Issue 105 / November 2019

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REVIEWS Modern Nature (Stuart Moulding / @Oohshootstu) Modern Nature Harvest Sun @ Shipping Forecast – 18/9 In a time when it’s growing increasingly harder to connect with the natural world, MODERN NATURE’s music provides a fitting soundtrack for such escapism with their debut long player, How To Live. The band’s identity is very much a sum of its parts, featuring names from Ultimate Painting, Beak and Woods. As you might expect, the resulting sound is cosmic, reclined and altogether warming. They take to the stage without drawing too much attention to themselves The modestly decent turnout quickly edge forward to fill any unused space and what follows is an explorative and soul-soothing affair. Opener Bloom is an elegant introduction, commencing the set with an atmospheric and solitary saxophone. It’s clear from the off that these musicians are meant to be together; they simply glue so well. Jack Cooper’s voice has been key to the success of his many past projects and things aren’t much different this time around. There’s such an effortlessness behind the quartet as they continue to dispatch How To Live in its entirety. Evidently the record was built to flow, but also to retain a sense of freshness and surprise. There’s a light and shade throughout the night, as the band lull the crowd into their meandering jams before quickly bringing the tempo up into new territory. Theon Cross Stepping Tiger @ Storyhouse – 06/10 Entering Chester’s Storyhouse to the unmistakable Nigerian electro-funk of William Onyeabor, it’s clear Stepping Tiger have something wilder in store than your average Sunday night at the theatre. Bordered by bookcases with pink ambient lighting riding the walls, the venue’s open-plan spread does have an air of sophistication about it. Just over the shoulder of a guy carefully buttering scones we spy Ben ‘Roman’ Haslett DJing, the man bringing THEON CROSS and so much more to our walled city. Incredibly tight from the off, REMY JUDE ENSEMBLE open up and ease us in with a deep four-part harmony. Mellowing into a blend of alt.jazz and hip hop, there’s shades of Tom Misch and Loyle Carner in their sound. Occasionally they shift feel and a little funk slips in, vocalist Amber Kuti and keys player Max O’Hara being Galactic Funk Militia ex-recruits, after all. The fluid interplay between Jude and Kuti on hook-heavy standout Band Bak 2Geva quickly wins attendees over. Coming Home then segues into Yes Music, where a smooth-tongued Remy urges us to “thrust those shoulder blades when you hear those stabs”. Dropping down to a Cinematic Orchestra-esque bridge, Kuti’s melismatic scat inflections weave their way around a tasteful lead guitar and Jude’s fired-up MCing. Having made his name as one of the breakout talents of the UK jazz scene, Theon Cross is known for bringing the almighty There’s not much room for any dialogue between songs. They take a breather halfway through the set which opens the door for some discussion. “So we’re halfway through the album now and this is the part where you flip it over,” says Jack Cooper, jokingly. They continue into the track Nightmares, a track puts the listener into a weird dream state if anything. It begins to verge on peculiar just how calming and absorbing this experience begins to become; there are big saxophone solos, wandering guitars and hushed vocals that seem to soak into the crowd. This band don’t look like they have joined forces with a mission to flip the music world on its head. Instead, you get the feeling that this is a more informal project constructed to satisfy their own creativity. Despite exploring a vast landscape of psych on the record and in the live environment, it’s hard to see this project doing anything radical in the near future. Perhaps that could eventually be seen as a limitation, but none of that really matters tonight. This is a bunch of accomplished musicians who are clearly comfortable in their own skin. What we see tonight is a band confident enough to tackle their ideas; they’ve got the history and experience to back up their humble ambitions. As long as this group keep their hunger to create then it looks like we’ll be gifted with some great material in the coming years. And while it’s early doors for this particular project, it already feels like Modern Nature are well on their way to becoming a finished package. Rhys Buchanan / @rhysbuchanan bottom-end with Sons Of Kemet and guesting with Steam Down. As soon as Cross and touring line-up Chelsea Carmichael (saxophone), Patrick Boyle (drums) and Nikos Ziarkas (guitar) take the stage, the audience shift forward, filing up the stairs and mezzanine. Veering wildly between improvised solo bursts and dub bass lines, the versatility of the tuba in Cross’ hands is quite astounding. You’ll normally see a tuba played sat down in an orchestra; Cross performs spinning on a heel, teasing it from gurgled drawl to blaring sustain. Coasting the outer fringes of jazz, at times the songs appear formless, yet the quartet remain violently in sync. After a euphoric The Comet Is Coming-styled excursion, they slip into a sleazy Latin/bossa swing, almost verging on spiritual jazz climbs before settling into an afrobeat groove. Then after goading Carmichael and Boyle into a lengthy improv spin-out, Cross takes the mic and talks humbly about the importance of self-belief when writing music, before powering through CIYA and two encores. Granted there will have been sweatier stops on the tour, but for a damp Sunday evening in Chester tonight’s scenes are simply unprecedented. Cross is undoubtedly at forefront of a movement that’s no longer confined to London. David Weir / @betweenseeds The Good Life Experience Hawarden Estate, Wales – 12/09-15/09 We live in unprecedented times. Politically, socially, technologically, environmentally. However you skin your daily existence, you face a cocktail of decisions, challenges and dilemmas, the like of which our species has not seen before. Faced with this cacophony of noise, two concepts become more important than ever; escapism and the quest for new ideas. And it figures that the two are closely related. In order to shape new ideas, we first need to sidestep the daily treadmill, the 24-hour battle for our attention, the glare of those omnipresent screens. We need to create environments for open minds, expansive conversation and spaces to challenge our digital-norms. We need to reset. God, we need to breathe. With this in mind, THE GOOD LIFE EXPERIENCE embraces both and it seems is expertly tuned to our times. A well whittled, wonky, welly-clad, weird weekend of perpetual wellness that implores its guests to slow down, take stock, learn crafts, cook, care and commune. I succumbed to the temptation to take to the open water at an artist-led swimming session, followed by freeform poetry writing around an open fire. In the wrong hands this could all be very Nathan Barley, although under the tutelage of Vivienne Rickman- Poole the reality is anything but. It is hugely uplifting, invigorating, elating. I dive back in. Once suitably de-compressed and unplugged, the festival’s pinpoint curation manages to envelop its audience with wide ranging and outlook-shaping conversations led by truly inspirational subjects. Set within Hawarden Castle’s reading room, ANDREW EVANS speaks with astonishing openness and humility about his experience as a haemophiliac on the wrong end of the contaminated blood scandal, currently the subject of a public enquiry. Listening to Andrew recount his story – one that saw the wonder-drug he self-injected as a five-year-old inadvertently leave him HIV positive and almost dead as a result of AIDS by his late teens – is a deeply moving experience. His subsequent fight for justice for all those effected (taintedblood.info) goes on and his message here is simple: keep fighting. Right on cue as I leave the reading room, I notice a bookmark underfoot, inscribed simply: “ideas change things”. JNR WILLIAMS’ crystal neo-soul marries clean lines and vocal acrobatics with spades of individuality. I doubt he has played to an audience containing such a high concentration of neckerchiefed whippets before, but he leaves them (and their owners) aghast. Come night time and we’re dancing the jive with the assembled pre-schoolers at the vintage disco to Duffo’s take on Walk On The Wild Side (our Georgia steals the show). It’s a fitting curtain call to the weekend, an off-kilter take on conventional wisdom which catches you off guard, that suggests another way. The Good Life Experience is for the curious. I implore you to join them in raising a glass of organic nettle ale, delving into the sound of Welsh birdsong and leaving your preconceived conventions in the car park. A slightly better version of yourself may well come out the other side. Craig G Pennington 36
ADD TO PLAYLIST Red Rum Club EVOL @ O2 Academy – 28/09 It’s a packed, expectant and hot O2 Academy that awaits RED RUM CLUB. Everyone’s up for a good time with these local crowd pleasers; there’s almost a sense of reverence towards them. In terms of set design it’s perfectly pitched: the tension and excitement are built to a peak before the silhouetted band walk on behind a red curtain, fitting with the Matador theme, which tumbles to the floor to reveal a group rightly confident in their abilities accompanied by a celebratory explosion of confetti and the first notes of Honey. Singer Fran Doran’s adept at whipping up the bodies before him to near hysteria. Before he’ll start playing Would You Rather Be Lonely? during the encore, he insists people get on shoulders – it takes a fair while and leads to some precarious pairings. He’s got the swagger and charm all the best frontmen have and that mysterious ingredient which means all eyes are pinned on him. On record Doran’s voice is at times reminiscent of Ian McCulloch (which is such a lovely thing) while on a couple of tracks – Kids Addicted in particular – the overall sound is reminiscent of latter day Manics (OK, but not breaking any new ground). Live these subtleties are lost in the mix: the vocals are still strong, but the ubiquitous trumpet drowns out the guitars meaning at points it becomes one unstoppable mass of brass. Red Rum Club (Stuart Moulding / @Oohshootstu) They seem like a group who are loving the acclaim they’re receiving after years of working hard. Doran speaks with understandable pride about their album after seven years of graft, and what they do they do well. They come across as a band who’ve been selling out arenas for years. If the success of tonight is anything to judge it by, their stock will continue to rise. Performance wise they’ve got the confidence and charm nailed and, technically, all six are really good musicians. It just depends what you’re in to and people here are very much on the Red Rum Club team – as the inflatable trumpets proffered towards the band attest. It’s a packed-out singalong, but at points it teeters precariously close to being the musical equivalent of Live Laugh Love, guaranteed to whip up emotion in a hometown crowd on a Saturday night. Not necessarily a bad thing, depending on what you want from a band. A cover of Golden Slumbers is lovely and fits the bill, showing in whose trail they’d like to follow: if success is built on confidence, they’ve smashed it. They could and will be playing venues far bigger than this soon – commercially their songs strike the right note between indie guitar rock and radio-friendly earworms. They’re fully formed and rounded as a live act ready for much bigger things – but sometimes a bit of edge does us all good. It’s definitely crowd-pleasing, if not ground breaking, but it’d be petulant to argue with a room so full of joy. Jennie Macaulay ADD TO PLAYLIST is the monthly column brought to you by MELODIC DISTRACTION RADIO, delving into the fold of the newest releases on the dance music spectrum. If you’re into 808s, sample pads, DJ tools and everything in between, then you’re in good company. Manra International Presents The Ultimate Spice Mix Night Slugs Oh man, well if the artwork alone doesn’t sell you on it, then what will? This compilation is practically a who’s who of some of the best global club DJs and producers at the moment, with 8ulentina, Foozool, Scratcha DVA, Ikonika, Manara and Bok Bok all bringing dishes to the potluck. With proceeds going to international human rights organisation Restless Beings, what’s more you’ve got your pre-going out playlist pretty much sorted for the rest of eternity. Canned hype, extra spicy. Hanna I Needed Melodies International Floating Points’ reissue label, Melodies International, is back to school with another dusty crate dig. Warren Harris, aka HANNA, offers up some laid-back classic Chicago house and a little tipple of sunshine to take the edge off all this autumn nonsense. It’s strictly buttery smooth edges and no surprises, filled with sultry street soul vocals, no-baddays keys and a lithe garage skip. Expect to hear this at a trendy biodynamic wine bar very soon. Anunaku Forgotten Tales Louder Than Death (Michael Kirkham / @Mrkirks) Whities Louder Than Death The Go-Go Cage and No Fun @ The Zanzibar – 13/09 Leaves hang like cobwebs throughout The Zanzibar, a retro space that feels like a treasured discovery among the new venues around Liverpool. Tonight, however, it serves as the perfect fit for an intimate gig presented by garage-rock madman King Khan and his newest outfit, the ferocious LOUDER THAN DEATH. The band, who are currently blazing around Europe in promotion of their album Stop Und Fick Dich! have collected a troupe of punks from The Spits and Magnetix along the way, however, much to our dismay, Spits member Sean has been held up in customs. The lights dim as Khan walks out on stage to applause from the room, dawning pleather short-shorts, a police hat and a denim vest speckled with patchwork. Armed with a bouquet of roses, he sets a light, careless tone for the evening; “I’m just trying to make some money on the side here if anyone wants to buy a flower,” he laughs. Raging on, LTD rip-roar through a set with songs dedicated to Lemmy, Bad Brains, Christian conversion camps, Al Capone’s syphilis, Hermione from Harry Potter and, for good measure, the punk rock women of England. The prerequisite pogoing ensues in front of the stage as King Khan and his cohort bring their 77 punk style to with a blast of spilled beer, sweat and pleather. As the night extends, then begins the stage banter. After three or four stop-starts of a song they learned just that day, Khan, ever the gifted spokesman, keeps the extremely patient Scouse crowd entertained with one-liners. On a night saturated with a lo-fi, raw and dirty attitude from the makings of a band who seem like they’re just having a really damn good time, we are indeed given what we were promised: a full throttle onslaught of much needed energy and fun on a Friday night. Brit Williams / @therealbritjean Tasker’s Whities label has pretty much become buy-onsight, barely putting a foot wrong over the last couple years. Whities 024 is no different. Although the release has little to do with its alleged zeitgeist theme of ‘mythology’, the three tracks explore the intersection of global percussion and club music, careening from screw-face breakbeat to polyrhythmic drum loops. Forgotten Tales – a shimmering, padded ambient techno track – stands out as the smart, well-heeled slice of the moment. For fans of Yak, Minor Science, Poly, Leif etc. Words: Nina Franklin melodicdistraction.com Melodic Distraction Radio is an independent internet radio station based in the Baltic Triangle, platforming artists, DJs and producers from across the North West. Head to melodicdistraction.com to listen in. REVIEWS 37
Page 1 and 2: ISSUE 105 / NOVEMBER 2019 NEW MUSIC
Page 3 and 4: TATE LIVERPOOL 14 JUN - 10 NOV 2019
Page 5 and 6: JERRY MANE’S DEFINITIVE COMEDY SL
Page 7 and 8: Armistead Maupin 11 November Nadiya
Page 9: MEMBERSHIP BECOME A BIDO LITO! MEMB
Page 12 and 13: NEWS Mellowtone @ 15 Mellowtone Fro
Page 14 and 15: Blink and you’ll have missed The
Page 16 and 17: 16 “Sometimes you need to take th
Page 18 and 19: NUTRIBE Fresh from the renowned Fut
Page 20 and 21: COMING OUT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP 20
Page 22 and 23: TRUDY AND THE ROMANCE Following on
Page 24 and 25: In his works The Dirt I’m Made Of
Page 26 and 27: SPOTLIGHT “It’s almost therapeu
Page 29 and 30: lonely up here in Middle England,
Page 31 and 32: In anticipation of their Liverpool
Page 33 and 34: GIG Mac Demarco Bramley Moore Dock
Page 35: Ibibio Sound Machine I Love Live Ev
Page 39 and 40: BOOK NOW: 0161 832 1111 MANchestera
Page 41 and 42: Take the hassle out of Christmas pa
Page 44 and 45: ARTISTIC LICENCE This month’s off
Page 46 and 47: SAY THE FINAL Working at the heart

Issue 105 / November 2019

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