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4.52am Issue: 043 20th July 2017 The Only Echoes Remain Issue

4.52am This week contains Only Echoes Remain, Fidelity Guitars, Gretsch Guitars, The Woodentops, Deerful, Sighs, Lee Ranaldo and Feeder

4.52am This week contains Only Echoes Remain, Fidelity Guitars, Gretsch Guitars, The Woodentops, Deerful, Sighs, Lee Ranaldo and Feeder

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Welcome<br />

Welcome to <strong>Issue</strong> <strong>043</strong><br />

This week is a little bit special, with some<br />

beautiful guitars from Fidelity and Gretsch<br />

and a chat with the chaps behind one of<br />

the best albums so far this year, <strong>Only</strong><br />

<strong>Echoes</strong> <strong>Remain</strong>.<br />

From there it is a mad dash as we visit<br />

with the exquisite Deerful, fall in love with<br />

Sighs, make a rapid return to hear<br />

something new from Lee Ranaldo,<br />

remember the Woodentops and La<br />

Contessa points us at Feeder and then,<br />

well, so much more.<br />

Have a fine week<br />

All at <strong>4.52am</strong>


Contents<br />

ONLY ECHOES REMAIN<br />

FIDELITY GUITARS<br />

GRETSCH G6118T PLAYERS EDITION ANNIVERSARY<br />

GRETSCH G6122TFM PLAYERS EDITION COUNTRY GENTLEMAN<br />

LEE RANALDO<br />

DEERFUL - “STAYING STILL E.P”<br />

SIGHS – “FIENDS E.P”<br />

THE HAYMAN KUPA BAND<br />

PHOEBE BRIDGERS<br />

TAPED: THE WOODENTOPS ‘GIANT’<br />

LA CONTESSA PRESENTS… FEEDER


FEATURES


ONLY ECHOES REMAIN<br />

<strong>The</strong> Exigent<br />

Having recently finished a tour with the<br />

wonderful Wozniak, <strong>Only</strong> <strong>Echoes</strong> <strong>Remain</strong><br />

recently released their debut album, “<strong>The</strong><br />

Exigent”, which for a debut is both<br />

incredibly strong and ambitious,<br />

somehow walking a line between delicate<br />

and powerful whilst never losing track of<br />

the stories being told by a purely<br />

instrumental album.<br />

If you are looking for a genre, Post Rock<br />

probably covers it vapidly, because there<br />

is a theme of experimentation and space<br />

here that Eno and Bowie would have<br />

loved to create, whilst musically there is<br />

a level of musicianship that could verge<br />

on the jazz without such a sure touch.<br />

This is a special album, a really special<br />

album that you will explore as much as<br />

you listen to, and we simply had to catchup<br />

with the chaps behind it for a few<br />

questions.<br />

Here is what they had to say,<br />

Tell us how you all got together?<br />

“<strong>The</strong> amazing power of the internet!<br />

When we started a year ago there didn’t<br />

seem to be many musicians in London<br />

specializing in post-rock and more fringe<br />

genres who weren’t already in bands, so<br />

I put an ad up on Gumtree, and here we<br />

are!”<br />

How would you describe your<br />

influences as a band?<br />

“I think one of the strengths of the band<br />

is that we all have our own tastes and<br />

influences, and are able to combine<br />

those together. Craig (drums) has<br />

probably been listening to post-rock<br />

and more contemporary progressive<br />

music longer than the rest of us, where<br />

I came from a blend of 70s prog, altrock<br />

and movie soundtracks. Si (guitar)<br />

comes from a metal background in<br />

previous bands, and Ali (bass) has a<br />

wide range of influences, including<br />

math-rock as well as pop-ier stuff. It’s<br />

a really good creative cocktail.”<br />

Can you describe your sound?<br />

“We tend to describe it as “cinematic<br />

instrumental rock”, but we’ve heard it<br />

called post-rock and contemporary<br />

prog in equal measure too.”<br />

When did you start gigging - what<br />

was your first gig like?<br />

“We pretty much jumped straight into<br />

gigging, refining our songs on the road<br />

before heading into the studio to record<br />

them at the end of last year. Our first<br />

gig was a lot of fun, we had a great<br />

turnout and lots of support, but it<br />

definitely wasn’t my best performance<br />

haha. <strong>The</strong> stage was super dark so we<br />

couldn’t really see what we were doing<br />

– I made quite a few mistakes but I just<br />

tried to make up for it with more<br />

energy and throwing myself around the<br />

stage haha.”


Tell us about the big gigs you’ve<br />

played and how did you enjoy<br />

them?<br />

“Oh man, we’ve been super lucky to play<br />

with some amazing bands in our first<br />

year. I think one we were all super<br />

excited about was supporting Totorro –<br />

they’re an amazing band and lovely guys<br />

too. <strong>The</strong> Old Blue Last was pretty packed<br />

for that one and there was a really great<br />

vibe. We’ve played with loads of amazing<br />

bands though – Toska, Her Name Is<br />

Calla, Poly-Math – it’s all been brilliant.<br />

Our album launch show recently was<br />

pretty awesome too!”<br />

What was the first thing you<br />

recorded?<br />

“We did a live video session of<br />

Descent/Impact in our rehearsal studio<br />

fairly early on. That was super DIYbodged,<br />

we multi-tracked using a Zoom<br />

portable recorder and sub-mixing the<br />

drums into one input using the PA mixer,<br />

using mostly SM58s. It came out pretty<br />

well for all that though I think! In terms<br />

of serious studio recording though, we<br />

jumped straight into a full album as our<br />

debut release, <strong>The</strong> Exigent, which came<br />

out just a few weeks ago.”<br />

Where did you do the recording?<br />

“One of my friends, Sam Jones, was<br />

doing a course at the Abbey Road<br />

Institute, so we were lucky enough to be<br />

able to record at Abbey Road! All the<br />

mixing was done by Sam at the Institute<br />

as well.”<br />

When was it?<br />

“Given how busy Abbey Road is and that<br />

priority was obviously given to the big<br />

clients, we ended up recording<br />

sporadically over a few months. Basically<br />

a lot of last-minute notice late nights and<br />

stolen time from December through to<br />

February – if a studio ended up free, Sam<br />

would shoot us a message and we’d dash<br />

over to grab whatever time we could<br />

get!”<br />

I think there will be a lot of bands<br />

reading this and feeling quite<br />

jealous. Was it what you<br />

expected/what would you change<br />

now?<br />

“It was amazing being able to use Abbey<br />

Road’s space and equipment, but the<br />

sporadic nature of the recording process<br />

did take a bit of getting used to – I think<br />

we’re all interested to see what a more<br />

residential/block approach to studio time<br />

would be like for the next record.”<br />

How did you find working with the<br />

producer?<br />

“Simon and I essentially produced the<br />

album ourselves with Sam; being so close<br />

to it made it a painstaking but highly<br />

rewarding experience. Full credit to Sam<br />

though for being so patient with us – we<br />

had a very specific vision for the record<br />

and it took a lot of fine tweaking, but Sam<br />

listened to us the whole way and helped<br />

us realise that vision.”


What was the recording set-up?<br />

“Fairly typical I guess, we started by<br />

recording scratch tracks to click, then<br />

Craig laid down the drums and we<br />

layered the bass and guitars over that.<br />

We did a lot of guitar takes though<br />

between me and Si – various<br />

permutations of amps, different guitars,<br />

different pickups – Sam must have had<br />

about a hundred guitar layers to choose<br />

from and blend by the end haha! We<br />

were really going for that ‘wall of sound’<br />

vibe though in places and wanted to<br />

ensure we had the options to be able to<br />

do that.”<br />

Thinking about your approach to<br />

songwriting – how did you learn to<br />

write a song?<br />

“<strong>The</strong> same way a lot of people tend to I<br />

think – experimentation! I’ve never<br />

studied music theory or anything, so for<br />

me I just hear a chord progression or a<br />

melody in my head, and then start<br />

playing around with that and see where<br />

it takes me.”<br />

Which one are you proudest of?<br />

“I think we’re all most proud of Aurora,<br />

because it’s the most collaborative song<br />

on the album. A fair few of the tracks<br />

started out as demos and ideas that I’d<br />

been working on (for years in some<br />

cases), but Aurora we wrote completely<br />

fresh, and it came out almost entirely in<br />

one jam session. From there it was just<br />

tweaking/refining. It’s exciting to be able<br />

to play off each other like that, and I<br />

think it’s the song that’s most<br />

representative of our ‘sound’.”<br />

<strong>The</strong>se days you can record a song at<br />

home and have it distributed and<br />

heard around the world in no time at<br />

all - what do you think are the good<br />

and bad parts of the ways things<br />

have changed?<br />

“Having access to so-called “pro-sumer”<br />

recording gear has enabled easier<br />

recording and producing of music, which<br />

has to be a good thing. We’ve certainly<br />

experienced the benefits of being able to<br />

more easily get to rough versions of<br />

songs during the writing process; it helps<br />

with refining. As for distribution, again<br />

being able to directly get music out into<br />

the world without needing to rely on<br />

labels is an amazing thing – we’ve got<br />

listeners and fans all around the world<br />

now, and that’s incredible. That said, the<br />

sheer volume of music being released as<br />

a result of all this does make it harder to<br />

get yourself heard and to stand out from<br />

the crowd at times. Still, largely I think<br />

anything that enables and promotes<br />

more creativity is a good thing.”<br />

How do you feel about<br />

collaborations?<br />

“We’d love to work with other people for<br />

sure – one thing high on our list is we’d<br />

love to collaborate with an animator to<br />

make a film of <strong>The</strong> Exigent. It’s a concept<br />

album, so effectively is the soundtrack to<br />

a movie that doesn’t exist, so it’d be<br />

amazing to make that a reality. Musically,<br />

I’d love to work with more orchestral


stuff, and it’d be awesome to do a<br />

collaborative project of some kind with<br />

amazing multimedia artists like Nordic<br />

Giants.”<br />

In terms of your guitar gear, can<br />

you talk us through it?<br />

“In the studio I switched between two<br />

different Fender Telecasters, though live<br />

I’ve mostly been playing one of them –<br />

it’s one of the limited edition sandblasted<br />

Tele’s from 2015, so no two are alike and<br />

they only made 250 globally I think. It’s<br />

ash body, maple neck, stock American<br />

single coil pickups, but has an unusually<br />

warm tone and loads of sustain, I really<br />

love it, it’s totally unique. <strong>The</strong> other is a<br />

Modern Player Thinline I bought in<br />

September last year before we went into<br />

the studio, as I wanted to get a semihollow<br />

tele with P90s for a fatter sound,<br />

specifically with the big drop in Aurora in<br />

mind – it sounds pretty huge!<br />

Amp-wise, I run a dual amp wet/dry<br />

setup live. I take a split off my<br />

pedalboard, after the gain section and<br />

before the modulation pedals, and send<br />

that to a Hayden MoFo 30, for a<br />

Marshall-esque crunchy tone but with<br />

way more bottom end that the MoFo<br />

brings. <strong>The</strong>n the signal at the end of the<br />

board goes to an Orange Rockerverb for<br />

my main tone. Since I tend to add a lot<br />

of delay and reverb, I’ve found that<br />

blending the two amps brings a bit of<br />

clarity back into a fairly wet sound, to try<br />

to get the best of both worlds. Plus it can<br />

get loud as hell when I run them both dry<br />

and heavy haha!<br />

I confess I have been tempted recently<br />

though, Simon uses a Kemper and the<br />

flexibility and consistency that comes<br />

with them is really helpful during show<br />

set-up. Plus sound engineers love being<br />

able to DI the guitar rather than rely on<br />

cab mics! <strong>The</strong>y’re also a lot lighter than a<br />

100-watt Rockerverb haha.”<br />

Any dream guitars you would like?<br />

“It’s funny, I always wanted a 70’s ebony<br />

Les Paul Custom, but in the last couple<br />

years I’ve played exclusively Tele’s so<br />

now I’m not so sure! I’d really like a<br />

Japanese Jazzmaster though, I’ve heard<br />

some amazing tones from them.”<br />

<strong>Only</strong> <strong>Echoes</strong> <strong>Remain</strong> are a truly special<br />

band, creating a new twist on progressive<br />

music with a style that is definitely their<br />

own. You can get the album now HERE<br />

and you really should check them out.


FIDELITY GUITARS<br />

One of the most exciting new guitar<br />

makers in the UK at the moment, is<br />

Fidelity Guitars, run by Matt in Cambridge<br />

and ignoring the normal Telecaster / Strat<br />

/ Superstrat approach so many Luthiers<br />

take, he has instead created something<br />

original, individual and unique and then<br />

moved on from there.<br />

All of his guitars are of course made by<br />

hand using the best of materials and Matt<br />

has taken the practical step of developing<br />

a line of ‘Production’ guitars, as well as<br />

offering a full custom service.<br />

This is something we are seeing more<br />

and more often and given Matt’s<br />

background, a bit of Brand development<br />

probably made sense and it certainly<br />

makes life simpler both for the builder<br />

and the customer. Of course from a basic<br />

outline, the world is your mollusc and<br />

Matt is offering some of the country’s<br />

most interesting and beautiful<br />

sounding pickups, with examples using<br />

Filter’tron, Gold Foil, Charlie Christian<br />

style pickups along with all of the<br />

usuals. My kind of guitars, indeed.<br />

Along the way, Matt built a lot of<br />

prototypes, and I thought it would be<br />

interesting over the next couple of<br />

weeks to look at examples of his<br />

Production guitars, a few of the Custom<br />

builds he has made along with some of<br />

the prototypes (some of which are still<br />

available for sale – the prices of these,<br />

really need to be checked out – just be<br />

quick…)<br />

You can find out more about Matt’s<br />

stunning guitars HERE


Fidelity Guitars Custom Build:<br />

JB "40th Anniversary" Signature Model<br />

Specifications:<br />

Model: JB Signature<br />

Type: Double-cutaway chambered electric<br />

Body: Swamp Ash with Maple top<br />

Neck: Maple with Zebrawood skunk stripe, black custom inlays. Medium "V" profile, bolted-in (brass inserts)<br />

Scale Length: 25.5"<br />

Nut / Width: Bone / 42mm<br />

Fingerboard: maple, compound 10" to 16" radius<br />

Frets: 21, Medium / Tall<br />

Hardware: Schaller STM bridge, Bigsby B5 vibrato, Sperzel Trim-Lok tuners<br />

String Spacing, Bridge: 52mm<br />

Electrics: <strong>The</strong> Creamery Black Cat Filtertron-style HB-sized pickups, 2-way pickup selector, master volume with treble<br />

bleed, Electrosocket jack<br />

Weight (kg / lb): tbc<br />

Finish: Body: Gloss Orange over Tobacco Brown nitrocellulose. Neck: Tru-Oil<br />

Included Extras: Spider Cases aluminium shaped hardcase, Heistercamp leather / cotton webbing strap


Fidelity Guitars Production Build:<br />

Olympic White & Shell Pink swirl with Mojotron & Gold Foil pickups<br />

Specifications:<br />

Model: Double Standard<br />

Type: Double-cutaway chambered electric<br />

Body: Swamp Ash with Brazilian Walnut (Imbuia) top<br />

Neck: Maple with Zebrawood skunk stripe & custom black inlays. Asymmetric "C / V" profile, bolted-in (brass inserts)<br />

Scale Length: 25.5"<br />

Nut / Width: Bone / 41.3mm<br />

Fingerboard: Maple, compund 10" to 16" radius<br />

Frets: 21, Medium / Tall<br />

Hardware: Fidelity Guitars bridge, Mastery MV vibrato, Gotoh SD-91 "Magnum Lock" tuners<br />

String Spacing, Bridge: 52mm<br />

Electrics: Mojo Pickups Firebird-Sized Gold Foil (neck) & Humbucker-Sized Mojotron Blade (bridge), 4-way rotary<br />

pickup selector, master volume with treble bleed & master tone, Electrosocket jack<br />

Weight (kg / lb): 3.45 / 7.59<br />

Finish: Body: Olympic White over Shell Pink nitrocellulose, medium ageing. Neck: Tru-Oil<br />

Included Extras: Spider Cases aluminium shaped hardcase, Heistercamp leather / cotton webbing strap


Fidelity Guitars Prototype #8:<br />

Specifications:<br />

Model: Prototype #8<br />

Type: Double-cutaway chambered electric<br />

Body: Swamp Ash with Wenge top<br />

Neck: Allparts TMO-FAT Maple. Chunky "U" profile, bolted-in (brass inserts)<br />

Scale Length: 25.5"<br />

Nut / Width: Bone / 40.8mm<br />

Fingerboard: Maple, 9.5" radius<br />

Frets: 21, Medium / Tall<br />

Hardware: Mastery M7.1 bridge with brass saddles, Bigsby B5 vibrato tailpiece, Gotoh SD91 "Magnum Lock" tuners<br />

String Spacing, Bridge: 53mm<br />

Electrics: Mojo Pickups Charlie Christian (neck & bridge), 4-way rotary pickup selector, master volume & tone,<br />

Electrosocket jack<br />

Weight (kg / lb): 3.20 / 7.05<br />

Finish: Body: Satin nitrocellulose (top), White Blonde nitrocellulose (back), medium ageing. Neck: Tru-Oil over<br />

Vintage Tint nitrocellulose<br />

Included Extras: Spider Cases aluminium shaped hardcase, Heistercamp leather / cotton webbing strap


GRETSCH G6118T<br />

Players Edition Anniversary<br />

I have to say that over the last few<br />

months, if the idea of investing in a big<br />

old bodied Gretsch hasn’t quite kept me<br />

awake at night, it has maybe impinged<br />

upon my dreams a little.<br />

Who knew Cyndi Lauper could even play<br />

‘Summertime Blues?’<br />

Anyway, spending a few afternoons<br />

carefully working through as many as I<br />

can, I’ve come to the conclusion that the<br />

Players Edition models may well be the<br />

way to go, and so noticing that a new<br />

version of their Anniversary model was<br />

hitting the catwalk, this beauty certainly<br />

caught my eye, as did it’s pretty maple<br />

cousin, the Country Gentleman.<br />

From the top, the specification is<br />

faultless – all mod-cons, with the<br />

Silver/Azure two-tone finish being,<br />

quite frankly, gorgeous.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Bigsby is the string thru style which<br />

makes life simpler if you haven’t sussed<br />

such arcane things and I’ve always<br />

liked the High Sensitive Filter'Tron<br />

Pickups for when I’m getting my Billy<br />

Duffy on.<br />

Hopefully we’ll have a full review in the<br />

coming weeks, but so far it ticks a lot<br />

of my boxes. Nice.


GRETSCH G6122TFM<br />

Players Edition Country Gentleman<br />

Of course the only Gretsch that could be<br />

cooler than a single-cut, is a double cut,<br />

and the Country Gentleman has always<br />

been as good as it gets. Again, for me,<br />

the Players Edition versions are top notch<br />

and a perfect combination of the<br />

traditional and the practical tweaks that<br />

will make life simpler for the modern, err,<br />

country gent.<br />

I’m loving the ebony fretboard on this<br />

(the “Annie” has rosewood) but other<br />

than the flame on the top, outline apart<br />

there is little for me to choose between.<br />

Coming from a Cochran / Duffy / Setzer<br />

Rock kind of direction, the Annie<br />

probably gets it for me, but there is no<br />

denying that the Gent will give you just<br />

as much twang as anything else you<br />

could play, and the addition of the<br />

string-thru Bigsby and pinned bridge<br />

will certainly make life easier when you<br />

are getting into the reality of playing<br />

these guitars.<br />

Does this get me any further forward<br />

with my search for a fridge-sized<br />

guitar? I think it just might..


LEE RANALDO<br />

New Thing<br />

Well, it was only last week that I was<br />

getting all manner of excitable about a<br />

new Lee Ranaldo album in the Autumn,<br />

and beholden and low, he only goes and<br />

releases a new single from it along with a<br />

video for good measure.<br />

Best of all, from my deeply-loving-Galaxie<br />

500-perspective, original member of one<br />

of history’s most important bands, Naomi<br />

Yang directed the video.<br />

Speaking about the song, Ranaldo said,<br />

"I’ve described New Thing as ‘my song<br />

about the internet’ - about our thousands<br />

of ‘friends’ and the obsession with<br />

accumulating ‘likes’. When Naomi and I<br />

began discussing ideas for the video we<br />

knew we wanted to reference that<br />

subject matter but didn’t want to do so in<br />

any heavy-handed way. I told her I’d like<br />

to be a character of some sort rather than<br />

‘guy singing w guitar’ and she found<br />

‘Buster,’ as we dubbed the JVC 3100R<br />

“Television/Radio Pyramid Capsule Unit”<br />

on eBay. You wouldn’t believe what a<br />

cool old useless piece of outdated<br />

technology like that sells for these<br />

days!”<br />

Yang continues to explain,<br />

“We didn’t have to do anything more<br />

than hit the streets of New York to find<br />

the familiar scenario of everyone out<br />

and about glued to their screens. And<br />

so Lee, although he was carrying<br />

around a cumbersome vintage screen,<br />

was not so out of place. Some people<br />

noticed him, many did not at all. <strong>The</strong><br />

idea of a “New Thing” has another<br />

association for me. Lee and I actually<br />

first met all the way back in 1989 when<br />

I was in Galaxie 500 and he was in<br />

Sonic Youth – and I wanted to capture<br />

the personal nature and energy of his<br />

new projects while giving a nod to the<br />

past. In the video you can catch a<br />

glimpse of Lee’s paintings in his studio,<br />

of the Sonic Youth tape archive…and<br />

you can dive deep into the hypnotic<br />

sounds of his ‘New Thing’.”<br />

<strong>The</strong> new album ‘Electric Trim’ is<br />

released on the 15 th September by<br />

Mute, you can find out more HERE


DEERFUL<br />

Staying Still E.P<br />

Emma Winston, who is better known as<br />

Deerful, is wonderful. I think I’ll start with<br />

that. Wonderful, quirky (in-a-goodsense)<br />

and the writer and performer of<br />

some of the best pop music you will have<br />

heard in years.<br />

She has a new album out (which I am yet<br />

to explore) called ‘Peach’ (you can find it<br />

HERE) but over the last couple of weeks<br />

I have been playing catch-up, having<br />

bought a copy of her ‘Staying Still E.P’ on<br />

cassette which was released last year and<br />

had otherwise somehow passed me by.<br />

And I have to say that that is criminal, if<br />

you like proper pop music, and here I am<br />

thinking of Pop in the style of pre-SAW<br />

indie pop music – then Emma is definitely<br />

the girl for you. Recording in her bedroom<br />

or on the bus using small, old school, lofi,<br />

probably battery driven – yes, it would<br />

have to be battery driven, she is on a bus<br />

– synths, musically Emma is definitely in<br />

the Giorgio Moroder style rather than<br />

Kraftwerk-chilled as there is a joy always<br />

running under the surface of what she<br />

describes as ‘sad little pop songs’.<br />

Don’t get me wrong though, many bands<br />

and artists have proven (with their<br />

failure) just how hard it is to write that<br />

perfect pop song, and Emma’s music is<br />

experimental at times and goes way<br />

beyond what you would think the<br />

technology would stretch to. This is<br />

seriously clever music that toys with<br />

your feelings and constantly surprises.<br />

Vocally, you are probably expecting (I<br />

was probably expecting) something fey<br />

and dreampoppish, but quite the<br />

opposite was true. In fact Emma’s<br />

singing has a purity and strength to it<br />

that you rarely hear these days – no<br />

affectations or trilly bobbins, and no<br />

bluesy-Americana. Instead she places<br />

words in the perfect position within the<br />

mix and always delivers a faultless<br />

performance. She has a beautiful voice<br />

and an easy comparison would be<br />

Sarah Cracknell and Saint Etienne, Lilly<br />

Allen with a side order of Mary Poppins,<br />

as the next dollop of magic is only a<br />

delve in her Novation carpet bag away.<br />

Deerful, Emma, is somebody special<br />

and really worthy of your time, just be<br />

aware things may never quite be the<br />

same again once you are under her<br />

spell.<br />

Check Deerful on Bandcamp HERE


SIGHS<br />

Fiends E.P<br />

Over the last year, the regular reader of<br />

<strong>4.52am</strong> and Guitar Quarterly will have<br />

probably noticed that I am a bit keen on<br />

shoegaze/dreampop, and that I am<br />

always up for a trip down La Rue Memoire<br />

when it comes to C86 Indie. Neither of<br />

which particularly apply to the mighty<br />

Sighs, apart from that they are quite indie<br />

and at times sort of dreamy. What they<br />

aren’t though is predictable, as their<br />

‘Fiends’ E.P quickly shows you.<br />

Another Bandcamp masterpiece, ‘Fiends’<br />

and two other releases I’ll come back to<br />

another day, are the distillation of all<br />

things cool as far as I am concerned.<br />

Without wanting to pigeon hole what is a<br />

quite brilliant collection of songs, ‘Fiends’<br />

at times feels like the Boo Radleys (as in<br />

the real, ‘Giant Steps’ genius Boo<br />

Radleys, not the watered-down Chris<br />

Evans beloved ‘Wake Up Boo!’ fiasco<br />

version) being fronted by a Dear<br />

Catastrophe Waitress-energised Belle &<br />

Sebastian’s Stuart Murdoch, introducing<br />

the brass section from the Teardrop<br />

Explodes and singing a tripped out Jesus<br />

& Mary Chain cover.<br />

This is nothing if not evocative.<br />

From the start the E.P is a total joy to<br />

listen to, and the movement between<br />

the songs is seamless with each of the<br />

tracks painting its own picture and<br />

leaving you with a smile upon your face<br />

that is seemingly indelible.<br />

You will definitely hear more about<br />

Sighs, in <strong>4.52am</strong> and out in the real<br />

world, but until that, they are the type<br />

of band, artists, that you as a music<br />

lover should be supporting. So,<br />

whether you have a cassette player or<br />

not, go and give them some love over<br />

at Bandcamp HERE. Use them or lose<br />

them people, this is something too<br />

important to put on your ‘get around to<br />

it sometime’ list.


THE HAYMAN KUPA BAND<br />

Eponymous<br />

We talked a few weeks ago about the<br />

beautiful collection of duets, Darren<br />

Hayman and Emma Kupa recorded in<br />

three days in Ramsgate, and it’s release<br />

on Friday will hopefully see it gaining the<br />

recognition it deserved. In a way, the<br />

whole concept seemed meant to be as<br />

Darren explained,<br />

It’s only happened a few times but just<br />

once or twice I have seen someone on<br />

stage and thought, “I want to be in a<br />

band with them.” But I thought it the first<br />

time I saw Emma playing with her<br />

magnificent and under-rated band<br />

Standard Fare.<br />

I met her properly a little later in Sheffield<br />

when we played together. Before the gig<br />

I said I was suspicious of bands that wore<br />

hats. She wore a hat on stage.<br />

<strong>The</strong>y say imitation is a form of flattery<br />

and I was glad that I noticed when I<br />

wrote the song “Boy, Look at What you<br />

Can’t Have Now” that it sounded like the<br />

sort of thing Emma might write. I covered<br />

up my theft by asking her to sing on it.<br />

When we were recording the song I<br />

suggested that we should write a whole<br />

album of duets. Musicians suggest things<br />

like this all the time because they are<br />

stupid or drunk. A few months later<br />

Emma told me she had started writing the<br />

album. This is what Emma does; she says<br />

something then does it. I race to play<br />

catch up.<br />

<strong>The</strong> songs were written over three<br />

weekends at her house and mine. Cowriting<br />

is something I’m not used to.<br />

It’s very intimate and me and Emma<br />

became friends through the process.<br />

Emma’s lyrics are sharp and precise<br />

whereas mine are more metaphoric. It<br />

was lovely seeing how quickly we<br />

settled into something in between. We<br />

talked about relationships and that’s<br />

what the album is about. It’s about our<br />

fears and paranoias and the search for<br />

trust and love. We deliberately<br />

swapped lines and genders so the<br />

narrative is never truly that of<br />

traditional duets. I sing Emma’s lines<br />

often and she sings mine. It’s two<br />

voices singing the results of our<br />

conversations. We became close<br />

friends whilst writing these songs.”<br />

This is a truly special album, please do<br />

find out more HERE<br />

LIVE DATES:<br />

24 <strong>July</strong> - <strong>The</strong> Shacklewell Arms, London<br />

28-30 <strong>July</strong> - Indietracks Festival,<br />

Ripley, Derbyshire


PHOEBE BRIDGERS<br />

Motion Sickness<br />

Heralding the release of her debut album<br />

‘Stranger In <strong>The</strong> Alps’ in September, the<br />

ethereal and generally quite dreamy,<br />

Phoebe Bridgers releases a beautiful song<br />

in the shape of ‘Motion Sickness’, which<br />

really sets the scene quite nicely.<br />

<strong>The</strong> album itself is a beautiful collection<br />

of songs, deep on emotion and genuinely<br />

haunting; you really feel that Bridgers is<br />

serious about the music, this isn’t just a<br />

step in a career path, as she explains,<br />

“I wasn’t trying to be too lo-fi, too hi-fi,<br />

too self-serious, too disingenuous… I feel<br />

pretty confident that I’m finding my<br />

voice, I wanted the album to completely<br />

represent who I am and these songs are<br />

representative of what I set out to do.”<br />

This really is something quite special, and<br />

Phoebe will be in the UK for a short tour<br />

later this year (dates TBC).<br />

In the meantime, it is well worth preordering<br />

the album HERE and finding<br />

out more about Ms Bridgers THERE


TAPED: THE WOODENTOPS<br />

Giant<br />

Back in the mid-1980s, <strong>The</strong> Woodentops<br />

were one of those bands that you<br />

genuinely expected to go the whole way.<br />

Championed, like James, by the then<br />

omnipotent Morrissey in the music<br />

papers, Rolo McGinty sang and wrote the<br />

songs which went far beyond the usual<br />

strummy indieness of the time, and<br />

incorporated a variety of musical styles<br />

and instruments in a way very few other<br />

bands were risking.<br />

From the start they were never afraid to<br />

experiment, but their debut album,<br />

‘Giant’ suppressed this somewhat,<br />

distilling all that was good into a beautiful<br />

collection of songs. And this really is a<br />

wonderful album, artistic in the best of<br />

senses and whilst at times it was on the<br />

cusp of earnest, we (and he) never<br />

seemed to mind as the results were so<br />

cool.<br />

<strong>The</strong> band of course was never likely to<br />

stick to the formula of their critically<br />

acclaimed early success and I can<br />

remember being shocked when I heard<br />

their live album a couple of years later<br />

as it seemed as though it was played at<br />

double-the-speed of the original<br />

recordings. It was of course, but that<br />

was only one way that the band was<br />

evolving. In many ways the Stone<br />

Roses and Happy Mondays three years<br />

later claimed all of the credit for the<br />

Indie / Dance crossover of ‘Baggie’, but<br />

<strong>The</strong> Woodentops were way ahead of<br />

them with their Balearic tinted music<br />

filling dancefloors across Europe and<br />

the U.S whilst us monochrome indie<br />

kids were wondering WTF was going<br />

on.<br />

<strong>The</strong> Woodentops on record and live<br />

were an awesome band and in ‘Giant’<br />

they created one of the finest debut<br />

albums of the ‘80s. Sorely missed.


FEEDER<br />

Tumble and Fall<br />

This week, La Contessa goes back to her<br />

Welsh roots and chooses Newport’s<br />

finest, Feeder as her pick of the pops.<br />

Forming in 1992 the band are still going<br />

strong with a chameleon ability to change<br />

with the times always keeping them<br />

relevant if perhaps limiting the<br />

recognition that ploughing a single<br />

furrow could have brought them. In<br />

truth, so many other, lesser, bands have<br />

gone on to bigger things when in many<br />

ways Feeder have always had it all to<br />

give, but then how often do we hear<br />

that?<br />

A brilliant live band still making<br />

excellent albums, they are hardly<br />

begging for our pity.

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