West Coast by Junk Culture will be released on 22 March on Illegal Art
Illegal Art is a backstreet home for Okapi, Tank Girl, Steinski and The Bran Flakes, creators of spray-painted soundscapes and gritty, sampled pleasures. A perfect fit then for Junk Culture, the label’s newest inhabitant.
Deepak Mantena has spent almost a decade operating under the Junk Culture banner, capturing sonic snapshots on a budget, hand-held recorder and melding them into synapse-searing collages. On his debut ep, West Coast, Mantena mixes old-skool hip-hop beats, found sounds from the streets of America or TV commercials and snatches of songs by artists including Animal Collective, Aphex Twin and Patti LaBelle.
The result is a compact lysergic lullaby, flitting between fast-paced flashbacks and brief passages of respite. Mantena says he is more interested in evoking certain moods or feelings than perfecting fidelity and on opening track, West Coast, you can hear why.
Beats brake and accelerate under a late-night, neon glow as the pre-dawn fallout from underground clubs stumble with a swagger. Unfathomable signposts flash by, all pointing to the inevitable comedown on a beguiling road to nowhere. And the AM station tunes in and out to the spectral sounds of Jazzmatazz and DJ Shadow.
Containing nine tracks and clocking in at 17 minutes, the West Coast ride is all too brief. But it’s a journey well worth taking. The album’s longer compositions give you just enough time to take in the brain-waved vistas while the off-road short cuts in between offer freeze-frame glimpses; lasting for just 28 seconds, the squelching sidewalk strut of Watson’s Glassy Stare shakes a leg in the direction of the fractured pastures frequented by ambient-techno artist The Field.
The thought of a night with Junk Culture in a small, sweaty, projection-lit club is a tantalising one, with staccato beats breaking in front of strobe-lit faces. However, in living room isolation, chose your moment carefully; this west coast trip is best experienced with the promise of a DIY, dusk-slung adventure on the horizon.
Junk Culture has just finished a US tour. No further live dates published at the moment.
The Latitude Festival celebrates it’s fifth year in 2010, taking place at Henham Park Estate in Suffolk between the 15th and 18th of July. Headliners for this years dates have now been announced and look set to follow the example of past years in making this Latitude Festival another not to be missed.
Making appearances on the main Obelisk Arena will be 2009 Brit Award Winner Florence and The Machine headline the proceedings on Friday night.
Legendary Scottish band Belle & Sebastian, who have not played live together since 2006 will be making a more than welcome return to the stage on Saturday night.
And topping the bill on Sunday will be the literate New York quartet Vampire Weekend, whose own breed of intelligent collegiate pop has now reached mainstream success.
The headliners will be supported by a more than able cast including Luke Steele’s incredible live show in the form of Empire of the Sun on Friday, Brighton’s own The Maccabees will support on Saturday and the spell binding musical brilliance of Rodrigo y Gabriella will bring some culture to the proceedings on Sunday night.
On The Word Arena headliners are The National, The xx, and Grizzly Bear with support coming from Charlotte Gainsbourg and The Horrors.
The Lake Stage will be curated by Huw Stephens who will be introducing his freshest tips for stardom, while the Sunrise Stage provides the place to hear tomorrows stars today.
There will also be a massive line up of Comedy and Theatre taking place at Latitude in the Arts Arenas.
This is Still It by The Method Actors will be released on 22 March on Acute Records.
The next time an Oscar-loving luddite regales you with tales of deprivation and loss; all suffered in the name of art and a gold-tinged Kinder Egg toy, pop on This is Still It and relive a time when method actors didn’t pretend. Varney and Gamble may sound like a couple of second-rate chancers but together they raised a strobe-lit, spasmodic riot, with just guitars, drums and vocal chords; deprived of more band members than most and fuelled by the post-teen volcanoes of unrequited loss.
This is Still It showcases the duo’s early recordings, from 1980-1981. If you’re already a fan then this release is, by all accounts, a must; containing early ep material as well as a chunk of their debut long-player Little Figures.
If, like me, you’re new to The Method Actors, then you’ll need some gristle to add to your anti-Oscar bones.
CBGBs may be the classic, new wave, celluloid snap-shot but the breakers quickly hit further south, in Athens, Georgia. The Method Actors emerged alongside The B52s in a scene that eventually spawned REM. Throughout this compilation there are echoes of love-shacked yelps and howls, and the scratched, discordant guitar-tones of the B52s’ Ricky Wilson. But the opening track on This is Still It takes the red carpet all the way back to CBGBs. Do the Method froths and spits with the same head-rush drive and excitement of Television’s See No Evil. And on Commotion Varney’s vocals veer towards the controlled panic usually voiced by David Byrne.
The roll call of potential bastard cousins from across the Atlantic is also impressive. Bleeding is infused with the sparse, sonic suffocation of Joy Division and the whole album trembles with a knock-kneed funk that would make the Gang of Four seek anti-Blyton back-up. Yet somewhere lurks the pop aesthetic that underpinned many a buzzcocked classic. It goes back further.
It could be argued that The Method Actors have studied Beefheart and visited both the playful (Rang-A-Tang) and exotic, discordant landscapes (Pigeons) imagined by Can. There are even hints of the exasperated, angry shouts of Eugene McDaniels.
The key, however, to not pretending is an element of madness and The Method Actors have the periodic table covered. Like Pavement’s Spiral Stairs, Varney is two notes short of a conventional solo, operating – on voice and guitar – in a scale and fluxuating register that would render most musicians unrecordable.
And the hulk of David Gamble is a Dr Bruce Banner-man on drums, who has finally learnt to channel his aggression into a perpetual driving cavalcade of percussion; snare and toms snap and bellow as cymbals crash with measured abandon. For times when the emotions are frayed and all that will do is a dose of nervous tension…well, this
is still it.
Frank Turner’s dream of reaching mainstream popularity continues to grow with the announcement that due to popular demand he will be performing at the O2 Brixton Academy on December 12th this year.
This news is announced following Turner having sold out his gig at London’s Roundhouse venue two months in advance. The Roundhouse show takes place as the finale of his current UK tour, on March 24th.
The Brixton show will be his largest headline gig so far and an incredible achievement considering his humble beginnings of playing tiny venues, house parties, pubs, car parks and anywhere else that would have him – only a few years ago. Testament if ever there was need for one, that Frank Turner has turned underground cult status into a mainstream success story.
To coincide with his March tour Turner will release a live version of the track Long Live The Queen, recorded at his Shepherds Bush Empire show in October last year. The single will be available as a digital download and a limited edition 7″ vinyl, from March 22nd.
A DVD/CD Take To The Road will also be available from March 22nd, featuring the entire Shepherds Bush gig as well as his performance in the more intimate surroundings of the Union Chapel last Christmas. The DVD also includes promo videos, diaries, photos and interviews. The bonus CD features the audio from Shepherds Bush.
Following the tour Turner will release the beautiful single Isabel on April 12th, the third track to be released from the Top 40 album Poetry Of The Deed. All Frank Turner recordings are available through Xtra Mile Recordings.
HEADLINE UK TOUR
MARCH
15 Northumbria Uni, Newcastle
16 Edinburgh Picture House
17 Manchester Academy
18 Leeds 02 Academy
19 Bristol 02 Academy SOLD OUT
21 Birmingham O2 Academy
22 Norwich Waterfront
23 Portsmouth Pyramids
24 London Roundhouse SOLD OUT
**EXTRA DATE ADDED DUE TO POPULAR DEMAND**
DECEMBER
12 LONDON O2 ACADEMY BRIXTON
For our international readers Frank Turner is currently supporting Flogging Molly on their huge arena tour in the USA and having recently sold out solo shows in Toronto, Montreal and LA – the international plot continues to grow with a confirmed set at Coachella Festival in April, dates on the Revival Tour in Australia, gigs in Hong Kong and a slot at the famous Calgary Folk Festival in July.
Isa & The Filthy Tongues have built up a cult following with their dark underground sound and arty lyrics, a theme that is carried forward on their latest album Dark Passenger, only this collection of songs by their own standards is set to reach a wider more mainstream audience, being more accessible and melodic than earlier offerings.
Isa, aka as Stacey Chavis from Portland Oregon, provides beautiful vocals on the opening track Jim’s Killer, smothered deep in the mix of some wonderful jangling slightly distorted guitar the track enticed me to sit and listen to what The Filthy Tongues had to offer.
Isa and former Goodbye Mr McKenzie leader Martin Metcalfe share lead and backing vocal duties throughout the album allowing the band to showcase a pretty varied selection of their song writing skills.
Last years single New Born Killers is a particular stand out track, taken from the Richard Jobson film of the same name, the track was championed by many of BBC6 and Radio 2 deejays upon it’s release. The video for this track was also directed by Jobson and the result can be seen below.
Comparisons with early Echo and The Bunnymen have, and will continue to be observed and nowhere is this more evident than on the brilliant track Moon Is A Goon. This is of course no bad thing, but the band have so much more to offer, as can be experienced throughout this album.
Producing wonderfully melodic though dark indie pop tunes through to the raw energy of punk rock, Isa & The Filthy Tongues excel at every opportunity.
Dark Passenger closes with the beautiful song From The Treetops, a gentle duet featuring both Isa and Metcalfe, a track that takes you into the chill out zone following an epic journey through the album.
Dark Passenger is released on Neon Tetra Records on March 22nd and comes highly recommended.
Isa & The Filthy Tongues – New Town Killers
NME describe the Dark Passenger as ‘Epic guitar of classic Bunnymen tempered by scuzzy Scottish scrapiness and charged boy-girl vocals, it’s sure to fire you up.’
