Yes Way, Auto Italia South East, London

Yes Way, Auto Italia South East, 13-15th August 2010

August 13, 2010

Yes Way, Upset The Rhythm’s three-day weekend festival that brings the brightest lights and darkest freaks of the UK’s musical and artistic underground together, is back for its second year. Held at Auto Italia South East, a gallery space in Peckham that used to be a car showroom, its aim is to showcase the more experimental acts that lie just under the surface of the UK’s music scene. A quick glance at the line up seems to suggest that the organisers have managed to combine a few of the already fairly well-known acts from the underground scene – Male Bonding, Islet, Veronica Falls, Cold Pumas – with some unknown quantities, ready to be discovered. This is a combination that anyone who’s attended an Upset The Rhythm show over the past years will recognise, and may even have come to take for granted – it is important to stress then just how consistently great their shows have been, and how effective they’ve been at accommodating bands not just from the UK but also America.

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Looking Ahead: Autumn Album Releases

Kanye West

Forgive me if this feels like I’m already straightening out 2010’s picture frames, pushing its chairs under its tables and hurrying you out of the door marked ‘2011’ when we’re only halfway through August. The trouble is music release schedules operate several months ahead of real time so, as someone who is informed about music releases on a daily basis whether I like it or not, I’m currently existing in a parallel universe where it’s late October/early November.

Luckily, from my position in this imagined future (all release dates are of course subject to change), this autumn looks like continuing what was already been a strong year for new records. 2010 has seen many of the previous decade’s primary acts return in some form or another, to varying degrees of success, such as The National, LCD Soundsystem, Arcade Fire, Big Boi and Broken Social Scene. At the same time, newer acts have continued to hone their sound (Wavves, Best Coast) or seemingly burst out fully formed (Wild Nothing, Male Bonding, Baths). When looking ahead, it’s always the big names that stand out then – but don’t rule out a few surprises along the way. … Continue Reading

Baths – Cerulean

Baths - Cerulean

Baths is the newest musical project of Will Wiesenfeld, an LA-based musician who has previously produced music under the name [Post-Foetus], and Cerulean is his debut release under this new name. It’s a record that, in its diversity and occasionally surprising twists and turns, resists categorisation – I’ve heard it discussed under the ubiquitous chillwave/glo-fi tag, but Cerulean has more depth than that genre’s superficial nostalgia, and I’ve even seen comparisons with wonky/downtempo stuff. However, Wiesenfeld seems like too much of an individual for broad comparisons – Cerulean feels like the product of mundane circumstances and escapism (it was created in his suburban bedroom), filtered or magnified through a varied, rich array of quite specific influences. It’s the latest in a line of intricate records that evoke other, imagined worlds, from Owen Pallett’s Heartlands and ceo’s White Magic, to Flying Lotus’ Cosmogramma and Bibio’s Ambivalence Avenue. … Continue Reading

ceo – White Magic

ceo - White Magic

It’s become something of a cliché to talk about Sweden as a country that seems predisposed to producing good pop music, particularly over the past half decade. However, it’s worth taking a step back and reflecting on just how wonderfully odd the music that these very singular artists have been offering is – the haunted, pitch-shifting of The Knife’s Silent Shout, and Fever Ray’s warped domesticity last year; Robyn’s globe-trotting, cherry-picking pop songs continue to make her an unlikely star; The Tallest Man On Earth’s folk songs, seemingly removed from any specific time or place. There’s also The Tough Alliance – the duo of Henning Fürst and Eric Berglund whose Balaeric-infused pop music soundtracked lip-synched live shows where the pair threw themselves around the stage, wielded baseball bats and, occasionally, slow danced with each other. … Continue Reading

Male Bonding, London Camden Barfly

Male Bonding

One of the main joys of Nothing Hurts, the debut album released by Male Bonding in May, was the way it effortlessly captured the spirit and speed of their live shows – a Male Bonding gig has always been a brief, chaotic affair, and the simple energy on Nothing Hurts encapsulated this perfectly, while also revealing a few of the subtleties in their music, and particularly their lyrics, that had previously just flown by too quickly. … Continue Reading

The Wave Pictures, London Bush Hall

The Wave Pictures

May 16, 2010

It feels like every discussion of The Wave Pictures has to include, somewhere, a warning, a note, or small print of some kind – ‘THE WAVE PICTURES ARE NOT FOR EVERYONE’ is the implication from critics, fans and non-fans alike (and for some fans certainly, it’s their main attraction). And it’s true, to an extent – people who value conventional hooks or choruses, musicians who sing in tune, stage presence or top-of–the-range production may want to look elsewhere. This is a shame though, as behind the occasionally sloppy musicianship (which in itself is often charming, reassuring or life-affirming with this band) are songs about the extraordinary highs, glorious messes and almost ever-present boredom of ordinary life. For many people, these are ‘hooks’ in themselves.

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Robyn – Body Talk Pt. 1

Robyn - Body Talk Pt. 1

It’s been five years since Robyn first released her self-titled record (her fourth, officially) – it was an immediate hit in Scandinavia, and eventually, through two years of touring and blog chatter, it wowed the rest of Europe, including the UK, before finally even finding moderate success over in America. This story will be familiar to anyone who’s taken a passing interest in the Swedish singer over the past few years – the album’s steady rise is reflected in the message of her songs, and their themes of independence, determination, and also doubt, were tied up in Robyn’s decision to buy herself out of her major label record contract and go it alone. … Continue Reading

The New Pornographers/Here We Go Magic, Camden Electric Ballroom

The New Pornographers

May 19, 2010

In a week when the sun’s finally starting to come out in London, it’s difficult to think of a more suitable, or indeed well-matched, pairing of bands to soundtrack the start of the warm weather – Canadian sometime-supergroup The New Pornographers were backed by New York’s sprightly Here We Go Magic at a sold out show at Camden’s Electric Ballroom, where the charm, and the hooks, were laid on for an enthusiastic crowd. … Continue Reading

Steve Mason – Boys Outside

Steve Mason - Boys Outside

Boys Outside, the first album of new material from Steve Mason in two years, is the album he has been threatening to make ever since his first group The Beta Band’s early EPs. While throughout their turbulent career his band regularly conjured up moments of irresistible pop brilliance – with songs like ‘Squares’, ‘Assessment’ or ‘Dry The Rain’, for instance – their albums occasionally varied in quality. It was as if the band, and Mason in particular, had too many ideas and, bearing in mind the strained relationships that seemed to define the group, not enough consistent focus to see them through. … Continue Reading

Male Bonding – Nothing Hurts

Male Bonding - Nothing Hurts

The phrase ‘Dalston DIY scene’ should probably provoke a feeling of dread in music fans that prefer bands to have better songs than haircuts. However, Male Bonding, a band at the head of a crop of groups that have emerged from that particular part of East London over the last couple of years, may make you cast your preconceptions aside. With Nothing Hurts, their 29 minute debut album, the band have made a record that transcends their beginnings – and all the positive and negative aspects of being part of a ‘scene’- to the extent that soon, no one will care where they came from, but where they’re going. … Continue Reading