God Is InThe TV Zine

Presenting The sixth God Is In The TV Zine podcast. www.godisinthetvzine.co.uk Featuring artists that have featured on our pages over the past few months, alongside some interesting, innovative tracks you may never have heard before. TRACKLIST: 1. Bix Sixes - The Devil Makes Work For Idle Hands To Do “I’m devoted to being hopeless but you barely noticed/You hands are like knives and your eyes are like locusts” twitches Big Sixes’ singer over a frenetic tropical beat, that bursts forth into an addictive chorus. It brings to mind everyone from Vampire Weekend to the early work of the Libertines whilst retaining a introspective edge of authenticity. This FREE DOWNLOAD ‘The Devi Makes Work For Idle Tongues’(below) is a cracking introduction to this mysterious Bedfordshire three piece. Read more:http://s.tt/12S7W 2. The Love Language - Pedals Following recent shows supporting Arcade Fire in the US, The Love The Language just played their debut European shows. The one taster they’ve allowed to seap out to the public is the free download ‘Pedals’ below, a sweepingly tune that bares swooning choral hallmarks are brave and tender. Swelling through delicately arranged orchestration and collapsing into gloriously melodic cresendos not too dissimilar to the the early work of Arcade Fire or The Decemberists! Read more: http://s.tt/12QZT 3. And And And - Buy You And And And makes driving, gritty, energetic indie rock songs infused with a classic DIY punk ethos and a penchant for experimental instrumentation. These recordings embody the emotional mess that is an And And And live show. http://soundcloud.com/fanaticpro/and-and-and-buy-you 4. Kindest Lines - Destructive Paths To Live Happily Initially it appears obvious Louisiana’s Kindest Lines delicious reverb heavy lo-fi sound is inhabited with the ghosts of early Joy Division and The Cure. But somewhere on their debut long player Covered in Dust they settle on a feminine draped sound that’s somewhat more individual. Somehow reassembling the dark post punk era and flecks it with hints at disco sound of the next decade. Read More: http://s.tt/12RRP 5. Brontide - Matador Sprawlingly magnificent post rock instrumentalists from Brighton Brontide released their debut album ‘Sans Souci’ on the 30th of May on Holy Roar Records. To celebrate they are gave away the track ‘Matador.’ Read More: http://s.tt/13cM5 6. Knesset - Steady Hands KNESSET are a shoegaze American band, based in and between Phoenix and Los Angeles. Producing shattering waves of cinematic walls of noise, and impressively lingering, epic lyrical narratives that reach inside your ribcage and grab you by the heart…. Read More: http://s.tt/12QlZ 7. An Axe - Love, My Evil One minute and twenty six seconds. I can barely make a cup of tea in that time. That in that space of time Bristolian dramatists An Axehave produced a mini melodrama is testament to the quality of their work. “Love, My Evil” – and its instrumental counterpart “Let Law Be Upheld” – is a stellar single. Read More: http://s.tt/12UxS 8. Little Arrow - Aeroplane West Wales outfit Little Arrow are that rare thing, a genuinely heartwarming group informed by an ancient folk tradition but not consumed by it. An act seemingly completely oblivious to the prevailing trends, making music for the sake of expression and in an attempt to affect the listener.Their fine album ‘Music, Masks & Poems’released earlier this year on the quality Cardiff inprint Bubblewrap is the product of a genuinely communal effort(made up of friends and family members, including Margret Hughes his mother who provides a comforting female tone in the ether throughout). Read More: http://s.tt/130w5 9. Plant Plants - Hands That Sleep New duo, Plant Plants release their new self titled debut EP on the 20th of June. It’s produced by Jas Shaw(one half of SMD’s production team) and released on This Is Music new imprint, Less Music. It’s four tracks exhibit their skillful creativity for blending glorious harmonies with electronic rhythms and organic hip hop samples. Read More: http://s.tt/12RVy 10. papercranes - Sea Red Anchored by lead singer and songwriter, Rain Phoenix, and flanked by her revolving cast of collaborators, papercranes, released their second album in the UK on the 11th July via Manimal Vinyl(Bat For Lashes, Warpaint, Sister Crayon). Download the seething rhythms and raw vocal power of ‘Sea Red’ below, it’s awesome! Read More: http://s.tt/12RxK 11. AutoKratz - A -Train autoKratz have second album SELF HELP FOR BEGINNERS is an innovative journey through dark electronic pop, hands-in-the-air garage techno and carefully nurtured moments of beauty featuring guests Peter Hook (Joy Division/New Order), Andrew Innes (Primal Scream) and Jagz Kooner. Download the album track ‘A-Train’ below. Read More: http://s.tt/12Txi 12. Super Man Revenge Squad - The Summer We Finally Cut Our Hair Ben Parker(Superman revenge Squad,Nosferatu D2 ) has sent us a track-by-track guide through their cult classic album ‘We’re Gonna Walk Around This City With Our Headphones On To Block Out The Noise’ (which was later released on Audio antihero). It was loosely written as an anniversary to their formation and split(both in June). Enjoy: Read More http://s.tt/12V49 13. Andy Petr - Drinking Milk From His Hands Electronic boy genius Andy Petr, is a 19-year old bedroom producer. Prolific beyond his years, Milwaukee native Andy Petr recently signed with Brooklyn-based Mixpak records and released his debut album Rapper Turned Singer EP on May 10th. Andy’s profuse output of intricate chops doesn’t stop there. He is also delivering a spate of free EPs which APD004 being the first. The trilogy of EPs will feature original material as well as heavy reworkings of some of his favorite rap songs. Sample one of his innovative tracks below. Read More: http://s.tt/12UQ9 14. Oax - Love And Crashing After four years of heavy touring schedules with Bishop Allen and The Rosebuds, it was time to leave New York and head back South to his home of Houston, TX. Not the hippest city in the country, but that was sort of the point. What started as a open-ended hiatus from music and a venture into graduate school in architecture at Rice University, it didn’t take too long before Giorgio Angelini started writing music again. Oh, and there was a break-up, of course. What record worth it’s weight in wax hasn’t been seeded by a good ol’ fashioned heart ripping? Distance is, indeed, a killer.Oax is the result. The name coming from the seemingly endless canopy of live oak trees that covers Houston like a carpet. Not native to Houston, the trees were planted by early settlers as a way to provide shelter from the punishing Texas sun. And lucky enough, they managed to thrive like weeds in the swampy bayou soup of Houston soil. Read More: http://s.tt/12XSw 15. Laura Stevenson & The Cans - Master Of Art As some of the finest musicians Brooklyn has to offer, it’s hard to believe Laura Stevenson & The Canshaven’t achieved the epic fame their music demands. They can jump from subtle folk, to bluegrass, to rock, to punk and back again within the bat of an eyelid. Stevenson can manipulate her voice to sound kitsch and rabid at any one time; she can put out stars and light them back up again. I’d be unsurprised if she spends most of her time walking on her hands. One minute you’re listening to a leftfield take on acoustic music; the next you’re basked in a fervour that borders shouty, punchy hysteria. And it always works; there are never any flaws. Read More: http://s.tt/12RGS 16. Jonnie Common - Hand- Hand Red Deer Club present their first album on vinyl “Master Of None’ from Glasgwegian Jonnie Common it gets a release on the 1st of August. Jonnie previously worked under the monniker Tiny Steps releasing records through the Fence Collective. A summerous collection of wondrously understated pop oddities, coming in at just over thirty minutes, at moments it understated charm reminds one of the quieter more modest moments of the National’s work.At others his twinkling instrumentals and quick fire, playful vocal ticks are wonderfully redolant of The Beta Band. Stream the entire album below. Read More: http://s.tt/12RGc 17. Inca Gold - Dark Moves After a well received debut EP, Inca Gold I in February, London four piece Inca Gold released the second in a triptych for 2011, Inca Gold II on 8th June on Color and Vision Records. Ethereal vocals? Check? Keyboard bleeps? Swirling Psychedelia? Yep Cinematic atmosphere!? Yes sirrreee…. The equation for Inca Gold‘s wide screen soundscapes could appear in a book about ‘how to surf the zeitgeist in 2011′s all too cluttered music scene.’ But wait their formula doesn’t contain pretension of MGMT, the blandness of the xx, or the sheer annoyance of The Naked or the Famous! Inca’s modest lilting, dreamy refrains ghost their way into your brain like half remembered dreams of the past. Read More: http://s.tt/12Qv4 18. Grant K Fennell -Three O'Clock Starting out on the live circuit aged just 13, Grant K. Fennell has meticulously climbed his way up the musical ladder, fusing with psych, ska, garage and folk troupes along his way. This isn’t because Fennell doesn’t want to shackle himself down to the restrictions of a singular genre – it is simply because he can’t. With tastes and influences as extensive as his (Flaming Lips, Nick Drake, Mastodon, Frank Zappa, Animal Collective, Van Morrison, Coheed and Cambria, Kate Bush, Queens of the Stone Age), Grant’s music is a sedimentary of sounds, with layers of prog, folk rock, hardcore, desert rock, country, even blaxploitation, forming the musical force that he is. Read More: http://s.tt/12Q6c Godisinthepod6 by godisinthetvzine.co.uk Godisinthepodsix by Godisinthepod on Mixcloud All content syndicated from http://wwwg.odisinthetvzine.co.uk

The fifth podcast from God Is In The TV Zine http://www.godisinthetvzine.co.ukFeaturing:Cashier No. 9- GoldstarBos Angeles -Beach SlalomTiger Tape - Is It Me or is it anyone else?PRIS - Blue-Tak Baby (Thom Yorke version)Snorkel - Stop MachineThe Vichy Government - How to Become a Cult FigureKontakte - Hope...Hhymn - Light of the MooonDrive - No FeelFlask Fiktion - Capsules OF Sun(DID Remix)Three on a Match - All About EveMary Epworth & The Jubilee band - Black DoeThe Scottish Enlightenment - Earth AngelEvi Vine - The Colours of the NightGod Is In The Pod: 5 by Godisinthepod on Mixcloud Godisinthepod5 by godisinthetvzine.co.ukAll content syndicated from http://wwwg.odisinthetvzine.co.uk

A new year, a better mic, and some samples from movies. What more can you ask?From the people that brought you http://www.godisinthetvzine.co.ukGod is in the Pod is back for its fourth episode! Enjoy! Intro/ Theme Tune 1984- God Is In The TVOur Mountain - Wooden Hearts(Free download track lifted from their forthcoming debut album)Love Parry IIIrd- Toy Box (Taken from their race for the poison chalice EP out now)Hold Kiss Kill-Our Last Waltz(Released as a flexi disc through artrocker magazine and HLP19)Dead Red Sun- Facility(A free download from Dead Red Sun)Chailo Sim- Calm(Features on their album 'Replete')Eleventh Dream Day- Satelite(Taken from their album Riot Now!)Gideon Conn- Wildfire(Taken from his album New Bop Sounds released last year)Alcoholic Faith Mission- Running With Insanity(Read our SXSW tour diary with Alcoholic Faith Mission)CYMBALS- Good Luck(dream cop remix)(CYMBALS release their new single 'Summer Escaping' on Tough Love this Saturday)Withered Hand- Love in the Time of Ecstacy(Taken from his debut album 'Good News' out now)Admiral Fallow- Delivered(Taken from their debut album 'Boots Met My Face')Serafina- Night before Mutiny(Taken from her EP released on Stolen Recordings last year)(Blade runner ending)God Is In The Pod 4 by Godisinthepod on MixcloudDownloadhttp://www.godisinthetvzine.co.uk/mp3s/godisinthepodfour.mp3All content syndicated from http://wwwg.odisinthetvzine.co.uk

Tipping new acts is a inexact science isn't it? For every success story there's rotting NME cover from the 1990s in your attic, hopefully proclaiming Terris the 'best new band in the country.' Then there's the BBC sound of list, a industry love in that seems to further grease the wheels between mainstream media and mainstream acts, PRs and labels. And when the winner is announced(the unfortunate Little Boots et al), the BBC will obviously spend the next six months trying to convince you 'how right they were!' by instantly play listing their chosen new darlings. Then there's the music media constantly and veraciously searching for that 'next big thing' when in reality its the music that matters whether that's from a act on album one or album four. With all of that in mind, I present to you my Tip Tape for 2011, you see we write about unsigned, small label acts all year round so these are my recommendations rather than my props to bash you round the head with or attempts to tell you how 'you heard it here first' they are just a collection of relatively new acts I like. Some of them are completely new, some under appreciated and some bubbling under the surface, all of whom I believe and I know will be producing music that is worthy of your attention in the next twelve months. And that's all there is too it ok no ulterior motive?! Ok then, with the spiel over I hope you enjoy my Tip Tape for 2011! There's been a preponderance fuzzy art rocking types crawling from basements, blinking into the light in the past few years. From the bittersweet C86 dipped indie pop of Brooklyn's Pains of Being Pure at Heart to the nu-gaze might of A Place to Bury Strangers, and this year's noise popping tips for the tops London dwellers Yuck. Well boy/girl four piece Hold Kiss Kill just might be the most intruding new addition, displaying the instantly sneering fuzz rock rhythms of Jesus and Mary Chain and the fuzz box atmospherics of latter day My Bloody Valentine and threaded with deliciously ice cold harmonies comparable to the duelling feminine vs masculine tones of Ladytron. Neon Girls(below) a forthcoming bside is the sound of swirling static down dark tube tunnels, whilst intertwine male /female vox are in entagled in a whispering embrace through the whistling winds of the train lines. Hold Kiss Kill release their debut single 'Our Last Waltz' through the helen llewelyn product nineteen label. HOLD KISS KILL- 'Neon Girls' by HOLD KISS KILL Juddering, catchy and intelligent, Cardiff based/Monmouth born electro-experimentalists VVOLVES(two v’s, not one w) are the meeting point between the anthemic electro of Toykyo Police Club and the unhinged intellect of LCD Soundsystem. When I checked out local bands to witness at last year's SWN festival in October, the title track lifted from VVOLVES’ 'Birds In Berlin EP’ instantly sparked my interest, its a addictive, charmingly scruffy electro anthem that burns through town on the wings of a swirling synths and a skittering vocal line, whilst members of VVOLVES hold onto its twisty turning flux capacitor rhythms for dear life! When the stream of consciousness burns its way into your skull amid tales of the carnage of the night before, in the monologue of this final minute you're reminded of the Super Furry's classic 'Herman Loves Pauline!' Their new EP 'Vogue' has better production values and now the sonics are less vocally driven, a succession of blinking beeps and beats rise and fall like the unexpectedly pleasant sound of a man repeatedly kicking a 80s arcade game. The future possibilities are endless for VVOLVES, keep your eyes on them! VVOLVES debut EP proper will be released on a 10” gatefold vinyl and as download on February 7th. VVolves - Birds in Berlin by Somethingfortheweekend Kent's Tom Williams and the Boat have been gathering momentum as a musical force for three or four years, this Feb see's the release of their debut album, if you were being simplistic you could call Tom Williams & The Boat 'The English answer to Bruce Springsteen and the E street band.' But that would be too lazy, sure their blues, folk, country tinged rock sound is as vermantly muscular and densely intricate taking in rocous strings, lusty blasts of harmonica, and joyous horns. But its inbued with band leader Tom Williams' urgent cinematic lyrical journeys across his past and the sprawling roads of the country, that really propel the act toward that rarely uttered word: unique. Get Older(below) is one such example of their debut album's power, its twitching rhythm section releasing waves of cascading violins, violent strummings and stabbing drum fills, sprinkled with Tom's sneering blues tinged tale of deceit and mortality going up in flames that's redolant of the narratives of a Nick Cave and Bob Dylan. The tales of travel and the "struggle of a man in his early 20s confronting a modern world that doesn’t make sense" that make up his band's debut album are apparently built upon fictional fragments, if that's the case they're bloody convincing and outstandingly affecting! Tom Williams & The Boat release their debut album on Feb the 21st through their own Wire Boat recordings label. Tom Williams & The Boat- Get Older by godisinthetvzine.co.uk Camden four piece Tribes came to me in a email message a few months back, fuzzy ramshackle lo fi pop recordings of their demos that show enormous potential, the song "We were Children"(below) is deceptively brilliant built on a clawing mangling guitar strings that clambers into your ears and won't let go of your brain, but its the sardonically delivered sherbet lemon drop of a chorus line.('oh no stranger your just like me these things happen we were children in the mid nineties’)That will hit a chord with many music fans of a certain vintage(one of whom is writing these very words), and will literally and metaphorically conjure up memories of the crumpled up bar chords and slacker melodies of The Lemonheads, Pavement, Husker Du and the Pixies! Tribes- We Were Children by godisinthetvzine.co.uk Women in music, its the in trend, and with Jessie J's (perplexing?) selection by the BBC as winner of its annually flawed self perpetuating industry inbred Sound of poll, that trend looks set to continue. Often you feel there's a contrived industry bandwagon that is being filled by the labels each new female act fulfilling a new need in the market from Duffy to Florence and back again there has been a tendency in the mainstream at least to often overlook the real talent below the surface(see Caitlin Rose, Emmy the Great ect). One such act that could have the potential to break out of this mould is The Good Natured aka teenager Sarah McIntosh her affecting first single from last year 'Your Body is a Machine' might initially carry a hint of Mockney Kate Nashism in tone, but she's more like the thinking person's answer to the band wagonism of La Roux, amongst an undergrowth of hazy synths and thudding beats 'Your Body is A Machine' alluringly reveals a intelligent rifle through the inner thoughts of a girl who has had enough of her own dumbed down, passed out Skins generation and even couches it in an astoudingly perceptive philosophical ideology(‘Narcissism overwhelming/vanity is quite exhausting/Self indulgent hedonistic blame it all on your upbringing’), but most of all this is a onomatopoeic dark nugget of melodramatic pop and exactly the kind of tune that could easily sit on a Radio one playlist, if only they were listening! The Good Natured released her second single 'Be My Animal' on KIDS in November and plans an album later in 2011.Here's what Sarah says about her plans for 2011: "I don't want to rush the album as I am really happy with the way it's all building and at the moment it is great just getting the songs together! We are releasing an EP in March then we plan for the album to be released in 2011. I am working with loads of talented writers and producers in London and I flew out to Stockholm to write at the end of November! I am taking some time to lock myself away in my bedroom and write on my own - like I did when I wrote Your Body Is A Machine (our previous single). I can't wait for you to hear everything I have been working on!' Your Body Is A Machine by The Good Natured North London outfit smallgang wowe'd the massive audience at last year’s World International John Peel Day in London, they have since been much in demand in London. Comprising of Anglo-Japanese brothers Simon and Toshi Kobayashi on vocals and guitars, and Matt and Ruth Atkins on drums and bass respectively. Simon, Ruth and Matt worked together at the now defunct Border's bookstore on Charing Cross Road and the band formed out of their friendship. Smallgang's expansive post punk is the sound of expression crushing up against emotion, and is given life by the brothers Kobayshi's double barrelled vocal assaults, dark screeches of guitar noise redolent of everyone from Slint to Shellac shifting precisely above shifting time signatures. If their first single the crowd pleasing 'Cockpit' got people talking then their forthcoming single 'Trespasses' could potentially sear itself onto the heart's of many, possessing an authenticity and first person quality not often seen in mainstream contemporaries, from the cart wheeling percussion and menacing dark alley guitars, to the twitching, disaffected baritone vocals that instantly put you in the minds eye of both brothers in turn. Somehow familiar yet resigned they're equal parts the sound of Bill Callahan and singer/bassist Mark Burgess of The Chameleons, indeed there's even a touch of the work of the early National about these two deceptively revealing lyrical vignettes that open up a window on emotion and indecision. "Evoking Mike Leigh's eye for detail and human drama and Bresson's transgress pathos' its these voices that give a throbbing heart to smallgang's impressively powerful sound. ‘Tresspasses’ is lifted from smallgang's first studio album also entitled 'Tresspasses' and released on Damnably in May 2011. smallgang- Tresspasses by godisinthetvzine.co.uk Edinburgh based Electro wizards Ben Butler & Mousepad is Joe Gay vs You/Germlin's new project and they are a late entry wild card onto my list of 'one's to watch' if you check the press release apparently they create 'a soundtrack to a bad mother of a party with Rocky Balboa, Bootsy Collins and Triumvirat headlining.' Maybe but what makes them really stand out from the over populated electro pop herd is their ability to surprise, because they sound like the frankly schizoid, and the lead track from their new EP 'Infinite Capacity feat The Niallist" is the sound of Gary Numan playing with some new pro tools programmes with all the gleefulness of a 16 year old after their first taste of redbull and coke! 'Infinite Capacity’(below) stomps through a sea break beats and glitches, scattered with a electro prog- pop melody that constantly comes at you from different angles, reminding one of everyone from Devo to LCD Soundsystem and beyond. The rest of the EP shows the outfits’ diversity and grounding in the modern dance community retaining a playful zip for experimenting with funky beats, squelching synths and cut up samples that makes us eager to see where they go next. Ben Butler & Mousepad is currently working on the finishing touches of his debut album ‘Formed for Fantasy’ due out on LOAF in 2011.Ben Butler & Mousepad have been invited by Deerhoof to support them in their US tour. Ben Butler & Mousepad Infinite Capacity (For Love) Feat by godisinthetvzine.co.uk There are problem three of four new names for you to sample on this list (and that was partly the aim) but I've also included some acts that whilst not new, deserve more attention in the coming year. One such is gloriously minimal Newcastle dream pop act Lanterns on the Lake, we've long since championed their subtle achingly gorgeous sighing pop that touches on the works of Low and Mazzy Star that stretches across two outstanding self-record and self-released EPs: “The Starlight EP” and “Misfortunes & Minor Victories”. Well we're pleased to inform you that they've now been snapped up by ace indie imprint Bella Union one can only hope that 2011, is the year that Lanterns on the Lake really emerge from the depths of the underground scene into the warm bosom of the wider alternative public, because they bloody deserve it! Their single from last year the heart beats of 'Lungs Quicken' (below) is but just one example of their wondrous ability to shift and move the listener with subtle cadences of instrumentation and piercingly gorgeous harmonies. Lanterns on the Lake- Lungs quicken by godisinthetvzine.co.uk Another who has already been well covered on this site is startling Norwegian talent Pål Moddi Knutsen or Moddi for short, his Rubbles EP last year earned him rave reviews on GIITTV, and shone a light on his future movements, including the release of his debut album 'Floriography' in this country in April. The title track from his EP 'Rubbles'(below) is an outstanding piece of melodramatic composition, written at the dead of night its undulating percussion that traces the vast landscapes of his homeland. Moddi's utterly unique voice drawing into you his spindling web through intriguing couplets and sudden bursts of accordion and a sea-blue guitar but it's his spellbinding vocals that are the key to understanding the majesty of his song writing switching effortlessly from tenderly enigmatic to skyscrapingly dramatic in the space of a few verses. Moddi has been compared favourably to everyone from Bjork to Scott Walker and Patrick Wolf but is an utterly unique talent. Moving ahead, Moddi is preparing for the international release of “Floriography” (on Propeller records in April 2011), and will be touring extensively with his band throughout Europe in conjunction with the release. Moddi- Rubbles by godisinthetvzine.co.uk Sure, new Heavenly signings Sea of Bees have been widely touted elsewhere but I just couldn't resist including the work of Sea of Bees small-town Sacremento's very own Julie Ann Baenziger (known as Jules to her friends) her cowering voice is entrancing and 'off-kilter-folk' song writing irresistibly enigmatic, if you’re looking for short hands you can mention the southern twang of Kristin Hersh or the elegance of the work of Cat Power, but essentially multi instrumentalist Sea of Bees is an beguiling incomparable new talent and her forthcoming ‘Songs For the Ravens’ album is delightful and: "influenced by rebels, nomads and the beloved people in Jules’ life. Short stories, films, even colours and shapes help richly weave ‘Songs For The Ravens’ into the epically beautiful and deeply personal piece of work it is. It is full of songs Jules wrote when she was emerging from her chrysalis, the work of someone who wanted to put her entire life on record. As she made it, she even learned to play the marimba, the glockenspiel and the slide guitar." Take the her forthcoming single the utterly spellbinding country tinged strum of 'Wizbot' (below), possesses an irresistibly coquettish vocals that sigh and twinge they are the magical sound of being enveloped in the pools of that special someone's eyes and yet being left with only unrequited feelings, a perfectly encapsulated lament told through vivid imagery and references to the book Huckleberry Finn. Jules aka Sea of Bees' forthcoming album 'Songs for the Ravens' is a utterly glorious record and gets its released on Heavenly Recordings on 7 February. Sea of Bees - "Wizbot" from Aaron Rosenbloom on Vimeo. Scotland has something of a track record of late, when it comes to being the birthplace of emotionally scorched indie rock groups of late, and the encouraging thing is they are all so different! Whether its been the insistent melodic throb of Frightened Rabbit's emotionally torn streams of consciousness' or the scorched almost post rock cadences of There Will Be Fireworks or the emotive primal scream of Muersault producers one of 2010’s sleeper albums of the year. Glaswegian Sextet Admiral Fallow exist somewhere between the gaps of all of these aforementioned acts, but yet are utterly unique, delicate folky instrumentation reveals itself like a flower in spring, each carefully executed line built layer by layer each player or flute, guitar, shivering percussive cymbals and strings that arch and release. Each player ushering in a new motif and removing themselves delightfully to give the song space to breath. But its singer/lyricist Louis Abbott, a proud Scot whose accent is familiar and comforting yet filled with a melancholia (contrasted with the Northumbrian tones of Sarah Hayes) that sows these songs with hard worn tales of growing up as a under achiever and being pushed away at every turn, a theme that is both personal and yet universal and sung in intricate poetic detail, moving from the minute tiny details of the everyday, toward utterly wide screen rushes of emotional reward. Admiral Fallow's album 'Boots met my face' got a low key release last year, but now gets its full UK release on March the 21st! Preceded by their new single 'These Barren Years' on January 31st. The album track ‘Delivered’ (below) is one such fine example of their expert song writing and the redemptive power of their music, that skirts the edges of folk pop revival and ushers in a tenderness, sense of place and hope through struggle, that is life affirming and heart warming. Admiral Fallow- Delivered (Alt Version) by godisinthetvzine.co.uk All content syndicated from http://wwwg.odisinthetvzine.co.uk

“It’s a little bit suspect with it (Shoegaze) coming into mainstream indie now, it looks like it might be the next thing to be mined. Then obviously there’s going be a backlash and then everyone’s going to be sneering at it again. Its like it’s cool and worthy to be a stripped down punk band but if you admit you’ve got a lot of a lot of effects pedals then you’re hiding behind it. But then I think those people don’t like their own company and just like not talking for five minutes.” Engineers bassist/vocalist Mark Peters giving his perspective on a totally different music scene from the one his band left four years ago. With all the talk of a rise in nu-gaze and rapturously received albums from M83, Maps and Kyte, along with the rise in labels like the Sonic Cathedral and Northern star and the sell out return of My Bloody Valentine there’s confirmation that excelling in sonically adventurousness is in fact something that should be applauded, not derided. Unfortunately the phrase took on a derogatory meaning during its blossoming in the early 90s, slung at anyone wielding a guitar and hiding behind a wall of sound, with long greasy hair and a lumberjack shirt on their back, but was Shoegaze as easy to pigeonhole as the mainstream music made out? Or was there something more nuanced beneath the tides in this ocean of noise: ’Something that interested me that at the time was only the press coined the term (Shoegaze) and labelled a lot of the crapper bands that came out at the time with it.’ Continues Mark ‘The ones that were just taking on the sounds of bigger acts like My Bloody Valentine or Ride when those bands were at their peak. But at the time there wasn’t really much difference between the Stone Roses, ‘Screamdaelic’ by Primal Scream and Spiritualized it was all just kind of epic, hedonistic kind of music.‘It shouldn’t be forgotten that way back in 2005 the Engineers debut offered up an intimate record that bore its way into people’s subconsciousness, followed by a series of standout shows that saw them leading a the first wave of new acts that skilfully blurred the lines between dream pop, post rock and Shoegaze. Indeed Mark doesn’t feel that ‘shoegaze’ is a dirty word anymore. It’s been embraced by a new generation of underground bands from the sighing dream pop of Kyte to the MBV flecked indie fuzz of The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, but Mark thinks his band steps out of any crude boxes through the force and intricacy of their work, contacting the listener on different levels: ‘I think its become an accepted genre there’s a big community of people who love that music and don’t care what the mainstream press say about it, or what trendy bands want to do.’ Mark points out ‘I’m not going to be so naive to think they we won’t be pigeon holed because I know that we already are but I think there’s a lot more to us. I think if you actually listen to us opposed to just skimming through it. ‘He’s right to be confident, returning with their startlingly new lush and swirling LP ‘Three Fact Fader’ - brought into creation via a labour of love that spun together writing, recording and production sessions over a four year period into an elegiac, multi-layered piece of work. But that’s not to say it’s birth was anything like easy. There was a danger at one point that the record that could never seen the light of day: 'We started writing this album in 2005, since the first one came out, we finished recording it in 2007. But our record company (Echo part of Chrysalis) just stopped releasing records in the traditional way.’ Mark recalls ‘We'd had quite a long intensive period of writing and recording, so opposed to sitting around waiting we thought we'd take a break. A couple of labels approached us but we didn't think it was moving on in the right way so we thought we'd wait until the right label (Kscope) to come along.'In the intervening period the band (full line up: Simon Phipps, Mark Peters, Dan MacBean, Andrew Sweeney), released a cover of the Tim Buckley’s classic "Song to the Siren" for the 2005 tribute album 'Dream Brother: The Songs of Tim and Jeff Buckley’, worked on various different musical projects, Mark recently teamed up with German electronic genius Ulrich Schnauss, producing a single by Daniel Land and the Modern Painters. The push that finally made it possible for the album to come blinking into the light of day, was driven organically by the interest in the recordings from the fans 'We had a remix done by DJ Sasha that prompted a bit of interest on the myspace so we put up a few songs and that prompted more interest. We just got loads of really positive responses from it people asking where they could get it. Then this label (Kskope) approached us and they weren't even aware that there was another album they were just interested in us as a band because they loved the first album, and what we were doing.'In the time between albums the Engineers had grown as people, musicians and producers, learning new production techniques on different projects and bringing a different slant to the recordings that had been lying dormant, bringing new ideas to the table and jamming them out. That working with renowned producer Ken Thomas (M83, Maps, Sigur Ros) sounds more like collaborative processes ‘He’s more of a counsellor than anything else; he's not really a nob twiddler, although he can do that. He just brought an impartial aspect to it, more of a philosophical approach. He did the M83, and the Maps album after he did our album he didn't even know what shoegaze was. We just wanted to make a great album and that was his opening gambit. We properly recording in 2006 we were touring, we started off at a place where Ken did his apprenticeship here in Surrey where ‘Meat is Murder’ (which both of us agree is the best Smiths album) was recorded; we were the last band to record there actually. Then we went to Rockfield in North Wales.’ Perhaps surprisingly to some there are propulsive Krautrock elements new to the world of the Engineers. Samples from Harmonia’s Watussi provide new single and opening track ‘Clean Coloured Wine’ with a disarming familiarity, and yet at the same it time manages to sound fresh and modern. It's a rich vein of influence that’s carried into the axis of the album with the track ‘Crawl from the Wreckage’ a crashing, haunting slice of modernistic pyschedlia ‘We were just listening to a lot of Neu!, Harmonia and Can was a big influence on the album just in terms of an artistic idea of music, opposed to just write a song.’ remembers Mark. There are more up to date flourishes too the bleeping wide screen electronic harmonic rushes of ‘What Pushed Us Together’, ‘By What You Are’ and ‘Emergency Room’ influenced by the likes of Panda Bear’s ‘Person Pitch’ and The Animal Collective’s ‘Merriweather Post Pavillion’, recording in different locations seems to have brought a different colour to each track ‘Most of it was recorded in this lockup in a industrial estate when you're in a big studio you're more tempted you've got the vibe a bit more.’ Mark points out ‘but I wouldn't have liked to record the whole thing there coz I think you're not truly yourself in a big studio because you can do it whichever what you want it, why would you want to lose your personalities to that?’‘Three Person Pitch’ is a personal record: with the cascading cautionary ‘Song for Andy’ and the grand string led ‘The Fear Has gone’ that’s contains hypnotic looping vox, and the sighing ‘Brighter As We Fall’ with it’s Nick Mcabe-esque shimmering guitars that are ‘so-cavernous-you-feel-like-you-could-step-into-their-world’ while the heartbreaking Pink Floyd ‘Dark Side of the Moon’-esque vocals brings you down to earth with a bump. These are just a few of the myriad of moments on this long player that ring with a wistfulness, but as Mark points out they’re careful not to call into a trap of being saccharine and overtly commercialised. It’s a fine line to tread but Engineers navigate it with ethereal majesty: ‘Anything that's got a slick manufactured sound loses the personal touch. But there's also this horrible thing where its a pared down sound, that's intentionally emotional, that’s seen by some as almost a fast ticket to being worthy and real, that later gets used for a car advert.’ Before he reveals ‘There's so many people like that you meet when you’re out, they might be thirty five but they're pretending to be teenage girls.'Carefully and deliberately avoiding the commercial cynicism of mainstream ‘elevator acts’ that lack real heart, the Engineers create finely tuned sonic patterns dappled by harmonies that attempt to reflect their own voices, always trying to move the listener with their music. In turn taking them to places filled with rushes of misty melancholia and epic epiphanies, and creating a bond between musician and listener much like emotional heartache of Spiritualized and Chapterhouse. It’s an aim that apparently seeps through both the recording and writing processes “It’s quite personal from the point of view of the lyrics and vocals, musically we start off trying to tap into an otherworldly vibe and the lyrics always take it back to a personal experience, whether that’s something going on in our lives at the time, or something we've seen in the news or read in a book but its always best to have something to relate to because otherwise it can just be vague. We do sometimes approach it as instrumental but we do bring the lyrics in as the focus of what we build the music around, an intimacy, it acts as though one person can have enormous ideas but then at the end of the day they’re just one person and a vocal can portray that, but then music can portray that your imagination is endless.’ Mark laughs apologising for his pretension, but continues ‘The music can take you to places, a place you remember someone who’s gone, there’s a kind of elegy about it I think that’s how we are as people really. But I think it’s important, that the material that will come next will have more of a forward of approach about it.” Since 'Three Person Pitch’ was four years in the it’s influences can seem disparate this is reflected by Mark’s listening habits that are as eclectic as any modern music fan 'The last thing I listened to ‘Lux supreme’ by John Coltrane that's one of my favourite albums, whatever’s lying around I'm surrounded by CDs or on Ipod Shuffle. I really got into Deerhunter last year; I'm waiting for them to do their brilliant album.’ Of the newer acts was he’s enjoying ‘A band I really love are this act from Baltimore called Beach house. And although I really love the Animal Collective stuff, I really love the Panda Bear one that became before it. Someone said the rest of them heard that album and got that their ideas from that. I think its really interesting that they got a hip hop producer in they totally not only went into Panda Bear territory but they also took that a step on as well. Aside from the experimental side to it I think they’re just great songs...' Perhaps burned by experience, Mark’s suspicious of much of the music being pushed by larger label, rightly pointing out the cynical commercialism at the heart of decisions that sees huge big label marketing machines back the likes of Florence and the Machine, La Roux, Little Boots et al, looking hopefully to a future where most bands and music is driven by artistic, personal forces rather than commercial ones: 'We’re at the end of an era where big labels dictate the trends now.’ Mark smiles ‘A lot of the big labels have all got a young, pretty, 80s electro girl at the moment to me that should have been three years ago, really! It's weird that these so called partially indie acts are being pushed so hard because Girls Aloud did it last year. Like anything with big labels its not necessarily or what they think is amazing it just kind of ticks the boxes, its just kind of the lowest common denominator of indie’ before sarcastically adding ‘Oh that'll be OK because we can relate it to that, is it actually that special? No.' Yet you really get the sense of redemption when Mark speaks, thankful that 2005 will not be there only crack at catching the attention of the music loving public, but he’s keen to make the point that it’s still an album constructed for them and their loyal fans: ‘Before we had a break we did two gigs and one of them was at the Sonic Cathedral and it was definitely the best gig we’d played in four years because we had nobody telling us what to play and then people on our message boards saying it was the best gig they’d ever been too and it was just like ‘shit why didn’t we just listen to our own’ you know. I think its just growing up really; I just think you should take your own opinion as the one to listen too.'With such a long gap between albums, and a gap in live performances of over two years surely there’s a tour to follow up their recent Sonic Cathedral date? ‘I think the first album was kind of a staying in late at night album, dare I say chillout. We wrote the songs for this album with a view to having something more exciting for us to play live. There’s a strong possibility that we’re going to support this band Porcupine tree in October, so that’s going be good, bigger gigs are better for us because we tend to need a bigger sound system to get the music across in the best way. And going to different places especially abroad is more inspiring than anything else, it just writes songs for us those kinds of experiences.’ It will be fascinating to watch these returning Sonic Engineers forge more new ground.All content syndicated from http://wwwg.odisinthetvzine.co.uk

“Do you ever get the urge to run, run get gone gone/and a lot of things get abandoned along the way don’t they?!”“With a lot of the produced music you hear, its hard to hear the real person in it” points out Orphans and Vandals intriguing front man Al Joshua “I was really keen to keep it more alive: that's why we did the album ourselves in our front rooms, we set up the microphones and that's were we recorded ‘Strays’ and ‘Terra Firma.” The genesis of London based multi-instrumental five piece Orphans and Vandals was borne of Joshua’s similarly frustrating fruitless musical situation, the grind of playing in dead end bands peddling the same old same old, constrained by the hackneyed melodies repeated every night in the same clichéd form. Orphans and Vandals front man AL Joshua talks passionately about a band that changed his life, its birth inspired by a trip from London to Paris – his own pilgrimage to retrace the footsteps of poet Arthur Rimbaud. With this new found lust for escape he let himself off the leash, starting to record songs that ”we're for him” Joshua explains "I wrote and recorded the first few ‘Christopher’ and ‘Headful of Tears’ in my house at the beginning, and just gave it away when people asked for it. ...They were done my bathroom, our neighbours were constantly on cocaine fuelled porn marathons, and I liked to keep the sounds that fall through the cracks in the background...This release of creative freedom saw him giving away these nascent recordings to anyone who asked, and was swiftly followed by the union with Orphans and Vandals bassist and song writing partner Raven. They then set out with a rough idea of what they wanted from the remaining members Francesca and Quinta on strings, percussion and glockenspiel, and Gabi on drums that would form the crux of a very different kind of sophisticated rock band, one that attempts to skew expectations of form, meter, and song. A spontaneity of creative process that big label bands who take months to produce and over dub, to over think to quite frankly shine shit before its ready for your mass consumption might baulk at, thus all Orphans and Vandals sessions were recorded live: 'I like to keep the mistakes in the recordings most of my favourite albums have them.' Joshua notes 'the thing with producing is you only get exactly what you planned on doing, there’s no accidents that bring in unexpecteds, I try and leave room for slight accidents or random chance.' Maybe that's why the songs he written in the last eighteen months documented in their superb debut album ‘I am Alive You Are Dead’ stand out so much in a sea of rock pastiche, skinny boys with their guitars, and vacuous two dimensional 80s revivalists, they live and breath with life, snippets of dreamlike imagery, brutal autobiography, literary couplets and warm instrumentals that rattle with aggression, melancholia and euphoria: a reflection of the people that crafted them and the modern world that seeks to suck the humanity from our veins. The album’s finest moment is the emotionally exhausting epic ten-minute symphony Mysterious Skin, which is stupendous and life affirming. Cinematic instrumentation that rises and falls like the wild tide, below Joshua's sprawling stream of consciousness. It pierces your heart and calls to mind the seedy urban poetry of Lou Reed, the sexual ambiguity of Rimbaud, and the half spoken/half sung working class humanism of Jarvis Cocker, moving from intricate emotional details to the huge foreboding underbelly of the city, back to a stranger's bed (a boy or a girl? Who knows.) Toward a literal sexual climax, into sky scraping chanted refrains, propelling rambunctious rhythm sections, huge stirring violins musical saw, and harmonium, flailing to a cacophony. The twitching opener Strays hints at the satellite town frustration of New Model Army singer Justin Sullivan: and the stirringly life affirming choral epics of the Arcade Fire. Their last double aside single Terra Firma/Christopher from Summer '08 confirmed the strength of their material - plaintive, pared back, Bowie-esque balladry telling tales of urban decay fleshing out characters that seethe with passion, anger and disenchantment. The wonderful twinkling instrumentals of ‘Argyle Square’ gently opens its eyes, and onto London’s streets, where dizzying images of the past and present collide. While closer ‘Head full of tears’ shows another side a downtuned, intimate, delicacy. The Arcade Fire and Pulp have often been drawn as modern comparisons, maybe a resurgence in the intelligent lyrics of Cocker, and the acceptance of multi instrumental groups like the Arcade Fire might mean there’s more of a place for Orphans and Vandals right now, but Joshua surprisingly reveals to “not listening to bands at the moment, I’m bored of all that at the moment” he claims to have never heard the Canadian troupe and even the references to Pulp leaves him a little cold “I couldn’t stand any of that Britpop stuff really.”A veracious consumer of poets like the aforementioned Rimbaud, the songs of William Blake, the work of William Burroughs, a year spent obsessing over Francis Bacon, the sheer literary quality of his lyrics, shifting effortlessly from dreamlike, to intricate detail, and back to naked brazen honesty of the kind that you rarely here within popular music. Listen to their superb debut album, and it’s best moments Strays, Terra Firma, Christopher and Mysterious Skin you'd be forgiven for thinking that Al Joshua painstakingly, constructs each lyrical piece before he enters the studio, but like everything else about Orphans and Vandals the creative process is spontaneous and led by an instinct to keep it alive, to keep it fresh to the ears ”Everything has got to be one in one take or one performance, unlike mass produced that is the finished product whereas I've got no interest in the finished product at all: I'm more interested in the process. That was the performance of that day, if it was recorded another time it could sound very different, its all on instinct and chance.”This is reflected in their raucous ever evolving live performances, where sometimes not even the band know what journey the next song is going to take them next: ”Every time we play a song live its different, plus I like to change it up, play with the band, it keeps it fresh They're all brilliant musicians and It keeps us all on our toes. Nobody knows what’s going to happen, if we fuck up a small part of a song nine or ten times, the tenth time could be really special… We’ve been booed before but how often do you get the opportunity?” Central to the Orphans and Vandals experience is Al Joshua’s unique vocal style: a starkly original new voice combined with emotionally complex streams of consciousness, a half spoken, half sung Estuary English it’s a style that allows him freedom to roam within, and astride his band's multi-layered oscillating orchestral sound, it’s drawn favourable comparisons with some of his own musical touch points Lou Reed, Bob Dylan and Steve Reich, for him it's all about turning himself on and challenging the listeners preconceptions of the rock vocal, his approach inspired by poets and the spoken word: ”That’s the thing that keeps it interesting singing and using your voice in a different way, listening to(Jack)Kerouac reading his poems set to music I'd just listen to him without any real interest in what he was saying..., when you hear someone with a real interesting voice you can here the melodic metre, you get all the tonal things and all the notes between the tracks, which you aren't going to get on a standard rock song.” Some lyricists like to create oblique imagery, allowing you to draw your own conclusions, or characters they can hide behind, Joshua’s work is intimate yet spliced with imagery, yet he is reticent about defining it, preferring to keep the mystery (get the pun?) behind the words, leaving you the listener to draw your own conclusions. “I would never be interested in writing a autobiography, it’s certainly intimate ... It’s like putting yourself out there naked at times, there are plenty of images and I suppose you could call certain things true. But everything becomes a movie once it’s written down, everything becomes a lie the moment someone talks about it.”Orphans and Vandals are a rapidly emerging band you must hear in 2009, an act that will challenge your preconceptions of what a modern rock band can be. Creating music of the street, thrillingly dangerous, sometimes brutal yet rather like life intensely beautiful and human all at the same time. Looking to the future, Joshua excitingly reveals that’s he’s already constructing songs that will make up their next record ‘When we’ve finished with this album I’ll get back to writing. The songs I’ve started are quite different. I suppose they will decide how we’re going to play them’ and he’s aware of not repeating a formula, though ‘I don’t want it to be the same. They’re quite different everyone in the band plays various instruments and is capable of reinventing themselves.’ We look forward to the journeys they will take us all on next …The Orphans and Vandals album 'I am Alive You Are Dead’ is out now on Fourth Floor.All content syndicated from http://wwwg.odisinthetvzine.co.uk

Chamber nights(in association with www.godisinthetvzine.co.uk) have linked up with the rather fine people from Cherry Red TV to put together a programme highlighting alternative underground music. You can see the first in a series of programmes below- featuring:V.E.G.A.S.Whores (a recent Guardian New band of the Day and Camden Crawl festival closers at Koko)Not Cool cc-sbKuffarAll content syndicated from http://wwwg.odisinthetvzine.co.uk

Watch the super new video from up and coming Cardiff types The Muscle Club, it's for their upcoming single "Hail!Joe Hale" it's directed by GIITTV's very own Ryan Owen and Alex Skinner, no less!The Muscle Club - Hail! Joe Hale! from Ryan Owen on Vimeo.Orginally published here:http://www.godisinthetvzine.co.uk/news/news_detail.php?id=1752All content syndicated from http://wwwg.odisinthetvzine.co.uk

Glaswegian act Butcher Boy came to our attention in 2007, with the release of their first album "Profit in Your Poetry".It was a real treat, a excellently realised indie folk pop album, full of literate, heartfelt lyrics about wistful memories: it’s tender, organically produced sound drew favourable comparisons in my own mind: "Think early Belle and Sebastian haunted by a real past, the precise poetic pop of the Smiths tinged with a heavy Glaswegian sensibility. Think the tunes of Lloyd Cole and the Commotions matched to the intimacy of Arab Strap, most of all think wonderfully dark pop music, for nights out or those long dark midnights spent alone by your turntable, reading the inlay, and submersing yourself in the sound."They followed this up with the single "18th Emergency" later that year, a stately ballad it was like being allowed to read someone's secret diary entry, each line consumed with poetic heart tugging imagery that conjures up moments in time, lovers lost and real kitchen sink drama.Their new album "React or Die" is preceded by a single "Carve a Pattern" which you can download here(from the folks at Stereogum):Butcher Boy- Carve A PatternIt reflects a progression a more buffed up, musically expressive sound that still bares the emotional brevity, and bittersweet vocals at the heart of Butcher Boy. We caught up with their lead singer/lyricist John Blain Hunt (who is also the famed DJ behind the National Pop League nights) for an exclusive insight into each of the tracks that make up their second work "React Or Die."Butcher Boy's "React Or Die" Track By TrackWHEN I'M ASLEEPI wrote the main melody one Sunday night after watching The Dream Life of Angels on BBC2. Rue des Cascades by Yann Tiersen is over the closing credits, and the film has an incredibly savage and sad ending. I could barely speak the day after watching it. The final frame is still and calmbut it is heaving with regret. It's like a sob caught in your chest, grief.Originally, the song was a duet with a completely different vocal melody but when Maya joined the band I went back to it and worked on a stronger cello line, something to suit Maya's style of playing which is very confident and strident. The rest of the song fell into place around the cello. I watchedThe Dream Life of Angels again and I re-wrote the lyrics to read like a nursery rhyme.Basil plays ten mandolin tracks on three mandolins at the end. Brian, the engineer, said that the last "I never feel..." was a Leo Sayer moment, which I'm quite proud of.I love playing this live - it breathes and it feels very powerful.CARVE A PATTERNI bought a rattly old piano in 2003 and I came up with the melody for "Carve A Pattern" the day I got it - I don't think I ever wrote anything else on that piano. Butcher Boy aren't really a band for jamming but we used to rehearse this song a lot, just because it was such good fun to play. I'vegot a ten-minute long recording of us playing it in my old front room and by the end of the song we were hamming it up so much it's like the finale of a Broadway musical.This was always going to be the most pop song on the record - I wanted it to be really sharp and snappy. The last chord originally rang out for twenty seconds, like A Day In The Life, and there are lots of little nods to different songs I love in it. Brian said that the backing vocals in the chorus are like Satellite Of Love but I think they're more like Mr Sandmanby the Chordettes. They're both odd and unsettling songs though; either one is good enough for me.YOU'RE ONLY CRYING FOR YOURSELFI distinctly remember humming the melody for this one afternoon while we were recording our first record. There seemed to a big leap between the verse and the chorus melodies and I originally thought it could be a calland response song.This song was pieced together in the studio much more than the others. We ended up trying to lighten it a lot, as it had ended up sounding very ominous and serious. We swapped from upright piano to Rhodes and chopped out a lot of the strings.I used to see a man busking on saxophone around Glasgow a lot and, for a while, I harboured a fantasy I would ask him in to play some chops and then open up with a solo at the end. We never did it, but I maintain it would've worked! We had a whistle signalling the end section too, which was meant tobe a little nod to Felicity but we decided to cut it.We used Brian's Moog for the end section - the overall feel of the song was meant to be like Del Shannon's Runaway and we were trying to get close to that high organ sound.ANYTHING OTHER THAN KINDThis was, mostly, a really old song I wrote at the end of 1998 called Sugar Shock, but we changed a lot of the arrangement and the vocal melody and lyrics are different.I wrote it when I was living in Sheffield. I had the attic room and you could see for thirty miles out of the window - it was really magical. I used to write songs on an old keyboard called an ARP Quartet - it was very limited and unreliable but had a really beautiful, gentle piano tone. Everything came out sounding like it was recorded in the woods.I wrote the words to this sitting in Queens Park. The music is very gentle and so I wanted to unsteady it a little. I'm happy that it can read as a piece of prose - it sits beside "There Is No-One Who Can Tell You Where You've Been" from our first record.Alison plays piano strings on this, and Alison, Basil and I wrote the oboe part together one Sunday morning... the song really needed an oboe! It sounds like woodcuts to me, and ink, and a very heavy sky.THIS KISS WILL MARRY USWe were going to call the album this - it's like an unwritten Burns poem.This is another old song - I recorded a version of it at Ca Va in 2001 along with I Know Who You Could Be (which was on Profit In Your Poetry) and two songs we¹ve not released yet called Juicy Fruit and Mouchette. Again, the ARP was a key part in writing it - originally, the little piano riffrepeated over and over again. I recorded the first demo on Halloween 2001 and I've got lovely memories of that.We recorded the sea sounds at Irvine beach on New Year's Day, 2008 - we got about 15 minutes worth, inciting the seagulls with a goat's cheese tart. I also wanted to get the sounds of sails slapping against masts but, strangely, all the boats were out of the harbour that day.The introduction to This Kiss Will Marry Us was originally another old song- one I'd forgotten about and found going through cassettes when I was moving house. I used to catalogue the songs I wrote but this one had no title or date - I think it was from the same times as When I'm Asleep though, when I was trying to write sea shanties on melodica.Alison plays the piano strings again, and the Rhodes too... I wanted it have the feeling of uneasiness you get from the gentler songs on the Assault On Precinct 13 soundtrack, which are warm and incredibly cold and detached at the same time. That's how the song feels to me - being aware of the structure and purpose of emotion but not knowing how it works at all.A BETTER GHOSTMusically this was, by far, the easiest song to write for the record - the whole song fell into place in about five minutes. I was watching the 2007 Scottish Cup Final in the house with my pal Iain at the time, and we'd got sandwiches and coffee and cake from a place called Espresso, which is one ofmy favourite places to eat. I was probably feeling pretty happy and satisfied.The lyric to this one is my favourite on the record - I wanted to use the phrase "a better ghost" for ages but couldn't exactly work out what it would mean. It came eventually though... I remember reading that birds can flockand fly in formation because they have magnets in their bones. I don't know if that's true or not but I liked the idea.We made a video for this song with our pals Keith and Allison. There is a real feeling of tenderness between them in the video which I really love. The song tries to be tender, but stoic too.CLOCKWORKI can barely play piano and Alison and I more or less got here by trial and error and me humming everything. There is a chord change in the instrumental section that's consciously All Of My Heart by ABC and the general feel I was hoping for was Vince Guaraldi.This is definitely the most complicated song for us to play! Findlay is an incredible drummer - we're constantly in awe of how quickly he can pick things up, interpret them, and then make them entirely his own. We ended up with a samba current all the way through this, blocks, congas... I was playing a guitar rhythm I'd cribbed off the Miracles and Basil is playing this really beautiful, bluesy little riff... It's on our agenda now to learn how to actually play it together.The cornet players from Kings Park Brass Band play on the second half of this song - when we'd completed the instrumental I couldn't quite believe we'd come up with it all.WHY I LIKE BABIESThis is another old song - I wrote it in the summer of 2000. It's changed a little musically since then, but oddly for me the lyrics are pretty much intact. I like the line "I watch with tired eyes as you seduce yourself" -that's the mood for the song.As a band we were actually playing this before much of the material for our first record was finished, but we struggled to get it to hang together properly. We tweaked the drums though - it's got a little stutter and roll from The Train From Kansas City by the Shangri Las in there now - and it suddenly worked.Originally, the song started with guitar and vocals but we worked on a different introduction... We wanted it to sound like the Carpenters. Basil's guitar makes it more Candy Says... and we managed to get some use out of the studio Mellotron in the middle eight.We gave the clock we used at the end of this song to Ulla, who did all the artwork for the record.SUNDAY BELLSI wrote this, as Sparks, in about 1999 in a batch of about six songs in two weeks. Originally it was a real rant - I couldn't get the words out fast enough. We started working on it again when we were on tour in October 2007 and actually got round to sound checking it a few times.I rewrote the words last summer. I always found the sound of Sunday Bells quite ominous - they remind me of being little and having the quilt pulled up to my eyes.Basil's guitar reminds me of Don't Fear The Reaper; the Hammond reminds me of I Will Die With My Head In Flames; Findlay's drumming is as precise as disco and we put in a deliberate little nod to Blue Monday going into thelast verse.REACT OR DIEAgain, this song was written and pretty much ready before "Profit In Your Poetry" but I wanted to save it for a second album.The song started out as a poem I'd written about a Diane Arbus photograph. It was of a couple of married kids in Washington Park Square in New York...They were babies, but furious and utterly defiant to the camera. The poem was more about how I imagined that type of person.I wrote it when I was on holiday in Philadelphia in 2005. I had a rare moment on that holiday - it was Halloween and I was walking. It was warm, I was just off the campus at Penn University. It was about 4pm and the sun had started to drop and suddenly the angle of the light and the shadows on the building opposite was perfect. It was so beautiful and still and it literally felt I had spent my whole life waiting for that moment. And it felt like the end of something... it's not explicitly connected, but because I was working on this song at the time, this song reminds me of that moment. It's apt that it's the last song on the record.When the brass band come in it's meant to sound like the lights of miners' hard hats appearing over the hill. Alison arranged that little piece and it brings a lump to my throat.I really enjoy songs that are less than two minutes long.React Or Die is out in the UK on the 6th of April 09 viasmashing indie/club imprint How Does It Feel To Be Loved? The album comes with a 16 page booklet and liner notes by John Blain Hunt. Here's a tracklist:"A Better Ghost" will be the second single, out 23/03/09.Orginally published here:http://www.godisinthetvzine.co.uk/content/content_detail.php?id=3149&type=FeaturesAll content syndicated from http://wwwg.odisinthetvzine.co.uk

Orphans and Vandals are an epic indie/folk poetic five piece from London. With a bit of luck, this year they could take over your airways. Led by the ridiculously talented singer/guitarist Al Joshua and song writing partner bassist Raven, with Francesca and Quinta on strings, percussion and glockenspiel, and Gabi on drums, the band are adept at painting vivid string augmented worlds influenced by their disconnection, confusion, of their experiences in modern life, J G Ballard and The Velvet Underground, the brutal inner lives at the heart of their London home and their journeys to Paris. Their finest moment so far is the emotionally exhausting epic ten minute symphony Mysterious Skin, which is stupendous and life affirming cinematic instrumentation that rises and falls like the wild tide, below Al's sprawling stream of consciousness. It pierces your heart and calls to mind the seedy urban poetry of Lou Reed, the sexual ambiguity of Rimbaud, and the half spoken/half sung working class humanism of Jarvis Cocker, moving from intricate emotional details to the huge foreboding underbelly of the city, back to a stranger's bed (a boy or a girl? Who knows.) toward a literal sexual climax, into sky scraping chanted refrains, propelling rambunctious rhythm sections, huge stirring violins musical saw, and harmonium, flailing to a cacophony.Orphans and Vandals create romantic music of the street; harsh, dangerous, melancholic yet heartbreakingly euphoric all at the same time. It has the ability to transport you into a scene of deep personal introspection and back out into the universal within a few literary couplets. They are seeking to add a whiff of realism, emotion and humanity to modern rock music in 2009, which would be a special feat indeed. Orphans and Vandals will release their debut album in April 09. All content syndicated from http://wwwg.odisinthetvzine.co.uk

GIITTV's Bill Cummings spoke exclusively to ace Welsh rapper/remixer Akira The Don(born Adam Narkiewicz).His second album 'The Life Equation" is released later this year, which he promises is 'a massive pop record - massive and pop like New Order, or Meatloaf, or The Supremes'In advance he's put together an exclusive free track to celebrate the release of Street Fighter 4. Appropriately named 'Street Fighter', another idiosyncratic joint from the magician of samples, featuring three rappers skitting on Childhood fights it's a grimey slice of old school hip-hop containing mashed up sound bites from the classic 90s arcade title.If you ever played Street Fighter back in the day, at home on your SNES or in a grubby seafront arcade, this is going to be a big nostalgia trip - check it out here:http://www.akirathedon.com/2009/02/music-akira-the-don-ft-big-narstie-littles-lickle-p-streetfighter-i-will-f-u-up/ Why the love for Streetfighter? What's your favourite character?Street Fighter was the second beat em up I ever played. the first was some Karate Kid thing, which pretty much Sucked Balls... So discovering Street Fighter, and the Spectrum version adapted for the Sam Coupe at that, was something of a revelation. It was all animey-ey, like Ulyses and those cartoons that were on at the time that I loved. It was just dope... And for some worrying reason (probably the same one for which I gravitated towards Voldo in Soul Calibur), I was big on Dhalsim. He was just the sickest thing. Levitating and punching you in the balls from six feet and shit. So how did the Streetfighter track come about? Did they approach you or did you always hanker after remixing the sound effects on the game?They got in touch to see if I fancied getting my hands on the sound effects and parts and stuff, and I totally did. Weirdly (or not, depending on how much faith you have in Idea Space, or Collective Consciousness, or whatever you call it), I'd been doing a bunch of computer game themed/sampling stuff for a rapper called Pixel, and I'd wanted to get the Street Fighter parts for a while. The music was this brilliant, epic, pop stuff, totally synthetic but still warm. I was always drawn to that sort of thing.What was the lyrical set up?I heard you took inspiration from school yard fights?Yeah, exactly. Littles, Narstie and Lickle P were round, listening to music and chopping up bags of weed with my hairdressing scissors, and we got to talking about all the fights we got into at school, and that became the song.Tell us about the rappers that appear on the track?Well, there's Big Narstie from Brixtol, who I've been making music with since 2004. He's brilliant, a very funny, very genuine, very talented guy. We've just finished recording his debut album here at Don Studios. It's a beautiful, tragic, horrific future-pop record, which I believe he's titling An Exceedingly Good Cake.Littles is a good friend of mine, and a dope emcee. We've made a lot of music together these past few years... I recorded both his mixtapes here. He's been on tag for about 5 months and has to be home for 7, but we've still made a load of music regardless. he gets on with stuff, whatever. He's ace. Lickle P is a mate of his, we only met recently. He's part of Juelz Santana's Skull Gang thing. I love his voice, it sounds double tracked when it isn't.How about the new album when is that due to drop now?I heard you lost a hard drive?I lost three hard drives in a week! 6 years of work! Dead to dodgy electrics and poverty! I am ZenNinja-fied though so I didn't even swear. I just made new stuff. The album wasn't too affected anyway, cos its all on Stephen Hague's machines, and he's old school so he backs everything up fifteen times and ships one drive off to California to be locked in a wine cellar and that sort of thing. Anyway, the record is awesome, thanks for asking. Its called The Life Equation. I wanted to make a massive pop record - massive and pop like New Order, or Meatloaf, or The Supremes, and we've more than achieved that. Its being mixed right now, by the aforementioned Dr Hague, and I'm working on the mixtape that comes before it, which is called The Omega Sanction. That drops in March.Could you give us a direct link to the track?Here ya go. AKIRA THE DON FEAT BIG NARSTIE, LITTLES AND LICKLE P- STREETFIGHTERWe're doing a remix competition for the thing - I've upped all the Street Fighter sounds and effects and the acapella on my site, for people to play with. I am excited to hear what people come up with, cos my peoples' stuff is always awesome.Good luck and thanksThank you brother!Akira The Don releases his new album "The Life Equation" later this year(its preceeded by the mixtape in March). Street Fighter 4's released on 20th FebruaryOrginally published here:http://www.godisinthetvzine.co.uk/content/content_detail.php?id=3113&type=InterviewsAll content syndicated from http://wwwg.odisinthetvzine.co.uk