Issue 46 / July 2014

30
Bido Lito!
July 2014
Reviews
DIGGING A LITTLE DEEPER
with Dig Vinyl
Bold Street’s latest wax junkies DIG VINYL know a thing or two about the weird and wonderful
depths of people’s record collections, and each month they’ll be rifling through their racks and
picking out four of their favourite in-stock records. Keep digging…
bidolito.co.uk
PERE UBU
THE MODERN DANCE LP
Thirty-six years after its inception, The Modern Dance still
sounds as jarring and radical as it must have done in 1978. Its
influence is huge, and I'm sure that Martin Hannett's production
of Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures nodded to it (the strange
elevator noises, the industrial drones).
PERE UBU take the fear of the modern world and transplant it
into a different scenario, in which death is not physical but spiritual, not due to bombardment
but to economic and social mechanisms. But what pervades the entire album (and sets it apart
from almost any other) is the band's unique and infectious approach to rhythm.
THE PRETTY THINGS
S.F. SORROW
S.F. Sorrow is one of the great lost albums of the era – it
deserves to be ranked alongside Piper At The Gates Of Dawn
and Sgt. Pepper – and belongs to a wider range of psychedelic
classics such as Odessey & Oracle (The Zombies) and Younger
Than Yesterday (The Byrds).
As for the music itself, THE PRETTY THINGS had outdistanced
the competition in terms of breadth, scope and vision. Eventually, the album found a smallish
audience of psychedelic rock enthusiasts in the 90s and is now firmly established as one of the
great albums of the original psychedelic era.
THE DAVID
ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER LIFETIME
Western beats, Eastern chants and the one and only ‘plasmatar’,
an instrument invented by the group's composer Warren Hansen,
gave THE DAVID one of the most distinctive sounds in the psych
scene. The title track blends chant-like overtones with Western
orchestration motifs, while other tracks are often characterised
by driving rhythms played alongside oddly spaced melody
lines. The album remains something of a lost classic, and manages to stay on the right side of
saccharine due to some underlying garage moves from the band’s earlier days.
DEEP PURPLE
IN ROCK
An explosion of guitar and cascading sparks, eventually settling
into the serene sounds of an organ: so begins In Rock. This album
deserves recognition for the way its stunning power, volume and
energy completely blew away practically anything people had
heard at the time. It is also Roger Glover's favourite DEEP PURPLE
album. Standout track Child In Time, which is a ten-minute epic in
the truest sense of the word, will convert you to classic rock in seconds. That is, if you weren't
already hooked from the insane Speed King.
Head to bidolito.co.uk to stream the latest Dig Vinyl Podcast, featuring a mixture of new, old
and half-forgotten classics.
Skelmersdale four-piece THE INKHEARTS are
a bit more restrained with their no-nonsense
indie pop. Their addiction to power chords lets
them down a little, but there’s an endearing
look in frontwoman Lauren Shaw’s eyes
that can’t be avoided. Five-piece SEROTONIN
follow them with their alluring goth psych
amalgamation. Born from the embers of The
Dirty Rivers, there’s plenty of potential here,
particularly when frontman Mike Ellis is so
animated onstage, suitably possessed by the
band’s dark melodies. With his bandmates
duly downcast all in black, it’s broody, sludgy
and downright eerie.
SUGARMEN are last in the local support
band hat-trick, their raunchy hard rock oozing
reverb. A constant fixture on the Liverpool
gig circuit for some time now, each track
is powered by their endless enthusiasm,
summed up by a lead guitarist who mouths
the words to every song. Closing number
This Is My Life (And It’s Alright) draws on the
“we’re all in this together” ethos, but it suits
Sugarmen’s united front. It’s this energy and
confidence that keeps the set sweet when the
tracks occasionally falter.
In contrast, Speedy Ortiz are relatively
chilled throughout their set, but as the
noise rarely relents from the scuzzy opener
American Horror, the music is more than
capable of speaking for itself. You can always
turn the volume down when the band are on
record but that isn’t an option in this setting.
Though enthusiastic, the crowd’s cheers feel
drained; they simply cannot match the size of
the music that the band produce. However,
Gary, a formidable number that swells verse
by verse, keeps the Hold on edge, anticipating
the moment it crashes into life.
The downside to this is that Sadie Dupuis’
sharp and surreal lyrics are often drowned out.
Such is the risk when your backdrop carries
such force; Dupuis herself is somewhat selfcontained,
caught in her own little world,
while her casual matter-of-fact tone doesn’t
make it any easier to catch her vocals. No
Below works wonders in that sense as a
slower, pondering number: as delicate as
Speedy Ortiz will ever sound, it provides a
welcome release as a relaxed sway-along
towards the end.
Intense it may be, but this is never down to
pace. Mike Falcone’s drumming comes thick
but never fast, and deep within the band’s
peculiar dirge is a sense of direction. Just
because it’s slacker doesn’t mean they lack
the smarts. It’s harder to catch the intricacies
with the overpowering fuzz, but it’s still a
gripping onslaught. Finishing on the grimy
divulge of Tiger Tank, it somehow balances
a relaxed pace with threatening to grind
your eardrums down to a pulp. If our ears
don’t stop ringing, it will serve as a pleasant
reminder of a great gig.
Jack Graysmark / @ZeppelinG1993
PULP: A FILM ABOUT LIFE,
DEATH AND SUPERMARKETS
Followed by Live Satellite Q&A
Picturehouse @ FACT
“It was alright” is, according to guitarist
Steve Mackey, the highest declaration of
praise in Sheffield. This is why his band PULP’s
homecoming show, the last date of their 2012
reunion tour, has to be extra special. But how
can a place of such reserve give birth to not just
one of the greatest bands and most extravagant
frontmen of all time, but a roll call of era-defining
pop bands?
In the Q&A beamed directly from the city’s
Documentary Festival, director Florian Habicht
tells us that the band had warned him he would
have to earn the people’s trust before he made
his film, which is about the city of Sheffield as
much as it is about Pulp.
One thing we learn from this special
showing of Pulp: A Film About Life, Death And
Supermarkets is that eccentricity wins through
in a place like Sheffield. From Habicht’s entrance
into the City Hall for the film and festival’s
opening, excited as a puppy, and making about
as much sense, it’s clear the lovable Kiwi gained
the Yorkshire folk’s trust with his childish charm
and enthusiasm.
Throughout the film we meet subtly and not
so subtly eccentric characters on the streets of
the Steel City: Josephine, the OAP who marginally
preferred Pulp over Blur; Terry, the balding
newspaper seller who, Habicht tells us, was
the first citizen with whom he fell in love; and
Bomar. Bomar, a young, cross-dressing musician,
paints one of the most humorous and poignant
pictures of his home city when he compares it
to London, where he was once mugged twice in
one night: “You do get mugged in Sheffield, but
when you do it’s usually funny”.
Autobiographical details are skimmed over
in favour of a study of Pulp’s hometown, a
place where few of the band live now but
which has informed nearly all of Jarvis Cocker’s
writing. In the Q&A hosted by Paul Morley, we
are told that this was a conscious choice as
details about such things as which members
preceded the current line-up, what the
motivation was behind certain tracks and what
happened at the Michael Jackson Brit Awards
performance are already out there, in books
and online. Besides, Habicht “doesn’t like to
do a lot of research”, preferring instead to drop
into a city and fashion out a funny, informative
and touching portrait. This is what the director
did with previous film Love Story about New
York, which is what alerted tonight’s subjects
to his talents.
It’s a perfect match: eccentricity catching
imagination and creating something truly
enjoyable and a time capsule for the ages.
Sam Turner / @samturner1984