WOMAD 2012: A Festival Review, Part II

All words and photos by Alex Kavanagh (http://www.alexkavanagh.com/) (excluding lead photo, above). Part I of Alex’s review can be found here.

Day 2 (Saturday)

Ahhh, another beautiful morning in the south-west. After a bracing cold-water shower (shower!), a nice cuppa and a fried breakfast cooked in a wok, we were set. There were a couple of people we wanted to see, so we made loose plans and hoped to take in some bonus acts along the way. This is Womad’s true forte: the voyage of musical discovery you’re forced to embark upon. It’s inevitable you’ll only be familiar with a handful of names on the bill, unless you’re a true connoisseur of world music, so you have to experiment. Don’t like something? Move on. And if you do like something, chances are you’ll fall head over heels for it. Like when you take a punt on a CD by a group you’ve never heard of and it’s brilliant. It’s that feeling you’ve unearthed a gem that makes it feel that little bit more personal, more intimate. Thirty years have given Womad the time to perfect their formula, and its determined open-mindedness is what truly sets it apart from other music festivals. … Continue Reading

The Weekly Froth! With Sebastien Tellier, Das Moth and Poolside

Sebastien Tellier - 'Cochon Ville' (Das Moth Remix)

By Stef Siepel

The Weekly Froth! A weekly take on six tracks, most of which have recently popped up somewhere in the blogosphere. Bit of a mixed bag with a slight leaning towards house, disco, and remixes, but generally just anything that for some reason tickled the writer’s fancy.

Track of the week: ‘Cochon Ville’ by Sebastien Tellier (Das Moth remix)

Sebastien Tellier released an awesome album this year, and one that probably has some tracks that can be made into something for on the dancefloor. Das Moth gives it a go, and Das Moth somehow manages to make it danceable and for the dancefloor whilst keeping the idiosyncratic nature of the Tellier track. That vocal line of “Come to us” is cleverly repeated over and over, and I think they succeeded in marrying the vocals with the remix sounds. They don’t feel slapped on or anything. The track has some awesome moments as well. Around the four minute mark you’ve got a vocal only bit, after which the way he goes back to the beat is very nice indeed. Earlier you already had that moment where the vocals come in with that strutting little Italo beat at around 40 seconds. Just ace this one. … Continue Reading

The Gaslight Anthem – Handwritten

The Gaslight Anthem - Handwritten

By Alex Ward

It seemed inevitable from the first moment we heard them that The Gaslight Anthem were to be the next big rock band out there. Their previous records Sink or Swim, The 59 Sound and American Slang were all critically acclaimed. However, when Brian Fallon, the lead singer of the group, announced the release of a new album he made sure people knew the group were looking for a new sound. From the moment you press play you can even hear this when Fallon sings ‘Turn the record over, I’ll see you on the flip side’, showing exactly that the band is trying to turn over a new leaf. … Continue Reading

Ty Segall, London, The Dome

By Robert Freeman

August 2, 2012

Dirty surfer savant garage wonder child Ty Segall gambles onstage at the Tufnell Park Dome to open with a slightly unexpected anecdote about it being ‘a nice day’ and ‘going for a run’ (ffs bro) before tuning a guitar up and smashing everyone’s faces in with a brutal rendition of ‘Skin.’ It’s rock and roll and blues melodies with a decent helping of seventies punk and eighties hardcore emerging into some kind of aggressive garage lo-fi, but whether it’s the more chilled-out dirge of Goodbye Bread or the aggressive punk of one of his EPs, all Segall’s material has the common aspect of being quite, quite QUITE LOUD LOUD (loud).* … Continue Reading

Nas – Life Is Good

Nas - Life Is Good

By Richard Wink

Nas has been cursed ever since he fired such a deafening opening salvo. Containing quotable rhymes, compelling storytelling and raw timeless beats, Illmatic is considered to be a hip hop masterpiece.

Nas, like most MC’s has always had a competitive streak running through his veins, and obviously felt a burning desire to better his debut, to get outside of Queens and take on the world. He couldn’t, but still he tried, and though he has created some stellar tracks throughout his career – ‘Nas is Like’, ‘Got Yur Self A…’ and ‘Bridging the Gap’ to name but three, he could never put together an album that was anything better than reasonably good. In recent years Nas has appeared to accept Illmatic’s timeless significance, and worked more on taking artistic risks, of getting back to his roots, being an uninhibited creative. During this period (post Hip Hop is Dead) we have witnessed him collaborate with Damian Marley and bury his long running beef with Jay-Z. … Continue Reading

Antony’s Meltdown Festival: Planningtorock, London, Queen Elizabeth Hall

By Nick Cowan

August 1, 2012

The seated gig is a curious thing. It puts the audience in a different mindset, assuming the more passive spectator role demanded of most performances at Queen Elizabeth Hall at London’s Southbank Centre. Both Light Asylum and Planningtorock took this passivity as a challenge to rouse the audience out of their slumber, with mixed results.  … Continue Reading

Hear an Aaliyah song featuring Drake, ‘Enough Said’

Aaliyah ft Drake - 'Enough Said'

There have been murmurings and murmurings and not very subtle hints from the man himself recently that Drake is involved in the imminent arrival of an album of unreleased Aaliyah material. Tonight, while the majority of the world were watching Usain Bolt run very fast, a song was posted on Drake’s OVO blog – it’s called ‘Enough Said’, it features Aaliyah’s unmistakable vocals alongside a verse from Drake and production from Noah ’40′ Shebib.

In a post-2Pac hologram world (there’s six words we never thought we’d write), you wouldn’t be blamed for feeling a little uncomfortable as musicians re-appropriate the music and image of artists who have passed away. However, after a few initial listens to ‘Enough Said’, it’s hard not to feel excited about this particular project – Shebib’s production is stunning, respectful, haunting and gorgeous. Drake also manages to reference Balotelli in the first lines of his verse halfway through the song – Manchester, stand up. Have a listen below. … Continue Reading

Eastern Electrics (+ After Party!) 2012: A Festival Preview

By Leanne Petersen

Eastern Electrics: website/tickets (After Party)

Eastern Electrics Festival takes place this Saturday 4^th August 2012 at the Greenwich Peninsula, offering festival goers the best in electronic music. With a jaw-dropping line up that includes Azari & iii, Julio Bashmore, Maceo Plex and Jamie Jones to name but a few, this is definitely one not to be missed! … Continue Reading

Now Playing: The Mountain Goats – ‘Cry For Judas’

The Mountain Goats - Transcendental Youth

Now Playing – every week, a roundtable of our writers will give their views on one of the recently-released new tracks. It’s as simple as that! If you want to tell us what you think of the song, feel free to leave a comment below.

Track: ‘Cry for Judas’ by The Mountain Goats … Continue Reading

WOMAD 2012: A Festival Review, Part I

Charlton Park, July 26-29, 2012

All words and photos by Alex Kavanagh (http://www.alexkavanagh.com/)

When you think of Womad, it’s hard not to conjure up images of middle-aged chin-strokers and families of dairy-intolerant Guardianistas tapping their Birkenstocked feet to ultra un-trendy World Music. As a newbie at the festival, which celebrated its 30^th anniversary this year, I was lucky enough to be able to see it all through virgin eyes, and the preconception really didn’t match the reality. … Continue Reading