IN THE CITY: Fringe Highlights

Back on the blogging horse, I’ll waste no time boring you with why but expect a few more postings and goings-on around here very soon – and we’re kicking off with In The City.

Over three days In The City combines a daytime hub of industry debate with a city-wide live festival, gathering the music industry in Manchester and providing a forum for the hottest discussion topics, while showing the public and cheque-waving A&Rs some of the best emerging musical talent in the world.

During the day In The City gathers a wealth of controversial, talented figureheads of music, film, photography, art, new media and gaming to debate and seek answers to some of the creative industries’ most pressing and delicate issues. One of the central debates has been Pay to Play – grass-roots promoters insist on artists committing to a minimum income in their booking contract, meaning the band may have to cover any losses if not enough tickets are sold. It’s a system that basically shifts some (or usually all) of the risk from the promoter to the artist themselves

Nighttime is where the fun really started though, with city-wide events showcasing bands new and old, famous and not. While Oh No Ono and Young British Artists more than outdid themselves, here the best of the rest from the Fringe – the ones you just might not have heard of.

THE SOMETHING STORY

 

The Something Story

 

The Something Story played a late set at Copper Face Jacks underneath the Palace Theatre but despite being new on the scene they’re not rookies. They burned up Club Academy, Jabez Clegg and Moho Live before taking the stage at In The City and by all accounts, they rocked out. They’re local boys and they bring that trademark Mancunian twang to a test-tube union of Jimmy Eat World and Sleater-Kinney that grew up without parents to love and nurture it.

Have a listen on their Myspace. Favourite tracks: Sugarpaper, And this is… (Science)

 

 

 

LOST CITY LIGHTS

 

Lost City Lights

Glaswegian alt rockers Lost City Lights have a very expansive sound that makes up for in charm and Scott McWatt’s awesome vocal what it lacks in on-paper uniqueness. They already have a four track record out on iTunes and have completed one UK tour – onwards and upwards from here.

Myspace

 

 

 

 

MOJO PIN

 

Mojo Pin

Mojo Pin exhibit a sort of musical schizophrenia, switching from a gentle folk sound with floating melodies to hard rock and smashing beats with a casualness that is equally impressive and frightening – but it’s an interesting mix once you’re armed and have gotten a safe distance away.

Myspace

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tags: festival, fringe, in the city, indie, lost city lights, manchester, mojo pin, music, the something story, unsigned

Split EP – Hira Hira/Little a

Hira Hira are a Sydney four-piece comprising Kris, Matt, Adam and Josh and Little a is Amy Wilson, also a Sydneysider. Hira Hira are local heroes and purveyors of scratchy hardcore punk; Amy’s loose synth-pop and awkward energy have also won her many fans around New South Wales. Just so you all know, “hira hira” is a Japanese manga sound effect for rustling paper, flags, that sort of thing, and I don’t really know what to read into that, but the total effect of this eight-track EP is certainly more profound than that sound effect. It makes you tingle, in a way that makes you feel as belligerent as King Kong on cocaine.

It kicks off with ‘St. Valentines Day’, and Hira Hira’s unique fusion of sophisticated guitar and crashing cymbals begins to work it’s magic. All of the band members sing apparently, and I don’t know who here is singing but the tortured noises that come from the poor bloke’s throat ram home halfway between euphoric and lump-in-your-throat. The next track is ‘Children’s Letters To God’  and sounds like early Thrice (never, EVER a bad thing) and with ‘All The Kids In The Basement Are S.O.B’s’ the music gets sparser and faster and is served neatly in a traditional 3-minute punk slice. ‘Monsters’ has lots of appropriate twanging and crashing – “they’re scattering ashes over daisies… and why should we care?” intones a loaded Australian voice, giving you the feeling he might erupt at any second.

We are left thoroughly on edge as Little a starts her half off. Wilson has superb tonal control – capable of crooning and almost screeching in perfect pitch. “I’ll think of you… ’til my heart stops beating,” she intones on ‘HEART’, set against the backdrop of buzzing synths and incessant beats. ‘Clock’ is floating, melodic, hazy and oppressively ominous all at once and is another showcase of vocal power – no more than three or four lyrics in the whole song but it’s the experience that  is important. ‘Dim City Lights’ pulses with dance hit quality and gothic charm and the EP rounds off with the beautiful acapella ‘X-Ray’.

It’s not an instant hit, this. You really need to invest some time and listen properly otherwise all you hear is noise, albeit cohesive noise. But it’s a winner. Dynamic, diverse, interesting and well put-together, it’s everything an indie classic should be – obscure, brilliant, a little DIY-sounding and completely emotionally compromised.

10/10

Tags: 10/10, australia, hira hira, little a, split ep, syndey

“Powered By Absinthe, Ruined By Daylight” EP – Rosamojo & The White Rabbit

Rosamojo & The White Rabbit are a Camden town three-piece embarking on their first excursion into London’s indie scene and boy, are they doing it with attitude. Citing influences from the Beatles and Billie Holiday to T.Rex and Patti Smith, Maria Rosa Young (vocals), Simz (six-foot killer bassist) and Sickboy (drums) have made what melodic, sleazy rock outfits like the Gossip could have been – better. Much, much better.

‘Girl on a Motorcycle’ is apparently a tribute to the free-falling Marianne Faithful, and rolls and heaves along with the grace of a swan. Big rock sound carried very lightly, and it’s very well-instrumented for just three players. I have found myself singing bits it for days. Then there’s the enigmatic and disgustingly cool ‘Sex, It Rocks’ featuring the brasher guitars and bluesy passionata sotto voce of Young that I’m sure will become their trademark, and if it doesn’t, it should. “Can you handle if I call the shots?” She purrs, with more ‘sex kitten’ than Kylie. The song swings between the musical equivalent of  robbing a convenience store and then shuffling it’s feet innocently, batting it’s eyelashes and saying “Oh no, officer, not us.”

I’m addicted. It’s not even out yet, on iTunes and Spotify on June 14th, but I’ve fully and completely fell in love with this breathy, insouciant, wonderful noise. They are planning a second EP release in August and are clearly looking to get their noses into the proper music industry – we all owe it to our inner child, the one that would flip the bird and stick out it’s tongue at policemen, to give them a leg-up.

10/10

Tags: 10/10, camden, london, pop, powered by absinthe, punk, rosamojo & the white rabbit, ruined by daylight

Indie, Sydney-side

Again, I apologise profusely for not informing you all that I was going to Australia. In fact, I am still here, writing from sunny but very cold Sydney, and I realise I am long past the time for an update so I thought I’d fill you all in on how the music looks down under in the capital of this fantastic country.

There seem to be a lot of music venues around catering for all tastes, from the lunchtime classical concerts given by students at the Conservatorium of Music in the infamous Sydney Opera House to the grotty pubs hosting very regular live music. During my travels I’ve chatted to some local rock boys to see what the scene is all about – they tell me it’s buzzing and growing more than ever. Australians love live music and entry to see one of the indie bands play at a pub or club of an evening ranges from $5 for entry only to about $20 if you want drinks and food included, a bargain in this expensive city.

Another interesting feature of the Sydney indie scene is bands leaving demo CDs at the front of music stores for people to pick up. My favourite so far is by Marf Loth and is called ‘Word Documents Rival The Bird Doctrines’. It’s a lovely mix of neo-punk and folk music and has a unique touch. Released by Artground Records (link) and just left by the front door, it is well worth the justice of a mention here. Australian music is taking a more cosmopolitan approach, drawing from not only the classic britpop and grunge influences from the UK and America respectively but taking inspiration from it’s own Aboriginal cultural music, Korean and Japanese rock and exciting fusions.

I’ll be posting more in my last two weeks here, a bit more on the indie scene Sydney-style.

Tags: artground records, australia, indie, marf loth, sydney, word documents rival the bird doctrines

‘Honor Among Thieves’ – Bob Pressner

It is rare indeed that a 7-track EP can manage to be cathartic, not only emotionally for the listener but also for the artist themselves. Bob Pressner says that ”A song like ‘Twisting In The Twilight’” (from Honor Among Thieves) “is about having the courage to stand alone on your principles. It touches on the overriding theme of life’s deep emotional complexity. Things may not always be as they appear.”

So, we pop the music on and sit back. The first thing we hear is the soft guitar tones and gentle vocal caress of ‘Afterglow Master’, which rapidly evolves into a rolling, crashing classic rock-style track. Then the energy is brought ever more gently back down to earth by the piano-driven ‘Angels In The Wind’ – developing a few more layers towards the end, but otherwise very much based on French folk song methodology.

Oh, what’s this? It’s called ‘Bleeding Me Dry’ and it’s got much, much heavier guitar and slightly scuzzy patter vocals which explode into a chorus of riffs and multiple voices Interpol would be deeply proud – the “my list of guilty pleasures can never be erased” seems poignant so far. But then we’re back to folky lilting with ‘Breakin’ My Fall’ – which is a bit of a nothing track, given everything that’s gone before.

‘Honor Among Thieves’ greets the listener with… Beck. Literally, it could belong to Beck. If you hear it, you’ll see what I mean. But it’s not a bad song, and unlike Beck it comes back to the (now expected) rock chorus, but it’s nonetheless engaging, as all well-played rock music is. ‘Independance Day’ follows the traditional rock pattern, played well. It’s got a little more energy that most of the tracks here though and it drives us neatly into ‘Twisting In Twilight’, a rather lovely come-down track.

Although not an EP to listen to all at once start-to-finish, but if you pick and choose wisely it’s more than capable of moving you. There’s a lot to be said for the adaptability and skill in Pressner’s vocals too – without a doubt the main feature of the record. An appropriate ode to a dual life.

7/10

Tags: 7/10, bob pressner, honor among thieves

‘Manuel Is Back… With Friends’ – Manuel Bruce

Naming an album ‘Manuel is back… with friends’ then proclaiming in the very first track that one “can’t go to work anymore” makes me want to cry “Paradox!”, but surprisingly, this multi-instrumental, multicultural album seems to stick religiously to it’s common vein of chilled out, bluesy, bossa nova latin music. Manuel and his friends manage to put together a well thought-out and entertaining music pick n’ mix, despite the fact that if they’re not at work they are probably all in a bar somewhere.

But for this, Bruce’s fifth album overall, it seems that work was the kicker. A plumber by trade, he was offered the chance to record for the plumbing he did at a studio – and who better placed than a hard-working man to write good blues? As for his friends, they include Diaz, who performs with Manuel mostly in Tucson, and whom happened to be visiting Alaska at the time, guitarist Lindy Raines (of the Fairbanks blues band the Mighty Untouchables); San Diego based saxman Jim Abbey, renowned “Nashville picker” Robert Couch, who toured with Willie Nelson (he contributes the jaunty blues instrumental “Moose Trax” to Manuel Is Back with Friends), and blues singer and piano player Professor Paul, who cut his teeth in Chicago and played with Big Walter. A fine band of merry men to go about making merry music.

That’s what this album is all about really: merry music. Pick-you-up music, music that is for the most part pointless but at the same time enjoyable. ‘Hot Chicken Soup’, a case in point; in which Bruce (on vocals) insists to his listeners that women are trouble – he’d rather have chicken soup, and that’ll make him feel better. There are rich instrumental tracks too like ‘Nostalgia’, which can be very much made your own excursion with every listen. Simples.

But it gets a little background-y, and it does leap-frog a few genres which can be incredibly disconcerting. But at the final track, ‘You Send Me’, you’re dropped off back at home with a lilting, harmonic wave goodbye. It’s not that different from many other goodbyes you’ve had, but that’s the thing about goodbyes, and good blues – it never really gets old.

6.5/10

Tags: 6.5/10, jim abbey, lindy raines, manuel bruce, manuel is back with friends, professor paul, robert couch

‘Darklight Corporation’ – Darklight Corporation

Raw, industrial-grade metal sounds the same to a lot of people. It is, by definition, intelligent music, purely because you’ve got to be intelligent to decipher and differentiate it. That and it’s mostly noisy as a pub in Hell on a Saturday afternoon. But Darklight Corporation have arrived with their self-titled debut in hand and a goal – make metal more accessible.

What it actually says is “still retains a pop-influenced simplicity”, which is as off-putting as it is confusing – surely metal with a pop simplicity has been invented and surely it’s called rock music. But regardless of what they think they’re doing, speed metal straight-up-with-a-twist is what they’re actually doing. The drumming on “Born to Govern” is sublime and the humming “Sweet Sickness” just serves to prove they’ve got more than one string to their collective bow.

The guitars have an electronic undertone (NIN fans, take note) but heavy, hard-hitting music is the order of the day, from the roaring first notes of “One Man Revolution” (the first track) to “Ramrod”(the last). But it’s the concept behind the nine one-shots that hits home – still giving the traditional middle finger to corrupt capitalism but at the same time making you want to boogie. Just a little. Fans of Rob Zombie should very much enjoy this.

8/10

Tags: 8/10, darklight corporation, metal