Author: electricityclub (Page 221 of 435)

“I don’t like country & western, I don’t like rock music… I don’t like rockabilly! I don’t like much really do I? But what I do like, I love passionately!!”: CHRIS LOWE

“Good taste is exclusive”: NICK RHODES

EMIKA Falling In Love With Sadness

2 October 2018 /


Since releasing her third album ‘Drei’ on her own label in 2013, the Berlin-based Anglo-Czech musician EMIKA has been a fine example to those who aspire to be a truly modern independent artist.

Following her well-received crowdfunded 2017 classical symphony ‘Melanfonie’ with the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, EMIKA returns to electronics with her best album to date entitled ‘Falling In Love With Sadness’.

Released on World Mental Health Day, the record is a concept album of sorts and a portion of proceeds will go to a UK-based mental health charity.

For the lady born Ema Jolly, it has been a journey of reflection on generations of family sadness as her most personal work to date. While this might be EMIKA’s most overtly synthpop adventure, ‘Falling In Love With Sadness’ is deep and thoughtful, with enticing melodic textures that possess an inherent gloominess that makes for great art.

Co-produced with Robert Witschakowski of German dance experimentalists THE EXALTICS and also featuring guitarist Chris Lockington, it utilises more straightforward rhythms with less emphasis on the threes which characterised ‘Dva’ and ‘Drei’.

‘Wash It All Away’ with an atmospheric air and some subtle guitar embellishment, it provides an opener with an easing cathartic effect. But ‘Could This Be’ launches the album into a pulsing Eurocentric stomp, a little bit like a modern electro take on ‘Gimme Some Lovin’ with EMIKA’s hushed vocal tones offset by sudden bursts of live percussion and spy drama inflections.

With the excellent first single from the album ‘Close’ laced in chromatic melancholy over a sparse and chilling backbone, ‘Run’ takes that template further with layers staccato voice manipulations over a deeply European electronic backdrop.

The pacey ‘Promises’ makes the most of EMIKA’s lower and higher vocal registers, providing an eerie cascading harmonic with some rumbling dubby tension and booming stabs driving Eastwards. There’s a glorious urgency about it, a solemn synthphony with spine tingling qualities.

The ringing riff of ‘Killers’ signals a more simmering avant set piece with building arpeggios smothering almost unintelligible whispers and words for that enigmatic quality before Ms Jolly exclaims “now you wanna f*ck me up!” even though “I get back up!”

Punctuated by white noise and processed guitar, ‘Falling (Reprise)’ sets the scene for ‘Falling In Love With Sadness’ featuring THE EXALTICS. A brilliant uptempo piece embroiled in haunting tension, this is avant pop at its best, hypnotically breathy and weirdly danceable, sweeping towards a solemn conclusion in a sea of voices.

Beginning in a bare bass laden manner, ‘Escape’ sees EMIKA saying she will “make this real” and picks up the rhythm, exploring New York electro but in an ultimately noirish manner.

But to close, EMIKA pulls a magnificent surprise with ‘Eternity’; while the bass sequence has a very electro body core, it is without the shouting and the Teutonic metal bashing. Although maintaining a frantic metronomic rigidity that is as good as clockwork, the forlorn manner of Miss Jolly’s delivery and the accompanying piano chords capture a beautiful hue which combine for an unusual but striking contrast.

A wonderfully bittersweet musical rhapsody laced with Bohemian melancholy, ‘Falling In Love With Sadness’ is a glorious sonic exploration into how sadness moves through people. “My music is about my life, what I see and feel, which I wish for, what I suffer from.” she said, “So when I look back or forward on my music, I’m really just reflecting about my life.”

The best electronic pop album of 2018? ‘Falling In Love With Sadness’ is without doubt one of the contenders and should belong on all turntables, digital devices, tape recorders and even CD players.

‘Falling In Love With Sadness’ is released by Emika Records in CD, vinyl LP and digital formats on 10th October 2018, available from https://emika-official.bandcamp.com/album/falling-in-love-with-sadness

http://emikarecords.com/

https://www.facebook.com/emikamusic/

https://twitter.com/emika_records

https://www.instagram.com/emikarecords/

Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by Bet Orten
2nd October 2018

A Short Conversation with GAZELLE TWIN

1 October 2018 /


Following the success of her highly acclaimed ‘Unflesh’ album, Elizabeth Bernholz made her conceptual art as GAZELLE TWIN complete, with its continuation in ‘Out Of Body’ originally commissioned by the London Short Film Festival in 2015.

But the elusive artist saw a string of life changing events, one of them being her move “far out of the city”. Relocating to the good, old England countryside, would seem the right move to enjoy more pastoral matters, the joys of quaint, idyllic countryside, while residing amongst animals and flowers, knitting and making jam.

Of course GAZELLE TWIN would do none of the above. Instead she nitpicked on the absurdity of our existence, no matter where we are located. And her latest long player ‘Pastoral’ says it all, from the striking Deutsche Grammophon referencing artwork co-conceived with Jonathan Barnbrook and beyond.

Elizabeth Bernholz chatted about her “deranged, absurd reflection of deranged and absurd times” in deepest Old England.

The four years since ‘Unflesh’ was a rather busy period for you…

Yes it was, much of that time was spent touring the ‘Unflesh’ album worldwide and working on new or offshoot projects in between. It was a fantastic two years of adventure and fun, and then I fell pregnant towards the end of 2015 with the plan to take break to write for a couple years.

If ‘Unflesh’ shocked, ‘Out Of Body’ only cemented the feeling, aren’t you worried some will simply not get you?

No. Being understood has never been a concern of mine, least of all with what I create.

You like a bit of dystopia, as shown in ‘Kingdom Come’?

A brief look into the history of art, literature, or film shows us that fictional projections of dystopia often prove to be like prophecies. Ballard was known as “the seer of Shepperton” for just that reason. I wouldn’t say I like dystopian ideas, but that I feel that there is great truth in them.


So there was the big move out of Brighton? Why was this purely for domestic reasons or had there been artistic motivations too?

The decision was purely financial, if we didn’t move out of Brighton, we would not be able to tour ‘Unflesh’ around America, Canada or elsewhere and still keep our day jobs going or our rent paid. It was that simple!

And it was an opportunity that we did not feel we had much to lose on, as we thought we could easily move back to Brighton should we wish to. Ha! No chance now.

And in the depths of the idyllic countryside, are you still “hypersensitive to everything around (you) all the time”?

Yep. It’s just the person I am. It’s useful for a creative sensibility, as I don’t need to look very far for inspiration. I can literally find it anywhere! It’s all about being able to tune in (or out).

How are you observing the state of the country post-Brexit and the shenanigans in the US of A?

People are still people, they flock together with others they feel safe to be neighbours with, and those boundaries get more and more protected when people feel afraid or threatened by something. That is happening on a mass scale right across USA and Europe, and it is alarming to see the way that people are responding, but I don’t think it’s anything new.


And the red and white 21st century jester outfit just sums it all up…

The idea is that the Jester is the base figure upon which there are layers of traditional clichés and modern clichés applied. It’s no singular thing. The Jester adopts different characters, it caricatures, it imitates and mocks and mongers fear… that is how I see the red imp. It’s a multi-puppet.

The football mascot twist adds an extra sinister quality, is this a statement on mob mentality?

Not specifically no, but of course there is a lot of meaning behind those aspects and they are there to make a point – my focus here is on contemporary clichés, and the demographics that are pandered to but also scapegoated by the tabloid press, depending on their agenda.

‘Better In My Day’ and ‘Little Lambs’ are just fierce, even more aggressive than anything that was on ‘Unflesh’?

I very much wanted there to be a sense of mania and relentless energy running through the album. I think it’s important to have that rhythmical hook for live performance, but also to be able to work up a frenzy. It’s all part of the mood I’m trying to create and get myself and the audience completely immersed in.

‘Glory’ comes over like creepy GOLDFRAPP, how did that shape up in the studio?

I would say that the musical influences prevalent in ‘Glory’ are pretty far away from GOLDFRAPP to be honest, they are not a band I really have ever listened to at all. What I had in mind on this particular song was something closer to Scott Walker or even Bowie on ‘Low’. I wanted to harness a kind of towering, God-like voice. The barebones of the track was actually an unused demo for ‘Unflesh’. I think I started with a bassline and built from there, I hadn’t really planned on making a song in that style, for this album at all. I felt very far away from melodic drama at that point but the song just sort of grew into itself and worked as the centrepoint of the record.

You continue with the heavy vocal processing on ‘Pastoral’, what decides the tone of voice for each track and what effects to use?

Vocals often come last in the production chain, so it usually depends on the theme and the mood of the song and what I feel it needs texturally or rhythmically… whatever I can bring to it through vocal technique and / or manipulation I do as much or as little as needed.

You continued the experimentation with the musical side of things, from medieval instrumentation to rave culture… how did you come to experience these two very different forms originally?

Early music seems to have always been a part of my musical education and palette, but I think this is probably the first project where I felt it was truly relevant to the themes I was working within. The rave culture, or more specifically – house and techno influence really came from being a younger sibling to a brother and two teenaged sisters growing up in the 1990s when illegal raves were happening all over the countryside near where we lived. My experience of that was secondhand, but nevertheless quite memorable. The music frightened me, because it was all very alien at the time.


How will the upcoming ‘Pastoral’ live presentation differ from ‘Unflesh’ and ‘Kingdom Come’?

In terms of production value, the ‘Pastoral’ tour is not so different from the ‘Unflesh’ set-up. It is simple and direct, noisy and strange. But there’s more smiling 🙂

What are your hopes and expectations for ‘Pastoral’?

Well I am already pretty blown away by the response to the album.

I never expected to sell out of vinyl and CDs within the first week of release but just that has happened, and I am stunned and exceptionally happy.

The last four years has been a really long and rocky journey full of dramatic life changes, and there have been plenty of times where I felt I may never return to touring, or get the opportunity to release music in the way I was able to in 2014. I am pleased I have been able to do all the things I set out to do with this concept and that it has already been so well received.

I hope that there will be a great run of live shows worldwide this coming year and beyond and that I can hopefully open up some more opportunities for making new projects.

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its grateful thanks to Elizabeth Bernholz

Additional thanks to Zoe Miller at Zopf PR

‘Pastoral’ is released by Anti-Ghost Moon Ray as a red vinyl LP, CD and digital download available from https://gazelletwin.tstor.es

GAZELLE TWIN 2018 live dates include:

Warsaw New Theatre (3rd October – ‘Kingdom Come’ performance), Manchester Soup Kitchen (5th October), Brighton Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts (11th October), London Somerset House Lancaster Rooms (16th November)

http://www.gazelletwin.com/

https://www.facebook.com/gazelletwin

https://twitter.com/gazelletwin

https://www.instagram.com/gazelletwin/

https://gazelletwin.bandcamp.com/

http://www.antighostmoonray.com

Text and Interview by Monika Izabela Trigwell and Chi Ming Lai
1st October 2018, updated 18th October 2018

LET’S EAT GRANDMA Live at London Heaven

29 September 2018 /


Wacky and wondrous, young Norwich duo LET’S EAT GRANDMA gave a refreshing sign at London’s Heaven that the anti-X Factor generation really does exist!

Comprising of Rosa Walton (vocals, keyboards + guitar) and Jenny Hollingworth (vocals, keyboards, recorder + sax), the pair met as 4 year olds at school. Often acting as if they were twins, their “experimental sludge pop” was showcased via their appropriately titled debut album ‘I, Gemini’, a work crammed with vivid imagination.

Accomplished multi-instrumentalists but also very much acting their age, the pair possess a naively afflicted high pitched harmony in the vein of cult American freak folkies COCOROSIE which only adds to their quirky appeal. Their recently released second album ‘I’m All Ears’ has been a more direct affair and seen them venture into synthpop, art school R’n’B and filmic instrumentals as well as developing their songs into even more adventurous extended arrangements.

Opening the show with ‘Hot Pink’, this feisty CHARLI XCX enthused anthem challenging gender roles with its stuttering rhythms was complimented by big blocks of coloured light. But it was the baby CHVRCHES of ‘It’s Not Just Me’ and its relatable sentiments on friendship that were an indication not just of the duo’s musical development, but of their empowerment too.

A more aggressive second cousin to ‘It’s Not Just Me’, ‘Falling Into Me’ continued a song selection that naturally focussed on ‘I’m All Ears’.

Following on, ‘I Will Be Waiting’ came over not unlike FEVER RAY crossed with CHVRCHES, while the piano-laden ‘Ava’ offered a maturity not far off Polly Scattergood but also some innocent oddness.

‘I’m All Ears’ has been notable for featuring two very long tracks in ‘Cool & Collected’ and ‘Donnie Darko’, affirming Walton and Hollingworth’s subversive spirit and ambition if nothing else. A statement about insecurity, the psych guitar driven ‘Cool & Collected’ however was the less successful of the two, meandering a little too much and far too self-indulgent for a live setting.

But closing the main set was the 11 minute progressive gothique of ‘Donnie Darko’.

It was supreme with its loose shimmers and sparring guitar to start, before kicking in a steady four-to-the-beat, electronic blips and impassioned lines about “going bat sh*t crazy”.  Climaxed by magnificent bursts of whirring synth, the fluidity wouldn’t have sounded out of place on something by LA DÜSSELDORF.

However, some youthful fervour saw Walton and Hollingworth leaving their positions to dance with the audience before sitting down together in front of the drum riser, pleased with how their slumber party with 1000+ guests had gone.

Encoring with ‘Deep Six Textbook’, the song that took LET’S EAT GRANDMA to a wider audience via BBC TV’s ‘Later With Jools Holland’, the pair reprised their endearing playground Pat-A-Cake before settling into the song’s stark funereal drama.

Despite expressing a newly found confidence of individuality, LET’S EAT GRANDMA are still very much a playfully bonded pair who will only get stronger as a musical force.

Full of fun and fabulously quirky, while at times some of tonight’s performance got a bit ragged and could have been tightened, overall it was a highly accomplished show that very much impressed and reinforced their potential.

Anyone going to see CHVRCHES in the next few months is highly advised to arrive early; LET’S EAT GRANDMA are a positive symbol for the future and really should not be missed.

‘I’m All Ears’ is released by Transgressive Records/PIAS in CD, double vinyl LP and digital formats

LET’S EAT GRANDMA open for CHVRCHES in 2018-2019, dates include:

Utrecht TivoliVredenburg (3 November), Brussels Ancienne Belgique (5 November), Cologne Live Music Hall (6 November), Berlin Tempodrom (7 November), Hamburg Docks (9 November), Stuttgart LKA-Longhorn (11 November), Munich Muffathalle (12 November), Milan Fabrique (14 November), Lausanne Les Docks (15 November), Luxembourg Den Atelier (16 November), London Alexandra Palace (7 February), Birmingham O2 Academy (8-9 February), Nottingham Rock City (11 February), Bournemouth O2 Academy (12 February), Manchester Victoria Warehouse (14-15 February), Glasgow SSE Hydro (16 February), Newcastle O2 Academy (18 February)
Belfast Ulster Hall (19 February), Dublin Olympia (21-22 February)

http://letseatgrandma.co.uk

https://www.facebook.com/thelegofgrandma/

https://twitter.com/thelegofgrandma

https://www.instagram.com/thelegofgrandma/

Text and Photos by Chi Ming Lai
30th September 2018

FIFI RONG x LO The Crown EP

28 September 2018 /

Beijing meets Berlin on ‘The Crown’, the first fruit of labours from FIFI RONG and LO.

Adding a twist to the alluring sound that was last heard on the ‘Awake’ EP earlier this year, ‘The Crown’ showcases a synergy between two music creatives from two previously walled cities with a feeling of empowerment and freedom.

The past couple of years have seen Miss Rong wear a number of different dresses from the Trans-Atlantic pop of ‘The Same Road’ and the reggaefied overtones of ‘The One’, to guesting for the highly regarded Swiss trailblazers YELLO. But she describes ‘The Crown’ as “the most consistent body of work I have written in terms of style and mood; no more, no less”.

‘The Crown’ title song is as gorgeous and airy as one can expect from Miss Rong, a blippy arpeggio leads into an unexpected drop which formulates a mutant groove and high pitched vocal modulations which some will love but others may not find so appealing.

The moody and mysterious ‘Hunger Game’ offers some chilled atmospheres as the sun goes down, with its shimmering qualities enhancing a great pop ballad and Miss Rong making the most of her vocal range.

Going ‘Upstream’, Miss Rong and LO offer a building epic of cinematic proportions with swoops, sweeps and layers that almost conjure a strangely Sci-Fi Country & Western feel… ah yes, ‘Twin Peaks’ meets ‘Nashville’ in Outer Space!

‘Foreign’ is more obscure and unusual, sitting it is own aural cocoon and conveying the feelings of an outsider attempting to settle into a new environment in the face of adversity over a soothing bass mantra,

But while it is more akin to modern pop than perhaps any of her previous releases, ‘The Crown’ still maintains an aura of delightful oddness that will bridge long standing followers of Miss Rong while and welcome newcomers to her magical world.

‘The Crown’ EP is released in CD and download formats

http://www.fifirong.com/

https://www.facebook.com/fifirongmusic/

https://twitter.com/fifirong

https://www.instagram.com/fifirong/

http://www.thisislo.com/

https://www.facebook.com/listentolo/

https://twitter.com/listentoLO

Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photo by Matt Alexander
24th September 2018

DUBSTAR One

26 September 2018 /

DUBSTAR are back and after eighteen years since their last album ‘Make It Better’, ‘One’ is their first long playing offering as a duo. 

Now comprising of Sarah Blackwood and Chris Wilkie, with the guitarist now taking on the songwriting duties, the new numbers naturally have more of a six string slant although that wonderfully forlorn vocal presence is still very much there. Having sat on the bridge between Britpop and Synth Britannia under the auspices of PET SHOP BOYS and NEW ORDER producer Stephen Hague for their debut album ‘Disgraceful’, ‘One’ has been produced by Youth, whose credits include CROWDED HOUSE, THE CHARLATANS and THE VERVE.

Suitably melancholic, opening song ‘Love Comes Late’ sees Sarah Blackwood cynically pondering within a midlife narrative, at last finding love but being too old to truly appreciate it. With a live sounding drum feel and a superb synthetic bassline, this will please those who might have first discovered DUBSTAR via a ‘Shine’ compilation.

Psychedelic overtones linger all over ‘One’, especially on THE BEATLES-esque ‘Torched’ and ‘Please Stop Leaving Me Alone’ with its frenetic Hammond organ and Wilkie’s guitars… dare one even mention the ‘O’ word and the Gallagher brothers! With trumpet from Michael Rendall who also contributes keyboards throughout ‘One’, the classic brass infused pop of ‘I Hold Your Heart’ takes Blackwood on Northern Soul journey but in the truest geographical sense.

‘Waltz No9’, the introspective synth-less tune that launched DUBSTAR’s return is the album’s ‘Just A Girl She Said’, while also maintaining the aura of classic DUBSTAR is ‘You Were Never In Love’, coming over all dreamy and uplifting despite its downcast tone. The most electronic number on ‘One’ is the gorgeous ‘Locked Inside’, with elements of KRAFTWERK creeping in and even TEARS FOR FEARS as Blackwood tells of how “my hands are tied”; more of Roland and Curt’s spectre looms on the shuffling swing of the bittersweet ‘Why Don’t You Kiss Me?’

The lovely three-part vocal harmonic of ’Mantra’ punctuates another psychedelic flavoured number to close ‘One’, and it’s an brilliantly epic song that one could imagine John Lennon coming up with if he had collaborated with THE HOLLIES!

DUBSTAR’s appeal has always been their down-to-earth kitchen sink dramas and there are certainly no shortage of those on ‘One’.

With more of a guitar driven aesthetic, Blackwood and Wilkie have revitalised DUBSTAR and long standing fans who also loved ‘Goodbye’ and ‘Make It Better’ will not be disappointed at all with this long-awaited eagerly anticpated comeback album.

Is it asking too much to be given time? Not at all, the new DUBSTAR album has been well worth the wait.

‘One’ is released on 12th October 2018 by Northern Writes in CD, vinyl LP, cassette and digital formats, pre-order direct from https://dubstar.tmstor.es

http://dubstarofficial.co/

http://www.facebook.com/dubstaruk/

https://twitter.com/dubstarUK

https://www.instagram.com/dubstaruk/

Text by Chi Ming Lai
26th September 2018

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2017 ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK | Email: theelectricityclub@googlemail.com
Privacy Policy

Up ↑