MARCH 2010

Shaun Ryder

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wHeads UpNew month, New music

Last month we once again decamped to Norway for By:Larm Festival - here are just some of the highlights from a great week of new music.

RazikaNORWEGIAN FOUR piece Razika offer up a lightweight take on the riot-grrrl template.

Experimenting with the kind of poly-rhythmic guitars that we saw all over the fi rst Foals album, the girls throw in a few rudimentary punky numbers (including the crowd pleasing ‘Kommando’) to offer up a hopeful note for the future. They may not be the fi nished article just yet but there’s enough personality and cha-risma in this hybrid of Foals, Hole and the 5678’s to make them ones to watch.

myspace.com/razika

Mathias EickJAZZ MAY not be the trendiest genre as a rule but there’s JAZZ MAY not be the trendiest genre as a rule but there’s JAZZ MAYsomething pretty cool about Mathias Eick and his own brand of 21st century jazz.

With a live line up that numbers two drummers, an awe-some bassist and a keyboard to back up Eicks languid trumpet, the result is the kind of awkwardly disjointed jazz that saw Mr Yorke and co much feted around the release of Insomniac. Bouncing shards of fuzz bass off of a syncopated dual drum beat make for a beguiling mix of sound. All led by some absolutely beautiful soloing from Mr Eick there is something mesmerising about his aural concoction.

myspace.com/mathiaseick

The Megaphonic ThriftALREADY A fi rm favourite on the live scene over in Oslo, The Megaphonic Thrift are all chugging Kim Deal bass and Kevin Shields’ screeching walls of noise and don’t let up with an unrelenting blast of feedback driven rock.

To list a load of bands that have clearly infl uenced these guys would appear to be short changing their abili-ties, but lofty comparisons to the likes of Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr and My Bloody Valentine are unavoidable and also (hopefully) show the kind of league these guys are in... Seriously tight and devastatingly loud!

Our ears may be ringing but we fi rmly suggest you reach for the Anadin and get involved yourself at the fi rst possible chance!

myspace.com/megaphonicthrift

For A Minor Refl ectionTHERE IS a constant fl ow of amazing new music coming out of Ice-land on a seemingly daily basis.

For a Minor Refl ection are the latest painfully shy looking quartet to take to the road (with countrymen Sigur Ros for one) and indeed the infl uence of Jonsi and his band is impossible to deny as the band batter the audience with waves of epicness, squalling feedback and fractured melody lines fl ying out of distressed sounding guitars.

The lack of a vocalist is barely a problem when you consider the incredible musicianship and epically drawn out songs.

myspace.com/foraminorrefl ection

Susanne SundforWHO CALLS their fi rst single ‘The Brothel’?

Well Susanne Sundfor for one and ruddy excellent it is too! Somehow twisting jazz and post rock together in a way

that recalls yet sidesteps Radiohead’s attempts at the same thing, Susanne Sundfor stood out at By:Larm as a singer-songwriter to watch this year.

Syncopating dual drums, strings, loops, marimbas and lashings of Fender Rhodes abound throughout Sundfor’s catalogue - take new single ‘The Brothel’ as an example. A snaking vocal wriggles through insistent plinking rhodes to come off something like Liz Fraser covering The Postal Service, in a jazz bar – a, really, smoky jazz bar.

Surrounding herself with an intimidat-ingly good live band has clearly been Sundfor’s masterstroke, recreating even the most complex moments of the album without breaking a sweat but also breathing life into even the most stilted paranoid moment.

Wonderful!

susannesundfor.com

RazikaNORWEGIAN FOURup a lightweight take on the riot-grrrl template.

rhythmic guitars that we saw all over the fi rst Foals album, the girls throw in a few rudimentary punky numbers (including the crowd pleasing ‘Kommando’) to offer up a hopeful note for the future. They may not be the fi nished article just yet but there’s enough personality and cha-risma in this hybrid of Foals, Hole and the 5678’s to make them ones to watch.

The Good The BadDANISH BAND The Good The Bad offer a hotwired revamp of the highlights of rock ‘n’ roll’s past to conjure a demonic alternative soundtrack to a Tarrantino movie - all hyper fuzzed surf guitar and Rat Scabies drums.

That we are effectively dealing with an alternative version of the Shadows with Hank Marvin replaced by a pimp, two Bret Anderson lookalikes and an ungodly truckload of Amyl Nitrate and Ecstasy is the cause of no complaints here - the Danes are already a favourite on the European festival circuit. One of the bands of By:Larm hands down.

myspace.com/tgtb

Compiled by Ben Mainwaring. Edited by Chris Marks

For more than twenty years

(AKA Rochdale duo Sean Booth and Rob Brown) have been serving up their trademark electro-weirdness, and 22nd March will see the release of their tenth studio album, Oversteps.

There is familiarity here; the garbled, cryptic, and perhaps a little tongue in cheek, track names will be recognisable to even the casual Autechre fan, and the songs them-selves clearly display the attention to detail and depth that follower have come to expect.

However, compared to much of their work post-Untitled, this is more ambient and much less beat-driven, bringing to mind 1994’s Am-ber. Sean Booth, though, denies that this is deliberate.

“We didn’t really have a plan...we never really know where we’re going.” Instead he claims that this is just an accident of the way the pair work in the studio.

“We do a fair amount of tracks without a beat anyway, but we did more this time I think, or more that we wanted to release. It’s just a matter of the tracks that we liked most at the time really and wanted to put out.”

However, despite this relatively laid back attitude, Autechre are re-markably hard-working. The album isn’t even out yet and the band are already working on the live sets for their upcoming tour.

“With the live sets you have to have a little more intention,” says Booth, “because you have less time to do it and you make them for a specifi c purpose. I like to think of

the live stuff and the records as two different things. They’re like two separate threads that we’ve been working on since we started out, and we try to build on what we’ve done before.

“I like the live stuff because you get to hear it on a massive

soundsystem. I’d like to do that with the album stuff too but I don’t think there’s a club that would play our music.”

They’re making good progress

too; he reports that “in terms of ma-terial, we’re about half way through, but a lot of that is programming so we’re probably 80% fi nished in terms of effort.”

And after the tour?“We’ll probably take a break for

a bit and then do a few one-off

dates over the summer. Spend some time at home with family for a while and take the pressure off for a couple of months, because it’s hard to justify spending more

time with a drum machine than with your family, and then maybe go back to the studio nearer the end of the year and see where things go. It’s too early to talk about releasing anything though; this one hasn’t even come out yet.”

Continuing on the topic of the re-

lease, Sean adds: “About a month ago the label played the record to some industry types in a club. I really wish I’d been there because the speakers there are huge. I mean ours are pretty big but those are fucking massive.”

Booth is also very pleased with some of the critical reception to the new record.

“We usually don’t pay much at-tention to critics, but this time round it’s been really good. I’m a big fan of Paul Morley too so it was great that we got him to write the press release. Art of Noise are a big infl u-ence and we have a lot of respect for him, and it’s also really good to get an outsider’s perspective. I like it when we get compared to bands I haven’t even heard of, it’s nice to see where we fi t in culturally.”

Autechre’s place in pop culture is an odd one. They are arguably as important as contemporaries like Richard D. James and Tom Jenkinson of Squarepusher fame, but have a much lower profi le. They have been merging techno with a range of infl uences for nearly two decades and have never really achieved the fame of some of their peers, but this seems to suit them fi ne. In the end they seem to be two mates from Greater Manches-ter who just love doing what they’re doing, and with any luck they’ll continue for many years to come.

by David Biddle (Epigram)

For more than twenty years IDM pioneers Autechre (AKA Rochdale duo Sean

Booth and Rob Brown) have been serving up their trademark electro-weirdness, and 22nd March will see the release of their tenth studio

Autechre

BackGRAPE

Shaun Ryder, the man, the myth, the legend. Since his wild rollercoaster

of a career kicked off in the 1980’s with The Happy Mon-days, Shaun’s life has hardly seen a dull moment. Following a number of different musi-cal ventures, including several reincarnations of the Monday’s, second band Black Grape and collaborations throughout the years with successful artists like Gorillaz, on top of a 24 hour party lifestyle and a drug addic-tion, Ryder is still standing and is about to return once again with the second coming of band Black Grape, showcasing on the big stage of ‘Get Loaded in the Dark’ at the Coronet, London on April 1, the same event which once reincarnated Happy Mondays’. Ryder discussed his infl uences and his relationship with the event.

“The organiser, Danny New-man is a sound guy. The event in itself, it’s dead exciting! I prefer performing in London to a London crowd – much better than Manchester – you get too many people coming out of the wood work back there and it gets too mad!.”

Ryder, who had always been keen to revive Black Grape, told us of the long term plans for this to come into fruition.

“It’s something we always said we’d do – we never ended it, which was the same situation with the Happy Mondays. It’s something we have there to go back too and look forward to do-ing. I’m lucky in that sense”.

With the return of Black Grape’ coinciding alongside the release of a greatest hits album, some have questioned whether these are purely promotional tactics to make the album shift more units, Ryder denies these claims.

“It’s not for promotional rea-sons so we can all make a bit of money as people might think.

Even though we have got the Greatest Hits or whatever you want to call it being released, we are doing it because we always have a good laugh and it’s something we wanted to do”.

To reinforce this statement, when questioned about the future, Ryder even promises that

the band is due to release new material in the future.

“We have a new album lined up that is ready to be worked on, we just need to get in the studio to do it”.

The formation of Black Grape still includes two of the original members of the Happy Mon-

days. Ryder himself, and Bez, who lived through and expe-rienced the Factory Records days – the Manchester based independent label which cham-pioned acts of the late seventies early eighties. Ryder, ever the joker, recollects that time with a costly incident.

“I remember a time where I was sat on this dead expensive table hanging from the ceil-ing – think it was worth about £30,000-£40,000 back then – and it came crashing down with the roof. I found it absolutely hilarious! Don’t think anyone else did though.”

It is credit to Ryder’s talent as a songwriter and an artist, that he has achieved a body of work throughout the years to be compiled into an album of greatest hits calibre, with him achieving great success in all of his endeavours throughout the years through each of the pieces of work that he has put his hand to. It is through these success-ful times however that he has also been dogged by personal demons in his addiction to drugs. This, it’s fair to assume - is a key contributor in some of the crazi-est moments in his life, which he refl ects upon.

“There have been too many moments – but the most notable incident that always comes in to my head is having 15 car crashes in one trip to Barbados. Absolute madness.”

In 2004, this lifestyle was documented by the BBC in a one off documentary titled ‘Shaun Ryder: The Ecstasy and the Agony’ where Shaun was followed around for ten months in a fl y in the wall style glimpse at his life.

“That was life changing. Shaun told us in refl ection. “I’ve tried to sort myself out since then, clean up, stay out of court”.

Despite calming down some-what, Shaun still promises the big return gig in April will as highly charged as ever, and in the same fashion as fans have become accustomed to witness-ing from Black Grape in the past.

“This will be chaos! I guaran-tee a really good party - A typical Black Grape performance which means good music and good times.”

In a much anticipated return, Shaun Ryder is back... and he is bringing Black Grape with him. The band, who achieved a number one album in the 1990’s with It’s Great When You’re Straight...Yeah will be performing their fi rst gig in over twelve years at this year’s ‘Get Loaded in the Dark’ festival in London. Rob Dalling questioned him on the comeback.

MORE INTERVIEWS AT:

thenationalstudent.co.uk

With a mission statement centrally covering sex, death and football, if new release Romance Is Boring does nothing else for Los Campesinos!, it should fi nally put to rest the unwel-come ‘twee’ tag that’s dogged them since their saccharine, clamorous debut two years ago. Grave, and with a diminishing sense of geographical identity; the album focuses on fi gures drifting apart whilst living on the move, whether through the American South, Mexico or across the Alps and the Andes.

Along the way, relationships are enacted and dissolve in church pul-pits, on front lawns, on the road, by the sea. Gareth Campesinos! (each member adopts Campesinos! as their surname), the band’s singer, glock-enspiel player and emotional core relates the frustrations that inspired their work: “A lot of the record is about loneliness and separation and they are two things that are prevalent for me when on tour… it heavily af-fects the ability to live ‘a normal life’…and it makes it an impossibility (for me) to start a relationship”.

The (English) septet formed in Cardiff in 2006, sounding peppy, literate, and sweetly punk. With their fi rst

full-length Hold On Now, Youngster, full of off-beat rhythms and dense wordy interplay between Gareth and Aleks, the band were bursting with vitality and ideas. But despite all the giddy, skittering songs, there were always sad undercurrents present. A prime example was ‘Knee Deep At ATP’, where the sharp guitar solos are interspersed with a violin and Gareth beautifully documenting a boy’s discovery that his girlfriend cheated on him at the Butlins music festival. And while the stopgap We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed (an EP that infl ated to LP length) signifi ed a move into grievous territory for the band, Gareth’s lyrical lead set an altogether darker tone for RIB, with death creeping in and the characters often settling for lust over love. He admits the progression toward the album’s caustic tone was assured: “I’ve changed a lot since writing the lyrics to [Hold On Now, Youngster], which was written in the excitement of being in a band and skipping lectures to rehearse and play shows…it’s the experiences and emotions of the last few years that have doubtlessly led me to this point.”

All tracks on RIB are conceptually linked and form a loose narrative,

but the scenes are staggered, almost adhering to the cut-and-paste tech-nique. Tellingly, the album opens with ‘In Medias Res’, a soft song follow-ing a couple with their relationship in mid-fl ow, the narrator waking from a nightmare in a car’s backseat and realising things are probably too good to last. Gareth realises the album’s plot may be hard to follow: “I’ve convinced myself that if the album was listened to in a certain order…tells the story of one relationship from beginning to end. It does, I’m sure. Some songs veer closer to the narrative than others, but the events unfolding in each song are relevant to where things end.”

The scattered narrative is both an interesting ploy and a necessity, because the pace of RIB varies frantically. For every sharp, rousing song (‘There Are Listed Buildings’) or quick searing dose of punk (‘Plan A’), there’s a gentle interlude or hazy waltz (‘Heart Swells’ and ‘Who Fell Asleep In’ respectively) and the need to manage all these styles is clear: “This is the fi rst record we’ve made where we actually entered into writing songs knowing that there was going to be an album at the end of it. So we wrote songs considering how they’d

sit together on a record, and how they’d play a part in [both] the oral, and aural, story of the album.”

Lyrically, the cast of “maybe three” unnamed fi gures are mere outlines, their recurrence being intentionally opaque and easy to miss. But the occasional turn of phrase serves as a reminder of a character visited re-peatedly, fl oating in and out of focus, akin to those of The Sound And The Fury. So the girl nonchalantly dream-ing of a sea burial in ‘Who Fell Asleep In’ at the record’s mid-point re-enters with an eating disorder and fl ippantly toys with the idea of drowning herself in ‘The Sea Is A Good Place To Think Of The Future’, the album’s the-matic crescendo that overfl ows with melodrama. Death (or considerations of it) is persistent and pursues the cast despite the general assertion of their youth. Clearly, Gareth’s choice to work in a graveyard between tours doesn’t help to dispel his sense of mortality: “I think I write the songs and worries about death so that I don’t have to talk about them. I’d love to be in a mindset where I’m not plagued with morbid thoughts, I really would, but it’s a lot more diffi cult to write a happy song that people like…there’s much more of a consensus on

what sadness is, than what happi-ness is, so, really, writing a sad song is a lot more of a banker.”

And really, looming dread doesn’t seem so out of place when the central fi gures view human connec-tions so deplorably. If there was ever an embittered scene to represent the cold attitude of someone in a stale relationship, the title track surely has it: a lover too lazy to do favours in bed, to prove that the effort, ulti-mately, isn’t worth it. Yet in spite of the hardened approach to love and sex, that sad refl ection on the diffi cult search for permanency in connec-tions whilst living on the move keeps returning, and never better put than in ‘I Just Sighed. I Just Sighed, Just So You Know’, the album’s grandiose high point, where the longing for a lasting relationship is expounded in fi gure’s desire to keep track of the moles that’ll appear on the object of his affection. Finally though, as-suming ‘Coda’ rightfully bookends RIB’s tale, then lost opportunity is the conclusion; the characters on diverging paths, with no coincidence in their destinations. No-one wants to see that happen to partners, even when the results yield a statement as compelling as Romance Is Boring.

Gareth Campesinos! checks in with devoted fanboy Dylan Williams to discuss his new philosophy: Romance is BoringGareth Campesinos! checks in with devoted fanboy Dylan Williams to discuss his new philosophy: Romance is Boring

TWEE NO MORE!

IN 2001, Liars turned rock’n’roll inside out with their debut album, They Threw Us All in a Trench and Stuck a Monu-ment on Top. They grabbed listeners by the balls, balancing intoxicating rumbles of gut-wrenching guitars with their impeccable ear for infectious rhythms and demanding, commanding, squelches and screeches of vocals - all produced to replicate that feeling of being dragged by your hair backwards through barbed wire.

Over the course of eight-ish years, and four studio albums (Sisterworld is (Sisterworld is (Sisterworldtheir fi fth) there’s been one constant: the complete absence of sentiment. Somehow, something in this music makes sterility appealing.

Hearing the opening harmonies of ‘Scissor’, you’d be in-clined to disagree. The inherent beauty of the sounds implies emotional am-munition, from the Thom Yorke-esque wails and deep hums to the swelling string parts. However, even from its a cappella beginnings, it teeters on the edge. The melodies are uneasy, the lyrics reveal themselves gradually as darker and darker. Anyone familiar with their previous work is subconsciously aware of the imminent explosion. Just before two minutes, it hits. Fuzzy guitars, pounding drums. And then a return to the heavenly melodies, “I dragged her body to the parking lot.”

By the time you’ve decided to ignore

the humour in the lyrics and immerse yourself in the glowing production, the fuzz hits again. It’s easy enough to describe the sounds, unique as they are, but the feelings conveyed are entirely elusive. If it were ever possible to express an idea in the fi rst person without it being an opinion, Liars have achieved it. There is no personal stigma.

For that reason, the music is transcendent, the band enigmatic. It’s diffi cult to dwell on that during songs like ‘Scarecrows on a Killer Slant’, which demand complete loss of control (“AND THEN KILL EM ALL!”) or ‘Proud Evolution’ - Those cyclic beats! Those vocals! It’s diffi cult to think of this as a piece of music produced by a band.

Sisterworld becomes a journey, a Sisterworld becomes a journey, a Sisterworldsoundtrack. In any case, whatever it is that Liars do, here they do it best.

by Leah Pritchard (Epigram)

Reviews

More interviews and reviews at thenationalstudent.co.uk

LiarsSisterworld(Mute)

Hearing the opening

yourself in the glowing production, the fuzz hits again. It’s easy enough to describe the sounds, unique as they are, but the feelings conveyed are entirely elusive. If it were ever possible to express an idea in the fi rst person

33333

TWEE NO MORE!

AFTER A three year absence, le Sac and Pip have fi nally released a follow-up to the literate and wry Angles. Things have changed in the intervening period.

Most obviously, le Sac’s produc-tion has geared itself towards a more varied and dance-infl uenced sound (‘Sick Tonight’’s breakbeat romper, ‘Get Better’’s catchy Italodisco, and ‘The Beat’’s sudden dubstep implosion in its middle eight are particularly prominent examples). Scroobius Pip’s lyrics have changed too (notably, an increase in political content) and for about half of this release it works well, appearing conscientious and mature. The other half, though, tends towards the pat-ronising, with lead single ‘Get Better’ being as cringeworthy and preachy as suicide ballad ‘The Magician’s Assist-ant’ on the debut. Similarly, ‘Stake A Claim’ borders on the cod-revolutionary uprising wankery that you’d be entitled to expect from Zack de la Rocha or Matt Bellamy.

Luckily this is countered by other lyrical developments. Pip’s storytelling has come a long way since the debut, and luckily it tends to have a bigger part here. The domestic abuse ballad ‘Five Minutes’ is sensitively handled and emotionally complex, and the light hearted tracks ‘Snob’ and ‘Last Train Home’ are amusing and engaging. Best of all, though, is fi nale ‘Cowboi’ Best of all, though, is fi nale ‘Cowboi’ which features Bristol’s own Kid Car-which features Bristol’s own Kid Car-pet, putting to rest the album’s themes pet, putting to rest the album’s themes

of urban decay and concern about cultural identity with a darkly comic tale of stiff upper lip and strength in the face of adversity. Witty, intelligent moments like this make ...Logic worthwhile.

Scroobius Pip is gifted at wedging his tongue fi rmly in cheek, and making the listener warm to him. This charm, by some miracle, gets him off the hook for even his biggest indiscretions (i.e. ‘Get Better’) and manages to pull this record off in a way most artists couldn’t.

Criticising the album’s transgres-sions would be missing the point, because if it’s given a chance this will be one of the most rewarding listens this year. To paraphrase Pip: “Good god, damn, and other such phrases, you haven’t heard a record like this in ages.”

by David Biddle (Epigram)

Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip The Logic Of Chance(Sunday Best) 333

AMERICAN GONGAMERICAN GONG starts with the aptly titled ‘Repulsion’, whose vicious guitars titled ‘Repulsion’, whose vicious guitars moan like jet engines, a less than gentle moan like jet engines, a less than gentle reminder that Quasi’s signature Rocksi-reminder that Quasi’s signature Rocksi-chord is out and the addition of bassist chord is out and the addition of bassist Joanna Bolme has not only fi lled out the Joanna Bolme has not only fi lled out the low end, but brought with it an entirely new aesthetic.

Even considering Quasi’s incred-ible back-catalogue of work, you’re left wondering in that moment how they ever managed as a duo. Their essence still remains though, with the powerhouse of Janet Weiss on drums, and Sam Coomes, whose usual modest heartfelt murmurs, despite his best efforts, never become self-pitying. For that reason, his music is always hopeful, and as he shouts “Rise up!” on ‘Now What’, they’re sud-denly words you’ve never heard before- instead, all that’s conveyed is the desire to

surrender to his every command. For those longing for a return from the

over-produced, overly comfortable music of recent times, Quasi’s sound is just the ticket.

by Leah Pritchard (Epigram)

QuasiAmerican Gong(Domino)

rhythms and demanding, commanding, squelches and screeches of vocals - all produced to replicate that feeling of being dragged by your hair backwards through barbed wire.

Over the course of eight-ish years,

333

IT’S FITTING for this Danish band to be so stylistically rooted in the Nordic concept of beauty. The marriage of masculine and feminine vocals provides a delicate naivety that contrasts with the regimented drumbeats and synth lines made so thrilling by the crystal-clear mixing of the tracks. Whereas Parades was an engaging piece of orchestral post-rock experimentation, this is a simpler affair, employing more conventional Indie song structures and limited instrumentation. In the words

of new label 4AD, the shift supposedly makes a more ‘organic’ and ‘close-knit affair’. Remove such phrases and the question of whether the band is sacrifi c-ing originality for main-stream popularity becomes justifi ed.

Efterklang may be attempting to reach a larger audience, but they have by no means sold out. Any attempt to bring the musical texture of Efterklang’s music to a wider audience must be commended, even if it feels a little safe.

by Tom Rudrum (Epigram)

EfterklangMagic Chairs(4ad)

of new label 4AD, the shift supposedly makes a more ‘organic’ and ‘close-knit

333

ON HIS debut release as Toro y Moi, Chaz Bundick (formerly of The Heist and The Accomplice) places himself alongside Neon Indian and Washed Out by pairing day-glo synths with a sunny lo-fi aesthetic. sunny lo-fi aesthetic.

He joins a recent stream of bedroom He joins a recent stream of bedroom producers (armed only with their producers (armed only with their laptops and worn out copies of Purple laptops and worn out copies of Purple Rain) who are doing battle with those Rain) who are doing battle with those who think 80s revival should be an who think 80s revival should be an intolerably bleak affair. Opener and lead-single ‘Blessa’ ploughs the same hazy drug-fi lled veins as Panda Bear; matching crunching beats with a reverb drenched guitar line and saccharine vocal harmonies.

Elsewhere, ‘Thanks Vision’ joins the dots between Flying Lotus, Dâm-Funk and Animal Collective with predictably sunny results. Causers of This seeps out the speakers in streams of colours

and while its anything-goes psychedelic collage seems overwhelming at fi rst, it’s the solid vocal hooks that’ll secure

it some mileage in the end-of-year columns.

by Miles Opland (Epigram)

Toro Y Moi Causers Of This(Car Park)

ON HIS debut release as Toro y Moi,

3333

makes sterility appealing. By the time you’ve decided to ignore

Toro Y Moi

IN 2001out with their debut album, Us All in a Trench and Stuck a Monu-ment on Topby the balls, balancing intoxicating rumbles of gut-wrenching guitars with their impeccable ear for infectious

and four studio albums their fi fth) there’s been one constant: the complete absence of sentiment. Somehow, something in this music makes sterility appealing.

LiarsSisterworld(Mute)

cultural identity with a darkly comic tale of stiff upper lip and strength in the face

by some miracle, gets him off the hook

by David Biddle (Epigram)

(Epigram)

rhythms and demanding, commanding, squelches and screeches of vocals - all produced to replicate that feeling of being dragged by your hair backwards through barbed wire.

question of whether the band is sacrifi c-ing originality for main-stream popularity

bring the musical texture of Efterklang’s

commended, even if it feels a little safe. by Tom Rudrum (Epigram)

ON HISChaz Bundick (formerly of The Heist and The Accomplice) places himself alongside Neon Indian and Washed Out by pairing day-glo synths with a sunny lo-fi aesthetic. sunny lo-fi aesthetic.

producers (armed only with their laptops and worn out copies of Purple Rain) who are doing battle with those who think 80s revival should be an who think 80s revival should be an intolerably bleak affair. Opener and lead-single ‘Blessa’ ploughs the same hazy drug-fi lled veins as Panda Bear; matching crunching beats with a reverb drenched guitar line and saccharine vocal harmonies.

dots between Flying Lotus, Dâm-Funk and Animal Collective with predictably sunny results. Causers of This seeps out the speakers in streams of colours

Toro Y Moi Causers Of This(Car Park)

ON HIS

makes sterility appealing.

Toro Y Moi

IT WAS inevitable that the master of the modern cinematic fairy-tale would tackle Lewis Carol’s classic mad-cap children’s tale. The imagery of Wonder-land could have been created for Tim Burton to translate to the screen, and expectations are high for this continua-tion of Alice’s adventures.

Following a 19-year-old Alice, who has all but forgotten her previous visit to

Wonderland (weirdly called ‘Underland’ by the inhabitants), as she returns to free her old friends from the evil tyranny of the Red Queen, Burton’s adaptation sticks largely to the original story.

Whilst Burton’s post-modern mish-mash vision of Wonderland would likely be more to Carrol’s liking than the sugary-sweet Disney animated original it still feels a little conventional. Those wanting a Burton-esque delve in to twisted, gothic darkness may feel short-changed by what is essentially a predictable take on the tale.

Unlike, say, the horrifying take on Oz in Return to Oz there is no real sugges- Return to Oz there is no real sugges- Return to Oztion that these fantasy worlds can also be scary places to fi nd yourself in. Even the evil Red Queen (brilliantly portrayed by Helena Bonham-Carter) is a cartoon-ish, humorous foe.

Regardless Burton is a brilliant visual artist, and this is where he truly deliv-ers. The creepy fantasy landscapes of ‘Underland’ simply jump from the screen (with or without 3D) and it is the perfect visual advertisement for the wonders of cinema.

But the over-zealous use of CGI produces a claustrophobic, often lifeless ambience that left me a little cold - when the story is all about fantastical warmth.

In particular the computer-enhanced characters fall-short as much as they succeed - for the brilliance of the Red Queen we are affronted by the clunky

Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee. The look of the tubby-twosome seriously di-minishes the likeability of their eccentric, nonsensical banter – despite Matt Lucas being perfectly cast in both roles.

In fact the casting is fl awless through-out. Mia Wasikowska is a perfect Alice, whilst Johnny Depp puts in a truly con-vincing turn as the Mad Hatter and each and every character is brilliantly fl eshed out by quality performances.

Alice in Wonderland is a fl awed but Alice in Wonderland is a fl awed but Alice in Wonderlandenjoyable take on a classic. It’s visual prowess makes it a decent cinematic experience, just don’t sit-down expect-ing anything challenging or original.

A feast for the eyes but not the brain, Alice in Wonderland is a perfectly ac-Alice in Wonderland is a perfectly ac-Alice in Wonderlandceptable family fi lm.

by Chris Marks

EXACTLY 12 months ago, I made my fi rst trip to Norway for the By:Larm festival and discovered a veritable treasure trove of incredible music. Much of it has been covered since on the new music blog (theheadsupblog.blogspot.com in case you still haven’t clocked on!) and so we were very excited to be heading back there this year.

Expectations were high after such an incredible weekend last year and de-spite the bruised wallets and broken arms I am very pleased to report that the class of 2010 didn’t disappoint.

Leaning heavily (for obvious reasons) on Norwegian acts for the bulk of the line up, it was somewhat surprising to fi nd much of our early forays into the snow dominated by Danes. The River Phoenix, for one, blew everyone in the Kongressentre back into the snow with a blistering half hour set of post rock anthems – all skuzzy bass and jagged guitar lines – while elsewhere trippy pysch-poppers Oh No Ono and the much feted Efterklang both cause ripples of hype that are everywhere by the end of the weekend.

Feeling the need to go native for a while we head back out and see a wonderfully smile inducing set of trumpet led jazz from Mathias Eick whos dual drumming line-up produce the kind of wonky jazz that got us all so excited about Amnesiac while lo-cal Riot Girrrls Razika blast through a quirky set of girly punk.

Cramming into a tiny basement venue to see The Little Hands of Asphalt saw us get good and fondled by all manner of burly Nordic types before The Megaphonic Thrift made their bid for “set of the festival” with half an hour of blistering MBV tinged noise – feedback wailing over some massively Kim Deal–esque basslines shaking the venue to the core.

Feeling the need to fi nd something a little more soothing on the ears we were very happy to fi nish the night watching Susanne Sundfor charm the pants off of Sentrum Scene with an intricately constructed set of jazz tinged, singer-songwriter fare – the insistent chiming Rhodes that carries new single ‘Brothel’ for one standing out as a jaw dropping moment as the room sways and swoons in time with the languid arpeggios skipping from Sundfor’s Piano.

As Friday evening beckoned us back out into temperatures well below freezing (indeed Saturday saw us braving minus 19 at one point – thus freezing the beard on my face) we kick off the evening with the hotly-tipped indie double header of Monzano and CCTV who both put in nicely judged sets of indie-pop, drawing heavily on a lot of British indie (Belle and Sebastian for the former, Stone Roses for the latter) to get Revolver dancing, after local girl Solvor Vermeer has bathed the room in a sepia tinged melancholy – swathes of mournful cello and angelic swoons abound – while elsewhere on

the other side of town, Kook-popster Ingrid Olava conjures up shades of Regina Spektor and Kate Bush over at Folkteatre with a nerve tingling set of piano led jazz pop – all swooning strings and delicately constructed tapestries of sound.

In the same venue although vastly different in tone we feel very native watching Alit Boazu – translated as “Blue Reindeer” the guys turn in a set of heavy Rammstein tinged rock

made all the quirkier for them singing in Sami – a regional dialect from the dead north of the country.

Following a hot local tip we head to the most crowded bar in the world (seriously – at one point I lifted both feet off the fl oor and remained upright!) for a seriously underwhelm-ing set from Montee; all disco guitars and handclaps before rounding off the night with another Danish export The Good The Bad, whos blistering mix of surf, punk and rock and roll instrumentals seems like not only the alternative soundtrack to a Tarrantino movie but also the perfect way to end the evening.

With sleep deprivation taking its toll

and the temperatures plummeting ever lower, the key to Saturday is to just keep moving and so it was that we crammed an insane amount of bands into one night leaving us feel-ing slightly bruised for the encounter!

Icelandic four piece For A Minor Refl ection pummel The Garage into submission under waves of delayed guitars and booming feedback throughout an epic set of post rock, the band have toured with Sigur

Ros in the past and Jonsis shadow looms long over what is an interest-ing if brain stupefying loud set. Later on In the same venue hotly tipped festival favourites The New Wine get the room moving with a hook heavy set of MGMT tinged dancey pop, before Thom Hell charms a packed Samfunsallen with a nicely judged set of country tinged pop. That his jokes didn’t translate too well (via our local friends showing us round) didn’t matter too much as a set of Wilco-y goodness leaves us feeling really rather lovely.

Having missed pretty much all of Efterklang on Thursday, we made a determined bid to catch some more of the band that have caused so

much hype all weekend only to fi nd the band hopelessly unable to match it – within two songs, their terminally slow brand of indie tinged electronica leaves us feeling cold and so we head to catch Children and Corpse. Playing in street they turn in a quirky half-an-hour of casio led pop that is as wonky as it is loveable and puts a grin fi rmly back in place.

Scampering back to the hotel amid biblical snow our heads our heads

may be ringing but they’ve certainly been turned by dozens of incredible acts during the week. Indeed while the continued feeding frenzy around British festivals seems to have given the likes of Mean Fiddler a license to fi ll their bills with identikit lineups and massive bores, its been a refresh-ing week to fi nd so many unknown gems lurking around every corner and points to a very bright 2010 for Norwegian music in general.

Its been a pleasure as ever Oslo. See you next year.

From Norway with Love

by Ben Mainwaring

Alice in WonderlandDirector: Tim BurtonCast: Mia Wasikowska, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham-Carter

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The River Phoenix