Samara Lubelski is an integral part and somewhat of a veteran of the New York art folk scene. Initially starting out as a violinist in her youth she matured into a multi instrumentalist, playing cello, guitar, bass, melotron and many more I’m sure. Collaborating with a plethora of New York artisans throughout her career aswell as having a rich and varied solo career in her own right, she is indeed a very educated and almost indigenous part of modern art folk. Appearing with collectives such as Hall Of Fame, Tower Recordings, MV and EE, White Magic, Sonora Pine, and, lets not forget, Thurston Moore, she also splits her musical time line, and spacial landscape, by working with her Deutsch freunds and lauded experimentalists Metabolismus. Suffice to say she has her proverbial finger in lots of pies.
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The Rest are Hamilton, Ontario born and bred. Of course they are. That sleepy nation of Canada is home to many of modern alternative music’s great heroes, and here’s one more to warm your cockles.

So it’s cold and sparse in Canada, right? Yes. But at the same time it is irrevocably magical. Landscapes mostly unspoiled and clouded in dreamy white. I would say the very same about The Rest. Despite the very obviousness of comparing their music to their home surroundings (aren’t we all the product of our environment, nature, nurture n’ all that) it is an essential part of this bands sound, and they do admit to only speaking in ”snow.” I can speak snow too. Continue Reading

With still a relatively small amount of records under their belt (3 – discounting EP‘s and splits) Pelican have explored the dimensions of modern metal and sludge, and homed it with the more ethereal elements of post-rock. The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw was a band reaching a plateau, and really knowing their craft.
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You can’t seriously be into metal if you aren’t acquainted with that oh so vociferous onslaught – a Converge record. The blood curdling velocity of their music is absolutely incomparable. Their rage inimitable. There isn’t a band on earth who goes there with such a death wish as Converge.

So it will come as no surprise that this record is another brutal edition to the legacy of these hardcore monsters. Full of the sort of throat cutting vocals and blistering inferno guitar lines that you’ll want to retreat to a fallout shelter in hope of some sanity and a shred of hope (forgive the pun). Not even reinforced lead and steel could keep Axe To Fall from unrepentantly pile driving your nether regions. Continue Reading

Manchester alt indie supremos The Longcut, I thought, would be huge by now. Gaining notoriety in the mid 00’s it seems they have been trundling along in the background for the last few years, releasing EP’s on occasion. Last time I saw them packing out The Cockpit, this time it’s the slightly more reserved intimacy of The Brudenell Social Club.
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Can’t quite make my mind up on the name, but upon hearing their last release Ends Of June back in 2007 it was highly obvious that here was a special collection of musicians who made up Low Low Low La La La Love Love Love, crafting something quite beautiful. Admittedly, I had completely forgot I had Ends Of June, then seeing that they had something new coming out, I revisited the last one, and the wonder remains.

Feels, Feathers is more of the same sunshine folk, and the song writing is as magical as ever. ‘Blackbird 1′ is dreamy, childlike, and, like most of Low Lows songs, completely disarming, it caresses with it’s harmonies, but does bulk it up with electric guitars which I feel nicely break the sway of the record.
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Chicago based Califone get their moniker from a manufacturer of audio equipment. They are an experimental band of musicians headed by main man Tim Rutili (formerly of band Red Red Meat). Quite a prolific band and their experimental nature is apparent with an off beat slow electro jazz workout on album opener ‘Giving Away The Bride’. They remind me of the more recent, less hip hop orientated stylings of Beck.

They are an interesting band as they play with a variety of styles; there is a very strong Americana country rock feel, but with elements of ambient electro and noise as well as Jazz. ‘1928′ is slightly more lo-fi space country in a similar vein to Yo La Tengo. Rutillis voice has a lot of character and gives the songs that small town Americana atmosphere, despite them being from the metropolis that is Chicago. The title track (or part title track) is straight forward three chord country song, which again is quite brilliant in itself. Continue Reading

I am so glad this record is getting a re-release as maybe it will turn a new generation onto a band that were one of the pioneers of the new psychedelic drone rock of the mid to late eighties. There influence reaches far and wide with more recent bands like Icarus Line and the fantastic, and unfortunately now split, Ink and Dagger citing Spacemen 3 as an influence. Their influence stretches beyond British Indie territory.

Before Jason Pierce (or Jason Spaceman) went all spiritual on us he was making drugged out waves with Spacemen 3. What is great about this band is they were so clearly apart from the rest. Modern powerful psychedelic at its best, setting the imprint for what was to come. Shoegaze is very much indebted to the work of this band. Pierce, along with Peter “Sonic Boom” Kember created something quite unique in their short career. Continue Reading

Could I be more in love with a musician than I am with Natasha Khan? Bat for Lashes albums encompass everything you love about music and more. More colour than you can shake a rainbow stick at. Or something. More heart than Cupids arrows. She is basically some sort of Egyptian/English princess.

I was fortunate enough to witness them support Radiohead last year in Manchester and even in a cricket stadium Natasha’s voice hit us for 6. In fact, Brian Lara himself couldn’t score like her. I was bowled over… Okay, enough cricket/I’m in love with Natasha puns.

This is my first o2 Academy visit, which is quite ridiculous considering it has been open for nearly a year. It is as big as Manchester Apollos standing floor. Finally Leeds have a better venue than the Universities. The stage setup was typically cluttered with various instruments and some strange television shaped lighting setups dotted around. Unfortunately I missed Yeasayer, but the best will shortly be arriving.
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The ever prevalent philosophical human sore, those aching questions of existence and love, loss and tragedy, are in many a musicians heart, and what drives many to produce hurtful and pained music. What would we be if we didn’t question why or experience that deathly pain? Not human I suppose. Ray Raposa is one of those musical souls who plum and mine the depths, with abstractions and truths. Music is about the journey but so rarely do musicians take you completely with them. Raposa is one of those sore musicians, his trembling take on folk country takes elements of electronic and post rock music resulting in nothing short of beautiful. His splintered vocals can be eerie as well as soft and innocent. The effects are instantaneous, and while you are within his world you wouldn’t imagine anything else. This is the beauty of Raposas charm. The opening numbers from Texas Rose drift in and out of consciousness, weaving and hypnotizing, the slow burn thump of opener ‘Rose’ is straight forward whiskey soaked country. The electronics are only slight for Raposa, like the faint glitches on ‘My Heart’, which sound like the buzzing of insects in the midnight light. The euphoric yet mournful and quiet synth of ‘On Beginning’ shows how if you sparingly use electronics it can create a much grander effect. Continue Reading

Six Organs of Admittance, better known as the ineffable and extremely prolific Ben Chasny, is in many ways the backbone of the new folk revival of this millennium (what better time to revive it!). In the words of Devendra Banhart, when talking of modern folk music; “Six Organs are the garden and I am the slug eating the lettuce”.  You only have to listen to Chasnys back catalogue (in awe, I might add) to see where Banhart is coming from. It’s become increasingly difficult to shed any new light on this folk tradition. But if anyone is going to freshen things up it will be Mr Chasny of course.
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Share is the brainchild of Canadian songwriter Andrew Sisk. He hails from small town Canada; Chipman, New Brunswick to be exact. Three albums in, Share write warm songs with heart and charm. Pedestrian is a record with lo-fi intimacy, and an odd ball sense of playfulness. Opener ‘The Great Before’ tells of the torment of post break-up adjustment, the ache of attempting normality. There is an immediacy to this record, like on ‘Foreign Church’, its twilight melody and simplicity disarm you and you become part of the story. Continue Reading

The snowball, or sunbeam, effect of folk music has risen into the popular consciousness thanks to musicians such as Devendra Banhart, Sufjan and Jose. Since they began lending their songs to major advertising campaigns, their presence as a form of resistance to the modern way of life; its joyless, motionless drag (the eternal pessimist I am), has been superseded by money making adverts whose message is “if you have this mobile phone you can live as care free and as easy as these guys.” Has the origin of folk music been ambushed and usurped by new folks embracing of commercialism? Who knows. Selling out aside, it seems the popularity of folk keeps on rolling. Where will it roll next? Continue Reading

Walking around last years ATP’s Nightmare Before Christmas festival there were an abundance of ghoulish people donning Zu hoodies, their emblem being a blood dripping axe. I’d foolishly already missed these guys in action. Luckily I’ve got a hold of their latest record. Carboniferous is a deluge of sound; murderous violence reaping out its revenge. Huge Godflesh like bass lines throb over psycho terrifying sax solos, whilst incorporating almost rave beats, like on opener ‘Ostia’; the heavy trembling bass is almost as if Lightning Bolt and Holy Fuck have gone to hell and back with a sax. So there is some definite heavy groove in there fleshed out amongst the strange, morgue lingering world. It is brilliantly experimental, in a John Zorn head fuck kind of way. There are no side orders of salad with this record, it is pure meat, dripping slabs of malevolence, and, what appear to still be living bits of gristle and sinew, bones and fingers, writhing in madness in front of you, and creeping behind. Continue Reading

Words: Marc Higgins | Photographs: Lucy Johnston

Sometimes Christmas comes early when you’re a child, but very rarely when you get older. This year, however, is going to be one of those Santas visited early moments. Obviously by Santa I mean Mike “I’ve got more side projects than you’ve had hot dinners” Patton. Riding a sleigh from the depths of ungodly hell, along with his good friends The Melvins to curate ATP’s Nightmare Before Christmas shebang at Butlins holiday resort in Minehead. Never before has ATP’s nightmare vision been more fully realized than on the days between 5th & 7th December 2008. Continue Reading