Andy Black | Adore Delano
Manchester Academy 2
July 9th 2019

Black Veil Brides frontman Andy Black returned to the UK with his solo project on his Ghost of the United Kingdom Tour, bringing along special guest American drag musician Adore Delano.  They both performed to a sold out Manchester Academy 2. Melanie Smith was there to capture the action.

It all kicked off with Adore Delano and a great cover version of Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black. Delano is renown for her performances on American Idol and Ru Pauls Drag Race and appears to have a large following judging by the audience’s reactions. A super lively set with flamboyance galore and within the first 3 songs she was crowd surfing with legs akimbo in a thong. (more photos below)

It’s Andy’s fourth UK date so far, he’s promoting his new solo album ‘The Ghost of Ohio’, which is very different to his metal rock band Black Veil Brides. However he still has a large fan base here and the crowd were more than ready, fresh from their VIP meet and greet session. So with fans screaming loudly down the front row their handsome idol appeared in his trademark black clothes, tattoed and bare chested, dark eye makeup and bandana. Opening to the gothic, electo rock sounds of ‘Ribcage’ taken from his 2016 debut solo album ‘The Shadow Side’ with matching atmosheric lighting and strobes. It was a super dramatic show, with tracks mainly from his Shadow Side album, just three tracks performed tonight from Ghost of Ohio.

Setlist:

Ribcage
They Don’t Need to Understand
Westwood Road
Broken Pieces
Know One
Beautiful Pain
Louder Than Your Love
Paint It Black
Sadie [Alkaline Trio cover]
Put the Gun Down
Homecoming King

Ghost Of Ohio
We Don’t Have to Dance

Please note: Use of these images in any form without permission is illegal. If you wish to contact the photographer please email: mel@mudkissphotography.co.uk

(Last time Black appeared in Manchester at O2 Ritz, it was filmed for his official video channel. See if you can spot me in the pit.)

More information about Adore Delano can be found at website

Andy Black is on Facebook and Twitter . Keep up to date on his website.

Words and photos by Melanie Smith. More work by Mel on Louder Than War can be found at her author’s archive. You can find her on Facebook andTwitter. Photography portfolio can be found here and Flickr

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Various Artists – No One’s Little Girls (Grow Your Own)

Vinyl/CD/DL

Out now

Grow Your Own Records gathered together 16 acts from across the DIY punk and alternative music spectrum demonstrating the diversity of women led bands on today’s underground scene, while at the same time raising money for grassroots women’s charities. Louder Than War’s Nathan Brown says it’s important in more ways than one.

We live in times in which casual misogyny in general is on the rise (no, it’s not fucking banter), gender pay disparities are headline news, the far right are on the rise and on the street, and there has been an alarming increase in reports of women being groped at punk gigs(!). The demand for angry wimmin’s voices is evident in the success of Bikini Kill’s recent Brixton appearances and the success of bands like Petrol Girls. It is clear there is a new generation of riot grrl, but the original women who made a splash in the punk universe never went away, and nor should they. This album is important for these reasons and more. All the contributors to the record have female singers and in many cases are all women bands. Play this compilation and you will hear women’s voices singing about what they wanna sing about. The label itself has a woman sharing the helm of the label, of course (in Hagar The Womb and Anthrax guitarist Steph Summer). Women have always played a pivotal rather than tokenistic role in punk as far as I was concerned but my view isn’t shared unanimously. Perhaps this record can serve as a reminder to the punk community of our roots and a sign of what our future holds. Whatever, it is worth picking up as a way of finding out about some of what’s going on.

That’s all very worthy but what you probably want to know is does it sound any good?  The album covers all points of the musical compass from the gnarly shouty punk rock of Bratakus and Combat Shock to the Ramones inspired pop punk of Werecats, and everything in between, interspersed with acoustic and more melodic tracks. Some names are well established, while others are ones to watch. Be aware that Grow Your Own have their finger on the pulse so ignore their recommendations at your peril.

Kiss Me Killer kick off with a mix of melodic/twangy punk and some raucous shouting about a shitty relationship. Something about this reminds me of old Scots punkers Toxic Ephex for some reason and there is a mean little bass solo that any fan of Hawkwind era Lemmy or the Electro Hippies will appreciate. Up next a West Country band who have received rave reviews from Louder Than War: The Menstrual Cramps. Rhythmic in a way which is reminiscent at times of the band No Means No – coincidentally that is the title of the track, so was that auto-suggestion? Tuneful and almost indie sounding they send a clear message about sexual violence. The spoken section at the end of the song details exactly how sex with someone who is drunk and has no capacity to consent is rape. It shouldn’t need saying but it does.

The way the guitars and bass work together on Hagar The Womb’s Visible Woman reminds me a little of post-punk bands like the Pixies. The song itself looks at how society still judges women by attractiveness rather than achievement and writes them off at a certain age. A call to arms or a celebration, the message is complemented with examples of older women role models on the Hags’ page of the lyric booklet.

Listen to Visible Woman by Hagar The Womb here.

Werecats take their cue from the Ramones and deliver up a prime pop punk tune without descending into the wacky bullshit that all too often ruins pop punk. It’s straight up 1234 Play! Being an occasional gardener, I *think* Strawberries is about slugs stealing strawberries but I guess this may be a metaphor. Calico’s acoustic guitar and soulful singing on Empathy stands out from the punkier offerings so far. Not my thing but they are good at what they do and clearly a talented bunch. The Black Death is a trio of young siblings with a largely acoustic song called Victory.

Another family affair, Bratakus drag us back into the world of punk. Thrashy hardcore, with an acerbic edged guitar, delivered by 2 sisters and a drum machine. Open Your Eyes is a song I already know well as it featured on the Brats’ LP.  A melancholy little number called You Don’t Like Me by Alex Martin sounds like it’s played on a ukelele before Dog Shite belt out a great 2 fingers in the air to machismo to end the first side. Like the Bratakus song, Fuck Ya Rude Boy is one I know well as it featured on a previous GYO compilation single .

Sh!ts!ck kick off side B with a melodic, soft subdued sound but hard hitting words linking weapons sales, their use on women and children, refugees, starvation and a system that perpetuates global inequality. By contrast Combat Shock kick off with a humourous Chris Morris sample before launching into bouncealong 80s style punk with Mel delivering a gruff vocal attack on the lives people are expected to lead – job, mortgage, settle down, become brainwashed.

Mindframe provide the second track on the album to use the No Means No anti-rape message as a title, and again attack prejudice – making it clear it makes no difference what your gender or sexual preference, it’s plan wrong. A bit of a crusty punk ska number with high octane vocals. Also to be found on their Whiplash single on Grow Your Own. Louise Challice is a singer songwriter with an acoustic guitar and The Isolation is about being detained in the “hospital on the hill”. Chilling.

The Fleas are a band who imploded last year shortly after their 10″ came out on Grow Your Own. Popstar is a jerky jangly punk song with a hint of 80s bands like Action Pact, appearing to be about the narcissism that you come across among the musician community. That thing that makes some people arseholes and difficult to work with, but equally can make for some really interesting performers!

Ball and Strain by Punk Con Fusion has a very gothic sound combined with some thrashing about and immediately made me think of Decadent Few. I then found in the booklet that, yes indeed, the singer is Kay from Decadent Few. As someone who has been making a punk rock noise for 40 years and remembers what life was like before, Kay’s words in the booklet are testament to the difference punk rock made (makes?) to women “Females were not allowed to feel and express anger! Fortunately punk rock became my personal liberator”. Something that people critical of the punk scene often forget. It ain’t perfect but it can make a difference!

If the title of Lady Wank by Pussy Liquor wasn’t a give away, the song makes it pretty clear what they are singing about, replete with orgasmic noises that make Orgasm Addict sound tame and lines like “My fingers are better than you, anything is better than you”. And there you have it. 16 songs that cover a broad range of styles, attitudes and ages but all women’s voices.

The album was originally released in time for International Women’s Day, I was just slow in getting hold of a copy, and it is still for sale now. As the Grow Your Own crew get fully involved in the production process, hand making covers and inserts, every record quite literally has their DNA on it. And if you buy the record it’s clear vinyl with purple splatter too!

Order the album from Grow Your Own’s growing discography on bandcamp.

Several of the bands from the album can be caught at this month’s Griffstock punk festival.

~

Words by Nathan Brown. Check out his Louder Than War Author Archive.

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BOB DYLAN / NEIL YOUNG

Hyde Park, London

12 July 2019

Bob Dylan and Neil Young co-headlined for the first time at Hyde Park. Only one could top the bill but both were at the top of their game in front of 65,000 fans beneath a summer sun, says Tim Cooper.
BOB DYLAN

“Something is happening and you don’t know what it is, do you, Mr Jones?” Well it’s Bob Dylan, blowing minds by taking us from Hyde Park to Highway 61 by starting his set with Ballad Of A Thin Man. OK so the instrumentation is different, the tune and arrangement have been changed, and the voice is a little more weatherbeaten… shall we say ‘characterful’… than of old, but what do you expect at the age of 78?

What we definitely didn’t expect is this. Dylan standing in the spotlight, after decades of lurking at the back in darkness. This could not be more different. Not only is his piano right at the front, but he’s in defiantly show-off mode. Resplendent in a white silk jacket embroidered with sequins, black satin trousers with a go-faster white stripe, brown boots and a black hat, he’s right there, right at the front – and right up there on the big screens – with a maniacal grin lighting up his face.

He stands at the piano, legs akimbo, and at the end of each song he gets up to stretch his legs further, walking to the centre of the stage and literally posing, one hand on his hip – a photo opportunity for all – as he laps up the acclaim.
It’s fair to say this wasn’t what most of us expected. At the age of 78, most people – even most of the ones who paid to come to Hyde Park – must have thought Dylan’s best days were behind him. His voice was shot, they said. He sounded like Yoda, they said. He hardly played any of the old favourites, they said. And he’d messed with the melodies and arrangements so much, they said, that you couldn’t tell what song he was singing. Wrong on all counts.

His voice sounded fine. People have been making jokes about his voice for nearly 60 years anyway. But the whiny emphysemic rasp familiar from his dreadful Christmas album, for example, has disappeared. Perhaps, as his loyal fans claim, he was putting it on all the time. Whatever the answer, he sounds great. When he sings Girl From The North Country, his piano shrouded in a plaintive pedal steel, it’s hard to tell apart from the version on The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan back in 1963. Yes, that good.

The set begins with an extended trip down memory lane. It Ain’t Me, Babe – somehow reconfigured to sound like “It AIN’T me babe” – followed by Highway 61, then A Simple Twist Of Fate: a solitary song from his finest album Blood On The Tracks. When he plays the harmonica, the place erupts. For the bluesy Can’t Wait, from his last 20th century album Time Out Of Mind, he stands at the centre of the stage, legs apart, playfully pushing the microphone stand out at arm’s length: it’s a wonder he doesn’t turn it upside down for the full Rod Stewart, or raise it to the roof a la Freddie Mercury; thankfully not.

With a sound system that allows us to capture every word of those magical lyrics, the songs surpass their ramshackle bar-room arrangements, though the band should not be underestimated: after more than 3,000 shows since the ‘Never Ending Tour’ began back in 1988, they are as tight as a locking wheel nut; much as Dolly Parton likes to say “It costs a lot to look this cheap,” a band has to be tight to sound this loose.

They draw on every kind of American old-time music – blues, jazz, folk, country, RnB – to create a kind of melange of musical history, whose nearest equivalent is skiffle. There’s a notable country influence thanks to the pedal steel, most obviously on the ballad Soon After Midnight, but they could be Muddy Waters’ band on the 12-bar blues of Early Roman Kings, from his last self-penned album, 2012’s Tempest. Mostly they tread a path in the middle of those, though they can accelerate into RnB as on the hectic closer, Gotta Serve Somebody, from Dylan’s less fondly remembered Christian period in the late Seventies.

The bar-room vibe of Like A Rolling Stone makes it sound almost like a Cockney knees-up in an East End boozer – imagine Chas & Dave having a crack at it – though Dylan’s defiantly different melody seems designed to thwart attempts at a singalong; not that it stops everyone trying, of course. The same thing happens with the encore, a retooled Blowin’ In The Wind and another trip back to Highway 61 for an equally unfamiliar tune to It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry.

Afterwards, as thoughts turn (as they inevitably do) to whether we might ever see Bob Dylan again, and a crowd of parents heads for home with dads trying to explain the significance of what they’ve seen to small sleepy children on their shoulders, the words of Trying To Get To Heaven linger on: “I’ve been all around the world,” he sings. “Tryin’ to get to heaven before they close the door.”

NEIL YOUNG & PROMISE OF THE REAL

“I’ve never played in daylight before,” says Neil Young, squinting into the summer sun shining on 65,000 people in Hyde Park. “It’s great to see you!” It’s hard to imagine any artist apart from Dylan who could persuade Neil Young to go onstage before him: it’s officially a joint headline show, but Young is effectively the support act here. And it’s clear from my own not-so-scientific method of counting T-shirts that more people are here for him than the headliner.

Mind you, it nearly didn’t happen. Furious when he found out the show had been announced without his knowledge – preventing him offering tickets to his Archive fans first – Young refused to play unless sponsors Barclay’s were removed because their association with fossil fuel. The bank was swiftly asked to take its sponsorship elsewhere, giving Young a victory for the forces of environmental well-being… even if that seemed at odds with a stage set involving a distinctly plastic-looking tree trunk with foliage extending over the top. Let’s hope it was recycled.

Rejuvenated since he replaced his old pals from Crazy Horse with a band less than half their age – Lukas Nelson (son of country legend Willie) and his band Promise of the Real – the legendarily grumpy Young’s enthusiastic performance at the age of 73 suggested it is not merely his precious LincVolt car that runs on renewable energy.
Dressed in his trademark battered black hat and flapping flannel shirt, he stands out among his black-clad band members in every way, the big screens showing his gnarled and weathered features as he flailed at his guitar, gurning and hunching over the neck for solos, swaying back and fro like a big game fisherman reeling in a giant barracuda.

After the opening salvo from Ragged Glory come the oldies. He straps on a new guitar for the acoustic Alabama, prompting the first of many singalongs, though his own voice is as strong as ever. Walk On draws a huge cheer and Winterlong features harmonies to rival his old chums in CSN: a significant new string to his bow, and one that enables the inclusion of quieter numbers such as these, and Words, and – to the biggest cheer of all, as soon as he slips the harmonica around his neck – Heart Of Gold.

Nelson switches to 10-string banjo for Old Man, accompanied by plangent slide guitar, and after some crowd-pleasing rockers that occasionally threaten to veer into the sort of noodling jams that Crazy Horse became partial to in later years, the set concludes with the inevitable Rockin’ In The Free World – an optimistic anthem that seems increasingly ironic in our not-so-free 21st century.

Finally, they return, and the curious lectern-like object festooned with Native American decorations that had been hanging from the roof of the stage since the start descends on wires and revealed itself to be an organ – landing in time to adorn the first encore of Like A Hurricane. Warm-up acts just don’t come better than this.

NEIL YOUNG

Mansion On The Hill
Over And Over
Country Home
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Alabama
Walk On
Winterlong
Words (Between The Lines Of Age)
Heart Of Gold
From Hank To Hendrix
Old Man
Throw Your Hatred Down
Love And Only Love
Rockin’ In The Free World

Encore:
Like A Hurricane
I’ve Been Waiting For You
Roll Another Number (For The Road)
Piece Of Crap

BOB DYLAN:

Ballad Of A Thin Man
It Ain’t Me Babe
Highway 61 Revisited
A Simple Twist Of Fate
Can’t Wait
When I Paint My Masterpiece
Honest With Me
Tryin’ To Get To Heaven
Make You Feel My Love
Pay In Blood
Like A Rolling Stone
Early Roman Kings
Girl From The North Country
Love Sick
Thunder On The Mountain
Soon After Midnight
Gotta Serve Somebody

Encore:
Blowin’ In The Wind
It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry

All words by Tim Cooper. You can find more of Tim’s writing on Louder Than War at his author’s archive. He is also on Twitter as @TimCooperES. Photos by Tim Cooper (top) and David J. Hogan.

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Ifriqiyya Electrique – Laylet El Booree (Glitterbeat Records)

LP / CD / DL

Out Now

More blood, sweat and trance from Tunisia’s Ifriqiyya Electrique. Louder Than War’s Paul Scott-Bates reviews.

2017’s album, Rûwâhîne was phenomenal (see review here), it broke the rules and defied anybody that said that safe music was the only way of appealing consistently. Second album, Laylet El Booree takes off where it left Rûwâhîne – instantly pounding the drum skins like their lives depended on it and chanting like some manic death cult ready to claim their next victim.

Said to send a live audience into trance before being healed is indeed quite a claim but, one that the people of the Djerid (a semi desert region in between Tunisia and Algeria) will testify to following the bands initial performances. An adorcism, whereby the spirit is placated and calmed rather than being excorcised, a banga ritual indigenous to the region, a state of elevation never before experienced.

Laylet El Booree is once more heavy on bass, percussion and chant. It is a tumultuous wall of sound that, when play loudly, will blow you mind away. It is a never-ending, never resting, cavalcade. The feeling and power is nothing short of incredible.

With several percussionists, the sound of each track intensifies and anyone failing to get excited or moved really needs to take a long hard look at their senses. Even when the pace slows slightly on Moola Nefta, the crunching bass and guitar take control and continue the near aggressive nature of the album. This is modern day punk with a Tunisian twist – lively, powerful and often sounding out of control.

He Eh Lalla is characteristic of the whole collection. A deep piano riff starts as voices and drumbeats quickly enter, there is no warm-up or slow build to the sound of Ifriqiyya Electrique, it’s straight for the jugular as the prospect of experiencing them live is indeed an exciting prospect.

It was a straight 10/10 for Rûwâhîne and there’s no reason why Laylet El Booree shouldn’t be the same.

More on Ifriqiyya Electrique here. They have a YouTube channel here and can be Liked on Facebook.

All words by Paul Scott-Bates. More of Paul’s writing on Louder Than War can be found at his author’s archive. Paul’s website is hiapop Blog and you can follow him on Twitter here, and on Facebook here.

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Here are a few vital recent releases from Ace (all on wonderful vinyl), probably one of the best reissue labels in the known world.

Various Artists – Jon Savage’s 1965-1968 – The High Sixties on 45

Marking the undeniable resurgence of vinyl, this month Ace is releasing some of the very best albums and singles they have issued in recent years. This double album release, featuring 17 highlights culled from Jon Savage’s four recent double Ace CD 1960’s singles themed compilations that the noted England’s Dreaming author has been compiling for the company during the past four years, is a real solid gold nugget to treasure.

Pressed on fabulous orange vinyl, with highly informative notes by Savage and colourful inner sleeves depicting original record sleeves, vintage advertising and magazines, each side covers the tumultuous Sixties years comprehensively reflected on the following compact discs – 1965 The Year The Sixties Ignited, 1966 The Year The Decade Exploded, 1967 The Year Pop Divided and 1968 The Year The World Burned. This superb collection, like the previous CDs, venerates the compressed power of the 45 RPM 7 inch single, that since the mid-1950s carried the shockwave of vibrant teenage rock ‘n’ roll until the year that closes side 4 of this set, 1968, when the LP usurped its position.

Highlights are numerous within this eclectic set which encompasses a variety of musical genres (soul, funk, garage, Americana, rock) and performers: The Leaves’ snotty garage punk misanthropy evinced on ‘Too Many People’(1965), the live frenzy evoked by James Brown & The Famous Flames on ‘Tell Me That You Love Me’(1966, not sounding dissimilar to 70s No Wave James Chance), the stealthy instrumental soul of Book T & The MG’s ‘Slim Jenkin’s Place’(1967) and the insurrectionist swagger of the MC5 blasting out ‘Kick Out The Jams’ (1968) on a very rare preview pressing of the live cut as a single, which concludes this collection. Other vital cuts include Rex Gavin & The Mighty Cravers’ terrific James Bond-inspired dance work out ‘Sock It To ‘Em J.B. PT 2’, The Spades’ proto grungy punk ‘We Sell Soul’ (featuring the late, great Roky Erickson’s ardent vocals, who would become the prime mover of the 13th Floor Elevators), garage punk pioneers The Seeds’ spooked ‘The Other Place’, the prescient and frantic ‘People! Let’s Freak Out’ by The Freaks Of Nature (an early English project led by the deceased American music business Svengali Kim Fowley), The Third Bardo’s tripped out ‘I’m Five Years Ahead Of My Time’ (often covered live by The Cramps during their Psychedelic Jungle period in the early 1980s) and the great ‘lost’ reflective 1968 Kinks single, ‘Wonderboy’.

Obviously, there are a few tracks that were featured on the CDs that one wishes could have been included on this vinyl set: ‘The Price of Love’ – The Everly Brothers, ‘Happenings Ten Years Time Ago’ – The Yardbirds, ‘So You Say You Lost Your Baby’ – Gene Clark, ‘Tighten Up’ – Archie Bell &The Drells, to name but four personal favourite tracks, in chronological order of release from each the aforementioned 96 track compact discs. Yet the compressed Jon Savage’s 1965-1968 – The High Sixties on 45 really holds together as a spectacular compilation that withstands continual plays on the deck. Savage has produced a real classic, in a class of its own.

Bobby Jameson – Viet Nam

A barnstorming 45 single reissue of a Mira Records disc that vanished without a trace when first released in 1966. Given the ferment anti-Viet Nam war sentiment of lyrics featured on this strident Bo Diddley-style beat stomper, played by various members of the renowned 60s garage punk band The Leaves, which was first issued as the conflict was reaching its zenith, that is hardly surprising.
Propelled by pounding drums (played by Don Conka of Love) and an insistent, driving harmonic riff, ‘Viet Nam’ is a rollicking garage punk rocker that was featured on the soundtrack to the sensational 1967 documentary, Mondo Hollywood. Directed by Robert Carl Cohen, the notorious Mondo Hollywood (sold as being “more than a movie, it’s a trip”), captured the psychedelic high tide of 1960s Los Angeles with portraits of various original hippies (Gypsy Boots, celebrity hairdresser Jay Sebring, who was later killed by the Manson Family) spaced out characters (artist Vito Paulekas, burlesque artist Jennie Lee) and musicians (Frank Zappa), including the 21-year-old singer Bobby Jamerson.

Since 1963, Jamerson was a cult figure on the LA music scene, opening for Jan & Dan and The Beach Boys, before working with Neil Young’s Crazy Horse and Frank Zappa. Despite making a well-received 1965 LP entitled Songs Of Protest and Anti-Protest, using the nom de guerre Chris Lucey, Jamerson, who died in 2015, never really made it in the City Of Angels. This 45 single, mastered from the original 3-track tape and featuring a blistering instrumental version of ‘Viet Nam’ on the flipside, stands as Bobby Jameson’s enduring, rebellious legacy.

The 101’ers -1976

Compiled together for the first time on a 7-inch vinyl Extended Play single, here are the four best tracks that Joe Strummer’s initial band, The 101’ers, recorded for Chiswick Records, which would in time become Ace Records. Mostly produced by Ace’s co-founder Roger Armstrong, these startling tracks offer an incredible glimpse of Strummer at the beginning of his highly influential career as the lead singer/songwriter of The Clash.

As related in the notes on the sleeve of this 1976 EP, written by Strummer’s teenage Sussex friend Peter Silverton, the 101’ers strong brew of pub rock reflected the tastes of the free-spirited inhabitants of the mid-70s squatting scene in west London. The 101’ers loud, tough and heartfelt rock ‘n’ roll anticipated what emerge with the creation of UK punk. Featuring Strummer on guitar and lead vocals, Dan Kelleher on bass, Clive Timperley’s abrasive lead guitar and future Metal Box-era PIL drummer Richard ‘Snakehips’ Dudanski, the 101’ers were obviously a formidable live unit, the power of which Armstrong managed to capture in the reverb-heavy Pathway Studios, Newington Green, North London on 4th and 10th March 1976.

First up is the rollicking ‘Keys To Your Heart’, the only composition with a sole Strummer writing credit and the best song featured here. Such is the momentum of the harmonious yet urgent ‘Keys To Your Heart’, driven by Strummer’s impassioned vocals and the third single originally issued on Chiswick, it would crop up in the set list of Clash gigs four years later.

‘5 Star Rock ‘N’ Roll Petrol’ blends prime Them with unalloyed pub rock, ‘Sweet Revenge’ reveals a love of South American rhythm and music (which Strummer would draw upon at various stages throughout his career), while the tale of big city sleaze on ‘Rabies (From The Dogs Of Love)’ musically blends freak-out guitar with 60’s garage punk.

With a suitably punky pink, black, white and silver coloured sleeve, featuring a shot of Strummer wearing a pair of broken mirror shades in which the rest of the 101’ers are reflected, this 1976 EP is a compulsory purchase for Clash fans.

Barbara Brown – Got To Be Somebody: The XL Sessions – 1960s Memphis Gold

Remarkably, the renowned, late Memphis gospel/soul singer Barbara Brown never released an album during her lifetime. With this exceptional vinyl-only release, compiled and noted by Dean Rudland, Kent/Ace have fashioned what a 1968, 13-track long Barbara Brown LP could have sounded like if it had been issued half a century ago.

Barbara Brown came from a Memphis family, comprising ten girls and two boys. The family sang in church, where it soon became clear that Barbara was a vibrant lead singer. Backed by three of her sisters (Roberta, Betty and Maurice), Barbara & The Browns performed as a group. One of Barbara’s brothers persuaded Chip Moman to record them, leading to three singles issued on Stax in the early 60s. By 1966, the contract was sold on to Gene Lucchesi’s XL label, where Barbara Brown was recorded by his partners Stan Kesler, who oversaw proceedings and provided the band, and produced and arranged by Charles Chalmers, famous for his saxophone playing on many of Aretha Franklin’s most celebrated recordings.

Barbara Brown highpoints showcased here include the emotionally devastating ‘Can’t Find No Happiness’ and ‘If I Can’t Run To You I’ll Crawl’, the indignant ‘I’m Gonna Start A War’, an ardent version of ‘Things Have Gone To Pieces’, which was a big hit on the country chart for George Jones, and a soaring rendition of Willie Cobb’s R&B standard ‘You Don’t Love Me’.

That the tracks included here, released as singles on various labels (Cadet, Atco, Tower and belatedly on MGM Sound of Memphis) were not gigantic hits beggar’s belief. It is highly probable that celebrated lifetime Memphis resident and huge gospel music devotee, Elvis Presley, would have repeatedly played Barbara Brown’s singles at full volume within the inner sanctum of the Jungle Room in his Graceland’s mansion. After all, these waxings are pure Memphis gold.

The Charmaines – I Idolize You! Fraternity Recordings 1960-1964

Compiled and noted by Mick Patrick, this fantastic 14-track vinyl only release compiles the best cuts that this remarkable Cincinnati girl group trio recorded for Harry Carlson’s independent Fraternity label, formed in 1954, during the early 1960s. Throughout The Charmaines career, which lasted into the early 70s and covered six record labels, the group never released an album. Mick Patrick’s I Idolize You! Fraternity Recordings 1960-1964 LP resolves this highly inappropriate situation.

Formed by Marian ‘Gigi’ Jackson, Dee Watkins and Irene Vinegar, The Charmaines were stars on the Cincinnati club circuit. They won a talent show in 1960, with the prize being a recording contract with Carlson’s Fraternity. The trio would also feature on the recordings of James Brown, Gary U.S. Bonds and Little Willie John, and while in Canada they would often support the Dave Clark Five and The Rolling Stones on their early tours of the country. This compilation features such Charmaines highpoints as their 1962 hit ‘On The Wagon’, both the original 1963 version and the 1966 superior, faster rendition of the yearning ‘G.I. Joe’, the rock ‘n’ roll dancer ‘Rockin’ Old Man’, their collaboration with their producer Carl Edmondson on an outstanding run-through ‘Big’ Joe Williams’ blues standard ‘Baby Please Don’t Go’ and their bravura cover version of Ike and Tina Turner’s ‘I Idolize You’.

The late, renowned guitar hero and Fraternity’s big star Lonnie Mack (1941-2016) is also featured on this release, providing dynamic backing for the group during their vigorous 1964 renovation of Huey Smith and The Clowns’ 1957 Ace New Orleans standard, ‘Rocking Pneumonia And The Boogie Woogie Flu’. In turn, The Charmaines work as backing singers for is highlighted on the guitarist’s wild versions of Berry Gordy’s ‘Money (That’s What I Want)’ and East Coast bluesman Titus Turner’s ‘Sticks And Stones’.

I Idolize You! Fraternity Recordings 1960-1964 provides the evidence that The Charmaines were easily the equal of the more commercially successful girl groups of the era. The Charmaines’ recordings have endured in popularity on the UK northern soul scene and this album outlines why that is the case, decades after they were recorded. Play loud and often.

~

Ace Records can be found online at acerecords.co.uk. They’re also on Facebook and Twitter, as @AceRecordsLtd.

All words by Ian Johnston. More writing by Ian on Louder Than War can be found at his author’s archive.

The post Recent Ace Records Releases by Ian Johnston | July 2019 appeared first on Louder Than War.

David Lynch event at HOME with

These New Puritans

Chrysta Bell

The Whyte Horses

More info about future events from here

Manchester International Festival has come to town filling the city full of artful events and international debuts.

There is also a live music element to the cultural avalanche with the key strand of live bands performing at Manchester’s prime arts and culture space, HOME.

The venue has played a blinder by getting legendary film director David Lynch to take over the whole complex with all his artful disciplines from a gallery exhibition to a series of great off the wall concerts that offer a unique opportunity to immerse yourself in the world of the pioneering American artist, musician and director.

Tonight in the venue’s beautifully constructed theatre, with its perfect PA system, there are three contrasting bands that each reach for the stars and remould music in slightly disconcerting and disorientating ways that would get the nod of approval from the grand master himself. 

Whilst Lynch is not here himself – probably deep in some transcendental meditation on top of a mountain or drinking tea with his best buddy Ringo Starr, his fingerprints are all over this evening.

The Whyte Horses have been operating on the Manchester fringe for some time now. Their beautifully crafted perfect psychedelic guitar pop is full of surf twang, sixties melodrama and girl group heartbreak. The three woman singing upfront have voices that combine perfectly to let these exquisite melodies soar and the band are razor tight delivering their music in the theatrical backdrop. It’s a perfect reminder of just how classic these songs are and it can’t be long now before the band are getting embraced across the Green Man style festival circuit.

Tonight’s host and also performer, self styled ‘sexy alien’, Chrysta Bell in her faux fur pencil skirt with large cuffs, is a Lynch favourite and the charismatic singer and former from woman from the band 81/2 Souvineers who toured their artful muse with the likes of Brian Setzer is from San Antonio in Texas. Hooking up with Lynch, they wrote songs together and she has appeared in the latest Twin Peaks as FBI Agent Tammy Preston .

She is the host of the evening doing those off jilter and slightly disturbing monologues that walk that dayglo tightrope of avant garde and entertainment that Lynch specialises in. She also has that perfume of the fifties about her, the damaged torch singer vibe and exotic and off kilter glamour of all Lynch heroines. She opens with a great cover of Sonny Cher’s Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down) over a grinding loping noise groove and  delivers a stirring and powerful set of songs that are dark and richly gothic with a nod to the clank and grind of industrial like a Chelsea Wolf in stilettos or Anna Von Hauswolff in a kooky nightclub. It’s stunning and thrilling stiff and her voice slides all the full gamut of emotions as she soars above the tumult and deep into the heart of darkness.

Headliners, These New Puritans, have returned with their sound even further away from the trad rock structures of the rest of the pack and a high tech stage full of blinking and bleeping digital that they combine into a set that makes variation a key point. 

They deliver songs that are either sparse soaring vocal pieces or thundering tribal workouts with the drum pads combining with the razor tight drums to create clattering backdrops that are a nod at the King Crimson’s three drummer experience but also that early eighties obsession with tribal patterns but sieved up into a modern context. 

There is so much going on here that it takes time to unpack. 

There is the soaring melancholy of Talk Talk. The still landscapes of late period Japan. The artful deconstruction of rhythm and noise of art rock. The adventurous spirit of all the best British musical explorers but somehow coerced into a kind of pop music. This is clever stuff but it never loses site of the ability to make a music that you can relate to and the stylistic changes are breathtaking and once you relax into their trip it’s a glorious ride. 

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Babymetal
O2, Academy Brixton
2nd July 2019

Babymetal brought their unique blend of j-pop, metal and choreography to South London. Paul Grace was armed with his camera to capture the event.

I was asked to photograph the show as a late stand-in, and I jumped at the chance because Babymetal had been on my radar for a while. I’d been intrigued by the BBC coverage of their performance at Glastonbury the previous weekend and particularly tickled by the crowd shots which mainly featured cut-aways of audience members looking confused and/or fans banging their heads frantically.

With a massive global following, Babymetal sold out a headline show in Wembley Arena in 2016 and also tonight’s more intimate gig in Brixton Academy.

As the house lights dip, the Japanese tri tiptoe onto stage together with their masked backing band. The crowd goes ballistic, and from the off, it’s very clear that the Babymetal experience is all about fun. Babymetal jump around like playful kittens onto mini platforms and tease the crowd with their coquettish gestures.

Their sound is classic kawaii –  a genre that features a frenzied mix of poppy vocal, thrash guitar and ravey synth. Confident lead vocals are provided by Su-metal, while Moametal and new member Riho Sayashi sing backing vox, as they perform intricate dance moves which frequently reference their home of Japan.

The 60 minute set features tracks from previous albums Babymetal and Metal Resistance, as well as a couple of new songs from their forthcoming third album, Metal Galaxy. Pyro was also plentiful and the crowd screamed in massive approval.

Set-list:-

1) Megitsune
2) Elevator Girl
3) Ind-metal
4) Distortion
5) Starlight
6) Syncopation
7) PA PA YA!!
8) Gimme Chocolate!!
9) KARATE
10) THE ONE
11) Road of Resistance

~

Follow Babymetal:

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

All photos © Paul Grace, for more of Paul’s writing and photos go to his archive. Paul is on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and his websites are www.paulgrace-eventphotos.co.uk & www.pgrace.co.uk

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The San Pedro Collective

Demon Sessions EP

Blindside Records

DL all available platforms

Out now

What would happen if you woke up tomorrow morning, The Hacienda was open as usual, Sankeys Soap was still thriving, and the sweat was still pouring down the walls at The Thunderdome? What if a load of experienced musicians and characters got together to make a KLF like collaboration with no knowledge of where this will take them? Well Manchester and the rest of the world, enter the realms of Rikki Turner and co. It’s gonna blow your mind…

San Pedro is a new project of Rikki Turner, the mastermind behind several Manchester electronic outfits such as The Paris Angels, The New Southern Elektrik and The Hurt. A large collective named after the Californian town where Turner’s favourite writer, Charles Bukowski lived out his final days, San Pedro consists of musicians, DJ’s, writers, poets, artists and singers based in the UK, mainland Europe and America.  So far we know about singer/songwriter Millie MacBean known for her ethereal vocals, Suddi Raval (ex member of rave duo Together, best known for their hit “Hardcore Uproar” that went to the top of the national charts in 1990), Simon Wolstencroft (The Fall, Ian Brown, The Stone Roses, Johnny Marr and Freak Party), Keith Higgins (former member of The Hunt), Justin Leonard, Martin McClaren, poet Karl Hildebrandt and Antnee Egerton of The Winachi Tribe.

The lead track The Things You See kicks it all off in proper rave style, camera shot clicking sound effects, with Millie’s vocals bossing it over a storming electro house soundtrack. It’s from the same school as Sneaker Pimps or maybe Moloko, the difference being is that the sound is fuckin massive. This track should surely be a floor filler in clubs around the planet.

Next up is a Winachi Tribe remix of the same track, proper pumped up high to fuck you up even more. It’s a massive tune sprinkled with disco biscuits by Antnee Egerton from The Tribe who know a thing or two about the funk business. Theme from San Pedro is a techno classic that 808 State or A Guy Called Gerald would be proud of. The 303’s are squelching all over the place, I’m throwing some shapes just thinking about it. Just pure acid house vibes that bring that those heady days of the Manc Summer Of Love. Fuckin tune!

Last but not least is the amazing The View From The Drowning Pool which introduces professional Manc gobshite Karl Hildebrandt on vocals. His dark poetry is becoming a hit on the streets at the moment and this is where he excels himself, spoken word from the bowels of his heart over a top as fuck in your face trance hitter. Again the sound is massive. There’s not enough stuff around like this anymore. Could it be the start of a new rave culture? Who knows? If there’s a collective to light that touch paper going into 2020 this is it. The time of the house / electro anthem looks to be back.

Check out the amazing video directed by Kate M Bennett co owner of Blindside Records. Massive.

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Listen on Spotify

Words by Wayne Carey who writes for Louder Than War. His author profile is here and you can catch his  website here 

Photo credit: Paul Husband.

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Joan As Policewoman
RNCM, Manchester
11th July 2019

Lee Ashworth was there to see the inimitable Joan Wasser perform solo from her Joan As Policewoman back catalogue, supporting the release of career retrospective Joanthology.  

With no support, Joan took to the stage of the Lower Theatre at the Royal Northern College of Music at 8:30pm and embarked, with graceful modesty, on a stunning two hour set.  Switching between the piano and electric guitar, the only other musical accompaniment came from a drum machine situated on a small table.  Apart from the instruments and amplification, there was only minimalist lighting to serve as a stage set.  This was Joan stripped back to the essentials, allowing every member of the rapt audience to focus on her soaring vocals as her voice expanded in the space left by the absence of a band.

Maybe it’s not the way Joan rolls, or maybe it was the influence of the famous school in which the performance took place, but whereas some performers might have been more tempted to improvise or even to let some aspects slide, Joan’s playing sustained an intensity and precision throughout.  The presentation of the songs was austere, yet for all this formality in contrast to last year’s show at Stoller Hall, replete with glittery baseball jackets, the intimacy brought us closer to this extraordinary singer songwriter and raired her beautifully poignant songs into their fullest form.  It may be a cliché but it is true that one of the measures of a great song is how well it can work stripped down to the bones.

A Joan As Policewoman gig always feels like an event and it was interesting to see this particular set-up in contrast to her previous tour with a full band and brass section, a further contrast to her previous Manchester show at Gorilla with Benjamin Lazar Davis.  Diverse and experimental for sure, yet as the songs played tonight from Joanthology attest, they all bear the unmistakeable hallmarks of this singular artist: sensual, reflective and impassioned.

Wonderful, the opener from Damned Devotion yet omitted from Joanthology, Tell Me, Warning Bell (her best song?), Christobell and Human Condition all exude a raw, delicate fragility that connects with the reverential audience. A standout is the way she makes Prince’s Kiss her own, while still clearly using it as a tribute, charging it with an erotic, ecstatic spirit of which one can only imagine he would approve.  She talks tenderly of Elliot Smith prior to We Don’t Own It and gives a memorably heartfelt tribute to Manchester as “the New York City of the UK”.  Now we await her next return to a place that has hopefully become Joan Wasser’s home from home.

Check out Joan As Policewoman here.

All words by Lee Ashworth. More writing by Lee Ashworth can be found at his author’s archive. Lee Ashworth is also on twitter as @Lee_Ashworth_ and has a website here. He is one half of The Manchester Art Authority.

Photos by Melanie Smith. More work by Mel on Louder Than War can be found at her author’s archive. You can find her on Facebook and Twitter. Photography portfolio can be found here

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(words also by @BelleVueRuth pictures by Bob McGowan)

Last week Manchester’s FUEL venue paid host to the CAFT charity event featuring Happy Mondays drummer Gary ‘Gaz’ Whelan starting his UK tour playing a selection of acoustic versions of Happy Mondays most renowned tunes. Also joined by fellow head-liner and Manchester street poet Argh Kid, plus Tamsin Middleton, Carousel Clouds and with their début live performance Vice Vera, all playing to an enthused full house. 

above – Argh Kid & Vice Vera’s Tamsin Middleton

Taking to a small but perfectly formed stage at the Withington venue, South Manchester. With an eager and enthusiastic crowd Whelan set his stall out with a crafted set-list which included – Kinky Afro, Gods Cop, Hallelujah, Loose Fit, Bob’s Your Uncle and Step On. A performance which received much applause and whoops by a packed out crowd, lapping up his older/wiser and slightly cynical kinda Bob Dylan/Leonard Cohen inspired versions of the Mondays back catalogue.

Versions built up from Whelan’s own ever evolving relation between individual consciousness and that very same Happy Mondays vibe which those tunes were originally created within, some 35yrs ago now. A quite original set of interpretations indeed, and all in great voice too.

Along with a stand up performance by Argh Kid and well received performances from the nights line up of acts the Manchester mini massive were left in admiration. Something which saw Twitter awash the next day with pictures, videos and praise to a successful night for both Gaz’s first ever Manchester acoustic performance and funds raised for the charity of the night. So check tour dates below and catch Whelan live as he plays a selection of shows throughout this year (with more TBA). Dates which also includes support shows on Proud Mary’s upcoming autumn UK tour.

..what’s more, listen below for his recently released tune ‘The Blind Man and The Junkie’. Sounding something a bit like Beck meets (dare I say) Black Grape its built on one killer riff. As well as the Monday’s rhythm-master’s funky set of lyrics scoffing at the fortunes of the stupid and untrustworthy of this world – and it grooves like a bad-ass.

You can hear this and more on his YouTube page (home-page to the video below) which features more of both his alt-versions of Happy Monday tunes and solo material.

follow Gaz Whelan on Twitter – https://twitter.com/gazwhelanmusic

The post Gary Whelan – FUEL/Manchester review appeared first on Louder Than War.

Föllakzoid

I

Sacred Bones – CD/LP/DL

Released on 1 August 2019

FOLLAKZOID – LTW

Föllakzoid’s fourth album is an all-enveloping experience both sinister and slightly disconcerting, while at the same time strangely exhilarating. It’s Krautrock, Jim, but not as we know it – not least because it comes from Chile.

Who even knew Chilean Krautrock was a thing?! Driven by repetitive Motorik rhythms, Föllakzoid may sound as if they make music firmly in the tradition of German bands like Can, Kraftwerk and Neu! but Domingæ Garcia-Huidobro and Diego Lorca say they are equally inspired by the ancient music of the Andes. Which makes more sense when you think about the psychedelic drugs the Incas liked to take at ceremonies.

The common factor is certainly the trance-like nature of their music. Föllakzoid make long, slow, hypnotic pieces that shimmer and throb, evolving until they’ve infected your mind and body. It’s a physical sensation as much as an aural one. And with every recording – this is their fourth album in ten years – they strip their sound back further in the pursuit of minimalist perfection. The result is what they consider to be a multi-dimensional reconsideration of what the process of songwriting, performance, and creating a work of recorded music can be.

Over their decade of existence Föllakzoid, formed by three childhood friends in Santiago, have not so much evolved as devolved, both physically and musically. Two of them have since departed, leaving drummer Diego Lorca and the non-binary Garcia-Huidobro, who joined (as Domingo) to play guitar in 2009, while their sound has been refined to bring it closer to its foundations.

They call the process “depuration”  – literally freeing their music from impurities. In practice, that means filling increasingly long spaces of time with fewer and fewer elements. Less, in their case, is literally more (and, confusingly, more is less). Unlike artists seeking to evolve through traditional growth, Föllakzoid strip back their sound further with each release, in their quest to find what they call their “sonic and metric identity.”

They say they want to “unlearn the narrative and musical knowledge that shape the physical and digital formats and conceptions available, both visually and musically, in order to make a time-space metric structure that dissolves both the author and the narrative paradigms.” If that sounds a bit scientific, or even pretentious, then thankfully the music on I  is neither: while ambient music usally instils a sense of calm in listeners, this is a record that imparts a sense of unease and disquiet, creating a kind of uneasy listening.

The record is a unique collaboration with German electronic artist  Atom™ (who plays an electronic Korg once used by Kraftwerk) in which the musicians and producer performed their roles separately. The process was as technical as past efforts have been organic. Unlike previous Föllakzoid records that were done in single takes with the full band, this record took three months to construct out of more than 60 separate stems – guitars, bass, drums, synthesizers, and vocals, all recorded in isolation.

The producer, who was not present for recording, was then asked to re-organize the four sequences of stems without any length, structural restrictions or guidelines. Those sequences ultimately became the four long tracks that appear on I. Titled only with Roman numerals from I to IIII, they are strictly kept to precise lengths: I and III last 17 minutes each, while II and IV are a comparatively brief 13 minutes each.

The result is a set of songs – though there are no vocals, only a few distorted mumbles – where “neither the band’s, nor the producer’s, structural vision primarily shaped the metric or tonal space shifts, but where both were still subliminally present in each of the parts that form the structure and the frequency modulations that guide them.” That, by the way, is the band’s description – not mine. What I think they mean is that they were contributing even when they weren’t there.

The four songs pulse and throb like trains leisurely winding through a post-apocalyptic urban landscape at night, their trancelike structures – minimalist bass, hi-hat and electronics – interrupted by shimmers and shudders, clanging and banging, disembodied voices and waves of distortion, wrapped in a dub-like production haze.  Released on the splendidly named and perfectly apt Sacred Bones label – also home to fellow travellers Wooden Shjips and Moon Duo – it’s an all-enveloping experience both sinister and slightly disconcerting, while at the same time strangely exhilarating.

Or, as Domingæ puts it: “We invite you to join us in sharing the experience of being led by this non-rational, sonic artform and its energy. It is also an invitation to connect once again with your inner master and his intuition, erasing the systematic rationalization that usually follows creative forces when perceived, to guide you on this holographic simultaneous simulation where reality is rooted in.”

Föllakzoid online:

https://www.facebook.com/FOLLAKZOID/
https://www.instagram.com/follakzoid/
https://follakzoid.bandcamp.com/
https://twitter.com/follakzoid
https://www.sacredbonesrecords.com/collections/follakzoid

All words by Tim Cooper. You can find more of Tim’s writing on Louder Than War at his author’s archive. He is also on Twitter as @TimCooperES. 

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Billy Bragg

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back tour

Fiddlers, Bristol

10th,11th,12th July 2019 

Billy Bragg brings his three-night career retrospective to Bristol, Elfyn Griffith lasts the course. Michael Brumby takes the photos.

‘What fucking times we live in!’ exclaims Billy Bragg five songs into this Bristol-leg of his three-night retrospective, the One Step Forward Two Steps Back tour. Indeed Billy, and ripe for the pointed poetic polemic of our most famous political troubadour.

What we get is basically three shows in one each night: music, stand-up and a sort of political rally. Bragg has always been about this, exuding humour, warmth, candidness and sound politics through his songs and his personality.

“It’s like playing to a bunch of Billy Bragg tribute acts,” he says, opening the first night with Sexuality (with its subtle line change ‘don’t threaten me with Morrissey’) as each member of the audience seems to sing along to every line of the song. Indeed it’s the same for all the old numbers on each of the nights, a communion of singing, a unison of voices with Bragg’s jagged guitar and Barking vocals leading the way.

While the first night is a kind of minesweep through his first half dozen albums and stuff from throughout his 35-year career, a ‘bish bash bosh’ as he puts it, night two is  the ‘chop and clang’ of his first three albums, 1983’s Life’s a Riot with Spy v Spy, Brewing Up With Billy Bragg (1984) and Talking With The Taxman About Poetry (1986), and the final night is a journey through his next three albums, the jangled moods of Workers Playtime (1988), the poppy Don’t Try This At Home (1991) and the back-to-basics William Bloke (1996).

In there, of course, are covers of his great inspiration Woody Guthrie’s Ingrid Bergman – and a long explanation of the eroticism of that song – and the charged polemic of All You Fascists Are Bound To Lose. We get the latter more than once, the second time on Friday dedicated to what would have been Guthrie’s birthday this Sunday, and as a dig at the imprisoned fascist Tommy Robinson.

It’s the nature of the three nights that certain songs are repeated, and between-song chat also, and there are some of the same faces at each night along with new ones, the age demographic meaning that we’ve all been round the block for roughly the same time as Billy too. But age withers not the passion. On night two while bringing up the thorny anti-Semitism issue in Labour he turns on and gets a member of the audience ejected for yelling out ‘We hate Tottenham, We hate Tottenham’. “You can say what you like but you’re going to be held to account for saying that at my gig,” he says before tearing into a coruscating Help Save the Youth Of America, and then praising his old original (and heavy!) guitar for its heckler-spotter qualities.

Typical of Bragg he then goes into a moving The Man In The Iron Mask before telling us that he’s always sung about love and protest even during the macho political climate of the 80s: “I was the only one in Red Wedge singing about wanking and politics”. Levi Stubbs’ tears follows…

That’s always been the strength of Bragg, that he mixes the personal and the political. He really comes from a tradition of left-field political folk, inspired by punk (a blend of ‘The Clash and Max Miller as he puts it…). A protest singer, his material has always been fairly straightforward, his messages direct and heartfelt, his love songs poignant. There’s a simplicity and honesty of emotion that cuts through the crap. At best it hits home with a subtle power.

Accountability is big on his agenda, and how it is missing from modern politics. Morrissey comes into this too, how he has to be held accountable for his right-wing rants. Coming at it from a fan’s perspective Bragg explains that he is saddened and feels let down as much as anything else. He explains how music is the currency of empathy and emotion and how Morrissey has rubbished that. But on the more positive side of the coin each night he talks about how his activism gets a boost every night when he sees the empathy of audiences towards his songs, and hopes that we too are given strength and hope in return to go and challenge cynicism everywhere, including our own, and to try and change and stand up to the shit that surrounds us.

“Socialism is nothing if it is not organised compassion,” he says, praising to the hilt the schoolkids protests and Extinction Rebellion. “If they’re looking for a Pete Seeger, I’m yer man.”

For all the brilliant renditions of Milkman Of Human Kindness, Upfield, Greetings To The New Brunette, the stirring Great Leap Forward, the country twangs of Everywhere (he also does a great few lines of The Who’s Tommy a-la-Johnny Cash, to explain chord changes…), the climaxes of New England on the first two nights, the full length and breadth of his material (even his version of the EU anthem, Beethoven’s Ode To Joy – valid and telling in these Brexshit times) the laughter and tears, the gut-wrenching beauty of Tank Park Salute, his powerful rendition of There Is Power In A Union stand out. It ends the set pre-encore on the first two nights and ends the whole caboodle on the third. Fists are clenched in solidarity and raised in the air, the audience sing as one, the guitar chords chime out almost like bagpipes, and we feel united.

Billy Bragg, take a bow…

~

Rest of the tour dates

29/30/31 .07 Dublin Whelan’s

06/07.08.11 Glasgow St Luke’s

11/12/13.11 Manchester Academy 2

16/17/18.11 Sheffield, The Leadmill

21/22/23.11 London Islington Assembly Hall

26/27/28.11 Cambridge Junction

01/02/03.12 Birmingham 02 Institute 2

Keep up with Billy Bragg on Billy Bragg website, also on Facebook and Twitter

Words  by Elfyn Griffith.

Photos  by Michael Brumby.

The post Billy Bragg: Fiddlers, Bristol – live review appeared first on Louder Than War.

Kit Sebastian: Mantra Moderne

Mr Bongo

LP/CD/DL

Available 19/07/2019

Mantra Moderne is the debut album by Kit Sebastian (Kit Martin, Merve Erdem) who fuse Anatolian psychedelia and Brazilian Tropicalia with 60’s European pop and American Jazz. Simon Tucker reviews.

A strange thing happens to you when you listen to Mantra Moderne. The world in its current state falls away and you are placed at the heart of what is a borderless planet. Thoughts fly through time zones to meet and merge with the thoughts of another all in the name of communion. This is unifying and joyous with an added dash of beautiful attitude.

Kit Sebastian are Kit Martin (who composed all the songs and played all the instruments) and multi-disciplinary and vocalist artist Merve Erdem (who wrote all the lyrics) and is an album that mixes three languages (English, French and Turkish) together. Exploring those universal themes of love, loss, decay, language and ideology, Mantra Moderne is a pop album that fights against any perceived ideas and breaks down any resistance you as a listener may have to anything deemed that mostly irrelevant tag of “World Music”.

Over its nine tracks Mantra Moderne reveals itself to be a finely crafted and exciting pop album that walks a balanced line between sounding retro yet also futuristic. From the instantly thrilling intro to opening track Senden Başka right through to the hard hitting groove of closer Durma, Kit Sebastian takes your body on a trip through the resistance-is-futile dance moves it demands of you via a more cerebral journey into your emotional state clawing away any stagnant energy you may be withholding within and leaving you in a far stronger emotional state than when you first came knocking on its door.

One of the strongest features of Mantra Moderne is its clever hybrid of lo-fi aesthetics and hi-fi ambitions. It has a duality to its sound that bathes each track in a richness whilst retaining the essence of a duo crafting music in the most basic of surroundings. Tracks like Pangea and With A Sense Of Grace feel as raw as a White Stripes recording yet as full as something from a Broadcast album (the latter being an obvious touchstone of the duos sound). This hybrid is not only achieved by the production of the album but by that most important of elements…songcraft. Kit and Merve are obviously very skilled in the art of song writing and you get a sense that if the duo were just handed an acoustic guitar and microphone they would be able to write a song that would sound ageless.

An incredibly strong debut, Mantra Moderne is bursting at the seams with grace, wit, beauty and an irresistible groove. Its a meticulous record that allows rough edges to meld with warm pop aesthetics. A dance infused folk album that will hopefully catapult the duo straight into the homes of many across the world. Free thinking and free hip-shaking music that is captivating and addictive. Thoroughly recommended.

~

Mr Bongo can be found via their website  Facebook  and Twitter where they tweet as @therealmrbongo

Kit Sebastian can be found via Facebook  Instagram   and Twitter where they tweet as @MantraModerne

All words by Simon Tucker. More writing by Simon on Louder Than War can be found at his author’s archive. You can also find Simon on twitter as @simontucker1979

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Jowe Head – Widdershins

Easy Action

CD/2XLP

Released 12th July 2019

New album by the ex-Swell Maps/TV Personalities man Jowe Head, where he explores both ancient and brand new songs in an Acid Folk Post-Punk extravaganza…..LTW’s Ian Canty warms his cockles on the burning Wicker Man…….

It has been great to see the late Swell Maps members Nikki Sudden and Epic Soundtracks finally get some critical respect for their solo works recently, both richly deserving of the renewed interest. But what about their ex-bandmate Jowe Head, who has produced his own fascinating if sometimes flummoxing output since his debut Pincer Movement in 1981? Whilst keep himself busy in bands like the Palookas, TV Personalities, The Demi-Monde, Angel Racing Food and current outfit the Infernal Contraption among others, he has also knocked up a fair few solo records. Widdershins (apparently this appertains to an age-old superstition against walking anti-clockwise) is his first solo effort since 2006’s From A Parallel Universe and it’s a corker.

Never being one to stick to the run of the mill, Widdershins seems at first to be a double album-sized look at how the ancient and modern interact with each other in the UK of 2019. But whereas many artists would simply rework Folk ballads that would adhere to the general concept, he mostly gives them them new and unique settings, but sometimes he does not. It’s just not that simple, with musical excursions outside of the UK’s narrow borders (and minds) deviating from what appeared on first sight a purely British concept. But this is a highly enjoyable and accessible enigma, Fortean subject matter and all included. It all works perfectly within its own internal logic, ebbing and flowing gracefully with spooky scares and wryly applied humour dealt out as appropriate.

Jowe often plays up the dramatic and primeval elements that were intrinsic to these old songs at their inception and styles his own compositions in a similar way. In doing so he calls on a talented retinue to back up his multi-instrumentalist prowess (he is even listed as playing “bicycle”). Drawing from a wide range of influences and sources, Jowe takes each and bends it towards his desired aims. The only thing I can think of that actually sounds a bit like this record is the early Residents material – occasionally Jowe resembles the British cousin of the “singing Resident” – not at all bad company to keep. But it is only fleeting and this LP is very much stamped with its own individual charm. The stories told are fascinating and engrossing and the music inventive and original – you won’t find much else that is like Widdershins.

Kicking off by affixing a steely sounding, sea-shanty-like feel to ancient death ballad Lyke Wake Dirge (some great strings work too on this), Jowe follows it with the self-penned Tankerton Bay. Even so a raw, primal Folk atmosphere dominates early on. The version of the Incredible String Band’s Minotaur Song is full of comic-horror glee and the following Nottamun Town is another ancient song, this time dealing fear of crowded city streets. Which may well ring true to anyone who has been down London’s Oxford Street lately. The sombre treatment of this one works well after the humour-driven nature of its predecessor.

Particularly smart is Ode To Krampus, the story Father Christmas’ oppo who instead punishes the naughty kids, rather than giving them gifts. That it is given a rather more serious setting than Minotaur Song (which is how it could have gone) works well and Jowe is relishing every creepy word of this one.

Changing pace we come to the short blast of Extra-terrestrials, which doesn’t go down the usual UFO/flying saucer route. Instead this posits that life on earth may have arrived by meteorite from elsewhere and is accompanied by a electronics-boosted fuzzy Garage sound. This is the first track on Widdershins that has a plain link to Jowe Head’s back catalogue in musical terms at least. Next Extras again is more in a driving Post Punk mode, with Jowe’s voice sounding mighty above the music, crazed backing vocals propelling things along.

Electric rhythms, an austere feel and Head’s plaintive voice duetting with the more operatic tones of Queen Christina make the tale of Joseph Cornell in New York 1930s an oddly Velvet Underground John Cale-style thing, it works very well. This album is made up of so many diverse moods, but it somehow all hangs together. Moving on the song Tom O’Bedlam, taken from a 17th century poem, is much more of a Folk Punk thing, with Heath Stanley’s guitar on this shimmering. Gower Street ends side two of the first vinyl disc (it’s track 10 on the CD) with a ramshackle electrical rattle, Jowe singing in fuller, less mannered style than elsewhere on Widdershins.

Trees ramps up the Folk Horror with a story of how nature takes a revenge on man’s mistreatment of it, bass powering this mid-paced piece of weird Pop Rock along. Queen Christina provides her song Baba Yaga, a tale of a black witch from Russia. This is a really catchy duet and would make a great, mad hit single, it is even a bit danceable. Queen Christina sounds here like the love child of Russell Mael and Lene Lovich! The depth of this record is amazing. Half-Bike follows and takes its cue from Flann O’Brien, as man and machine slowly become one with Syd Barrett’s Bike parked in the bicycle rack somewhere in the background.

Ein Stuhl In Der Holle marks possibly the only time an Einsturzende Neubauten song crops up on an Acid Folk Post-Punk Psychedelic LP , but again seems to have its roots in a traditional death song. Metal is bashed, as one might suspect, but this another humourous two-hander between Jowe and Queen Christina. Ed Bones trombone lays lazily and delightfully on top of the theatrical structure. Bells and queasy wobbles herald the start of King Of The Corn, now this is right smack bang in Wicker Man country. The first part of what may have a sequel later, the lyric here deals with the growth of crops and the knock on effect on the farmer’s fertility. There’s an ancient and menacing feel here with a chilling synth part, this tune is simultaneously bracing and eerie.

Hitting the final stretch of Widdershin, we have first the electronic pulse of the chant Long Live The Sun. This is a self-penned number willing the comeback of warmer weather in the depths of Winter, perhaps hinting at SAD’s origins in a frozen Britain of Pagan times. Two Ravens details the eponymous exploits of those birds, again in a malevolent comedy style as the ravens’ prey here includes humans. A little like Lyke Wake Dirge in terms of sound, more guitar on this one though.

Bolweevil Holler again takes us out of the country to rural USA with a song that Shirley Collins famously covered. This, despite Jowe’s assertive and one of a kind voice, is quite a traditional treatment. Bringing things to a close is Shepherd’s Lament, finding inspiration from Psalm 23 of the Bible, but repositioning the shepherd as a dozing security guard. The sense of dread is played up to the full by the track’s slithering rhythm, with again Jowe singing this one fairly straight – He’s absolutely spot-on as the guide on this album, knowing exactly the right times to stress the comic or the macabre, the time for fun and/or fear, that’s as well as playing a bewildering amount of instruments. Chanting voices bring Shepherd’s Lament and Widdershins to an aptly sober, slightly ominous ending.

I hope that has at least given you a flavour of the scope Widdershins, a lot of different sounds and styles are utilised, but never just for the sake of it. This LP accomplishes what a lot of records claim, but ultimately don’t fulfil, i.e. taking the listener on a real journey. One that is fraught with a bit of danger, occasionally deviates wildly, but always delivers a lot of food for thought, along with some excellent music. Looking for a real musical experience instead of a set of ditties? You found it. Looking for something that reflects the current obsession with Folk Horror, but recognises the passage of time, feels true and tries to make sense of it all in 2019? You got it. Looking for a simply great record? You got it. Now get it.

Jowe Head is on Facebook here

All words by Ian Canty – see his author profile here

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BAD BREEDING release brutal C.S.A.M video banned from YouTube ahead of UK tour

If you’re looking for a state of the nation address, look no further. said Joe Whyte reviewing the new Bad Breeding album for Louder Than War.  Here’s the latest missive from the band.

Stevenage anarcho-punks, Bad Breeding release a subversive political message for their explosive track C.S.A.M on video format, ahead of their UK tour this week.

The compiled footage for C.S.A.M was banned from YouTube on upload as part of the channel’s latest shutdown of controversial content.

“Indexthumb has created a video that comments on the manufactured angles played out in the media that seek to gain traction for imperialist manoeuvres around the world. It’s a video that echoes the use of shock-and-awe tactics and infantilisation that are employed to bypass or simplify conversations about complex issues,” explains frontman Christopher Dodd.

“The pursuit of western imperialism in the last two decades has arguably accounted for the deaths of at least half a million people in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have also had untold carnage unfold in other parts of the Middle East. And for what? Oil? Money? National pride? Strategic positioning? Our march of emancipatory progress? C.S.A.M. stands in direct opposition to the rank western moralisation of war and the political misdirection that has led us to this point; all the bloodshed, lives lost and money made.”

Here it is.

Bad Breeding – C.S.A.M. from One Little Indian Records on Vimeo.

C.S.A.M is a sonic beating that defines the vicious acts of war.

Bad Breeding’s new album, Exiled is freshly released on fold-out sleeve black vinyl and download via One Little Indian Records HERE

UK Tour:
July 21st Crofter’s Rights, Bristol
July 22nd The Polar Bear, Hull
July 23rd Temple of Boom, Leeds
July 24th The Moon, Cardiff
July 25th Electrowerkz, London

Stream Exiled here

Press Release from Division/OLI slightly edited by Ged Babey for LTW

Photo by Katie Rose.

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“You’re listening to Mac Wetha,” states the EP’s opening soundbite, as if we needed telling. Despite the myriad of guests, the R’n’B producer succeeds in creating an EP that is uniquely his. For 17 minutes he invites us into a world of hip-hop beats, disjointed guitar chords and deep atmospheric bass.

Opener ‘Smokers’ ‘ finds rapper/singer Lava La Rue delivering some of her most memorable lines to date, including the endlessly quotable “Make your bitch cry like Adele // stack the cheese like babybel // diamonds whiter than Coachella”. It is the most fun song on the record, largely because Mac Wetha cuts the beat midway through MC Bone Slim’s verse, causing him to plead with the producer to “keep it running.”

Unwilling to rely too heavily on vocalists, midway through the EP we are presented with two instrumentals, the jazz influenced ‘Loftus’, and the guitar led ‘Partners’. The latter flirts with indie rock, reminiscent of early American Football. It’s one of the EP’s highlights, along with successive track ‘Themes’. Here the 21 year old works wonders with guest star Puma Blue’s vocals, using auto-tune to distort them into a beautiful alien croone (Frank Ocean, anyone?), on a track built over a looped sample of crowd cheers. As with many of these songs, it ends all too soon, clocking in at just 2:43, ironically making it one of the longer pieces on the tape.

Elsewhere we find Biig Piig give a characteristically intimate performance on ‘Ode to Mumma’, Lorenzorsv and Nayana Iz singing in perfect unison on ‘Pls Stop’, before being wrongfooted by the intro to closing track ‘Spit in Ur Face B’. Louis Culture’s vocal overdubs allow him to express multiple levels of energy, while Lava La Rue closes the EP with a final lyrical tirade.

‘Mac Wetha & Friends’ may be a fitting title for an EP with as many features as this, but Mac Wetha needn’t be so humble. Yes, it is hard to pin down, but its varied influences result in a mature and accomplished release. Brevity is often a sign of confidence, and judging from this EP, Mac Wetha is one of the most confident men in music.

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Horse Jumper of Love: So Divine – album review

Horse Jumper of Love

So Divine (Run For Cover Records)

LP/CD/Cass/DL

Out Now

To bastardise a phrase coined by Pixies, Horse Jumper of Love’s sophomore release, their debut on Run for Cover Records, could be described as quietquietloudish, as their often-mesmerising understated lo-fi tunes build slowly adding intricate noise sculptures and, only occasionally, building to a mellow crescendo.

The crescendos are a slow burn though. For most of the record you will be drifting along in Giannopoulos tantalizing world drawn in by alluring aural soundscapes, wondering where they will take you next. Delicate vocals and sympathetically plucked guitars give way to hypnotic smouldering riffs with rhythmic synchronous bass and drums adding to the trance like state being induced.

As existing fans of the band’s music will attest, Horse Jumper of Love aren’t going to have you jumping around your living room playing air guitar any time soon, rather they’ll have you sitting unflustered in introspective consideration absorbing the slow paced alt rock and letting the melodies and lyrics drift over you stimulating an overwhelming state of wellbeing.

The only fast thing about this album is how quickly it is over, clocking in at around the half hour mark. Mind you that was enough to ground me and take away the stresses and strains of the day. Yeah, so divine.

Horse Jumper of Love bandcamp

Horse Jumper of Love Facebook

~

All words by Neil Hodge. More writing by Neil on Louder Than War can be found at his author’s archive. You can also find Neil online at his blog thegingerquiff.

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Brudini

Self Released

Emotional Outlaw

Out 19/07/2019

Louder than War Premiere the new single from the incomparable Brudini. 

‘Emotional Outlaw’ is the new single and video by Brudini, and it’s a collaboration with New York based fashion photographer Fabrizio del Rincon. The video for the single sees Brudini running up against an androgynous – and ambiguous – figure (played by queer model and Elsewhere-bartender Didi Fredrika), who assumes the role of soul companion, of muse, of demon and – perhaps – a personification of suppressed aspects of himself.

‘Emotional Outlaw’ is the second single from the forthcoming debut album, ‘From Darkness Light’, and follows the release of critically acclaimed ‘Reflections’ earlier this year.

Jazzy drums and cymbals start this track. Then in comes the throbbing electronica and some nice organ accompaniment which drives the tune, very much in the way Conway Savage does in the Bad Seeds. Brudini’s distinctive vocals come in singing about “Emotional Outlaws” and being “pulled out of my limbo”. This keyboard attack also reminds me of the late, great Jonathan Fire Eater! Nice.

There is a mid song breakdown where the tempo remains the same, but a piano now drives the rhythm (as well as the jazz drums). Along with some far out space age electronica sounds, the breakdown is incredibly dramatic and this is only made more intense with a short lived, yet loud and aggressive guitar solo.

The video itself is dark with visuals reminiscent of David Lynch doing a vampire film. It’s awash with red velvet curtains, strange heighted chairs, disturbing visuals with Brudini’s running clown makeup and Didi Fredrika’s face obscured and bound by her own hair. There is a tension and an almost violent ballet between the two, played out to the organ stabs and insistent drums. After the breakdown, Brudini takes to wearing a transparent mask which does no fucking favours for the dreams I’ll be having later. It’s not pleasant. Yet, I don’t think anything about the song, or visuals were ever intended to be ‘nice’. Good music should be hard work and should be disturbing at times. If the visuals that come with it are equally disturbing then even better. Yet again I have come out of retirement to review a Brudini release (soft I am), but yet again I’m just simply blown away with his knack for a tune and his ability to feel ‘different’, yet commercial. However, this time he brings the visual performance that just adds to the originality and idiosyncrasy that Brudini has always produced. It starts to cement him as the serious artist he is, and hopefully this will flourish into the success he deserves.

Written, recorded and produced by Brudini. All instruments by Brudini except Drums Derin Bayhan, Double Bass Casper Hoedemaekers, Mixing Jeremy Loucas and Brudini at Sear Sound, NYC, Mastered by Jeremy Loucas on 1/2” tape at Sear Sound, NYC

The video was directed by Fabrizio Del Rincon & Brudini and starred Brudini & Didi Fredrika.

Director of Photography Fabrizio Del Rincon. Screenplay and Editing Brudini. Grading and Post-Production David Packer. Art Direction Lisa Jarvis. Hair Drew Schaefering. Make-Up Kento Utsubo. Assistant Make-Up Koki Kurusu.

Brudini can be found on his website, Soundcloud, Facebook , Instagram, Spotify, Youtube and he tweets as @brudinimusic.

Words by Ioan Humphreys. More writing by Ioan can be found at his author’s archive. You can also find him on Twitter at @ioan_humphreys.

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Mike McGear – McGear – Album Review

Esoteric

2CD + 1DVD/DL/Vinyl

Released 19th July 2019

A remastered and expanded edition of the Scaffold man’s 1974 solo album, with contributions from his slightly more famous brother Macca and his band Wings….Ian Canty hears the proof that Pop smarts in the McCartney family didn’t begin and end with Paul and when the brothers got together…..by gum it was mighty

To his great credit Peter “Mike McGear” McCartney refused to cash in on his brother’s fame at the height of Beatlemania. He changed his name so that his efforts with the group Scaffold would not been seen as capitalising on his big bruv’s fame. The comic Rock trio of John Gorman, Roger McGough and McGear scored a number one with Lily The Pink and enjoying a fair amount of chart success in the UK during the 1960s. But by the start of the new decade the cat was completely out of the bag regarding Mike’s Beatle brother and all bets were off. When McGear came to record his second solo LP after 1972’s Woman (which featured a PM co-write Bored As Butterscotch, though he was credited as “Friend”) what better time to roll out the big guns, i.e. Paul and his band Wings, in support?

McGear the album might have functioned as a much-needed break from Scaffold activities, with Mike exiting the GRIMMS collective (being a match up of Scaffold and the Bonzos among others – the Bonzo crew’s attitude and sense of fun clearly rubbed off on Mike a bit and Viv Stanshall appears on some of the bonus tracks here) after falling out with poet Brian Patten.  Brother Paul and his band Wings were winding down their Apple contract, but still had the itch to record. So originally just envisaging a single backing Mike, the session went so well the McGear LP project was born. Though a solo effort it was more of a collaboration than anything else, with Mike shaping the songs (most of which he co-wrote with Paul) in his own particular way, whilst Paul worked his musical magic. Together they made a great team and one terrific Pop record in McGear, Mike bring his own individual sense of fun to add to Wings’ undoubted expertise in the studio.

Trussed up a la Gulliver in Lilliput on the cover photo, Mike’s persona and voice are unleashed from the get-go. A cool and dramatic reading of Roxy Music’s Sea Breezes works as an elegant introduction to the album, orchestrated and ornate where the original relied on a more spartan setting. One thing you can’t take away from Paul McCartney is the painstaking effort that he put in at the studio making sure things sounded just right and his approach is no different here with a producer’s hat on. It’s audio perfection with the added bonus in Mike’s cheeky sarkiness keeping things from getting too schmaltzy, with perhaps only the exception being rudimentary love song Simply Love You.

It would have been easy for a singer to get submerged in such company and make this LP like a Wings album by proxy, but McGear seizes the driving seat admirably, laying on the scouse heavy on the prefect-baiting Norton (the offering most redolent of Scaffold on the entire record) or summoning up his inner Jake Thackeray on the truly touching McCartney/McGough effort The Casket. His straight reading makes it all the more poignant, a beautiful performance.

Leave It is just a gloriously infectious and sunny Pop song, a deserved hit which should have gone higher and the catchy Rainbow Lady surely would have followed it into the charts if given a single release. If you listen closely you can hear Shakin’ All Over in the background on Givin’ Grease A Ride – a really neat Rocker than pre-empted Chris Spedding’s Motorbikin’ hit of the next year and there is an ultra-cool synth part on it courtesy of Linda Mac. There’s a definite touch of Stanshall’s madness on set closer The Man Who Found God On The Moon, an amalgam of songs/experiences which concludes by way of a warm refrain surrounded with samples and Psychedelic effects. Yes, “everything but the kitchen sink”, but it really works and provides a fitting end to a great LP. As extras here we also get the Bluesy stomp of the Dance The Do single (which featured the McCartneys’ cousin, actress and singer Kate Robbins, on backing vocals) and Leave It’s flipside the snappy and smooth Sweet Baby.

Disc Two mops up different versions of the album tracks, singles and various odds and sods. Even so it is still high quality listening, with only a few throwaway items. Sea Breezes sans orchestration highlights the wild shifts in the music that were applied and Leave It doesn’t outstay its welcome in an extended version, its bright charm easily shining on past the six minute mark. 1980’s All The Whales In The Ocean single is one of the latest recordings presented here (the b-side I Juz Want What You Got – Money! is here too), with an acoustic drive and Celtic feel that has slight echoes of Mull Of Kintyre.

It’s lovely to hear Viv Stanshall’s deliciously fruity voice on the two radio ads for the Dance The Do single and he does a bit of comic acapella as well on the eponymous Viv Stanshall Sings track. There’s three delightful isolated snippets of Paddy Moloney’s pipes that featured on the album tracks and Let’s Turn The Radio On is a neat excursion into Slim Chance territory. Girls On The Avenue looks nostalgically back to early Rock & Roll in its guitar picking sound and Do Nothing All Day is a lovely olde worlde meditation on lazy summer days. There’s a ton of nice stuff on this disc to enjoy.

The third and final disc is a DVD which features two interview segments and the video for the Leave It single. The video shows its age a little, with a small “drip” to the left of the screen, but it is effective and evocative of the times, featuring Mike in his own words “poncing around with a fedora on” trailing a “dream” woman. The interviews add up to 90s minutes plus and seeing as Mr McGear is a natural raconteur they fairly fly by with a good dollop of self-effacing humour. We learn a lot about the songs as well. For instance we discover which future newscaster played a part in the development of Norton and how Bryan Ferry reacted to the cover of Sea Breezes. Though simply filmed and not anything out of the ordinary visually, it is an excellent extra in that it gives us a real insight into Mike’s life and how that transferred almost directly into the songs of McGear. It goes without saying there are a load of interesting titbits for Beatles fans too.

This is really a beautifully put together and presented reissue of a fine album, with gatefold mini-sleeves, reproductions of handwritten lyrics and a poster in a smart box. Reissuing done right. McGear has been out of print for a near quarter of a century, which is a real shame when you consider some of the things that are constantly rehashed and how great a Pop record this album really is. When the McCartney brothers came together for this short time they produced something of true lasting value, which is given the kind of high-quality presentation here it deserves. Outstanding.

Mike McGear is on Facebook here

All words by Ian Canty – see his author profile here

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NEW ORDER + LIAM GILLICK: SO IT GOES

CD / DL / triple vinyl

Mute

Available now

New Order release an audio document of the 2017 shows from the Manchester International Festival that revisited and celebrated their back catalogue in grand style.

The Guardian, The Times and The Observer were highly complementary, although if you wanted a more reliable and informed opinion, our own John Robb’s review of the event (here) called this an “outstanding…a stunning and artful setup.” In fact, just click the link and re-read JR’s words of wisdom and then get onto whatever platform you use for listening to music (unless you still a CD or indulge in the triple coloured vinyl options) and relive the sounds of New Order doing it with a difference.

It was a  special series of intimate shows in collaboration with visual artist Liam Gillick – such an important and frankly essential part of the presentation (or was it new Order soundtracking his installation?)  – and backed by a bank of 12 synth players from Manchester’s RNCM set in two rows behind Venetian blinds. Add Joe Duddell’s orchestrations and the iconic setting of Manchester’s old Granada Studios and all the ingredients were there. On So It Goes, we get to focus on just the music with the recording of the full show from the 13^th July plus three additional tracks that were played over the residency. It adds a different perspective as this seems to have been one of those where you, as they say, had to be there, so inevitably the effect is watered down.

We now know the how the aim was to reimagine (deconstruct, rebuild, rethink… etc. might have been an apt title) what some call the deeper cuts in the band’s catalogue. Ah yes, “Requests for Blue Monday will fall on deaf ears, and these days these ears are pretty deaf”. There’s more than enough in the library of work to be able to pull some belters from the annals and treat them to a coating that adds depth and power. Despite the constant pull of rabbits from the hat, the magnet of Unknown Pleasures’ Disorder, gathering dust for decades and the Closer pairing of Heart And Soul and Decades, might be the hook that snares those seeking some familiarity, yet they somehow seem a world away becoming absorbed into the context of the freshness of the newly reinvigorated New Order pieces.

In these days of bands being only too willing to go down the easy route of churning out a shedload of nostalgia by performing ‘classic’ albums – no names mentioned for they are many – it’s invigorating to see a band taking up a more exciting option. With the recent Joy Division orchestrated show at the Royal Albert Hall and Hooky keeping the kettle boiling in his own inimitable way, the whole JD/NO history feels like it’s gained a fresh momentum and lease of life. Just watch out for hell freezing over.

Listen to Ultraviolence :

New Order  online:

Website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,  YouTube

~

All words by Mike Ainscoe. You can find more of Mike’s writing on Louder Than War at his author’s archive. He can be found on Facebook and is currently revamping his website…

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