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White Hinterland - 'Icarus' (worriedaboutsatan remix) // MP3

hello@thefourohfive.com — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:17:12 +0000

The wonderful worriedaboutsatan sent us a remix they did of 'Icarus' by White Hinterland. It's a pretty sexy affair, so make sure you have a listen.

MP3: White Hinterland - 'Icarus' (worriedaboutsatan remix)
http://www.myspace.com/worriedaboutsatan
http://www.myspace.com/whitehinterland

Anna Calvi // New Single and Tour

hello@thefourohfive.com — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:32:04 +0000

Dark and atmospheric pop favourite Anna Calvi releases her debut single on October 11th via Domino Records. ‘Jezebel’, a reworking of the ‘50’s classic, backed by Calvi’s own ‘Moulinette’ will be available digitally and via limited edition 7”.

Prior to the release Calvi will be playing a number of UK dates and festivals.

Tour Dates

September
4 - London, In the Woods Festival
5 - London, Offset Festival
10 - London, Bull & Gate
12 - Brighton, Willkommen Collective Festival
13 - London, Borderline
17 - London, XOYO (Rockfeedback 10th Anniversary)
Click here to buy tickets

http://www.myspace.com/annacalvi

Undiscovered Album #2 - El Guincho – Alegranza!

hello@thefourohfive.com — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:31:13 +0000

The idea behind this column is to try and show up some of the recent music (of the last few years) that seems to have undeservedly slipped under the radar. I hope to try and introduce bands that people probably won’t have heard of but will love. Please give these bands a listen and try something new!

Label: Young Turks
Release date: 01/03/08
Link: Myspace
Free Download: Via Stereogum

With his new album on the way and a free download offered from it – see top of the page- (from the wonderful Young Turks record label), I thought it necessary to introduce the wonderful El Guincho. El Guincho, the sobriquet for Spanish musician Pablo Diaz-Reixa, makes his own brand of music that is not too far removed from the likes of Panda Bear; the music is richly textured, full of beautiful minimalist loops and upbeat rhythms that evoke summer at its brightest, its most optimistic.

The music is born of crate digging, or so it sounds (much like Onra’s Chinoiseries project), with layer upon layer creating a very Spanish sound to compliment the use of some very Noah Lennox vocals (especially the start of ‘Fata Morgana’). Despite the record being mostly in Spanish, this detracts nothing from the appeal of this fantastic album, which drips in summer sounds. This music is both exceptionally cleverly composed and makes you sit down and decode the layers and music that is perfect to play at a BBQ, complete with sing along parts. An amazing album, and if you do nothing else, download the free single at the top of the page and have a listen.

Hold Your Horse Is // Spotify Playlist

hello@thefourohfive.com — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:15:49 +0000

With Rammin' It Home released on Big Scary Monsters this week, and just before they head on a 28-date tour throughout September, Hold Your Horse Is are busy lads indeed. But The 405 had the chance to ask them to compile a Spotify playlist of their twelve favourite songs. Below, they talk us through what each track means to them and why they love them so much.

You can listen to the playlist by clicking Your Link Here

Chris Rouse's Picks:
1. Nine Inch Nails - 'Echoplex'
I love NIN. You won’t see a better live band. Fact. I listen to them pretty much daily, there is so many sides to them, and so much of there music out there to find. Trent Reznor is really on it when it comes to using his influence, and making fans feel they really are part of NIN. He’s a real musical role model.

2. Billy Talent – 'Try Honesty'
You can’t not love this band. I was lucky enough to tour with them, and even play a song with them. I can’t thank them enough.

3. Refused – 'Liberation Frequency'
Have you seen their DVD? If you have you’ll be like me…. wondering why you’re in a band, because you’ll never be that good!!

4. Twofold – 'We Invented The Future'
When Robin and I started HYHI, we wanted to sound like this band, them and Riddle of Steel……I mean seriously!...have you heard our early songs?! Haha!

Robin Pearson's Picks:
5. Fighting With Wire – 'Everyone Needs A Nemesis'
Because their music is totally dudeish! We like to listen to the album quite often when we’re on the way to a gig. I would’ve chosen ‘Make A Fist’ but it’s not on Spotify…

6. Silverchair – 'Too Much Of Not Enough'
I think Silverchair are my favourite band of all time. Diorama is quite incredible.

7, The Walkmen – 'In The New Year'
I used to be in a band called Lady and The Lost Boys, who did a short tour in Europe with The Walkmen. Seeing them play this song every night was an absolute treat and listening to this album always reminds me of those times. It’s beautiful.

8. Grammatics – 'Shadow Committee'
Because it’s a huge shame they’re breaking up soon! I was really into Colour of Fire and after they split up I was excited to hear what Owen Brinley would go on to. Then when the Grammatics album came out the progression and song writing totally surprised me. I remember the first time I heard 'Shadow Committee', I just kept turning it up…

(THIS ISNT ON SPOTIFY GRR Traindodge – 'Streets')
Traindodge are fucking rad. End of. Rob Smith (Riddle of Steel) is their drummer, Riddle of Steel being one of the bands that got me really excited when we were starting HYHI.

James Penny's Picks:
9. Blink-182 – 'Pathetic'
Recently I’ve had a pretty lame couple of months and this band has cheered me up no end, Dude Ranch is a great (slightly sloppy) pop punk record with a shit load of great pop songs! One of the few bands I liked when I was 12 and still actually love listening to haha!

10. The Owls - 'Holy Fucking Ghost'
Been a big fan of the Kinsella bands for awhile, this one is the best one I reckon. This song has a bizarre feel to it, good stuff!

11. Sigur Ros - 'Glosoli'
I was lying on the front of a boat recently after a couple of beers watching shooting stars and listening to this album (Takk…) and I actually felt like I was rushing. There are a few albums that actually make the hair on my back stick up and this is one of them!

12. Crooked Mountain, Crooked Sea - 'Eyes Turned Inwards'
Alrighty, these guys are some good friends of mine and I’ve been listening to their new record loads recently, this one is off their last EP which is still great. Part of the reason I’ve picked this track is because they have got me into loads of rad albums over the last few months which I can’t find on spotify: Pavement- Crooked Rain Crooked Rain, Modest Mouse- Lonesome Crowded West & Desaparecidos- Read Music/Speak Spanish.

You can visit Hold Your Horse Is by heading to http://www.myspace.com/hyhi

Amiina // New Album & Tour Dates

hello@thefourohfive.com — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:02:11 +0000

The new album by amiina, Puzzle, is set to hit your nearest record store on the 27th of September. If you head over to www.amiina.com you can download 'Over And Again', which it taken from said album.

Puzzle track listing:
1. Ásinn
2. Over and Again
3. What are we waiting for?
4. Púsl
5. In the Sun
6. Mambó
7. Sicsak
8. Thoka

Tour Dates
SEPTEMBER 25th, DUBLIN, Fringe Festival
SEPTEMBER 27th - BIRMINGHAM - Glee Club
SEPTEMBER 28th - LONDON - XOYO
Click here to buy tickets

Barn Owl // New album & Video

hello@thefourohfive.com — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 11:32:38 +0000

If you're looking for really good drone/psychedelic music then San Francisco is obviously the place to be. It produced the likes of the Grateful Dead and now it houses Barn Owl.

Their next album, Ancestral Star, will be released on November 1st through Thrill Jockey and it sounds epic. The band will be playing a few gigs in Europe in October including the Supersonic Festival in Birmingham on 24 October. Check out the video below for 'Light from the Mesa'. It's like walking through honey.

Header image by Lisa McGee
http://www.myspace.com/barnowlband

Mix/Cover/Live #274 (feat The Cure & more)

hello@thefourohfive.com — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 09:58:41 +0000

Today's Mix/Cover/Live includes Tracey Thorn, The Cure, Ra Ra Riot & Small Black.

MP3: Tracey Thorn - Kentish Town (Walls Remix)
http://www.myspace.com/traceythorn

MP3: The Cure - Purple Haze (Jimi Hendrix Cover)
http://www.thecure.com/

MP3: Ra Ra Riot (Too Too Too Fast (Live)
http://www.myspace.com/rarariot

MP3: Small Black - Photojournalist
http://www.myspace.com/smallblacksounds

Derrick May & Andrew Weatherall Interview

hello@thefourohfive.com — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 09:16:06 +0000

Legendary DJs Derrick May and Andrew Weatherall talk to Joanne Shurvell for the 405 at Le Festival de Radio France et Montpellier this summer

Words: Joanne Shurvell
Photos: Paul Allen

‘I needed to be naked on top of the mountain.’ Andrew Weatherall

‘The audience is my enemy. My job is to destroy them.’ Derrick May

Le Festival de Radio France et Montpellier, an annual international music event now in its 25th year, provides an eclectic mix of classical, jazz, world and electronic music, with over 100 free world-class concerts in open-air theatres, squares, cathedrals and festival halls. This year’s festival (12-30 July) featured exceptional performances by techno pioneers Derrick May and Andrew Weatherall. Tohu Bohu, the electronic strand of the festival, was programmed by Pascal Maurin and Edith Rolland and I was fortunate to catch up with the programmers and the DJs during the festival.

London-based DJ Andrew Weatherall is well-known as the producer of Primal Scream’s groundbreaking Screamadelica and remixer of New Order, The Happy Mondays, Saint Etienne and Bjork, among others. Today he continues to DJ worldwide and release music with Keith Tenniswood as Two Lone Swordsman and under his own name with the Rotters Golf Club label. The influences of rockabilly, soul and rock are evident in Andrew’s music, a skilful blend of dance, house and techno. Fans will be treated to a new release early next year under the Rotters Golf Club label.

‘You’re rocking a good look’ was Andrew Weatherall’s reaction to photographer Paul Allen who was nattily dressed in a white straw trilby, silver trousers, a bling designer t-shirt and a green single-breasted linen jacket. ‘Most photographers dress like shit.’ Mr Weatherall was sporting a snappy ‘50s rockabilly look but apparently if we’d interviewed him last month, we would have been treated to a handlebar moustache circa 1905. We met the DJ at one of the festival’s fantastic outdoor venues, the appropriately named Place Dionysos, right before his set. As this was clearly a man with a keen sense of style, I decided to start our conversation by asking him how important fashion is to him and if it influences his music.

JS: You have a distinctive style and seem to have an eye for fashion. Have you always been fashion conscious and why the rockabilly look?

AW: I’ve been obsessed with style and certain ways of dressing over the years. I was more into fashion as a younger man because you try to find your identity and follow fashions when you’re younger. But for the last 10-15 years, I’ve been more interested in style rather than fashion. I got involved in first wave of rockabilly revival in the late 1970s so I had that look then. But when acid house came along, we all grew our hair and went a bit hippyfied. For the last 10 or 15 years I’ve resorted back to ‘50s rockabilly.

JS: How and why did you make the transition from music journalist to DJ?

AW: I wasn’t really a music journalist; I did a bit of writing and when acid house first began to happen around 1988, some friends at NME asked me to write a club page but it was always edited badly which was frustrating. But I met Primal Scream via NME; I was the only man in the world who liked their album at the time. I got asked to do a live review so I went and met them before their gig at Exeter University. The piece was called - Sex Lies and Gaffer Tape.

JS: When did you actually start earning a living as a DJ?

AW: The last job I had before becoming a full-time DJ was constructing film sets. The turning point came when I got promised my first film job abroad but the art director’s brother was on holiday from university so he got given my job. I was of two minds: I enjoyed playing music and I enjoyed constructing film sets but I thought there was more long-term future in building film sets so I was very undecided until then. But when the film job got taken away from me last minute, I thought that DJing couldn’t be any more precarious than this. So if it hadn’t been for that guy’s brother I probably wouldn’t be sitting here talking to you.

JS: Where in London do you live and why?

AW: I’ve been based in Shoreditch for 15 years.

JS: Well in that case you must visit PayneShurvell, my new art gallery in Shoreditch on Hewett Street off Curtain Road!

AW: (laughing) - Is it proper painting? Not this conceptual nonsense is it? I’ll definitely come and have a look. That’s why I like living around there because even though I’ve had a studio in Shoreditch for 15 years, I’m still discovering stuff and there are galleries and the like opening all the time.

JS: What have been your major musical influences?

AW: The first music that gave me that kind of tingly feeling was in the early ‘70s when I was 10 or 11. At the time there was a ‘50s rock ‘n’ roll revival going on in Europe. That was the initial music that I liked; that and Glam rock- glam rock is just rockabilly with shiny trousers on – Marc Boland was ripping off Web Pearce, a country swing guy–We like to Boogie is just Teenage Boogie by Web Pearce, a 1940s country record. I’m getting goose bumps just thinking of that record.

JS: So what music don’t you like?

AW: Because I liked glam and raw rock n roll, that’s why I liked punk. That’s why I didn’t like Prog Rock – it was too pretentious and complicated for me. Girls, guitars, cars…. I liked a rawness of punk. I’ve been lucky enough to have lived through four major music and fashion movements: glam rock, punk rock, post punk, and acid house. Everything is so homogenised and information is spread so quickly that I don’t think you’ll ever get those individual scenes again.

JS: Do you enjoy performing in front of huge audiences?

AW: I love the experience of a really big gig like Glastonbury. I like the weird feeling of being part of something bigger than yourself. I only do it a few times a year because it’s not something I get off on but I like it because it’s kind of scary being in front of that many people. A few years ago I was feeling safe and ghettoized so I decided I needed to sing again and get up on the stage. I needed to get out of the comfy underground ghetto I was in. It’s very easy to remain underground and discuss everything and slag everything off. I needed to feel scared. “I needed to be naked on top of the mountain.”

Detroit techno pioneer Derrick ‘Mayday’ May’s distinctive sound has many influences, from the German electronica of Kraftwerk to the electro funk, soul, and jazz of his hometown of Detroit, Michigan. ‘Nude Photo’ and ‘The Dance’, both on his own Transmat label, along with the seminal ‘Strings of Life’, brought Derrick May worldwide acclaim which he continues to enjoy today.

Photographer Paul Allen and I arrive poolside at Le Jardin des Sens, a chic Montpellier hotel, to meet Mr. May. It’s the day after Derrick’s sensational DJ set at Place Dionysos, one of the highlights of this year’s Radio France festival. We settle in for an afternoon of chat about music, photography, and travel.

JS: Your music style has been described as George Clinton meets Kraftwerk – is that accurate?

DM: Actually that was my description of the genre of music at the time to the music journalist Stuart Cosgrove. I told him to imagine one keyboard in an elevator and you have Kraftwerk standing here and George Clinton standing there and they’re stuck in that elevator together. That’s Detroit music; it’s a complete mistake. It wasn’t just about my music. It was about all Detroit music.

JS: You haven’t made any new music since the early ‘90s. Do you have any plans to make more?

DM: I’m not interested in making new music. My record company is doing really well. I’m running that and touring. I help young people all the time; not just young people but I help a lot of people make music. I think it’s really important to keep this genre of music qualified. It’s important to make sure someone comes along who can add to the backbone. Right now we don’t have many people who are making this music that are good. You have a handful of guys in the world who truly know what they’re doing. It’s more important to support guys like that. I think it’s good we didn’t become popstars. We used to do remixes for everyone, people like ABC and Paula Abdul; it’s good but it’s bad. You get known as the guy who just does that. That’s why I stopped making music. I got tired of that. I got tired of the whole idea of pimping myself. So I help other people; that’s what I do. I love that.

JS: You seem to have a keen interest in photography and those photos on your iPad look pretty serious. Have they been exhibited anywhere and are they part of a future project?

DM: I’ve exhibited in Japan a couple of times. Now I’m working on a book; I’ve got thousands of photographs that I’ve been taking for the past 15 years. A New Zealand publisher called PQ Blackwell who publishes beautiful coffee table books is publishing the book. The publisher approached me and he’s coming to Detroit to sift through the thousands of photos to decide which ones to use for the book.

JS: You’ve stated that your mission is to save the world from ‘bad music’. What is bad music?

DM: You’re goddamn right! I’d define ‘bad music’ as any kind of music that is soulless. It’s bad news when DJs attempt to go down the serious ‘genre’ road. Or when DJs jump on the bandwagon of another DJ and it becomes a fad that screws up. Like Minimal. The music is not so bad but the joke is all the guys who got a career out of playing this music – it’s unbelievable. But once the fad dies everyone loses because there’s no substance. Everyone moved to Berlin and made minimal thinking they could make money and it didn’t happen.

JS: When I talked to Andrew Weatherall last night he said he liked to be taken out of his comfort zone by playing huge venues. Do you feel the same way and I’m assuming you know each other?

DM: We’ve never met although we definitely should! For me I just want to hit it. The audience is my enemy. My job is to destroy them. That’s the way I approach any gig. I want to hurt you. I want you on your knees. That’s my approach. I don’t care if there are 50 people or 50,000; I’m going to hurt you. It’s a fight between you and me and I’m going to win.

http://www.rottersgolfclub.co.uk/
http://www.myspace.com/twoloneswordsmen
http://www.derrickmay.com/
http://www.myspace.com/derrickmay
http://www.festivalradiofrancemontpellier.com/2010/annonce-concerts-musiques-electronqiues

Joanne Shurvell - jo@payneshurvell.com

Laki Mera - Clutter [EP]

hello@thefourohfive.com — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 09:04:39 +0000

Label: Just Music
Release date: 06/09/10
Link: Myspace
Buy: Amazon

There's something of the fairground about Laki Mera. You want to believe that behind the rattling and the instability there's a good set of solid foundations holding everything together, but all the while there's a little voice in the back of your mind telling you there's nothing more than half a dozen rivets (barely) stopping you from plunging to certain death from the Sidewinder.

The aptly named Clutter, also the title of the band's 2008 download-only album, is a collection of the band's favourite material thus far; arguably a greatest hits EP of sorts. It serves as a suitably tantalising showcase of this Glaswegian foursome's skill in producing somewhat chaotic and unsettling pieces of music. Drawing heavily from trip-hop and ambient electronica influences, Laki Mera craft carefully ordered and simultaneously shambolic soundscapes.

Opener 'She's A Day Later' combines dreamy female vocals and sinister driving bass hooks with rattling sound effects and melodic string sections. Over the course of the track, each individual part drifts separately to the forefront of the music, so that what results is not necessarily a song, but more like an arrangement, where the vocals themselves form part of the instrumentation. What follows, 'How Dare You?', possibly the EP's highlight, is a Portishead-esque lament, tidier in its composition but still with a vaguely unsettling element somewhere between the looped background vocals and synth bass.

Laki Mera's greatest strength lies in the unexpected, such as when 'Zeuhl' descends from string and choral led harmony into audio anarchy; reverb, chanting, rattling dustbin lids and all. The contrast of the pure child-like vocals, restrained by overtly simplified melodies, and the complicated and discomfiting music, layered and looped to produce something truly arresting, is stark throughout the EP. Just as you end a trip to the fairground both vaguely shaken and exhilarated, Clutter is a whirlwind listen that leaves you wanting more.

Tweak Bird - Tweak Bird

hello@thefourohfive.com — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 08:53:42 +0000

Label: Souterrain Transmissions
Release date: 30/08/10
Official Site
Buy: Amazon

Tweak Bird is a band of brothers. Well, only two but it’s never been enough of a deal to stop them from making a helluva lot of noise. Their debut EP Reservations was actually very good, showcasing guitarist and singer Caleb Bird’s Geddy Lee-esque wail over Ashton Bird’s thundering drums that at times channelled the likes of The Melvins, Queens of the Stone Age, and similar stoned rock bands, albeit with a decidedly more pop-oriented bent in place of the metal or hard rock angle often associated with those acts. So now here we are almost two years later, and now their self-titled debut LP hath been unleashed. But maybe it should’ve been an EP.

Nothing here is as striking or urgent as the songs on Reservations, both a benefit that allows the band to focus on experimentation and a downfall that taints the disc with a lack of punch and energy as expected from the duo. 'Round Trippin’ is a disappointment, beginning with a promising redux on the 'Lights In Lines' riff but with much larger balls. Then the whole fucking song just jumps into reverse with no warning or reason, as if this were Strictly Personal. 'Hazement In The Basement' is a similar failed experiment, this time using field recordings and quiet drums that are seemingly stolen from 'Sun' by The Microphones – and all this to delay the genuinely enjoyable slow burning groove of 'Flyin’ High'. But really the problem here is that everything feels too slow. Opener 'The Future' sounds like it’s 15 bpm too slow for the band, so when “Lights In Lines” moves along at the same tempo, it feels like the album is on a lock groove. Hell, even the third actual song 'A Sun/Ahh Ahh' is about the same tempo, although spared and ruined by a break into eastern modes with a Dick Parry-lite sax solo added for flavour. The flavour of something bad, like really old watery natto or a Limburger covered piece of dogshit falafel (which may be more accurate, given the modality of this section). It takes literally half of the album for the songs to actually move, but 'Beyond' is tragically short – only 2’00” – but gives way to the much needed heavy reprieve of 'Tunneling Through,' the only song that actually seems to remember their first release enough to use the blueprint laid out there for good.

It’s noticeable that the back half of this release is densely packed with songs that sound like Tweak Bird instead of Tweak Bird. ‘Sky Ride’ even manages to turn the formula on its ear nicely by incorporating use of fade and ritardando instead of cold stops. Of course, being the old traditionalist I am, I’ll always favour Reservations due to its unbridled energy (probably what drew in Dale Crover to produce). The problem here is that Tweak Bird seem so focused on moving towards a new sound that they forget their old one, but because it’s the same equipment and people it will always sound indebted to that first incarnation. This shift is too sudden with too little reward as the result, instead showing a band who cares more about moving in a polar opposite instead of naturally going with their inclinations.