single missed note or breathless delivery. 

Each time he returns, Womack shows an 

inextinguishable passion for performing, even 

as he is held up by his backing singers to finish 

his set. The audience, who remain on their feet 

for the final 10 minutes, applaud the strength of 

a man giving everything. When Womack finally 

does leave the stage, his assertion of love for 

the crowd comes across with such sincerity as to 

eclipse the platitudes of other acts: a humbling 

performance from a phenomenal musician. 

Dave Tate 

EAST INDIA YOUTH 

Jupiter-C 

I Love Live Events @ Korova 

Support band JUPITER-C’s guitarist is happy to 

talk to fans who approach him, greeting them with 

a smile that is both enthusiastic and cautious. 

It’s the sign of a man well versed in life on the 

gigging circuit, but it also means that, once alone 

in front of a barrage of instruments, his solitary 

stance gives his performance an air of control. 

BOBBY WOMACK 

Philharmonic Hall 

As an artist with a career spanning 50 years, 

most of them filled with hardship, turmoil and 

tragedy, it would be easy to become cynical: 


East India Youth (Keith Ainsworth / arkimages.co.uk)

24 


Reviews 

music will deliver the right message regardless. 

What’s truly impressive is how he reacts to each 

track; on Heaven, How Long, he gently caresses 

the microphone as he croons over the subdued 

opening, but by the time the track erupts into its 

frenzied outro he has become possessed, filling 

the performance space with an impressive vigour. 

He embodies his music without abandoning 

his senses, which is evident when he casually 

takes up the bass for a brief stint before tossing 

it aside. 

From start to finish, Doyle offers an intensely 

personal experience that is too often lost in music 

of this genre. It’s exhilarating from an outsider’s 

perspective, yet even more wondrous once you 

wade in. Closing with the staggering techno of 

Hinterland, Doyle writhes over his instruments, 

threatening to dismantle his set-up at times, such 

is the energy behind his stage presence. East 

India Youth is a jack of all trades who manages 

to redefine the expression, by being remarkably 

proficient at everything he touches. 

Jack Graysmark / @ZeppelinG1993 

TERA MELOS 

Vasco Da Gama - Cleft - Glossom 

You Do The Math @ The Kazimier 

This sense of determination is also manifest 

in the scale of sound Jupiter-C are trying to 

achieve. The North-Westerner’s futuristic postpunk 

is dazzling at times; Ashiya Eastwood’s 

haunting vocals are soft at first, before suddenly 

undercutting the throbbing bassline. Combined 

with Daйd Kaиe’s vicious, scratching guitar, they 

make tracks like Terminal successfully conjure 

up impressive apocalyptic soundscapes. The 

minimalist vibe requires all of your concentration, 

but when you immerse yourself there are real 

signs of promise. 

You can’t help but be drawn in when you first 

spot William Doyle, aka EAST INDIA YOUTH, for 

rarely is isolation so eye-catching. A wave of 

intrigue following the acclaim for his debut Total 

Strife Forever has brought a diverse turnout 

for tonight’s main event: a perfect fit for the 

electronic buffet that Doyle serves up. Despite 

the broad mix of musical styles, everything 

falls easily into place. The versatility of Doyle’s 

output helps keep the set engaging, meaning 

that the crowd are just as likely to be excited 

by the next track whether their preference is 

ambient, krautrock or electro pop. Lord help 

them if all three come at once, and in East India 

Youth’s company this is entirely possible. 

Opener Glitter Recession dazzles as a 

Tera Melos (Gaz Jones / @GJMPhoto) 

formidable instrumental, the twinkling pianos 

becoming lost in a swarm of twisted electronics 

that gradually rise to the forefront. Suddenly, 

they melt away into Dripping Down, with 

Doyle’s soft vocals floating on top of joyous 

synths that gracefully rise and fall, dispersing 

a sense of elation across Korova. Sadly, we are 

not treated to the full four-part version of the 

album’s ambient avant-garde title track; instead 

Doyle treats us to tantalising tasters, scattered 

throughout the set to mimic how they appear 

on the album. 

Totally engrossed, Doyle refrains from 

speaking to the audience, confident that his 

As we all know by now, the Kaz excels at 

hosting nights featuring the more… avant-garde 

artists and tonight is such an occasion, with a 

whole night of that oft-misunderstood beast: 

math rock. Opening to an already packed room, 

GLOSSOM paint the stage with a set dedicated 

to the late Philip Seymour Hoffman; some 

drums there, keyboards here and a smattering 

of brass hither and thither. What could easily be 

math-rock-by-numbers gets some much-needed 

tension thrown in between Gareth Dawson’s 

intricate drums and Anthony Kastelanide’s 

innervated, billowing voice which floats above 

the ska/funk/ambient melange on tracks like 

You Did It Yourself. 

Hot on their tail are Manc duo CLEFT; and 

where Glossom go for subtle interplay, Cleft 

go for queasy funk. Where Glossom go for 

emotional rawness, Cleft go for awkward allout 

aural assault. It’s amazing how much sheer 

squall and damn funk they squeeze out of such 

a sparse set-up of simply drums and guitar. 

The big news of the night is that this is local 

heroes VASCO DA GAMA’s last-ever gig (boooo!). 

But what a retrospective to have as their 

swansong; they are as ebullient as ever when 

running the gamut of their small but pristine 

catalogue, from the first song they ever recorded 

through to Long Ships, Massive Hands and 

beyond. Scrappy guitars abound; intertwined 

and twisted until you can’t tell where one ends 

and the next begins – much like the band, who 

are as dynamic onstage as we’ve come to expect. 

Sadly, before you know it their time has come 

and after some (jokey) platitudes and tears we 

bid farewell to Vasco for good – Godspeed! 

bidolito.co.uk

26 


Kraftwerk Uncovered (Keith Aimsworth / arkimages.co.uk) 

Then it’s TERA MELOS’ turn to take to the 

stage, coming to these shores in support of last 

year’s acclaimed album X’ed Out. When it comes 

to class American math rock, you know what to 

expect: wonky timing, yelps, and flipping weird 

arrangements. It’s a sound that’s been around 

since Cap’n Jazz for chrissakes. But when it 

comes to Tera Melos they take it more leftfield 

(is that possible with this kind of music?): 

everything sounds like it’s cascading down 

an electronic river until it reaches saturation 

point before erupting in testosterone-fuelled 

effervescent angst. 

The stop-start fuzz, the tricksy, pounding 

drums, the electronic undercurrent: all these 

elements undercut what could’ve been a pretty 

standard live show into something more. It’s 

rare for bands these days to look so unassuming 

on stage yet come out with such vital, almost 

violently grooveable music without seeming 

like macho pigs – but Tera manage it. It’s nice. 

Laurie Cheeseman / @lauriecheeseman 

Your Bag? 

Catch Muto Leo at Maguires 

Pizza Bar on 28th February 

ICEBREAKER 

Kraftwerk Uncovered @ Philharmonic Hall 

Arguably the most influential band of the 

20th Century, Kraftwerk changed the face of 

music forever. Paying homage to their legacy, 

ICEBREAKER embark on an ambitious project 

that reimagines part of Ralph und Florian’s 

revolutionary repertoire. 

Before the unveiling of the cutting-edge 

rework, the 13-piece ensemble treat the crowd 

to some of their past arrangements. Beginning 

with the audio assault of Variation On A Theme 

By Casey & Finch, Icebreaker immediately 

demonstrate their unfathomable technical 

ability as they emulate a scratched CD. 

After the interval, the lights are dimmed 

and Icebreaker return, this time joined by Die 

Mensch Maschine, J. Peter Schwalm. Having 

taken a meticulously tabulated breakdown of 

Kraftwerk’s sound from Edge Hill musicologist 

Richard Witts, the electronic composer will 

reassemble it before our eyes. 

As a bass drum erupts, three shimmering 

blades start spinning around on the screens 

behind the stage. Schwalm adds a droning 

pulse to the fray, which he heavily distorts 

as the prominent synths of Heimcomputer 

roll out of the two keyboards on either 

side of him. The sound flourishes as more 

instruments join until it’s broken down 

to a mere throb. As unnerving strings are 

added, the song is rebuilt with a sinister 

twist before a barrage of flashes and bass 

overwhelms the hall. 

Dystopian images of a deserted estate 

accompany the melancholic ambience of the 

Megaherz/Mitternacht medley. It looks as 

though the majority of Icebreaker are playing 

their instruments yet no identifiable sound 

can be heard. Fed into Schwalm’s laptop, the 

orchestral score is skewed beyond recognition. 

The screens turn blank as a clanging 

electronic counter-melody juxtaposes 

the ethereal harmony of Tranzmusik. This 

harmony progressively grows richer in 

texture, eventually taking control of the 

song. As geometric shapes float across the 

screen, a synthetic German voice speaks 

of Radioaktivität. A volatile bombardment 

of mechanical beats and bass provides the 

backing as disjointed melodic stabs begin to 

amalgamate while the abstract shapes slowly 

transform into kraftwerks. 

Morgenspaziergang provides respite from 

this industrial intensity as nature replaces 

the power stations on screen and the string 

section creates a calming atmosphere. This 

respite is short-lived, however, as mirrors 

reveal the close proximity of the kraftwerks 

to this “nature” and two duelling flutes 

commence Spiegelsaal. The conflict between 

man and machine grows fierce as life is added 

with earnest strings and pan pipes only to 

be stolen away again by Schwalm’s sterile 

electronic manipulation. 

As road markings whizz across the screen 

it is clearly time for Autobahn. Throwing off 

the rigid electronic shackles of the original, 

this interpretation feels more like one of 

Kraftwerk’s early jam sessions. However, 

like the original, the reworking has various 

phases. With no prior warning, a crunchy 

electronic beat explodes and layer upon layer 

of relentless keys evoke an immense anxiety. 

A sudden crash, and all screens turn blank 

before the melody meanders out of existence. 

Minds suitably blown, the audience fill the Art 

Deco hall with a sea of applause. 

Josh Ray 

bidolito.co.uk

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NATHANIEL RATELIFF 

Thomas J. Speight – Lewis Veakins 

Harvest Sun @ Leaf 

Despite the name, Leaf was clearly not 

green enough for American country folk artist 

NATHANIEL RATELIFF and his band of travelling 

troubadours, as they arrive with instruments 

adorned with their own portable foliage. Such 

eccentricity (is that keyboardist wearing a scarf, 

INSIDE?!) thankfully sits comfortably in the 

gorgeous yet mildly derelict venue, illuminated 

as it is by streams of softly glowing bulbs and 

more mirror balls than can really be necessary. 

Before they can present their blend of crippling 

loneliness and American pastoralism, however, 

local singer-songwriter LEWIS VEAKINS takes 

to the stage, tasked with warming us up with 

his indie ballads. He does a fine job, sounding 

well rounded with a style that varies with each 

new song, preventing the monotony that can 

be difficult to shake when you fit into the manwith-guitar 

template. Although at times his lyrics 

and vocal style skirt too close to that trendy 

Bastille-esque tortured-but-not-really-indie fad, 

his occasional swearword-strewn mania helps 

counter-balance this and convince the audience 

he means what he sings. 

Hot on Lewis’ heels comes THOMAS J. SPEIGHT 

and accompanying singer Evelyn Burke. The 

pair are sickeningly cheerful and almost seem 

like some kind of cruel joke coming before the 

troubled confessions of Rateliff, but in terms of 

musical quality they are consistent and pleasant, 

if unremarkable. Speight’s songs sound like the 

stuff you remember your dad listening to, but 

the gorgeous harmonies the two produce help 

compensate; Burke’s voice is probably more 

capable than Speight’s, but his rougher tones 

complement her more cultivated ones beautifully. 

The songs themselves are just too twee, filled 

with just about every romantic country cliché 

there is – after several brave attempts at getting 

the crowd involved, and even taking a march 

amongst the audience at one point, I’m left 

thinking that this duo are lucky they’re playing to 

such an accommodating bunch. 

Nathaniel Rateliff’s eventual entrance feels 

rather subdued after Speight’s optimistic 

energy, and the lights seem paler and our 

beverages suddenly sadder. I’m struck by how 

world-weary the man looks; his faded tattoos 

and strange jewellery all seem relics of a rich 

and troubled past, and his southern drawl and 

cowboy hat only exaggerate this. He opens 

with Falling Faster Than You Can Run, which at 

once reinforces the Western melancholy that 

has swallowed the Bold Street venue. Along 

with Rateliff’s own powerful presence, his band 

are far more than just filler – in particular, some 

excellent cello playing in Shroud makes for an 

experience that suggests Nick Cave at his most 

moody. Rateliff’s quality lies in his ability to 

conjure a mood and hammer it home, and every 

song contributes in its own unique way to the 

crushing atmosphere presented – by the end, the 

audience is as silent, sullen, and glazed as if we’d 

all been simultaneously divorced and handed 

whiskey. Even the more energetic songs, such 

as Still Trying, find power in their thunderous 

melancholy, and Rateliff’s own authentic delivery 

spreads an infectious desperation that leaves 

gooseflesh in its wake. Rateliff’s eventual encore 

ends with Early Spring Till, an absolute highlight 

– its pervasive quietness is shattered by the great 

climactic chorus and the tearful applause of the 

delighted crowd. 

Your Bag? 

HIGHFIELDS 

Moats - Singapore Strategy 

Fred Johnson 

Catch Luke Sital-Singh at Leaf 

on 1st March 

New Blood Club @ The Shipping Forecast 

Local trio SINGAPORE STRATEGY storm onto the 

stage with an explosion of feisty post-rock noise, 

which is veritably bursting with incredible energy 

and teenage aggression. Describing their music 

as noise is actually unfair and pretty reductive, 

as it would suggest that all three members are 

in competition to see who can bash/strum/pluck 

their instruments with the most ferocity. Which 

is what it looks like at first. However, if this was 

indeed the case, then I don’t think they would 

sound quite so brilliant. Singapore Strategy are 

running a pretty tight ship here, and their music, 

despite its chaotic quality, is very cohesive. The 

constant change of direction within their songs, 

from funky Foals-like math rock to the heartfelt 

Explosions In The Sky-style breakdowns, is so 

effortless and in such perfect unison, it displays 

all three members' extraordinary knowledge 

of each bandmate’s components within the 

performance as well as their own. The Liverpool 

teens have certainly raised the bar high tonight. 

MOATS, next act up, are the band that have 

impressed me most with their recorded material. 

And luckily, listening to the frontman’s husky King- 

Krule-esque vocals get swallowed up in haunting 

soundscapes, only to re-emerge, howling, over 

a flurry of post-punk percussion, they are just 

as absorbing live as on record. However, after 

witnessing Singapore Strategy lose their shit on 

stage, Moats’ live performance seriously lacks 

punch, and is a little disappointing. 

It’s difficult to imagine any act bettering 

our local post-rocking trio tonight, and when 

HIGHFIELDS begin setting up on stage, it seems 

almost impossible. After seeing the drummer 

sporting a flat cap and waistcoat I am positive 

that I’m about to witness a band’s desperate and 

dreary attempt to emulate Mumford & Sons, and 

I sigh before the headliners have even played 

a note. However, when Highfields’ set begins,

Reviews 


I am immediately reminded of that old saying: 

never judge a band by the drummer’s choice of 

headwear… As it turns out, the six-piece’s unique 

sound is capable of immediately transforming a 

crowd into one big mass of beaming faces and 

shuffling feet, and allowing one to sing along to 

songs they’ve never heard before. Their folk-like 

music completely brightens up the shadowy 

depths of The Hold, and makes you feel like 

you’re at a carnival somewhere, on a beach, with 

the sun shining overhead. Anything is possible. 

Tom Fennell 

POWERPLANT 

The Capstone Theatre 

The Capstone Theatre’s lecture-hall qualities 

deem it perfect for tonight's event. A concert 

hall would seem too lavish, and a club is out of 

the question, but the contemplative ambience 

that exudes from a place of study is what a 

POWERPLANT performance requires. 

Part physical, musical display and part 

electronic manipulation, with a bit of video art 

mixed in, Powerplant are as compelling as they 

are intriguing. The collective consist of sound 

designer Matthew Fairclough, visual artist Kathy 

Hinde and percussionist Joby Burgess. 

The show begins with a piece in seven 

parts composed by Gabriel Prokofiev. Against a 

backdrop of images of industry, Burgess utilises 

a number of unusual percussive instruments, 

beginning with an oil drum which at first makes 

sounds which are fragmented and sparse. 

However, with the use of sampling, the swell 

of the drum begins to grow until it becomes a 

deafening, rhythmic roar. Almost as soon as this 

crescendo is reached it is retracted, as though 

Burgess must refuse the listener the satisfaction 

of any such climax. This piece is clearly intended 

to unsettle, not to distract. 

Continuing with the theme of industrial waste, 

the next item to be introduced is a plastic bag, 

Powerplant (Nata Moraru) 

which is used by Burgess to imitate the sound of 

rain. As the last synthesised drop falls, his focus 

turns to a more shrill, sonic entity: the sound 

produced from a full glass bottle. Again, through 

the manipulation of live looping and signal 

processing, Powerplant create a symphony 

1 HESKETH ST 

AIGBURTH, LIVERPOOL 

L17 8XJ 

020 7232 0008

30 


Reviews 

Sheepy (Michael Sheerin / michaelsheerin.photoshelter.com) 

from a single sound. Something as innocuous 

as a bottle of Fanta becomes a mesmerising 

tool, while Hinde’s moving images create a 

poignant reminder of the destructiveness of 

consumerism. 

The second part of the performance begins 

with a piece by legendary composer Steve Reich 

entitled My Name Is. The piece consists entirely 

of audience participation, as certain spectators 

are asked to speak their name into a microphone. 

These recordings are then looped and played at 

different speeds, creating a swirling mass of 

words which, through repetition, begins to take 

on different sounds and textures. 

This is followed by a composition written by 

Fairclough, The Boom And The Bap, which sees 

Burgess behind a conventional drum kit for the 

first time during the show, and is an astonishing 

demonstration of his sheer talent. He holds 

nothing back, and the result is an overtly 

energetic yet measured performance. 

The set closes with 24 Lies A Second, 

composed by Burgess and his friend Max 

de Wardener. The piece, intended for three 

pianos, is tonight performed on a xylosynth 

accompanied by visuals from Hinde. The chimes 

of the xylosynth create an eerie aesthetic, with 

hints of both apocalypse and resolution. It is at 

times fragile, at other times incandescent, and 

there are moments where, properly absorbed, 

there is real transcendence. 

There is no easy definition for the music 

made by Powerplant. The intensely complex 

and experimental nature of their work resists 

categorisation. Thus, a performance is equally as 

hard to pin down. However, this is the essence 

of their appeal and their innovation. 

Your Bag? 

SHEEPY 

Alastair Dunn 

Catch Loka @ The Capstone 

Theatre on 14th March 

The Franceens – Freq – Natalie McCool 

Milk: Presents @ District 

“This is for anyone who’s had the feeling 

that they’re about to get beaten up,” pops 

in THE FRANCEEN’s Dan Oliver Gott before a 

whimsical descent into nihilism on Nothing, 

with much painful-looking head swinging 

from the nefariously Northern frontman. Jeez, 

something must be happening in York outside 

of the quaint cafés and meagre student 

culture that this reviewer has pinned it for; for 

it is there that the three-piece have nurtured 

a sound that is anything but provincial. 

Obviously the product of a diet of Black Rebel 

Motorcycle Club, The Hives and a side of The 

Ramones, they thrash their way through the 

threat of nuclear war in Bomb with surprising 

levity. Bassist Naomi Westerman, who could 

pass very convincingly for Ghost World’s Enid 

Coleslaw, makes like the Kim Deal to Gott’s 

Frank Black with infantile, low-fidelity yowls. 

The Franceens are but one of the banquet of 

bands on the menu tonight, but they make 

their presence known with a mid-evening 

stampede of punk anthems. 

Prior to this, opener NATALIE MCCOOL coos 

her way through her early set featuring a pearly 

white rendition of Wondrous Place, whilst FREQ 

are a fresh-faced newbie act with moments of 

brilliance from the harmony of the vocals and 

catchiness of the riffs. 

By the time SHEEPY head onstage, their 

audience has reached breaking point with 

excitement expressed most obviously by a 

handful of members removing their shirts and 

screaming at the three lads as they sidle into 

view. Puckish frontman Luke Jones leads the 

group into a set featuring hits off their debut 

LP laced with abandoned flair. The audacious 

cynicism of the lyrics in Wrongun melts into 

sunny guitar hooks. Jones is the shrewd 

lyricist and indie-pop minstrel whose delivery 

is reminiscent of Hot Hot Heat and We Are 

Scientists. Their audience’s gratitude is rewarded 

with standout track Ket Party which, despite the 

unsubtle title, jumps out with a narration of 

love and loss and a sing-a-long quality. All the 

while, dedication from their host of local fans 

is admirable, even down to the few at the front 

who air-guitar along. College rock meets protest 

anthem on latest single These Clothes, which 

has its own nod to Nelly’s early-noughties pop 

superhit with bridging line “it’s getting hot in 

here”. What Sheepy seem to do best is deliver 

hits that speak to the generation of here and 

now, narrating the trials and tribulations of 

youth backed against a smattering of rhythm 

guitar. Relatable, fresh and honest – they’re 

the band that every teen should ride out their 

formative years to. 

Flossie Easthope / @feasthope 

bidolito.co.uk

Youth Music Arts02 - Bido Ad.pdf 1 16/07/2013 22:27 

C 

M 

Y 

CM 

MY 

CY 

CMY 

K

32 


Reviews 

Lindi Ortega (Adam Edwards / @adamedwardsfoto) 

FOALS 

Outfit 

The Fly Awards Show @ East Village Arts Club 

Last year’s gargantuan Holy Fire album, 

followed by their status as certified festival 

headliners and now this EVAC show (as a warmup 

for a full UK tour which sold out in minutes) 

all serve as signifiers to FOALS’ growing 

dominance. Before the Oxfordians, though, 

OUTFIT are the first band to grace tonight’s 

superb billing, themselves becoming ever-more 

lauded following last year’s highly praised debut 

LP. Arguably one of Liverpool’s most prominent 

musical talents in recent years, the five-piece 

break into their dark synth and skewed, spooked 

ambience. Storming renditions of I Want What’s 

Best and Elephant Days are showing signs of a 

band evidently going from strength-to-strength. 

Their repeated vocals and clambering percussion 

weaving through howling guitar hooks more 

than prove them as a fitting entrée to tonight’s 

mains. 

The sheer anticipation of the headliner’s set is 

palpable, as audience members seek to squeeze 

themselves into every nook and cranny of the 

room. The lights begin to dim as a crescendo 

of looping, droning synths welcomes Foals 

onstage. Natural set-opener Prelude kicks in with 

needling, incisive guitar riffs, and a thumping 

swell of distortion. Self-confessed fans of 

shows in this city, Foals are delving deeper into 

their back catalogue with the likes of Total Life 

Forever and Olympic Airways sending the crowd 

into a total frenzy. Singer Yannis Philippakis’ 

renowned simian-like stage antics have become 

an integral part of Foals’ live show over the years, 

with tonight proving no different. The athletic 

funk rock sprints of My Number and Providence 

astound throughout, as the softly glimmering 

Spanish Sahara and Late Night proceed to give 

the set some much-needed breathing space. 

Their stable progression from the math rock/afro 

pop guitar heights of debut album Antidotes to 

the more developed, layered feel of Total Life 

Forever and Holy Fire gives their set a unique 

level of dynamism. The lurching guitar chops 

of Inhaler fuse with swaggering, swathes of 

distortion, as the room basically descends into a 

singular mosh pit. Early single and fan-favourite 

Hummer jolts in after the band re-emerge for an 

encore, and fabled set-closer Two Steps, Twice 

begins to shake the room to its foundations. 

The last track is drawn out into a rush of sweat, 

adrenaline and strobe lights as Yannis begins 

to clamber and crowd surf his way around the 

venue, necking a shot of vodka from the bar in 

the process. Tonight may possibly be one of the 

last times the band play a venue of this size in 

Liverpool, and they have certainly made it their 

own. Destined for arena-sized venues to match 

their arena-worthy stage presence, Foals vacate 

the sweat-riddled stage to raucous applause 

and copious adoration. 

John Wise / @John__Wise 

LINDI ORTEGA 


When it comes to country music, it’s hard to 

find too many people who sit on the fence. You 

either love it, or you hate it. It either gives you a 

warm, hearty glow inside, or it makes you want 

to stick your fingers in your ears and go to your 

happy place. Whenever country rears its head 

in the mainstream, it can often alienate purist 

advocates by being too saccharine and diluted, 

but make no mistake: LINDI ORTEGA is the real 

deal. She has tunes by the bucketload, and is 

a delightful presence on stage – engaging, 

vivacious, and relentlessly cheerful in that 

endearing Canadian fashion. Even if her music 

isn’t your usual cup of tea, it’s just impossible 

not to like her. 

Her voice is striking and incredibly powerful, 

and it gives her excellent lyrics even more 

gravitas. This is a genre that is really easy to take 

the piss out of, but comfortingly there isn’t a trace 

of irony in Ortega’s music. Her songs have true 

substance and passion, and she always sings 

right from the heart, whether it’s the whiskeysippin’ 

melancholy of Lived And Died Alone or 

the raucous, knee-slapping Voodoo Mama. 

Lindi Ortega’s sound is entrenched in her 

genre’s musical traditions while simultaneously 

sounding fresh. Whilst holding the torch for a 

new generation of songsmiths, she gives more 

than a passing nod to the old guard, paying 

tribute to the legendary Hank Williams with a 

beautifully gritty slide guitar interpretation of 

I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry. 

Her latest album’s title track Tin Star is 

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Making Liverpool 

sound great ... 

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visit: parrstreetstudios.com 

Parr Street Studios: 33 – 45 Parr Street, Liverpool L1 4JN 

Liverpool ad 142 x 207 B_Layout 1 25/04/2013 10:50 Page 3 

You are a musician. 

Not an accountant or solicitor. 

That’s why you need the MU. 

– £10 million public liability cover 

– Legal advice and assistance 

– Free instrument insurance 

– Rights protection 

– Teacher services 

– Career and business advice 

– Free contract and partnership advice 

Plus, full-time students join for just £20 a year. 

Over 30,000 members in the UK already benefit. 

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@WeAreTheMU

34 


Reviews 

Shigeto (Michael Sheerin / michaelsheerin.photoshelter.com) 

another highlight, and is touchingly dedicated 

to struggling musicians the world over. It’s 

no wonder she felt compelled to write on 

that subject, having cut her teeth for the best 

part of a decade in her native Toronto before 

stepping out into the wider world. However, if 

tonight’s performance is anything to go by, that 

experience has paid huge dividends and made 

her the consummate pro. 

As impressive as Ortega is, it would be 

remiss not to mention the dazzling guitar skills 

of backing guitarist James Robertson, who is 

somehow able to recreate the dynamics of two 

guitars and a bass all by himself. Drummer Alex 

Cox’s services are used sparingly but to great 

effect, and when the whole band are together 

they’re right in the pocket. 

After rapturous applause comes the inevitable 

encore, and the much-anticipated appearance of 

one of Ortega’s most favoured songs, the hazily 

romantic Cigarettes And Truckstops. She also 

throws in a gorgeous cover of Desperado and a 

boisterous version of Cher’s Bang Bang (My Baby 

Shot Me Down) before drawing the curtain on 

a triumph of a set. This is the third time Ortega 

has come to Liverpool in as many years, with the 

crowd increasing every time and, with tonight’s 

queue for the merch table taking up half the 

venue, you imagine it won’t be the last. 

Alex Holbourn / @AlexHolbourn 

SHIGETO 

Dauwd 

INKARTA @ The Kazimier 

Running orders are, in a way, much like DJ 

sets. Too long before the action kicks off and 

you risk losing people’s interest; blow your 

proverbial beans too early and it's a downward 

slope from there on in. It's a delicate balancing 

act and one which audiences rarely appreciate 

or notice until something goes awry. It's difficult 

to know who to blame for tonight’s runningorder 

mishap – whether it is the promoters 

who choose to start the evening with two DJ 

sets or the DJs themselves who seemed intent 

on whipping the audience into a frenzy right 

from the off. Either way, after two sets of heavy, 

four on the floor, “dance floor bangers”, any 

anticipation for SHIGETO has been dissolved by 

a barrage of sub-bass. 

Which is a shame because once he does take 

to the stage, the Ghostly International producer 

proves just why his arrival has caused such a 

ripple of excitement amongst the electronic 

music scene in Liverpool. Unshackling himself 

from the ubiquitous Macbook in favour of an 

MPD and live drums, his set swerves from 

house to jazz to hip hop, and the inclusion of 

physical instrumentation gives the set a vitality 

often missing from electronic solo acts. As the 

set develops, new ideas thread themselves 

between the grooves and, by the time he is 

joined on stage by DAUWD, the crowd are in full 

swing. The two clearly share a musical affinity 

and their interplay proves to be a highlight of 

the night. After a smooth transition, Dauwd takes 

the helm to round off the night. His productions 

are pristine. Making use of space without ever 

feeling hollow, the set has a beautiful ebb and 

flow, and it's not long before the entirety of The 

Kazimier becomes a dancefloor. It is easy to 

see why he has been gathering plaudits for his 

recent performances supporting Bonobo. 

This is the first night of the venue’s INKARTA 

clubnight. Teething issues aside, it certainly has 

the feeling of a future classic, especially if they 

can keep drawing in the calibre of artist they 

have for their first night. 

THE OLLLAM 

Rodewald Suite 

Dave Tate 

As would be expected of a band as obscure 

and relatively unknown as THE OLLLAM, tonight’s 

show is not taking place in the grandiose 

setting of the main hall, but in the small and 

intimate surrounds of the Rodewald Suite here 

at The Phil. Before the band emerge there is a 

brief introduction from a venue representative 

who informs us that the show has not been 

advertised in their programme due to the 

lateness of the booking. The gathering, 

apparently, has therefore been assembled 

entirely through word-of-mouth or in other 

words, the internet. 

And so, the tweed-clad six-piece arrive on 

stage. Along with the conventional combination 

of drums, bass, guitar and keys, is the addition 

of Irish tin whistles and uilleann pipes. Their 

first song sets a precedent for the night, and 

bidolito.co.uk

I DESIGN 

BIDO LITO! 

// LUKE-AVERY.COM 

// INFO@LUKE-AVERY.COM 

// 07729 308307

Friday 21 st February 

Wednesday 26 th February 

Thursday 13 th March 

Wednesday 19 th March 

MELLOWTONE 

February - May 2014 Listings 

Saturday 17 th May 

UPCOMING GIGS: 

PAUL STRAWS, 

Ivan Campo, Jessica Mary West 

LEAF, BOLD STREET 

PAPER AEROPLANES, 

Cousin Jac 

THE KAZIMIER 

STEFAN MELBOURNE, 

Carrianne Hayden, Michael Reeve 

THE SHIPPING FORECAST 

KATHRYN WILLIAMS 

LEAF, BOLD STREET 

JOHN 

BRAMWELL 

(I AM KLOOT) THE KAZIMIER 

Between the live music at all shows, Mellowtone’s resident Beaten Tracks 

DJs and guests play a selection of dusty and forgotten gems ... funk, soul, 

jazz, psyche, blues, hiphop, reggae and more. You can also find them 

spinning at Leaf Tea Shop every Saturday night, The Attic on the 3rd Friday 

of the month, and Friday evenings at the Shipping Forecast from 6pm. 

effectively embodies the band's sound. The 

acoustic guitar is fragmented and delicate, 

offering suggestions at musical direction rather 

than any definite structure. The bass and drum 

parts, in tandem with one another, echo the 

implications of the guitar and give the songs 

their distinctly progressive feel. Against this 

backdrop, which is also intoned with elements of 

funk, the tin whistles of John McSherry and Tyler 

Duncan blast away. The melodies are delicate 

in composition, yet played with such ferocity 

and pace that the crowd appear breathless by 

proxy. This lip-blistering whistle section is what 

differentiates The Olllam aesthetically from 

other bands, and gives them their distinctive 

Celtic-roots sound. 

There is clearly a wealth of musical ability in the 

band, with every member playing with flourishes 

and zest. The impressive tin-whistle display is 

matched by some top-drawer drumming. The 

rhythm section expertly signals the numerous 

time changes of the music clumsily but aptly 

labelled Neo Acoustic Celtic Post Rock. The bassist 

and drummer not only rise to the challenge of 

these many time changes but adorn them with 

various idiosyncrasies that make the rhythmic 

components of the performance as breathtaking 

as the melodic aspects. In fact, some of 

the more beguiling moments of the show are 

somewhat smothered by the relentlessness of 

the whistle players. There are times when the 

subtleties of the other musical arrangements 

should be left on their own to develop, and 

perhaps become more prominent. This is only to 

minor detriment, however. 

Before leaving the stage, Tyler Duncan 

informs the audience that this is the first time 

the group have ever played in Liverpool. Due to 

their roots in Celtic music and the rash of gigs 

they have played on the other side of the Irish 

Sea, this seems quite surprising, but this gig 

will surely not be their last. If the rapturous 

applause and calls for an encore are anything 

to go by, then next time they might even be in 

the programme. 

Alastair Dunn 

THE DEEP DARK WOODS 

The Springtime Anchorage 


If their name is anything to go by, THE DEEP 

DARK WOODS must be fairly uncomfortable 

being exposed to the urban environs of 

Liverpool. Consistently praised for their 

moody and instantly depressing approach 

to traditional folk rhythms, the band’s songs 

serve as portals into another reality, one that 

is far sadder and features a lot more people 

getting hanged. Indeed, one needs only to 

look over their back catalogue to get a hint 

of what’s in store: Hang Me, Oh Hang Me; The 

Gallows; Back Alley Blues… the list goes on. 

Before we dig up that particular corpse 

though, local indie country rockers THE 

SPRINGTIME ANCHORAGE arrive on the scene 

with their pleasing blend of rockabilly rhythms 

and contemporary style. Bar a couple of beards, 

they all look fresh out of uni, which is why their 

mature and tight sound is initially so surprising; 

vocalist Marc Hannon has the sugary grit of a 

far older man, and the songs are immaculately 

and carefully formulated to ensure each 

country lick hits with the most power. The 

musicians work fantastically together to build 

arching crescendos and climaxes that hit 

home with untold force, and their individual 

skills shine equally brightly. Electric guitarist 

Phillip Ryan-Melville in particular stands out 

for his excellent axe-wielding – his quality only 

serves to help mark The Springtime Anchorage 

as an act to watch out for. 

With such an excellent and, at times, energetic 

opening band, The Deep Dark Woods would 

have good reason to be sadder than usual. It 

certainly seems so when they meander onto 

the stage – there is no introduction and the 

band launch sullenly into heavy-hitter The Place 

I Left Behind. A gorgeous whisky-based cocktail 

of bittersweet melodies and soaring regret, 

The Deep Dark Woods certainly are taking no 

prisoners with this opener – and it is only a sign 

of things to come. One of the key mechanisms 

in the band’s melodies is the contrast between 

the voices of vocalist Ryan Boldt and bassist 

Chris Mason; the former’s mournful and gruff 

utterances are beautifully complemented by 

the whimsical and bird-like echoes of the latter. 

This secret weapon is utilised to full effect in 

The Sun Never Shines and All The Money I Had 

Is Gone, which come later in the set to startling 

effect. The songs from Jubilee seem the more 

technical and self-indulgent, and with such 

long instrumental sequences certain portions 

of the crowd become restless, which soils the 

experience somewhat by breaking through the 

bubble of melancholy the band work so hard 

to construct. Thankfully, just when the chatter 

is becoming its most threatening, they launch 

into such favourites as 18th Of December and 

Hang Me, Oh Hang Me to regain control over 

their setting. It’s just as well – the music, more 

varied and indulgent than on the recordings, is 

certainly worth paying attention to. Although 

they systematically avoided playing my three 

favourite songs, I can heartily recommend The 

Deep Dark Woods. 

HOUSE OF TREES 

Parr Jazz @ Studio 2 

Fred Johnson 

Parr Jazz has turned out a slightly younger 

crowd than usual this evening, and it’s no 

doubt a sign that these LIPA alumni have 

left behind a lasting impression since they 

met here in 2002. Tonight they are joined by 

Sweden-based HOUSE OF TREES, the venture

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Fri 14th March, 8:00pm. 

Standard £13.00 Concession £11.00 

Fri 28th March, 8:00pm. 

All Tickets £17.50

38 


Reviews 

London Grammar (Samantha Milligan) 

of Rob Coe (Guitar, Backing Vocals) and Sarah 

“Flossie” Anderson, who are in the UK to 

promote their new EP Where’s The Butcher, 

Where’s The Baker? 

The duo take to the stage with Rob lightly 

strumming around a simple chord structure, 

and Flossie adorning the cadence with what 

sounds like planned-yet-improvised sweeping, 

chromatic melodies on the violin. It provides a 

beautifully melancholy foundation for Djamila 

Skoglund Voss to step up to the microphone. 

The striking Scandinavian begins to sing with 

a precision and control rarely heard against such 

a naked backdrop. Her voice soars through the 

room and, although these conditions could be 

described as unforgiving for a lesser singer, she 

truly holds her own. Whether howling haunting 

top notes or resonating her lower register 

through what sounds like her entire body, she 

is stunningly pitch perfect. She is lending these 

melodies a little more power than can be heard 

on the recordings, and the effect is mesmerising. 

I’m The Clown comes as somewhat of a 

surprise, not that it is any happier in content, 

but that it is of a slightly more upbeat tempo 

than we’ve been graced with so far, and almost 

parodying the style in places, dramatising 

lyrics with cartoonish vocals and sound 

effects. It’s an inspired way to lighten the 

otherwise mournful tone, providing a little 

comic relief. Not That Kinda Town delivers the 

same treatment featuring a bell to “close the 

toyshop after school”; these embellishments 

are unexpected but add an enjoyable twist, 

searing the performance into our memory. 

The Opportunist showcases Flossie’s 

incredible talents, starting with an ascension 

that reaches right up to a top G in 5th position. 

Her vibrato is as perfect as her intonation. 

The jazz melodies reflect a classical-crossedwith-European 

folk influence, and this is 

emphasised by Skoglund Voss duplicating 

them on a wine-soaked kazoo; placing them 

somewhere between bizarre dark blues and 

melancholy gypsy jazz. We’re also privy to 

flawless travelling three-part harmonies, which 

hold tightly together no matter where the lead 

vocal takes them. 

This band truly hold the room; they pinpoint 

these perfect progressions over total silence, 

and it seems that every person is just soaking 

up this unique experience, attention rapt right 

up to the last moment. For House Of Trees, 

being back in “the city where it all started” 

has proved more than just another stop on 

the tour. 

Jessie Main / @JessieMainMusic 

Your Bag? 

Catch Louis Barabbas & the Bedlam 

6 @ The Kazimier on 6th March 

LONDON GRAMMAR 

Dan Croll 

O2 Academy 

DAN CROLL is on the verge of making it big. 

Most people are aware of this now, even those 

who are aware of him purely because of the 

GTA V soundtrack. Whilst his music doesn’t 

quite evokes images of high-speed car chases 

and shootouts with the police, it has gained 

the 22-year-old quite a fan base, and the 

quickly growing crowd are ready to receive 

him this evening at the O2 Academy. Booming, 

syncopated afrobeat rhythms, simple staccato 

piano riffs, breezy guitar hooks and faultless 

vocal harmonies covering an impressive range 

– all come together during Croll’s set to create 

a South African soundscape blended with the 

West, often minimal but punctuated by bursts 

of colour. 

Our Nottingham-based headliners, LONDON 

GRAMMAR, were in a similar position to Dan 

Croll this time last year, with a handful of 

songs cropping up on trendy music blogs and 

grabbing listeners forcefully by the ears. Now 

they are touring their debut album If You Wait, 

which has earned them commercial success as 

well as critical acclaim. Tonight’s gig sold out 

months ago, and it’s not hard to see why. 

Vocalist Hannah Reid is one of the most 

talented female vocalists in British pop 

music today. Although many bands would 

be well and truly ruined if fronted by a 

classically trained singer (assuming Reid 

is classically trained), London Grammar’s 

modern, melancholic ballads are perfectly 

complemented by her powerful voice, over 

which she has absolute control. 

All three members of the band are masters 

of texture, which they prove again and again 

throughout the night. During opener Hey 

Now, Reid’s voice is reserved to begin with, 

weaving gently in and out of guitarist Dan 

Rothman’s mellow basslines. And then, slowly 

but surely, the climax is melting over you, with 

Reid’s ghost-like vocals reaching full volume, 

whilst the arpeggiated bassline subtly builds 

beneath. Only on Nightcall does the climax 

outstay its welcome, Reid apparently unable to 

rein it in when necessary. Standout track and 

encore Metal & Dust brings about the most onstage 

dynamics, Dot Major proving that men 

can indeed multi-task. He plays soothing chord 

progressions on the keyboard, whilst creating 

a shuddering pulse on the synth-pads, before 

flinging himself across the stage to bash out 

trip hop-inspired beats on the drum kit. This 

memorable performance makes for the perfect 

soundtrack to your late-night bus journey 

home through the city’s urban sprawl. 

Tom Fennell 

bidolito.co.uk

Science Fiction: 

New Death 

This major new exhibition will consider how our relationship 

with technology has blurred the lines between the real and the 

virtual, making our lives feel increasingly like science fiction. 

27 March - 22 June / FREE Entry 

fact.co.uk / @FACT_liverpool 

Image: Nation Estate, Larissa Sansour, 2012, image courtesy of the artist

Issue 42 / March 2014

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