POP – 53 DEGREES, PRESTON, UK, MARCH 2009

This gig was fucking insane. We were about half way through the tour so the set had gotten to a point where we could play it inside out and upside down blindfolded on ketamine. We went out onstage and laid waste to the whole fucking place. It was probably the most aggressive I’ve ever felt onstage and we played like we were stepping up for a war. We were the total under dogs on the tour and most nights we played just after doors opened and had to battle to gain any respect. We had been listening to I Get Wet by Andrew WK for about 8 hours solid before stage time so we were pretty fucking pumped when we walked out. We smashed our shit to kindling during the show and half of it was still onstage when Heartbreak went on two bands later.

OWEN – SWAMP, FRIEBURG, GERMANY. OCTOBER 2012

I would say my favourite gig so far was when we played Freiburg in Germany last October. It was my first experience of touring outside the UK. The owner just kept plying us with strong German lager to the point that I can’t remember much after playing. I’m still not sure how me and Pop made it back to the hotel. The venue was totally rammed and everything just went right. The fact I couldn’t remember the way back to the venue in the morning even though I’d managed it when I was hammered still remains the biggest mystery of the tour.

KEVIN – THE WHEELBARROW, LONDON, UK, NOVEMBER 2011

We somehow managed to get all of our gear onto a stage not much bigger than a beer mat  Pop and Owen managed to break practically all of their guitars during the set which ended with Pop sat on a stool onstage by the last song. Should really have been a nightmare but ended up great fun and a resounding success. It was my second gig as a Chapman. I celebrated a little too much afterwards, tripped down a couple of stairs and had to be put to bed.

SCOTT – HOW THE LIGHT GETS IN FESTIVAL, HAY-ON-WYE, UK, JUNE 2012

My favourite gig with the band so far has to be our performance at the HowTheLightGetsIn philosophy and music festival held in a little remote countryside village in Hay-On-Wye. The festival site itself was so small that the majority of the venues (by this I mean lavish tents) were all situated on the top of a hill. We performed on one of the evenings in front of a huge backdrop that had been painted over the course of the day by our close friend and world renowned artist Stella Vine. The whole idea was kind of an interdisciplinary theme where the painting (a portrait of Princess Diana against a flame engulfed London) complemented our performance and music. Consequently – under strict rules enforcing us to be as toned down as possible so that we didn’t disturb the locals in the village – us being us we ended up blowing the whole sound system and electricity on site after the first song. However, even after all the technical glitches and the constant nagging from sound engineers telling us to “turn down”, we had a great time and the whole experience was magical.

KINGSLEY – KU BAR, STOCKTON-ON-TEES, UK, DECEMBER 2012

I’ve picked the last show we played as my favourite ever gig for a few reasons. Firstly, we were bloody good that night. Secondly, the gig was in my hometown so I could easily walk home afterwards. Thirdly, Ku Bar was the place where we had our very first gig at the bottom of a bill in 2006 so it means a lot to me to come back and headline the same place at Christmas. Finally we are a very forward thinking band. I could have picked any one of a batch of awesome gigs that we’ve done – Reading Festival in 2009, SXSW in Texas and Tokyo in 2010 etc but I like to think that we’re always improving and always building. In an ideal world the best gig we’ve ever done will be our next one.

***

For an interview with The Chapman Family, click here!

Alicia Atout

70年代後半から80年代中期の音楽、特に当時の Factory Records と 4AD のサウンドに影響を受けるレーベル Mannequin Records から、レーベルからもリリースしているイタリアン・シンセウェーヴ・プリンセス Mushy によって監修されたコンピレーション！ 世界中の沢山のニュー・バンドから未発表音源をセレクトし、制作に1年かけたもの。収録は Police Des Moeurs, ASSS, The Circa Tapes, TEEEL, Rosemary, Deathday, The Murder Act, Phosphor and The Strange Forces, Tablets そして The Long Wives です。

70年代後半から80年代中期の音楽、特に当時の Factory Records と 4AD のサウンドに影響を受けるレーベル Mannequin Records から、レーベルからもリリースしているイタリアン・シンセウェーヴ・プリンセス Mushy によって監修されたコンピレーション！ 世界中の沢山のニュー・バンドから未発表音源をセレクトし、制作に1年かけたもの。収録は Police Des Moeurs, ASSS, The Circa Tapes, TEEEL, Rosemary, Deathday, The Murder Act, Phosphor and The Strange Forces, Tablets そして The Long Wives です。

You could have thrown Studio in with the crop of European ex-punks making dance waves at around the same time, like Justice, Simian Mobile Disco, or Digitalism, but you’d be doing the Swedes a disservice; post-punks in the club are far more interesting both sonically and formally than your typical punks in the club. As such, West Coast opens with “Out There”, a fifteen-minute instrumental opus that glides through reggae-tinged post-punk guitar shots, glistening keyboard runs, opaque sheets of ambience, and intricate maps of interlocking rhythmic elements, like the soundtrack to an unutterably cool film about cool people in cool European cities. It sets a high bar for the 40 minutes of shimmering, reverbed, hypnotic, and fabricated (in the best possible way) postpunk / disco that follows.

The rest of West Coast, surprisingly, doesn’t disappoint. “Self Service” is unnervingly redolent of the second song suite from A.R. Kane’s still excellent “i”, guitars and drum machines complemented by piano stabs and synthesised steel drums, plus vocal wails not a million miles from Rudi Tambala’s honeyed but fracture-riddled voice. It’s probably the hookiest, straightest ‘pop’ song on the album. Four minutes and twenty-four seconds into “Origin” there’s a layered, gritty, meaty and satisfying barrage of guitars which are simply awesome, sitting atop the groove happily, coloring dirtily into the edges of the soundspace. “Life’s a Beach” reveals what the occasional ‘Balearic’ adjectives are getting at, with its warmly pulsing groove, echoing guitars, take-your-time progression, and “Mmmm Skyscraper I Love You”-esque falling bass-synth runs, all collapsing into (literal) tidal swells and glissando curtains.

There’s a little bit of dub, a smidgen of Krautrock, a whole lot of post-punk, and more than a touch of disco and early ‘90s British and European dance pop in West Coast, all handled beautifully and coalescing into something that, if not unique, is certainly executed with such style and panache and élan that the provenance or context of it doesn’t seem to matter.

Which is fitting, because aside from an armful of remixes (some of them for very significant people) and a couple of compendiums thereof, Studio seemed to dissolve into the ether after West Coast. I’m sure a bit of google-sleuthing would reveal what (if perhaps not why) happened to them, but I like the not knowing. West Coast is a beautiful one-off, sexy and alluring and mysterious, and I’m very happy for it to stay that way. The not knowing makes it even cooler.

Free download of the full album http://archive.org/download/SolarSkeletons-Necroethyl/SOLARSKELETONS-Necroethyl-LP.zip

Soundproof is closing on Sunday (Feb 10th) and it will be going out with a bang so loud ARs will be filed to LL. Clothing optional. Obnoxious particle light shows and guns that shoot stupid things allowed. There will be sharks with frickin laser beams on their heads, shrooms to bounce on, monkeys and mayhem. Babylonian Gods of Chaos will be summoned. 11 Djs and it goes to 11! Always dare to be different! Vive le underground!

Where: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Bloom%20County/100/140/23

12pm Enthropy Panache
1pm Poppy (Celestine Neutron)
2pm Dammi Quan
3pm Mallory Cerise
4pm Frequency Picnic
5pm Dizzy (Delirium Sol)
6pm Marx Dudek
7pm Morgan Voltaire
8pm Julesette
9pm October Poe
10pm Paradox Messmer

See you there! On Sunday, Feb 10th.
Love and rockets, Dox, Soundproof’s Big Giant Head.

Free Download of the full album here https://www.opendrive.com/files?NF81NjM3MTI0X1VNNFpG
(It would be nice to let a thanks or a comment on his blog http://mrsneff.wordpress.com/category/the-darkening-scale/)

最近知ったんですよね、まだやっていたのを。Trevor Jackson が主宰して Fridge や Four Tet を輩出したレーベル Output Recordings から 1999年にリリースされたシングル Pre Release が激アツだったポスト・パンク・バンド Gramme の最新ビデオです。まだやっていたと言ってもそれ以降はリリースはなく、 2011年からリリースが再開しているので、復活なのかもしれないけど。そして Gramme のデビュー・アルバムが遂にリリースになるようです。アルバム Fascination は、Tummy Touch から 2/18にリリース。

最近知ったんですよね、まだやっていたのを。Trevor Jackson が主宰して Fridge や Four Tet を輩出したレーベル Output Recordings から 1999年にリリースされたシングル Pre Release が激アツだったポスト・パンク・バンド Gramme の最新ビデオです。まだやっていたと言ってもそれ以降はリリースはなく、 2011年からリリースが再開しているので、復活なのかもしれないけど。そして Gramme のデビュー・アルバムが遂にリリースになるようです。アルバム Fascination は、Tummy Touch から 2/18にリリース。

間もなくリリースされるマンチェスターの4ピース・バンド Mazes 新作アルバム Ores & Minerals から収録曲 “Skulking” のビデオです。リリースは、FatCat Records から 2/18 です。

間もなくリリースされるマンチェスターの4ピース・バンド Mazes 新作アルバム Ores & Minerals から収録曲 “Skulking” のビデオです。リリースは、FatCat Records から 2/18 です。

DJ De’Ath

Masked Ball – JOCELYN POOK
Return Of The She-King - DEAD CAN DANCE
Just Like Christabel (12) – THE SCREAMING MARIONETTES
Virtual Fix – THE LAST CRY
Stranglehold – GROOVING IN GREEN
Floorshow – THE SISTERS OF MERCY
Alive/Die – (((S)))
After Dark (master) – DEATHDAY
Die Life – THE SOFT MOON
Untitled (demo) – IN DEATH IT ENDS
Further – VNV NATION
Synthetize Me – DIORAMA
Veni Veni (filthy Floor mix) – QNTAL
Nummus – HELIUM VOLA
Loin Du Brouillard – DERNIERE VOLONTE *R
Dark Dancefloor (medieval) – HEIMATAERDE
If I Fail (servantes rmx) – MONO INC *R
Erzatzteil – FEINDFLUG

DJ Batastrophe

CORVUS CORAX – Mille Anni (pc project mix)
DER NOIR – Private Ceremony
THE CRAMPS – Garbageman *R
BAUHAUS – Dark Entries
THE SPIRITUAL BAT – Thunderstorm
OTTODIX - Virtual Love
DEATHCAMP PROJECT – Cold The Same
GOTHIKA - Gusano
DANIEL COLLETI’S ELECTRICBATCAVE – Berlin

DJ De’Ath

Underpass (sinister subway radio rmx) – JOHN FOXX
Don’t Fall – LOTUS FEED
Talk About Nothing – ANGELS OF LIBERTY
Children Of The Poor – MISERYLAB
Camels – CABARET GREY
Shadow of Love – THE DAMNED
Surfin Bird – THE CRAMPS
This Corrosion – UNHEILIG *R
A Forest – CLAN OF XYMOX
Call The Ships To Port – COVENANT *R
Hellraiser (agonoize rmx) – SUICIDE COMMANDO
Women & Satan First - WUMPSCUT
Tief In Dir – HEIMATAERDE

DJ Batastrophe

AURAL VAMPIRE – Human Noise
INLINE SEX TERROR – Distorted Life
BLACK HEAVEN - Kill The Pain
DEINE LAKAIEN - Over & Done (club mix)
NEW DAYS DELAY – Stereokatastophe
E-NOMINE – Der Ring Der Niblungen
DIARY OF DREAMS – The Plague
ROSETTA STONE – Leave me For Dead

DJ De’Ath

Du Hast – LOS COLORADOS *R
Evil – 45 GRAVE *R
Anarchy In The UK – THE SEX PISTOLS
Komplikations – KOMPLIKATIONS
Eighties – KILLING JOKE
Rain – ASP

DJ War B vs D

AUSGANG - I Am A Horse
Papillon – EDITORS
VIOLENT FEMMES – Blister In The Sun
Stella Splendins (club mix) – ARCANA OBSCURA
White Wedding - ARDOR
An-Dro - FAUN *R
UNTO ASHES - One World One SKY
Love Will Tear Us Apart – TROUBLE FAIT
SKELETAL FAMILY – She Cries Alone
Fangs On Fur – FANGS ON FUR *R
FAITH & THE MUSE - Battle Hymn
Moya – SOUTHERN DEATH CULT
CINEMA STRANGE – Nightfalls
Barbarossa – SEX GANG CHILDREN
Fall Apart – IKON

Thanks To Everyone Who Came Along To The Opening Night See You Next on Fri 5th April With A UK Exclusive Release Party Details Coming Soon

ヴォーカルの女性 Marissa Paternoster は癌であることを告白していましたが、闘病をしつつも自身の意志で、ギグやレコーディングを続けている ニュージャージーのポスト・パンク・バンド Screaming Females の新曲 “Poison Arrow” です。こちらの曲はこの後、 Don Giovanni レーベルからカセットのみでリリースされる Chalk Tape に収録されるもので、ドライヴィンでメロディックなポスト-パンク・チューンです。

ヴォーカルの女性 Marissa Paternoster は癌であることを告白していましたが、闘病をしつつも自身の意志で、ギグやレコーディングを続けている ニュージャージーのポスト・パンク・バンド Screaming Females の新曲 “Poison Arrow” です。こちらの曲はこの後、 Don Giovanni レーベルからカセットのみでリリースされる Chalk Tape に収録されるもので、ドライヴィンでメロディックなポスト-パンク・チューンです。

The truth is, Adam’s comebacks haven’t held much juice since the 1990s. However, his latest attempt, released this past Tuesday is very different. Adam Ant Is the Blueblack Hussar in Marrying The Gunner’s Daughter besides having the very eclectic title, is also an awesome album, and a true and worthy comeback for the former new wave rock idol. Welcome back, Adam! More after the jump.

Love at First Sight

I first became aware of Adam Ant, and/or at the time, Adam and the Ants, waaay back in 1980. Radio diva Cyndy Drue had a monthly TV show, “The Rock ‘n Roll Show,” that spotlighted new music trends and bands, sort of a video version of what she did on the radio every day. Back in the days before programmed music, when deejays who picked their own music, Cyndy Drue was one of the best. She knew everything about rock music – past, present, and in the case of Adam Ant, future. She did a feature on this band that was coming to Philadelphia – Adam and the Ants.

I saw the costumes, and the make-up, and in 1980, despite being a huge Bowie fan, I was still a bit wary. Then I saw the two drum kits, and heard the sound. I was in love. Scraping together allowance, I bought not just the first album, but also the second, the next time I got to the local mall Listening Booth. Kings of the Wild Frontier and Prince Charming quickly became my favorite music of the moment.

Fading Returns

Once those two albums made stars of the band, and especially of its eponymous front man, Adam went solo, bringing along with him writing partner and bandmate Marco Pirroni. The two were essentially the Lennon and McCartney of Antmusic, the sovereigns of the sound. The first solo album, Friend or Foe, yielded several singles including the huge hit, “Goody Two Shoes.” Sadly however, from there it was kinda downhill.

Strip was big but not as big as the last, and then by the time Viva Le Rock came around, I think it was only the hardcore fans who were around. Even though I loved it, the critics and the music buying public disagreed. “Room at the Top” and “Wonderful” were low-flying singles from the next two releases (no matter how much I liked them) and then dear Adam seemed to take a powder.

There were injuries, bouts with mental illness, and a rather intriguing television and film career, but for the most part, Adam had disappeared. Every once in a while though, he would tour, with whispers of a new album. Finally those whispers have proven true.

Adam Is Back

Adam Ant Is the Blueblack Hussar in Marrying The Gunner’s Daughter was released this past Tuesday. Here’s a peek at the first official video, “Cool Zombie”…

Wow. He’s still colorful, still in make-up and wild costumes, and still surrounded by beautiful women. His latest look is almost an evolution, a conglomeration of all of his previous looks, just as the new album does with sounds. Something new for the new fans, but familiar and soothing for the older fans. I have friends who have seen his most recent tour, and the man has lost neither his charisma nor his energy. And here’s Adam himself, talking about his endeavors, both new and old.

Wow. Good stuff there. The above interview really gives the impression of how really important the man is to the music of the last few decades. If Adam Ant wasn’t inspired by it, or in it, he inspired it.

The Gunner’s Daughter

The album title references a nautical phrase, whereupon a sailor is tied to a cannon and whipped, something Adam believes the music industry does quite a bit of, or used to, as he notes in the interview above. I was hipped to the release of the album by my friend Robin Renee, a musician herself, who noted a Memphis vibe to the album. I noticed, and Adam has verified in interviews, that the album is a return to his Kings of the Wild Frontier persona. You can hear this on several tracks, but really if you listen, it contains bits of Adam from every era, and beyond. Also unique, it’s been released on vinyl, as well as CD.

Adam Ant Is the Blueblack Hussar in Marrying The Gunner’s Daughter is a large album, with a mind boggling seventeen tracks, eighteen if you count the B-side of “Cool Zombie,” a great tune called “Gun in Your Pocket.” It oozes sexual double entendre, a skill set Adam has returned to full force here, especially on “Sausage.” The sounds are also soft and hard here, evidence that this is a bit of everything Adam has learned over his career. There’s a mix here, postpunk, new romantic, hard rock, blues, ballad, it’s all here. Adam collaborates with Pirroni on four tracks, and the rest of the album with Boz Boorer, late of Morrissey, and still others with Chris McCormack.

Among my faves are the title track with its competing old vibe and new sound throughout. It could just as well be a new 2013 cover of an old Ants tune. “Bullshit” is another with an old/new duality. “Hardmentoughblokes” is a catchy rocker with a punk sensibility backed by an industrial groove. There’s also “Who’s a Goofy Bunny,” a tribute to Malcolm McLaren. “Shrink” is my baby, the best track on the album for me. Hard and loud enough to make you do a double take as to who you’re listening to. Alive and raw and cool – the whole album is.

So what are you waiting for? Get on over to iTunes and give the Adam Ant Is the Blueblack Hussar in Marrying The Gunner’s Daughter a taste! Or a lick. Heh, you know Adam. *wink*

http://www.mixcloud.com/DJDeAth/black-veiled-18/

To say that this band has an edge is an understatement  Throughout the set, the two women worked an inscrutably alluring, sometimes dangerous vein. Pulliam swayed with just the hint of what might have been a sadistic smile as she fine-tuned her pedalboard for minute orchestral adjustments, while Griffiths pogoed behind her keys, at one point emerging to put her foot up on a monitor and fix a thousand-yard stare on the crowd. But she also has a quirky sense of humor: at one point, she let out a random “whoop” seemingly just for the hell of it, later on putting on a pair of red shades with blinking lights, only to discard them seconds afterward. Meanwhile, Yuzuru Sadashige played nimble basslines for a couple of songs before switching to guitar, at which point a bassist came onstage to team up with their tight drummer Timur Yusef.

Unexpected tempo changes, loud/soft dynamic shifts and unpredictable song structures met their match in singalong choruses, Griffiths and Pulliam trading off verses or individual lines when they weren’t blending their voices for some soaring harmonies. Pulliam sang Down to You, a standout track from the band’s latest album In Flight, with a cold vengefulness, Sashadige cutting loose with a searing bluesiness as he would do all night, Griffiths adding a terse classically-tinged piano solo.  A wickedly catchy, insistent new song, Jeanine (sp?) might have been about a cat, or someone with feline tendencies. The album version of Ghost in the Backseat is a dead ringer for early X, but this time out they slowed it down, making it more gothic than punk, at least until another blazing Sashadige guitar solo.

They followed a burning, ominously riff-driven cover of Jamiroquai’s Deeper Underground with a slow, creepy, watery art-rock anthem, an apprehensive new wave tune with an Afrobeat-flavored guitar intro and then a creepy version of Here, the darkly unpredictable title track from their 2010 album. They closed with what might have been a cover, Griffiths and Pulliam harmonizing energetically over a catchy new wave beat. Although the turnout was good and the crowd was into the show, a band this smart and original deserves more exposure. Somewhere there has to be an indie suspense movie that would be a perfect match for Changing Modes’ eclectic, moody yet upbeat songs.

http://www.cabaretgreyofficial.com/

Hello 2013. So is called a series of gigs held at the legendary Old Blue Last pub in Shoreditch to hail in a new era of music. And it’s no coincidence that Wolf Alice were chosen to headline a line-up that includes Deathrays of Ardilla and Syron.

Since mid-2012 the band has gradually ascended, initially with a SoundCloud release ‘Leaving You’. A feature in NME’s new music section ‘Radar’, some wild nattering amongst bloggers, a bunch of gigs in and around Southern England; and now headlining not only the OBL, but supporting Peace (recently signed to Columbia) at the NME Awards Tour in a couple of months. Not bad when you consider that one year ago Wolf Alice hardly had any band members, nor any polished songs.

So what about them? I say ‘them’ to be polite, but really Wolf Alice is all about the lead man (or woman in this case), Ellie Rowsell. Chiselled cheekbones, plump lips, fair ‘alice-in-wonderland’ skin, she possesses the demure of a 1980s film star. A couple of years ago she had a solo SoundCloud page and if you look at some earlier Wolf Alice performances, she can be seen singing a country-like number called ‘Sticks n’ Stones’. But what a difference two years make; and this is ever more evident as I stood in the OBL watching her sing with a little bit more than Kim Gordon (Sonic Youth) about her.

Undoubtedly a talented writer as well as musician, Rowsell looks just as good singing ballads and slow numbers, to screaming-in-the-mic, post-punk material. Look at the online material and you get more than a whiff of a band that just doesn’t realise how good they are, nor how much potential they have. They’ve gone through a few changes and band-member additions; not least their sound has evolved massively. The latest single, ‘Fluffy’ pays testament to the band’s growing musical maturity in the past six months alone. With riff-based, highly-catchy songs, I suspect that Wolf Alice is the best thing to happen to UK post-punk scene since the 90s.

Clearly everybody knows this. Playing to a packed room in what was undoubtedly the first major A&R scram of the year, the foursome played a short and powerful set. Here was a band that looked so natural on stage, they could have as easily been playing at Glasto. A casual glance across to one another during songs, helping out when microphones wouldn’t work. It just came together. Good-intentions aside, Old Blue Last, forget 2013: Wolf Alice is possibly the most exciting band to come out of the UK in the past decade.

Have a listen to an iPhone recording of the set: