Issue 106 / Dec 2019/Jan 2020

New Music + Creative Culture
Liverpool
Issue 106 / Dec 2019/Jan 2020
bidolito.co.uk
Second Floor
The Merchant
40-42 Slater Street
Liverpool L1 4BX
Founding Editor
Craig G Pennington - info@bidolito.co.uk
Publisher
Christopher Torpey - chris@bidolito.co.uk
Editor
Elliot Ryder - elliot@bidolito.co.uk
Digital Media Manager
Brit Williams – brit@bidolito.co.uk
Design
Mark McKellier - mark@andmark.co.uk
Branding
Thom Isom - hello@thomisom.com
Proofreader
Nathaniel Cramp
Cover Photography
Robin Clewley
Words
Elliot Ryder, Cath Holland, Christopher Torpey, Julia
Johnson, Neil Grant, Simon Hughes, Sam Turner,
Paul Fitzgerald, Bethany Garrett, Laura Brown, Chris
Brown, Damon Fairclough, Rhys Buchanan, Matthew
Hogarth, Anouska Liat, Joel Durksen, Sophie Shields,
Daniel Ponzini, Georgia Turnbull, Rhys Thomas, Jennie
Macaulay, Glyn Akroyd, David Weir, Nina Franklin,
James Zaremba, Matthew Thomas Smith, Imtiaz
Dharker.
Photography, Illustration and Layout
Mark McKellier, Robin Clewley, Keith Ainsworth,
Antony Mo, Lo Five, Mr Marbles, Daniel Patlán, Ryan
Lee Turton, Luke Parry, Lucia Matušíková, Lauren Avery,
Lucy Roberts, Jemma Timberlake, Niloo Sharifi, Tomas
Adam, Stuart Moulding, Mook Loxley, Glyn Akroyd,
Brian Sayle, John Johnson, Nicholas Daly.
EDITORIAL
The end of the decade doesn’t feel too different to when
it began. Protest. Helplessness. Reality.
Of all the changes brought about by David
Cameron and Nick Clegg in five bitter years, raising
tuition fees is probably the least
devastating when you weigh the receipts
up against the body count. But, for me,
it was the first moment in my life where
I’d been directly affected by a democracy
I wasn’t old enough to influence. A
democracy where I’d eventually be
granted four votes on a national scale
before the decade was out. Three of
which I’d be on the losing side. The fourth
is still in the phase of protest. It’ll switch
to helplessness on the evening of 12th
December. The early hours that follow
deliver the reality.
Being told that I would be the first
cohort to pay tripled tuition fees was the
most forcible lesson I’d had of ‘getting
what you’re given’. It was a mantra that
typified much of those first five years of
the decade. Tuition fees were just the first
incision, the entry point before many vital organs of society were
removed. So many more were to get what they were given, not
what they deserved. All with much more severe consequences
than carrying inflated university debt. Many protested. We
looked on helpless. Then we saw the reality. Austerity bred the
chaos that unravelled in the five years that followed. When you
push a community to breaking point it will start to point fingers
within. Then the irreparable damage is done.
FEATURES
“Bravery will always
have a home in
Bido Lito! for the
decade to come”
Bravery is the key. It’s the source of power the assumes
control without reason. For 10 years, Bido Lito! has been a
chronicle of bravery, platforming/celebrating/holding up those
who choose to assert themselves through music and art. Those
who’ve taken control of their situation,
those who’ve completely lost themselves
in it. It takes an unrivalled bravery to
formulate a public facing expression of
protest, of helplessness, of reality, of
escape.
This issue, like the 105 that have
run through the decade, is packed full of
bravery. Bravery is Beija Flo’s expression
of physicality and the world that exists
beyond the limitation of form. Bravery
is ASOK following emotive intuition;
equally for Lo Five in the spiritual sense.
As noted by Simon Hughes, bravery
is taking ownership of addiction and
seeing that circumstances can be
reversed. This in particular is something
to take note of when feeling the strains
of the political climate, the world beyond
the socialist bubble of Liverpool.
Bravery is taking back control of language, of image, of
expression. Taking it away from those who’ve weaponised its
use. Bravery will always have a home in Bido Lito! for the decade
to come. This won’t change. But, on 12th December? Let’s hope
it’s a time for real change. !
Editor
Elliot Ryder / @elliot_ryder
Photo by Robin Clewley
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The views expressed in Bido Lito! are those of the
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publishers. All rights reserved.
16 / BEIJA FLO
Beija Flo’s experimental artistry is boldly laid bare in her new
material; Cath Holland learns more about its subtle contours.
20 / ASOK
Breathless breakbeats and warped techno that drip with the
energy of club walls; ASOK on the notion of making music in the
moment.
22 / ART AS CONVENIENCE
Since opening at Birkenhead Market in June, Convenience Gallery
has been working to rub away the divide between the everyday
and the artist.
26 / THERE SHE GOES AGAIN
Social history writer and football journalist Simon Hughes looks
back at Liverpool’s progression over the last 10 years.
REGULARS
14 / NEWS
34 / SPOTLIGHT
40 / PREVIEWS
24 / GEOGRAPHY OF THE ABYSS
Electronicist Lo Five navigates us through the terrain of his latest
album, a world conjured from meditation and internal discovery.
30 / A DECADE OF
EXCLAMATION
A selection of Bido Lito! writers pick out some of the most
important cultural moments to have taken place in Liverpool over
the past decade.
37 / BEAK>
Constantly sharpening the edges of their three-sided setup,
these masters of sonic immersion know how to keep it sounding
fresh.
39 / STUDIO ELECTROPHONIQUE
“The intention for my music was to make it underthought:
straight from my brain to the machine. I wanted to do it in the
now”
42 / REVIEWS
52 / ARTISTIC LICENCE
54 / THE FINAL SAY