On one of the coldest nights of winter so far, it was up to The XX to turn up the heat for Wolves Civic patrons despite the band’s reputation for being one of the coolest UK acts of recent years. Since that career-altering night in 2010 when they picked up the coveted Mercury Music Prize, the trio have been on an upward trajectory home and away; their music, a hypnotic synthesis of dreamy indie, skittering beats and effortless soul, has soundtracked all your favourite TV shows, been sampled by Rihanna, headed up festival stages and, in keeping with the band members’ avoidance of the limelight, unassumedly made its mark without ever resorting to cheap gimmickry.

Therefore, their first live show in Wolverhampton certainly piqued the interest of the area’s devoted music fans. Looking like every payday is spent raiding Urban Outfitters (highlighting the band’s appeal to a particular generation), the crowd were joined in their reverence as soon as the first chord was struck and Romy, the ‘girl’ part of the ‘boy, boy, girl’ equation, eased us in with her distinct honeyed vocal on ‘Angels’. Male lead Oliver’s vocal announced itself by intertwining with Romy on ‘Heart Skipped a Beat’, while the undeniable talents of beat-maker and percussionist Jamie became more and more of a coup as the show progressed.

It’s this balance of elements, layering the music while always making space for sparsity, that marks the band out in this post-MTV age of garish excess. The songs from new album ‘Coexist’ complement the debut, choosing to position Romy and Oliver’s heart-skip voices against soundscapes consisting primarily of reverb-heavy guitar lines, shuddering attacks of speaker-threatening bass, and Jamie’s brand of considered beat wizardry. It was the latter that, during the likes of ‘Swept Away’, actually threatened to turn the gig into an XX-branded rave, flashing lights breaking up the act’s exacting monochrome and causing – oh my! – hands in the air amongst the feet-shuffling audience.

It was moments like this that really showcased the band’s strength as a live band, when so many could write them off as music to soundtrack after-dark bedroom comedowns. However, it’s fascinating to watch the tightrope being walked, Jamie moving between synth and decks while either Romy, Oliver or both take centre stage as each song requires. A back-to-back of ‘VCR’ (the hipster’s choice for first dance at wedding, surely?) and ‘Islands’ proved a highlight for a crowd well-versed in the first album, as did an extended play of ‘Infinity’ which winked across the room at Chris Isaak inspiration ‘Wicked Games’ by inserting a couple of lines from that woozy nineties classic; however, the new stuff also held its own and, by the time the band’s centrepiece plexiglass X was eventually unveiled at the gig’s climax (unveiled in an understated way, of course – no gimmicks, remember?), the slow burn of ‘Coexist’s treasures will have doubtless convinced the gathered fans here to come back for more whenever the band themselves return to the Midlands.



Luke McNaney

“I’ve sought inspiration from the things I love, family holidays in Europe, iconic fifties pin ups and classic vintage shapes”, says Daisy.

And with none of the pieces on sale for more than £18, they’re not only lovely but affordable, too. The swimwear, Daisy assures, had to be of a price that her friends could afford.

Another perk is the mix and match top/bottom option: they’re sold as separate entities so that you can choose two pieces that fit you perfectly. The collection will be sold online and in Peacocks stores nationwide.

SH

Imagine Robert Wyatt’s phrasing and isolation in ‘Shipbuilding’ and you get some idea. The set ended with what he described as a bit of a shorter jam than usual because we’d been so polite as to listen to him. Essentially it imploded with apocalyptic de-tuned, atonal multi-pedal mayhem. The lyrics were moodily Gothic. ‘The End’ was an inevitable comparison. What his full band line-up get up to we await in trembling anticipation – 2011.

The Glee Club deserved its title on this bitter, early Winter’s, evening with a warm reception at the box office and even the doorman anxious to get us in out of the cold. The audience were likewise disposed, not reverential but certainly attuned to the ambience.

Paul Smith (yes, Maximo Park, that one) is a self-effacing performer, his song-writing is introspective, heart-on-sleeve candid, but not indulgent; reflective but never maudlin. (Though some album critics have claimed the latter, particularly with ‘Strange Friction’). Literary, with contemporary Pop subtle nuances and empathic sensibilities: melancholic and ambiguous? Perhaps. His is a craft that reminds this reviewer, at least, of those more innocent days of quintessentially English compositions from the likes of Martin Stephenson & The Daintees, Stephen Duffy’s Lilac Time and Prefab Sprout.

The performance drew principally on songs from Smith’s 2010 album, ‘Margins’ through out which his engagement with the audience was warm, effusive and inclusive. Likewise, they were affectionate in their forgiveness when he fluffed a couple of songs. Crafty stage ruse that, Paul, show your venerability and they cuddle you all up.

I’m bidden to say that his voice has echoes of, but with far less vibrato, early Brian Ferry (the North East lilt?) and drawing the comparison further, the intelligent use of counter-beat rhythmic arrangements and shifting time signatures together with the ethereal keyboard harmonies, had suggestions of Roxy Music. Some songs saw Smith really exposed, his breathing, pauses, sense of moment complimented and emphasised the fragile context of the song’s narrative, no more so that with ‘I Drew You Sleeping’. His talent is to distill the every day ephemera, the ebb and flow of relationships and expose the essence of the human condition: albeit cryptically at times.

But they could party though with the rice-wine heady, calypso swinging ‘This Heat’, or as Smith would have it, his Kiora rhythm song. Much more but too little space to elaborate. The encore broke with convention with Smith going solo. Well, he did the evocative ‘Pinballs’ with drummer/producer, Andy Hodson, on ukulele, and closed with a medley including ‘I Lost My Head/Apply Some Pressure’. A charming evening.

Stage set list: While,North Atlantic Dream, Crush, Improvement/Denouement, Alone, Strange Friction, I Wonder if, This Heat, A Little Lost, Drew You Sleeping, Tingles, Dare Not Drive, Our Lady Of Lourdes, Pinballs, Everybody Hurts. (improv medley).

Review – John Kennedy
Photos – Katja Ogrin

Drummer Julian Dorio said, “It’s an honour that they asked us to come open for them. We’re really excited. We love them, they’re dear friends, and they have done so much for us.”
The band admitted that after their show in June with Kings of Leon at Hyde Park, they’re not used to being surrounded by the glitz and glamour that success brings.

Julian said, “All the famous celebrities that show up are pretty amazing. Watching the show and you turn around and see Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow or someone like that, it’s not what we’re used to seeing every day.
“They’re on top of the world right now and it’s really cool to be a part of it watching on the sidelines. It’s really fun going out with them and hanging out, and they really take care of their openers.”

Even though they took the band name from the political party, the decision wasn’t political.
When singer Parker Gispert and Julian started the band along with former member Hank Sullivant they were in college. They just wanted to play their first show. They weren’t sure whether it would stick, and thought they could just change it if they wanted to, but after their first show the name stuck and that was the end of it.

Julian said, “We just wanted a name that was unique and didn’t make you think about anything musically. We wanted something that was neutral.”
The rock trio have just taken a couple of weeks’ break in November to recharge their batteries after an eight-month stint of solid touring in America for their new album In The Dark.

Julian said, “The first song on the album is called Hundred Millions. We play a lot of songs with a high energy, and this one has a lot of high energy but it has a different kind of beat. It’s a bit of a change of pace for me so at the minute I’m really enjoying playing that one.”

The band is due to play at the NIA on December 16th and 17th, and In The Dark is due to be released on Monday January 24th.

James Drakeford

For Ian Astbury, The Cult has something of the power of a cult; not a homogenising hippy-ish commune, with robes and hidden sexual practices (although that sounds like a cracking basis for any rock-troupe), I really just mean that he’s seemingly been unable to leave – name changes, two reunions and tens of members later he’s still creating.

The band’s forthcoming tour (Wolverhampton Civic Hall on 26th January) gives Midland fans a slim window of opportunity to snatch and reprogram the singer – should you want to. But if you’re happy to see the mystic-rock continue for another 25 years, then you don’t need to do anything – except go along and hear the (pretty stunning) new material.

Last time The Cult played live was in support of the remastered Love album, doing the increasingly fashionable play-the-whole-of-an-old-album thing, including a huge show at the Albert Hall with former members turning up for the encore. Fans were ecstatic, but Astbury? Not quite so much.

“The Love Live tour was from Billy [Duffy, the other main Cult-ist] … He wanted to do something to celebrate the album and we’d missed the 20th anniversary so it was 25 years. I’m not a fan of nostalgia or anniversaries so I compromised with him, and all he wanted to do was play the Albert Hall. Then it just grew from there into a world tour. I’d sort of acquiesced, but it worked out really well.

“It was strange … Mark Brzezicki I hadn’t seen since we’d made the record and Jamie [Stewart] usually turns up if we’re playing some shows in the UK but I rarely speak to him. You get to rediscover things, songs feel like old sketches … we’ve been playing ‘White’ from Ceremony – which I don’t think was one of our better records – and it’s become a really important part of our set. It has so much more guts.”

Not being a Cult completist, I’d been listening to the back catalogue on Spotify before talking to Ian; I could feel the lineage of that crisp chiming guitar and Ian’s vocals (making him sound never less than the heir to Jim Morrison that he briefly became) across the albums. When they get everything right at once, it’s epic in all the right ways.

Ian Astbury isn’t a man bothered by the forward march of technology, however. Driving through the early morning on the way to Michigan he’s reading Area on his iPad and planning different ways to make music.

“Pre-internet, pre-new formats, pre-iTunes older artists can get entrenched in a way of doing things: tour, album, tour, album. It drives the way you create. Writing a single for the radio? It doesn’t really exist anymore, it’s a dead format.

“The bands that are really important are what I call the ‘wilderness bands’; it’s happening in the wilderness, on the fringes.

“Billy and I are from the North-West, but we came up through Brixton doing shows. Punk was incredibly important, it touched everybody … but that’s all gone. Maybe we wouldn’t have made the Love album if we’d had computers, there may not have been that need to escape.

“We came up with the idea of the Capsule, something a lot fresher – writing songs and releasing them as we go along. The idea of sitting in a studio for a year and a half chiselling out an album for a commercial market is something we just don’t subscribe to anymore. We don’t even have a record company.

“The 21st century is a level playing field. Here’s the wonderful thing – I’m sitting on a bus driving from Cleveland to Grand Rapids and I’m looking at Area online, being exposed to artists in the Midlands. It doesn’t matter where you are, you have access to information. It’s all down to what you – what creative people – choose to do with it.

“Tony Iommi [Ian worked on his recent solo album] is rapidly becoming the poster boy for the 21st century … Black Sabbath were for real. Black Sabbath Volume 4 is one of best pieces of work ever; I’d like to see an exhibit devoted purely to Black Sabbath Vol 4 … I get excited when I hear it.”

The Capsule is a single, of sorts, and more besides – each one has a lead track, live and other music and a film, produced by Astbury himself, and is available to download or as increasingly lavishly packaged CDs and collectors’ editions. It’s making the most of what you’ve got, and the most of the “true fans” who will still pay for music these days.

I get the feeling that Ian Astbury is happy with the way his life and art work at the moment. He’s relaxed and enjoying not only the extra freedom of not being forced to create to a schedule, but just freedom in general.

“The Cult have been going for years, and we live in such an ageist culture that you’re meant to be irrelevant after the age of 28. But most of my heroes didn’t start producing their best work until their 40s … like Mark Rothko. You need that experience to have a broader palette to draw from. As an artist, if you don’t exploit that you’re doing yourself and your audience a disservice.

“I can make films, I can interact with artists from all over the world. When I come off tour I’m going to Tokyo to work with Boris, then back to California to make another film, as well as being in the studio with The Cult, and maybe more music with UNKLE.”

Doing just what he wants to do seems to agree with him.

Jon Bounds

Following the success of the Gold selling smash hit Gatecrasher Trance Anthems 1993-2009 and the enormous follow up hit Gatecrasher Club Anthems 1993-2009 comes Gatecrasher Anthems- Paul van Dyk, an epic collaboration between the 2 biggest trail blazers in Trance, the mighty Gatecrasher lion itself and one of its favourite sons, Superstar DJ Paul van Dyk.

Celebrating both the Future and Present, van Dyk seamlessly mixes future classics from the likes of Filo & Perri, Guiseppi Ottaviani and Reverse,with current anthems from the dancefloor from Faithless, Deadmau5, Armin van Buuren and Ferry Corsten together with monstrous epic Classics from Agnelli & Nelson, Planet Perfecto, Delirium, BT, Nalin & Kane, and many more. Bostin’!

We have 5 copies of the album to give away, along with tickets to Gatecrasher’s Festival of Ibiza, which takes place throughout the summer in err..Birmingham.

Just email competitions@fusedmagazine.com before 15/7/2010 with the name of the country Paul was born in and we’ll pull the winers names out of our glo-stick stufed fluffy bra.

Fused have compiled a limited edition CD in deluxe digi-pack packaging of some of our fave bands out of the West Midlands. The CD will go out free to anyone lucky enough to be attending this years SXSW in Austin, Texas. But if you’re not going to be there, don’t despair, as we’ve uploaded it here for your listening pleasure. Dig it!

Track 01: Yelps – Cavalier Frontier (3.40)
A name like that needs to inspire shameless caterwauling, so it’s a good job Yelps’ scattershot pop does the job. Shout for joy upon hearing their glam, ragtag party music, already given the thumbs up by BBC Radio 1 DJs following the release of single P.E.O.P.L.E on 1965 Records. Yelps are currently writing/recording their debut album, so see ‘em live and spread the word before everyone and their mom is, well, yelping along.

Track 02: Voluntary Butler Scheme – Fffoolsih (2.28)
“Love is a game, a game for two/Love is a game I wanna play with you,” sings VBS head butler Rob Jones. After one listen, you’ll wanna crack open your toy box and hand over your heart. Along with the two members of his live band, Jones spins a refreshingly old-school mix of stomping Northern soul and brassy, very British love songs. With witty but honest observational lyrics and boyish good looks to boot, this one’s a star in the making.

Track 03: The Traps – Echoes (3.39)
Get caught. The Traps are one in a long line of British bands (hello Oasis et al) who combine laddish, balls-out bravado with bare emotional resonance. They do it supremely well, so much so that Noel Gallagher has already declared himself a fan. More, from high profile rockstars to council estate everymen, will follow, the band having just released their debut EP on their own label, Speech Fewapy Recordings.

Track 04: The Scarlet Harlots – Backlash (3.00)
Loved by the hot young things of our isle’s largest city, the Scarlet Harlots do a nice line in ‘anthemic’ that is propelled by Sam Baylis’s snarling and charismatic frontman. Recent opening slots for Howling Bells, Jamie T and local-boys-done-good the Twang will have no doubt widened their appeal, but it’s the charm of their ramshackle tunes that will have the girls and boys of indie disco-dom falling in love with them all over the UK and beyond very, very soon.

Track 05: Deluka – Black Cloud (5.01)
Straddling that ever-precarious line between electro and indie rock, Deluka are one of Birmingham’s hottest properties and not just because they had the guts, after a night of alcohol-fuelled brainstorming (as ya do), to steal their name from Pretty Woman. Think a drunk and bubbly noir flick rather than romantic comedy, though; their femme-fronted new-wave is certainly crazy, sexy and cool. They could give Metric the run-around, which is no small praise.

Track 06: Youves – On Probation (3.51) This band has already survived one major name change, and you get the feeling that Youves’ (formerly Mirror! Mirror!) schizoid mash of angular guitars, danceable beats and hardcore spirit was what pulled them through. If you like what you hear – and that will be a spitting, macho punk party, no? – prepare yourself to get sweaty upon the release of their mini-album, released on Holy Roar Records, in spring 2009.

Track 07: Copter – Can’t Help It (1.46)
Visiting us from 500 years in the future, the deranged but quite possibly brilliant Copter are here to save us with their rocket powered rock & soul. Their live shows are glammed up, pants-down parties-cum-sermons curated by intergalactic preacher Stevie and, on occasion, their android pal. The sci-fi theatrics are what you would expect from a band with their own comic book, but let them probe you with their music and you’ll realise they come in peace and so much more besides.

Track 08: Untitled Musical Project – Endless Deodrant and Bad Shoes (2.11)
Who needs a moniker when you’ve got NOISE?! Pairing snotty with smart, UMP have caused a stir on the live scene with their energetic performances and cutting lyrics. Want controversy? This no-nonsense trio have a song titled Why Isn’t Paul McCartney Dead Already? So, Heather Mills may be a fan but don’t let that put you off this fearless, and weirdly winsome, punk.

Track 09: The Big Bang – Vampire’s Hand (3.25)
Dinosaurs, be-fuckin-ware! Indeed, us humans might wanna think about gettin’ outta Dodge too. And why’s that? Well, Big Bang’s ballsy, bluesy rawk ‘n’ roll is certainly big enough to blow a hole all the way through this sphere to the next. With hip-shaking rhythms and dirt-under-the-fingernails riffs, one thing’s for sure: you’ll have one heck of a final night on Earth before their sweet, heady explosion makes us all go bye-bye.

Track 10: Kelli Ali – Rocking Horse (3.23)
Providing a welcome dose of oestrogen to the tracklist, Kelli Ann is a feisty singer/songwriter who deals in pop that cuts with a fiercely independent edge. She’s toured with Garbage, collaborated with everyone from Marius de Vries to Primal Scream, and even Madonna – yes, Madonna – is a fan. Make no mistake, though; she’s in charge, of both her own sassy electro-pop credentials and, sooner rather than later, your very own dancing shoes.

Track 11: Swampmeat – Sister Mary (2.35)
You would be forgiven for thinking Birmingham, UK had nicked this bluesy duo from Birmingham, Alabama, such is Danny C and T-Bird’s tight embrace on Americana. The two brothers blend tales of heartache with the rough hues of their soulful rockabilly, resulting in grizzled ballads made for a darkened bar. So grab a whiskey and drown your sorrows in the Swamp…

Track 12: Seeland – Call The Incredible (4.37)
This trio may indeed ‘see land’ but, upon hearing their dreamy symphonic pop, you’ll be in no doubt that they’re happily freewheeling somewhere between clouds. Forming amidst the fallout of Birmingham’s ‘retro futurist electronica scene’ (who knew?!) back in ’04, the boys have been playing with analogue synths and all manner of instrumentation favoured by Brian Eno and Krautrock pioneers. The woozy, transcendental results have bagged them a record deal, and an album due in March promises to take you to the skies.

Track 13: Grandmaster Gareth – Oh No! B-List Celebrity (1.21)
Taking fun seriously (but not too seriously), Grandmaster G is perhaps Birmingham’s only creator of ‘minute melodies’ that combine SFX, cartoon voices and whimsical melodies and are named things like Dr Dre Gets Complacent. So combat your own complacency by getting to know our Gareth, a member of revered Brummy collective Misty’s Big Adventure, and no doubt that frown you’re wearing will turn a full 180 on its axis!

Words: Luke McNaney
CD: Compiled by Fused
Artwork: Newtasty

Compro Logo Existo Series 2, 2008

Exploring the definition of urban art The New Art Gallery Walsall’s new exhibition Outsiders brings the traditionally outside ‘urban’ and ‘street’ art in doors. After a previous show of the same title in New York, fifteen international contemporary artists will be descending on Walsall to transform the gallery, with some works being created directly on the gallery walls.

Although united by attitude, influences and artistic origins range from advertising and consumer culture to New York subway graffiti. Coming from the fringes of mainstream art, some of the artists having no formal art school training, the exhibition is similarly on the edges of fine art. As curator David Thorp explains, it is based on a desire to reassess the still controversial status of street art in our cities and urban spaces. The likes of Lucy McLauchlan’s psychedelic monochrome folk style images will be sitting along side Portuguese artist Vhils’s portraiture, which uses layers of billboard posters as a canvas.

Hopes and Dreams, 2007

The exhibition will run from 5th December until 25th January 2009.

Image Credits

Vhils
Compro Logo Existo Series 2, 2008
245cm x 180cm, MDF, advertise billboards, wallpaper glue and white paint
© The artist and Lazarides

Lucy Mclauchlan
Hopes and Dreams, 2007
150 x 60cm, ink on canvas
© The artist and Lazarides