It was looking like it might never happen, but finally we have recorded our first podcast of 2010.
Two months away from the microphone has rendered some of our chat slightly nonsensical (what's new?), but the standard of music on this podcast is probably the best so far...
We were fans of The Japanese War Effort from the first time we saw him play at the erstwhile Bowery venue last year, and we open on 'Usain Bolt', taken from his new LP, I Will Leave You Now, And Two Loudspeakers Will Take My Place. The fastest man alive should be proud.
Another act to have graced this blog are The Unwinding Hours, the new band comprising one half of Aereogramme, and from their self-titled debut album we've chosen the spine-tinglingly epic 'Tightrope'.
We also turn our attention to this weekend's main event, the Fence Collective's annual Homegame festival in Anstruther, Fife. In anticipation of three days and nights of crammed pubs, fish suppers and maybe even the odd bit of music, we've got tracks from a trio of acts on this year's bill: Django Django, Findo Gask and Silver Columns.
And that's not all. There's more tuneage from the sickeningly talented Miaoux Miaoux and the ethereal Call To Mind (both of whom have new EPs on the way), as well as the obligatory 6 Music post-match analysis.
Hope you enjoy, and, as ever, let us know what you think below...
Play: Podcast #7
Running order: 00:00: The Japanese War Effort - Usain Bolt 04:04: The Unwinding Hours - Tightrope 08:58: Django Django - Storm 14:59: Findo Gask - Va Va Va 18:42: Silver Columns - Brow Beaten 25:10: Miaoux Miaoux - Dream On 34:02: Call To Mind - Breathe Pt. 1
Newsbits: EMI losses, Japanese War Effort and Unwinding Hours album releases, plus TITP
If today’s news is tomorrow’s chip paper, god knows what that makes our music news. Either way, we’ve been scraping our barrel of press releases to bring you the latest news, gossip and conjecture from the world of the music industry.
Blame it on the Moog, eh... UtR’s favourite ambient-pop minimalist Japanese War Effort will release his second album ‘I Will Leave You Now, And Two Loudspeakers Will Take My Place’ on 8 March. The follow up to his 2008 debut 'Snowbird' contains, what the press release says are, “some of Martin Moog’s strongest and most interesting work to date”. On first impressions, ‘I Will Leave You’ is certainly more dense in texture than its predecessor while continuing Moog’s liking for complex, star-chasing slinks. No doubt you’ll hear a lot more of said record on these pages in the months to come.
‘Gramme pair to unwind... Aerogramme fans rejoice, The Unwinding Hours album is scheduled to launch into your lugholes in less than two week, on 15 February to be precise. The debut LP of Ex-‘grammers Craig B and Iain Cook will be released through Chemikal Underground and, if early reviews are anything to go by, looks set to be one of the Scottish records of the year. Can’t wait to hear it? We’ll here’s the track listing for you...
Knut Tightrope Little One There Are Worse Things Than Being Alone Solstice Peaceful Liquid Shell Child Traces Annie Jane The Final Hour
Frightened Rabbit pour another one... To celebrate the impending release of their third studio album, The Winter of Mixed Drinks, the next Snow Patrol, aka Frightened Rabbit, want you to make a diddy of yourself on the web. All their asking you to do is post a video of you making your favourite mixed beverage, no doubt in a particularly foolish manner, and you’ll be in with a shout of winning two tickets to an upcoming gig and have a drink with the band afterwards. If you fancy putting yourself up for undeletable, everlasting internet ignominy then click here. If you’d just prefer to watch the band’s latest video, press play on the video below:
A £1.75 billion dEMIse... Hands up if you know what £1.75 billion looks like? No-one. Okay, hands up if you know what minus £1.75 billion looks like? Come on EMI don't be bashful, raise those paws.
That’s right, one quarter of the ‘Big Four’ in the music industry announced a pre-tax loss of close to 2 billion smackers (what's £0.25bn?) for the financial year to the end of March 2009. Following the news that owners Terra Firma were asking financial backers for £100m to meet loan repayment commitments, you’d be forgiven for thinking the London-based major was spluttering its way to a long overdue box in the ground. Y’know, with the maggots, worms and other such icky stuff.
But there appears to be some semblance of hope for the fading giant. A billion of the losses were caused by Terra Firma’s accountants insisting on an 'impairment charge'. A what? Well, the perceived value of the EMI catalogues and the company's corporate reputation was cut which impacted on the firm's ‘bottom line’. Also, ongoing restructuring costs used up over £100 million and interest payments on the loan Terra Firma took out to buy EMI in 2007 cost the company several hundred million more.
All in all, it means that, although EMI’s record labels sunk lower than an ex-England football captain on a night out with his mates missus, a boost in music publishing revenues has made the company itself just about operational. But hey, that doesn’t mean they’re not drifting paddle-less up a creek of defacation. Rumours are abound that EMI is on the brink of collapse and that Terra Firma are looking to cut their losses. Some even talk of mergers with Warners *shudder*.
Desperate times, eh? Funny thing is, we can’t decide whether a collapsing big gun is a good or a bad thing.
Balado go for another three years... Good news for those who prefer their camping trips on the more hedonistic side. Perth and Kinross Council has agreed to keep T In the Park in Balado for another three years.
Now in it’s twelfth year of holding Scotland’s biggest outdoor festival on the disused airfield, DF Concerts had its licence application approved by the Council’s licensing committee.
Capacity on the campsite was also bumped up to allow 5,000 more inebriated punters to spend the night, rather than attempting to stagger their way through a sea of plastic cups to the night bus home. The campsite will now cater for 25,000 people on the Thursday evening and 70,000 on both Friday and Saturday nights.
This year’s T in the Park runs from Friday 9 July through to Sunday 11 July at Balado. Kasabian are headalining but there’ll be many more worthy acts for you to get your lugs around, no doubt.
Words: Billy Hamilton
Got news you want to share? Let us know by emailing utr.scotsman@gmail.com
In every scene, gig attendees are as crucial as the musicians performing and around the Auld Reekie right now there's a plenitude of inspiring experiences to be had for audiences. I consider myself a listener as much as an artist, and getting to local gigs is often as rewarding as playing them, so here is a quick run through of the focal points of the Edinburgh scene.
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The most important man in Edinburgh right now is Drew Wright, more commonly known as Wounded Knee. He seems to effortlessly straddle the noise, folk and electronic scenes; his eclecticism and unique vision quite uncontainable, with performances at Benbecula Records showcases, Nackt Insecten shows, or Gentle Invasion nights.
Continually reshaping and redesigning his sound, each set is a unique and inspiring experience, be it a collection of folk songs from Aberdeenshire or a 30 minute tirade against the British National Party. His post-apocalyptic Downsize Sound night is a must attend as well.
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The Bowery’s new-folk haven has stolen the limelight in Edinburgh since October, and seems to have lured many of the city’s best promoters. But I have a love-hate relationship with the venue’s wonderful ambience, delicious selection of beers and often terrible live sound.
There are few bands who can drum in that room and carry it off, and all the best things I've seen there used little to no acoustic percussion. It seems there’s a new rule for all fledgling Edinburgh bands: sack the drummer. You can rehearse in a bedroom, you don't have to taxi to gigs and you can sound great in The Bowery all the time - then people will love you. Get go (The sound man from The Bowery is lovely though and is simply handicapped by a bad room).
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Matthew Young’s Song, By Toad website is essential reading for anyone interested in the scene in Edinburgh. As well as filming some great sessions, reviewing new bands and swearing at mostly everyone who posts comments - disagreeable or otherwise – he is also responsible for (re)releasing Meursault's "Pissing on Bonfires/Kissing with Tongues" album, the best record I've heard come out of the city since moving here, and for that, the man deserves the highest of praise.
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The presence of musicians like Neil Pennycook [Meursault] or Wounded Knee - artists who have created their own voices and continue to confound me every time I see them - is what keeps me inspired, keeps me going to gigs, keeps me writing music. Upon moving here, I pined for the music scene of Glasgow, but in the past year or so, as I have become more involved, it has become apparent that Edinburgh is an inspiring place to be making music right now.
While some artists allow themselves to be swallowed by their own pompous self-mythologising, others take pleasure in a more light-hearted kind of alter-ego, constructing a public image out of scraps of whatever cultural paraphernalia appeals to them.
One such artist is Martin Moog (not his real name, obviously), who, as The Japanese War Effort, expresses himself through an intriguing gauze of lo-fi electronica, Post-it notes, YouTube sampling, Lothian Buses and Scottish football history (see his ode to Ian St John below).
Appropriately then, The Japanese War Effort began life on April Fools Day two years ago as "an ambient joke band" but has since evolved into a beguiling channel for Moog's sometimes poignant, sometimes witty world view.
It comes as something of a surprise that such a cultivated personality arrived at his musical style through a series of negations: "I like electronic music, but I don't have any fancy equipment, I love hip hop and rap, but I can't rhyme, and I don't want to be a folk singer, because a lot of people have had that idea recently," Moog says. "So making half electronic guitar songs in my bedroom alone seemed like a good idea. It's ideal working at my own pace, on my own terms, and not having the mundanity of weekly band practices or anything like that."
Play: St. John
When UtR saw him play live recently in Edinburgh, the tall, bespectacled Moog looked almost out of place as he stepped on to the stage in front of the capital's most dedicated scenesters. But from the first note he had the crowd hushed in reverential attention as he got on with his dexterously looped compositions, accomplished guitar playing and calm, confident delivery. In short, it was a performance.
"The loop pedal is only used on the live side of things, where I interpret what songs I have recorded on my laptop, and I try to use it sparingly," Moog says. "Using a loop pedal means that songs have to start quite sparsely, and tend to build and build to a climax, so it can be a bit of a challenge creating an interesting song structure within the confines. But I'm a big advocate of playing songs live in a different way from the record, and the loop pedal allows me to do that, so the drawbacks are definitely outweighed by the benefits."
Moog is enthusiastic about the current music scene, but maintains a healthy scepticism: "Obviously there's a real mix of good and bad music," he says. "I've recently played with some great bands in the shape of Meursault and My Kappa Roots and I'm also a big fan of Barn Owl, Plaaydoh - who unfortunately have just split - and Eagleowl. It would be wrong to mention who I dislike - I'd like to avoid the clichés of becoming embroiled in any disputes through the press - but suffice to say, I've had enough of dullard groups who do that seven piece indie with folk instruments thing, which seems pretty over exposed at the moment. But it is certainly a good time to be getting out, playing live and making records."
Heeding his own advice, Moog is a busy boy in the coming months. The Japanese War Effort will be contributing to a couple of compilations, and will be working on a new album over the summer. But Moog says the focus of his musical energies will be his new band Conquering Animal Sound, which is "an expansion of the Jap's live ideas, involving two people playing through one loop pedal". They are releasing their debut mix tape as a free download at the end of May, and will be playing their first show at Henry's Cellar Bar on the 30th of May.
You can download the Snowbird EP by The Japanese War Effort here and buy the latest EP, King of Poland, here.
Play: You Like Dogs LOL
Words: Nick Mitchell
Was the Japanese War Effort a lost cause from the start? Discuss...
It was looking like it might never happen, but finally we have recorded our first podcast of 2010.
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While some artists allow themselves to be swallowed by their own pompous self-mythologising, others take pleasure in a more light-hearted kind of alter-ego, constructing a public image out of scraps of whatever cultural paraphernalia appeals to them.
