You promised me the ending would be clear/Youd let me know when the time was now/Dont let me know

when youre opening the door/Stab me in the dark, let me disappear

david bowie memorial Special

david
bowie
1947-2016
the Definitive tribute

PLUS

the kinks reunited

tim hardin
animaL COLLeCtiVe
the POP GrOuP
maVis staPLes
LOretta Lynn
march 2016 | uncut.co.uk

er

.i.

p. H

the

k inks

H l o r e t t a ly n

nH

ti

a
mh

rd

4 Instant Karma!
The Kinks, Cavern Of Anti-Matter,
Grant Lee-Phillips, Floating Points

14 Clint Mansell
An audience with the acclaimed
composer (and ex-Poppie!)

18 Loretta Lynn
We meet the Queen Of Country in her
haunted Tennessee mansion to look back
on her spectacular career

24 David Bowie R.I.P.

David Cavanaghs 19-page tribute to the
great man, with moving contributions
from his friends and collaborators

44 Mavis Staples
The soul legend, album by album

48 Field Music
The Brewis brothers show Uncut
around their native Sunderland to
discuss their latest album

54 The Pop Group

The making of We Are All Prostitutes

58 Tim Hardin
The extraordinary life and music of a fine
American songwriter
40 pages of reviews!

65 New Albums
Including: Animal Collective, Rokia
Traor, Elton John, Steve Mason

85 The Archive
Including: The Wilde Flowers,
Eric Clapton, Bert Jansch

in

Where are we now?

EbRUaRy 26, 1976. at the Maple leaf gardens in Toronto, the 17th night of the
isolar tour is coming to its traditional close. as the stark, expressionist
spectacle reaches its climax, david bowie fires an imaginary arrow into the
air. on cue, his lighting director plunges the stage into darkness. cut to black.
Thirty feet from the stage, the photographer John Rowlands takes the picture
which adorns our cover this month, and which bowie reputedly counted as one
of his favourite images of himself. in the midst of the grief and chaos which has
engulfed the music world these past few days, it occurred to us that Rowlands
shot would be a fitting one to use on the front of this special issue of Uncut.
i can think of few words i like less than iconic, and the way its casually
bandied about in journalism, often to the point of meaninglessness.
nevertheless, it seems apposite here. no rock star has understood the
iconic possibilities of his art more than bowie; has grasped the mythic
potential of what he does. he believed in costume, and theatre,
choreography, set design, lyrics, the right producer, the right engineer,
says bassist herbie Flowers, one of the many bowie associates who were
so generous with their time and tributes. he could do everything.
Time and again in these interviews, there is testimony to the range
and complexity of bowies genius and character. a master of bold
gestures and otherworldly glamour on one hand, a deeply humane
friend on the other. we hear of a touching gift for producer ken scott;
a brilliant practical joke at the expense of brian Eno; a memorable
last encounter with one of Blackstars gifted lieutenants, donny
Mccaslin. bowie contained multitudes, and david cavanagh has
done a remarkable job of reflecting on that in the memorial piece
which begins on page 24. assessments of bowies legacy came from every
corner of the culture, every place where a culture prevailed, cavanagh
writes, and when you added up his significance to all of them, he seemed
to have had a number of simultaneous lifetimes in each encomium his
fearlessness was a common theme. his uncanny ability to see into the
future and then promptly shape it was another.
checking through the rest of this issue of Uncut, its striking how much
bowie permeates our own culture. in pieces filed long before his death,
artists as diverse as The Pop group and clint Mansell note his influence. The
memoirs of his landlady, with whom he lodged for nine months in 1969, turn
up on our books page. and among other sad deaths logged in our not Fade
away section, there is an obituary for brett smiley, one of those fated glam
starlets whose careers were launched in the wake of bowiemania. we cant
escape bowie this month and, thankfully, we never will.
hes told us not to blow it, after all

101 DVD & Film

The Residents, Tubby Hayes

106 Live
Stick In The Wheel

115 Books
Psychedelic Suburbia

117 Not Fade Away

This months obituaries

120 Letters
Plus the Uncut crossword

122 My Life In Music

Lucinda Williams

John Mulvey, Editor. Follow me on Twitter @JohnRMulvey

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i n sta n t k a r m a !
THIS MONTHS revelaTIONS frOM THe wOrld Of

graNT-lee pHIllIpS | caverN Of aNTI-MaTTer | flOaTINg pOINTS

A FAMILY XMAS

face to face!
carl byron batson/www.carlbatson.com

Ray and Dave Davies together again for the first

time in two decades

felt it was like in the beginning,

says Dave Davies, as he recalls the
emotions he experienced the night his
brother ray sang with him for the first
time in 19 years. two kids getting
together and playing music, thats what it felt
like. those old feelings, the reason why we did
all this bloody bullshit in the first place. all the
torture we put each other through. it was really
worth it just to resurrect those feelings again. it
really made it special.
two years ago, ray and Dave were telling Uncut
of tentative plans for a Kinks reunion to mark the
bands 50th anniversary in 2014. in the months
that followed, contemporaries like the rolling

4 | UncUt | march 2016

stones and the who marked their half-centuries

with high-profile, lucrative gigs at hyde Park
and elsewhere. but such orderly behaviour was
never the Kinks style. instead, at the end of
Dave Davies gig at islington assembly hall on
December 18, a few hundred fans saw ray stroll
casually onstage and sing you really Got me.
this christmas miracle started with an email.
i figured ray might come to the gig, because its
not far from where he lives anyway, Dave
explains to Uncut. i had said the week before,
ill put your name on the door, just come back
and say hello. and he didnt say yes or no. and
then i figured, oh, what the hell, and emailed
him at the soundcheck and said, if youre coming

by, just get up onstage at the end and you can

sing you really Got me. my first thought was to
run through Days and waterloo sunset with
the band as well, for ray to sing if he wanted,
except i got ill that week with a debilitating flu
bug. when we rehearsed the day before, i could
hardly stand up, so we left the extra songs.
Daves guitarist Jonathan lea, who happened
to be in the wings, was the first to catch sight of
ray. at the end of the gig, he told Dave the news.
i said to the audience, i think we might have a
little surprise for you, Dave recalls. but then i
looked round, and i couldnt see him. i thought,
oh, hes pissing me about. even in those
seconds, i thought, oh, shit. he wont bother.

Ray and Dave Davies

onstage in Islington,
London, December 18,
2015

then i saw a silhouette waiting in the wings. and

he came on, and i think it made a lot of people
jump out of their skins.
ray, holding a water bottle, looked offhand at
first, but was soon caught up in the excitement,
as the years since theyd played melted away. its
like meeting someone youre close to in the pub,
and picking up a conversation you left off the year
before, Dave explains. your bodys so into the
moment of the music you lock straight back into it
again. i could tell ray was vibing that, as well. i
miss playing with ray. those good feelings, and
the telepathy when you look at each other for a
split-second, which you cant contrive. i thought
he was singing great and moving good. i had a big

I miss playing with

Ray. Those good feelings,
and the telepathy when
you look at each other
DaVE DaViEs
smile on my face. i was really moved. it seemed
so natural. it wasnt a big trauma. it was easy.
inevitably, thoughts are turning to the future.
has enough changed between the brothers that

they might play again? well, i like to think so,

Dave considers. ray was very respectful.
afterwards i found out people were saying to
him, oh, you should go on earlier. he said, no, i
want to respect Daves wishes. i thought that was
very kind of him. because he could have fucked
my gig up, if hed wanted to. we havent talked
seriously about doing anything for a year. but
maybe hes getting more mellow and thoughtful,
and thinking were not going to be around
forever. maybe well work something out. im
sure well have a chat after the holidays. anyway,
it was a great way to end 2015. Pity the arsenal
lost last night. but i think thatll go oK, too...
NICK HASTED
march 2016 | UncUt |

i n sta n t ka r m a !

STEREOLABS
LOSS,
MUSICS
GANE
Welcome back TIM
GANE, and his new
electronic garage
band, CAVERN
OF ANTI-MATTER

Joe diLWoRtH; steVeN ViGAR

y studio is
very state of
the art,
laughs tim
Gane, from
his Bloody Hair space in Berlin. For
1982, that is. i like seeing a studio
that has loads of old electronic
boxes, all piled together with loads
of cables. Not one thats Finnish
wood and all nice
Whether leading stereolab or
his current group Cavern of AntiMatter, or collaborating with Mouse
on Mars and Nurse With Wound,
tim Gane has always been more
interested in the possibilities of the
studio over songwriting. Caverns
upcoming Void Beats/Invocation
Trex their second LP but first to
be widely released was inspired
by linking up a set of analogue
Roland drum machines and
Roland, ARP and Korg synths and
hoping that the resulting daisy
chain would show [Gane]
something different.
Live drums, guitars and synths
from Gane and fellow Cavern
members Joe dilworth
(stereolabs first drummer) and
Holger Zapf were also added and
treated with analogue effects,
resulting in a sprawling, primitivist
mix of motorik pulses, industrial
shading and ethereal synth tones.
though stereolab were known
as an electronic band, we didnt use
electronics that much, explains
Gane. i wanted Void Beats to
sound like, in the words of Cabaret
Voltaire, an electronic garage band.
im trying to keep the computer to
a minimum no plug-ins or soft
synths and just trying to capture
all the machines linking up.
one of the most impressive
examples of this electronic
garage sound on Void Beats is
the 13-minute opener, tardis
cymbals, as forward-moving and
hypnotic as Fausts Krautrock
yet rooted in the off-kilter 7/8 time
signature. this stemmed from
Ganes extensive experiments with

6 | uNCut | MARCH 2016

The Cavern club: Tim

Gane, Joe Dilworth and
Holger Zapf; below, the
sleeve of Void Beats/
Invocation Trex

drum machines, as encouraged

by Peter strickland, the British
director of the acclaimed films
Berberian Sound Studio and
The Duke Of Burgundy.
We spoke about working on a
film together, explains strickland,
and about drum machines.
i wanted this very electronic

I wanted to
create a
ritualistic sound
on our album,
a summoningup of something

soundtrack. Back in the 90s

concept of invocation, as evident
stereolabs music actually made
in the LPs title. Gane likens this
me rethink film, the way you can
mood to the eerie feel of early
use repetition as a building block,
Cabaret Voltaire or 23 skidoo: its
in terms of accumulation and
a rough concept but one that i had
modulation. And all these weird
in the back of my mind. i wanted
juxtapositions, they were always
a ritualistic sound, a summoningthrowing these odd black holes
up of something. its not exactly
into the middle of their stuff. it
dark or industrial, but theres
was a very different way of doing
a certain ritualistic feel.
things, fresh and inspiring.
though Cavern of Anti-Matter are
After stereolab went on
hoping to play in the uK for the first
indefinite hiatus in 2009, Gane,
time this spring, Gane who puts
a Berlin resident since 2005, has
stereolabs hiatus partly down to
supplemented his highly limited
his dislike of extensive touring is
Cavern of Anti-Matter releases with
characteristically more interested
an array of soundtrack work.
in his next musical discovery in the
this time around, though,
studio. When youre recording,
the latter even fed into his
you change yourself, you
own music, with an early
discover things and you
version of Void Beats
discover yourself, he says.
sprightly Liquid Gate,
thats quite true of this
with vocals by
record and the previous
deerhunters Bradford
one [2013s BloodCox, appearing in a
Drums]. i want to
house party scene
discover whats
in French film La
possible through
Ritournelle in 2014.
making them.
Aside from the early
TOM PINNOCK
80s technology in
Ganes studio, another
Void Beats/
Deerhunters
inspiration on Caverns
Invocation Trex is out on
Bradfox Cox
guests on the LP
recent work has been the
Duophonic on February 19

i started something

Keeping up
with The Smiths

Dale Hibbert recounts early days with Morrissey

and Marr: They were just another small band

N A BedRooM in Manchester, Johnny

Marr, steven Morrissey and dale
Hibbert are discussing the image of
their new band while in the background,
a tape plays Morrissey and Marr covering
i Want A Boy For My Birthday
a Cookies B-side from 1963. Various ideas
are tossed around being a gay band,
naming each member after a mass
murderer, dressing in American ten-pin
bowling shirts as the trio, tentatively
named the smiths, contemplate the best
way to get noticed in the 1980s. it can be
strange thinking thats how it started
me, steven and Johnny in Johnnys
bedroom, says Hibbert, the bands first
bassist. We had four drummers before
we chose Mike and for a long time it was
just me, steve and Johnny.
Hibbert played the smiths debut gig
in october 1982 and recorded their first
studio demos before he was replaced by
Andy Rourke towards the end of 1982.
Hibbert, who now runs a caf outside
Manchester, has written a memoir, Boy,
Interrupted. ive given interviews for a
lot of smiths books but this was a chance
to have control over how i saw events,
he says. it felt like a good time to do it.
While Hibbert recalls his six months
in the smiths in great detail it sort of
cauterises the memories once youve
recounted the stories so many times

he also writes engagingly about

Manchester, his troubled upbringing and
a life plagued by depression. its a music
book but its also about people who have
tried to kill themselves, says Hibbert,
who hopes it might help people
understand the problem of depression.
understandably, though, a fair portion
of the book is about the smiths. Hibbert
was invited to join the band by Marr and
was party to their earliest moves. He
drafts engaging portraits of Morrissey

I never listened to
the lyrics thats the
singers job so I
didnt see anything
special there
and Marr and the Manchester post-punk
scene, offering a unique perspective on
the band as they took their first steps. At
the time, Hibbert admits, he had little
notion of Marr and Morrisseys talent.
they were just another small band from
Manchester, he says. i never listened
to the lyrics thats the singers job so
i didnt see anything special there. the

music was oK but i was working in

a studio recording bands every day.
they all came in with passion and
belief like steven and Johnny, and
then youd never hear from them
again, so i was a bit immune to it.
the only inkling he got of the
success that would follow was at the
bands debut gig, where the smiths
supported Blue Rondo A La turk at
the Ritz in october 1982. that was so
unusual, a band that had been together a
few months with four songs supporting a
band that had just been on Top Of The
Pops, he says. that made me wonder
if there was something different about
them. i dont understand how they got
such a big gig. When youve been in
bands, pestering for support gigs, you
know how hard it is to secure that sort of
gig. But otherwise, there were an awful
lot of bands around that were similar.
Although Hibbert would give Morrissey
a lift to rehearsals on the back of his
motorbike, Hibbert was eventually
replaced by Marrs old bandmate, Rourke.
We didnt gel, but i never understood
why i was kicked out, he says. it might
have been cos i was spending so long at
the studio, but we didnt get on and it was
odd as we had many similar interests. it
could be that im not easily dominated
and it was always clear that the smiths
would be Morrissey and Marr, and they
wanted people who could accept that.
theres little bitterness in Hibberts
memoir, but he does challenge the notion
he was sacked due to poor musicianship.
i sometimes feel ive had a hard time,
he admits. ive never tried to live a life
as an ex-smith. the fans say im an
irrelevance, which is possibly true. im
not claiming i did anything, im just
saying i was there and this is what it
was like. PeTer WaTTs
Dale Hibberts Boy, Interrupted:
Memoir Of A Former Smith is out now

A quick ONE
The Uncut family
continues to grow.
In shops now, youll
find our latest
Ultimate Music
Guide on The
Byrds, as well as a
new instalment of
History Of Rock,
which covers 1971.
You can also buy
them online at
www.uncut.co.
uk/store.

After telling us
about their reunion
EP, Happy New
Year, in Uncut last
year, the Violent
Femmes return
with their first new
studio album in 15
years. We Can
Do Anything is out
on March 4.
Jack White digs
into his archives
again, this time to
bring us cuts from
his early bands, Two
Star Tabernacle,
The Go and Jack
White And The
Bricks. Theyre
collected on three
albums available via
Third Man Records
Vault subscription
service. More
details here: http://
thirdmanstore.
com/vault.

CBGB is to
reopen as a
restaurant! The
legendary East
Village venue
closed in 2006, but
the name has been
revived for a diner
at Newark Airport.
The menu ranges
from disco fries
($9) to prime rib
($42). From rock
to rolls, then.

Members of
the original cast of
Quadrophenia are
to reunite at an
interactive event
at Hammersmiths
Eventim Apollo on
February 11. Expect
Phil Daniels,
director Franc
Roddam and many
more ace faces to
talk bout their
generation.
Visit www.
uncut.co.uk for
daily news, reviews,
playlists and the
best longreads
from the archive.

MARCH 2016 | uNCut |

CLARe MuLLeR/RedFeRNs

Take a bough:
Johnny Marr and
Morrissey, 1983

i n sta n t ka r m a !

trail of tears

Buffalo
stance

GRanT-LEE PhiLLiPs on identity,

loss and indigenous faith

he AmericAn South has

exerted a lifelong fascination
for Grant-Lee Phillips. Some
of its a family thing, he explains.
my dad was from Arkansas, my
moms from oklahoma and a lot of
the music i grew up with had been
connected to the South. i love that
melding of blues, country, folk and
bluegrass. it always felt like it was
free to pull from, that you could
constantly extract new ideas from
that weird old America.
the 52-year-old, who first came to
prominence with 90s roots heroes
Grant Lee Buffalo, has now pressed
this psychogeography into The
Narrows, perhaps his most
personal solo album to date. its
also his first release since opting to
leave his native california for a new
life in nashville in 2013, thereby
adding a more physical Southern
connection: Packing our bags for
tennessee came alongside the
realisation that maybe it was the
end of one chapter and the
beginning of another. my wife and i
[visual artist/photographer Denise

Siegel] were looking for a little more

normalcy, something i could relate
to. there are a lot of things that
reach out to you in nashville. in
terms of music, things tend to be a
lot deeper here.
recorded in Dan Auerbachs local
easy eye Studio, with Phillips
joined by bassist Lex Price and
drummer Jerry roe, son of Johnny
cashs former bass player Dave roe,

Being of mixed
blood, its hard
to embrace a lot
of the spiritual
beliefs in the US
The Narrows is primarily about
identity and loss. it touches on a
number of emotive themes, not
least the death of Phillips father
(who passed away not long after the
move to nashville) and his own

The classifieDs

creek and cherokee

heritage. the poignantly
beautiful cry cry, for
instance, addresses one
of the most shameful
episodes in uS history:
the indian removal of
the 19th century. that
particular subject matter
is such a hard thing to
wrap your arms around, but its
something ill continue to try to
unravel, he says, referring to the
governments policy of driving
entire populations of native
Americans from their ancestral
Southland into federal territory to
the West. thousands died en route,
in what has since become known as
the trail of tears.
Phillips adds that, as a
descendant of those who
experienced the removal, familial
history has shaped his own sense
of self. i spent a good deal of time
with my grandma when i was
growing up, he recalls. She was
very in touch with her ancestry and
would take me for long trips to

montana and utah and all these

places, passing on stories. it isnt
long before a child begins to get a
sense of American history and
realise that we havent always been
on the winning end of that contract.
Being from mixed blood means that
it has a spin on how i view things.
When it comes down to faith, its
very hard for me to entirely embrace
a lot of the traditions and spiritual
beliefs in the States. indigenous
ideas make much more sense to me.
they just ring truer.
Rob HugHes

The Narrows is released in March

on Yep Roc Records. Grant-Lee
Phillips tours the UK in April

This month: Elton John plays at home! The exclusive Central London
appearance of David Bowie, plus Roxy Music on the rise MM, Feb 12, 1972

The new album, featuring songs

from Villagers three studio records
re-imagined at Londons RAK Studios
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i n sta n t ka r m a!

playlist

the

On the stereO this mOnth

DAVID BOWIE
Blackstar COLUMBIA/ISO
What else could it be? The last
masterpiece, revealing new meanings and
deeper mysteries with every listen.
WHITE DENIM
Stiff DOWNTOWN/SONY RED
Seventh album of rad choogle from
the reconfigured Texan rockers.
High heat, high energy, good times,
says James Petralli.

floating points

Recommended this month: Sam Shepherd DJ, ex-chorister,

doctor of neuroscience and cosmic jazz-psych adventurer

Louise Haywood-scHiefer/LHscHiefer.com/2015

He year 2015s most acclaimed records

album called silver. so its a joke between us
were those that gently drew listeners into
that i had to go french.
their own stubborn yet richly rewarding
musically, shepherd is no lightweight. a
soundworlds: Julia Holters Have You In My
graduate of manchesters prestigious chethams
Wilderness, Kendrick Lamars To Pimp A
school of music, he describes himself as a pianist
Butterfly, Kasami washingtons The Epic. and
first and foremost. He got intensely into jazz
right up there with them was floating Points
aged 15 but didnt actually visit a nightclub until
Elaenia a billowing journey through cosmic
he experienced an epiphany in fabric after
electronica and jazzy psychedelic soul, led by
moving to London for university. Elaenia unifies
sam shepherd, a renowned dJ and former
all these passions in a way that feels natural. in
one sitting, he explains, i can
manchester cathedral chorister
with a Phd in neuroscience.
listen to albert ayler and wiley and
im your fan
find something that they share.
shepherds been releasing music on
aylers brand of spiritual jazz is
his own eglo label since 2009, but
was in no hurry to make an album.
the more prominent influence on
at the time i wasnt writing
Elaenia, although ironically
anything that had that ambition,
enough for the son of vicar,
shepherd himself is not religious.
he explains, largely as i didnt
have the time. i felt [the PhD] was a
when i listen to spiritual music, i
feel like its taking me somewhere
priority. He talks about his
research into neuro-epigenetics
emotionally, but i dont necessarily
the molecular basis for pain
connect with the same gods. The
with the same passion he talks
amazing thing about music is
about music, so its easy to see why
that it speaks to all gods and all
he was waylaid. But with his thesis
transcendental experiences. it
completed in may 2014, he was at
crosses all boundaries of religion,
and thats beautiful.
last ready to make the leap from
one-off club 12 to big LP statement.
floating Points upcoming uK
and Elaenia is quite a statement.
tour features an 11-piece ensemble,
shepherd concedes that the idea of
in which shepherd plays fender
a dance producer making a largely
rhodes and an original 60s Buchla
beat-less, jazz-influenced album
modular synth (you can get a
named after a south american
thunderous bass from it). But dont
DAN SNAITH,
bird he saw in a dream could be
expect to hear the album recreated.
in fact i cant replicate it! you might
construed as pretentious. But the
CARIBOU
origin of some of Elaenias exotic
not hear anything you recognise
track titles are actually closer to
that, to me, is exciting. ive found
home. Nespole is an obscure
that when the music goes off-script
mediterranean fruit but ive
and things start to get unhinged,
actually got a nespole tree in my
thats when everyone in the room
garden in farringdon! and
goes wild. sam richards
argent was going to be called
silver until dan [Snaith, Caribou]
Floating Points UK tour begins at
told me there was a track on his
London Brixton Electric on Feb 10

Sam believes
in doing
things without
compromise
and that
there is value
in creating
beautiful
things. Its very
rare that you
meet someone
who aims
so high and
achieves
so much.

10 | uNcuT | marcH 2016

RADIOHEAD Spectre
WWW.SOUNDCLOUD.COM/RADIOHEAD/SpECTRE

The surprisingly suitable, implausibly

rejected Bond theme sneaks out online.
Big strings, Nude echoes, stuff about
bullet holes; they shoot, they score.
VARIOUS ARTISTS
Wayfaring Strangers: Cosmic American
Music NUMERO GROUp
Revelatory collection of lost70s Americana,
harvested from private press LPs that
originally surfaced in minuscule runs.
WOODS
City Sun Eater In The River Of Light
WOODSIST

Transcending their lo-fi roots, the psych

janglers step up another level, this time
with mariachi horns in tow.
LCD SOUNDSYSTEM
Christmas Will Break
Your Heart DFA
No longer seasonal, but
still worth a listen: James
Murphy announces his
return to LCD duty
with this maudlin, tears-inthe-eggnog and Bowieesque ballad
BONNIE pRINCE
James Murphy
BILLY pond Scum DOMINO
Will Oldham digs deep into
the Palace archives for a selection of raw
Peel sessions. Features a striking take on
Princes The Cross.
HERON OBLIVION
Heron Oblivion SUB pOp
Espers and Comets On Fire alumni
combine for a heavy, pungent rethink of
folk-rock past.
DYLAN HOWE Subterranean MOTORIK
As partial respite from the Bowie
catalogue, weve returned to this 2014
gem: sublime jazz takes on the Berlin era,
now sounding more elegiac than ever.
For regular updates, check our blogs at www.
uncut.co.uk and follow @JohnRMulvey on Twitter

Tim soTer

im new here

UNDERWORLD
Barbara Barbara, We Face
A Shining Future CAROLINE
The progressive techno artisans hit peak
form again, with their most streamlined and
compelling set since 99s Beaucoup Fish.

the
stars
are
out
tonight
Your guide to this months free CD
1 SCHOOL OF
SEVEN BELLS

Open Your Eyes

We begin with a farewell and a
track from SVIIBs final album,
which was nearing completion
when Benjamin Curtis died from
lymphoma in 2013. Alejandra
Deheza finished the record as a
love letter, a celebration of her
comrades life and the band they
made together. This lead single is
luminous, comforting and yes,
even joyful.

years finds his melodic gifts

still in fine working order and
leaves us wondering what
might have been.

5 FIELD MUSIC
Disappointed

When the artists currently

known as Sunderlands Field
Music posted the lead single from
their fifth album online, Prince
was so impressed that he tweeted
a link. This blue-eyed Bowiemeets-Hall & Oates slice of
funk-rock deserves to find similar
retweeting favour.

6 PRINS THOMAS
A2

Rokia Traor

2 ROKIA TRAOR
Tu Voles

Although she was born in Mali and

has since returned there, Traor
grew up living across different
continents and absorbing a
cosmopolitan range of influences,
including French chanson, as we
hear on this beguiling track from
her new album, N So. Elsewhere,
John Parishs production lends a
taut, rock vibe without ever losing
contact with Traors distinctively
African roots.

3 CAVERN OF
ANTI-MATTER

DANNY WILLEMS, M BORTHWICK, TIM FURNISH

tardis cymbals
[Uncut Edit]

The second album from Stereolab

co-founder Tim Ganes Berlinbased trio is, he tells us, built
around setting up tiny rhythmic
cells and expanding on them,
splitting the melody and stretching
out. So much so that we
reluctantly had to edit down this
propulsive Krautrock-inspired
trailer, which on the album runs to
13 fantastical minutes.

4 EMITT RHODES
Rainbow Ends

Back in the day, Rhodes produced

a string of smart powerpop records
that earned him a reputation as an
American McCartney. Then he
simply walked away. Now 75, the
title track from his first album in 43

12 | UNCUT | MARCH 2016

The nine tracks on the latest

sprawling opus from the
Norwegian king of space disco
are simply titled A to H in
reference to the eight sides of the
four-LP vinyl version. Only side
one of the first disc contains more
than a single track hence A2, an
epic example of Thomas take on
the quasi-ambient voyaging he
dubs braindance.

7 MOUNT MORIAH

free
cd!
about the resonant frequency that
really talks to me, says Martin
Schmidt of the machine, which
sits in the basement of the
Baltimore home of electronic duo
Matmos. Andy Warhol would
surely have approved.

9 FREAKWATER

The Asp And The Albatross

Its more than a decade since we
heard from Freakwater, while
Janet Bean has concentrated on
working with Eleventh Dream
Day and Catherine Irwin on solo
projects. Back together again and
still plangently putting their own
harmonious spin on alt.country,
their return is both welcome and
long overdue.

Cardinal Cross

The stars and planets align

felicitously on this nugget from the
North Carolina trios third album
of Southern Gothic myth-making.
Theres the kind of chugging
guitar groove from Jenks Miller
that you might associate with
Crazy Horse, and a quivering,
incantatory vocal from Heather
McEntire on a lyric thats loaded
with astrological metaphor.

8 MATMOS

Ultimate Care II
Excerpt Eight
An entire album constructed from
sounds sampled from a washing
machine called the Whirlpool
Ultimate Care II? Hearing is
believing. Theres something

Josephine
Foster

Freakwater

10 RANGDA

To Melt The Moon

The double helix of Sir Rick Bishop

and Ben Chasnys lysergic guitar
playing evokes acid-drenched
visions of, say, Country Joe And
The Fishs Barry Melton jamming
with Quicksilver Messenger
Services John Cipollina back in
San Frans freewheeling heyday.
Youll find this serpentine
instrumental on the avant-rock
trios third album.

11 JOSEPHINE FOSTER

The Garden Of
Earthly Delights

Sounding like a cross between the

operatic soprano she once aspired
to be and the late, great Karen
Dalton, the quixotic Foster revisits
a song she first recorded on 2008s

This Coming Gladness. In addition

to fresh takes of her own songs, her
new album also includes settings
of Kipling and Joyce.

12 STEVE MASON

Planet Sizes

Produced by Elbows Craig Potter,

a celestial melody from the ex-Beta
Band frontmans eclectic third
album under his own name,
fizzing with a spacious brio
that seems to reflect his recent
relocation to the bracing air
of the South Coast.

13 THE WILDE
FLOWERS
Memories

An evocative period piece with an

affecting vocal by Robert Wyatt,
from the seminal Canterbury band
that birthed both Soft Machine
and Caravan. Although The
Wilde Flowers never released
anything at the time, this comes
from a lovingly assembled
retrospective containing
remastered versions of more
than 20 of their 1960s demos.

14 BARRY ADAMSON
Evil Kind

Cinematic widescreen pop, taken

from what the veteran Magazine/
Bad Seeds man describes as a
virtual soundtrack album, the
songs are accompanied by a photobook of his pictures taken on a
recent tour of America, intended to
glue together sound and image.

15 THIS HEAT

Twilight Furniture
Art-rock meets post-punk on the
looped grooves of this austere
yet engrossing track from the
experimental trios reissued and
remastered 1979 blue and yellow
debut. To this day it still sounds
startling in the coherence of its
avant boldness.

an audience with...

Clint
Mansell

Interview: Michael Bonner

Portrait: Ivan Bideac

The ex-Pop Will Eat Itself co-frontman on golf clubs, life on the road
in the mid-80s and the best place in California to find proper beer

T IS THE day after Clint Mansells birthday

and he is in surprisingly sprightly form. It
was pretty gentle, actually, he says from
his home in the Hollywood Hills. I went
for some sushi and then down the pub with
some friends for a few drinks. But I was
pretty sensible. I was in bed for midnight.
Such reserved behaviour is, Mansell
admits, a far cry from his youthful antics as the co-frontman of
Pop Will Eat Itself: We laughed and drank our way around the
world, he admits. These days, Mansell is a Grammy-nominated
soundtrack composer, whose credits include Moon, Requiem For
A Dream, The Wrestler and Black Swan. It is a remarkable career
swerve for the Coventry-born musician, though Mansell insists he
can see a link between the frantic rap-rock of PWEI and his
expansive, experimental soundtracks. Ive been fortunate to
find an area where a bloke nearing his mid-fifties can make a
living and feel somewhat relevant creating new music.
He has recently composed the score for Ben Wheatleys film,
High-Rise, and is due to play UK shows next month. Meanwhile,
he is soon to begin work on a new episode of Charlie Brookers
Black Mirror TV series and a film on Vincent van Gogh. Everything
brings out something new in me, he says.

star question
How did you find
the transition
from writing for a
band, for yourself,
to composing for
a film? Geoff
Barrow, Portishead
Very bumpy. I was fortunate as the
first two films that I did Pi and
Requiem For A Dream were both
with Darren Aronofsky. Because Pi
was the first film for both of us, we
didnt have the burden of industry
experience. We were doing what
we wanted, in the way we wanted to
do it, without anybody who was
experienced saying, You cant do
that. The transitional difficulties
came when I then started working
with other directors, who were more
versed in the way of the business
and yeah I found that difficult.

14 | UNCUT | MARCH 2016

Being a composer, youre a gun for

hire. Youve come in to do a job and
if someone says, It needs a reggae
tinge which may not have been
your first thought you have to add
a reggae tinge. Also, you go from
writing a three-minute pop song to
an hours worth of music for a film.
Theres a fear, early on, that you
may not be able to do that. But once
you get beyond that, you realise the
job is doing whats required and not
just what you want.
What do you remember about
the Poppies trip to the Soviet
Union in 1988? Miranda, Moscow
Perestroika was just starting to
happen. We flew into Moscow and
missed our connecting flight. In
those days, you couldnt just go and
get a hotel. We had to wait in the
airport to get a flight the next
morning to Lithuania, where the

concert was. We
found a guy who
had a van and
he took us to
Red Square.
We saw the
changing of the
guard at 3am.
There were two
sections in the
airport: one for
tourists and one
for Russians. In
our section you
could get CocaCola, but in the
Russian section
they served some
grape juice out of
a fountain. It was
weird. When we
got to Vilnius, they had these hard
currency shops where if you had
pounds or dollars you could buy
gin, bread, tampons, whatever. But
go into a Russian store and there
was nothing. It was very sad. I felt
humbled. I was only about 25,
I didnt know much about anything
at all, but the gig was fine. Who
else was on the bill? Billy Bragg.
We were the only westerners.
Is it true the Poppies were all
mad golf fans, and when you
were agreeing a deal with your
record company you stipulated
all band members received
a set of high-end golf clubs?
Craig Brown, via email
Thats 50 per cent true. Me and
[PWEI bandmates] Adam had the
golf clubs. Richard and Graham
had stereos. Me and Adam used to
play golf with our A&R man, Korda
Marshall, and our manager, Craig
Jennings. We were on a golf tip at
the time. I havent played in a long

time, but I was with a friend last

night who loves to play and he was
trying to get me out on the course.
Its one of those things; the less you
play, the better you can be at it.
When you havent played in some
time you tend to be much more
relaxed and you can hit the ball
then it goes because youre all
tense! Whats my handicap? The
game itself, I think. Probably my
best day would have been about 20
over par, so Rory McIlroys got
nothing to worry about just yet.

star question
How does touring
and performing
film music
compare with
going on the
road with PWEI?
Whats better now,
and what do you miss from then?
Miki Berenyi, Lush
I dont miss much, to be honest. We
enjoyed making music, we enjoyed
being with one another and it was
the ideal way to spend a misspent
youth/young adult life. But age
changes you, without a doubt. I love
playing live now. It was hard to
convince people of what I was
trying to do when I first started
nearly 10 years ago. They got John
Williams playing Star Wars and
Indiana Jones at the Hollywood
Bowl but you and your little
independent movies? Whos gonna
want to see that? As it turned out,
people did want to see it. My
influences were Godspeed You!
Black Emperor and Mogwai. The
biggest difference between then
and now is that its more sedate.
I can play sitting down. And I dont
get drunk before I go onstage.

My wrestling
interest peaked
in the 70s with
World Of Sport
on a Saturday
afternoon!

an audience with...
star question

marTYN GOODaCrE/GETTY ImaGES; CarlOS alvarEZ/GETTY ImaGES; 20ThC.FOx/EvErETT/rEx/ShUTTErSTOCK

How difficult is it
to deal with temp
tracks on a film
score, particularly
when a director
uses your own
previous scores
to temp with? Duncan Jones
Yes, it can be a problem! You get
whats called temp love, where
the director constantly refers back
to the temp track. If at all possible,
I like to see the film first with no
music in before I start working on it.
Its one of those things: you cant
un-ring a bell. With Darren, we
never temped a film up until Noah,
and we only had to do that because
the studio wanted to test it. It was a
very big film and, without a doubt,
at that sort of level youre dancing
with the devil. Somebodys put in
a lot of money and theyre going
to want to have a say in how it is
used. So you have to accept those
situations and know about them
going in. Temps a tough one.
I saw you on tour with The Shop
Assistants. What do you recall
about tour support in the mid80s? Leona Murphy, Newcastle
The first proper tour we did was
supporting Primal Scream. They
were a real band, they had records
out, they were signed to Creation.
We had been flapping around just
trying to write songs, let alone get
a deal. We did the first EP with oneminute songs and we used a John
Bull kit to print on the brown paper
bags. We got a Peel session, which
meant that we could get some gigs.
We got to a point in 86 when we
could do gigs on Thursday, Friday
and Saturday nights. We were only
getting 50 quid a night, but that was
enough, over three nights, to rent a
van. We couldnt afford a hotel so
wed have a mattress in the back of
the van. We could get drunk, park
the van outside the gig and sleep it
off. This routine worked well. We
had fun and that was the dream.
We were doing it. We were playing
our music, and being a band, and
people were watching us and
listening to us. It was awesome.
Having written the score for The
Wrestler, was your interest in
wrestling piqued? And if so, who
is your favourite wrestler and
why? Stephen Berry via email
my wrestling interest peaked back
in the 70s with World Of Sport on a
Saturday afternoon! Big Daddy,
adrian Street and Kendo Nagasaki.
So no, I didnt really become a new
convert. I said to Darren: What
is it that interests you about this?
I couldnt see it probably why Im
not a filmmaker. he said he thought

16 | UNCUT | marCh 2016

Clint Mansell with

Pop Will Eat Itself
onstage at Heaven,
London, 1995

it was interesting: what do you do

when you can no longer do what
you want to do? You can apply that
to anything. making music, writing,
whatever. What if suddenly you
dont have the ability to do the thing
that you love? I met mickey rourke,
but to be honest I was intimidated
by him. We did a Q&a after a
screening. me and Darren, mickey
rourke, marisa Tomei and Evan
rachel Wood. hes quite a presence.
a character, for sure.

We couldnt
afford a hotel
so wed have
a mattress in
our van
Whats your favourite Black
Country beer?
Max Jenkins, Redcar, Yorks
holdens used to be my favourite,
but Bathams has come through
over the past few years. Can I get it
easily in hollywood? No. Theres a
great liquor store as they say here
called Capn Cork and they have a
good selection of imported beers
from all over Europe, australia,
Iceland. Theres another store here,
Bevmo, which sells Timothy Taylor,
but I generally just stick with the
Old Speckled hen, which you can
get here. Theres a good craft
brewery here called Eagle rock

Brewery. I was first drawn to

them because their aesthetic is
constructivist. all the beers are
called Solidarity and revolution!
Theyve got an IPa called Populist.
If I drink an american craft beer
I go for a pale ale. Theres another
company here, St archer, who do a
very nice pale ale.

star question
Do you see
rhythms and
movements
across your body
of work, or do you
see each score
standing entirely
on its own? Ben Wheatley
Yeah, you can probably recognise
my work, though Id like to think
they all have an individuality. Ben
calls it mansellian! [laughs]
When I first started in film, I felt
that a composer was a jack-of-alltrades a bit of jazz, a bit of reggae,
all these things. But over time, Ive
decided that isnt how I want to do
it. my enthusiasm for the projects
I pick is such that I find a film that
speaks to me and allows something
of my own experience to come out
through the music. That, then,
will hopefully be supportive for the
film itself. To some extent, that puts
me in a certain musical area of
experience. I grew up on Bowie,
the Banshees and Joy Division, but
also John Carpenter and Ennio
morricone. You could look through
my record collection and go, Well,
I can see how this all fits together.

What is the lowest attended gig

The Poppies ever played?
Archie, Glasgow
Oh! West Palm Beach, Florida,
three people, three payers. It was an
amazing gig as well. We did a lot of
poorly attended shows, particularly
when we were first playing around
Birmingham and Stourbridge.
I remember one, we had seven
people come to. We developed this
mentality where you cant blame
the people that turned up for those
who didnt. So we would always
raise our game for those shows,
cos otherwise playing to no people
was really embarrassing. We did a
gig on the Gold Coast in australia
once and we did well in australia
but this one gig was really poorly
attended. roger Grierson, our tour
promoter, came backstage and
went: The crowd went mild!
What was the live music scene
like in Stourbridge when you
were growing up?
Charlie Jones, Manchester
robert Plant went to the same
school as me, and Zeppelin were
the folklore. Everybody was a biker
in Stourbridge. The main biker pub
was the royal Exchange; youd just
hear Purple and hawkwind coming
out of there. It was a scary place. In
1978 we were 15, so we were the first
punks in Stourbridge. It was a little
tough, especially at school. It was
all UFO, Floyd, rainbow. Everyone
had long hair. So when I cut my
hair, it was a real statement. By
1982, which is when new romantic
and goth started, we had make-up
and spiked hair. I got punched once
or twice but I suppose most
people did at that age. Brilliant!
Clint Mansell plays the UK in
March. Visit www.clintmansell.com
for details. High-Rise is released in
the UK on March 18

unCut.Co.uK

A character for
sure: Mickey Rourke in
Aronofskys The Wrestler

Log on to see whos in

the hot-seat next month
and to post your questions!

CARGO COLLECTIVE

AN AMALGAMATION OF RECORD SHOPS AND LABELS DEDICATED TO BRINGING YOU NEW MUSIC

VENETIAN SNARES

MICHAEL BROSS

JOSEPHINE FOSTER

BLACK SCREEN RECORDS LP

Abes back, not on your TV screen but on
limited edition vinyl records!
Includes an exclusive two-sided A2 poster
with ofcial Oddworld art.

FIRE AMERICA LP / CD
A new folk route weaving intimate readings of
songs spanning Fosters songwriting career selections include This Coming Gladness,
Im A Dreamer and Born Heller.

FORTUNA POP! LP / CD
Ten intensely thrilling pop songs that balance
ethereal vocals with abrasive guitar &
metronomic drumming, inspired by shoegaze,
C86 and Flying Nun.
Exuberant and electrifying.

NAP EYES

BERT JANSCH

PARADISE OF BACHELORS LP / CD
Nap Eyes quietly contemplative sophomore
record renes and elaborates their debut,
offering an airier, more spacious second
chapter of exquisite, literate guitar pop songs.

EARTH RECORDS LP / CD
Special vinyl edition contains six high-quality
lithograph art prints representing each of the
birds from the album and deluxe bookback
CD includes 20 page book.

BENJI HUGHES

THE JAZZ BUTCHER

MERGE RECORDS LP / CD
Benji Hughes Merge Records debut & rst
new full-length album in eight years.
Twelve new songs on two CDs or one LP.

FIRE RECORDS LP / CD
Initially self-released following a successful
PledgeMusic campaign marking the 30th
anniversary of the Jazz Butcher Conspiracy its the rst of a new reissue series.

TRADITIONAL SYNTHESIZER
MUSIC

ODDWORLD: NEW N TASTY

OFFICIAL SOUNDTRACK

THE WAVE PICTURES

PETE AVES

WYMESWOLD RECORDS LP
A one-microphone happy birthday recording.
Its how Bill Monroe and His Bluegrass Boys
did it, after all.
Mysterious and lively, and very romantic too.

STRESS TESTED LP / CD
Truth and grit from a decade of difcult
times, exploring emotional upheaval and life
changing events but always with a wry smile
at lifes challenges.

TIMESIG LP / CD
A collection of songs created and performed
live exclusively on the modular synthesizer.
No overdubbing or editing techniques were
utilized in the recordings on Traditional
Synthesizer Music.

A SEASON IN HULL

ED TULLETT
FIANC

MONOTREME CD
Richly epic album from UK electronic artist,
with skittering R&B beats, dream pop
keyboards, towering falsetto harmonies
Tullett creates often huge, often hushed,
gloomy landscapes, dripping in glistening
beauty.

SEE HOW

NO MORE LAMPS IN THE

MORNING

THOUGHT ROCK FISH SCALE

ULRIKA SPACEK

THE ALBUM PARANOIA

TOUGH LOVE LP / CD
Formed in Berlin, longstanding friends Rhys
Edwards & Rhys Williams conceptualised
Ulrika Spacek and came up with The Album
Paranoia as their debut album title.
A 10 track experimental alt-rock masterpiece.

SONGS IN THE KEY OF

ANIMALS

FLOWERS

EVERYBODYS DYING TO
MEET YOU

AVOCET

LAST OF THE GENTLEMEN

ADVENTURERS

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loretta lynn

If youre good
to the ghosts,
theyre good
to you
Welcome to Hurricane Mills, the second-most-haunted house
in Tennessee and, for the past 50 years, home of the supernaturally
gifted LORETTA LYNN. Here, the Queen Of Country Music
looks back on her sparkling career, her wayward spouse,
her legendary friends from the Cash family to Jack White
and the spirits that surround her to this day.
Story: Jaan Uhelszki

geTTy iMAges

HeRe is No mistaking the route that

leads to Loretta Lynns estate in Middle
Tennessee. At five-mile intervals along
the freeway that bisects the Volunteer
state from east to West, there are
folksy billboards showing the Queen
of Country Music in a red, checked
cowboy shirt. Her head is tilted to one side, her
well-appointed brown curls grazing her collarbone,
while the hoarding invites you to Visit the Legend
Loretta Lynn in Hurricane Mills.
in fact, more than 500,000 people come through the
doors of Lynns antebellum mansion each year. Lynne
recalls the sunday afternoon in 1966 when she and her
late husband, oliver Doolittle/Mooney Lynn, got lost
on the back roads of Humphreys County. i seen that
house and i said, Doo, i want that house right there,
Lynn explains. There was one problem, though: the
house came with a whole town, including a working
grist mill, a post office, a waterfall, a store and a gas
station. But what Loretta wants, Loretta generally gets,
as evidenced by a magnet on the restaurant-quality
refrigerator in her airy open kitchen that reads, When
Mama aint happy, nobody is happy. is it true? Lynn
takes off her rhinestone-encrusted reading glasses and
says with a throaty chuckle, What do you think?
The couple didnt waste much time putting a down
payment on the 3500-acre town. Money wasnt really

18 | UNCUT | MARCH 2016

an object any more for the singer, who grew up

poor in Paintsville, Kentucky. shed released two
albums that year, I Like Em Country, which reached
No 2 on the Billboard charts, and the vituperously
autobiographical You Aint Woman Enough, which
reached No 1, and whose title song became Lynns
biggest hit up to that point. Based on a dalliance Doo
was having with another woman, you Aint Woman
enough (To Take My Man) was a turning point for
Lynn. The songs true-to-life lyrics cracked with female
empowerment and righteous indignation something
unheard of in country music in those less-enlightened
times. Lynn continued to refine the theme in songs like
Dont Come Home A Drinkin (With Lovin on your
Mind), your squaw is on The Warpath, Rated X
and Fist City, where women didnt just stand by their
men, but stood up to them. Perhaps most radical of
all, there was The Pill which intimated that, with
birth control, a woman had the same rights as a man.
it was clear that Lynn was drawing from her own life
and marriage in her increasingly bold songwriting.
i wasnt doing anything what did you call it?
revolutionary, she insists. i was just saying what
everyone else was really thinking, but didnt talk
about it in public. it turned out, i was just the first one
to write it like the women lived it.
Today, Lynn is dressed in a sparkly pink shirt, tight
velvet trousers and sequinned black house slippers.

Loretta Lynn
at home, 1978

MARCH 2016 | UNCUT |

19

Lynn no longer lives in the

antebellum mansion, but
in a smaller property
across the driveway. It is
here that she sits in an
oversized red leather
sectional. As we talk,
Lynn angles her head
toward a bigger house
that lies across an
asphalt walkway. Its
silly, I know, but I fell in
love with the house
because it reminded me
of the house in Gone
With The Wind. But
you know, this place
was never really a
plantation. But Ill
tell you one thing,
it is haunted.
In fact, Lynns ranch
has been certified the
second most-haunted
place in Tennessee.
Located high on a hill,
the 14-room property
was built in 1845 and was used as a hospital in
the Civil War.According to records at nearby
Middle Tennessee State university, it was
also the site of a Civil War battle on July 22,
1863, where 19 solders lost their lives. All of
them are buried in a cemetery near the
church erected on the property one of
three cemeteries on the 6,500-acre estate.
In the old part of the house lies the brown
room, where Lynns eldest son, Jack Benny
Lynn, slept and experienced his own visitation
after coming home one night and falling asleep

loretta lynn:
breaking new
ground for women

Classic
Lynn
Cuts!

You Aint
WomAn
Enough

You Aint WomAn

Enough (1966)

MICHAEL oCHS ArCHIvES/GETTy IMAGES

Lynn lays down a gauntlet for the

woman who had designs on her
husband, telling her a woman like
her aint worth a dime. As a
demoralising technique, its
very effective.

Dont ComE
homE A
Drinkin (With
Lovin on
Your minD)
Dont ComE homE A Drinkin (1967)

Always an incipient feminist, this

song is a battle cry for any woman
sick of being taken granted by a
tomcatting husband. Treat me
right or treat me as gone.

20 | uNCuT | MArCH 2016

Fist CitY
Fist CitY
(1968)

Youve been
makin your brags
around town/That youve been a
lovin my man, says Lynn, in
this song inspired by a Tennessee
bus driver who pursued Lynns
husband, Doo.

Your squAW
is on thE
WArpAth
Your squAW is on
thE WArpAth (1969)

The LP shows Lynn dressed in

Native American clothing, with
her left hand over her head as if
searching for something. Peace?
Fidelity? Lynn again uses her
marital discord for hit-making.

CoAL minErs
DAughtEr
CoAl minErs
DAughtEr (1970)

Lynns calling card,

it is more poetic reportage than
song. Like Partons Coat of
Many Colors, it sparkles with

on his bed with his clothes on. He was woken by someone

trying to remove his boots: a soldier dressed in an American
Civil War uniform.
does any of this bother Lynn? No. If youre good to the
ghosts, theyre good to you, she says.
Such pragmatism has stood Lynn in good stead down the
years. While she appears every inch the lady, Lynn isnt
beyond letting things come to a physical showdown when
she feels she had to defend what she saw as rightfully hers.
Fist City, inspired by a fling doolittle had with a Tennessee
bus driver, used little poetic licence to make its point: Youd
better close your face and stay out of my way/If you dont
wanna go to Fist City. did you ever really punch anyone?
I wish Id punched her more than once, she nods almost
imperceptibly, her eyes narrowing a little. I still get mad
thinking about it, so lets not talk about it any more.
But Lynn never considered divorce. I always said: Why
trade in one nut you know for a nut you dont know?
Instead, Lynn used her husbands antics as rich source
material for her songs. Poor doo, he couldnt get away with
nothing. Lynn admits. If he did anything Id write a song
about it and the world knew what hed been up to. Good
thing for most men their wives arent songwriters.
Lynns songwriting earned them millions. She was in high
demand, sometimes spending as many as 250 days a year on
the road. one time we were arguing about some wallpaper
we were going to put up, and doo said to me, Im here more
than you are, so I should get to choose. That just stopped me
in my tracks. My one big regret is I had to leave my kids so
much. But I didnt know any other way to do it.
When Peggy and I were in school, our teacher asked me if
I missed our mama, Patsy Lynn russell, one of Lynns twin
daughters, tells me. And I said no. I mean, how can you
miss what youve never known. But my mom, who is really
smart, made sure that my dad was there with us, and she
hired Gloria [Land] to take care of us. There is no way in hell
my mom could have ever, as a woman and as a mother,
done what she did without having my dad and Gloria as
stability for her children, for her home and for herself.

verisimilitude and affection for

her impoverished past.

AFtEr thE
FirE is gonE
WE onlY mAkE
BEliEvE (1971)

Lynns voice was

never more expressive and
ascendant in this duet with
Conway Twitty of what happens
when love goes cold.

thE piLL
BACk to thE
CountrY (1975)

Maybe the most

controversial of
Lynns songs, its sociological
significance is important: All
those years Ive stayed at home/
While you had all your fun, sings
Lynn. Im making up for all those
years/Since Ive got the pill.

shEs
got You
i rEmEmBEr pAtsY
(1977)

This song was

written by Hank Cochran and

went to No 1 in the Country

charts in 1962 for Patsy Cline.
Loretta paid tribute to
her best friend, taking this, her
tremulous version, to the same
chart position in 1977.

out oF mY
hEAD AnD
BACk in
mY BED
out oF mY hEAD
AnD BACk in mY BED (1978)

Always the quintessential lady,

this song, another Country No 1,
expresses Lynns desires as a
more emotionally and sexually
liberated woman.

miss
BEing mrs
vAn lEAr rosE
(2004)

Featuring
Jack White. Never has a song
conveyed as much sadness or
honesty as this song Lynn wrote
about her husbands passing.
I took off my wedding band/
And put it on my right hand/
I miss being Mrs tonight.

loretta lynn

She was like

a ball of fire

Elvis Costello on loretta lynn

HeN I WeNT to Nashville in 81 to make Almost

Blue where we did other peoples songs the
first song we cut was Lorettas Honky Tonk Girl.
Its a weird song for me to record, because I didnt even reverse
the gender. The best thing I cut was a song I learned from her
record, I Remember Patsy Hes Got You. Loretta was our
guiding light. While I was in Nashville, this girl came by our
hotel and she turned out to be the president of Lorettas fan
club, and we all joined. I didnt actually meet Loretta until
maybe 2007. I knew John Carter since he was a lad, because
I knew his parents. My friend and producer of my first five
albums married into the family so we got the benefit of Nick
[Lowe]s son-in-law status. We were treated very kindly by the CashCarter clan. Id been back in touch with John Carter, and I went to see him
when I was in Nashville on a day off when I was on tour with Bob Dylan.
I was there on my own and suddenly Loretta arrives. She was like a ball
of fire. Shes got this box file, with SONGS written on it. She tips it out
and every kind of piece of paper tumbles out. Telephone note pads. Fancy
stationery. Hotel stationery. Bits of old receipts. Bits of cardboard boxes.
All with lyrics written on them. Some of them are quite famous, and I even
said, Why isnt this in the Country Music Hall of Fame? Some of the songs
were half a verse and some of them were just titles, like Thank God For Jesus.
There was one that said, Pardon Me, Madam, My Name is eve. I said, I know what
that is. Loretta said, Well, what is it? Its eves song to Adams second wife. She
laughed at that. I told her, I can write that if youll let me. So I did, and that went on
my album Momofuku. Then we got to work on this one title that she had, I Felt The
Chill Before The Winter Came. I could hear it in my head the minute she showed it
to me. I just started playing and we were easily completing the couplets. Any time I
went off the rails into anything more baroque, musically or lyrically, shed rein me
back in to keep it plain. I think she allowed me the line a linger of perfume. She liked
that one, but that was about as fancy as it got. Whenever I attempted anything
more, shed question it. That was good, because it meant that it was in her voice.

yNN uSEd To babysit Carter Cash; but in 2007, their

relationship changed. Carter Cash produced a tribute
album for his mother Anchored In Love and invited
Lynn to record a version of Wildwood Flower. Afterward,
Patsy Lynn asked if she and her mother could visit his
recording studio with an eye to recording some songs. In the
end, they worked on more than 100. over the past few years,
Lynn has been in and out of the studio, re-recording some of
her earliest hits and some traditional music that never has
seen the light of day. It was fun making this music, Carter
Cash says. Late in my fathers life, music became his only
lifes-blood therapy. The music is therapy for Loretta too. you
turn the machines on and capture her. She has this amazing
energy and this booming voice. I guarantee youre pushing
as many decibels today as 1967.
I have this first album coming out, Full Circle, says Lynn.
Then therell be a Christmas album and a religious album.
I cut some of the old hill songs that Mommy taught me. She
was a great singer. And Ive got another cut of some of the
biggest hits I wrote for decca that you cant find anymore.
on Full Circle, she has two stellar guests. Willie Nelson
duets on a song she wrote called Lay Me down and Elvis
Costello collaborates on Everything It Takes. Costello had
come down to Carter Cashs studio in 2007 to write a couple
of songs with Lynn two of which he has since recorded:
Pardon Me, Madam, My Name Is Eve and I Felt The Chill
Before The Winter Came. While he was there, Lynn and
Carter Cash asked if hed mind singing with her on a track.
I learnt it that day and sang harmony on it, and it was pretty
cool, he tells Uncut.
Elvis is a funny guy, says Lynn. He told
somebody about our writing session. How he
brought his computer out and was writing on it,
and there I was sitting with a pencil in my hand
and a piece of paper. But that was how it was.
Costello and Nelson are just the most recent
collaborations Lynn has enjoyed. In 2004, she
paired with Jack White for Van Lear Rose, her best
album since 1977s I Remember Patsy. The record,
thoughtful and minimal, brought her to the
With husband mooney
at the Country &
attention of a whole new audience and scored two
Western music
Grammys. White who dedicated The White
Awards, hollywood,
February 27, 1975
Stripes White Blood Cells to Lynn seemed to

i was the
first one
to write it
as women
lived it
Loretta
Lynn

push her to new heights and emotional depths, urging her to

tap into the well of sass and sadness that coloured her best
works, and giving her the graceful platform to mourn doo,
who passed away in 1996. White not only got her writing
again she wrote or co-wrote everything on the disc but
he coaxed out her most fevered performance in years. you
know, Jackd do anything for me and Id do anything for
Jack. I love Jack. Jack loves me, Lynn tells me airily.
Whats your relationship like? Its rather unconventional,
right? you mean with Jack? Were sisters and brothers.
Hmm, Im not sure thats what it is, chimes in russell,
who did pre-production on Van Lear Rose. Its the weirdest
thing. The creativity between the two is off the charts. Its
like walking in on a romance youre not supposed to see.
oh, Patsy Watsy! admonishes her mother. Its more like
what he dont come up with, I do.
So why does Jack always say to me, I know your mom
had a facelift, every time I see her she looks younger and
younger, counters the younger Lynn. So now you tell me
theres not a little something going on?
Patsy! you know, I havent had one. I dont even
do anything special, Lynn says, ignoring the
implication, but not altogether displeased.
I never used anything on my face except soap.
While she and White havent recorded together
since 2004s Van Lear Rose, they speak on the phone
often. Im just starting a song that I think maybe Jack
and I will do, Lynn says. Im going to call it Get you A
Baby, Now rock It or Shes your Baby, Now rock Her.
Its going to be a little rock song, she says. you know
where he got the Third Man label name? Theres a song
called The Third Man that I did back 25 years ago.
MArCH 2016 | uNCuT |

21

HuLToN ArCHIvE/GETTy IMAGES

Everybodys always thought of my mom

as being this strong female figure, and she
was, but she never emasculated my father.
It was the secret to the marriage. She
always made him feel like he was the most
important person in the world.
Loretta really makes you feel like she
really gets you, says John Carter Cash,
the son of Johnny Cash and June Carter
Cash. She is just like my mom was. They
were country girls that were sharper than
a tack and didnt have any airs. My mom
Elvis
and grandmother liked her so much they
Costello
wanted her to join the Carter Family.
Ive always told my kids to always
be good to people, says Lynn
solemnly. Nobody is better than
anybody else. No matter who they
are. I was born and raised this way,
that I would be just plain old me.
And I cant be nothing else.
There is no one like her, adds
Carter Cash. She may stay on the
phone 20 minutes with a wrong
number. She opens her heart to
everyone, and being around so
many quote-unquote stars in the
industry my whole life, I cherish the ones that are real.

loretta lynn

esPiTe a broken shoulder and a bout of

pneumonia two years ago, lynn is thriving. you are
likely to find her digging up weeds from her flower
garden, puttering around the kitchen or doting on one of her
nine cats (there are also two possums and a raccoon). her
tenacious work rate is commendable, but why does she work
so hard? is it from a sense of self-doubt, that she always feel
the need to prove herself? i do, says lynn, with a nod. its
funny youd say that, because youre the only one ever said
that to me. but i really believe that why i made it was i work
so hard. and ive noticed that none of the other girls in
nashville work that hard. none of em.
When i hit 50, i thought, My God, my life is over, she
continues. That was a horrible year for me. and after i went
over 50, i thought, Well, hell, im just gonna go on
forever. When i retire is when they put me under.
such maudlin talk leads lynn on to the subject of
elvis Presley. The two of them never met but used to
talk on the phone regularly. but Jerry lee lewis
confided to her that a collaboration wasnt going to
happen. Jerry lee and me were doing a show and
we could see elvis place from where the building
was. i said, im worried about elvis. and he said,
loretta, im gonna tell you something but dont
repeat it. course, its over now. he said elvis wont be
alive for two weeks if they dont quit hauling dope into
him. First thing i thought of when elvis died, Jerry lee
already warned me that within a week hed be gone.
ive outlasted most of them, she continues,
without any joy. you could count them off: her
husband and two of her children; her best friend, Patsy
cline, who died in a plane crash in 1963; her singing partner
conway Twitty, who passed away in the same hospital
where Doolittle was having open-heart surgery; and Tammy
Wynette, who died in 1998, eight days before lorettas
birthday. i dont know what the good lord has in mind for
me, she admits. i dont do anything special. i hate to

Top: with Jack White, from

the Van Lear Rose cover
session, 2004. Above: new
album Full Circle

The Haunting Of
Hurricane Mills
Inside Loretta Lynns spooky mansion

Michael Mauney/The liFe PicTure collecTion/GeTTy iMaGes

oretta Lynn seems at peace with things

that go bump in the night. she has invited the
travel Channel, Celebrity Ghost Stories and
tV medium and clairvoyant James van Praagh to
her Hurricane mills plantation in tennessee to
film. Van Praagh wanted to spend the night in the
brown room, in the old part of the house.
Daughter Patsy Lynn russell leads Uncut
upstairs in the big house saying, We dont
usually get people come up here
the staircase is lined with framed covers of all
Loretta Lynns albums, arranged in chronological
order. Intermittently, the albums are askew.
yeah, well come in here and theyll all be
messed up, russell admits. a small landing
connects her childhood bedroom with her twin
sister Peggys. In the middle was their nannys
room. Peggy and I used to see a woman
On the steps of the
dressed in white. shed stand over our beds. Id
Hurricane Mills
plantation house,
be really quiet and hope shed leave me alone
March 1972
and go to Peggys. When I finally told my sister
that, she said she did the same thing!
at the top of the stars is a neat, well-kept room
the brown room. the room is much colder than the rest of the house.
Jack saw a ghost in his room, Lynn says, talking about her son. Im
sure Patsy told you that soldier isnt the only ghost who lives here. I used

22 | uncuT | March 2016

exercise, but id walk if someone would walk with me.

but its pretty hard for me to get out and walk because
people watch the house. They see that im out and they
start following me.
While the tourists may come to visit the museum, with
all the props and sets from the Coal Miners Daughter
biopic, lynns costumes, awards and ephemera, the
rebuilt childhoodhome from butcher hollow, or even
the cadillac where she wrote all her hits, in the end
they come to the Double l loretta lynn Dude ranch
mostly to catch a glimpse of her. a little while ago a
couple of people come up to the door as they seen me
out here in the hall. i had this little short gown on, and
my hair was in one of them clamps. i looked like the devil
with no make-up on. They said were here to see loretta
lynn. i said youre in the wrong place, shes not here.
and they believed you?
Well, i wasnt really there, was i? not the loretta lynn
they wanted to see.
Full Circle is out via Legacy Recordings/Sony Music on March 4

to hear someone in high heels walking up and down the back stairs. Id
wake up Doo and say, Do you hear that? Hed tell me he didnt hear
nothin, just go back to sleep. But I knew he heard it too. theres the
woman who stays upstairs dressed all in white. my twins used to see her
all the time. I saw her once on the balcony, wringing her hands. When I
walked toward her, she just disappeared. It
turns out she lived here and she lost her baby.
not to be left out, her second son ernest saw
two soldiers standing at the foot of his bed when
he slept in the same room. today, a man who
had come to clean the carpets in the mansion
left unnerved, saying hed seen something.
the spirits, meanwhile, have a long connection
with the Lynn family. Lorettas mother, Clara,
used to read tea leaves with uncanny accuracy.
she told Lynn that she had to leave the place
because if she didnt, one of her children would
drown there. In a segment filmed for Celebrity
Ghost Stories last year, Lynn told the reporter
Kim russo, my kids all knew how to swim.
I believed mommy to be wrong. But on July 22,
1984, Jack Benny Lynn died attempting to cross
the nearby Duck river on horseback. that
changed everything, russell says. It just left
a hole in the family. my mom was really bad
for a while. We all were.
the family moved out of the mansion that year,
to a smaller, purpose-built house. they turned
the original property into a tourist attraction.
a sance Lynn held there revealed one of the
ghosts as James anderson, original owner of the plantation. Lynn
believes it was he who locked three of her female staff members on
the balcony when they were attempting to hang banners.

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24 | UNCUT | marCh 2016

David Bowie| 1947-2016

In the event
That this fantastic voyage
Should turn to erosion
And we never get old
Remember it is true, dignity is valuable
But our lives are valuable too

David Bowie
at home in
Beckenham,
1972

marCh 2016 | UNCUT |

25

Michael Putland/Getty iMaGes

The extraordinary life and music of David Bowie,

remembered by his closest collaborators
and Uncuts David Cavanagh

Bowie in New York,

photographed by
Jimmy King, at the
tail end of 2015

26 | UncUt | MarcH 2016

n a celebrated 1994 interview,

the dramatist dennis Potter,
diagnosed with terminal cancer and
drinking liquid morphine to dull the
pain, remarked on the peculiar
routines of Homo sapiens who have
yet to outgrow their use. Were the
one animal that knows that were
going to die, he pointed out,
and yet we carry on paying our
mortgages, doing our jobs, moving
about, behaving as though theres
eternity in a sense, and we tend to
forget that life can only be defined in the present
tense. It is, and it is now only.
Five years later, in a boardroom in the
Manhattan offices of Virgin records, david
bowie 52 years old, still smoking Marlboros,
but looking astonishingly young and fit told
the journalist david Quantick: Im very happy
to deal and only deal with the existing 24 hours
Im going through. Im not inclined to even think
too heavily about the end of the week or the week
Ive just come through. the present is really the
place to be.
bowie had just been discussing a song
called Seven on his latest album, Hours,
which seemed to be about a man given just seven
days to live. Wandering distractedly through an
unnamed city in the rain, the man thought of his
father, his mother and his brother (three people
certain to trigger involuntary spasms of
psychiatric hypothesis in seasoned bowiewatchers if the song had been autobiographical),
before reaching a sort of measured perspective
on his options. Ive got seven ways to live
my life or seven ways to die. For better or

worse, the present was the place to be.

almost 17 years remained in the life of david
bowie when he wrote those words, but the fate
he was to share with Potter incurable liver
cancer drew him back, in the end, to matters of
finite days and the urgent present. both men
created their final work in a race against time,
knowing that death would come, if not too soon,
then soon enough. both of them chose, surely not
by coincidence, the same biblical figure for a
title: lazarus of bethany, who died and was
restored to life by a christ miracle. Potters last tV

drama was Cold Lazarus, a science-fiction

prophecy set in a britain overrun by ideological
terrorists and sinister corporations. bowie,
whose own science-fiction prophecy had begun
with fleas the size of rats sucking on rats the size
of cats, made his last public appearance on
december 12, 2015 at the new York premiere of
Lazarus, a musical he co-wrote with the
playwright enda Walsh. based on bowies
character in the 1976 film The Man Who Fell To
Earth, its premiere was followed by a download
single (also called lazarus) and a video,

A MESSAGE TO
LONDON FROM DAVE
taken from melody maker | feBrUary 26 | 1966

ItHoUt doUbt daVId bowie has talent. and also without

doubt it will be exploited. For Mr bowie,
a 19-year-old bromley boy, not only writes
and arranges his own numbers, but he is also helping
tony Hatch to write a musical score, and the numbers for
a tV show. as if that wasnt enough, david also designs
shirts and suits for John Stephen of the famed carnaby
Street clan. also I want to go to tibet. Its a fascinating
place, yknow. Id like to take a holiday and have a look
inside the monasteries. the tibetan monks, lamas,
bury themselves inside the mountains for weeks and
only eat every three days. theyre ridiculous and its
said they live for centuries.
It should be stated that david is a well-read student of
astrology and a believer in reincarnation
as far as Im concerned the whole idea of Western
life the life we live now is wrong. these are hard
convictions to put into songs though. at the moment
I write nearly all of my songs round london. no, I should
say the people who live in london and the lack of real
life they have. the majority just dont know what life is.
every number in daves stage act is an original
that he has written. as he says, the theme is

released in early January alongside the new

album, Blackstar (). the video showed a
blindfolded bowie writhing in a hospital bed
while a healthier, more energetic david emerged
from a wardrobe the bowie metaphor to end all
bowie metaphors and began writing furiously
at a desk. He was a man up against an implacable
deadline. We now know that he had only a short
time to live, and we know that he knew it, too.
and that he wanted us to know it after hed gone.
david bowie has died many deaths yet he is
still with us, Pitchfork began its review of
Blackstar on January 7, as bowie, unbeknown to
the media, gradually approached the end of his
life. Pitchfork was referring to the grand parade of
bowie characters (Major tom, Ziggy Stardust,
aladdin Sane, the thin White duke) which hed
visualised, corporealised, inhabited for as long
as they fitted him, then discarded and replaced
in the wardrobe as empty costumes. and there
were other incarnations that didnt have names:
the bleach-blond bowie of the Lets Dance era;
the smouldering redhead on the cover of Young
Americans; the long-haired bowie on the front of
Hours cradling, Virgin Mary-like, the head of
his predecessor, the carrot-topped bowie of
Earthling. and on and on they went, back to the
hippy tresses of Hunky Dory and the bouffants
and perms of the 60s. bowie, being bowie, had
made a point of changing his image from one
project to the next, even before he had a fanbase
to notice him doing it. He is pop musics ultimate
lazarus, Pitchfork declared, a nice way of
unifying a theory, an off-broadway musical and
a late-period bowie song. but then, three days
after the review was uploaded, the morning
clocks chimed seven and the news channels

usually london kids and their lives. However, it leads to trouble.

Several of the younger teenagers programmes wouldnt play cant
Help thinking about Me, because it is about leaving home. the number
relates to several incidents in every teenagers life and leaving home is
something which always comes up. tony Hatch and I rather wanted to
do another number I had written. It goes down very well in the stage act,
and lots of fans said I should have released it but tony and I thought
the words were a bit strong.
In what way? Well, it tells the story of life as some
teenagers saw it but we didnt think the
lyrics were quite up many peoples
street. I do it onstage though, and
were probably keeping it for an eP or
maybe an lP. Hope, hope! Its called
now Youve Met the london boys
and mentions pills, and generally
belittles the london nightlife scene.
Ive lived in london and been brought
up here, and I find its a great subject to write
songs about. With all original numbers the
audiences are hearing numbers theyve
never heard before so this makes for a
varied stage act, said david. Its
risky, because the kids arent
familiar with the tunes, but
Im sure it makes their
musical life more
interesting.
He could
be right.
Bowie in
London, 1966

MarcH 2016 | UncUt |

27

JIMMY kIng; PIctorIal PreSS ltd/alaMY Stock PHoto

David Bowie| 1947-2016

David Bowie | 1947-2016

rocknroll
with me #1
He employed
people to help him
make perfection

PAUL COX/LFI-PX; ROLF ADLERCREUTZ/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

HERBIE FLOWERS (bass guitar: 1968, 1974)

WHEN WE TRAVELLED around America in 1974 on the long,
long Diamond Dogs tour, I sometimes managed to wangle my
way to travel with David in his limo, because I wouldnt fly in those
days and nor would David. It was a great privilege for me, sat in the
back with him, hardly saying two words because singers on tour
dont want to talk all day, they want to rest. It was comfortable
looking out of the window at cactus plants, mountains, this, that
and the other. We kind of got to know each other pretty well.
We did Madison Square Garden. In the afternoon Sly Stone got
married, Doris Day had been invited to play the organ, and she sang
Que Sera, Sera, as shed had a hit with it and so had Sly & The
Family Stone. And then, straight after the wedding, in rolled the
Diamond Dogs lot, and it was completely, beautifully absurd. People
of all nationalities, all styles, like a huge beehive. I felt very proud,
very safe, I couldnt believe my luck.
I knew David from doing BBC sessions in the late 60s, and right
from the start I knew he was
onto something. There was a
handful of musicians who
were kind of jazzers. David
was a bit amused, and
bemused, by the startling
things we were coming up
with. Not just me, but Rick
Wakeman with his little
Stylophone on Space
Oddity, Mike Garson with
his groove for Latin music;
it wasnt pop music.
We worked fast and when
we did a recording, there
Bowie with Bolan and
might have only been David
Herbie Flowers (rear) on
the TV show, Marc, in 1977
with his acoustic guitar, and
a rough, screwed-up piece of
paper with lyrics on, and a drummer and a bass player. Wed put
down the rough track, then go home. But David would go onto step
two, and get the right musical director to overscore strings, or get
the great Ronnie Ross, who was actually Davids sax teacher, to
come in and play the sax solo at the end of Walk On The Wild Side.
David believed in costume and theatre, choreography, set design,
lyrics, the right producer and engineer. He could do everything. He
studied everything, and used people well, he didnt use them, he
employed people to help him make perfection. David was always
one step ahead of everyone else. And he was the sweetest man.
The last time I saw David for a few hours was on the last episode
of Marc Bolans mini-series that he did in Manchester, Marc. They
did a little duet, but they ran the end titles over it, because Marc
slipped and fell off the stage and broke his ankle. The series
finished with David looking at him, smiling. Ive got a photograph
of David and Marc, and myself in the background, and its the only
photograph that Ive got that I treasure.
Sixty-nine is no age. Im nearly 80, and when I think of, probably,
another dozen albums and projects that David might have
presented to the world its a great loss. It hardly seems fair.
INTERVIEW: MICHAEL BONNER

28 | UNCUT | MARCH 2016

With producer Tony

Visconti at Trident
Studios, St Annes
Court, Soho, May 1970

reported the headline that

chilled the blood. This time
Bowie would not be coming
back from the dead.
Time, of course, was
running out in his songs at
least 40 years before his fatal
diagnosis. Aged only 25, he
gave the earth just five years
to survive in The Rise And Fall
Of Ziggy Stardust And The
Spiders From Mars. Six months
earlier (Changes), hed warned
the insouciant exemplars of
teenage virility (Look out, you
rocknrollers) that the ageing
process would begin sooner than
they expected. As early as his
fourth single Cant Help
Thinking About Me with The
Lower Third in 1966 a 19-year-old
Bowie longed to escape his new
responsibilities as a home-leaver
and go back in time (I wish I was
a child again/I wish I felt secure
again.) In 1971, in Kooks, he
counselled his son Zowie, newly
born and in his crib, to blow his
trumpet and face down his bullies
while he still had the power of
innocence in his lungs. Soon
youll grow
Kooks, that charming song
from Hunky Dory, was played again
and again on January 10 as tributes
to Bowie poured in. It was in many

ways the perfect choice of song to

bid farewell to him. Heroes,
without question, was the one
guaranteed to bring tears to the
eyes, and anything from Low,
Lodger or Station To Station made
the fans of 1976-79 pause in silent
appreciation of his dark, cerebral
muse. Others found comfort in
Space Oddity, much in the news
recently, which had a line that the
Daily Mirror and Metro would use
on their front pages (The stars look
very different today). But Kooks,
the longer that sad day lasted,
seemed to tie together the emotions
of the present and the complicated
strands of the past. It was a Twitter
announcement at 6.54am. by
Zowie himself nowadays better
known as the film director Duncan
Jones that confirmed the truth of

With wife Angie

and three-weekold son Zowie,
June 29, 1971

rocknroll
with me #2
He got down on one
knee in front of me

a statement made at 6.30 by David

Bowie Official. Yes. There was no
mistake. His father was dead.
Jones, 44, illustrated his tweet with
a photo of him as a baby, bouncing
on his dads shoulders.
The baby had been born on a
Sunday morning near the end of
May 1971, four days before Bowie
recorded a Radio 1 In Concert at the
BBCs Paris Studio in Lower Regent
Street. He wrote Kooks and
debuted it for the Radio 1 audience
on a 12-string guitar. Soon youll
grow. If you stay with us, youre
gonna be pretty kooky too. Some
Bowie fans, listening to his voice
from 1971 and trying to keep up
with their social media timelines,
would have experienced a
disorientating torrent of jump-cuts
and flashbacks worthy of The
Man Who Fell To Earth. Here
was a tweeted picture of Bowie in
voluminous slacks and a silk or
chiffon blouse, pushing Zowie
around the streets of Beckenham in
a pram with Angie. Here was the
Archbishop Of Canterbury no less,
in the present day, telling Radio 4
listeners: I remember sitting
listening to his songs endlessly in
the 70s and always really relishing
what he was, what he did, the
impact he had. Here were
valedictions from Brian Eno, Iggy

Pop, Madonna, Kanye

West, Pharrell Williams,
Michael Eavis, Gene
Simmons, Kasabian,
Frances Bean Cobain
and the Vaticans
chief spokesman on
cultural affairs. Here
was a clever video by
an artist named Helen
Green that showed a
half-centurys worth
of Bowies image
changes flashing past
in three seconds.
Here was BBC Radio 6
Music, throwing open
its airwaves like a
drop-in support centre to any
distraught fan with a memory or a
story to tell. Here was the European
Space Agency astronaut Tim Peake,
sitting in his tin can far above the
world. Here, with ghastly timing,
was Angie in the Celebrity Big
Brother house, one of the few
people in Britain not to have
awoken to the news that her
ex-husband had died. Here was
Tony Visconti, sworn to secrecy
during Blackstars recording but
now able to talk more freely,
saluting the friend hed known
since the summer of 1967: He
always did what he wanted to do.
And he wanted to do it his way

DAVID HAD COME in and recorded Space Oddity with Gus

Dudgeon producing and then, of course, the label wanted an
LP, so between myself and one of the other engineers at Trident,
Malcolm Toft, we recorded the album. I recall thinking how much of
a nice guy David was, and what a good singer he was. But at that
point I never considered him a superstar in any shape or form.
Tony, David and the guys cut The Man Who Sold The World in
another studio, then came to Trident and I did overdubs and mixed
it, and once again it was the same feeling. But then, after he took a
break for some time, because of the lack of success, he came back
into Trident to try to produce a friend of his, Freddie Burretti, and Id
reached the point where I wanted to move into production. During
one of the breaks I mentioned that to David, and he said how hed
just signed a new management deal, and they wanted him to record
an album. He was going to produce it but
didnt know if he was capable of doing it;
would I co-produce it with him?
So this scenario of working with
David, who would never be a superstar
I could actually make mistakes and not
worry about people hearing them! Then
he and Angie and his publisher Bob
Grace came round the house, so that we
could start going through material. And,
as David was playing demos, suddenly
it was obvious that, when he was in
charge of his own music, it was a whole
different ball game. Once he realised his
ideas were good, then he just kept on
building from there. His charisma grew.
David got bored in the studio very easily.
And so with the Spiders, they had to get
everything fast, which gave an energy. They
were nervous as hell they wouldnt get a track
in time, as David would just say Nah, enough,
were moving on. Of the four albums I did with
him, he was there for only two mixes. As soon
as hed finished what he had to do, he was onto
the next thing. The leap between Hunky Dory
and Ziggy was three weeks. He
said, I dont think youre going to like this one, its
much more Velvet Underground. I had no idea who
the Velvets were, but he was wrong I did love it. But
he didnt know me very well, and I didnt know him
very well. I dont think anyone ever really knew him.
Wed email from time to time, very
infrequently. But I feel like Ive been in
contact with him every single day. Just
after Aladdin Sane, we were going to
dinner one night, and I was over
at his place, and before we left he
got down on one knee in front of me
and presented me with this gold
bracelet. On the clasp its etched
KS/DB, with the lightning bolt from
his face. Ive worn that every single day
Ken Scott with a Stylophone as
since. INTERVIEW: MICHAEL BONNER
used on David Bowies Life On
Mars? and Space Oddity

MARCH 2016 | UNCUT |

29

MIRRORPIX; ILPO MUSTO/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK

KEN SCOTT (engineer/producer: 19691973)

David Bowie | 1947-2016

rocknroll
with me #3
We went through
many highs and
lows together

PaUl NaTkIN/GeTTy ImaGes; IlPO mUsTO/reX/shUTTersTOCk

CARLOS ALOMAR (guitar: 19742003)

I FIrsT meT David at the rCa studio when I was a session

musician and he was a producer for lulu. my first
impression? his oddity! at that time, I had an afro, I was heavily
into James Browns say It loud Im Black and Im Proud, I was on
the Chitlin Circuit, doing the whole r&B thing with the sound Of
Philadelphia. David was still in his spiders From mars period he
had orange hair and his complexion was pasty white. hed use
phrases like, hey, man and Thats cool, all these little things
said in his strange British accent. But when I started talking to him,
I could see his humanity. he was this guy from london who was
trying to act cool and hip and didnt know anything about the
underbelly of New york City and the scene. We got on really well in
the studio, so I invited him to come to my house in Queens. The next
thing I know, the limousine rolls up and there he is. so we started
going to the apollo Theatre and hanging out, long before I got the
phone call for Young Americans saying, look, youve gotta come
and do this record with me.
myself, Dennis Davis and
George murray how do I
say it? we redesigned
David Bowies rhythm
session. David was kinda
funky for a while there! after
Young Americans, I was
shocked when I was called
back for Station To Station.
When I got called back for
Low, for Heroes, for all
of those records, Ive always
been shocked. I never
Bowie with Carmine
Rojas (left) and Carlos
took my relationship with
Alomar onstage at the
David for granted. even all
Rosemont Horizon
Theatre, August 3, 1983
the way up to Heathen, when
he called me up and said,
hey, I need that Carlos alomar flavour.
how did we work together? sometimes we had to pluck some
music right from thin air. Other times hed come to me with a few
ideas he might bang out on the piano or strum on the guitar,
or that hes singing free into the room. Other times he didnt have a
clue and Id say, Ive got these ideas, what do you think of these?
hed say, Ok, lets work on that. When I was up there performing
with him, I was having the time of my life. hed turn around and
look at me. Id look at him, wed smile, and man, consider yourself
paid. Thats all you need.
David and I went through many highs and lows together, the
gamut of all human emotions. I remember when John lennon died.
David wanted to get numb. he said, Carlos, get me something.
I said, sure, give me some money. so he gave me all his money,
and then I went to sleep. Why? I wanted to make sure I took all the
money he had in his pocket so that he couldnt get anything, that
he dont get numb, that he felt the pain of loss. In a family, you go
through it all even the sorrow of loss and the first thing that
happens is numbness. Thats the way the world is right now, its
just a little numb.
INTERVIEW: MICHAEL BONNER

30 | UNCUT | marCh 2016

and he wanted to do it the best

way. his death was no different
from his life a work of art.
at first, Viscontis conclusion
seemed glib, banal, even
indecently worded in the
circumstances. But perhaps it
wasnt banal at all. Perhaps it
wasnt even an exaggeration.
Perhaps it was exactly what had
transpired in Bowies final hours.
having had his best album reviews
since Scary Monsters, the great
conceptualist had followed with a

critically acclaimed death. his

final act had been an immaculate
performance of the final act.
and somewhere in the middle of
the tweets, the timelines, the
tributes and the tears, a Wikipedia
editor quietly changed is to
was, and Bowies 69-year life
crossed over into the past tense.

T Was Clear, even before an

official message was sent at
10.41 am by the German Foreign
Office thanking Bowie for helping
to bring down the Berlin Wall, that
hed had a staggering effect on the
world around him. Or on several
worlds, actually, as he was soon
revealed to have been a pioneer in
the spheres of music, art, fashion,
theatre, film, sexual attitudes,
family values and developments
in business and technology.
Depending on which tendril of
his extraordinary, pan-global
influence one wished to focus on, it
was possible to disregard Bowies

music career completely and hail

him instead as an art-world
prankster (he and author William
Boyd hoaxed critics in the late 90s
with a fake biography of a nonexistent artist); or as a trailblazer of
the information superhighway (in
98 he launched an internet service
provider, BowieNet, interacting
online with his fans at a time
when most of his contemporaries
dismissed the internet as a passing
gimmick); or as a financial
innovator, who, to widespread
amazement in 1997, generated $55
million in cash by selling assetbacked securities to investors for a
share in his future royalties.
Just as Philip Glass New York
Times obituary of George harrison
ignored The Beatles and
concentrated solely on Georges
passion for Indian music,
assessments of Bowies legacy
came from every corner of the
culture, every place where a
culture prevailed, and when you
added up his significance to
all of them, he seemed to have
had a number of simultaneous
lifetimes, much as aleister
Crowley was not just an
occultist but also a painter, a
poet, a mountaineer, an
inventor of a religion and a spy.
While one messageboard was
describing Bowie in broad
terms as the most important
man in history, another, more
specifically, recalled his
influence on the fashion tastes
of football casuals in the early
80s. In each encomium his
fearlessness was a common theme.
his uncanny ability to see into the
future and then promptly shape it
was another.
his January 1972 interview with
Melody Makers michael Watts,
in which he laid the foundations
for a new kind of rock star by
announcing that he was gay, is
remembered as an explosive and
far-reaching encounter. But almost
as intriguing is a comment Bowie
makes to Watts about Ziggy
Stardust, the album hes just been
recording. looking ahead to its
release, he sounds more than
capable of willing the future into
being. Im going to be huge, he
says, and its quite frightening in a
way, because I know that when I
reach my peak and its time for me
to be brought down, it will be with a
bump. The thing to bear in mind is
that Bowie, in January 1972, had
no data or documentation to back
up his blas predictions.
Commercially speaking, he

Live at
Earls Court,
London, 1973

marCh 2016 | UNCUT |

31

David Bowie | 1947-2016

rocknroll
with me #4
He said, Do
you know the
Stravinsky Octet?

JoE STEVENS; GIJSBErT haNEKrooT/rEdFErNS

MIKE GARSON (piano: 19732004)

I WaS a jazz musician. I didnt know who david was when I
got a call from Tony deFries. Can I be in manhattan to audition
at rCa Studios? Bowies looking for a pianist. mick ronson was at the
piano, david was looking at me through the studio glass. mick gave
me the music to Changes and said, Can you read this? I played no
more than seven seconds and mick said, youve got the gig!
I only played 10 songs out of about 20 on that first tour, so when I
wasnt playing I snuck out to the audience. david never knew this,
but Id sit in the first row and watch him. after the first show, I knew
he was a genius. I was only hired for eight weeks, and I ended up
with him for so many years, on and off. I did 18 albums, and God
knows how many tours, 10 or 15.
When we first met, we talked endlessly, for weeks, driving
through the States in his limo while he was creating music for
Aladdin Sane. he played the baritone sax and he loved Stan Kenton.
he loved Charles mingus, too. We talked about all this stuff, and its
very unusual that a rock musician would know so much about jazz
and a lot of other things besides. one day, he said to me, Can you
learn this Vaughan Williams piece and insert it in the intro of one of
my songs tomorrow night? or later, when we were recording Battle
For Britain (The letter) for Earthling, he said, do you know the
Stravinsky octet? Can you play something like that in your solo?
I ran downstairs to the record store, listened to the piece again
I hadnt heard it in 30 years then I played this crazy solo and he
was thrilled. he was very well informed about philosophy, books,
music, sculpture he edited an art magazine, he was good at
singing, songwriting, producing it was endless, yknow?
he was funny, too. We played Glastonbury in 2000, the closing act
after two or three days of all these kids in the rain and mud. Were
about to go onstage. david got nervous and he said, Er, mike. Go
out and play five minutes by yourself, will you? To test the water?
The last time we played together was in 2006 at the manhattan
Centre. It was just me and david. We did Wild Is The Wind and
Fantastic Voyage. alicia Keys came on and sang Changes. We
stayed in touch electronically, though. about three months ago we
emailed about Nina Simone. We were laughing cos when we did
Wild Is The Wind at the manhattan Centre, he made me listen to
her version first. She played great piano. he said, Check this out.
absorb her thing, then add your own. INTERVIEW: MICHAEL BONNER
Mike Garson
backstage with
Mick Ronson, 1973

32 | UNCUT | marCh 2016

Onstage at Ahoy on
the Thin White Duke
tour, Rotterdam,
May13, 1976

wasnt even a face on the horizon.

his 1970 album The Man Who Sold
The World, for all its proto-metal
guitar riffs and Boschian visions,
had sold poorly, and its december
1971 successor, Hunky Dory, had
been in the shops less than a month
when Bowie met the man from the
Maker. It was all a bit up-in-the-air,
a bit pie-in-the-sky. Since Space
oddity in 1969, Bowie had been
out of the charts for two years.
Putting it bluntly, he was a one-hit
wonder whod been forgotten.
Viewed in that context, his
appearance on Top Of The Pops in
July 1972, performing Starman
(a Top 40 new entry at No 29),
wasnt quite the last-chance saloon,
but it was definitely an opportunity
to be seized with both hands. as the
June 1971 In Concert had borne
witness, Bowie wasnt always the
most emphatic of frontmen.
however, as about 12 million
stunned households watched him
cavort and sashay with mick
ronson, it wasnt just Bowies
multi-coloured jumpsuit and
spiked hair that made him
unrecognisable. With his blue
guitar, feline playfulness, pixie-like
otherworldliness and provocative
mannerisms, he was like no male
pop star Britain had ever seen. In
one leap he joined marc Bolan at the
forefront of glam-rock. Starman
would reach the Top 10.
Bowie had waited a long time for
those three precious minutes on
Top Of The Pops. his birth in
Brixton and his 1950s childhood as
david robert Jones in suburban

Bromley had been anything but

glamorous. he dreamed of
liberation, adventure, fun,
america, Elvis Presley (with whom
he shared a birthday) and little
richard. his formative musical
steps included a flirtation with
skiffle and an education in modern
jazz from his older half-brother
Terry. as the 60s got under way,
the ambitious Jones, a gyrating
enthusiast of blues and rnB,
attempted to get a foothold as a
teenage idol in london. he formed
The Konrads, joined The King Bees,
dallied with The manish Boys,
flopped with The lower Third and
had no luck with The Buzz. Not
even a change of surname made
any difference. By the summer of
1967 hed released one album
(David Bowie) and nine singles.
None had been successful.

UT ThEN hIS life accelerated

like a plane on a runway.
once Starman brought him
to the British publics attention, The
Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And
The Spiders From Mars the second
in a spectacular sequence of
albums he made for rCa become
a sensation throughout the summer
and autumn of 1972. Ziggy, his
doomed extraterrestrial rock star,
offered Bowies young listeners a
sexually ambiguous, sartorially
outrageous alternative to the peerpressure superbands like led
Zeppelin, and it wasnt long before
a new breed of suburban outsider in
Bowies old stomping ground of
Bromley, epitomised by the future

Robert Fripp, Eno and

Bowie in the studio for
Heroes, Berlin, 1977

would they make the transition

from glam to soul? and then follow
him to who-knows-where? while
establishing his dominance over
the 70s and consolidating his
status as rocks leading maverick.
This was the man whom madonna,
responding to the news on January
10, called a game changer, an
inspiration on her own imageadopting, image-shedding journey
through pop. But Bowie changed
the game for countless people
before madonna materialised on
the scene. The Sid Vicious photo
tells a ubiquitous tale of misfit boys
and girls who gravitated to the
mysterious androgyne Ziggy, and
then spent the rest of their teens
trusting Bowie as he confronted
them with a sudden volte-face, a
physical transformation and a new
manifestation of his inscrutable
unpredictability. Never mind
madonna learning from Bowie how
to submit to a full makeover when a
new single is scheduled; how about
an entire British generation of

rocknroll
with me #5
I realise now he
was saying goodbye
BRIAN ENO (producer: 1976-79; 1995)

davids death came as a complete surprise, as did

nearly everything else about him. I feel a huge gap now.
We knew each other for over 40 years, in a friendship that was
always tinged by echoes of Pete and dud. over the last few years
with him living in New york and me in london our connection
was by email. We signed off with invented names: some of his
were mr Showbiz, milton Keynes, rhoda Borrocks and The
duke of Ear.
about a year ago we started talking about Outside the last
album we worked on together. We both liked that album a lot and
felt that it had fallen through the cracks. We talked about revisiting
it, taking it somewhere new. I was looking forward to that.
I received an email from him seven days ago. It was as funny
as always, and as surreal, looping through word games and
allusions and all the usual stuff we did. It ended with this sentence:
Thank you for our good times, Brian. They will never rot. and it
was signed dawn. I realise now he was saying goodbye.

marCh 2016 | UNCUT |

mIChaEl oChS arChIVES/GETTy ImaGES

Siouxsie Sioux and Steve Severin,

began looking to Ziggy as a saviour
and a stimulus. Aladdin Sane, his
1973 follow-up, introduced new
characters and changed the setting
to america, crashing into the
album charts at No 1. a week later,
Bowie walked onstage at Earls
Court in a white kimono and kneelength boots to begin an eight-week
UK tour in front of 18,000 fans. It
was only a year since hed played
the 1,500-capacity Pavilion in
hemel hempstead. It was only 15
months since hed launched Ziggy
to the clientele of the Toby Jug, a
pub situated on the a3. he was now
within touching distance of
superstardom. Sections of the
Earls Court crowd, angry at being
unable to get a clear view of Bowie
on the low stage, caused a riot. a
photo would later surface of a
16-year-old Sid Vicious, standing
outside the venue sporting blue
denim and a feather cut. all human
life, or very nearly, was at a Bowie
concert in 1973.
as he dispensed with the Spiders
From mars and explored new styles
and methodologies on Diamond
Dogs (1974) and Young Americans
(1975), Bowie tested his fans mettle

33

David Bowie | 1947-2016

post-punks who took their cues
from synthesisers, dystopian
sci-fi, androgyny and the Berlin
Trilogy? From Joy Division to Gary
Numan, from Duran Duran to
Culture Club, Bowies influence on
the late 70s and early 80s was
inescapable and unquantifiable.
The Berlin Trilogy, which he
fondly alluded to in email he sent to
Brian Eno just after Christmas, was
the next logical step or at any rate
Bowie and Eno deemed it a logical
step after the lush soul balladry
of Young Americans and the
psychically frazzled cabbalistic
conceits of Station To Station. The

EBET ROBERTS/REDFERNS

latter project had been a hellish

ordeal for the cocaine-addicted
Bowie, who donned the chillingly
aristocratic mantle of the Thin
White Duke for the duration of the
ensuing world tour. He retained
only a vague impression of the
recording sessions that had
produced the album: even the
name of the studio had been wiped
from his memory. Fearing for his

xxxxxxx

DaviD wanteD
music that
was cutting
eDge, that maDe
people feel
uncomfortable
nile roDgers

With Nile Rodgers

at New Yorks
Savoy Hotel on
January 21, 1983

34 | UNCUT | MARCH 2016

rocknroll
with me #6
He whipped out
a picture of
Little Richard!
NILE RODGERS (producer/guitarist: 1982-1993)
sanity in 1976, Bowie, increasingly
linked with the politics of the far
right, decided to leave LA and kill
off the Thin White Duke before the
Thin White Duke killed him.
The two albums he put out in
1977, Low and Heroes, were
compulsive yet analytical studies
in displacement, foreignness,
boredom, inertia and gloom. Less
than 50 per cent of Low had had
lyrics written for it; a third of
Heroes, as did the second side of
Low, consisted of doom-laden
instrumentals. From Fame to this
in 18 months? Bowies momentum
of radical change was comparable
to The Beatles going from Long
Tall Sally to Tomorrow Never
Knows in two years. The twist he
applied to the Berlin Trilogy was
to use his regular New York soul
and funk musicians Carlos
Alomar, George Murray, Dennis
Davis and get them to play
along with the synthesisers and
drones. Certain tracks had a
bizarre danceability (A New
Career In A New Town, The
Secret Life Of Arabia) even as
others barricaded their doors
and refused to venture out of
their windowless rooms.
Bowie on drugs. Bowie mad.
Bowie clean from drugs.

I MET HIM at an after-hours club called The Continental in

1982. I walked in with Billy Idol and we spotted David at the
same moment. I went directly over to David and started chatting
with him because I knew that he lived in the same building as a lot of
the players on Young Americans, who were all friends that I grew up
with Luther Vandross, Carlos Alomar and his wife. We started
chatting about our favourite jazz artists. I grew up in an era where
fusion jazz had come into play, and also bebop jazz. David not only
liked that, but he also liked Stan Getz and the smoother side of jazz.
We had just one other subsequent meeting; that was it. Next
thing I know, he says: Hey, can you come over to Switzerland and
work on some songs? So I go in to the studio one day and he had
written out the basics of a song that wound up being Lets Dance.
But what hed written sounded like a folk song to me. I thought that
that was bizarre, as I thought he wanted to make a jazz album.
Then he came to my apartment. He had something behind his
back, and he says: Now darling, I want my LP to sound like this! He
whipped out a picture of Little Richard, in a red suit, getting into a
red Cadillac convertible. And he says, You see that? Thats rocknroll! He didnt want a record that went Doo doodoo doo doodoo,
good golly me! He wanted an evergreen LP thats R&B-based, cos in
those days rocknroll was called race music, Little Richards music
was race music, it was black
music. He wanted music that was
on the cutting edge, that made
people feel uncomfortable, but
compelled then to listen. All of that
stuff was in that photo, and I got it.
I had six flops in a row, so I
couldnt understand why David
told me, Nile, I want you do what
you do best. I want a hit. At that
point, I was like The Terminator:
I wouldnt stop until it was a hit.
Lets Dance was the fastest LP Id
done in my life. Seventeen days
from start to finish, mixed and all.
David called me a few years later and we cut a
song for the film Cool World [Real Cool World].
Then we did Black Tie White Noise. When we
started, it was called The Wedding Album, as he
was getting married to Iman. We wrote Black
Tie White Noise at the end. David explained to
me how he and Iman were flying over LA and
saw the riots and the city burning.
I used to call Davids office when Chic were
doing a show in the area, to see if David would
sing a couple of songs with us. A few years ago,
I received an award. I was asked who Id like to
present it, and I said David. He couldnt,
because Iman was getting an award that exact
same day in San Francisco. But he did a
fabulous film for me. It was so warm and
gentlemanly. That was David, all the time.
INTERVIEW: MICHAEL BONNER

David Bowie | 1947-2016

rocknroll
with me #7
We spent hours
taking turns
with a hacksaw

PETEr STIll/rEDFErNS

REEVES GABRELS (guitar/co-producer, 1988- 1999)

DaVID WaS 10 years older than me. I have no siblings, so he
was like an older brother. I met him through my ex-wife, who
did press for him for a few weeks, backstage on one of the first US
shows in 1987. We just started talking. I had gone to Parsons School
Of Design and School Of Visual arts. I never said anything about
playing music, and he just assumed I was a fine-arts painter. The
first time we hung out, we were in his trailer watching Fantasy Island,
and we started making up our own dialogue. my point is, we met as
humans. after six or seven months, my ex-wife gave David a tape. he
called me out of the blue and said, Why the fuck didnt you tell me?
One of the things I enjoyed most was making him laugh. he had a
very large chest cavity. you could
find him in a movie theatre hed
whisper and you could hear this
low rumble. I remember the funny
times, the practical jokes. When
we were working on Outside in
montreux, Eno would go into this
chemist every day to buy a box of
24 condoms, as there was a very
attractive woman behind the
counter and he wanted to see what
would happen. Every day, wed
hear about it. Eventually, David
got an actor friend of the studio
assistant to burst in and claim he
was the womans boyfriend. Brian
told this guy he was a keyboard
player and had to put condoms on
his fingers because he played so
hard they kept them from getting
Tin Machine, 1989:
bruised and bleeding.
Bowie (left), Reeves
Gabrels (far right)
another time, we were working
on backing vocals. We were trying
to come up with a particular sound. David looked at the water cooler
bottle and said, What if we cut the bottom out of one, put it over my
head and put a mic in the hole? So we spent what felt like two hours
taking turns with a hacksaw cutting the bottom out. It fit over his
head and shoulders, we put a mic through the top and he tried
singing backing. It sounded like shit! But I learned the clock wasnt
to be looked at in the studio and that what it took to get the song, or
the work for the day, to appear could mean sitting around smoking
cigarettes, drinking coffee, reading The Times. Did you ever notice
how capers are really funny-looking? This could go on until one of
us would pick up a guitar and David would go, hey! Do that again
That way of working, its almost like the old caf society. more often
than not, the studio felt like a lounge with a bunch of gear in it.
Wed email back and forth. The last heavy exchange was after he
had his bypass surgery. he swore me to secrecy about having chest
pains. This was in 98. Id tried to get him to go to the doctor. So we
had a bit of I told you so One of the emails he sent was, I dont get
to my computer much, but they let me have crayons here.
Its very easy to put David on this pedestal, to turn him into an
icon. But its important to remember what a regular guy, what a lad,
what a human, David could be. INTERVIEW: MICHAEL BONNER

36 | UNCUT | marCh 2016

On the Serious
Moonlight tour, at
Wembley Arena on
June 2, 1983

Bowie experimenting.
Fascinating to behold, Bowie in the
70s was a one-man genre, an artist
unafraid to forge new ground by
throwing away the maps and
smashing the compass to pieces.
But there were signs that his
emulators alarmed him: he had
Gary Numan, his robotic
soundalike, thrown out of the
building when he snuck into a
recording of The Kenny Everett
Video Show in 1979. Theres Old
Wave, theres New Wave and theres
David Bowie, the adverts for
Heroes had clarified, preemptively disentangling him from

in 1976, Bowie,
decided to leave
la and kill off the
thin white duke
Before the thin
white duke
killed him

any movement that would co-opt

him. But Numan had a hotline to a
growing audience hungry for the
new sounds of synth-pop. It would
be are Friends Electric?, not
Boys Keep Swinging, that spent
four weeks at No 1 in the summer.
The following year of 1980, in
what might be seen as a display of
self-affirmation, Bowie led a
quartet of scenesters from Covent
Gardens Blitz club in a slow
march along an eerie-looking
Sussex beach, an enormous
bulldozer following ominously
behind them. The ashes To ashes
video cost an unprecedented
250,000 soon all pop stars
would insist on spending that
amount and it propelled the
quirky, magical, self-referencing
song to the top of the charts in
august. a point had been proved.
There were Old romantics, there
were New romantics and there was
David Bowie.

mmEDIaTEly alErT TO the

potential of mTV, Bowie was
festooned with platinum discs
for Lets Dance in 1983 and mingled
with the stadium-rock set. he later
suggested that hed made a
misguided attempt to chase after
Phil Collins audience when he
ought really to have stuck with his
own. Tonight (1984) and Never Let
Me Down (1987) were terribly
ordinary, even to a Collins fan, and
were unfavourably received by the
critics, a surprising turn of events
for a now 40-year-old Bowie
unaccustomed to laying himself
open to rebuke. Several times that
decade, small but nadiresque
occurrences threatened to
extinguish in a moment the

eyewitness

Dont you
EVER say
that to me!

OU rEEDS jUST played a famously

cantankerous show at the hammersmith
Odeon, half the audience walking out when
he announces hes not going to play heroin,
which he does as soon as theyre off the premises,
the set ending with a 45-minute version of you
Keep me hangin On, sung by his bass player and
played at excruciating volume.
my ears are still ringing on the way out, when I
get word that lou wants to see me backstage for a
drink. When I get there, lous already split with
Bowie, for dinner at the Chelsea rendezvous in
South Kensington. lous left an invitation for me
to join them there. Dinner with lou and The Thin
White Duke? Im off to South Ken like a shot.
This is what I find at the rendezvous: lou and
David in a huddle at the head of their table. lous
got his arm around Davids shoulder. David is
smiling. lous laughing, slapping the table. Im
called over by lou. Bowie looks up at me.
allan, he says, extending a hand.
David, I say, taking it.
Nice to see you, says David. how are you?
his charm is overwhelming.
allaN! roars lou.
lou, I reply, less raucously. lou grabs my
hand, nearly breaking my finger. he yanks me
across the table. I almost end up in Bowies lap.
I have an elbow in the remains of lous dinner.
Do you know allan? lou asks Bowie.
We meet occasionally, he tells lou.
Did you see the show tonight? lou asks me.
I tell him Im still recovering, which makes him
laugh. Good, he says. What did you think?
I felt like I was being given a pistol-whipping.
you probably deserved it, lou snaps.
I decide to leave them to their supper.
yeah, says lou. Go.
I go. lou turns back to David. They get their
heads down, the old pals act well under way. lou
gets up and waddles down the restaurant to talk
to some people at a nearby table. he grabs a chair
for Bowie, whos followed him. Theres a great
deal of mutual backslapping, good times
remembered. lou orders Irish coffee. lou and
David raise their glasses in a toast. To friends.
Its a touching scene. They resume their original
places, resume their conversation. Five minutes
on, the place is in uproar. Bowies said something
to lou. lou isnt amused. he fetches David a
smart crack about the head. Fists are flying. most

of them are lous and

theyre being aimed at
Bowie. David ducks,
tries to protect himself.
lou is on his feet, screaming furiously at Bowie,
still lashing out. Dont you EVEr say that to me!
he bellows hysterically. Dont you EVEr fucken
say that to me! about nine people pile on lou,
wrestle him away from Bowie. Theres an arm
around his throat. he continues to spit insults at
Bowie, who sits at the table staring impassively,
clearly hoping lou will go away, fuck off and calm
down. lou shrugs off his minders (or are they
Bowies?). Theres a terrible silence. People are
watching, open-mouthed. lou sits down next to
Bowie. They embrace. Theres a huge sigh of relief.

the next thing i know,

lou is dragging Bowie
across the taBle By
his shirt and smacking
him in the face...
lou and David kiss and make up. meals are
resumed, more wine is brought. It looks as if the
tiff has blown over. The next thing I know, lou is
dragging Bowie across the table by his shirt and
smacking him in the face. The place explodes in
chaos again. Whatever David had said to
precipitate the first frank exchange of conflicting
opinions, hes obviously rather foolishly
repeated. I told you NEVEr to say that, lou
screeches, batting David about the top of his
head. David cowers. lou gets in a few more solid
punches before hes hauled off the whimpering
Bowie. lou struggles with minders, tries again to
launch himself at Bowie.
The silence that follows is ghastly. lous party
decide its time to leave. lou is escorted out by an
especially burly minder, who frogmarches him to
the exit, a restraining arm around his shoulders.
lous face is set in a demented scowl. he doesnt
look back. Bowies left at the head of the table,

which is covered in debris. hes sitting with his

head in his hands and appears to be sobbing.
I wander over. Bowie asks me to join him.
There isnt a chair, I tell him.
Then sit on the table, he replies, a little testily.
I sit on the table, tell him Im sorry his reunion
with lou seems to have ended so disastrously.
I couldnt quite hear what was going on lou
seemed very upset
yes, says Bowie, wearily, close to tears.
It was nothing. Its all over, says Bowies
female companion, looking at me suspiciously
It isnt, says Bowie, eyes glaring.
are you a reporter? someone asks.
I admit I am and Im told to leave.
Davids just invited me to sit down, I protest.
I was just wondering what happened.
This does it. Bowie leaps to his feet. FUCK
OFF! he shouts. he means me. If you want to
know what happened, youll have to ask fucking
lou. he knows what fucking happened.
But hes gone, I tell Bowie.
Bowie, angry now and showing it, turns on
me, grabs me by the lapels and starts shaking
me. I think for a moment of headbutting him,
but dont.
just FUCK OFF! Bowie swears, shoving me
back. youre a journalist go and fucking find
him. ask him what happened. I dont know.
he pushes me again, turns away, knocking over
a chair. Im grabbed from behind and dragged
back to my table. Bowie sits down. Then he stands
up. he starts throwing the furniture around.
ahhhh, FUCK! he declares.
he pushes his way through the restaurant,
kicking chairs out of his way. he begins to climb
the stairs to the street. most of the steps on the
staircase are decorated with potted plants. Bowie
smashes most of them on his way out. he kicks a
few, up-ends the others.
Theres a terrible mess. The remaining guests
are speechless at this further outburst. The
waiters look on, astonished. We share their
amazement, my companion and I.
I think youve just upset The Thin White
Duke, she says.
I think perhaps I have, I reply.
marCh 2016 | UNCUT |

37

rOBErT rOSEN/rEX/ShUTTErSTOCK; mIChaEl OChS arChIVES/GETTy ImaGES

April 1979: allan Jones is sucked into a nasty tiff

Between david Bowie and lou reed

David Bowie | 1947-2016

eyewitness
It may
all be
flotsam
and
jetsam...

Bowie in 1999:
I suspect that
dreams are an
integral part of
our existence

For Uncuts October

1999 issue, Chris Roberts
travelled to New York
to interview Bowie
around the Hours...
album. In this apt extract
from the interview,
Bowie muses on his
own legacy. Im not
so sure what I consider
to be achievement any
more, he told us.

LOUISE wILSON/GETTY ImaGES

OwIE DOESNT ThINk

hell ever write an
autobiography. Doesnt
feel the compulsion, and
dislikes most books about
him. will people remember
you in 20, 30 years time? By
which I mean: will they
remember rock stars, pop
music? I dont think people
take much time to look back
these days, comes his answer,
which might be poignant
were it not for his unflinching
modernism. They dont look
back anywhere near as much as
we used to, as I used to. history
has receded into the distance, and so has the future.
There is a present sensibility now. The past, the idea
of history, has lost a lot of currency. It doesnt carry
the weight it had for my generation. So Im not sure
whether last weeks papers will mean a light
Isnt that sad in a way? for peoples forgotten
achievements? Say, yours? (They can bury it under
dust, he once told me of his oeuvre, smiling
contentedly.) See, thats the thing, he reiterates
now. Im not so sure what I consider to be
achievement any more. Your personal day-to-day
existence is the achievement, I think. Im kind of
getting into all that corny stuff, yknow?
I dont know what the real worth is of
achievement in terms of world opinion. Its a
conjecture, its, again, a consensus of opinion of a
large amount of people. which has no real worth at
all. It may all be flotsam and jetsam.
One recalls a younger, less at-peace-with-his-life
Bowie, who was reported, during a 1976 drunken
Berlin row with coco [Schwab; his long-term
personal assistant], to have yelled, before
storming off in tears: fuck you! I changed the
world! kiss my arse!

38 | UNcUT | march 2016

ah, full of contradictions that

man. Because they recur on the
new album, and because theyre
what he does for a living, and
because if you let them loose
theyre hard to swallow, he talks
about dreams.
Being imbued with a vividly
active imagination, still, I have
brilliantly Technicolor dreams.
Theyre very, very strong. The
what if? approach to life has always been such a
part of my personal mythology, and its always
been easy for me to fantasise a parallel existence
with whatevers going on. I suspect that dreams are
an integral part of existence, with far more use for
us than weve made of them, really. Im quite
Jungian about that. The dream state is a strong,
active, potent force in our lives.
The fine line between the dream state and reality
is at times, for me, quite grey. combining the two,
the place where the two worlds come together,
has been important in some of the things Ive
written, yes.
That other life, that doppelgnger life, is actually
a dark thing for me. I dont find a sense of freedom
in dreams; theyre not an escape mechanism. In
there, Im usually, Oh, I gotta get outta this place!
The darker place. So thats why I much, much prefer
to stay awake.
with that, the man who changed the world,
formulated escape and blew scales from the eyes
and ears of more than one generation goes off, with
a devilish grin, to do a thousand things and more.
I like reality a lot! he says. Im hungry for it.

mystique that had taken

years to create. Jazzin For Blue
Jean (1984), a 20-minute film
directed by Julien Temple, had a
scene of heart-sinking slapstick in
which Bowie slid down a ladder
like robin askwith in Confessions
Of A Window Cleaner. from
Lodger to this? couldnt we
reverse the clocks?
worse criticism was to come
when Tin machine, a rather
uncharismatic hard-rock fourpiece, inspired widespread scorn.
Elements of the media now giggled
openly at Bowie, wanting to know if
he planned to play The Laughing
Gnome, an embarrassing comedy
song from his distant past, on his
upcoming 1990 Sound + Vision
Tour. and then a puzzling episode
happened in april 1992 when
Bowie, appearing at the freddie
mercury Tribute concert at
wembley, dropped to his knees and
recited the Lords Prayer in front of
72,000 people. an unimpressed
Brian may, who hadnt been
warned of Bowies intentions,
was left wondering what the hell he
was playing at. he wasnt the only
one. Theres an aspect of my
personality, Bowie was later heard
to say, which continually asks my
audience: how long will you
tolerate this? at least he could be
sure that Gary Numan, Boy George,
Steve Strange and the Blitz kids
wouldnt emulate him this time.
happily, Bowies artistic
renaissance lay just around the
corner. It was there in vivid
glimpses on his 1993 album Black
Tie White Noise, and it began in
earnest with the release, later that
same year, of The Buddha Of
Suburbia, a companion album to a
BBc2 dramatisation of the hanif
kureishi novel. rediscovering his
old touch, an intrepid Bowie

Live at the Isle Of

Wight Festival,
June 13, 2004

At the Magic
Shop, 2013

was time for the 57-year-old Bowie

to be serious about his health.
There were rumours of heart
attacks. he never toured again.

f BOwIE waS Lazarus at given

points during his life, as one or
two have intimated, the most
improbable of his resurrections
took place on January 8, 2013, when
his official website suddenly
announced a new album, The Next
Day, years after the world had got
used to the idea of his retirement. In
a new era of smartphones and celeb

Playing the wild

mutation
David Bowies greatest albums,
as voted for in our Top 200 chart

f any statistical evidence of the sheer

quality of David Bowies work is needed, then
our 200 Greatest albums poll in the last issue of
Uncut [Take 225, February 2016] should provide it.
not only did Hunky Dory and The Rise And Fall Of
Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars reach
no 11 and 12, respectively, in the final list, but in
total seven of Bowies albums were voted into the
top 200. thats more albums in the top 200 than
for any other artist.
a testament to the sheer number of peaks in his
work, though, is the fact that six of the 11 Bowie
albums that our contributors and staff voted for
received over 100 points each, more than any

spottings, his ability to disappear

on the New York pavements (and
keep secret a two-year recording
process) almost defied belief. But
again, there were rumours. an
advance single, where are we
Now?, raised plenty of questions
when it reminisced about
Potsdamer Platz and old haunts.
Bowie gave no interviews. his
mystique, once unimpeachable,
was now impermeable. It was
noticed for all we had to
examine was his face in the
video that he looked a lot older
than we remembered.
Publicly, Bowie never regretted
the Lords Prayer at wembley. It
was a sincere gesture, he told

other solo artist (Dylan, by comparison, only had

five 100-point albums in the full list).
Our results also support the argument that the
Brixton boy is the most important artist in rock
from the 70s onwards. if you collate the votes for
each artist, regardless of individual albums, Bowie
is third behind the Beatles and Bob Dylan a pair
who, according to our chart (and obviously in
regard to the fabs lifespan), recorded their
greatest work in the 60s (with the sole exception
being 1975s Blood On The Tracks). Unsurprisingly,
10 of the 11 Bowie lPs voted for in the longlist are
from his 70s peak though the exception, Scary
Monsters, is often lumped in with his imperial long
70s period. interestingly, none of our contributors
voted for 1983s Lets Dance, which still remains
Bowies highest-selling album around the world.
a final fascinating, if slightly academic point
with all of Hunky Dory and much of Ziggy recorded
in 1971, what would have happened if Bowie had
condensed the best of those sessions into one
record, perhaps even a double album? if you were
to add the votes for both albums together, the
resulting behemoth would displace the Beach
Boys Pet Sounds at no 1 in our chart. TOM PINNOCK

anyone who asked, not a cynical

one, and he did it for a friend who
was dying of aIDS and in a coma.
he may also have done it for mick
ronson. Sharing a stage that
evening with the Spiders from
mars guitarist for the first time in
many years, Bowie could see that
ronsons pancreatic cancer
which had been diagnosed by his
doctors as inoperable was taking
a ruinous toll. ronson, whod
played the platinum-haired foil to
Bowies louche, limp-wristed
master of ceremonies in the lifechanging Starman performance
on Top Of The Pops, made no
further live appearances after
that freddie mercury tribute at

THAT TOP 11 IN FULL

1 Hunky Dory
2 The Rise And Fall Of
Ziggy Stardust And The
Spiders From Mars
3 Low
4 Station To Station
5 Diamond Dogs
6 Heroes
7 The Man Who Sold The
World
8 Young Americans
9 Aladdin Sane
10 Pin Ups
11 Scary Monsters

march 2016 | UNcUT |

JImmY kING

employed risk, chance and other

experimental working methods as
if the 80s had been a dream. a
sadly overlooked album in his
catalogue, The Buddha Of Suburbia
was reminiscent in places of the
sombre landscapes and ghostly
atmospheres of Low and Heroes.
There was no misreading the
implications. The Bowie of the
Berlin period had not expired
as feared.
Later in the 90s, appearing
fully re-engaged and keen to
make up for lost time, Bowie
collaborated with Eno (Outside,
1995) on their first project since
Lodger; immersed himself in
drumnbass and industrial
music (Earthling, 1997); and saw
out the millennium with some
introspective lyrics and luminous
ballads (Hours..., 1999). Glowing
reviews greeted the elegant,
galvanised Heathen (2002), which
reunited Bowie with Tony Visconti
after a 22-year break. They worked
together again on Reality (2003),
but the world tour that began in
copenhagen in October Bowies
aim being to play to more than a
million people over a 10-month
period would end prematurely.
already unsettled by an incident in
Oslo when he was struck in the eye
by a lollipop thrown from the
audience, Bowie abandoned the
tour in June 2004 after a gig in
Scheeel, Germany. he had
suffered chest pains and the
diagnosis was a grave one: an
acutely blocked coronary artery. It

39

David Bowie | 1947-2016

Wembley. He died in 1993 at the age of 46.
In rock music, especially in the
performance arena, there is no room for
prayer, Bowie once commented. But I think
that so many of the songs people write are
prayers. A lot of my songs seem to be prayers
for unity within myself. On a personal level, I
have an undying belief in Gods existence. for
me it is unquestionable.
If the video he made for Lazarus is any
indication, Bowie on his deathbed would
have reached up with both hands to feel
heavens embrace. His furious writing at that
desk paid off; Blackstar was and is a brave
work and a sublime epitaph. In a wry piece of
social media post-modernism meant to be
pored over after his demise, the last person
Bowie followed on Twitter was God. (God
followed him back.) And so up he went. Give
me your hands. The final curtain. You were
wonderful. He has become, with cruel
symmetry, the third man in the starman
clip to die of cancer the spiders from Mars
bassist Trevor Bolder succumbed to it in 2013
but hes the first, and will remain the only, to

JAN VersWeYVeLD

on a personal
level, i have an
undying belief in
gods exisTence.
for me iT is
unquesTionable
generate more than 3.5 million tweets in 12
hours as faltering, grieving fans wished him
goodnight and God speed in 80 languages.
Im going to be huge, he drawled in 1972. He
didnt know the half of it.
Down here among the damned, meanwhile,
we have to get used to not having him around
again. Bowies anthems for the alienated, as
someone alliteratively called them the other
day, have played all day and all night at
shrines in London and Berlin, in bedroom
shrines, in private. The memories and
confessions will always pour out. There was a
unity in the prayer of his songs. He made it all
right to be an outsider, they say, but look
around. Look at the millions of outsiders. No
wonder Bowie found it easy to disappear on
the pavements of Manhattan. All those
Bowies, just like him.
It feels kind of garish to talk about oneself
at a time like this, the singer-songwriter
Lorde wrote on her facebook page, when the
thing that has happened is so distinctly worldsized. But everything Ive read or seen since
the news has been deeply intrinsic in tone,
almost selfish, like therapy. At 19, Lorde
may be the right age to talk about Bowies
ContinueS on pAge 42

40 | UNCUT | MArCH 2016

Ive got nothing

left to lose...
The final acT of Thomas newTon
Lazarus reviewed in new York

Michael C Hall and

Sophia Anne Caruso
in Lazarus

HeN We fIrsT see Thomas

Newton, the space-alienturned-scientist-billionairerecluse whos the protagonist
of Lazarus, hes flat on his
back. An open refrigerator to his right is stocked
with half-full bottles of gin and not much else.
Theres a turntable at the front of the stage, behind
which are stacked three LPs: Scary Monsters,
Aladdin Sane and Young Americans. They
function as both a clever nod to the plays author,
as well as subtle clues to the
plays central themes of
madness, violence and
vanished youth. And while a
huge TV screen behind Newton,
portrayed with manic fervor
by Michael C Hall, soon snaps
him to life, mentally and
emotionally Newton spends the
plays two hours just as we first
found him: completely levelled.
Its an opening that feels even
darker now after the passing of
its author, David Bowie.
Loosely based on both Walter
Tevis 1963 novel The Man Who
Fell To Earth as well as the 1976
film of the same name, in which
Bowie starred, Lazarus more or
less picks up where those works

ended, with Newton abandoned by girlfriend

Mary-Lou, hopelessly stranded on earth and
drinking himself daily into a deranged stupor.
Hes cared for by his housekeeper elly, who
develops an obsessive crush on him, much to the
dismay of her husband, and is visited by a young
girl named Marley who appears to be either a
guardian angel, a manifestation of Newtons
tortured psyche, or combination of both.
Hes also tormented by a malevolent character
named Valentine, who leaves a trail of bloody
corpses in his wake. The play
shuns linear narrative in favour
of a sort of Lynchian stream-ofconsciousness. The characters
arent characters so much as
they are manifestations of
emotions and ideas, and its
difficult to tell how much of
Lazarus is happening in the
real world and how much in
Newtons gin-addled brain.
reworked Bowie songs appear
throughout the play, along with
four new ones, all of them
deepening its themes of death,
regret, isolation and the quest
for immortality. The results
dont quite hang together: How I
Met Your Mothers Cristin
Milioti, who portrays elly, isnt

iTs hard noT To

read newTons
longing for
release from
his painful
world as parT
of bowies
farewell noTe

given much to do other than appear in increasing

big, dramatic belter better suited to
states of both bug-eyed madness and undress,
a high school musical.
and though Hall veers convincingly from despair
shes much more effective on Life
to panic, the plays determined surrealism make
On Mars; presented in a version
his performance feel oddly anchorless. Now,
thats almost a note-for-note
though, its hard not to read Newtons longing for
replication of the LP version, her
release from his painful world as part of Bowies
voice soars upward to cradle the
farewell note, a man looking back at his
songs high notes, and the result is
accomplishments before staring into the darkness
deeply moving. The guitars are
in search of rest and a way back home.
stripped from The Man Who sold
As in life, what remains in the end is the music,
The World and replaced with a
and for the most part, its stark and well-executed.
racing rhythm track and misty
Opener Lazarus comes on like a typhoon, full of
layers of synth, recalling one of the
wheezing baritone sax and violent, flayed guitar.
more subdued songs from Outside.
It lurches forward solemnly, part zombie trance,
All The Young Dudes, delivered
part death march, drums thudding, organ
during a wedding celebration, is
twinkling. Look up here man, Im in
boisterous and booming, and Absolute
Beginners gentle and spritely, its
danger, sings Hall, in a dead-on
songs
arrangement relying on twinkling
impersonation of Bowie. Ive got
performed
keys and soft pinpricks of guitar. By
nothing left to lose. Like most of the
Lazarus
contrast, Always Crashing In The
new songs in Lazarus, the vocal
When i Met you
same Car, sung by Milioti, pounds
seems to operate in complete
Killing A Little time
angrily, becoming a song of internal
independence of the music long,
its no game (part 1)
frustration rather than blank
languid notes stretched out over
this is not America
anxiety. The generous helping of
jagged, acute instrumentation.
the Man Who Sold
songs from The Next Day suits the
When I Met You is sharper and
the World
more driving, sounding like an
shows mood perfectly. Love Is
Love is Lost
upbeat outtake from Station To
Lost sounds nastier and more
Changes
serrated than it does on record,
Station. Positing love as salvation,
Where Are We now?
guitars clawing their way up the
the song is powered by slashing
no plan
centre and drums walloping away
guitars and thundering percussion.
Absolute Beginners
frantically around them. Dirty
It swings between two poles: on the
Dirty Boys
Boys, with its bleary sax and iceverses, the guitars are tense and
Life on Mars?
cold vocal melody is queasy and
knotty, tightening like barbed wire
All the young Dudes
unnerving; and Valentines Day,
around a pleading vocal melody; but
Sound And Vision
delivered by Valentine, covered in
it all relaxes in the chorus, opening
Always Crashing
blood after a giddy killing spree, has
up to a steadily gliding vocal melody
in the Same Car
new layers of dread less a love
befitting the songs hopeful theme.
Valentines Day
song, more a threat. Milioti turns
Killing A Little Time is gnarled
Heroes
Changes into a slice of swinging,
and furious, the vocal spiralling like
smoky, supper-club jazz, and a
an out-of-control plane, saxophones
show-closing take on Heroes, turned into the
blasting out-of-tune, drums spastic, furious and
piano ballad and sung by Hall and Caruso,
arrhythmic. Ive got a handful of songs to sing/to
is soft and tender, uncovering new layers of
sting your soul, to fuck you over, sings Hall, as the
vulnerability. The play arrives at a resolution that
bass groans ominously behind him. The line cuts
now feels both deeply sad and strangely uplifting.
even deeper now, its wild rhythm feeling like the
After a brilliant, soaring life, followed by years in
ticking of the clock. The music rattles and quakes,
exile, Newton finally finds his peace. He ends the
but the vocal piloting its way wildly through the
play as he began, on his back. But this time, hes
centre. Less successful is No Plan, sung by
smiling, content, and free.
Marley. Delivered against wind-chime keyboards
J EDWARD KEYES
and disconcertingly sonorous sax, the song is a

Michael C Hall
and Cristin Milioti

Caruso and the

shows band,
with Henry
Hey on keys

rocknroll
with me #8

His beautiful and

warm humanity
sets the bar for how
anyone should
live their life
Henry Hey (pianist on
The Next Day; musical
director of Lazarus)
We HAD A lot of dialogue, talking
about how the songs should fit in
their place within Lazarus and how they
should feel. There were several meetings
where David and I would sit at my
apartment and go over the intention of
what the song arrangements would
become. He was always very articulate
about the concept, but very open to new
ideas. As we went forward and I was
developing arrangements, Id send
demos to him and we would talk about
them some more. It was always an open
discussion and an enjoyable process.
He was always excited for new territory
thrilled with exploration, even in songs
that were well-worn paths for him.
David was quite hands-on about the
show. He saw and approved every actor
and band member who was presented to
him. He cared a lot and it showed. He and
I talked about the rehearsal process and
we elected to have a week with just the
band so we could get the music right.
I believe it made a substantial difference.
everyone knows David was a visionary
artist. His art transcended genre and
medium, and so in working with him on
Lazarus I had the rare fortune to witness
a lot of these incredible cross concepts.
However, perhaps the most impressive
thing about David was that in spite of
international fame and iconic stature,
he was the most humble and gentle
human. His beautiful and warm
humanity sets the bar for how anyone
should live their life.

MArCH 2016 | UNCUT |

41

David Bowie | 1947-2016

jimmy kiNG

importance in the interior

monologues of a fan. Thats who
he was to all of us. and hes bound
to leave a big hole in the universe.
everybodys universe.
Biographers of Bowie have
stressed his reliance on artifice and
detachment. he misdirects and
dissembles. Dont take him at his
word. as with his fiercely guarded
privacy, some of his songs came
with padlocks attached. even
heroes, in which a boy and a girl
kiss, had its title placed between
inverted commas to cloud its
original motives. Because i have
been an elliptical writer, Bowie
said in 1994, i think people have
quite rightly gotten used to
interpreting the lyrics in their own
way. i am only the person the
greatest number of people believe
that i am.
after providing the consummate
soundtrack to millions of lives,
Bowie is not going to be allowed
to get away with a sleight-of-hand
exit like that. First you see him,
now you dont? No, he was too
sympathetic to leave so slyly. Too

With Donny McCaslin,

2015: He was living
life to the fullest

affectionate, too ever-present in

the conversations we have with
ourselves. Whatever layers Bowie
needed to hide behind, and
however his agile brain may have
rationalised lifes discourse, his
legacy is not some intellectual
treatise. The outpouring of emotion
tells the real story. No postmodernism or detachment in the
sing-songs at the Bowie mural in
Brixton. No glacial stares or hollow
cheekbones. Though the Thin
White Duke would sneer at Hunky
Dory, you cant help thinking of
Bowie in 1971 with his tiny son on
his shoulders. soon youll grow.
That applies to both of them. and
then, as lorde says,
we apply it to us.
We are all Bowies
children, read a
statement from the
Pet shop Boys, not
being arch for once,
and when they
put it like that,
he really was a wise
and exhilarating
parent.

rocknroll
with me #9
It was like hed
teleported in
DONNY McCASLIN (band leader, 2015)
The lasT Time we spoke, i was about to hook up with David
to listen to Blackstar for the first time. it was a wonderful day,
and i was walking across Washington square Park, heading over to
his office not far from there. i got there and talked to him on the
phone, and he said he was on his way, so his assistant put on the lP
and i just sat back and listened, and oh God, it was so amazing to
hear it. a part of that was a testament to David
and Tony Visconti and the way they worked to
comb through all the details. how theyd put
everything together was really special.
i was trying to take all that in, eyes closed,
thinking, This is great, and then i opened
my eyes and theres David Bowie in the
room with a big smile on his face, like hed
teleported in while i was, yknow, having
some tears or whatever. something that was
so exciting for me was seeing the joy in his
face when he was pleased with a take. That
must have been the last time i
saw him. he was so vibrant and
engaged from the moment he
walked in the door, through the
whole process, for all the time he
put in. Thats something ill take
with me for the rest of my life. it
sounds like a clich, but he was
living life to the fullest, right?
Recording with us during the
day, then going to henry heys
place and working on Lazarus,
then at night combing through
what wed cut that day or writing
new music. he trusted us, and it
meant the world to me. Gracious
is the word i come back to a lot
when i try to describe him and
very generous. in the studio, and
outside, too. i havent been
able to put Blackstar on since
David passed away. im just
about ready
INTERVIEW: MICHAEL BONNER

YOU CANT
GET ENOUGH

Maker. Its in the shops now, but

you can also order direct from us,
at www.uncut.co.uk/store.
While youre there, weve
plenty more Bowie stories for
your delectation, including a
S YOu MIgHT expect, the
Bowie frenzy doesnt need to mammoth countdown of his 30
end here. If you didnt manage to greatest songs, the complete
pick up our Ultimate Music Guide 1999 interview that we teased
to Bowie last summer, weve
on page 38, and Donny
made it available again; 148
McCaslins in-depth story of
heavy-duty pages that feature
the making of Blackstar. Please
reviews of every album (up to
get in touch, too, with your
The Next Day), plus a glut of
memories of the great man;
revelatory features lifted from
the address, as ever, is
the archives of NME and Melody [email protected]

42 | UNcUT | maRch 2016

He always did what he

wanted to do. And he wanted
to do it his way and he wanted to
do it the best way. His death was no
different from his life a work of
Art. He made Blackstar for us, his
parting gift. I knew for a year this
was the way it would be. I wasnt,
however, prepared for it. He was
an extraordinary man, full of love
and life. He will always be with us.
For now, it is appropriate to cry.
TONY VISCONTI (friend and collaborator)

maRch 2016 | UNcUT |

43

album by album

Mavis
Staples
The soul singer reflects on her 65-year
career: Hey, Im just getting started!
T THe AGe of 76, and after 65 years of
performing, Mavis staples can hardly believe
that she may only just be reaching her peak.
Things have been happening for me lately, she
says, that make me feel like being born all over
again. i mean, at this time i should be thinking
about retiring, but im thinking, Hey, im just getting started.
After success with her family gospel and soul group, The staple
singers, led by her father Roebuck Pops staples, and decades of
strong solo work, Mavis staples now feels revitalised by her new
record, the M Ward-produced Livin On A High Note including
new songs by Nick Cave and Justin vernon and a forthcoming
documentary about her life, Mavis!.
i tell you, its a beautiful feeling. so my father is very proud right
now. And i know hes probably telling all the angels, yep, my
daughter Mavis, shes still at it. Tom Pinnock

THe sTaple sIngers

UncloUDy Day

the

Family affair: Mavi s (left)

started out with her fathers
gospel and soul group
The Staple Singers

classic

Following their early

church performances,
The Staple Singers were
picked up by Vee-Jay to
record a set of singles,
soon compiled on this,
their debut LP.
When we first started
singing on our living room floor back in 1949,
1950, we werent doing it for a career, we were
singing to amuse ourselves. Wed done all of our
homework and had nothing to do, so my father
picked up his guitar and said, Were gonna sing.
And he started giving us things to sing that he and
his sisters and brothers would sing when they
were in Mississippi. And that was The staple
singers. One night my aunt Katie came through
and said, shucks, you guys sound pretty good.
i believe i want yall to sing at our church. And
when we sang in her church, that was it people
liked us so much that they kept clapping us back.
And Pops said, shucks, these people like us,
well have to go and learn some more songs. And
the rest is history. When we moved to the studio,
it was fine. in church you were singing to a
congregation, and you could get this spiritual feel
from just being there. But what you do in the
studio is you take your heart in there with you.
you have to be very sincere. When we first started,
man, we would always be on the same mic in the
studio. We wouldnt do a whole album, wed sing
four songs, then The spaniels would sing four,
then Maceo Woods would do four. And those 12
songs would make the album. Then when we did
our first whole albums, Uncloudy Day and Will
The Circle Be Unbroken, we sang all the songs!

44 | UNCUT | MARCH 2016

THe sTaple sIngers

FreeDoM HIgHway
epiC, 1965

The Staples engage thrillingly with the

Civil Rights movement on this live album,
recorded at Chicagos New Nazareth Church.
This was a live album, recorded in church. The
title song refers to the [Civil Rights] march from
selma, Alabama to Montgomery, Alabama.
And that was when they wouldnt let us cross
the bridge into Montgomery. That is all shown
now in that movie, [2014s] Selma. Pops wrote
the lines march of freedoms highway Ive
made up my mind and I wont turn around, and
he started putting those verses in there. i still
sing Freedom Highway today, because its
still relevant. sometimes i think im back in the

1960s, with what is going on today. so i

keep freedom songs in my show, because
they are still relevant Freedom
Highway, Why Am i Treated so Bad
People used to tell us, youre very
political, and wed say, Thats our way of
getting it across, through a song. Pops
would say, if you write for the staples, then
you gotta read the headlines, cos we wanna
sing about whats going on in the world.
And maybe we can sing a song to try and fix
it. That was just our way of letting the world
know that we, as black people, we got
somebody on our side, too, and you could
hear it in a song. Why Am i Treated so Bad
Pops wrote that for the little Rock Nine.
There were nine black children trying to go
to a school in little Rock, Arkansas, and they
would not let these children board the bus.
every day they would walk with their books
and their heads held high into a mob of white
people throwing rocks at them, spitting at
them and calling them names. it went on for so
long that the governor of little Rock, the mayor
of little Rock and the President Of The United
states said, let those children board that bus.
let them go to school. And we were waiting
around the television to see the kids board the
bus. When they got ready to go to the bus, a
policeman was standing there and he put his
club across the door, wouldnt let them board.
And Pops said, Why are they treating them so
bad?, and he wrote that song that night. it
turned out to be Dr Kings favourite. We would
sing before Dr King would speak, and he would
always wanna hear that song.

MiCHAel OCHs ARCHives/GeTTy iMAGes

Vee-Jay, 1959

MavIs sTaples
MavIs sTaples

THe sTaple sIngers

leTs Do IT agaIn

MavIs sTaples
THe voIce

Stax/Volt, 1969

Curtom, 1975

paiSley park, 1993

Stepping away
from The Staple
Singers briefly,
Mavis heads to
Muscle Shoals to
record her solo
debut, a set of
secular covers.
Making a record on my own was just
something that i wanted to do. it felt strange
[working without The Staple Singers], but i
knew that i wasnt going anywhere. i knew i
wasnt leaving my family. By this time i had
gotten to be a young woman, i had been
married and divorced, and i wanted to sing
about it. i sang songs like [Bacharach and
Davids] A House is Not A Home you
know, you wanna sing about whats
happening in your life. But i was very nervous
about singing those secular songs, because
the church people were very quick to jump on
you about that. For me, it was amazing i
mean, the gospel radio stations played my
songs, theyd play A House is Not A Home
on the gospel show. so i was really being
blessed! if you hear me sing a secular song,
youre gonna hear some gospel in my
voice, i cant let it go. Working with steve
Cropper and Al Bell was amazing. Those
were really good times steve Cropper
was just the best. i was crazy about steve,
and we see each other from time to time
today. it was steve Cropper who produced
our first stax albums [1968s Soul Folk In
Action and 1969s Well Get Over], and
then Al Bell took over.

The family team up

with Curtis Mayfield
to soundtrack Sidney
Poitiers 1975 boxing
drama, scoring a
No 1 album on the
US pop charts.
We were really
blessed to have worked with some amazing
people over the years. Curtis Mayfield, he
was just unbelievable. Curtis wrote lets Do
it Again for us. in the studio, Curtis said,
Pops, this is your part and it was [sings]
I like you lady/So fine with your pretty hair.
And Pops said, Curtis, man, im not gonna
sing that, im a church man. And Curtis said,
Oh, Pops, the lord wont mind Me and
my sisters wanted to hear our voices on the
big screen, so we kept at him and said,
Daddy, its just a movie score, youre not
leaving the church And we finally got him
to do it. i was glad we did, because Lets Do It
Again, that record went platinum. Curtis was
a funny producer. We miss Curtis. i sang on
his last album [1997s New World Order]
he calls me and says, Mavis, i have a song
thats got your name written all over it.
i said, What is it, Curtis? And he said, its
gonna be on my next album, its called Ms
Martha. so i went on down to Atlanta and i
put down Ms Martha. in the studio, Pops
just let it flow, he wouldnt try and take over
anything. The only time he would take over is
if he heard one of our voices going the wrong
way. He would fix that, but otherwise he
would leave it to the producers.

Hooking up with
Prince, who wrote and
produced The Voice,
Staples returns to
form after a quiet
decade even if the
triumph is bittersweet.
Prince wrote those
songs especially for me and at that time i felt
that that was the best i had ever heard myself
sing, and the best songs that id ever heard
myself sing. But Prince had been having a
fight with Warner Bros and when the record
came out, Warner Bros wouldnt let it be
played, because Prince was trying to get off
their label. it hurt so bad. it was played in
europe, as Prince sold half of it to a company
in europe. People over here [in the US] never
heard The Voice, very few anyway. When i
would go to europe, though, i would have to
sing those songs because they had the album
and they would request some of it! But i tell
you, that hurt so bad, it hurt Prince and it hurt
me, though i was hurting more for him than i
was for myself. When we were making it, it
was a time i heard him so happy; he was so
happy that the record had come out so good.
Blood is Thicker Than Time, he wrote that
as a tribute to my family. When we were
recording the song The Undertaker, Prince
asked me, Do you think Pops will play on
this? and i said, sure. Hes singing on some
of the songs, too. it was just a record made in
heaven, you know? Prince and i both couldnt
wait for it to hit the stores and hit the radio.
But it never did.
MARCH 2016 | UNCUT |

45

MiCHAel OCHs ARCHives/GeTTy iMAGes

Gospel truth:
Staples also found
success singing solo

mAVIS STAPLES
pops staples
DoNt lose this
Anti-/dBpm, 2015

Staples enlists Jeff

Tweedy to help bring
her fathers elegiac last
work to the public.
My father recorded this in
1998. One night when he
was on his sick bed, he
asked me to bring the
recordings to his room so he could hear it. This
was when my sisters and I we were at his side
taking care of him. I brought the record up to his
room and put it on, and when I thought it was
finished I went back to his room and said, How
do you like it, Pops? What do you think? And he
just said, Dont lose this, Mavis. Dont lose this.
I knew what that meant, that he liked it and he
wanted other people to hear it. I knew Id have to
wait until I had something going first before I tried
to put Pops record out there. Years later, I was on
Anti- Records, and they hooked me up with Jeff
Tweedy. I knew Pops record needed tweaking, so
I asked Tweedy and he was glad to do it. When it
was done, my sister Yvonne and I went to Jeff
Tweedys studio to hear it man, I just lost it, my
sister and I just held on to each other and cried.
It was like Pops was just right there in the studio
with us. And Tweedys wife was there, and she
was in tears. Everybody was in tears. It just
sounded so good. My heart was pounding so hard.
Im still thanking Jeff Tweedy.

Mavis staples
liviN oN a high Note
Anti-, 2016

CHRIS STRONG

High notes: Staples new

album includes songs by
Nick Cave, Justin Vernon
and M Ward

Mavis staples
Well Never turN Back

Mavis staples
You are Not aloNe

Anti-, 2007

Anti-, 2010

After 2004s strong Have

A Little Faith, Staples
pays tribute to the Civil
Rights movements
freedom singers,
with help from Ry
Cooder and Ladysmith
Black Mambazo.
Ry Cooder was very, very good on the freedom
songs you would have thought he was in the
movement, you know! Oh man, I enjoyed
working with Ry so much. Id go into the studio,
and say, Well, what are we gonna do today, Ry?
And hed say, Its up to you, young lady. There
are some great songs on this album Jesus Is
On The Main Line, he really wanted to do that
because he had done it before with his jazz group.
Those were the original Freedom Singers from
the movement, you know? That was a good,
good time, it was just so good to see the Freedom
Singers again. I asked Ry, How did you find
them? and he said, Oh Mavis, I know how to go
to Mississippi and find people And then he got
those artists from Africa, Ladysmith Black
Mambazo, and they came into the studio. You
talk about sounding good boy, they sounded
good! That was a very good session. I enjoyed
it so much that when it was time to go back to the
hotel I wasnt ready to go, and Ry would say,
Well, we always have tomorrow. And I said,
OK, Ill come back tomorrow!

46 | UNCUT | MARCH 2016

Teaming up with
Wilcos Jeff Tweedy
on this and 2013
follow-up One True
Vine, Staples makes
some of the most
earthy, devastating
music of her career.
I really enjoyed working with Jeff Tweedy,
cos he came with some good songs for me to
sing. [Lows] Holy Ghost, on One True Vine,
its like Jeff Tweedy had a magnifying glass
and could see straight to my heart. I would
watch him with his acoustic guitar and I would
hear him play, and I would just know where
to go. Those were really fun sessions. On
One True Vine, Tweedy played most of the
instruments, but on You Are Not Alone my
live band were in the studio. Tweedys sons
asked me to be their grandmother! They
said, Do you and [sister] Yvonne wanna be
our grandmas? I said, Yeah, Ill be your
grandma, thats a new one on me! Ive been
asked to be mum, godmum, auntie, but never
grandma, so its about time for me to be
somebodys grandma. I said, Id love to be
your grandma, so they still call me grandma
and theyre my grandchildren. When they
come to my shows, I let the audience
know my grandsons are here Sammy
and Spencer!

With new songs from

Nick Cave, Justin
Vernon, M Ward and
Neko Case written just
for her, Staples latest
album is a more upbeat
work after the sparse
One True Vine.
I just feel so special that these great songwriters
would take the time out of their busy schedules
to write a song for Mavis! The president of Anti-,
Andy Kaulkin, knew M Ward and he thought he
would be right to produce me. One of my friends
told me hes very shy. I told her, thats no problem
Prince was very shy, but I broke through to
him, just leave it to Mavis! The good thing about
this session is that the band that I travel with are
playing on all of the songs my guitarist Rick
Holmstrom, drummer Steven Hodges, bass player
Jeff Turmes, and my background singers Vicki
Randle and Donny Gerrard. So were all right at
home. The songwriters know me, they knew what
fit me, so the sessions were a breeze, they took no
longer than two weeks. Ive been singing a lot of
songs that make people cry, so I wanted to make
people happy this time. One of the writers, Nick
Cave, and his song [Jesus Lay Down Beside Me], I
just love it. Then theres MLK Song I got so
wrapped up in that I almost didnt finish it the first
time. I choked up and started to cry, as I could see
Dr Martin Luther King as I was singing. It just hit
me and I almost broke down. But I held it together
and I finished, and then I broke down: you have to
take your heart into the studio.
Livin On A High Note is out on Anti- on February
19. The film Mavis! will be released in cinemas
and on demand the same day

NEW ALBUM
08.01.2016
davidbowie.com

IN A
FIELD OF
THEIR
OW N
Story: Laura Snapes | Photo: Andy Martin

BEAUTIFUL STRANGE, says Prince, of his unlikely new crush,

FIELD MUSIC. Theres a certain ridiculousness to being in a band,
counters David Brewis, as he and his brother Peter take Uncut around
their native Sunderland, on a quest to understand the complicated
brilliance and ambitious pragmatism of their group. Plus: how to play
the Fleetwood Mac counting game!

Raising the roof:

David Brewis (left),
and brother Peter

48 | UNCUT | MARCH 2016

FIELD MUSIC

T NEWCASTLES SETTLE DOWN Caf, Peter Brewis

three-year-old son is explaining the Fleetwood Mac
counting game. Its based around a picture of the
Rumours lineup, and its quite advanced not just based
on sight, but the bands inner workings. He can also
identify The Beatles, says Peter, before getting him to
explain his antipathy to Hall & Oates Kiss On My List
its the scream that ruins it, as he demonstrates loudly.
After lunch, Peter drives his younger brother and Field
Music bandmate David and Uncut to the groups native Sunderland. David (35) has
always lived there, while Peter (38) studied in Wales and now lives in Newcastle.
On this early January afternoon, the coastal city is freezing and sodden,
preventing a proper exploration of their haunts although the brothers are such
entrenched locals that the walk from the car park to Louis Caf spans several of
them. Just down the road from The Bunker, the youth music project where they
became teenage peer mentors, is Hot Rats, the record shop in which they filmed
part of the video for their new albums lead single, The Noisy Days Are Over.

A SUNDERLAND FIxTURE since the 1920s, Louis is a vast

canteen known for its milky coffees. Its on the cover of Field
Musics second album, 2007s Tones Of Town, and is Peters
preferred place to sit and write lyrics. Thinking, Hmm...
Whats the world all about? he says, tapping his chin.
But for Commontime, the bands fifth album,
awaiting the muses wasnt an option. Davids
son is 18 months old, and both brothers
have tried to be hands-on dads. Ive
had to be a lot more active with my
time, says Peter.
As well as dictating the schedule,
Peters sons very specific tastes
shaped the sound of Commontime.
There was a time when he would
only listen to US No 1s in the van,
says Peter. He had some kind of
antenna for them. I knew I was going
to have to spend a lot of time with him in
the van, listening to mixes, and I wonder
whether that crept in. To dupe him into
accepting them? Or dupe him into getting us to
write a US No 1.
Theyve mostly passed Brewis Jrs test. Aside from 2010s
double album, Measure, Commontime is Field Musics longest
record, but it features 14 of their poppiest songs: vocals
upfront, and more boisterous than usual. It often recalls Peter
Gabriel from Scratch through Security, minus the paranoia;
meanwhile Trouble At The Lights goes very The Lamb Lies
Down On Broadway halfway through. Disappointed has
the amiable clatter of Fine Young
Cannibals She Drive Me Crazy (a
1989 US No 1), while They Want You
To Remember evokes Daryl Halls
Sacred Songs meaning theres plenty
of Robert Fripps DNA there, too.
Common time is what classical
musicians call 4/4; the title is a joke about
perceptions of Field Music as time
signature-obsessed proggers. Weve
never used them as much, or as
consciously, as people think we do, says
David. While the music is as tightly spun as

ever, theres a contentment that feels novel for the naturally

anxious brothers. Commontime has a more conversational
lens than its predecessor, 2012s political Plumb. Theres
plenty about new parenthood, along with a desire for
balance, and a relief at leaving behind the vicissitudes of
youth. Its the happiest Field Music album by
default, says David.
Getting to go to the studio three days
a week and make music was an
unadulterated joy, and a release, says
Peter. There was lots of other family
stresses going on all of the people
who I really love the most, in the last
three years, have been ill. He
points across the Formica table at
David. Except for you. Youve had
some pretty bad colds, bit of a bad
back sometimes, but other than that
David leans into the tape. I dont
know whether Peter should hear this, but
we were enjoying each others company, too.
Despite having been performing for over 20 years,
both brothers are still embarrassed to sing, even in the studio.
Inspired by the whoops that litter the background of Beatles
songs, they encouraged each other to fight their impulses
against silliness when recording Commontime. Thats Close
Enough For Now drew from an Uncut interview in which
Steve Albini discussed Jimmy Pages reticence to fix his
mistakes on 1998s Walking Into Clarksdale. Thats what we
thought we should do a little bit more of, says Peter. Weve
got better at leaving mistakes in.
We were geeing each other on
not to be embarrassed, says David.
We still struggled, though. We
are naturally quite reserved.
Theres something about it all
being self-produced, I get quite
nervous about it, says Peter. It
can get a bit too serious its just a
rocknroll band so we have to find
ways of being less serious. Even the
most frivolous of pop music thats
out there now seems so serious.

th i s i s th e
hAppi e st
Fi eld m u s i c
Alb u m by
d eFAu lt

DAVID brewIs

MARCH 2016 | UNCUT |

49

FIELD MUSIC
Like, These photos of our indie band are gonna make
us look like heroes! trills David.
And you dont want to make it into a joke, says Peter,
but Theres a certain ridiculousness to being in a
band, says David.

screen heroes

Was It
PrIncE?

Sunderland meets
Alphabet tweet

n late November,
Prince tweeted the
link to Field Musics
The Noisy Days Are
Over, accompanied by
the words FIELD
MUSIC, only to delete
it again shortly after.
Screenshots were
preserved for the ages,
and David Brewis
returned the favour by
writing a piece for The
Guardian about the duos
favourite Prince songs.
Soon after, Princes
Twitter fired up again,
with a link to the article
sandwiched between the
words BEAUTIFUL
STRANGE.
I didnt know what to
think, says David. Was it
really Prince? Had he
really heard the song?
Was it possible that he
actually liked it?
Theres been no direct
contact with Paisley Park,
a state of affairs that the
Brewises are happy to
preserve. The fact that
Prince has even heard
the music means that its
getting out there and
having an effect on
people, says Peter. If
its had an effect on
Prince, one of the
greatest rock performers
ever, just for a brief
moment, then it feels like
were doing something
right. Even back in 2005
Im sure we had a note
pinned on the wall with
a sort of half-joke/
oblique strategy: What
Would Prince Do?

50 | uNcuT | MARch 2016

he BReWISeS hAve an inherent suspicion of how

bands behave a distaste that almost caused them
to quit Field Music altogether. From their self-titled
2005 debut, their lyrics have consistently confronted the
use of rhetoric. Theyve sung about wanting
to become more assertive, but mistrusting
the ways in which other people wield
assertion. Ive gradually become much
more comfortable with my own self-doubt,
but I still have a lot of it, says David.
Back in the late 1980s, the Brewises started
out as confident young musicians. Their
childhood love of Stock Aitken & Waterman
heralded obsessions with Queen and Led
Zeppelin, and a make-believe approach to
forming their own bands, says Peter.
Getting a four-track recorder led them to
start writing their own songs, which they
slipped into their sets playing classic rock
covers in pubs. Wed do a few gigs a week
while I was doing my GcSes, says David,
who sang. I knacked my voice so much
that I thought, Ill never be able to sing
falsetto again, but it didnt matter Id go
into a pub as a 15-year old and have a pint
of Guinness, because I was too young to
drive, and slay 24 classic rock songs in
a night. I mean, it was really classic we
played Born To Be Wild. We really played Born To Be Wild.
Two years later, they realised that they had bigger
ambitions, piqued in part by Becks Odelay, the first
contemporary album that I heard and thought, Id like to do
that, says Peter. Serious musically and not very serious in
another way. They focused on their work at The Bunker,
where they met the nascent Futureheads, including Barry
hyde, whose dad introduced them to bands like The velvet
underground. I remember walking into the rehearsal room
and seeing this guy with long hair, playing this heavy
metal-looking red bass, wearing a pair of flares
and a suede jacket, and singing in a
Louisiana accent, says hyde. That
was a 15-year-old Dave Brewis. They
showed us how to be musicians.
We were a similar age, but
because theyd been playing
semi-professionally, it seemed
possible to get to that level.
collaboration paused during
university, after which they
reunited, playing in each others new
bands and endeavouring to sing in
their own accents. By late 2003, Davids
The New Tellers and Peters electronic eye
Machine overlapped so much that it made sense
to merge. They chose the name Field Music because it
sounded so un-band-like, and recorded what would become
their debut album at 8 Studio, the recording space they had
co-founded with The Futureheads. Still unsigned, the
Brewises met Memphis Industries when they backed former
Kenickie drummer Pete Goftons band J Xaverre in London.
They were doing these incredible harmonies, elevating
Petes songs to another level, says label co-founder Ollie
Jacob. We were taken with them and the way they seemed so
out of time. Maybe it was David taking out his pocket watch.
Memphis released Field Music in August 2005. But the
Brewises brief burst of optimism at being signed soon faded.

Although theyd been playing live for years,

they still had no idea how to tour. Nobody
came to their first dates as Field Music,
and they lost over 2,000 on five shows
because they thought you had to hire a van,
a sound engineer and guitar tech. As British
indie became laddy post-Arctic Monkeys,
they found themselves playing festival
bills alongside acts like The Pigeon
Detectives, trying to share an audience
with these bands that we felt we had nothing in common
with, says David. We didnt have a great thrift-shop leather
jacket. We looked like
That, says Peter, pointing at David: both brothers are
wearing dark grey knitwear and striped shirts.
They still had day jobs: Peter was working as a curriculum
support officer, and would get smashed to cope with the
days stresses. David was training as a quantity surveyor,
which he hated. It got to the point where I was hating doing
the band, he says. I was living in this house I couldnt
quite afford, so we didnt have any time to make
music, because we were either playing gigs
that nobody came to, or at work.
All of which made the lyrics to Field
Musics second LP, Tones Of Town,
quite nihilistic. Things got worse.
It was scheduled to come out in
September 2006, so we booked
a tour, says Peter.
The infamous Tour Of Towns,
says David.
Because its like Tones Of Towns,
says Peter. So we should do loads of
little towns where nobodys ever heard
of us, and nobody cares. Which actually
could have been Manchester or Birmingham.
The album was pushed back to January 2007. The
prospect of slogging away on the road any more filled the
pair with dread as did the invitation to support Snow Patrol
in arenas, for which they felt creatively and financially
ill-equipped. Two weeks after Tones came out, they told
Memphis that they wouldnt be continuing. We would have
had to ask them for money, says Peter.

Ive b eco m e
more
co m fo rtab le
wIth my own
s elf- d o u bt

david brewis

heN FIeLD MuSIc released 2012s Plumb, money

became the whole story. After the brothers
discussed their finances with The Observer,
they opened the paper to the headline, We earn five grand

FIELD MUSIC
buyers guide

NoRTHERN ExPoSURE
From their quirky debut, via
idiosyncratic side projects,
this is Field Music on CD
FIELD MUSIC
FIELD MUSIC
MEMPHIS
INDUSTRIES, 2005

Peter and David Brewis

in the studio: Theres a
certain ridiculousness
to being in a band

a year. The point was, David says, about illustrating their

commitment to making Field Music happen, even though it
doesnt have great material rewards, and its a precarious
existence. Online, some people asked what they were
moaning about. And I never thought we were complaining.
This is what weve chosen, and were totally happy with it.
Field Music are as DIY as Fugazi, minus the dogma. They
produce their own records, drive their own van, and dont
take advances. They help other bands out, says BBc
6Musics Marc Riley. They are seriously a thing to be
treasured. They should both carry blue heritage plaques
around with them on their backs. Their existence offered
Sunderlands young musicians a different model of how to be,
says Pete Gofton. Kenickie and The Futureheads were pretty
profligate during our time in the mainstream, and I think it
affects ones ability to keep going. The Brewises kept their
overheads low, and ultimately made a career for themselves.
The realisation that they could create their own context was
what brought Field Music back after Tones Of Town. In the
interim, in 2008, each brother had formed a well-received solo
project: The Week That Was, Peters homage to Japan, Peter
Gabriel and Kate Bush, and Davids School Of Language, a
machine-lathed funk outfit. Thrill Jockey released Davids Sea
From Shore in the uS, leading to a tour with Tortoises Doug
Mccombs on bass, and a huge confidence boost.
I did that with guys Id never met before, says David.
Dougs attitude to learning my songs was like, Its
basically c, it feels a bit like this. Im like, no, no, it must be this
note and this note! Doug shrugs and plays what he was gonna
play anyway. That was liberating I needed to just
get over it. We were gonna play 20 gigs in 25 days and I was
gonna have to play a lot of guitar. I finished the tour feeling
like, I love playing guitar, I love Led Zeppelin!
After the fiddly live incarnations of Tones Of Town and The
Week That Was, Field Musics third LP, 2010s Measure,

In which the
Brewises set out
their template:
7/10
a sprightly, pastoral
skewing of post-punk, RnB and prog.

FIELD MUSIC
TONES OF
TOWN
MEMPHIS
INDUSTRIES, 2007

A kind of post-punk
chamber pop, Tones
7/10
is Field Musics most
ornery album, and probably the one
to blame for prevailing notions of them
as a prog band.

FIELD MUSIC
MEASURE
MEMPHIS INDUSTRIES, 2010

8/10

For a 70-minute double album,

Measure is surprisingly light
and dreamy, hewing closer to Fleetwood
Macs Tusk than Pink Floyd.

FIELD MUSIC
PLUMB
MEMPHIS
INDUSTRIES, 2012

A medley-style
suite of baroque
pop songs that
8/10
confronts personal
responsibility and political
grandstanding with the Brewises
usual quizzical flair.

SCHOOL OF
LANGUAGE
OLD FEARS
MEMPHIS
INDUSTRIES, 2014

Drawing from
Chaka Khan,
Justin Timberlake
and Prince, Davids second solo album
showcased a knack for nimble funk.

9/10

SCHOOL OF
LANGUAGE
SEA FROM SHORE

FIELD MUSIC
MUSIC FOR
DRIFTERS

MEMPHIS INDUSTRIES, 2008

8/10

Unlike the clarity of Field

Musics records, the
production on Davids solo debut is
both agitated and exhilarating, full of
vocal deconstruction as well as nods
to Robert Wyatt and XTC.

Caf society: Field

Music, thinking,
Hmm... Whats the
world all about?

THE WEEK
THAT WAS
THE WEEK
THAT WAS

MEMPHIS
INDUSTRIES, 2015

An aquatic and
beautiful score for
John Griersons
groundbreaking 1929 documentary
Drifters, which followed a group
of Shetland herring fishermen.

8/10

FIELD MUSIC
COMMONTIME

MEMPHIS
INDUSTRIES, 2008

8/10

Indebted to
Bush, Gabriel
and Stravinsky, Peters solo
debut plies stentorian, paranoid
art-rock, underpinned by juddering
synths and string flourishes.

MEMPHIS
INDUSTRIES, 2016

8/10

See full album review

of Commontime
on page 73.
MARch 2016 | uNcuT |

51

FIELD MUSIC
became their classic rock double LP: one with riffs they could
recreate live. In the time theyd been away, a fanbase had developed.
It was around then that Jim Moir (comedian Vic Reeves) became
obsessed. Theyre one of those North-Eastern bands, like Roxy Music
and Prefab Sprout, that pluck things from every musical fruit.
Our first gigs back were great, says David. Where had they all
come from? It still might have only been 40 people, but still, it was
35 more, says Peter.

hE REcESSION MEaNT that the brothers lost 8 Studio

after making Measure, so they moved to a chilly
Wearside industrial space to record Plumb, a rush
of fragmented pop songs that recalled Abbey Road. That
and Commontime were recorded on a budget of roughly
7,000 apiece, most of which is rent. Despite their love
of highly produced records, the Brewises have no plan
to work in an established studio. Now weve got our
particular aesthetic, Id rather expand on that than try
to start again with someone else, says David.
Over a decade in, the pair have fixed ideas about what
Field Music is: practical but not serious; driven by vision,
not gut instinct. But theyre trying to loosen up and get
closer to their audience. In 2014, David released the second
School Of Language LP, Old Fears, a Scritti Politti-ish funk
record about how meeting his wife ended his student self-pity. To
match the more direct songwriting, he implemented a costume:
slicked back hair and colourful clothes. (You looked like the man from Del Monte
without the hat, says Peter.) another founding Field Music tenet is setting up the
bands equipment in full view of the audience. It felt outr doing it in the School Of
Language stage outfits, so they had Field Music Productions overalls made for
changeover. The comparative silliness of having not one, but two, costumes
nixed the tension theyd usually experience before gigs.
The Field Music live band shifts between albums; for Commontime theyll be
joined by mainstays Kev Dosdale (guitar, synths), andrew Lowther (bass), and
new backing singer/keyboardist Liz corney, who auditioned for the part. her
presence is also subtly altering the bands presentation. There was something

Field of dreams: three

touring members bolster
the bands live sound

Th e y
s h o u ld car ry
b lu e pl aq u e s
ar o u n d o n
Th ei r bac ks

about auditioning people, their personalities and

how they looked, says Peter. Id never have put
myself down as this sort of person, but it was like,
can you see this person onstage in the band? how
would it come across with us? Weve always been
Dowdy blokes onstage, says David. [Image] is
another thing weve always been reticent and a bit
embarrassed about, cos it seems frivolous.
Whereas Liz, the day after the last rehearsal, was like,
Right, what are we gonna wear? Peter adds. It felt fun.
It all combines to a subtle shift in ethos for the cautious duo, even if
theyre not at Queen-level bombast just yet. You have to be brave to do that
sort of thing, Peter says. Its all-or-nothing if it falls flat on its arse, its a
failure. Weve avoided failure by not going for the biggest thing. My dad says
to me, youre very successful. Its like, Dad, were not at all. he says, you are
compared with a lot of other bands. Who? Exactly you dont know them. For
every band like us, theres 100 others that never got where we are, or where
were gonna get which is probably where we are, thats our attitude. We are
where we are, were not aiming for the big time were aiming to survive.

Marc riley, 6Music

Commontime is released by Memphis Industries on February 5

BrOTHerly lOVes

CORNERSTONES
Artists and albums that influenced Field Music

DAVID brewis
THELONIOUS MONK
MONKS MUSIC

THE LEFT BANKE

THERES GONNA BE A STORM:
THE COMPLETE RECORDINGS
1966-1969

UNIVERSAL, 1957

MERCURY, 1992

Thelonious Monk wrote some of the

strangest melodies Ive ever heard, but
theyre so catchy. I think he gave us the idea
that we could take almost any crazy musical
idea and make it into pop music.

The Left Banke gave us a template, especially

for the things we were recording before the
first LP. They built songs around piano or
harpsichord playing slightly odd chords,
pretty vocal harmonies, simple but funky
drums and a string quartet.

ROXY MUSIC
FOR YOUR PLEASURE
ISLAND, 1973

Roxy Music managed to take odd lyrical and

musical concepts, stack them up in unusual
song structures and make compelling, catchy
pop songs. I think only a couple of songs on
their first two albums even have a chorus.

LED ZEPPELIN
HOUSES OF THE HOLY
ATLANTIC, 1973

Led Zeppelin were the first band we really

got into. Our whole playing style and our
approach to recording stem straight from
Led Zeppelin.

52 | UNcUT | MaRch 2016

PRINCE
PARADE
PAISLEY PARK/WARNER BROS, 1986

In an odd way, this is like an update of The

Left Bankes sound but far sexier. Its texture
is unlike anything else. Utterly fearless.

PETER brewis

THE BEATLES
REVOLVER
PARLOPHONE, 1966

This was the first Beatles album we

immersed ourselves in. The hard panned
stereo, the dryness and the double-tracked
vocals are fairly evident on our first album.

THE FLAMING LIPS

THE SOFT BULLETIN
WARNER BROS, 1999

We heard a track from a free NME CD

in 1999 and it sounded like nothing wed
ever heard before. Modular, luscious, and
very ambitious. It led us to discover the
best of prog rock. And helped us to ignore
the worst.

THE BAND
THE BAND
CAPITOL, 1969

When we started, we wanted to be able to

synthesise our influences in the way The
Band did. We never sounded anything like
them, but were inspired by their approach.

KATE BUSH
HOUNDS OF LOVE

DEERHOOF
MILK MAN

EMI, 1985

KILL ROCK STARS, 2004

Our mam had this when it first came out so

its been a constant in our lives. Its permeated
our music in more ways than well ever know.

We heard this after wed made our first

record. It made me feel like we were right
to make the record we did.

THE ALBUM OF THE YEAR

dominorecordco.com

the making of...

We
Are All
Prostitutes
by THE POP GROUP

Bristol post-punks second single, shaped by jazz, politics and the Jacksons
HILE THE fIRST wave of
punk centred primarily
around London, post-punk
truly flourished further
afield, with the likes of
Cabaret Voltaire in Sheffield,
Joy Division in Manchester
and Gang Of four in Leeds mixing the fury of the
Pistols and The Clash with more sophisticated,
avant-garde influences. In Bristol, The Pop Group
went even further than their contemporaries,
infusing punk with the palettes of free jazz, dub
and funk, singer Mark Stewart howling his
charged lyrics over the frenzy.
We all had this idea that if we were challenging
ideas with the lyrics, then we wanted to challenge
that with the music as well, explains Stewart
today. Maybe we got the wrong end of the stick
cos we were from Bristol, but we thought punk was
all about change and challenging stuff.
After Margaret Thatcher took power in May 1979,
and the future began to look even bleaker, the
group became increasingly politicised, setting up
their own label, delving into murky conspiracy
theories and becoming deeply involved in the CND
cause. The most immediate result was We Are All
Prostitutes, a stand-alone single which matched
a cacophonous, rumbling shuffle with distorted
vocals, Dennis Bovells innovative dub production
and the deranged cello-playing of Tristan
Honsinger, a new favourite of the groups.
We went through changes incredibly quickly,
recalls guitarist Gareth Sager. We went from
being excited about Richard Hell and Patti Smith
and James Brown, to getting into things like
Ornette Coleman and Miles Davis, and that all

TOM CHAMBERS, CHIARA MEATTELLI

54 | UNCUT | MARCH 2016

happened within a year and

a half. We just took in every
little influence we could and
tried to put it onto vinyl.
The bands next album,
1980s For How Much Longer
Do We Tolerate Mass Murder?
(reissued this month) would
be their last until 2015s Citizen
Zombie, but their political
ideas as well as the imagery
on their Stewart-designed,
Thatcher-baiting art would
unfortunately remain
relevant. I mean, times now
are harsh, says Stewart, as he
recalls ideas he formulated at
the end of the 1970s. I dont
think Ive changed in the way
I look at things, because you
just realise that what you
learnt before was a load of
rubbish, and that theres
another hidden agenda under
the onion layers of hidden
agendas Tom Pinnock

post-punk band I worked

with. It appealed to me Id
been in a rock band and in my
teens I was a guitar player. It
was a chance to get in touch
Mark Stewart
with my rock side again. So
Vocals
I met the lads and found that
they were all very crazy, but in
need of a referee to say, Well,
Gareth Sager
I think this idea is a better idea
Guitar, saxophone,
than that one or Heres
organ
a better way to approach this
particular piece
SAGER: As young kids we
Bruce Smith
signed with [Warner BrosDrums
affiliated] Radar, but then
realised that wasnt where
The Pop Group should be.
Dan Catsis
MARK STEWART: So we
Bass
formed our own label [Y
Records], but it went through
Rough Trades distribution.
Dennis Bovell
for me, the whole DIY thing
Production
and the politics of being in
control of our own destiny was
as important as the music.
SAGER: When Thatcher got in, things went from
being in colour to black and white, thats how I see
GARETH SAGER: When we were 19, people were
it. Pop music has always been associated with the
like, Oh, these bunch of freaks, when everybody
more left or liberal side of things, and this was the
else was still playing pretty straight music. If you
first time wed really encountered in our lifetime
want to talk about revolution rock or whatever,
more of a right-wing culture. Suddenly this
then you have to change the whole fundamental
horrendous bully from school was in charge and
thing youre playing. Everything [in punk] seemed
giving everyone a good kicking.
pretty conservative to us. We were really shocked
STEWART: It was a very strange time there was
at how straight everybody was happy being.
this huge class war going on, and there were all
DENNIS BOVELL: They were the first punk or

key players

P. McHUGH

Mark Stewart: I
dont know they
were funny times

these stories about the military talking about

overthrowing the Labour government at the time
because they wanted to nationalise things. The
Queen Of Pain got elected and there were some of
the biggest strikes in England since 1926.
SAGER: We hit this age where we started to really
question everything. We were getting a lot of
information about all these conspiracy theories,
so that all fed into Prostitutes. There was a
bookshop in Bristol that had everything from
Bukowski to heavy conspiracy books like Vodka
Cola by Charles Levinson, which we all read. In
hindsight, the facts were questionable, but it
opened up our tiny little late-teenage minds to the
fact there was a big world out there. It affected
Mark particularly, and he started to put more
political thought in his lyrics.
STEWART: I was open to a lot more sources of
information than some other people at the time.
I was devouring all this weird, extreme literature
and underground texts. Ive been like that since
I was 12 or 13, and to a certain
extent I blame that on David
Bowie. There was a period where
he was doing these interviews
where hed just talk about other
people Burroughs and Jean
Genet. So Id run off and find out
more about them, and it was
down to bloody Bowie. Weird.
He was just passing on mad
information without being a
filter, which was quite cool.
BRUCE SMITH: It was a quest
for more information. And all
that was inspiring, along with

our enthusiasm for the most far-out free jazz

musicians from the States.
SAGER: On We Are All Prostitutes we were
throwing everything at people. It starts with a very
Neanderthal riff from me the second time round
you can hear the bottleneck fall off my finger. Then
theres a fantastic James Brown groove written by

When Thatcher got

in, things went from
being in colour to
black and white,
thats how I see it
Gareth SaGer

John Waddington and then on to

these counterpoint funk riffs by
me and Dan. We just hammered it
out, with this crazy rhythm
between Dan and Bruce. I dont
think they can recreate it any more
cos they dont know what the hell
they were doing back then!
SMITH: Im sure I was playing
what I thought was a version of a
drumbeat from a Jacksons record
called Shake Your Body (Down To
The Ground). We had a rehearsal
studio in Bristol that we could use

day or night. So a lot of things came from just going

into the room with no set idea. In that regard it was
uncontrived. Wed make every effort not to do
anything derivative, kitschy or sentimental.
STEWART: A lot of stuff we wrote after the first
album was lyrically very current, all about things
happening in that month or in that week. We
treated it as a kind of newspaper.
SAGER: The words on Prostitutes, like
capitalism is the most barbaric religion I mean,
the whole lyric knocked into a three-and-a-halfminute pop song is just fantastic. The message is
there and it was pretty articulate.
STEWART: I was hanging around with a guy
called Robert Eringer, who wrote this book called
The Global Manipulators. It was exposing the
whole con of the history and politics we learnt at
school, and how there were a whole load of hidden
agendas. I was reading [Levinsons] Vodka Cola,
which looks at the Cold War, and says that the
Germans basically financed the Russian
Revolution because they didnt want a second
front. And they then encouraged the Irish during
WWI as they wanted to destabilise another front. If
you look at whats going on now with all these
proxy wars and false flag attacks, its nonsense,
what weve been told, and people are dying when
they dont really know what theyre fighting for.
SAGER: That line Our children shall rise up
against us made my mum cry but thats what
19-year olds are meant to do to their mothers, I
guess. Dan had just started playing bass instead of
guitar, so the bass is really wild on it.
DAN CATSIS: I couldnt play with my fingers at
that time so I had to play with a plectrum. When
you switch from guitar to bass, it takes time to
MARCH 2016 | UNCUT |

55

THE POP GROUP

CATSIS: Mark and Gareth could get anyone
up and ask them to do anything, they were
never starstruck in that way. Unless
maybe for Mark if it had been Bowie
that mightve been different.
SAGER: The bits you hear from him are
what he did at the time. The crazy voice
at the start? Thats him. And we used the
cello like a dub instrument.
CATSIS: Dennis brought this amazing
ability to the desk, he played it like an
instrument. He was a master tape operator as
well. I can remember him doing the B-side
[Amnesty International Report On British Army
Torture Of Irish Prisoners] and it just being
recording the sound of the
amazing how he took the master tape and spliced it
clap bouncing off the
back together from bits and pieces. And somehow
ceiling. It gives the
managed to keep the beat. A real artist.
appearance of an octave
SAGER: The B-side was a 20-minute thing that we
down. And if you clap with
cut up. I heard the full version not so long ago
your hands cupped, it
actually, and it may well appear sometime.
gives you a smack sound
STEWART: [Amnesty International] was just
deeper than with your
a human reaction to what is happening. Im not
palms flat. So thats the
trying to turn it into some sort of slogan. I dont
Gareth Sager (left) and Mark
Bovell technique! I also
know how to explain it, its just things like that I
Stewart (right) at Alexandra
said to Mark, Why dont
just gotta say it, I cant stand back and not say it.
Palace, London, August 1980
we put your voice through
SAGER: We didnt do For How Much Longer with
a fuzzbox? And everyone
Dennis. We couldnt afford him [laughs], or hed
went, Yeah!
had enough of us, which was much more likely!
SMITH: Dennis approach to the drums comes
BOVELL: The thing was, we all went in different
learn how to be a bass player. I was playing far
from his reggae records. So hed favour making the
directions. I got busy with other productions and
too much, but it sounds fucking amazing I dont
drums dry, with tape and newspaper on the heads.
opened my own studio, and they were pretty much
know how I did most of We Are All Prostitutes.
And that allows a lot of control with the mixing,
falling apart. I dont think it was a case of them not
Ive spent five years learning to play it again.
you can treat each thing separately.
being able to afford me, it was me not being able to
STEWART: Dennis Bovell was the best dub
BOVELL: There was a lot of overdubbing with The
afford the time to work with them.
producer we could get hold of. Hed do a mix and
Pop Group when we were recording Y, one day
SMITH: Wed always wanted Prostitutes to be
then layer that on top of another mix and layer
we recorded about two reels of just pure feedback
on the record. I cant even remember why it wasnt,
again. Instead of Phil Spectors wall of sound, it
from Gareth, and then we sat there noting which
but its good that it is there now [on the reissue].
was a wall of noise. I wanted the voice to have to
bits were the most exciting bits, editing them off
Whenever I hear it now it jumps out the speakers.
fight against a wall of noise, because it makes it a
and then spinning them back
SAGER: Weve been playing
bit more real as youre actually fighting within the
into the multitrack and timing it
Prostitutes live a lot again, and
structure of the song. Wed already worked with
so each bit of feedback would be
it feels very potent now. Its an old
Dennis on Y, so we knew exactly what we wanted.
at a particular point. Which is
message but it really rings true.
SAGER: Dennis Bovell was meant to be producing
now known as sampling, but we
CATSIS: Prostitutes is still
Prostitutes, but he turned up late, so the sound
Written by: The Pop Group
were using tape. Gareth had
amazing. Theres nothing in the
engineer, Adam Kidron, set all the studio up.
Produced by: Dennis Bovell
these amazing ideas, and John
lyrics which isnt still happening,
BOVELL: Did I turn up late? Probably, because in
& The Pop Group
Waddington was a very funky
unfortunately. Things are highly
them days Id be messing about on two or three
Recorded at: Berry Street
guitar player. They made some
complicated. Back then it was
different projects at the same time. It was difficult
Studios, London
amazing guitar squeals, and got
black/white, left/right, it seemed
for me cos I was working at another studio in the
Personnel: Mark Stewart
some really funky sounds.
simple, but now Id say it isnt.
evenings and you know what its like trying to get
(vocals), Gareth Sager (guitar,
STEWART: What was really,
BOVELL: I listened to
into the West End in rush hour. When I turned up,
saxophone, organ), Bruce
really crucial to me and the rest of
Prostitutes the other day, and
theyd been running Prostitutes through but it
Smith (drums), Dan Catsis
the band was the idea of density
its electric, man, its dark as hell.
wasnt up to speed so they should be grateful
(bass), John Waddington
of sound. We were listening to a
SAGER: We were nave, and
I gave them time to rehearse before I got there!
(guitars), Tristan Honsinger
lot of experimental musique
attempting to play way beyond
[laughs] Cos I was only gonna say, Do it again.
(cello, vocals)
concrte, and a lot of crazy free
our ability, but thats what makes
SAGER: The track is a live take, then I overdubbed
Released: November 9, 1979
jazz, and thats how Tristan
it interesting. Maybe thats what
sax and organ, and the vocals were overdubbed. It
UK/US chart positions: -/Honsinger came in.
we got from punk, the idea of just
would have been recorded in a day wed have had
SAGER: Me and Mark went to see
going out and doing it.
very little budget as it was a Rough Trade thing.
Tristan at the London Musicians Collective in front
STEWART: The biggest thing about that single
CATSIS: There were no click tracks then, so the
of about seven people, which is one of the greatest
is the T-shirt, though! I made a T-shirt where I put
speed goes in and out of time, and that makes it
gigs Ive ever seen. It was just him playing his cello,
this picture of Thatcher flicking the V-sign, and it
incredibly difficult to play along with. But theres
half the time with a cardboard box on his head,
was bootlegged all over the world. We had these
something very organic about it because of that.
and I just thought, This guys the greatest. At
ideas of this portable, wearable anti-propaganda
SAGER: Dennis would have looked after the mix
some point I had this brainwave and thought,
I dont know, they were funny times.
and stopped us all pushing our own levels up too
Wow, if we could get Tristan to play on this I
much. Theres also a clap on it which stops it
remember he asked for 60 quid, which seemed an
slipping and sliding all over the place.
The reissue of For How Much Longer Do We
enormous amount to me at that time.
BOVELL: Getting that clap sound is all about
Tolerate Mass Murder? is out on February 19

DAVID CoRIo/GETTY IMAGES

fact file

timeline

1977 The Pop Group

form in Bristol, inspired
by punk, funk, jazz
and avant-garde art
and poetry

56 | UNCUT | MARCH 2016

April 20, 1979 The Pop

Group release their
debut LP, Y, on Rough
Trade. Less than a
month later, Margaret

Thatcher becomes PM
November 9, 1979 We
Are All Prostitutes is
released on Y/Rough
Trade, and at that point

is arguably the bands

most overtly political
statement
March 21, 1980
Ferociously topical For

How Much Longer Do

We Tolerate Mass
Murder?, is released
We Are All Prostitutes
is not included

FROM THE MAKERS OF

The UlTimATe
mUsic GUide
delUxe ediTions

Available to buy now at uncut.co.uk/store

or from Amazon

tim hardin

Black
Sheep
Boy
NBC/NBCU Photo BaNk via Getty imaGes

oURiNg wiTH TiM Hardin in 1968 was not a job

for the faint-hearted. in oklahoma City he looked
at me after three songs, said, ive got heartburn,
and walked offstage, recalls Hardins friend and
long-suffering pianist warren Bernhardt. Before
one gig at the whisky A go go he lost all ability to
use his hands. They were completely numb. More
than once i saw him come out of the dressing
room with blood dripping down his arms. with
Timmy, you never knew what was going to happen. He flew
me out for a show at UCLA and there was no gig. it was
bizarre. we were walking around with our instruments
and we couldnt find it. Bernhardt laughs with sheer
incomprehension. why would you fly someone out to
California for an imaginary gig?
The year 1968 was an auspicious one for Hardin. His
first three albums of darkly introspective songs, blending
pop, folk, blues and jazz, had been critical successes.
Following Bobby Darins worldwide hit in 1966 with
Hardins best-known composition, if i were A Carpenter,

58 | UNCUT | MARCH 2016

Story: graeme Thomson

Fifty years on from his debut, Uncut

considers the extraordinary music
and harrowing life story of
TIM HARDIN. A tale of blood, arson,
rooftop chases, Olympian drug
abuse, bespoke carpentry and
a deathless legacy of songs.
He was truly the wildest guy
Id ever met, says one old friend.
It didnt seem like anyone elses
rules of behaviour worked for him.

scores of artists were now gravitating towards his material,

among them The Four Tops, Scott walker, glen Campbell
and even Cilla Black. The same year, Bob Dylan was
moved to describe Hardin as the greatest songwriter
alive today.
Hardins growing reputation, however, was undermined
by his wayward streak. Bernhardts list of misdemeanours
is far from exhaustive. in April, Hardin turned up 90
minutes late for the recording of his live album, Tim Hardin
3, at New Yorks Town Hall, and was so stoned during the
show that he fell off his chair. A tour of Britain that summer
was cut short after he dismissed his band during a
prestigious appearance at the Royal Albert Hall, then
nodded out mid-set. The live shows were a crapshoot,
says vibes player Mike Mainieri. we didnt know how late
he would be or what state he was going to be in. i was an
organised guy, but i made an exception in Tims case,
because i loved his music. Some nights were magical, just
heartbreakingly beautiful and poetic, and that kept me
going back for another little taste.

Tim Hardin live at

New Yorks Kraft
Music Hall,
August 21, 1968

MARCH 2016 | UNCUT |

59

With producer
Erik Jacobsen
in the early 60s

One of the most original and exquisitely talented artists

of his generation, Hardin displayed an unerring knack for
self-sabotage. Today, 35 years after his death at the age of
39, his compositions are best known via interpretations by
more famous names, whether its Johnny Cashs If I Were A
Carpenter, Rod Stewarts Reason To Believe, or the Small
Faces Red Balloon. The songs have always connected, but
the songwriter ultimately proved too unreliable for stardom.
He was his own worst enemy, says his former publisher,
Charles Koppelman. He had every gift to be a superstar
except the gift of controlling his bad habits. He once set fire
to my bungalow when he nodded out with a cigarette in his
hand. That was the life of Tim Hardin. Its a question of what
might have been.

MICHAel OCHS ARCHIVeS/GeTTY IMAGeS

ORN IN eUGeNe, Oregon, two days before Christmas

Day, 1941, Tim Hardin came from a musical lineage.
His father Hal had been a stand-up bass player in a
travelling band, and his grandmother Manner a noted
pianist. In later life Hardin talked little about his family,
but in Black Sheep Boy he identifies as the familys
unowned boy, wilful, charismatic, set apart.
Having joined the Marines in the late 50s, serving in
the Far east, Hardin returned home as a heroin addict.
He moved to New York in 1961 to study at the American
Academy Of Dramatic Art, and began performing
acoustic blues in the clubs and coffee houses of
Greenwich Village, befriending fellow addicts Karen
Dalton and Fred Neil in the process. By the time folkie
erik Jacobsen caught up with Hardin in 1963, he had
moved on to Cambridge, Massachusetts.
A banjo player cutting his teeth as a producer/
Svengali, Jacobsen was looking for singers for his
embryonic dance craze, The Slurp, and had been
alerted to Hardin via a Boston folk duo. I called Tim up
about working together and the first thing he said was,

60 | UNCUT | MARCH 2016

THE 15
MINUTES
AFTER TIM
SHoT Up
wERE
pIVoTAL
joHN
SEBASTIAN

John
Sebastian,
1969

Do you have any money? Send me a plane ticket and 100

bucks. I met him in New York, and he immediately said,
Have you got any shit?, meaning smack. We went over to
my apartment, sat on a chair and started singing, and I
instantly forgot about my dance craze. This guys voice was
from another world. The control, the dynamics, the tremolo.
He was incredible.
At a time when hard and often artless male voices were in
vogue, Hardins rich vibrato marked him out. His repertoire,
on the other hand, was straight blues: Stagger lee, House
Of The Rising Sun, Hoochie Coochie Man. He loved
Jimmy Reed, Chuck Berry and, above all, Ray Charles.
Impressed, Jacobsen cut a series of demos with his new
protg. On one occasion he was accompanied by a friend
who stole everything from the studio office, even the signs
from the bathroom door, he says. But on the strength of
those recordings, Columbia decided to do a test session with
Tim. Jacobsen roped in some local friends, including Cass
elliot and John Sebastian, who, prior to forming The lovin
Spoonful, was playing harmonica around Greenwich
Village. Sebastian first met Hardin the night before the
Columbia session. It was midnight, and there was a knock
on the door of my apartment. Its Tim, and he goes, Were
going to do a session tomorrow, and you know whats going
to happen? Youre going to play better than you ever played
in your life. You know why? Because youre going to be
playing with me.
Tim had a magnetic personality, says Jacobsen. He
was good-looking, soulful, funny and bright, but he was
not a jovial guy. Smiles were given begrudgingly. Women
loved him, and he went from place to place, gaining their
trust. He took advantage of these gals pretty bad. He was
a conniving, lying type of guy.
Despite Hardins pre-match hype, the Columbia
recordings were a disaster. He nodded out early on and
we couldnt use anything, says Jacobsen, who shortly

They included eddie Gomez on bass, Mike Mainieri

on vibraphone and Warren Bernhardt on piano.
The first time we met, he opens up this satchel
and there are all these vials of drugs, says
Bernhardt. It was like no other night Ive ever
had in New York. He had a fifth of bourbon
and a cowboy hat and we visited people he
knew around the Upper West Side and the
Village, including Nico. He was truly the
wildest guy Id ever met. It didnt seem like
anyone elses rules of behaviour worked for
him; he had his own system of values. Hed
do and say things to offend you, but if you
got beyond that he could be a remarkably fun
guy to hang out with. Tremendous sense of
humour. Very kind, very generous. Id never met
anybody like him.
Hardin was booked for a week at The
Scene, a club on West 46th Street, during
which he delivered a crash course in his
cavalier approach to live performance.
His music was pretty simple, like folk,
but he loved jazz players who could
improvise, says Mainieri. There were
no set arrangements. Hed just get up and
start, and might not sing a verse again, or
hed suddenly go to the bridge. It was like,
Oh, hes going here an extra four beats!
Sometimes he was downright
mediocre, says Bernhardt. Other times he
was the greatest singer Id ever heard in my
life. We had a week at The Scene. We played
Tuesday to Friday, and then on the Saturday
Tim disappeared. He was gone, and we
played without him. Turned out he was in
Colorado. So I saw the erratic side of him
early on. He could vaporise at any time.
By this time, Hardin had left New York for
los Angeles. He moved to escape people
he owed money to, says Jacobsen. He was
supposed to deliver some heroin to the lower
east Side, but it went wrong and he was
chased onto a rooftop. He got himself into
deeper and deeper trouble, so he left. He went
cold turkey on a cross-country bus journey.
When I went to visit he was staying in lenny
Bruces place in lA. He played me some new
stuff and we did some demo sessions.

afterwards signed Hardin to the stable of Charles

Koppelman and Don Rubin, two New York impresarios.
The pair secured a record deal with Verve-Forecast just
as Hardin hit upon a songwriting seam of astonishing
depth and maturity.
The material he wrote and recorded in 1964 and
1965 include most of the songs on which his
reputation still rests, among them How Can We
Hang On To A Dream?, Misty Roses, Reason To
Believe, Itll Never Happen Again, Dont Make
Promises, Red Balloon, Part Of The Wind and
Black Sheep Boy. Otherworldly, poetic and
darkly romantic, their origins were prosaic. For
Tim, money for drugs was his paramount motivation
for everything, says Jacobsen. I paid him $50 to write
each song, my only stipulation was that it had to
have two verses and a chorus. Youll notice there
are few third verses and bridges in his songs!
Only two songs on his first two records are over
three minutes long. Some are as short as 70
seconds. The economy, somehow, is part of the
appeal. Theres something very disarming
about how simple those songs are, says Will
Sheff of Okkervil River, the Texan band which
recorded an entire album of Hardin songs in
2005. A Tim Hardin song never outstays its
welcome. Its very short and pretty: one verse,
one chorus, second verse, and hes out of there.
Its like a tiny, perfectly cut gem.
Cutting these diamonds in the studio was a
precarious business. The 15 minutes after he
shot up were pivotal moments in the session,
says Sebastian. Hed go to the bathroom
wed time it, wed let him nod for a minute,
and then wed go. Really cool stuff happened,
but it was difficult.
The sessions were stressful, says Jacobsen.
You never knew if he was going to come in,
but when he was on, he rarely missed a note.
He could do a couple of takes and that was it.
His debut single, How Can We Hang On To A
Dream?, was released in February 1966. Tim
Hardin 1 followed in July, the bare recordings
At the Caf Au Go
fleshed out with strings and keyboards, not
Go, Greenwich
Village, New York,
always to Hardins liking, for a rich pop-folk
August 29, 1964
ambience. Shortly after its release, he met the
group of New York jazz musicians who would
become his principal live band for the next few years.

BUYERS GUIDE FIVE ESSENTIAL TIM HARDIN ALBUMS

TIM
HARDIN 1

TIM
HARDIN 2

(VERVEFORECAST,
1966)

(VERVEFORECAST,
1967)

Deserves a place
among the canonical
albums of 1966. One or
two tracks are bluesy
filler. The rest (Misty
Roses, Reason To
Believe, Dont Make
Promises, Itll Never
Happen Again, et
al) are the sublime
songs which forged
Hardins reputation.

His most complete

record. The opening
four-song run is a match
for any album of the
era, marred only by
Baby Close Its Eyes,
a saccharine ode to his
newborn son. Also
includes the magnificent
Speak Like A Child and
the self-aware Tribute To
Hank Williams (I didnt
know you, but Ive been
places youve been).

TIM
HARDIN
3: LIVE IN
CONCERT

(VERVEFORECAST, 1968)

Recorded with a fine (if

sorely tested) band at
New York Town Hall, this
is a valuable, audio vrit
document of Hardins
mercurial live presence.
Reason To Believe is
effortless, but Misty
Roses is a high-wire act,
and almost a write-off.
And so it goes.

TIM
HARDIN 4

SUITE
FOR
SUSAN
MOORE

(VERVE,
1969)

Recorded
prior to his debut album,
a patchy but historically
fascinating account of
Hardin as an acoustic
blues troubadour and
derivative fledgling
songwriter. Thats
John Sebastian puffing
away on blues harp on
several songs.

(COLUMBIA,
1969)

The cool precision of

Hardins writing unravels
compellingly on an
intense, fragmentary
and underrated work.
Deeply personal, richly
allegorical, rambling
poetry recitations
sit alongside deep blue
incantations such
as Once-Touched
By Flame.

MARCH 2016 | UNCUT |

61

KAI SHUMAN/MICHAel OCHS ARCHIVeS/GeTTY IMAGeS

tim hardin

DaviD ReDfeRn/ReDfeRns

tim hardin
with someone smacked out onstage or in the studio.
Hardins own version of if i Were a Carpenter
appeared on Tim Hardin 2, released in april 1967 and
featuring Morss on the cover, pregnant with their
son Damion, born in La on february 28, 1967.
Hardin and Jacobsen parted company before the
album was finished. By that time i had a heavy
involvement with The Lovin spoonful, and Tim was a
little jealous, says Jacobsen. He felt i was letting him
down, but he was so damn difficult to work with. i didnt
see him for years. Tim Hardin 2 was completed using
demos and songs from sessions dating back to 1964, fleshed
out with overdubs. Running to a mere 22 minutes, it is his
finest (third of an) hour, the honed essence of Hardin.

Two new songs were inspired by his

relationship with susan Morss, a wealthy young
actress known professionally as susan yardley,
who starred in daytime soap The Young
Marrieds. one was the ruefully romantic The
Lady Came from Baltimore. The other was if i
Were a Carpenter, a humbled declaration of
devotion across the social divide. He used to
send us songs in a wooden box that he had made
himself, says Charles Koppelman. Thats the way
i got if i Were a Carpenter. i knew it was a classic
straight away. i had a meeting with another of our acts,
Bobby Darin, who was going through a lean spell, and a
week later we were in the studio. it was that quick. Tim
hadnt recorded it properly himself, although his
demo was pretty darn good.
Darins lushly orchestrated version of Hardins
new composition became a Top 10 in the us and
uK in october 66, much to its writers chagrin.
He hated the Darin thing, says Bernhardt.
He liked the fact people were listening to his
music, but he wanted them to hear him doing
it. it was the start of a gold rush on Hardin
material, as it became clear that his songs were
easier to deal with than he was. His drug habit
had become so evident, everyone knew it was part
of the package, says John sebastian. if you could
separate the song from the guy, you didnt have to deal

fIVE GREAT HARDIN cOVERs

Scott Walker
Black Sheep Boy
(SCOTT 2, 1967)

If anybody can
empathise with the
familys unowned boy, you feel, its
Walker, who croons Hardins hymn
of otherness magnificently over a
satisfyingly meaty arrangement, swept
with luxurious strings.

rod SteWart
reaSon to Believe
(EVERY PICTURE TELLS
A STORY, 1971)

the final track on

stewarts 1971 album is an interpretative

masterclass, colouring in Hardins

sketch with rolling piano, Hammond
organ, stand-up bass and fiddle. Initially
released as the a-side of Maggie May,
he still performs it today.

roBert plant
if i Were a
carpenter
(FATE OF NATIONS, 1993)

sung by everyone from

Johnny Cash to John Holt and Willie
nelson, Plants dramatic, romantic
reading brings an Eastern flavour,
with dust-blown strings and sitar.

kathryn WilliamS
hoW can We hang
on to a dream?
(RELATIONS, 2004)

a highlight of Williams
fine covers album, this gloriously stark
rendition puts xylophone, cello and
unvarnished melancholy at the fore.
Compelling proof of how adaptable
Hardins songs can be.

mark lanegan
red Balloon
(REASONS TO BELIEVE:
THE SONGS OF TIM HARDIN,
2012)

Scott
Walker,
1967

62 | unCuT | MaRCH 2016

an earthy blues played on open-tuned

acoustic guitar, Hardins dark tale of
heroin and lost innocence covers
territory Lanegan knows all too
well, and he delivers with
powerful understatement.

iTH Money pouRing in from

publishing, early in 1968 Hardin and
his young family joined the exodus of
singer-songwriters relocating to Woodstock. Living
in a fine house in upstate new york, he was visited
by Jimi Hendrix, who dandled Damion on his
knee, as well as the areas most famous artist-inresidence, Bob Dylan, who was already a fan.
around the time Hardin arrived, Dylan and The
Band were bashing through if i Were a Carpenter
in Big pink, a spirited rendition recently unveiled on
The Basement Tapes Complete. Much later, in 1994, Dylan
took to performing The Lady Came from Baltimore in his
live set. Bob Dylan came over because he was blown away
by dad, says Damion Hardin. My mother says that Dad
took me over to Dylans house and i knocked over Dylans
guitar, and Dylan got mad about it.
i dont think there was all that much interaction, says
Warren Bernhardt. i think Tim envied Dylan and was a
little jealous of his success. Tim had that side: why isnt it
me? i remember he was mad when John Wesley Harding
came out because he claimed that John Wesley Hardin was
one of his relatives. it was all bullshit, but he was mad that
Dylan did it! His musical tastes were picky. He hated the
stones. He thought The Beatles were oK. He liked Dr Johns
first album, and Cat stevens and fred neil. He loved Ray
Charles, but i never heard him gush about anybody.
in the period following Tim Hardin 2, Hardin released
three further Lps, none of which featured new songs or
fresh studio recordings. some of his 1964 blues demos were
repackaged in 67 as This Is Tim Hardin, then raided again
for Tim Hardin 4 in 1969. Tim Hardin 4 was the result of
them not being able to get Tim into the studio to do his job,
says sebastian. it was kind of a desperation move.
in between came Tim Hardin 3, cut live at new york Town
Hall, april 10, 1968, and released that november. it almost
never happened. When it came to show time we couldnt
find him, says Koppelman. He showed up an hour and a
half late, and in the middle of one song he fell off the chair.
i was disappointed in the Town Hall performance,
because there was no real rehearsal, says Mike Mainieri.
He was stoned and i was really pissed off, but that
wasnt unusual. i remember once we had three days in
philadelphia and i left after the second day. There was a
brawl. He was a tough little dude, he could be violent.
shortly afterwards, Koppelman and Rubin severed their
ties, exasperated by Hardins inability to get his act together.
John sebastian, too, had started actively avoiding him.
i hated seeing him, he says. He abused peoples trust
and good nature, and unfortunately the weight of that fell
on the people who were trying to do the most for him.
He sabotaged things himself, says Bernhardt. He got
into bad management, he must have had a hundred tour
managers. He was a magician at music, but when it came to
dealing with the people, he wasnt always the best.
Hardin signed to Columbia in 1969, and cut a smartly
turned out cover of Bobby Darins simple song of freedom

last gooDbye

HANG
ON TO A
DREAM
Damion Hardin
recalls his final
meeting with
his father

I
At New Yorks Kraft
Music Hall with
his live band,
August 21, 1968

i remember being really nervous about meeting him. He

picked us up in a Rolls-Royce at the airport, the kind of
flashy thing he enjoyed doing when he could. Things didnt
work out, and i didnt see him again for years.
Living off-grid, Hardin surfaced again in the summer
of 1976 at the Bottom Line in new york, with Bernhardt
playing piano. i realised that i couldnt work with this guy
anymore, he says. He was sucking energy
from me. i called it astral vampirism. it was
ghastly. We never spoke after that.

I THINk
TIM wAs
A lITTlE
jEAlOus
Of DylANs
succEss
wARREN
BERNHARDT

y 1978, HaRDin was living in West

Hollywood, renting a house a block
away from his sons school. i went
over every day, and he taught me how to kick
a field goal in the front yard, says Damion
Hardin. We didnt spend a lot of time
together, but most of it was about football.
By chance, erik Jacobsen found himself in
the same studio as Hardin at the end of the
70s and failed to realise that the chubby
bald guy in the corner was the devilish
roustabout hed known a decade before. He
was unrecognisable. Life had been hard on
him. Hardin was working on new tracks,
eventually released in incomplete form in
1981 as Unforgiven. He called me just before
he died, says Mike Mainieri. He said, ive
got it together. im making another Lp, you
can help me with the arrangements. He said hed get the
flights sorted. Just a few days later, he was gone.
When Hardin died of a heroin overdose six days after his
39th birthday, on December 29, 1980, his demise passed
virtually unreported. More than 35 years on, Charles
Koppelman laments the fact hes still
not a household name, but celebrates
the longevity of his work. He was the
most miraculous of songwriters and
singers, and im extremely proud that
i continue to hear his songs. Hes one of
the unsung heroes.
He knew how great he was, but im not
sure he could handle his greatness, says
Warren Bernhardt. onstage, we got to
places i never got to with anyone else.
ive played with some amazing people
and Tim was the best.

see presents?
He knew bullshit when
he heard it, but I took
off. Unfortunately,
that was the last time
I saw him. My most
powerful experience
with his music came
later, on my 21st
birthday. I decided to
put on Baby Close Its
Eyes. I just imagined
Mom and Dad and the
glow they must have
had when I was born:
how it was love.
I imagined the hospital
scene and I started
bawling so hard. Most
of what I have with my
dad is imaginary. I still
talk to him a couple
of times a year. I ask
him questions and he
answers me as clear as
a bell. no grey areas.
Keep it simple, man.
and I try to.

MaRCH 2016 | unCuT |

63

nBC/nBCu pHoTo BanK via geTTy iMages; anDRe CsiLLag/ReX/sHuTTeRsToCK

as a standalone single. a straightforward anthem, it

provided Hardin with his sole us Top 40, something he
viewed with bittersweet detachment. He didnt like it,
says Bernhardt. i never played it with him, he never did
it in concerts.
instead, he spent months with a remote recording truck
parked in front of his Woodstock home, using the porch as a
control room. The resulting album, Suite For
Susan Moore And Damion: We Are One, One,
All In One, was an ambitious, heartfelt and
somewhat desperate love letter to a family
unit already falling apart. around this time
my mom took me and left, says Damion
Hardin. Later, she had the unfortunate task
of explaining why. she said, your father is a
very, very talented person, but he has some
issues that were a problem.
shortly after the albums release, at 9pm
on august 15, 1969, Hardin appeared on the
opening night of Woodstock, backed by a
new group of musicians. Drummer steve
Booker recalls going up to Woodstock the
night before the show. Tim was sitting in
his living room nude, with a great big
watermelon in front of him. He sat there like
a very illuminated soul, singing and playing
his guitar. Bill Chelf was hired to play
keyboards. not everybody got along with
Tim, he says. He had one band rule: you
had to get your own drugs! on the night, we werent very
together. We didnt realise the scale of it and didnt have
time to rehearse and gel.
Hardins short, erratic though at times compelling
performance was not included in the subsequent film, and
his already precarious career began to
wane. 1971s Bird On A Wire featured only
four original songs and barely scraped into
the Billboard 200. He registered with a
methadone programme at gracie square
Hospital in Manhattan, but struggled to get
clean. He sold his copyrights, says Damion
Hardin, for a suitcase full of cash. shortly
afterwards Hardin left for London, where
he made two patchy records: Painted Bird
(1972) and Nine (1973). i spent time with
Hardin live at
him in London, says his son. There was
Hammersmith
Odeon, 1977
an attempted reconciliation with Mom, and

ts not a
great last
memory. He
had come over to the
house in La where I
lived with Mom, and I
just wanted to get out.
I was 13 and a budding
addict myself at that
point. I had some pot I
wanted to smoke, and
I couldnt be bothered
with him. I said I had to
go to a birthday party,
and he knew I was
lying. He said, I dont

coming soon

fulltimehobby.co.uk

out now worldwide

JESSE MALIn

outsiders tour 2016

with don dilego & trapper schoepp

18.2.16 - The Institute - Birmingham, UK

19.2.16 - belgrave music hall - leeds, uk
20.2.16 - electric circus - edinburgh, uk
22.2.16 - king tuts - glasgow, uk
23.2.16 - sound control - manchester, uk
24.2.16 - dingwalls - london, uk
25.2.16 - green door store - brighton, uk
w

it h

d o n

d i l e g o

&

t r a p p e r

s c h o e p p

www.jessemalin.com indian.co.uk velvetelkrecords.com

deluxe reissue feb 26, 2016

our scoring system:

New albums
T HIS mon T H: elTon joHn | ST ev e m a Son | r a ngda & mor e

ToM anDreW

10 Masterpiece 9 Essential 8 Excellent

7 Very good6 Good but uneven
4-5 Mediocre 1-3 Poor

AnimAl collective
Painting With
Domino

Bubblegum psych-pop in excelsis as the merry

pranksters almost clean up their act. By Piers Martin
tracklist
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

FloriDada
Hocus Pocus
Vertical
Lying In The Grass
The Burglars
Natural Selection
Bagels In Kiev
On Delay
Spilling Guts
Summing The Wretch
Golden Gal
Recycling

8/10

Travellers passing
Through BaltimoreWashington international
airport heading home for Thanksgiving on
november 25 last year may well have heard
some strange new pop music coming from the
airports speakers. as discreet promotion to
herald the arrival of their latest album, one of
Baltimores best-known experimental jambands, animal Collective, were pumping out
their 11th long-player on a loop throughout the
day to anyone who cared to listen. Quite what
effect this had on unsuspecting travellers is not

known it surely drove staff nuts by the end of

the day but the fact that an animal Collective
record was deemed suitable to be aired non-stop
in a public building on the eve of a national
holiday gives some indication of the character
of the music. no two ways about it, really:
Painting With is as close to conventional pop
as animal Collective have come.
This should come as a relief to anyone turned
off by their last album, 2012s Centipede Hz,
which veered away from the lush tropical
vistas of their 2009 high-water mark,
Merriweather Post Pavilion, to reveal a
MarCh 2016 | unCuT |

65

New Albums

Animal Collective (from left,

Noah Panda Bear Lennox,
Brian Geologist Weitz,
Dave Avey Tare Portner)

gnarly and unvarnished side to the band.

Bristling with restless energy and almost
deliberately perverse, Centipede Hz seemed
to ask questions of those new fans seduced by
the charming psychedelia of Merriweather,
perhaps warning admirers that Animal
Collective are not just here for the blissful
moments in life. One only has to peruse their
15-year discography to hear them evolve
with each release, shapeshifting into a
slightly different entity, seldom repeating
themselves as they look for new ways and
forms of expression.
But Painting With is striking because it
manages to distill the essence of Animal
Collective into 12 slices of bite-size psych-pop
that have the punchy immediacy of a Ramones
album and which find Dave Portner (Avey Tare),
Noah Lennox (Panda Bear) and Brian Weitz

How
To Buy...
the
baltimore
shapeshifters
on cd

TOM ANDREW

From blissed-out
psych-pop and tiedyed electronica to
sci-fi doo-wop and
delirious mind-funk
the recent work of
Animal Collective

animal
collectiVe
Merriweather Post
Pavilion DOMINO, 2009

animal
collectiVe
Centipede Hz

ACs growing pop sensibility

coalesces with their tie-dyed
electronics on a euphoric
record that Uncut named
as a landmark American
album of the century. They
suddenly come alive with the
syrupy bliss of Summertime
Clothes, as if theyd
swapped LSD for MDMA.

10/10
66 | UNCUT | MARCH 2016

(Geologist) regular collaborator Josh

Deakin Dibb sat this album out adhering
fairly strictly to a set of ideas designed to take
the group out of their comfort zone. There are no
ambient pieces or improv jams, for example,
and no songs over five minutes: most zip by in
three minutes, into which Animal Collective
cram their usual quota of experimentation with
heightened cartoon exuberance to make some
of the most exciting music of their career.
Portner cites old-school hit factory Tin Pan
Alley and Ray Davies as influences on his more
concise songwriting for Painting With, while
Lennox felt the Cubist notion of distorting and
rearranging reality could be applied to these
songs an obvious idea thats always hovered
around Animal Collective, and which they
make explicit on this record. Hence opener and
lead single FloriDada, a gurgling Ren &

Stimpy eulogy to the Sunshine State stacked

with rippling Beach Boys harmony, nurseryrhyme melody and a sample of The Surfaris
classic Wipe Out. This first new track in
four years places the nimble vocal interplay
between Portner and Lennox to the fore the
pair wrote parts for each other and recorded the
vocals sitting high up on pedestals to better
project to one another and this is repeated
across the album on Hocus Pocus, Lying In
The Grass, Spilling Guts and Summing The
Wretch, one singer completing the others
phrase or shadowing the lead in a pacey game
of doo-wop ping-pong.
Animal Collective have never had trouble
locating their inner child much of their appeal
lies in their ability to conjure a nave sense of
new-age wonder and their tactical regression
this time has fuelled this positive approach to

panda bear
Panda Bear Meets
The Grim Reaper

DOMINO, 2012

aVeY tares
slasher flicKs
Enter The Slasher
House DOMINO, 2014

The bad-trip comedown

after the lucid E-rush? Not
quite, but the delirious
Fraggle Rock mind-funk of
Centipede Hz, which sees
AC grappling anxiously with
a collection of hyperactive
songs. Its psych-punk
immediacy is handled with
more care on Painting With.

Dave Avey Tare Portner

steps out of the Collective
to hook up with exDirty Projector Angel
Deradoorian and drummer
Jeremy Hyman for a
surprisingly straight set
of bedroom disco and
reverb-smothered pop
(Roses On The Window).

Noah Lennox perfects his

idiosyncratic sci-fi doo-wop
on this sublime fifth solo
album that refracts The
Beach Boys and Steve Reich
through a prism of rainforest
psychedelia and gurgling
electronics. Grim Reaper
sounds heartbreaking and
ecstatic at the same time.

6/10

6/10

DOMINO, 2015

8/10

New Albums
pop. Naturally, when they entered the storied
EastWest Studios in Los Angeles in July last
year to record Painting With using the room
where Pet Sounds took shape they set up a
babys paddling pool in the studio and projected
a loop of dinosaur films on the wall. As with
the sessions for Merriweather, the three had sent
demos and ideas to each other before recordings
began, with Lennox and Portner bringing eight
songs apiece to the studio. Both artists had
toyed with the pop form and explored succinct
songwriting on their recent solo albums
as Avey Tares Slasher Flicks and, more
successfully, Lennoxs Panda Bear Meets The
Grim Reaper, but here its Portner who delivers
the niftiest numbers.
The Burglars could be the Happy Days
theme collapsing down a wormhole: When I
was young my parents yelled, Beware of the ivory
man that will steal and sell, Portner trills, as a
mangled zurna spills over breakbeats before the
honeyed chorus kicks in. On the sentimental
Bagels In Kiev he loosely addresses the
situation in Ukraine
These days Im not so
sleeVe
sure who is getting
notes
along or if they were
Produced by:
before its like we
Animal Collective
cant escape all the
and Sonny DiPerri
noise and violence,
Recorded at: Drop Of
Sun Studios, Asheville,
he sings, adding:
North Carolina and
Bagels for everyone,
EastWest Studios,
thats the kind of thing
Los Angeles
you wouldve wanted
Mixed at: Gang
as Christmas synths
Recording Studio, Paris
swell to a dreamy
Personnel: Dave
Portner (vocals,
crescendo. Both songs
guitar, electronics,
clock in well below
synthesiser,
three minutes yet
percussion), Noah
are so intricately
Lennox (vocals,
structured, using
electronics,
layers of modular
synthesiser,
percussion), Brian
synth patterns,
Weitz (electronics),
samples and
Colin Stetson
patchwork rhythms,
(saxophone), John
that it takes several
Cale (electronics)
listens to register all
the activity. That the
band carve clarity out of such chaos merely
underlines their psychedelic credentials, and
rather shows up fellow lava-lamp botherers such
as Tame Impala and UMO as modern-day Totos.
Indeed, submerged in the cosmic funk of
Vertical is an analogue belch played by one
John Cale, while sax man to the stars Colin
Stetson appears on FloriDada, though both
turns seem so nuanced you wonder what was
actually added, especially when a sample of a
trumpet then appears in Lying In The Grass.
Having never found a use for brass on their
previous albums, Portner was determined to
make room for it here.
The abrupt nature and fizzy disposition
of Painting With might cause some long-time
AC acolytes to splutter on their bong, but why
would this extraordinary band want to remake
Merriweather? Label them Dada, Cubist
or pop art as you wish each tag fits but
like true postmodernists, Animal Collective
are making it up as they go along, and theyre
never boring.

Noah Panda Bear

Lennox on how Cubism,
John Cale and The Golden
Girls informed the new
Animal Collective sound

hat were you looking to

do with this record?
On the most basic level we were
trying to do something that
was exciting for us, and thats the best you
can do, really. You have to let the chips fall
where they do after that. We were trying to do
something new, and Im not gonna presuppose
that its new for the universe, but its something
that feels fresh and different.
Setting out, did you give yourselves
any guidelines?
We had three ideas that we clung to the whole
time. We tried to do something that had really
short songs, and we spoke about basic plodding
rhythms, and we wanted to do something
different or special for us with the singing.
Its typical for us to throw up a bunch of ideas
like, Yeah, we wanna do something that
makes me think of ballet! But by the time
youve finished recording it, it hasnt really
turned out that way.
how did you adhere to this idea with
the vocals?
For the first time, Dave and I both wrote singing
parts for each other to sing, and it had to be that
way because of how precise the songs are. The
two vocals dance around each other in this
weird way, and if you lose one of the voices in
the song, it just doesnt work in the same way.
Writing music for two voices took a bit of work
for both of us. Lying In The Grass is a good
example of this in one of my songs, and then
FloriDada or Vertical for Dave. For this
record, Dave and I had wanted to do nine songs
apiece and it ended up being eight apiece, but
that turned out to be more than enough. I started
writing for the record on January 1 of last year. I
spent a month and a half writing and then sent
demos to the other guys in late February/March.
how does the album title
relate to the music?
In the beginning we didnt
have painting as a target
but we found, as we were
making the record, we were
often talking about it in
visual terms, often with
painting references, like,
This sound feels like a
splat of paint, or I wanna
do a part that feels like
taking a paintbrush and putting a colour all over
the song. I should say that we dont have a grasp
of the more technical side of music so were often
forced to translate ideas in more figurative or
visual ways. This time, for whatever reason, we
talked about paint a lot. I think we were even
going to call the record Paint at one point. The
Marcel Duchamp stuff is more Daves thing
the Dada and FloriDada connection is pretty
direct. I wasnt that knowledgeable about the
Dada stuff until talking to these guys about
it after the song. My favourite is the Cubist

Painter man: Noah

Panda Bear Lennox

reference. Cubism often involves a distorted,

rearranged version of reality and I feel like a lot
of these songs feature elements of traditional
songwriting or traditional songform but are
kind of rearranged or distorted in funny ways.
what was your brief for John Cale when he
joined you in the studio?
There was a sound in Hocus Pocus that Brian
was playing and we all liked the part but werent
sold on the quality of the sound in terms of how it
related to other sounds in the song. Daves sister
was working for John doing live visuals, and the
part was kind of like a stringy-type instrument,
so we wondered if John would come in and use
his viola and recreate the part. That didnt end up
working, or we didnt use the viola stuff he did,
but he also brought in some electronics, like a
sampler and other things, and we tried a whole
bunch of things and talked about the song and
hung out for half a day. It was super cool. [Cales
contribution appears on Vertical.]
you invited saxophonist Colin Stetson to play
on the record, too, on FloriDada.
We were into this idea of using an instrument or
a quality of a sound that we hadnt found a way
to do so before, in a way that we found pleasing.
Saxophones and wind instruments in general
are something weve always found challenging
to fit into our music, so it was a fun challenge
to do that this time. But were all big fans
of Colin and like the way
he uses his instrument
idiosyncratically. Hes
a good traditional player
but he also has a unique
way of using the
instrument. We knew
we wanted this specific
part of the song to feature
saxophone, so we ran the
part and he set up his
saxophones, three of four
of them some of them are
really big and he ripped for an hour. He was
looping and playing over it, he did seven or eight
layers of stuff. Then we chose bits from that.

Were often forced

to translate ideas in
more figurative or
visual ways

how much did those Golden Girls samples

cost for Golden Gal?
Too much. Yeah, that one stung a little bit but it
was an important part of the song, so off we go.
Five figures?
Yeah, in that range.
INTERVIEW: PIERS MARTIN

MARCH 2016 | UNCUT |

67

New Albums

Emitt RhodEs
rainbow ends
omnivore

cult American singer-songwriter delivers his

first new album in 43 years. By Rob Hughes

7/10

trackLiSt
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

Dog on a Chain
if i knew then
if it isnt so
this wall between us
someone else
i Cant tell my Heart
Put some rhythm to it
its all behind us now
whats a man to Do
fridays Love
rainbow ends

68 | UNCUT | MARCH 2016

IN THe lINeR notes of 1973s

Farewell To Paradise, his third
studio album, emitt Rhodes
sounded like a defeated man. Someone said
something about the world stepping aside when
a man knew what he wanted, he wrote, with a
tangibly dissolute air. Ive known for some time
and the world hasnt made it any easier for me.
Those things I cherish most I worked long and
paid dearly for. Rather than the usual promotional
flam, Rhodes instead appeared to be saying
goodbye. As it turned out, he was.
It had all begun so promisingly. Hed signed to
A&M in 1966, aged just 16, and fronted baroque-pop
combo The Merry-Go-Round, who scored regional
hits in lA with Time Will Show The Wiser and
live. By the end of the decade hed switched to
ABC-Dunhill to realise his ambition as a solo artist.
Bunkering down in a home studio behind his
parents garage, Rhodes made perfectionist, pianoled pop with a sophistication and melodic beauty

that ranked alongside the best efforts of Randy

Newman, Harry Nilsson and Jimmy Webb. Perhaps
most of all, his mellow tone and gift for a sweet hook
led to frequent comparisons with one of his idols,
Paul McCartney. Such plaudits seemed justified
when 1970s Emitt Rhodes made the US Top 30.
It wasnt long, however, before his troubles
started. Signed to a deal that required him to
produce a new album every six months an
impossible task for a one-man operation devoted to
complex, multi-layered pop music Rhodes found
himself on the wrong end of a six-figure lawsuit from
his own record company. The dispute gradually
crushed his resolve. After Farewell To Paradise,
Rhodes went home, shut the door and more or less
stayed put for the duration. I just burned out, he
admitted to Uncut in 2010.
Rhodes personal life was in ruins, too. His wife
divorced him, and the ensuing decades found him
undergoing periodic bouts of depression and
suffering from diabetes. There were a couple of

New Albums

Chris Price (Producer)

What did you discover about emitt as you
got to know him?
He was a brilliant guy but heartbroken. He
seemed bitter about the past and as far
from a comeback as you could imagine. i
dont know if he was inspired, or maybe as i
kept showing him music i was working on,
but he got back into a musical headspace.
is Rainbow Ends effectively a sequel to
1973s Farewell To Paradise?
musically, its meant to serve as a what
if emitt had kept making albums in the
mid-to-late 70s? i think Farewell gives
indications that he wouldve become one
of the AM Gold artists of that era, on
the same radio stations as andrew Gold
and 10cc. we didnt try to copy the sound
of his early albums, but i wanted to create
a continuum.
do you think emitts started to make
peace with his past?
im not sure if he ever will, but hes in a
much better place than 10 years ago.
Hes a lot funnier and in better spirits.
He enjoys it in his studio again, which is
a really big deal and can be very
therapeutic. He may realise that pie-inthe-sky dreams are fantasies, but he now
knows whats really important.

GReG AlleN

INTERVIEW: ROB HUGHES

sweet candour, Ill take the car/Ill take the

house/Ill take the kids and then Ill turn you out.
This theme of loneliness and rejection is a
recurring motif on Rainbow
Ends. And if it occasionally
SLEEVE
lapses into self-pity, theres also
notES
a confessional aspect that feels
recorded at: emitt
unnervingly candid. On Whats
rhodes home studio,
A Man To Do, one of two songs
Hawthorne, California
dating from abandoned sessions
producer: Chris Price
with a group that included
aborted comeback albums, while
personnel
includes:
Richard Thompson in 2010,
his flame was kept a-flicker by an
emitt
rhodes
(vocals,
Rhodes baldly states: Im
appearance on the soundtrack of The
acoustic guitar, piano),
feeling empty/Hollow inside/Just
Royal Tenenbaums and, in 2009, a
Chris Price (guitar,
so numb/Cant even cry.
documentary about his career, The
organ,
harmony
vocals),
The bleak pallor of Rhodes
One Man Beatles. But it was only in
roger
Joseph
manning
lyrics is in sharp contrast to the
2013, encouraged by artist/producer
Jr (piano, mellotron,
warm complexion of the albums
Chris Price, that he began to unveil a
clavinet, vibraphone,
musical settings. These tunes
bunch of new songs that hed been
harmony
vocals),
Jason
are lacquered with the soft-rock
storing in manila envelopes at home.
falkner,
taylor
Locke,
sensibilities of the 70s and 80s,
Rainbow Ends is the finished result.
nels Cline (electric
Price and the band creating
Producer Price has brought in a raft
guitar), fernando
bright, crisp arrangements with
of admirers to serve as house band,
Perdomo
(bass),
Joe
very little flab. This can be seen
including ex-Jellyfish duo Roger
seiders
(drums,
perc),
as a strength and weakness.
Joseph Manning Jr and Jason
Probyn Gregory (slide
lovely songs like This Wall
Falkner, and New Pornographers
guitar, horns), Pat
Between Us and Isnt It So
drummer Joe Seiders. There are also
sansone
(acoustic
(originally issued in sax-heavy
cameos from Aimee Mann, Susanna
guitar),
aimee
mann,
form on 1995 comp Listen, Listen)
Hoffs, Wilcos Nels Cline and
susanna Hoffs
posit Rhodes in his natural
Pat Sansone, plus members of
(harmony vocals)
habitat: the burnished balladeer
Brian Wilsons backing troupe.
making light confections of a
Despite its many-handedness,
heavy heart. At other times, though, Rainbow
Rainbow Ends is an intensely personal vision.
Ends strays into slightly sappy MOR. What
Indeed, it feels more like a companion piece to his
ultimately shines through, despite all the
great 70s work than it does a postscript. Rhodes
self-admonishment, is Rhodes apparent
often sounds like hes still a broken man rueful,
willingness to move on, no matter how difficult
pained by regret, unable to quite reconcile himself
it may be. The closing title track suggests hes
with his past. His heartache appears all too raw, for
finally begun to open his eyes to the fresh
example, on Dog On A Chain, a song that has its
possibilities that life has to offer a man nearing
roots in the late 70s, when he was reeling from
his 66th birthday. Moreover, hes clearly
divorce. You aint no good/I hear her say/Under her
rediscovered his appetite for making music
breath as she turns away, sings Rhodes, his voice
again. And that can only be a good thing.
deepened by time, yet retaining its youthful sense of

coming up
this month...
p70
p72
p74
p76
p77
p79
p80
p81
p83

elton john
freakwater
steve mason
matmos
prins thomas
rokia traor
mavis staples
turin brakes
rangda

BarrY
aDaMSon
Know Where
to run
Central Control

More epic soundtracks

from cinematic fantasist
his 1989 debut,
7/10 Since
Magazines former bassist
has earned a reputation for scores to nonexistent films, including 1992s Mercurynominated Soul Murder. His eighth sticks
largely to the template: In Other Worlds glides
from creepy John Carpenter synths to lalo
Schifrin drama, while Texas Crash boasts
wild slide guitar and a rhythm section so
speedy it slams through the walls of a smoky
speakeasy at full tilt. Ventures into vocal
realms, however, generate mixed results:
Up In The Airs brassy gallop sits
courageously between Inspiral Carpets and
Gallon Drunk, but Come Away merely apes
his previous work as a Bad Seed.
WYNDHAM WALLACE

SaraH
BLaSko
eternal
return
mvKa

Musical about-turn
for Australian
7/10 singer-songwriter
Sarah Blasko has stayed
largely under the radar in the UK but is an
awards magnet back home, with a clutch of
Arias (the Aussie equivalent of the Brits) and
several platinum albums under her belt. Her
sixth album, about affairs of the heart, largely
abandons the folk textures of her previous
work in favour of a glistening blend of pop and
electronica. This new direction is best
deployed in Id Be lost, a dancefloor-ready
number worthy of Donna Summer. Meanwhile,
the gentle optimism of Maybe This Time is
tinged with melancholy, with Blaskos
crystalline vocals subtly acknowledging the
disappointments to come.
FIONA STURGES

MARCH 2016 | UNCUT |

69

New Albums
Postcards From Richard Nixon and A Town
Called Jubilee as good as anything youd find
on, say, Honky Chteau.
Wonderful Crazy Night is his third album
recorded with T Bone Burnett. Its tempting to see
the Texan as providing Elton with the same
career reboot that Rick Rubin gave Johnny Cash,
although Burnetts influence has been rather
more subtle. Instead of providing Elton with
sonic cowboy boots or attempting to prove his
worthy Southern soul credentials, Burnett
merely nudges Elton towards the kind of
instrumentation that suits him there are
touches of pedal steel, accordion and clavinet,
while Eltons regular band (featuring longtime
guitarist Davey Johnstone and percussionists
Nigel Olsson and Ray Cooper) are back for the
first time in nearly a decade.
Indeed, for much of the album, theres a poppy
ebullience reminiscent of the MTV-friendly 80s
Elton. The Bo Diddley-ish boogie stomper Guilty
Pleasure and the hymnal gospel shuffle Blue
Wonderful wouldnt sound out of place on Too
Low For Zero (by far the best of his 80s LPs), nor
would the uptempo title track that opens the
album. However, with Wonderful Crazy Night,
instead of glutinous synths we have that churchy,
Band-like interplay between Eltons Allen
Toussaint-style New Orleans piano and Kim
Bullards Hammond organ. Crucially, Eltons
voice is no longer a yappy tenor but has matured
into a deep, chugging baritone, which rather suits
much of this material.
Part of the reason why rock snobs have always
been a bit snotty about Elton is possibly because
he doesnt write his own lyrics, thus lacking
that auteur status. For this reason, the best
tracks here are the ones where Bernie Taupin
successfully scripts something you can imagine
coming from the singer himself.
Its why some of the best-written
SLEEVE
hooks here In The Name Of You
NOTES
and A Good Heart, both featuring
produced by:
ABBA-like spiky, baroque piano
T Bone Burnett
intros both fall a little flat, because
and Elton John
of the rather nondescript lyrics.
Recorded at: The
Much more effective are the two
Village, Los Angeles,
musical metaphors that close the
summer 2015
album Open Chord (Youre an
personnel includes:
open chord that I could play all day)
Elton John (vocals,
works well, while Tambourine
piano, keyboards),
is the kind of earworm that Elton
Nigel Olsson (drums),
John can probably write in his sleep,
Davey Johnstone
set off by Davey Johnstones
(guitar) and Ray
12-string guitar riff, a churchy
Cooper (percussion),
Hammond countermelody and a
Matt Bissonette
killer chorus (Smack it in the
(bass), Kim Bullard
middle/Toss it in the air/I dont care,
(keyboards), John
you can play me anywhere).
Mahon (percussion)
Taupin has recently developed a
CApITOL/MERCuRY
fondness for telling historical yarns
in song the last LP had Oscar Wilde Gets Out,
Music legend continues his post-millennium form. By John Lewis
Peachtree Road featured a meditation on Elvis
entitled Porch Swing In Tupelo, while the Leon
Russell collaboration had the moving Civil War
some fine collaborations (an excellent album
WHAT WITH ALL
fable Gone To Shiloh. Here a likeable, accordionwith Leon Russell, a chart-topping remix
the tantrums and
led shuffle called Ive Got 2 Wings tells the true
collection with hipster DJs Pnau, guest slots with
tiaras, the chats
story of the Elder Utah Smith, the hard-rocking
everyone from Eminem and Queens Of The Stone
with Putin, the AIDS
African-American preacher of the 1940s and 50s
Age to the Scissor Sisters).
foundation, the arts
who was the first man of the cloth to plug in a
And, rather like lots of 70s rock icons who spent
collections and a
guitar. Its as pleasantly languid as Utah Smiths
most of the 1980s on the skids, Eltons albums
film biopic currently
music was feverishly intense.
since the millennium have been something of a
in development,
Sometimes, however, the lyrics are almost an
revelation. 2001s Songs From The West Coast,
plenty of tabloid
irrelevance. Where his last album The Diving
2004s Peachtree Road and 2013s The Diving
readers might
Board came with four piano instrumentals, here
Board each recorded swiftly, in a couple of
surprised to
7/10 be
they are segued into the songs. The earworm
weeks saw him rebuild a critical stock that
discover that Elton
Tambourine is appended by a lovely, stately
had been devalued by 1980s atrocities such as
John still actually makes music. The fact is that
gospel piano solo, while Clawhammer starts
Leather Jackets, Ice On Fire and Jump Up!. None of
the last decade and a half has been his most
and ends with a wonderfully atmospheric,
Eltons 21st-century LPs have been sonically
productive spell since the 1970s. Weve had two
dreamy astral soundscape that bears no
groundbreaking, but all have managed to
hit musicals (The Lion King and Billy Elliot) with
resemblance to the actual song. Some of us would
recapture the genteel grandeur of his golden age,
another on its way (based on the life of a TV
be quite happy to hear a whole album of this.
with tracks like I Want Love, Freaks In Love,
evangelist, written with Jake Shears), as well

Elton John

Wonderful Crazy Night

70 | UNCUT | MARCH 2016

New Albums
CHAPPO
Future
Former Self

CAVERN OF
ANTI-MATTER
Void Beats/
Invocation Trex

BLAUE BLUME
Syzygy
BRILLIANT

CAROLINE
INTERNATIONAL

Intermittently charming
debut by precocious
Copenhageners
Blaue Blume take their
name from a romantic
6/10 literary
motif, and the
title of their debut album comes from an
astronomical term. Any assumptions that
they will therefore tend towards the fey,
oblique and precious are entirely accurate.
Vocalist Jonas Smith affects a lachrymose
trill that is pitched somewhere between
the Associates Billy MacKenzie and the
Cocteau Twins Liz Fraser, and the songs on
this album are lush, fragile confections
which sound in mourning that they were
composed about 30 years too late to be
released by the 4AD label in its pomp:
Candy and Thinking Of Roxy are
especially pretty.

Stereolab leader amps up

the electronics on his
bands second
9/10 new
Variety is the theme on Tim
Ganes first widely released LP in six years. A
72-minute epic, Caverns second is more synthbased than Ganes music has ever been, but due
to Joe Dilworths propulsive drumming and
Holger Zapfs synth work, these 12 tracks never
stray into stuffiness. tardis cymbals is a
mighty opener, a mlange of chattering drum
machines, organ drones and twinkling guitar,
in 7/8 time. Pantechnicon is an arpeggiated
mix of Orbital and John Carpenter, Hi-Hats
Bring The Hiss takes a doomy, Teutonic path
through industrial electro. Bradford Cox and
Sonic Boom provide vocals, but the highlights
are Caverns own kinetic instrumentals.

Paisley-shirted
New Yorkers
second
6/10 drivetime
Shaggy Brooklyn
rockers Chappo have yet to shake their
one-hit wonder tag after their likeable early
single Come Home was used in an iPod
Touch advert in 2010. Realistically, that
probably wont change with the arrival of
second album Future Former Self, even
though mainman Alex Chappo joins
the dots between Tame Impala and The
Strokes with no little conviction on Im Not
Ready and Hang On, though he has a
tendency to slide towards generic coffeeshop Killers territory (Mad Magic, Hey
Oh). This is slick drivetime indie that could
use an edge or two to make its mark.

ANDrEW MUELLEr

toM PiNNoCk

PiErs MArtiN

BRAVE TIMBERS
Hope
LITTLE CRACKED RABBIT/GIZEH

Northern neo-classical
duo retain unusually
high spirits
As depressing as
sometimes was,
8/10 2015
Newcastles Sarah Kemp
now joined by a fellow former Lanterns On The
Lake member, Andrew Scrogham appears
unscathed, as her second albums title
underlines. Hope is largely founded on minimal
arrangements of piano and violin, the mood
soothingly optimistic, their pastoral influences
acknowledged by tracks like Sun Through
Leaves, A Break In The Clouds and After
The Rain. As with lafur Arnalds, the broad,
elementary brushstrokes can occasionally
become a little cloying, but theres a wellintentioned idealism, reminiscent of Dustin
OHallorans Emmy-winning Transparent
soundtrack, to tracks like First Light.
WYNDHAM WALLACE

BASIA BULAT
Good Advice
SECRET CITY

Morning Jacket
required by erstwhile
Canadian folkie
Formerly filed under folk,
autoharp-playing
7/10 this
Ontarian has undergone a
substantial musical makeover on her fourth
album. Bulats vibrato-heavy voice remains
more coffee house than Coachella, but
producer Jim James has reframed her break-up
ballads as a series of pop-soul stormers,
vintage in influence but contemporary in
execution. The updated Spectoresque stomp of
La La Lie sets the tone. Fool and Time
sound like The Supremes under the spell of
Danger Mouse, while In The Name Of revisits
anthemic 80s tribal pop. Among a handful of
minor gems, the title track is particularly
ravishing a bleached, beautiful slice of
modern Southern soul.
GrAEME tHoMsoN

DuOpHONIC

WER E
NEW
HERE

Brave
Timbers

While much of the clumsily framed neoclassical scene is devoted to music of fragile
melancholy, Brave Timbers are more given
to optimism. The duo, says founder Sarah
Kemp of their second LP, wanted to make an
uplifting album which offered hope and light.
Thats one reason its inspired by nature, by
taking notice of the little things around us: the
wind in the trees, new leaves.
But though Hope, like its predecessor
For Every Day You Lost recorded solely by
Kemp, who these days is joined by partner
Andrew Scrogham suits comparisons with
instrumental, acoustic acts like Rachels and
Julia Kent with its emphasis on strings, piano
and guitar, it also reflects other, less obvious,
influences. I love Brian Enos ambient work,
Kemp elaborates, for its quiet beauty and
space. I was really inspired by the fact you
dont have to have loud thrashing guitars and
big choruses to reach and move people.
She also mentions Seefeels Quique its
so meditative and Harold Budd, because
he unashamedly describes his music as
deliberately pretty and the opposite of
avant-garde. Thats how I hope to make music:
without any intellectualising about it, and no
pretentiousness. Discreet their music may
be, but there are many reasons for Hope.
WYnDHam WaLLacE

CHOIR OF
YOUNG
BELIEVERS
Grasque
GHOSTLY INTERNATIONAL

Danish indie-poppers
indulge an 80s
pop fetish
6/10 COYB
mainman Jannis
Noya Makrigiannis is arguably best known for
providing Hollow Talk as the orchestral-pop
theme tune to Scandi-noir drama The Bridge,
but his projects third album pursues a far more
electronic route. The results are suitably
polished, but their pleasures are ephemeral,
with Serious Lover aiming for 21st-century,
blue-eyed R&B but instead stirring memories
of China Crisis Black Man Ray, and the
intriguing Biosphere minimalism of Graske
slumping into excessively Auto-Tuned, Enigma
territory. Does It Look If I Cares atmospheric
coda recalls Massive Attacks Weather Storm,
but too often this sounds like a pragmatic M83.
WYNDHAM WALLACE

CLUB CHEVAL
Discipline
pARLOpHONE

French dance quartet

unveil the new sounds
of the discothque
An alliance of four
producers
7/10 Lille-based
affiliated with Paris
voguish Bromance label, Club Cheval feel a step
removed from the French dance dynasty that
begat Daft Punk, Justice, et al. In fact, Discipline
has more in common with Settle, the debut LP
by UK brothers Disclosure both are rooted in
a sprightly, musical take on house, with slinky
R&B vocals as the key ingredient. A honeyvoiced Miami vocalist named Rudy is Club
Chevals Sam Smith, bringing a sky-blue
falsetto to Young Rich And Radical and
getting husky over the walloping drops of
Nothing Can Stop Us Now. For a supergroup,
they find their bracket a little too cleanly, but
its not a hard sound to enjoy.
LoUis PAttisoN

MARCH 2016 | UNCUT |

71

New Albums

americana

Freakwater
Scheherazade
BloodShot

tHe cULt
hidden City
CooKING VINYl

best
Of the
mOnth

Welcome return of American alt.country veterans

You could never accuse Freakwater of being prolific. Eight albums
in 26 years suggests theyre a band who only make records when
its absolutely necessary, though, as with most things, thats only
half the story. Core members Janet Bean and Catherine Irwin tend
to busy themselves with other projects (Bean as a member of
Chicagos Eleventh Dream Day, the band she co-founded in 1983,
and Irwin as a solo artist of repute, with a cache of famous fans
including Randy Newman, Neko Case and Steve Earle), leaving
Freakwater on the side for long periods as a consequence.
Chances are Scheherazade, their first in over a decade, might never have happened had Irwin and
Bean not regrouped for a 20th-anniversary tour of Feels Like The Third Time a couple of years back.
Inspired to write together again, they repaired to Louisville, Kentucky with a cast of helpers most
notably, Eleventh Dream Days Jim Elkington and Nick Caves right-hand man Warren Ellis to
record haunting songs rooted in old-time country, Southern Gothic and humming electric ambience.
The most striking aspect of Scheherazade is its sense of languor. The contorted harmonies of Irwin
and Bean are key to the sustained mood of standouts What The People Want, The Asp And The
Albatross and Ghost Song, their raw voices lending a suitably un-pretty air to songs that tap into
murder-ballad tradition and the mystical realm of Celtic folk. Falls Of Sleep sounds like a plea for
deliverance from terrible darkness, a sinister place full of puppet masters and changelings. Down
Will Come Baby invests a nursery rhyme theme with requisite dread, the result sounding like a
curious amalgam of Appalachia and avant-rock. Elsewhere, Ellis fiddle break is a moment of
clarity amid the soft acoustic murk of Number One With A Bullet. Dont expect a follow-up soon,
but theres plenty here to nourish the bones for now. Rob HugHes

8/10

Lively outing from

Astbury and co on
album No 10
Ian Astburys wolfchild holler is more
6/10 bark
than bite these
days, but he hasnt lost his gift for daffy
philosophising Che Guevara in a garbage
can, anyone? while trusty foil Billy Duffy
still knows his way around a monster riff.
Though occasionally betraying signs of
metal fatigue, mostly Hidden City is vibrant
fun, the raucous rock defaults (Dark
Energy, Heathens) interspersed with
atmospheric rhythmic excursions (Dance
The Night, Hinterland), thundering blues
(GOAT), voodoo Bo Diddley (No Love
Lost) and, most surprisingly of all, the
closing cocktail jazz balladry of Sound
And Fury.
gRAeMe THoMsoN

DaUGHter
Not to disappear
4Ad

Dynamic second
album pumps up
the volume
Those pining for 4ADs
glory days will
8/10 early
welcome London trio
Daughters return. Like their debut, Not To
Disappear evokes both the gauzy fragility of
Cocteau Twins and the offbeat ingenuity of
Kristin Hersh, though this time it cranks up
the amps, whether peaking on How with
a strangely muffled, Sigur Rs conclusion,
or stirring up a flurry of echoing guitars and
percussive fuzz on Fossa. Elsewhere,
No Care seemingly unites Anna Calvi
with Suzanne Vega, and though Deerhunter
producer Nicolas Vernhes prioritises
atmosphere over melody, Doing The Right
Things brittle melancholy lingers long into
the night.
WYNDHAM WALLACe

YVeS De meY
drawn With
Shadow Pens

TIM FURNISH

the americana rOUnD-UP

Inspired by
his love of White
Mansions, 1978s Civil
War concept work
featuring Waylon
Jennings and Eric
Clapton, Nashvilles
go-to producer dave
Cobb has crafted
a themed album. Southern Family 10
original songs and two covers includes
Miranda Lambert, Brandy Clark, Shooter
Jennings, Jason Isbell, Chris Stapleton
and John Paul White. Touching on blues,
country, folk and rock, its due in March on
Low Country Sound/Elektra.
Look out for Going Down In History, on
Bloodshot, the first full-length release in
over a decade from the Waco Brothers.
Led by Mekons Jon Langford, the country-

punks (pictured left) have adopted an

improvisational and fluid approach, with
Wilco/Neko Case engineer/producer Mike
Hagler. Bloodshot also have a documentary
on rising starlet lydia loveless. Filmed
during the recording of her new album, due
later this year, Who Is Lydia Loveless?
is directed by Gorman Bechard, behind
previous films about The Replacements
and Hsker Ds Grant Hart. Meanwhile,
East Londons St John At Hackney hosts
the inaugural UK Americana Awards
on February 3. Presented by Bob Harris,
with musical direction by Ethan Johns,
homegrown nominees include Danny & The
Champions Of The World, The Dreaming
Spires and Emily Barker. Gretchen Peters,
Cale Tyson and Billy Bragg, the recipient
of the Trailblazer Award, will perform on
the night. Rob HugHes

SPeCtrUM SPoolS

Tough, live-wire
minimal electronica
via Antwerp
electronics
7/10 Belgian
artist Yves De Mey has
released several great albums so far see, in
particular, his 2011 set for the legendary
Sandwell District imprint, Counting Triggers
but with Drawn With Shadow Pens, De Mey
has reached a point of maximum clarity.
His palette is impressively oppressive
grey-scale noise, distorted beats, radar pulse
but he carves a surprisingly rich set of
compositions from this base matter.
Stabbings In Fluid is an exemplar: a dulled
thud slowly prowling the room as drones
circle the sky, seemingly constructed from
pure electricity. Its like Pan Sonic beaming
from the national grid.
JoN DALe

72 | UNCUT | MARCH 2016

New Albums
LUtHer
DickinSOn
Blues & Ballads
(A Folksingers
Songbook:
Volumes I & II)

FLOwerS
everybodys dying
to Meet You

FieLD mUSic
Commontime
MeMPhIS INdUStrIeS

FortUNA PoP!

Low-keyed instant
classic from North
Mississippi Allstars singer-guitarist
Luther Dickinsons latest effort to represent
the Memphis underground and the mid-South
regions music, Blues & Ballads has some
of his most captivating performances,
notably on Hurry Up Sunrise, a tribute to
Hill Country legend Otha Turner sung with her
granddaughter Shard Thomas; riveting yarn
Moonshine; the poignant breakup ballad
And It Hurts; heavy-weather fable Highwater
(Soldier) and New Orleans syncopated stomper
Bang Bang Lulu, as Dickinson channels
Lowell George with the delectably nubby howl
of his slide the albums piquant sweet spot.

Brewis brothers rock out

as dads (mercifully
avoiding Dadrock)
Since their 2005 debut,
siblings
8/10 Sunderland
Peter and David Brewis
have been making oddball pop of the sort
that tends to get more acclaim than listeners.
Commontime is their first album since 2012s
Plumb, which was nominated for the Mercury;
and both men have become fathers in the
interim. The idiosyncratic chamber-pop on
these 14 songs evokes The Kinks, XTC and the
more melancholy side of Hot Chip; like much
of their past work, its musically intricate,
too. Although they tend to be lumped in
with neighbours Maxmo Park and The
Futureheads, at moments Field Music call
to mind a Canterbury Scene band transplanted
to Tyne & Wear and the present day.

Sweet sophomore
sob songs from retro
indie classicists
Some rock historians may
6/10 berate
the C86 indie-pop
movement for its prim, infantilised tweeness,
but the lo-fi aesthetic it spawned has proved
remarkably adaptable and durable. Young
London boy-girl trio Flowers are the latest heirs
to this evergreen sound, with guitarist Sam
Ayres and drummer Jordan Hockley laying
down spare guitar-jangling backdrops for
Rachel Kenedys crisp choirgirl vocals. Their
second album is a little too comfortable, with
wistful guitar-janglers like Pull My Arm, but
adds pleasingly darker shades with the loudquiet-loud psych-rock Tammy and frazzled
power ballad Bathroom Sink, where Kenedy
sounds like Nico backed by Phil Spector.

buD sCoPPA

MARCus oDAIR

sTePHeN DALToN

NeW WeSt

8/10

DiiV
Is the Is Are
CAPtUred trACKS

Humdrum, bloated
second by Brooklyns
troubled indie darlings
DIIVs lovely debut Oshin
sounded
as if The Cures
5/10 Disintegration
had survived
a few washing-machine spins with its hooks
intact. Following a torrid gestation (drug arrests,
hateful trolling), the Brooklyn five-pieces second
record resembles an ordinary collection of
pebbles unlike their early sea-washed gems.
There are two highlights: Out Of Mind slowly
accrues foamy intensity, and on Blue Boredom,
frontman Zachary Cole Smiths girlfriend Sky
Ferreira brings Kim Gordon-worthy mystery to its
hushed squall. Otherwise, its 17 songs long, and
each one plies the same percolating, pouty
mood, against which Smiths melancholy voice
loses its possibility as a Bernard Sumner-like
foil and sinks into the greyscale.
LAuRA sNAPes

emmY tHe
Great
Second love
BellA UNIoN

London artist goes on

a transatlantic journey
of self-discovery
2011s Virtue, the second
8/10 album
by Emmy The Great,
was a devastating deconstruction of the death
of a relationship meant to last forever (they were
engaged), so perhaps unsurprisingly we find
the English singer-songwriter miles away at the
start of album three in LA, and looking
forwards not back. Excellent opening song
Swimming Pool a warm, dreamy pop song,
unlike Emmys more folky previous work sets
the tone for a clever, entrancing record that
approaches new love with caution and,
particularly on Hyperlink and Constantly,
a fear of technology. The rewards are high and
Second Love finishes with a triumphant onetwo: Part Of Me and Lost In You.
PHIL HebbLeTHWAITe

revelations

JOSePHine
FOSter
No More lamps
In the Morning

The opera-trained Josephine Foster

on her highly personal arias

FIre

Making a record feels to me like making

a film, says Josephine Foster, discussing No
More Lamps In The Morning, on which she
revisits material from her decade and a half
of recording, creating a special world that I
may not return to again. This might be akin to
a documentary, live takes of what could have
been a recent show or an evening at home,
she explains. Opera-trained, she has worked
as a singing teacher and funeral singer, but
her recording career has been even more
eventful, taking in a collaboration with psych
rockers The Supposed, and working with
the poems of Emily Dickinson and Federico
Garca Lorca, and the songs of Stephen Foster.
The minimal settings of No More Lamps
emphasise her strong musical bond with her
husband Victor Herrero, usually on Portuguese
guitar. Victor is a blessing in my life, hes
become my invaluable compaero, she says.
Im more impulsive, hes more methodic and
this complement helps me be more myself.
The partnership has enabled her to find a new
relationship with old material, too. There
are a few songs I longed to recapture, such
as A Thimbleful Of Milk, or the title track,
which feels more natural to sing than a decade
before. More than anything, the album is a
showcase for her remarkable voice and the
journey of discovery that began when opera
diva Grace Bumbry told her that her voice,
beautiful though it was, wasnt strong enough
to tackle opera. Not long after, my focus
shifted towards creating original music some
of my songs I consider highly personal arias to
suit my voice and life, rather than trying to tailor
myself to an external structure. gavIN MaRTIN

Colorado adventuress
recasts choice cuts
prolific past in
8/10 from
stripped-back setting
These six tracks, recorded live in February 2014,
are ripe with the fruits of Fosters extensive
explorations. Olde World Americana, trad
Spanish and psychedelicised lieder colour the
emotionally rich palette. With her crystalline
guitar and octave-scaling vocal foregrounded,
the minimalist accompaniment (husband Victor
Herrero on Portuguese acoustic, plus additional
cello) lets mystery and wonder guide the poetics.
From the giddy, oriental imaginings of her own
The Garden Of Earthly Delights to the eerie
obsession captured in a setting of Rudyard
Kiplings Blue Roses, this is the work of a
star-crossed original in full flow.
gAVIN MARTIN

FrkeDaL
hold on dreamer
ProPellor

Grippingly gloomy
solo debut
Anne Lise Frkedal
earned a measure of
fronting the
7/10 acclaim
Norwegian indie
concern Harrys Gym. On her own, though,
Frkedal also of the I Was A King collective
favours a more stately approach. Her sonorous
voice and the knelling, violin-drenched
backing can sometimes recall Nicos
contributions to The Velvet Underground,
especially on the opening track WOY.
She also offers a beguiling line in gothic
folk, as on her songs Cherry Trees and
Dream, which seem to suggest a Nordic
noir musical of the life of Sandy Denny.
Best of all, though, is the gently nightmarish
The Man Who Isnt Here, a sea shanty
for the adrift.
ANDReW MueLLeR

MARCH 2016 | UNCUT |

73

New Albums

STEVE
MASON

Meet The Humans

dOUBLE SIX

SLEEvE
NOTES

Expansive, victorious third

from experimental-pop
survivor. By Sharon OConnell
HE MIGHT ARGUE the
definition, but Steve
Masons alternative
pop journey of 20-odd
years has been a pretty
successful one. Its
involved leadership of
The Beta Band, who
garnered both critical
and commercial
(all three of
7/10 acclaim
their albums made the
UK Top 20), fruitful
association with the DIY-inclined Fence Collective,
a string of cultish experimental releases under
various solo aliases, and two albums as Steve
Mason, for which he hooked up with electronic
producers Richard X and Dan Carey.
Productive it may have been, but the singersongwriter and guitarists trip has also been
extremely bumpy. In the end, The Beta Band were
stymied by the withdrawal of record company
favour, shifting popular tastes and plain bad luck.
I always imagined wed be as big as Radiohead,
Mason said in 2004, but it hasnt happened. I dont
know why. In addition, he battled serious
depression for years, while the Betas wilfulness
also played its part they famously denounced
their first album as a crock of shit, turned down
lucrative ad offers and, in one rush of blood to the
head, blew 4,000 on Velcro suits. When Mason
called time on the group after eight years, they were
1.2 million in debt. The title of their last album,
Heroes To Zeros, spoke volumes.
And yet, Mason has done more than persist. Hes
thrived. His third solo album switches track from
2013s conceptual Monkey Minds In The Devils
Time, an energised genre blend heavy on political
content, inspired by his experience of the violent
unrest on London streets in 2011. Mason jokily
describes Meet The Humans as my reward for
the people who stuck with me through Monkey
Minds Its the album they wanted me to make.
In fact, its another of his drives for ruthless
emotional honesty, couched in variations on a
familiar mix of heavily rhythmic piano, quasipsychedelic guitar, folksy acoustic strumming
and loping grooves. But its also a bigger, more
expansive band sound filled out with strings,
brass and studio trickery that reflects Masons
emergence from the isolation of his depression and
his enjoyment of a newly positive, more connected
life in Brighton, after leaving rural Fife in 2014.

74 | UNCUT | MARCH 2016

Produced by:
Craig Potter
Recorded at: Blue
Print Studios, Salford
Personnel: Steve
Mason (vocals, guitar,
piano, bass, drums,
percussion, synths,
melodica, harpsichord,
glockenspiel),
Steve Duffield (bass),
Greg Nielson (drums),
Craig Potter (piano,
organ, percussion),
Martin Rebelski
(piano), Amy Welch,
Tory Clarke (violin),
Laurie Dempsey
(viola), Joshua
Lynch (cello), Shane
Ryan, Murray Broad
(trumpet, flugelhorn),
Joe Lunn, Darren
Gibson (trombone),
Christos Zenios,
Helena HannahShelton (sax)

Produced by Elbows Craig Potter,

clearly an empathetic pair of hands,
the album opens with the gently
insistent, country-hop grooves of
Water Bored, which suggests The
Charlatans cutting loose in Ibiza. Its a
point of reconnection to the early days
of the Betas, when Oasis, The Verve
and Ocean Colour Scene dominated the
local landscape and I Know, from
their debut EP, cast them as a
Caledonian Stone Roses, albeit more
modest and reflective than euphoric.
Alive follows a similar pattern,
adding melodica and simulated sitar,
while Alright and Hardly Go
Through lay on the heavy drums, the
former gradually adding treated guitar
and strings, building to an orchestral
sweep that fills the entire song frame,
without tipping into bombast.
Theres a change of pace with the
sweetly impressionistic Through My
Window a demo recorded at Masons
home in Brighton that he and Potter decided
to leave exactly as it was and Planet Sizes,
which comes galloping out of the traps, then
canters off across a Love-like open plain. As
always, Masons hushed, tender voice is the

Steve Mason
What was your intent with Meet The Humans?
I always try to do something very different from
what Ive done before, but whilst its bigger and
quite a lot more confident, its not that different
instrumentation- and production-wise. The
difference is more to do with the content. With
Monkey Minds Id done a political album and I
just couldnt do that again.
your emotional honesty is on its usual full beam.
Im always striving to have absolutely no barrier
between my private thoughts and what goes
into a song, onto a record and then out to
the public. I think an artists job is to be
horrifically honest.

records emotional glue, addressing

not so much the social conviviality
of the title, but more one-on-one
relationships and associated issues
of trust, forgiveness, loss and
dependence. I can hardly go
through without you/What am I
supposed to do without you? he
entreats in Hardly Go Through.
But the burden of confession is eased
on closing track Words In My Head,
which echoes Massive Attacks
Unfinished Sympathy. I love you,
in my own way, every day, Mason
declares, later whispering, please
dont ever listen to the things I say,
over and over.
I thought it was funny to end
an album like this with that line,
the singer admits. Listener beware
seems to be the message to anyone
prone to a strictly literal reading
of Meet The Humans. Theres no
shortage of melancholy here,
but its of an understated and universal kind.
Crucially, theres none of the darkness that
seeped through so much of Masons previous
work. As he understands very well, theyre two
quite different things.

What drew you to Craig Potter as producer?

I wanted to go bigger, with a more band-oriented
sound, but without getting pompous. I was struck
by how enthusiastic he was and how much hed
really listened to the tracks Id sent him. Every
person whos ever made a record sooner or later
wants to make a Phil Spector record, but the
trouble with that is the cost of filling the room.
I wanted to get a little slice of that, by thinking
about strings and brass, etc.
youve said that you currently feel pretty
victorious.
I do. I lived in a version of hell for about 15 years
and it was really dark and unpleasant. But I kept
fighting through it all and Ive managed to beat it.
The fact that I decided to move to Brighton and
leave the woods behind says a lot; I wanted to start
living in a place with other human beings. I guess
its a true story of some kind of redemption.
INTERVIEW: SHARON OCONNELL

New Albums
JACK GARRATT
Phase

JUNIOR BOYS
Big Black Coat

ISLANd

CITy SLANg

Powerful electro-pop
debut from this years
Next Big Thing
This post-Ed Sheeran
has broadened the
7/10 world
opportunities for a more
unlikely type of pop star. Buckinghamshire lad
Jack Garratt proud owner of a statement ginger
beard and the Brits Critics Choice award for 2016
is such a beneficiary, and his self-written,
self-produced debut sparkles with ingenuity.
Sonically adventurous, Phase is unafraid of
chunky choruses, bedroom confessionals and
twisted synth arrangements. While Garratt
names Flying Lotus and Frank Ocean as
influences, his voice is pure white-boy soul-pop,
his lyrics introspective. It feels fresh and exciting
you can hear rave and R&B, skinny indie
and even Aphex Twin here, as on the beautifully
weird Coalesce (Synesthesia, Pt II).

Sad-eyed but fleet-footed

Canadian electronic duo
return with vigour
Junior Boys combination
plush tech-house
8/10 of
grooves and Jeremy
Greenspans melancholy croon cant create the
same stir it did when the duos superb debut
single Birthday/Last Exit surfaced in 2003.
Even so, the groups first in five years betters
most efforts by the sad-boy clubbers whove
cribbed its moves. Like their fellow Canuck and
sometime collaborator Dan Snaith of Caribou,
Junior Boys apply a keenly melodic sensibility
to a dizzying array of styles. Big Black Coat
expands the palette further, thanks to steamy
flirtations with Chicago footwork on stunning
opener You Say That, 80s house on M&P
and boudoir R&B on a leftfield cover of Bobby
Caldwells What You Wont Do For Love.

Trail Of Dead man

strikes out alone
little bit Fugazi,
6/10 Aa little
bit Rush, Austins
And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of
Dead are unimpeachably heavy, and
co-frontman Conrad Keelys debut solo
album 24 songs plus a 52-page art book
is weighty in more ways than one. Do those
big questions bother you/The ones you
thought youd looked into? he asks on the
typically ponderous Rays Of The Absolute,
while baby-elephant guitar squeals signpost
the existential dread on Your Tide Is Going
Out. For all Keelys best intents though,
Original Machines falls short of genuine
enlightenment; simultaneously too much
and not enough.

MArk BENtLEy

JASON ANDErSON

JIM WIrth

GET WELL
SOON
Love
CAROLINE

Fourth album from

ambitious German
wnderkind
2012s The Scarlet
6/10 On
Beast OSeven Heads,
Konstantin Gropper fashioned a cinematic
concept about the apocalypse. This time around
hes opted for a simpler approach, although
the term is relative: as song titles such as Its
A Tender Maze, Its A Mess and Its A Fog
suggest, in Groppers hands love is not so much
a many-splendoured thing as something deeply
complex that requires the profoundest
psychoanalysis and references to Petrarch.
Musically though, the reference points are
unashamedly popular, from Simple Minds
(Young Count Falls For Nurse) to the
Pet Shop Boys (Its Love) and Arcade
Fire (Marienbad).
NIGEL WILLIAMSON

THE JAmES
HUNTER SIx
Hold On!
dAPTONE

GEOFF WOODS

CONRAD
KEELY
Original
Machines

Old school rules:

Essex fiftysomethings
dynamite rhythm
blues
8/10 and
James Hunter a former
railway signal box mender from Colchester
has the kind of cracked, pure soul voice youd
expect to find on a dusty 78 in an Illinois thrift
shop. Hold On! is his fourth album, but his first
for US retro-soul label Daptone, and its an
absolute belter if you like your RnB raw,
red-blooded and defiantly vintage. Hunters
powerful, well-schooled rasp makes the Sam
Cooke and Ray Charles comparisons clear,
though Baby (Hold On) and If That Dont
Tell You bear the imprint of white jazz-blues
standard-bearers Mose Allison and, by
extension, Georgie Fame. The result is the kind
of album you wish Rod Stewart could make.
MArk BENtLEy

WER E
NEW
HERE

SUPERBALL MUSIC

The James
Hunter Six

My voice? I stole the style and the

inflections from a number of artists, from
Johnny Guitar Watson to Clyde McPhatter.
The rasp is a legacy from my time on the
railway, where we relayed information to
each other by shouting
At 53, and after decades as a working
musician, Essex soul brother and former
railway signal box mender James Hunter
looks like he is ready to become an overnight
sensation (It has been a rather long night,
now you mention it, he tells Uncut). Hold
On! is his fourth solo album, but the first to
be recorded for stamp-of-quality US soul
imprint Daptone. Its a terrific record, with
all the warm, old-school vibes and valve-y
authenticity of the best 60s RnB. Except that
its belted out by a check-shirted geezer from
Colchester, the first white Englishman signed
to Bosco Manns prestigious label.
Hunters talent has been noticed before. In
1994, when billed as Howlin Wilf & The VeeJays, Hunter caught the ear of Van Morrison,
who bagsied him as a guest vocalist, both on
tour and on 1995s Days Like This. Touring
was easy. I met lots of people I wouldnt
normally have run into, like the Dalai
Lama and Junior Wells, who were quite
nice chaps MARk BENTLEy

KSIYC
Rabbit Eclipse
PENULTIMATE PRESS

Cavernous psych-folk
from Poland
Thank the good offices
of Penultimate Press for
making this real: if it
wasnt for their 2013 reissue
of Ksiycs self-titled
9/10 debut from 1996, Rabbit
Eclipse may never have
been recorded. A sextet from Warsaw, Ksiyc
write drift-songs that sail outward on clouds of
ringing tonality, taking deep lungfuls of breath
from frosted air as their melodies gracefully
unfold across a bed of rich, sonorous drone.
Rabbit Eclipse may be reminiscent, fleetingly,
of other musics liturgical chant and
plainsong; the laminal abrasions of Organum;
the acoustic kosmische of Popol Vuh but
these devotionals, calmly intense, possess
their own personality.
JON DALE

KULA
SHAKER
K 2.0
STRANgEfOLK

Crispian Mills Country

& Eastern comeback
On Kula Shakers first
in six years,
6/10 album
Crispian Mills and
co-writer Alonza Bevan seem to be shifting
their attention from Indians to cowboys, with
a likeable country rocker like Let Love B
(With U), the Morricone-ish High Noon
and a piano-driven blues jangle called
Holy Flame that recalls Nina Simones
Sinner Man. The cod-mystical lyrics to
tracks such as Infinite Sun and Mountain
Lifter suggest that embers of the hippy-dippy
sitar rockers survive, but a short, Hare
Krishna-style sitar and acoustic guitar chant
called Hari Bol (The Sweetest Sweet)
suggests that dear old Crispian has an
awareness of his own ridiculousness.
JOhN LEWIS

MARCH 2016 | UNCUT |

75

New Albums
LAKE STREET
DIVE
Side pony

ARCHY
MARSHALL
A new place
2 Drown

nonESuCH

MATMOS
ultimate Care II
THRIll JoCKEY

Technically dazzling,
emotionally flat
major-label debut from
Boston band
6/10 touted
A band of great promise,
due mainly to the vocal prowess of frontwoman
Rachael Price, jazz-trained, retro-pop-leaning
Lake Street Dive came up short on their previous
effort, 2014s Bad Self Portraits, which lacked
sonic punch. Tapping producer Dave Cobb
(Sturgill Simpson, Chris Stapleton), the group
have made a record designed to showcase Prices
gritty, malleable voice, and her prodigious
chops dominate cuts like the disco romp Call
Off Your Dogs and the soul ballad Mistakes.
While the arrangements are loaded with clever
touches, the LP comes off like an exercise in
technique, preventing Price from reaching the
transcendent moments shes clearly capable of.

King Krules murky

multimedia offering
out just before
7/10 Slipped
Christmas, theres little
in the way of good cheer on this surprise
new set from 21-year-old Archy Marshall,
whose first significant release since King
Krules 6 Feet Beneath The Moon sees him
burrow deeper into his suburban skater
blues. A muggy accompaniment to a photo
book by his brother Jack and a short film,
A New Place 2 Drown is informed by
psychedelic US rap, and the scuffed
beats and curdled collages conjure a real
pea-souper that he cuts through with sharp
verses on Ammi Ammi and The Sea Liner
Mk I. If this is a window to his world, we
can barely see a thing.

Washing machine plays

starring role in latest
conceptual gambit by
American electronic duo
from noises
7/10 Constructed
generated by a Whirlpool
washing machine, Ultimate Care II is not the
first time Matmos Drew Daniel and MC Schmidt
have exploited the audio potential of nonmusical sources surgical procedures provided
the sound library for 2001s A Chance To Cut Is A
Chance To Cure. But working within unorthodox
parameters often brings out the best in the duo
along with the expected passages of metallic
sturm und drang, other sections are suggestive
of watery, Arthur Russell-style mutant-disco
and the headiest abstractions of Iannis Xenakis.
While the aural palettes novelty value fades by
the halfway mark, the final spin cycle provides
a thrilling conclusion to this ingenious exercise.

BUD sCOPPa

Piers Martin

JasOn anDersOn

LILY &
MADELEINE
Keep It Together
nEW WEST

Return of the
Midwestern sister act
These Indianapolis
were still at
7/10 siblings
school when they released
their first album, a self-titled collection that
suggested old heads on young shoulders. Three
years and two albums later, Lily and Madeleine
Jurkiewiczs exquisite harmonies and gentle
melodies are still present and correct, though
here they venture beyond their initial 70s
folk sound. Not Gonna, Westfield and
Hourglass shimmer with gentle orchestral
soul, while the guitar-driven For The Weak
is both laconic and robust, like Sleater-Kinney
without the spikes. The added muscle suits
them and you wish there were more of it.
Even so, Keep It Together is a work of serious,
subtle beauty.

Xl

revelations

Lily & Madeleine keeping it

cool, as sisters and artists

Cinematic pop
country from
Nashville
After a spell in
Elisabeth
7/10 California,
Corrin Maurus returns
to Nashville to reinvent the country pop
tradition, with epic, windswept soundscapes
that owe more to Elmer Bernstein than Taylor
Swift. Lissies farewell hymn to Tinseltown,
Hollywood, sounds like Adeles Hello
directed by John Ford, all lonesome
piano and timpani, while the anthemic
Daughters calls to mind a galloping
cowgirl upgrade of Florence + The Machine.
Often these widescreen productions are
more effective at their most minimal: tracks
such as Stay, Wild West and Together
And Apart leave out the drums and bass,
and yet manage to sound impossibly huge.

Its three years since the Indianapolis duo

Lily & Madeleine released their folk-tinged
debut, written and recorded between lessons
at school. Now the Jurkiewicz sisters, who
are 18 and 21 respectively, have made some
changes with their third LP, Keep It Together.
Gone is the revolving-door policy of their
band with cellist/guitarist Shannon Hayden
and drummer Kate Siefker, they are now a
confirmed four-piece.
Also notable is their expanded sound. Our
music has changed over the last year and so
have we, explains Lily. Ive been listening to
a lot of hip-hop and R&B. Weve always been
classified alongside acts like The Staves and
First Aid Kit. I respect those bands but that
style of music isnt true to us any more.
The title of the album is drawn from a line in
the opening track, Not Gonna, and refers to
a guiding principle that the pair have followed
throughout their career. Its about keeping
it cool, both as artists and sisters. It was hard
at the beginning, getting to grips with this
musicians life. A lot of our peers thought
we were just playing guitars at home and
hanging out; they didnt understand the
intense time and energy that went into
it. But were used to it now and were very
comfortable with what we do.

JOhn LeWis

FIONA STURGES

FiOna stUrGes

LISSIE
My Wild West
CooKInG VInYl

76 | UNCUT | MARCH 2016

MIND
ENTERPRISES
Idealist
BECAuSE MuSIC

London-accented
Afro-disco alliance
This partnership between
producer
7/10 Anglo-Italian
Andrea Tirone and
Salvatore Pincipato from NYC punk-funkers
Liquid Liquid is a curious take on Afrobeat. All
Fela Kutis tropes are here synthetic-sounding
electric pianos, muted funk guitar riffs, herkyjerky drumming but instead of a hectoring
Nigerian voice, we get a nerdy-sounding
Londoner, singing about waiting up for his
girlfriend, being a lover boy and going skating
side by side with his love. The detailed
electronic miniatures Confusion and
Girlfriend resemble an Africanised take on
Hot Chip; while Chapita creates a unique
brand of hypnotic, astral disco, all juddering
kick drums and glistening synths.
JOhn LeWis

MOUNT
MORIAH
How To Dance
MERGE

North Carolina trios

third album falls
slightly short
allure of Mount
6/10 The
Moriahs music tends to
rest in the tension between Southern Baptist
tradition and a more expansive form of
country-rock. There are plenty of very fine
moments here, particularly the lithe
Calvander and the soulful chug of Higher
Mind, but the formula that worked so
beautifully on 2013s Miracle Temple is slightly
less convincing on this follow-up. While
Heather McEntires wonderful voice is a
natural country conduit (abetted by guests
Angel Olsen and Mirah Zeitlyn), theres not
quite enough around it, her bandmates opting
to frame her tones in fairly pedestrian
roots-rock settings.
rOB hUGhes

New Albums
NAP EYES
Thought Rock
Fish Scale

NIGHT BEATS
Who Sold My
Generation

pARADISE oF BACHEloRS

HEAVEnlY

ROO PANES
paperweights
CRC

Nova Scotians
find (more) poetry in
the prosaic
easy to imagine Lou
7/10 Its
Reeds ghost giving Nap
Eyes his gruffly benevolent blessing and
waving them on their way, impressed by their
unvarnished diarising in lean, art-pop songs
that channel his spirit, and the similarity of
Nigel Chapmans dry, lilting voice. But along
with kitchen-sink detail, theres real poignancy
in the Canadians second set, which has
excessive drinking less in its sights and more
thorny issues of belonging, motivation and
trust. The likes of Lion In Chains a Sweet
Jane-ish rumination about Chapmans
hometown and Roll It, which deals with
accepting what life throws at you, are astutely
underplayed, instant charmers.

Wicked garage blues

from impressive US trio
Seattle three-piece Night
swoop into Who Sold
8/10 Beats
My Generation oozing
confidence on the statement-setting opener
Celebration #1, and then really hit their stride
on the spooky Right/Wrong and deranged
blues of No Cops. There are traces of Black
Lips and JSBX, but Night Beats really take their
lead from Nuggets, something epitomised by
West Coast rocker Shangri-Lah, rockabilly
rumble Bad Love and Tex-Mex Porque
Manana. But this isnt quite a straight-out
party album. Sunday Mourning and Last
Train To Jordan are more complex, chewy
jams, and the album ends on the splendid
Egypt Berry, a Casbah-inflected stomper
that has a Pixies-like intensity.

Emotional second
album from fashionable
Dorset-born singersongwriter
be fooled by his
7/10 Dont
former role as a Burberry
model into thinking that theres anything
shallow or showy about Panes. His songs
drill deep into the human psyche to explore
universal troubadour themes of heartbreak,
regret and desire. His warm, bucolic
voice ranges from dark baritone to an
undemonstrative falsetto, underpinned by
gentle acoustic guitar, double bass, muted
piano and hushed strings that evoke Robert
Kirbys timeless arrangements for Nick Drake.
Then, just as you begin to wonder if the slowburn is ever going to ignite, the title track and
I Was Here take off unexpectedly into ecstatic
Van-like climaxes.

sharOn OCOnneLL

Peter Watts

niGeL WiLLiaMsOn

SARAH
NEUFELD
The Ridge
pApER BAG

NONKEEN
The Gamble

PORCHES
pool

R&S

DoMIno

Arcade Fire
freelancers second
fiddle opus
core Arcade Fire
6/10 Amember
for two of their
four albums, Sarah Neufeld remains a
touring member of Canadas top pomp-rock
turn, but her main focus is now angular
violin-prog LPs, with The Ridge featuring
fellow Firemen Colin Stetson and Jeremy
Gara her second stand-alone piece. A
mildly Enya-fied take on the kind of
astringent orchestral punk pumped out
by Montreals Constellation label, it
has its moments The Glow falters
enigmatically, while Chase The Bright And
Burning could be a Levellers take on the
Doctor Who theme. Could, however, be a
touch Vanessa Mae for the cool kids.

Kids play from

Nils Frahms
childhood pals
Nils Frahms classical
to electronic
6/10 approach
composition has won
the Hamburg pianist scores of admirers,
and his sleight of hand can be felt on this
engaging album by Nonkeen, a trio
comprising Frahm and his childhood
friends Frederic Gmeiner and Sebastian
Singwald, who met in 1989, aged six and
seven, and remained in touch. A blend of
youthful recordings and more recent session
work, The Gamble mixes light jazz with
vegetarian electronica in a non-threatening
Four Tet fashion, picking up pace on the
slinky Chasing God Through Palmyra.
Tasteful stuff, for sure, but The Gamble
could take a few more risks.

New York indie

darlings bittersweet
synthpop
A hipster singersongwriter searching
7/10 for
new experiences,
Porches Aaron Maine is cut from the same
sequinned cloth as Perfume Genius and Blood
Oranges Dev Hynes and classy second
album Pool goes some way to realising his
potential. A step up from the meandering DIY
lo-fi of his debut Slow Dance In The Cosmos,
Pools dozen sweet-natured songs are draped
in clean-cut synthpop melodrama, which
better suits Maines earnest delivery and
awkward falsetto, more so his Auto-Tuned
turns on Pool and Security. On occasion,
the chintziness of the production undermines
Maines sentiment, but at least now hes
learning to be himself.

JiM Wirth

Piers Martin

Piers Martin

NEVERMEN
nevermen
IpECAC

YOKO ONO
Yes, Im A
Witch Too

PRINS THOMAS
principe Del
norte

MAnIMAl GRoup

SMAllToWn SupERSounD

Rudderless avant-rap
collaboration
Eight years in the
making, Nevermen
documents a studio
5/10 collaboration
between
Tunde Adebimpe of TV On The Radio,
prolific poet-rapper Doseone, and Mike
Patton, currently back at the helm of 90s
rockers Faith No More. They describe the
project as a leaderless trio and perhaps
this is the root of its problems, as this is the
sound of three undeniably talented men
following whatever weird whim presents
itself. Occasional moments, such as the
curdled lounge moves of Tough Towns,
are diverting. But a reliance on rabbity
non-sequiters, plus a tendency to change
genre every 11 seconds, makes the point of it
all rather hard to grasp.

More Ono classics

reupholstered
The title refers both to
1974 track Yes,
7/10 Onos
Im A Witch, which hit
back at the abuse levelled at her during her
relationship with John Lennon, and also her
2007 remix LP which invited younger artists
to rework her songs. This is the sequel to
that album and, like its predecessor, it does
Ono proud. Most of the artists here, among
them Moby, Miike Snow and Cibo Matto,
find rich source material at the more melodic
end of her catalogue. Penguin Prison
ramp up the disco kitsch on her already
propulsive She Gets Down On Her Knees
while Sparks add typically theatrical
flourishes to the art-pop of Give Me
Something. Joyous.

Regular Lindstrm
collaborator revives
forgotten 90s
genre
7/10 electronica
Thomas Moen Hermansen
is being mildly disingenuous by suggesting this
double album is different to previous work.
Add a beat, as he does for the final four
remixed tracks, and its distinctly Prins
Thomasian. But the first five, beat-less tunes
effectively recall the braindance style if not
the one claimed by Richard D James Rephlex
label that inspired them, their Tangerine
Dream-flavoured oscillators working overtime
both to galvanise and mesmerise precomedown clubbers. Flashbacks to The Orbs
Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld and the
KLFs Chill Out are inevitable, but there are
woozy hints of early Black Dog on C, too.

LOUis PattisOn

FiOna stUrGes

WYnDhaM WaLLaCe

MARCH 2016 | UNCUT |

77

New Albums
PROMISE &
THE MONSTER
Feed The Fire

DAvID
RAMIREz
Fables

BELLA UNION

THIRTy TIGERS

INVISIBLE HANDS

Murderous melodrama
and jingle-jangle
mourning from Swedish
chanteuse
8/10 avant-folk
Taking her recording alias
from a childrens book, singer-songwriter Billie
Lindahl covers a broad stylistic spectrum on her
fourth album, from gothic Americana to dreamy
psych-folk to Enya-ish abstraction. A blurring of
fictionalised murder ballads and heartfelt breakup songs, Feed The Fire clothes breathy, emotive
vocals in weeping strings, tremolo guitar twangs
and ethereal electronica. Citing Nico and Lee
Hazlewood as influences, Lindahls chamberpop vignettes at times risk vintage-vinyl retro
tastefulness. But the urgent gallop Time Of The
Season and torrid, mariachi-flavoured, Spectorsized Machines are attention-grabbing high
points on a generally superlative album.

Underwhelming
third outing from
Texan troubadour
belongs to the
6/10 Ramirez
hard-knock school of
confessional songwriters, investing his tales
with love, despair, faith and conciliation.
Produced by Noah Gundersen, Fables,
for the most part, finds him intoning over
moody backdrops of countryish folk,
creating desolate ballads in the manner
of Cory Branan or a stripped-down Ryan
Adams. Its a tactic that works admirably on
Harder To Lie and On Your Side, both of
which benefit from Greg Leiszs pedal steel.
He can also fire up an electric storm when
needed, but too often he sounds merely
pedestrian, the songs failing to take any
meaningful flight.

First album in six years

from ex-Brian Jonestown
singer
8/10 Massacre
Kirk Hammett taught
Richards to play guitar, while her husband
and BRMC/Dandy Warhols collaborator Rick
Parker has produced here; neither fact offers
any signpost to the gorgeousness of these
lyrical neo-psych meditations on what is only
Richards third solo LP in a 15-year career.
Colours So Fine rises exultantly from the
same canyon as Beachwood Sparks and
Jonathan Wilson, Julian floats mystically on
eastern drones and the ethereal folk of Already
Fine suggests a West Coast Sandy Denny. Best
of all is the LPs cynosure, the seven-minute
First Light Of Winter, which hovers between
Joanna Newsom and Stevie Nicks.

StEPHEN DALtON

rOb HuGHES

NIGEL WILLIAMSON

QUILT
Plaza
MEXICAN SUMMER

Boston janglers roll

back the years again
Quilt might be a dyed-inthe-wool psych-folk
but their ever7/10 outfit,
changing moods at least
give each new album a distinctive character.
If the quartets last set, Held In Splendor,
radiated ragged positivity, their third, Plaza,
finds them bedding down with a more
cautious and concise approach, doling
out neatly stitched Buffalo Springsteen AM
gold in the silky form of Passersby and
Hissing My Plea and wisely positioning
vocalist Anna Fox Rochinski as the bands
main attraction. She weaves affairs of the
heart throughout Plaza, piercing the
glistening sheen of Roller, for example,
with a chorus of Honey, youve been at my
throat about it.

revelations

Former Brian Jonestown Massacre

singer Miranda Lee Richards

Revitalised 66-year-old
still setting the standard
for soulful female artists
Slamming covers of Los
Shakin Shakin
8/10 Lobos
Shakes and INXS Need
You Tonight signal Raitts aggressive attitude
on her 20th LP, on which even laidback cuts like
Pat McLaughlins I Knew pack a punch. As
with 2012s masterful Slipstream, Dig In Deep
emphasises Raitts sweet spots: Little Feat-style
funky workouts, regret-tinged ballads and the
banshee howl of her slide guitar. On the fine
originals Unintended Consequence Of Love
and What Youre Doin To Me, she steamrolls
through deep gut grooves with her killer band,
paced by the seductive pull of Ricky Fataars
behind-the-beat drumming. Raitt isnt breaking
new ground shes emphatically marking out
the turf shes owned for 45 years.

Darren Grealishs cover art for Echoes

Of The Dreamtime, depicting Miranda Lee
Richards as a cross between a Pre-Raphaelite
goddess and a 1960s flower child, tells us
much about the aesthetic sensibilities of the
LA-based singer and the ethereal nature of
her music. Born in San Francisco between
the summer of love and the dawn of disco to
bohemian parents who were underground
comics artists and taught her to Do what you
love to do, Richards solo career has been a
slow burn since her 2001 debut proved that
the lack of creative control and meddling
which came with life on a major label was an
unsympathetic fit for what The Dandy Warhols
Courtney Taylor-Taylor calls her Pixie Fairy
Dust Chick Music. Richards prefers the term
magical heart-world folk rock, a notion
enhanced by the copious use of an analogue
Space Echo unit. I remember hearing it used
on Pink Floyd albums, she recalls. Its subtle
and beautiful and reflects the albums themes
self-discovery, transformation and grappling
with the duality between dark and light,
a conversation with the subconscious but
influencing our outer realities. After a seven
year wait for Echoes..., she also reveals that
another album, titled Black Fawn, is already
slated for release later in 2016.

buD SCOPPA

NIGEL WILLIAMSON

PIErS MArtIN

BONNIE RAITT
Dig In Deep
REDWING

ELENA BALSHEM

MIRANDA LEE
RICHARDS
Echoes Of The
Dreamtime

78 | UNCUT | MARCH 2016

RUNRIG
The Story
RIDGE

14th and final album

from Gaelic rockers
Four decades on,
Runrigs stadium
with its mix of
6/10 folk-rock,
romantic Scottish airs,
patriotic anthems, highland laments and
epic tartan choruses is still in good working
order. The warm Caledonian nostalgia is
enhanced by the knowledge that we are
hearing them for the last time on an album
that has been announced as their swansong.
Saltires bravely flying, Onar and The
Place Where The Rivers Run pound to the
beat of a bold tartan army on the march.
Rise And Fall and When The Beauty
are more ethereal, swathed in melancholic
Hebridean mists. For sure, Runrig were
never particularly hip. But that doesnt
mean we wont miss them.
NIGEL WILLIAMSON

DAN SARTAIN
Century Plaza
ONE LITTLE INDIAN

Jack White-endorsed,
Alabama-bred rockabilly
rebel makes convincing
electro-noir detour
Suicides spooked
7/10 With
primitivism and Depeche
Modes throbbing anguish as blueprints,
Sartains synthesised shock treatment is a
compelling segue from his spartan rockin past.
An ominous and sour-tongued ambience abides
even on deadpan rabble rousers Black Party
and Wipeout Beat. First Bloods swivels
on a singular orgiastic guitar but the looming
atmospheres and minimalism of Cabrini
Green provide the potent digitised keynote.
Negotiating a dark night of the soul with
looped sweeteners and prerequisite helpings
of vocal angst and drama, the transformation
is effective without compromising his
primal instincts.
GAvIN MArtIN

New Albums

Rokia
TRaoR
N So

NONESUCH

DANNY WILLEMS

Malian pioneers challenging

sixth, drawn from the traumas
of war. By Nigel Williamson
IN 2009, WITH her life
falling apart in the
midst of a personal
crisis, Rokia Traor was
forced to move back to
Mali after several years
living in Europe. Three
years later, civil war
broke out when
Islamist extremists
8/10 overran the northern
part of the country,
imposing sharia law. Those events left Traor
traumatised and shocked by what she describes
as her own naivety but they have also imbued
her sombre but magnificent sixth album, N So
(which translates as Home), with a tautness,
gravity and maturity that makes it her most
compelling, complex and purposeful work to date.
That Traor should come up with such an
audacious work, singularly different from any of the
other great records to emerge from West Africa in
recent years, owes much to the cosmopolitan
background and sensibility that sets her apart from
her compatriots, most of whom were raised in the
centuries-old inherited griot tradition.
Traor, by contrast, left Mali at the age of two, when
her diplomat father was posted abroad, and spent
her youth living across several continents as his work
dictated, punctuated by regular trips back home to
keep her in touch with her tribal roots. Her musical
influences were similarly peripatetic, ranging from
jazz, blues and French chanson to African styles
traditional and contemporary, via Pink Floyd and
Dire Straits, whose music she was introduced to by
an older brother.
After studying sociology at university in Brussels,
she moved back to Bamako but was actively
discouraged from becoming a singer by her parents,
who did not want her to waste her expensive lyce
education. The patronage of the late Malian guitarist
Ali Farka Tour came to her rescue and her debut,
Mounessa, was released on the French Label Bleu in
1998, the first in a series of adventurous recordings
that have mined her African heritage in a uniquely
individual way, crossing forms and genres and
combining traditional balafon, ngoni, and kora with
western instrumentation.
Although she made little impact in the domestic
West African market, she was instantly lionised by
world music audiences in America and Europe. After
setting up home in France, her musical journey grew
ever more exploratory. Her third album, 2003s
Bowmbo, featured collaborations with the Kronos
Quartet. The follow-up, 2008s Tchamantch, was
dominated by the sound of her playing a huge,
twanging electric Gretsch, which onstage seemed to
be almost as big as she was. She also provided the
music for Peter Sellars production of Toni Morrisons
stage play, Desdemona, and recruited long-time PJ
Harvey collaborator John Parish to produce 2013s
Beautiful Africa.
That collaboration worked so well that Parish has
returned to helm N So. Backed by a multi-racial
band drawn from Africa and beyond, and including
John Paul Jones on bass and mandolin, and

SLEEvE
NOTES

labelmate Devendra Banhart on guitar and vocals,

together they have fashioned an organic but outr
African rock LP that sounds entirely sui generis.
The opener Tu Voles is a souped-up exercise in
Afro-French chanson over an insistent, tumbling
beat. Obike, sung in her native Bambara,
is a tough, African rocker, the scratchy sound of the
four-string African ngoni working in thrilling
syncopation with the spacey lead guitar of Stefano
Pilia. Elsewhere, the gentle Kolokani is a tribute
to Traors African ancestors, while Amour, Amour
is oddly reminiscent of PJ Harveys This Mess
Were In. The first eight tracks find her singing
predominantly in her native Bambara and
occasionally in French, but the album concludes
with a triptych of songs with English lyrics which,
despite the sequencing, lie at the core of the records
raison dtre. Traor has successfully tackled Billie
Holiday before when she strikingly reinterpreted
The Man I Love on her fourth LP, but its a bold

Produced by:
John Parish
Recorded at: Jet
Studio, Brussels, and
Honorsound, Bristol
Personnel: Rokia
Traor (vocals,
guitar), John Parish
(guitar, drums), Mose
Ouattara (drums),
Matthieu Nguessan
(bass), Mamah Diabat
(ngoni), Stefano Pilia
(guitar), Rodriguez
Vangama (guitar),
Reggie Washington
(bass), John Paul Jones
(bass, mandolin),
Devendra Banhart
(guitar, vocals), Toni
Morrison (vocals)

singer who takes on the

harrowing Strange
Fruit, which Nina
Simone once described as
the hardest song in the
world to sing. She justifies
the decision with a
deathless vocal full of a
dread and foreboding
that seems to stretch from the Jim Crow lynchings of
the American South to the brutal beheadings of
present-day Islamist extremism. Banhart then joins
her on the haunting, semi-spoken title track, while
Nobel laureate Toni Morrison benevolently chants
the one world/one destiny/respect mantra of closer
Se Dan. This isnt world music as we have come to
understand the term. Brave, challenging and
arrestingly original, Traor may just have gone and
made the finest indie-rock album to emerge from
arguably the worlds most musical continent.

When you are older, you can embark on a new

adventure without being overwhelmed by fear.

Rokia Traor
you moved back to Mali after living in Europe and
almost immediately war broke out. How did that
impact on you and your music? It was traumatic.
I became aware of how nave Id been. And there
were other events in my life. Everything was
falling apart. Its never easy to go through tough
times, but it is also what makes you grow. I realised
that I was either going to make it, or add my name
to the long list of female artists who ended badly.
That sounds quite dramatic N So reminds me
of my first album, as I had to start from scratch and
reorganise my way of thinking to move forward.
But this time, I had the benefit of experience.

The musicians on the album are drawn from

a wide range of cultures, both African and
western I need difference, a mix of cultures
around me. Its not my intention to talk about
the world on my own. I want to do it as part of a
fellowship of people with shared convictions.
And what does John Parish bring as producer?
I wanted someone from the rocknroll culture to
bring me a sound an artistic producer who could
understand my work without wanting to change it.
Which I guess is why N So still sounds
distinctively African rather than like a fusion
record? Mali is where my roots are. Its where
I take refuge. INTERVIEW: NIGEL WILLIAMSON

MARCH 2016 | UNCUT |

79

New Albums

FULL TIME HOBBY

STRANDED
HORSE
Luxe

SO PITTED
Neo

SCHOOL OF
SEVEN BELLS
SVIIB

SUB POP

TALITRES

Triumphant epitaph for

New York electronic duo
This will be the final
by electro8/10 album
shoegazers School Of
Seven Bells. Following the death of their
guitarist, Benjamin Curtis, from cancer late
in 2013, singer and multi-instrumentalist
Alejandra Deheza resolved to finish the album
the pair had begun demoing in Brooklyn the
previous summer. The result is a typically
elegant and perhaps surprisingly, given
the circumstances uplifting work about
affairs of the heart, characterised by Dehezas
featherlight vocals and massive washes of
synth. While the likes of On My Heart and
Music Takes Me echo the quieter side of
Chvrches, Ablaze and A Thousand Times
More are bona fide bangers.

Ace snotty punk

debut with distinctive
new-wave twist
A seriously strong
from So Pitted,
8/10 debut
a Seattle three-piece
who make the most of their limited resources
by switching instruments, amps and vocal
duties while powering through tunes
that take in hardcore, punk and new wave.
Given their hometown, the band are regularly
labelled as grunge and opener Cat
Scratch certainly plays that card but
theres a lot more going on here. Tracks
such as Feed Me and Woe have a robotic
churn that recall Devo and Pere Ubu,
while Pay Attention To Me and No Nuke
Country are typically snotty, snarling
and belligerent, but also pack one hell
of a swing.

Classical guitar
and kora song
from wandering
troubadour
8/10 French
Yann Tambour originally
hails from Normandy, but his instrument of
choice is the kora, a West African lute which
suits his singular compositions curious,
slightly fey songs sung in a mix of English
and French, which eddy along on waves of
dense, fingerpicked melancholia. On Luxe,
Tambour is backed by an international
ensemble including kora expert Boubacar
Cissokho, vocalist Elose Decazes and a small
string section. A cover of Jackson C Franks
My Name Is Carnival is enchanting, driven
forth on violin scrapes and African percussion.
But Tambour can captivate solo too, evinced by
the hushed, eight-minute A Faint Light.

FIona sTUrGes

PeTer waTTs

LoUIs PaTTIson

SIA
This Is Acting
SONY

SONGS FOR
WALTER
Songs For
Walter

DAN STUART
WITH TWIN
TONES
Marlowes Revenge

AA RECORDINGS

CADIZ MUSIC

All-star offcuts from

huge pop voice
A decade since she
guested with Zero 7, Sia
is one of pops most
6/10 Furler
in-demand songwriters,
and an established star in her own right. This Is
Acting combines both threads, as Furler fronts
the songs she wrote that other artists rejected.
The stuttering dancehall of Cheap Thrills
was intended for Rihanna; Alive is an Adele
co-write, and its not hard to see why it didnt
make 25: what starts as a bruised survival
narrative glitterbombs into overcooked EDM.
Although written for disparate voices, a
post-dubstep, trop house sound prevails,
and Sias tornado of a voice storms through all
12 of the songs. Where her other albums are
more varied, this all-guns-blazing pop
portfolio is a touch wearying.

Mancunian
singer-songwriters
indie-pop
7/10 familial
labour of love
Songs For Walter is a dreamy indie-pop
tribute to its author Laurie Hulmes late
grandfather, though you can banish all
thoughts of St Winifreds School Choirs
ode to grandma. For Hulme, this is
primarily about storytelling: Useless
tells of Walters flirtations with communism
in the 1930s, while Moon/Two Out Of
Ten reflects on his deep distrust of space
travel. This is an album that brims with
memories and in which death looms
large theres a lot of talk of the end
of the road yet the mood is rarely less
than uplifting.

Terrific, gnarly newie

from ex Green On Red man
claims the revenge is
8/10 He
against all the nice singersongwriters out there and this albums tone
suggests Dan Stuart isnt joking. Its the sequel
to 2011s The Deliverance Of Marlowe Billings,
which emerged during his exile in Oaxaca
following 15 dark and troubled years. A mix of
live recordings and over-dubbed demos made
with a grunge-blues/garage-ranchera outfit from
Mexico City, its an agreeably raw listen, typified
by the feedback-spattered Hola Guapa and
Stooges-style The Whores Above. But with
The Knife and Over My Shoulder Stuart
strikes a deeply reflective note, mourning years
wasted and conceding that running away is
really no solution.

LaUra snaPes

FIona sTUrGes

sharon oConneLL

SMOCKEY
Prevolution: Le
President, Ma
Moto Et Moi
OUT HERE

MAVIS STAPLES
Livin On A
High Note

SUNFLOWER
BEAN
Human Ceremony

ANTI-

FAT POSSUM

African hip-hop star

whose songs helped to
a dictator
7/10 overthrow
When the people of
Burkina Faso took to the streets to demand the
removal of the countrys despotic ruler, local
hip-hop star Smockey provided the militant
musical message that urged them on. Mixing
hip-hop, reggae and African rhythms, his lyrics
are full of insurrectionary wit, nowhere more so
than on the savagely hilarious title track as he
imagines driving the dictator around the
streets on his motorcycle and showing him how
ordinary people live. Smockeys studio was
firebombed, but it was a small price to pay: the
regime was overthrown, making this not just a
collection of protest songs, but, quite literally,
the soundtrack to a revolution.

Nick Cave et al pitch

in for venerable
Staple Singer
much to the
8/10 Owing
input of younger and
indubitably indie writers, gospel queen
Mavis Staples latter-period works may
be a bit Jools Hollands Annual Hootenanny for
soul purists, but the M Ward-produced Livin
On A High Note is a wonderfully chiselled Stax
forgery regardless. Featuring new songs from
Nick Cave and Bon Ivers Justin Vernon (if no
Jeff Tweedy this time), Staples songs of
civil-rights triumphs past acknowledge a
still-ongoing march to freedom, while Wards
Dont Cry, Valerie Junes High Note and
Ben Harpers Love And Trust harness the
full smoky force of the 76-year-olds voice.
Ersatz, maybe, but righteous, too.

Youthful NY power trio

offer a fresh take on
poppy psych-rock
Bean are barely
8/10 Sunflower
into their twenties, but they
are smart enough to know that when it comes to
psychedelia, maintaining a sense of wide-eyed
wonder is key. Formed in 2013, the trio have
already evolved into a fluid, versatile unit,
with vocal and instrumental leads swapped
seamlessly between guitarist Nick Kivlen and
bassist Julia Cumming. Wall Watcher and
Space Exploration Disaster are puppyish
psych jams in the same postcode as Pond, but
more intriguing are the songs (Creation Myth,
gorgeous current single Easier Said) that tap
into Throwing Muses vein of chiming offbeat
indie-pop, familiar tales of teenage yearning
elevated into something glowing and magical.

nIGeL wILLIamson

JIm wIrTh

sam rIChards

80 | UNCUT | MARCH 2016

New Albums
TEDESCHI
TRUCKS
BAND
Let Me
Get By

TUFF LOVE
Resort

TRICKY
PRESENTS
Skilled Mechanics
FALSE IDOLS

LOST MAP

Blue-eyed Southern
soul from the husband7/10 and-wife
team
Derek Trucks joined a late incarnation of the
Allman Brothers as a teenage whiz-kid and,
in the last five years, his partnership with wife
Susan Tedeschi has won several Grammys in
the blues category. But their music rarely
sounds like blues: Let Me Get By is a fiery
funk waltz, In Every Heart a 6/8 Stax-style
ballad with woozy horns, while the blue-eyed
soul of Crying Over You segues into a
flute-led raga (Trucks is a Hindustani
classical aficionado). Best of all is Right
On Time, a New Orleans funereal march
that would have made a terrific Amy
Winehouse single.

New guise, same

frustrating outcome from
former trip-hop great
collaboration finds
6/10 This
Tricky continuing to make
peace with his past by inviting his one-time
Bristol mentor DJ Milo into the fold and venting
some of his childhood trauma on the startling
Boy. But the recovery of his Maxinquaye mojo
remains tantalisingly out of reach. Once again,
flashes of inspiration are undermined by some
bizarre decisions. Beijing To Berlin, featuring
Chinese rapper Ivy, is the best thing Trickys
done in years; conversely, a bare-bones cover of
Stone Sours Bother sung by drummer Luke
Harris is as pointless as that sounds. Elsewhere,
the seething mood is familiar but the cursory
electro beats offer little of the grimy richness
of primetime Tricky.

Breathless bubblegum
grunge from Glasgow
Conjuring up memories
of assorted shambolic
acts of the 1980s,
8/10 indie
Glasgow-based Tuff
Love are fronted by guitarist Julie Eisenstein
and bassist Suse Bear. Both sing in slight,
breathy, whispered harmonies that are often
incomprehensible, something that only
adds to the sense of hesitant teen-pop
excitement. The grungey angularity of tracks
like Poncho and Sweet Discontent recall
the Pixies, the woozy guitars on Copper
suggest Throwing Muses. Often, however,
its the catchy, heads-down belters that
win you over Thats Right mangles
together a punky guitar riff, a minor-key
verse and a major-key chorus to create 225
of pop perfection.

John LewIs

sam rIChards

John LewIs

FANTASY/CONCORD

TEEN
Love Yes
CARPARK

Brooklyn quartets
radiant, experimental
pop third
It seems the follow-up
2014s The Way And
8/10 to
Color where Teen
took their kaleidoscopic pop down a more
experimental path initially saw songwriter,
lead singer and multi-instrumentalist Kristina
Lieberson in a creative slump. Youd never
guess. Love Yes is a dazzling electronic
set that throbs with energy and emits a sensual
glow befitting its focus on love, desire and
sexuality. Inspiration abounds: Another
Mans Woman is TLC blasting Orinoco Flow
into deep space; Animal lays a neurotic
keyboard riff over a psychedelic raga. But Lizzie
Liebersons Please is divinely tender. Talk to
me, she pleads, while synths swoop and a
braid of hushed vocals is wrapped around her.
sharon oConneLL

TREETOP
FLYERS
Palomino
LOOSE

Lush country
harmonics from
talented London band
luscious
8/10 Combining
harmonies, charming
melodies and a soft country-rock strum,
Treetop Flyers come on like a near-noteperfect CSNY tribute act on this seasoned
second album. This London five-pieces
ability to sound like a West Coast band from
the 1970s is uncanny, but they also write
beautiful tunes, which slip down easily
despite lyrical themes that include death,
divorce and departure. Sleepless Nights
is an early charmer, rich in 70s folk-rock
harmonies, while Its A Shame has more
of a soul feel and 31 Years whirls round
a Band-like organ. Much to admire, even
when the provenance is so blatant.
PeTer waTTs

WER E
NEW
HERE

Treetop
Flyers

When Treetop Flyers drummer and

vocalist Tomer Danan is asked what influences
the London band, its no great surprise
that he first says, Great production that
cant be discounted. Palomino, the bands
second album, is a fittingly great-sounding
record, with the band magically tight and
melodically assured as they play songs bathed
in an evocative 70s West Coast glow, while
drawing on other influences including outlaw
country, soul and Nigerian psych.
Whats all the more impressive is that it was
recorded when the band were beset by death,
divorce and departure. While this informs the
album, Palomino is never depressing. We
try to frame those experiences as something
more universal with a dash of hope, because
nothing stays the same, says Danan.
The impressively rounded work is a result
of a democratic songwriting process and
hard work. This album was written by
everyone, no one person has a heavier hand
in it than any other, says Danan, who also
explains their careful preparation. We
prepared quite heavily for the studio. We
want to have the live feel as tight as we could
so we could concentrate on the groove and
vibe. Live performances have helped us to be
a tighter band, but so has becoming a tighter
group of friends. Its all about being on the
same wavelength.
Peter Watts

TURIN BRAKES
Lost Property
COOKING VINYL

Satisfying seventh
album from shapeshifting South
London troubadours
Brakes make no
7/10 Turin
attempt to fix what isnt
broken, honing their melodic, acoustic-based
forays into rootsy genres. The hushed
loveliness of Martini and the woozy,
bluesy rock of Hope We Make It typify
what Olly Knights and co do best, though
theres room for the occasional curveball.
Brighter Than The Dark is a shape-shifting
blend of folk, blues and jazz, featuring a
magnificent string figure and harmonies
worthy of CSN. The gospel-pop of Save
You is built to be belted out by Adele or
Sam Smith, while Jump Start, with its
echoes of Tom Petty, suggests they have
one eye on America.
Graeme Thomson

UNCLE LUCIUS
The Light
BOO CLAP/THIRTY TIGERS

Savvy Southern rock

on fourth album from
Austin quintet
You walk into a Texas
hot and tired
7/10 honky-tonk,
from the road, order a
bottle of Lone Star and Uncle Lucius are
playing in the back room. At least thats
the fantasy conjured by their rollicking
barrelhouse rhythms, Allmans-style duelling
guitars, Black Keys swagger, ripe country-rock
and Kevin Galloways muscular, sand-blasted
vocals. Listen more closely and theres a razorsharp songwriting sensibility at work, too, at
its most impressive on the albums cornerstone
track Taking In The View, a biblical
narrative for our times, in which the devils
selling off hell to the highest bidder and
Jesus has retired with a stack of classic vinyl
and a turntable.
nIGeL wILLIamson

MARCH 2016 | UNCUT |

81

New Albums
VArIoUS
ArtIStS
songs of
separation
naViGaTor

mArloN
WIllIAmS
marlon Williams

SteVeN
WIlSoN
4

dead oceans

Kscope

Feminine folk summit

hits the heights
June 2015, 10 British
8/10 In
female folk artists were
cast away on the Hebridean Isle Of Eigg for a
week to record a collective album of traditional
songs on the theme of separation. On Eliza
Carthys lovely Cleaning The Stones and
Karine Polwarts affecting Echo Mocks The
Corncrake, a single voice takes the lead over
some wonderfully nimble acoustic ensemble
playing. On Unst Boat Song and Sad The
Climbing, the richness of the massed female
harmonies provides the thrills. Such a project
might easily have ended up sounding worthy
and precious but the sisterly joie de vivre
marks out Songs Of Separation as a very
special record indeed.

Antipodean tunesmiths
fine solo first
Highly successful in New
Marlon Williams
7/10 Zealand,
emerged from Lyttletons
fertile alt.country/folk scene, which has also
delivered Nadia Reid, Aldous Harding and
Delaney Davidson. His solo debut respects the
US traditions that nourish him while reflecting
his own history a choirboy turned classical
music student, who played in a country band on
weekends. Williams vocal and writing range is
impressive, his judgement spot-on, whether
tenderising the barroom ballad Lonely Side Of
Her or tackling the traditional When I Was A
Young Girl. The noir-ish Im Lost Without You
is a highlight Roy Orbison with cinematic
strings and a synth, tilting at Shirley Basseys
cover of I (Who Have Nothing).

English prog epics,

ballads and thrash
Wilson is best known
the leading light
7/10 as
in contemporary progrockers Porcupine Tree, and this half-hourlong mini-album is a fair smrgsbord of his
material, bookended by two nine-and-ahalf-minute Genesis-like epics that swing
between several styles. The instrumentals
are the highlights: the slow-building
Vermillioncore starts off like an offcut
from Miles In A Silent Way before mutating
into grinding thrash rock; Sunday Rain
Sets In is a ballad that explores the James
Bond chord (minor ninth with major
seventh), while Year Of The Plague mixes
a Davy Graham claw-hammer guitar with a
sighing violin line.

niGel williaMson

sharon oconnell

John lewis

the WAVe
PICtUreS
a season in Hull
WymesWold

David Tattersall and co

go acoustic on lo-fi gem
Despite the quirky backof this vinyl-only
8/10 story
release hastily written
songs recorded acoustically using just one
microphone, all on frontman David Tattersalls
birthday last year whats surprising about the
Leicestershire trios latest is how well it matches
up to their previous amped-up triumphs. Slick
Black River From The Rain is a close cousin
to the swampy All My Friends, from 2013s
City Forgiveness, complete with Tattersalls
wonderfully wry lyrics and lithe guitar breaks
just here unamplified while Thin Lizzy Live
And Dangerous and the shuffling Remains
are at once moving and hilarious (I love you,
you idiot, goes the chorus of the former).
Another reliably excellent offering.
toM Pinnock

emIlY WellS
promise
THesis & insTincT

High-concept
confessionals
from Texan multiinstrumentalist
Wells is a high7/10 Emily
functioning composer,
arranger and multi-instrumentalist, and this
fourth album is beguiling. A fusion of arcing
synthscapes, lugubrious grooves and shrill
confessionals, it belongs next to the Cocteaus,
PJ Harvey and Julia Holter in your baroque-pop
playlist. This paupers opera released via
her own Thesis & Instinct label examines loss,
remorse and regret, apparently influenced by
the German Tanztheater of modern dance and
its choreographer Pina Bausch. Cinematic in
scope, ruthlessly ambitious in execution, this is
not easy listening, but its snake-paced tempos
work brilliantly on Fallin In On It and the
Lorde-ish goth-pop of Pack Of Nobodies.
Mark Bentley

82 | UNCUT | MARCH 2016

IM
NEW
HERE

Marlon
Williams

I eventually came to the realisation that

I didnt have the discipline for that kind of
singing, explains 25-year-old Marlon Williams
of his decision to quit his university choral
studies and pursue the country-folk/blues
path that has turned him into an awardwinning New Zealand star (now living in
Melbourne) who supported Lucinda Williams
on her recent Australian dates. It wasnt like
I just put down the choir book and picked up
the guitar; Id been playing in bands pretty
much as long as Id been singing.
Williams has an effortlessly expressive
voice that recalls Roy Orbison one minute,
Nina Simone the next. He credits membership
of a cathedral choir during his high-school
years for the refinement, but says, It was
really singing on the marae [Maori meeting
grounds] as a child that put the spirit in me.
As to what led him to cover When I Was A
Young Girl on his debut LP without altering
the lyrics: I heard Barbara Dane singing it and
it just floored me. I couldnt believe that voice
was coming out of a little white girl and it made
me think, Its believable coming from her;
what if a dude was singing it? All performers
love the challenge of fooling their audience,
be it through gender inversion or ironic
Britney Spears covers. SHARON OCONNELL

Wolfmother
Victorious
UniVersal

Aussie stoner-rock
riffhounds deliver
fist-punching fourth
Despite their live might,
record Wolfmother have
7/10 on
never quite matched their
2005 self-titled debut. Andrew Stockdales mob
have subsequently experienced shifting lineup
changes, but their commitment to the power of
the riff remains undimmed, and Victorious
positively growls with big-bastard guitar lines,
which recall much quoted influences (Zep, Sabs)
alongside rocks dimmer-lit corners (Blue Cheer,
Steppenwolf). Produced by Grammy-magnet
Brendan OBrien (Pearl Jam, Springsteen, AC/
DC, Mastodon), this is bustling rocknroll that
doesnt think too hard about much else. The
title track and Gypsy Caravan are highlights,
those adenoidal vocals cutting through the
heads-down, hair-flying production.
Mark Bentley

WorKING for
A NUCleAr
free CItY
What do people
do all day?
melodic

Rich comeback by
8/10 genre-mashing
Manc soundscapers
A living tribute to the kaleidoscopic electro-rock
eclecticism that fuelled Manchester musics
much-mythologised goldrush years, Working
For A Nuclear Free City sound re-energised both
sonically and melodically following a five-year
sabbatical filled with solo projects. Their fourth
studio album contains futuristic Afro-funk
jams, sinewy Krautrock grooves, blasts of
shoegaze fuzz and vintage psych-pop, plus the
bittersweet Beatlish ballad Stop Everything
and a majestic, ambient instrumental called
Leaving, which owes as much to Mahler as
Eno. The musical richness and genre-blending
confidence adds up to a quietly great album.
stePhen Dalton

New Albums

RANGDA

The Heretics Bargain

draG ciTy

AYLIN GNGR

Groove, improv and duelling

guitars on cracking third album
from underground collaborators.
By Peter Watts
BEFORE GETTING
STARTED on Rangdas
music, check out their
song titles. Spiro
Agnew, Mondays
Are Free At The
Hermetic Museum
and, best of all, Hard
Times Befall The Door
To Door Glass Shard
8/10 Salesman. They
sound a little like
Tom Wolfe book titles, but their witty, surreal flow
hints at the pattern of the music itself, while
encapsulating the freedom that comes from
recording instrumentals: with no singer to
accommodate, you can call a song whatever you
want and then take it any place you please.
Thats pretty much the unifying credo for this
guitar-charged trio formed by Ben Chasny and
Richard Bishop, and held together by drummer
Chris Corsano. These serial collaborators have
appeared on around 400 albums between
them Bishop mainly with the experimental,
unpredictable Sun City Girls, Chasny with Comets
On Fire and as the psychedelic, folky Six Organs Of
Admittance, and Corsano on a variety of projects,
including collaborations with Bjrk, Thurston
Moore and Jandek. The Heretics Bargain is
Rangdas third album since 2010, not bad going
for what was perceived as a one-off after their
debut, False Flag.
Contemplating such heavyweight artists, each an
expert in improvisation and occupying that wide
border between underground and avant-garde, can
be a daunting prospect, but The Heretics Bargain is
a groovy, engaging listen, that at various time
sounds like Curtis Mayfield, The Who and Ennio
Morricone. The focus is the interplay between the
twin guitars of Chasny and Bishop, with their
contrasting but complementary styles. Its never
clear who is leading who as the two guitars buzz
around like kittens, chasing and fighting, playful
but testing. They sometimes take up the same
phrase, hammering repetition with stylistic
differences, or veer off in wildly different directions,
one taking a solo, the other imaginatively filling the
space that the bass or vocal melody would usually
occupy. Corsano provides much of the underlying
groove that propels the first three surprisingly
funky tracks, To Melt The Moon, The Sin Eaters
and Spiro Agnew. The drummer can also play
guitar, and wrote riffs for the final track, Mondays
Are Free At The Hermetic Museum, which partly
explains why it goes on for nearly 20 minutes.
Thats in contrast to the urgent Link Wray riff and
rat-a-tat percussion that opens To Melt The Moon,
which then develops into something with plenty of
swing, one guitar tight to Corsanos drums, while
the other jangles and dangles, dallying with
Spaghetti Western themes, surf instrumentals and
the North African/Mid-Eastern flourishes that
Bishop specialises in. The Sin Eaters picks up that
thread, building on a rippling lead and big desert
rock chords. Again, it sounds like a psychedelic
Western theme Bishops brother has one of the

SleeVe
NoteS
produced by:
burble of tune is picked out against a
worlds largest collections of Morricone
Rangda
becalming billow of drums. Then just
soundtracks on vinyl, and thats all
when you think a song is about to break
over this record before an aggressive, recorded at: Black
Dirt Studio, New York
out, it abruptly finishes. Or more
squally solo, reminiscent of Chasnys
personnel: Ben Chasny precisely, it folds into Mondays Are
work with Comets On Fire, closes
(guitar), Richard
Free At The Hermetic Museum. This
things out after less than three
Bishop (guitar), Chris
19-minute epic begins with glacial
minutes. Spiro Agnew is equally
Corsano (drums)
feedback and drone, before sparring
brief, a cheery march that sees
guitars quiver and bat volleys of notes
guitarists switch between rhythm and
around, each phrase punctuated by a power chord
lead a couple of times before they fall into step with
redolent of Pete Townshend. From there, the track
each other, together but slightly out of time, with
combines the funk of the opening three tracks with
deliriously blurred effect.
something heavier, fat layers of metal chords
After this relatively straightforward opening, the
meeting thundering drums and shredding solos
record takes an oblique turn. Hard Times Befall
shrouded in a psychedelic haze. And through it all
The Door To Door Glass Shard Salesman begins
flutter little flurries of sustaining rhythms, like a
with a sludgy cacophony of feedback, like an avantGreek wedding during a tornado with two master
garde orchestra of angry cats, and maintains that
guitarists leading the dance.
for five minutes of shrieking chaos, until a slow

Ben Chasny
How do you all decide its time
to get together? We sit around
until somebody calls somebody
else and says lets do a record.
We recorded this last January.
Everybody writes at home and
then we go to Chris house and write for a week
together, then we tour that material to see what
improvisation works. Then we go to Jason
[Meaghers] studio at the end of the tour and put
it down. On this one, Chris wrote a lot of the
guitar work, that was a new thing. Hes a really
good guitar player.
Would you agree this is quite a groovy record?
Its really interesting, before we made the first

record, thats kind of what I thought the band

would sound like. But that first record was very
out-there, a lot of improvisation, quite noisy. The
groove comes from Chris drumming, hes very
free and has a really funky sense. It was a lot of
fun because I dont have any projects that are
funky in the least.
How do you and rick complement each other?
His style is different, even when we are playing
the same riff, so I have to get up to his speed and
style and thats really good for me. I do a lot of
hammer-ons and pull-offs, but he picks every
note with that flamenco style.
Who writes the song titles? I have nothing
to do with it. Chris and Rick start an email
thread, bouncing ideas as it gets more and more
outrageous and funny, until they have to scale
it back to something less ridiculous while I just
sit and watch. INTERVIEW: PETER WATTS

MARCH 2016 | UNCUT |

83

ACTION
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scoring: the original album

10 masterpiece

1 Poor!

scoring: eXtra material

10 untold riches

1 barrel-scrapings

Archive

r eissu es|c om p s|box se t s|l os t r ec or di ngs

tracklist
disc one
1. Impotence
2. Those Words They Say
3. Memories
4. Dont Try To Change Me
5. Parchman Farm
6. Almost Grown
7. Shes Gone
8. Slow Walkin Talk, Pt 1
9. Hes Bad For You
10. Its What I Feel (A Certain Kind)
11. Memories (Instrumental)
12. Never Leave Me
13. Time After Time
14. Just Where I Want
15. No Game When You Lose
16. Impotence (alt version)
17. Why Do You Care
18. The Pie Man Cometh
19. Summer Spirit
20. She Loves to Hurt
21. The Big Show
22. Memories (alt version)
disc tWo
1. The Pieman Cometh
1. Mummie
3. Thats Alright Mama
4. Orientasian
5. Frenetica
6. 3/4 Blues Thing in F
7. Slow Walkin Talk, Pt 2
8. Man In A Deaf Corner
9. Summertime
10. Belsized Parked
11. Where But For Caravan Would I?
12. Hope For Happiness

THE wildE flowErS

the Wilde Flowers
Floating World

Exhaustive round-up of Robert Wyatt and Kevin Ayers

Canterbury Scene precursors. By Tom Pinnock

8/10

Take almosT any iconic

British musician of the late 60s
or early 70s, and a failed group
lurks in their past. Bryan Ferry had the Gas
Board, for example, and David Gilmour his
Jokers Wild; even David Bowie tried his
hand in The lower Third, The konrads and
The king Bees.
one such group, though, The Wilde Flowers,
who floundered quietly in Canterbury in the
mid-60s, not only spawned a whole batch of
englands finest songwriters and musicians,

but an entire movement the Canterbury

scene, made up of jazz-tinged, psychedelically
playful outfits such as soft machine, Caravan,
matching mole and Hatfield and The north,
and solo artists such as Robert Wyatt and kevin
ayers. During their existence from 1964 to 69,
The Wilde Flowers were heard by very few.
They released no songs, and received little
attention outside east kent, but owing to their
members later successes, what they did record
was released as a compilation in 1994. With
that record now long out of print, these
maRCH 2016 | UnCUT |

85

Archive

The Wilde Flowers 1965/66

(l-r): Brian Hopper, robert
Wyatt, richard Coughlan
and Hugh Hopper

insightful roots of the canterbury scene

have been remastered and packaged with
a second disc of previously unreleased tracks.
the 35 songs here are worthy of propagation
in the 21st century primarily because of the
band members leftfield inspirations, relatively
unique in the beat/rnB scene. rather than
being into the trad jazz that was popular in the
late 50s and early 60s even Pete townshend
and John entwistle first met in such a group,
the confederates the flowers bonded over
their passions for the likes of eric Dolphy,
charles Mingus and cecil taylor, just some of
the acts introduced to them by Wyatts halfbrother, Mark ellidge, and Daevid allen, the
australian Beatnik and future Gong leader
who was lodging at Wyatts parents house.
inspired by the Beats and free jazz, allen
enlisted Wyatt who had been taught
drums by the californian jazz player George
neidorf and his friend hugh hopper for the
experimental Daevid allen trio in 1963, just
before the Wilde flowers formed; a pretty outthere experience for two canterbury teenagers.
the flowers surviving recordings stem from
various unearthed sessions, often taped

straight from the acetates by the bands longestrunning member Brian hopper. robert Wyatt
takes lead on most of these, his reedy tones on
the early hes Bad for you immediately
recognisable as the man
who would later create the
masterful Rock Bottom.
Kevin ayers helms two
songs on Disc one: his cover
of Booker Whites swinging
Parchman farm is fun,
though hardly essential, but
ayers own shes Gone is
much more interesting, its
grimy chugging reminiscent
of the Velvet undergrounds
early material. soon, however, the charismatic
frontman would flit to the Balearics, something
he seemed to be fond of doing throughout his
career whenever anything got too staid.
for a group who all involved admit were
primarily a dance band, the sheer weirdness
of some of the cuts here is still a surprise, with
hes Bad for you predicting the spindly,
grey-scale sound of post-punks like the
raincoats. Meanwhile, charged freakbeat cuts

those Words they say and no Game When

you Lose, both recorded at Wout steenhuis
Broadstairs studio in early 1966, today recall
the work of another Kent maverick, Billy
childish. their modal
melodies, out-there guitar
solos and melancholic
moods were at right angles
to most mid-60s British
rock acts, but would have
fitted well alongside some
of the selections on
Nuggets. Before the dawn
of psychedelia, while the
Beatles were still singing
about paperback writers
and tomorrow never Knows was yet to be
made public, its hard to imagine songs like
these going down well at the sort of gigs the
Wilde flowers played in sleepy canterbury
venues like the Beehive.
Despite these louder highlights, some of
the Wilde flowers finest songs were their
most contemplative. hugh hoppers elegiac
Memories appears three times here in
various guises, and in many ways is the ur-text
for the entire canterbury
scene. the tempo is
slow, the beat lightly
swinging, as Wyatts
voice flits plaintively
above the shifting
hope For
happiness
chords. I know I
2003 version
cannot leave this place,
Though marred by some
he sings, full of
cheap-sounding keyboard
memories Memories,
sounds, Robert Wyatt and
can hang you up/And
Brian Hoppers nine-minute,
haunt you all your life,
21st-century take on the
opener to Soft Machines
you know. Disc one
1968 debut is imbued with
ends with an alternate
a fascinating Eastern vibe
version recorded in
that really uncovers the
august 1969, with soft
raga-like melodies of the song.
Machine organist Mike
Strangely like The Incredible
ratledge supplying
String Band with breakbeats.

For a group who all

admit were a dance
band, the weirdness
of some of the cuts
here is a surprise

MeMories
1969 version

With The Wilde Flowers

themselves a memory, Hugh
Hoppers finest song was
revisited in the late 60s by
Robert Wyatt, Hopper and
Mike Ratledge for this moody,
despairing take in many
ways, a blueprint for much
of Wyatts subsequent solo
career. Kevin Ayers was
reportedly even on hand
to provide the closing
organ notes.

86 | uncut | March 2016

Where But
For Caravan
Would i?

Co-written with Brian Hopper,

this epic closed Caravans
self-titled debut, released
in 1969, but on The Wilde
Flowers Disc Two it features in
an earlier, murkier-sounding
extended version. After
three sleepy minutes, the
track blossoms into life with
a chromatic, menacing riff
and two sets of stellar organ
soloing from Dave Sinclair.

Man in a
deaF Corner

Written and performed

by Brian Hopper, Hugh
Hopper, Mike Ratledge and
Robert Wyatt back in 1962
or 1963 effectively Soft
Machines Mark II lineup
six years early this is a
shockingly advanced free
jazz piece, and bizarrely
similar to some of the
material that Soft Machine
would perform as the 60s
came to a close.

Photos courtesy of Brian hoPPer

Forgotten Fruit Four treasures from The Wilde Flowers

Archive
Wyatt: hop-picker,
life model and
musical pioneer

skilful, Bill evans-esque piano. its funereal

mood is strangely not unlike something from
Wyatts last solo album, 2007s Comicopera.
hopper also contributed another highlight
to the flowers canon, with impotence,
co-written with Wyatt. again only captured
properly in august 1969 at Londons regent
sound studios, its a bouncing, minor-chord
delight. I cant stand the pain of the tension
between your wet eyes and mine, wails Wyatt.
Its like something obscene.
Disc two provides a glimpse into the myriad
contemporaneous outlets of the flowers.
slow Walkin talk is performed by robert
Wyatt and one of his friends in the us in
1968, most likely Jimi hendrix, while versions
of the Pieman cometh and hope for
happiness date from a 2003 session by
Wyatt and Brian hopper. Most interesting,
perhaps, are a number of duo performances
from 1962 and 63, featuring Brian hopper
and Wyatt on the experimental Mummie
and orientasian, and Wyatt and Mike
ratledge on frenetica, complete with
suitably jagged free jazz drums and piano.
the pairs take on Gershwins summertime
is also a beautiful miniature, Wyatt restricting
himself mostly to cymbals as the tempo
bends and warps.
not long after moving from the drums to take
up vocals full-time in 1966, Wyatt would leave
the band and hook up with ayers and Daevid
allen to form soft Machine. By the middle of
1967, Brian hopper had left the band to form
Zobe (and later become an agricultural
scientist), and the rest of the latter-day flowers,
including Pye hastings on guitar and richard
coughlan on drums, formed caravan.
though the band had ended, their bonds
would remain. With soft Machine on tour in
america in 1968, caravan used their friends
equipment to record their debut, while some
of the highlights of the formers debut album
were written by Brian hopper. Meanwhile, his
brother hughs Memories has often been
performed by Wyatt, as captured on his 1974
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane live album, and by
Daevid allen on 1971s Banana Moon, with
Wyatt on drums and vocals. collaborations
continued throughout the years, with hugh
hopper and Wyatt even appearing on Kevin
ayers final album, 2007s The Unfairground.
today, Pye hastings still leads caravan, with
richard coughlan remaining on the drum
stool until his death in 2013.
in hindsight, the level of talent involved in
the Wilde flowers never seemed to be their
problem indeed, on the evidence of these two
discs, they appeared to suffer from a surfeit of
ideas, members and avenues that they wished
to explore, leaving their identity perhaps a little
too fluid for the casual listeners of the mid-60s.
as they neared the end of their existence,
Londons countercultural underground
exploded, the ufo club opened and teenagers
were suddenly content to sit and listen to
melancholic, expansive music only then
would many of the flowers find their own
audiences. yet, over 50 years on, these
seeds of the canterbury scene are still
worthy of rediscovery.

Robert Wyatt on how The

Wilde Flowers blossomed

ow did The wilde Flowers

start out?
it was basically Brian and hugh
[hopper], who i met at school in
canterbury, where they lived. that was an hours
bus ride from my home, which was near Dover.
id left home for good by 1962. the Wilde flowers
happened when i was staying in several places
in canterbury, from which i got seasonal work
hop-picking, life modelling at the art college, etc.
what part did daevid Allen play in the
development of the group? i understand he
introduced you all to a lot of music and art.
yes, ive read that too. David was a lodger at our
near-Dover home in the late 50s. he did indeed
have many jazz records, but id already been
listening to similar ones: my brother Marks
records, added to the music my dad played, and
to the music id heard abroad while i was still in
short trousers. But anyhow, i was an aspiring
painter then, if anything.
why did you all move from jazz to RnB?
im guessing the rise of beat groups was
pretty irresistible.
it happened when Brian bought a guitar and
started playing chuck Berry songs. the bridge
between being the very danceable soul jazz of
nat and Julian adderley, and the heroes in
London, like Georgie fame and Zoot Money. if
youre curious about the connection between
our classic jazz listening and the more widely
accessible music that inspired us later, ive
heard a whole evening of the kind of records we
used to love being played
by the actor Martin
freeman in his
unexpected role as
disc jockey. his choices
are totally spot on.

Kevin must have seemed like a very exotic

character when he first appeared in your
circles did he galvanise the group?
he certainly added the e to Wild. for oscar,
of course. i dont recall exotic being a feature
of his presence. But he was certainly more
laidback than us. i really enjoyed his company,
thats for sure.
what were The wilde Flowers like live?
We got into our stride in a canterbury club called
the Beehive. Lively crowds, steamy atmosphere.
We got loud.
You eventually took over the vocals and
frontman duties how did it feel to step
away from the drums?
the [hopper] brothers came across richard
[coughlan], a good drummer who seemed
content to just play drums. this is rarer than
youd think.
what were your recording sessions like?
The material from wout Steenhuis studio
sounds great.
Wout steenhuis Dutch, i think was a
successful musician with his own studio. he
very kindly allowed us there to try out a few
sessions, for demos or just so the songwriters
could hear what their songs sounded like before
trying them out in public.
why did the band eventually disintegrate?
they carried on after id gone London to join
Kevin and Daevid, who were collaborating on
songwriting, so i dont know really. Brian was
studying to become a scientist, so i suppose that
that took over his priorities. he did carry on
writing and playing though, which im happy
about because decades later i got to sing his
the Pieman cometh,
which i really enjoyed
doing with him.

We got into our

stride in Canterbury
club, The Beehive.
Lively crowds and a
steamy atmosphere

how was it melding

your jazz drumming
chops to more
straightahead
material?
the key influence was
playing for dancers, with
the backbeat you really must not lose.

what were the rehearsals at the hoppers

home, Tanglewood, like?
a huddle round Mrs hoppers piano. hugh
and Brian would think of tunes we might try,
and some of their own. though i was behind
the drumkit, the brothers were reluctant
singers, so i did some of that. then [rhythmn
guitarist] richard sinclair and Kevin ayers came
to the rescue.

do you have any

favourites among The
wilde Flowers songs?
hughs tunes were often
unusually haunting.
i would say Memories,
perhaps his very first.
ive returned to it several
times since.

what do you see as the classic wilde

Flowers lineup?
Probably what they did after i left the band!
But of the times i was with them, the lineup
for 20-odd minutes during which we played
i Put a spell on you, Watermelon Man
and a James Brown number, for a surprising
win at the Margate Beat Group competition.
that was hugh, Brian and me with, um,
Pye hastings?
INTERVIEW: TOM PINNOCK

March 2016 | uncut |

87

Archive

ERIC CLAPTON

The Studio Album Collection (1970-1981)

UNIVERSAL

The withdrawal years: Slowhand leaves the blues behind

on eight vinyl albums in a box. By David Cavanagh

7/10
bOxsEt CONtENts:
Eric clapton
layla & othEr assortEd lovE songs
461 ocEan BoulEvard
thErEs onE in EvEry crowd
no rEason to cry
slowhand
BacklEss
anothEr tickEt

88 | UNCUT | MARCH 2016

PICK ANy ONE of the four

sides of Layla & Other Assorted
Love Songs, the 1970 doublealbum by Derek & The Dominos, and youll hear a
25-year-old Eric Clapton wracked with anguish,
down on his knees and baring his soul. A howl of
unrequited love for Pattie Boyd, the wife of his
friend George Harrison, Layla remains one of
Claptons greatest works. Its a monolith of blues
metaphors, real-time agonies and scorching
guitar solos. His way of coping with the pain it
unleashed was to retreat to Hurtwood Edge, his
villa in Surrey, where he took heroin for two years
and never left the house.
Its been suggested that Clapton got so close to
the essence of the blues on Layla that it did
something terminal to his muse. Certainly, his
guitar and voice were much changed more

restrained, not so fearless when he re-emerged

in a Miami studio in 1974. If theres a word that
sums up this boxset (a vinyl-only collection of
eight albums from 1970 to 1981), its withdrawal.
Withdrawal from heroin. Withdrawal into an
alcoholic haze. But withdrawal, too, from the
burden and responsibility of being rocks
foremost living guitarist, so that the former
Cream hero was seen, by the mid-70s, to
mutate into a quite different beast: a leisurely,
laidback, south-of-England facsimile of JJ Cale.
Watch the first 20 minutes of Claptons 1977 Old
Grey Whistle Test special, where hes strumming
an acoustic while his American bandmate
George Terry takes all the solos, and witness
a man once hailed as God reducing himself to
the role of a minor apostle.
All the same, more than one of these eight

Archive

albums sold millions (for example, Slowhand

in 1977), and between them they featured
some of Claptons biggest international hits,
including Layla, I Shot The Sheriff and Lay
Down Sally. The producers he worked with
(Tom Dowd, Glyn Johns, Rob Fraboni) operated
at the top end of AOR sophistication, while the
musicians in his band bassist Carl Radle,
keyboardist Dick Sims and drummer Jamie
Oldaker were among the best of the American
feel players that captivated stars like Rod
Stewart, Steve Winwood and The Rolling Stones
in the 70s. Radle,
Sims and Oldaker
were masters of a
gentle, rolling,
country- and bluesinfluenced style
known as the Tulsa
sound. While Rod
Stewarts 70s
albums with Tom

Dowd struggled with a blandness problem,

Claptons had a Tulsa chemistry and a fleetfooted flexibility, allowing them to explore the
sleepy grooves of Cale and the new rhythms of
reggae. A song called High (on Theres One In
Every Crowd, 1975) slips and slides exquisitely, its
uneven metre so strange and beguiling that its
both impossible to dance to and impossible to sit
still to. Clapton was leaving his British blues
roots far behind.
Cale, a little-known Tulsa songwriter, had
been surprised and intrigued when Clapton
covered After Midnight on his first solo
album, 1970s Eric Clapton. Cales inspiration as
a straight-arrow minimalist was to hover over
Claptons 70s output even on albums like 461
Ocean Boulevard (1974), where none of his songs
were actually performed and grew stronger, if
anything, towards the end of the decade. Not
only did Clapton start Slowhand with Cales
Cocaine (and sing Ill Make
Love To you Anytime on the 1978 follow-up,
Backless), but he appropriated Cales
whispering, chugging sound for his Top 40
singles Lay Down Sally and Promises. It
was a style popular with radio listeners and
fellow musicians alike. Among those who
emulated Clapton emulating Cale was Mark
Knopfler, the singer and leader of the emerging
Dire Straits.
Other Clapton followers, however, were
frustrated by the absence of drama and risk in
his post-Layla music. No Reason To Cry (1976),
depending on how one looked at it, was either
a stellar symposium of rock socialites Bob
Dylan, Ronnie Wood, Robbie Robertson and
The Band or a study in underachievement
by a clique of self-satisfied drunks. Dylan,
rhyming sign language with eating a
sandwich, isnt the only one who sounds
keen to get the recording session finished
and the party started.
Its a depressing thought, listening to this
boxset, that Clapton was sometimes merely
making music that sounded half-decent to him
when he was pissed. No Reason To Cry isnt
the sole offender, but as we listen to Clapton
bizarrely impersonating The Bands Richard
Manuel on Black Summer Rain, were bound
to wonder if one of Britains most illustrious
guitarists has drunk so much that hes forgotten
who he is.
The 70s was a decade when Clapton coveted,
mourned and finally wooed the girl. But
look what happened as a result. Having
immortalised Pattie Boyd in Layla, he
sentimentalised her in Wonderful Tonight. To
go from Hellhound On My Trail to The Lady
In Red would not be every bluesmans idea of
musical progression. Then again, unlike Robert
Johnson, Clapton survived to tell the tale.
EXTRAS:All remastered, these LPs come
4/10packaged in a box.

AFRICAN HEAD
CHARGE
My Life In A Hole
In The Ground/
Environmental
Studies/
Drastic Season/
Off The Beaten
7/10 Track ON-U SOUND
Four visions of a psychedelic Africa, hauled
from the On-U vaults
By 1981, Adrian Sherwood was a pioneer in UK
dub reggae, behind groups including New Age
Steppers and Singers & Players (the former
featuring post-punk stars Ari Up and Keith
Levene, the latter, Jamaican heavyweights Bim
Sherman and Prince Far I). With African Head
Charge, Sherwood was headed really far out.
Ostensibly the vehicle of Ghanian percussionist
Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah, African Head Charge
found Sherwood flexing studio skills, using
rumbling echo, ambitious tape edits and
found sounds car crashes, flowing water,
breaking glass. The title of 1981s My Life In A
Hole In The Ground is a sly nod to Eno and
Byrnes My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts,
condensing Enos psychedelic Africa to a
murky, stoned fug; Prince Far I pops up on
Far Away Chant, his voice slowed to a gurgle.
1983s Drastic Season is perhaps the pick of the
bunch, adding digital production but keeping
ethnographic weirdness on Timbuktu
Express and Bazaar. Off The Beaten Track
has Jah Wobble on bass and, on Language &
Mentality, an Albert Einstein monologue
set to a dreamy steppers bounce.
EXTRAS: Sleevenotes.

4/10 LOUIS PATTISON

NUNO
CANAVARRO
Plux Quba
(reissue, 1988)
DRAG CITY

Quiet radicalism
electronica in
9/10 1980s Portugal
Nuno Canavarros debut
album of miniature electronics, Plux Quba,
took a while to find its audience in the early
1990s, it was discovered by German composer
Christoph Heemann, who subsequently
introduced it to his friends, among them Jan St
Werner of Mouse On Mars and Microstoria, and
Jim ORourke. The latter reissued Plux Quba in
the late 90s on his Moikai imprint, giving the
album a much-needed boost in accessibility.
Since then, its taken on a near-totemic status
in certain circles, and its not hard to hear why:
its a deeply personal document, one that
refuses commonplace expectations of what
experimental music can be, surprising the
listener at every turn. Part of Plux Qubas magic
is its pop backbone while it moves through
stretches of abstraction, theres a real love for
melody in microcosm here, best found in the
sweeping, glinting synthesis of Wask.
Elsewhere, its gentle playfulness, and
its understanding of the joy in simple,
unpretentious experimentation, lends Plux
Quba a strangely eldritch air: imagine a series
of music boxes falling in and out of sync, as a
soundtrack to a 19th-century magic lantern
show. Almost three decades later, theres
still nothing quite like it.
EXTRAS: None.
JON DALE

MARCH 2016 | UNCUT |

89

Archive
ORNETTE
COLEMAN
To Whom Who
Keeps A Record

Rediscovered!

Uncovering the underrated and overlooked

(reissue, 1975)
SUPERIOR VIADUCT

Scorching outtakes
set from Colemans
revolutionary phase
Another in a rather long list of great jazz
albums that originally, and inexplicably,
only saw release in Japan, To Whom Who
Keeps A Record gathers together session
outtakes from one of saxophonist Ornette
Colemans most sainted phases, the period
between 1959 to 1961 where he pretty much
ripped up and rewrote the rulebook for
modern jazz. The material here is culled from
recording sessions for Change Of The Century
and This Is Our Music, albums where the trio
of Coleman on alto, Don Cherry on pocket
trumpet and Charlie Haden on bass were
accompanied by either Billy Higgins
or Ed Blackwell on drums. Colemans
compositions always felt rigorously plotted,
even as he allowed the musicians to
extrapolate on the melody leads he provided;
theres a pure stream of logic to the music
here that could only be Colemans voice. Each
piece feels like a becalmed unravelling, even
as the quartet shared the taut energy of great
collective jazz playing. As Coleman himself
would say, via the song titles for the album,
Music always brings goodness to us all. PS:
Unless one has some other motive for its use.
EXTRAS: Liner notes from the writer,
8/10 Byron Coley.

8/10

COUNT OSSIE AND THE MYSTIC

REVELATION OF RASTAFARI
Tales Of Mozambique

JON DALE

SOUL JAZZ

8/10
Roots songs and spiritual revelations from the man who
gave reggae its beat
The London label Soul Jazz are well known for their elegantly
curated selections from the renowned Kingston production house,
Studio One, but a handful of more recent releases have sought to
reveal the building blocks of the Jamaican music that filtered around the world in the 60s and 70s:
from a collection of ska pioneer Sir Coxsones very earliest productions to Rastafari: The Dreads Enter
Babylon 1955-83, a compilation showing what reggae derived from the religious chant and shuffling
rhythms of nyabinghi drumming.
Now the label builds on this story through a closer look at the singular music of Oswald Williams.
Born in St Thomas, Jamaica in 1926, Williams is the inventor of nyabinghi drumming, and the man
who imprinted Rastafari consciousness on reggaes DNA. Introduced to Rastafarianism as a boy,
by the early 50s Williams had reinvented himself as Count Ossie, and was leading a religious
community in the hills of Wareika, Kingston, where initiates would practise hand drumming and
vocal chanting in styles inherited from the Bantu traditions of the Eastern Congo. At the time,
Rastafarians were marginalised in Jamaican society and regarded as outlaws, and this remained a
cloistered community until 1959, when the rumba dancer Marguerita Mahfood invited the Counts
troupe to perform at Kingstons Ward Theatre. That same year, producer Prince Buster invited Ossie
and his troupe to bring their shuffling percussion to a recording of Oh Carolina by vocal trio the
Folkes Brothers, the first commercially released single to integrate traditional Rastafarian styles
with popular music.
Tales Of Mozambique dates from rather later to 1975, by which time international stars like Bob
Marley were preaching the Rasta life from the stage, and the Count had returned from a period of
retirement with new music that was soulful, mystic and deeply idiosyncratic. Pairing his percussion
troupe with The Mystics, a horn group led by saxophonist Cedric Im Brooks, Tales Of Mozambique
floats somewhere between roots reggae, the spiritual jazz of Pharoah Sanders or Sun Ra, and
recordings of African tribal drumming. At times, its almost ascetic in its simplicity, Selam Nna
Wadada (Peace & Love) and I Am A Warrior comprised of little but worshipful chants and steady,
trance-like drums. Other moments are more musical. No Night In Zion is a wistful reggae hymn
borne up on swirling keys, while Brooks horn comes to the fore on plaintive instrumentals like
Run One Mile and Let Freedom Reign. Then theres the title track, on which the Count relates the
tale of the 15th-century colonisation of Mozambique over wheedling pipes and full-throated yodels.
This would be Count Ossies final testament just a year later, he died in a traffic accident, run off
the road by a drunken bus driver. But Tales Of Mozambique proves he was that truly rare figure:
one who laid the foundations for an entire genre, but whose visionary music nonetheless stood
alone, sui generis.
LOuIS PATTISON

DEEP PURPLE
The Vinyl Collection
72 to 87
UNIVERSAL

Hard rock pioneers

studio prime, remastered
and recaptured on vinyl
7/10 across seven LPs
Though Deep Purple had
existed for four years by 1972, having already
produced some seven LPs, including a 1968 US
Billboard Top 10 single with Joe Souths Hush,
when they pivoted into the mesmerising Machine
Head they were a brand new animal. With sizzling
guitar-and-keyboard tradeoffs, courtesy of Ritchie
Blackmore and Jon Lord, the groups dark
textures, muscular melodies and blues-in-ablender approach marked a transition from bluesrock to hard rock to heavy metal. The album,
also featuring the groups strongest songwriting
collective, remains their best by a long shot. 1974s
Burn (enter David Coverdale) and 1975s Come
Taste The Band (exit Blackmore, enter Tommy
Bolin) represent decent if deeply flawed followups. Unending, album-to-album personnel
changes (to cite just one factor) conspired to
prevent the band from building on Smoke On
The Waters momentum; clichs swelled, songwriting thinned and the Purple slowly dumbed
down. Still, if youre not looking for anything
philosophically deep, substantial chunks of
the 70s output and 80s-comeback-era oeuvres
like The House Of Blue Lights semi-operatic Bad
Attitude, a late 1980s attempt to re-engage the
mainstream remain musically vibrant, a riff
machine built on thunder and bluster.
EXTRAS: None.
LukE TOrN

90 | UNCUT | MARCH 2016

Archive
EPIC
SOUNDTRACKS
Rise Above

GAME THEORY
Lolita Nation

(reissue, 1992)

OMNIVORE

TROUBADOUR

HARPERS
BIZARRE
The Complete
Singles Collection
1965-70

(reissue, 1987)

Songs for wayfaring

strangers, from a
9/10 Swell Map
Most of the members of UK
post-punkers Swell Maps notably, Nikki
Sudden, Jowe Head and Richard Earl made
solo records after the group split, but, the odd
single aside, Epic Soundtracks was a late
bloomer. This was doubtless partly due to being
drummer-in-demand for a number of great
groups: across the 1980s, Epic played in Crime &
The City Solution, These Immortal Souls and,
with brother Nikki and Dave Kusworth, The
Jacobites. Epic seemed tentative about
songwriting, until the support of Sonic Youth
coaxed him out of his shell, after which he wrote
and recorded the songs on Rise Above. Its bold
and brave, hymning Laura Nyro and Todd
Rundgren when lesser talents were shoegazing
or hypnotised by grunge. But with a little help
from friends (Rowland S Howard, members of
Dinosaur Jr, Primal Scream and Sonic Youth),
Epics vision pop music beamed via the Brill
Building, through romantic devastation and
into teenage symphonies to God was fully
realised. An emotionally disarming debut.
EXTRAS: A second disc of demos, instrumentals
9/10 and outtakes traces Rise Aboves
painstaking development. Theres also a
booklet with an excellent essay from Chris
Coleman, editor of What A Nice Way To
Turn Seventeen.

Pop like a punch to the

mouth: 1980s Golden
State pop magnates
9/10 crowning glory, now
nearly doubled
Arguably the most audacious pop group
thrown up through the halcyon 80s days when
every city seemingly fashioned a Big Star or
REM knockoff or three, Scott Millers Game
Theory hit a dizzying height on this, their 1987
Mitch Easter-produced, penultimate effort.
Devastating, soaring pop hooks (see The Real
Sheila and Chardonnay) mix with jittery,
kitchen-sink aural experimentation in ways
crazed, ambitious and transcendent. Originally
a double-album, now enhanced with 21 extra
tracks including a batch of fascinating, telltale covers (the Hollies to the Sex Pistols) it
proffers Miller as a true believer, one daring to
drift and stretch, to redefine what pop was,
what it could be, emotionally, sonically,
conceptually and musically. Lolita Nation gave
him room to try it all: sleepy soul ballads, jangle
rockers, wall-of-guitar dirges, rackety Crazy
Horse-type noise, snippets of sound collage and
powerpop so jagged it veers into jazz. The sixminute The Waist And The Knees features
killer hooks crossed with madness, Big Stars
Third approach pushed well over the edge
then kicked around for good measure. Dense,
challenging and fearless, Lolita Nation raised
stakes that few artists have glimpsed since.
EXTRAS: None.

Golden harmonies
from overlooked West
Coast sunshine crew
While 1970s Cali soft-rock remains ineffably
hip, its 1960s pop antecedent epitomised by
harmony groups such as The Association and
Harpers Bizarre remains a relatively
neglected niche. This 26-track comp reveals
HBs baroque arrangements and madrigalstyled vocals to be one of the under-appreciated
glories of pops golden age. Led by Ted
Templeman (who went on to produce Van
Morrison, Beefheart, Little Feat and the
Doobies), sugared interpretations of The
59th Street Bridge Song, Anything Goes,
Chattanooga Choo Choo, Wichi Tai To
and a gossamer re-interpretation of Knock On
Wood (with Ry Cooder on guitar), plus covers
of songs by Randy Newman, Nilsson and Van
Dyke Parks, are all exquisite exercises in
candyfloss sunshine pop at its most sublime.
If they had been able to harness their vocal
enchantment towards inventive and original
material rather than relying on covers, they
might today stand more prominently among
the ranks of pops most blessed vocal groups
of all time.
EXTRAS: Five tracks recorded in their earlier
7/10 incarnation as The Tikis for the
Autumn label, where Sly Stone was the
in-house producer.

JON DALE

LukE TOrN

NIGEL WILLIAMSON

FUNBOY FIVE/
MILKSHAKE
MELON
Landmarks, Ruins
And Memories
AVE PHOENIX

Hemel Hempsteads
punky Caravan back
in tow
Between appearing in Hawkwinds Silver
Machine video aged 15 and writing for Sounds
in the early 1980s, Mick Sinclair blithely blurred
the boundaries between twinkly prog and spiky
new wave with Hemel Hempsteads Funboy Five
thats him rocking the Art Garfunkel-hair and
cardigan look on the cover of this retrospective.
The Funboy Five earned a Peel Session before
unleashing an unforgettable two-bob single,
1980s thrillingly wobbly Life After Death,
included here along with demos and works from
Sinclairs one-man side-project Milkshake
Melon, some of which circulated in DIYfundamentalist cassette circles back in the day.
Fans of lost Cardiff band The Tables awesome
Caravan-meets-The Clash 1977 single Do The
Standing Still or indeed Planet Gongs
punked-up Opium For The People will
devour lost Funboy Five cuts like Haircut Bob
Dylan 66 and Angela Rippon, mindful that
split-knee loons with a Pistols T-shirt may have
been the killer combination all along.
EXTRAS: A vinyl-only release, it features
7/10 sleevenotes from Sinclair who may
still have a few copies of the original single for
sale via the bands website. The bands lone,
super self-conscious Peel Session is also in
circulation on the web.

8/10

JIM WIrTh

CHERRY RED

9/10

How To Buy...

RICHIE HAWTIN
From My Mind
To Yours

SWELL MAPS SOLO

A trip to Recordshopville

RICHARD EARL

The Egg Store Ilk PILOT, 1981

A hidden DIY gem, Richard Earl
aka Biggles Books The Egg Store
Ilk was an early satellite from Swell
Maps planet. From the same universe as the
instrumentals on the Maps Jane From Occupied
Europe, via cutlery percussion, bare bass plunk,
and warped tattoos from brass and harmonium.

8/10

JOWE HEAD

Pincer Movement
HEDONICS, 1981

Pincer makes its debt to the

Swell Maps clear in its version
of Cake Shop Girl from Jane From Occupied
Europe. From there, it opens out to experimental
miniatures, droning stumble-pop (Diesel Loco,
Glistening Pincers) and Crawfish, which finds
Dr Johns swamp voodoo in a Camden squat.

7/10

THE JACOBITES

Robespierres Velvet
Basement GLASS, 1985
The classicist of the Maps, Nikki
Suddens The Jacobites, teamed
with Dave Kusworth, made gorgeously fragile
records, full of rich acoustic heartbreakers, equal
part Big Star Third, Johnny Thunders at his most
vulnerable, and the Stones No Expectations.
Robespierres is their dark masterpiece.

9/10

JON DALE

PLUS 8

Techno stalwart revisits

the past for 25th
anniversary of his label
6/10 Canadian producer Richie
Hawtin helped shape a bold
new techno future in the early 1990s with Plus 8,
the label he founded with John Acqauviva, and
his own numerous pseudonymous productions
as Plastikman, FUSE and the like. Twenty-five
years on, his sleek, bone-rattling acid house
from that period still sounds ominously
progressive yet, as an artist, Hawtin has for
a long time struggled to match the searing
elegance of his earlier work, and in some
quarters is better known today for his
haircut and own-brand sake than his music.
Having underwhelmed with Plastikmans recent
EX, his shortcomings as a producer are exposed
once more on label anniversary set From My
Mind To Yours, which sees Hawtin, inspired by
Plus 8s classic 1991 compilation From Our
Minds To Yours, try to produce new tracks in
the spirit of those clattering originals, using
stripped-down gear and self-imposed limits.
As much as this is essentially another Hawtin
record, each alias allows him to try something
slightly different: Plastikmans fetish for
percussion on Akrobatix, for example,
or the fruity burbling of 80xxs Creepr and
Grindr, which conjure the goofy hedonism of
the preceding decades minimal techno fad,
when Hawtin last ruled the roost.
EXTRAS: None.
PIErS MArTIN

MARCH 2016 | UNCUT |

91

Archive

THIS HEAT

This Heat/Health & Efficiency/

Deceit (reissue, 1979, 80, 81)
MODERN CLASSICS/LIGHT IN THE ATTIC

lesleY evans

Revolutionary, truth-telling and abstract protest: post-punks

finest, revisited. By Jon Dale
Dominant
narrative tells
us that post-punk
came out of the fire of
punk the disruptive
socio-cultural
possibilities of 1976
opening the way for
a more questioning,
experimental
programme. its a
9/10 convenient story, but
for the most part, it
reads like a not-so-subtle warping of the truth. Dig
into the archives of most of the truly significant
post-punk groups, and youll find stories that wind
further back, into the strange climes of the early to
mid-70s: t.rex fanatics, Canterbury prog fall-out,
jejune improvisers, Welsh folkies this is the real
stuff of post-punks history.
this Heat benefited from the vegetation clearing of
punk and post-punk, but the trio had already earned
their stripes in various ways. Drummer Charles
Hayward was in Quiet sun with Phil manzanera
(roxy music), Bill macCormick (matching mole) and
Dave Jarrett; meeting guitarist Charles Bullen via a
music paper advertisement, the two started working
together as a free improvising duo, Dolphin logic,
while also joining radar Favourites, alongside Geoff
leigh (Henry Cow) and Gerry Fitzgerald. Bass player
and organist, the late, great Gareth Williams, entered
the fray as manager first, before joining Hayward
and Bullen in Friendly rifles.
too much like the sex Pistols, that name: an
improvisation played along to a multi-layered field
recording on cassette, made during the long hot
British summer of 1976, would give the trio their
lasting tattoo, This Heat. that recording would also
act as an early manifestation of the trios practice:
everything up for grabs, or as the groups motto
would have it, all possible processes. all channels
open. twenty-four-hour alert.
Particularly once theyd set up Cold storage, their

92 | UnCUt | marCH 2016

own studio and practice space, this Heat were

always on call, less a group than a project for living,
making protest music that smelted brittle poetry by
channelling social angst, and the creeping dread of
the beginnings of thatcherite rule, directly onto
tape. You can hear their experiment in relatively
bare-bones form on their debut, self-titled album,
often referred to as Blue & Yellow after the record
sleeves stark colour scheme. opening with the quiet
buzz and whirr of testcard, This Heat explodes
into the barely unchecked fury of Horizontal Hold,
where the trios playing cuts in and out of range
with sudden, brutish leaps, the group making the
most of the alchemical power of tape editing.
not Waving, one of This Heats most dolorous
songs, follows, with a distressed voice singing
out from uncertain terrain, the groups laminar
improvisation moulded into a loosely plotted seasong: imagine robert Wyatts Rock Bottom re-scored
for Cold War anxiety. these juxtapositions make up

Charles Hayward & Charles Bullen

This Heat are usually framed as a post-punk
group. Did punk feel like a divisive moment?
HAywArD: [This Heat] were already gigging by
the time punk exploded and were very curious
when we read things like No Elvis, Beatles
or The Rolling Stones. Unfortunately, when we
heard the actual music, it sounded like Chuck
Berry on speed. The DIy thing was already in
place, the European improv scene, Sun ra, the
German bands like Can and Faust, and most
of the punk stuff just didnt have the same
commitment to sound.
What made Cold Storage such a unique place to

the bulk of This Heat: hissing,

crepuscule instrumentals like Diet of
Worms, or rainforest (recorded at
their very first gig), weaving between
bleak, abstract protest songs. as an
album, its an unremitting, scorchedearth experience, which makes the
following years Health & efficiency
12 all the more surprising: a joyous,
exultant anti-anthem, dedicated to
the sunshine, the title track has strong
claim to be this Heats greatest six
minutes, the brief body of the song
itself, strung with slack-jawed guitars,
giving way to a four-minute coda where
a loop unspools to a seeming eternity.
1981s Deceit, however, is this Heats
crowning achievement. if This Heat
was process laid bare, and Health
& efficiency a constructivist
intervention, Deceit is close to the
bands state-of-the-world address,
taking in geopolitics and military
strategy (in simon reynolds Rip It Up,
Hayward despaired of the national
security policy of mutually assured Destruction),
painted in unsurprisingly bleak hues. on shrink
Wrap, they take on false consciousness in a manner
similar to scritti Polittis Hegemony, calling into
question common-sense understandings through
tortured vocal display: Dont bite the hand that
feeds you/You can have your cake and eat it.
elsewhere, this Heat inject yet more ferocity into
their songs, the thoroughgoing demystification of
song employed by rock in opposition gaining new
urgency on sPQr and a new Kind of Water,
brusquely cutting from studio to rough live audio on
the astonishing makeshift swahili, occasionally
dialling down the intensity on gorgeous, hesitant
improvisations like radio Prague. But its the
commitment and energy of Deceit that stays with
you, an echo of their legendary live form. as
Hayward reflects on the latter, our whole thing,
the politics, the lyrics, was rooted in pure sound,
so that was our focus and we seized any chance to
unleash the sound with unabashed enthusiasm.
Williams had left by the time Deceit was released,
and though this Heat carried on briefly with new
members, the magic had gone, and they eventually
disbanded. the trio would all go on to make
excellent music: Hayward with Camberwell
now and regular music, and as a powerhouse
improvisor; Bullen with lifetones and Circadian
rhythms; and Williams with mary Currie on the
Flaming Tunes cassette. theres something
mercurial in this Heats slim body of released
music, though, and something intangible,
an X factor that constantly eludes conscious
articulation. remarkable music, indeed.

record? HAywArD: David Cunningham [of the

Flying Lizards] told us there was this disused
meat fridge at the Acme Studios complex on
Acre Lane, Brixton. when we went to take a look,
there were no lights working so we had to use
torches; it had its own micro-climate in there,
mist and stuff. I expected to see a pack of
albino wolves.
What did Gareth bring to This Heat, and what
are your fondest memories of his presence?
BULLEN: Gareth was a very gentle and very
funny man! Though he probably seemed to be a
bit of a wild man onstage after the first year or
so. Hewas very much into the non-musician
thing all the way, even though by a year later
he had also picked up the bass and guitar
and reached a fair bit of technical proficiency
on both. INTERVIEW: JON DALE

Archive
LEE HAZLEWOOD
The Very Special
World Of/Lee
Hazlewoodism/
Something Special

JEB LOY
NICHOLS
Long Time
Traveller

JESSE MALIN
The Art Of SelfDestruction

(reissue, 2010)

ONE LITTLE INDIAN

(reissues, 1966, 67, 68)

ON-U SOUND

(reissue, 2003)

The psychedelic cowboys

(remastered) MGM years
seduced into signing lee
Hazlewood by his 1963
debut, mGm must have been
rather taken aback by the
errant nature of this trilogy. The Very Special
World Of offers a great overview of his mix of
dark reflection, romance, wry humour and brutal
honesty. But alongside a sinatra-less version of
these Boots are made For Walking and the
extraordinary For one moment, it also features
the wry ode to middle age that is my autumns
Done Come and the novelty schmaltz of Bugles
in the afternoon. a year later came the eccentric
Lee Hazlewoodism: Its Cause And Cure, where he
flirts with y-y on the Girls in Paris, spikes
i am a Part with mournful spoken word and
adds comedy brass to the honky-tonk suzi Jane is
Back in town. on Something Special (originally
released in Germany alone) Hazlewood steps back
from the extravagant orchestrations he was
determined would better spectors, in favour of a
leaner, more soulful sound, typified by the gently
rollicking shades, Childs flower-power pop
and an anguished Hands. that year, he set up
his own lHi label either the relationship with
mGm had worn thin, or hed spent all their money.
EXTRAS: Bonus tracks include a duet with lHi
7/10muse suzi Jane Hokom, summer Wine.

Freewheeling alt.folk
8/10 bard gets doused in dub
Jeb loy nichols is the
midwestern soulboy with a lilting cowboy croon
who has lived most of his life in rural Wales. since
1990, across 15 albums, including five with his
wife as the Fellow travellers, he has gently set
the world to rights with his earthy storytelling
and easygoing blues. While his song tends to
remain the same and fame eludes him, Long
Time Traveller is the excellent album he recorded
with on-U sound dub colossus adrian sherwood
released in Japan in 2010 and marks a
homecoming of sorts. sherwood took nichols
under his wing when the american first visited
london in the early 80s (they shared a squat with
neneh Cherry and the slits ari Up) and the pair
produced an early on-U sound cut, the deranged
things that made Us by Jeb loy & the oil
Wells. things are more sedate on this reunion,
which sees nichols rootsy songs set to a range of
delicious dub riddims courtesy of Dub syndicate
and roots radics, with additional playing by
skip mcDonald. its a natural fit: nichols sweetly
crumpled vocal, reminiscent of Horace andy,
bobs across the bulbous bass of to Be rich
(should Be a Crime) and lonely King of the
Country, adding a new dimension to his
homespun sound.
EXTRAS: second disc of additional songs and
7/10alternate mixes.

Ex-D Generation
frontman revisits
8/10 early solo outing
there was a point, not long
into his solo career, when the Queens-bred
Jesse malin was the new springsteen. He
was also tipped to be the new neil Young and
steve earle, though, naturally, such heady
predictions came to nothing. runaway success
may have eluded malin, but his first album, The
Art Of Self-Destruction (2003), went some way to
ensuring longevity, such was the contemplative
assurance of his songwriting reflecting on his
hard-knock life. Self-Destructions blend of
introspective americana and rowdier roots rock
arrived seemingly fully-formed and, 13 years
on, sounds like it could have been made today.
its significant that malins friend ryan adams,
another so-called new springsteen, was on
production duties. along with being the subject
of hyperbole, both have a strange charisma,
a keen ear for melody and favour gritty
ruminations on urban life. malins love-hate
relationship with his native new York is at its
most affecting on Brooklyn and riding on
the subway, the latter notable for its spookily
Cobain-esque delivery. springsteen he is not,
but, in the realms of understated americana,
malins debut allows him to hold his head high.
EXTRAS: new sleevenotes from the Gaslight
8/10 anthems Brian Fallon and a bonus
disc of demos.

ShARON OCONNEll

PIERS MARTIN

FIONA STURGES

LIGHT IN THE ATTIC

8/10
7/10
7/10

BB KING
Heres One
You Didnt Know
About

How To Buy...

The country-dub mans choice cuts

THE FELLOW TRAVELLERS

Just A Visitor OKRA, 1992

ACE

plus two dozen

more lost gems from
8/10 the 1950s
With more than 60 albums
to his name and 700-plus tracks in circulation,
its hard to believe that there remains anything
King recorded during his 65-year career that
hasnt been released and reissued many times
over. Yet there is reportedly enough unheard
1950s material in the vaults, recorded for the
Bihari brothers modern/Kent/rPm labels,
to fill a dozen CDs. most are alternative takes
of BB staples, but these 25 sides cherry picked
from this unexpected treasure trove suggest
the unreleased versions were seldom inferior
merely different, for King in his early years
seldom sang or played a song the same way
twice. an outtake of sweet little angel
includes an extra verse. the guitar solo on
early in the morning is markedly jazzier
than the well-known 1956 single. a second
take of 1959s Goin Down slow finds King
complaining we made the record already,
and then doing it again superbly, but quite
differently. stellar stuff that also reaffirms
that King in his 1950s incarnation was
not only already a supreme guitarist,
but one of the finest rnB vocalists of
his generation.
EXTRAS: scholarly track notes and a 16-page
7/10 booklet packed with evocative
archive photos.
NIGEl WIllIAMSON

THE MAMAS
AND THE PAPAS
The Complete
Singles

JEB LOY NICHOLS

Nichols second CD of low-slung

country-dub and campfire blues
with his wife Lorraine Morley and
On-U Sound man Martin Harrison was, oddly
enough, crowned album of the year by Germanys
Spex magazine in 92. Commenting on The Fellow
Travellers, one Townes Van Zandt noted: This
guys singing with a voice I never heard before.

7/10

JEB LOY NICHOLS

Now Then TUITION, 2005

He recorded his fourth solo album
Now Then clever title in Nashville
and London with the likes of Dan
Penn and bass heavyweight Dennis Bovell. After
the familiar dub of opener Sometimes Shooting
Stars, Nichols opens up with a tender set of soulful
country numbers, best of which is Lelah Mae.

8/10

JEB LOY NICHOLS

Jeb Loy Nichols Special

DECCA/CITY COUNTRY CITY, 2012

Picked up by Decca on the strength

of Countrymusicdisco45 from
09s Parish Bar, hence its inclusion here, Nichols
most recent solo LP distills all thats great about
him: his laidback voice and melancholy disposition
summed up best in his own Disappointment and
an acoustic cover of reggae staple Hard Times.

8/10

PIERS MARTIN

REAL GONE MUSIC

All the group hits plus

(very much) more
7/10 Fifty years ago on January
8, California Dreamin
entered the Billboard chart at no 4. it introduced
the mamas and the Papas sun-glazed,
regret-tinged mix of folk, Beatles-ish pop and
psychedelia, built around distinctive four-part
harmonies and the over-easy soul voice of Cass
elliott. that song was their second single; their
debut, Go Where You Wanna Go, made no
impact, but it opens this chronologically
ordered, 53-track compilation of all the bands
(remastered, mono) singles, along with their
B-sides, plus singles from the subsequent solo
careers of elliott (including her joyous ode to
individualism, make Your own Kind of
music), John Phillips (just two) and Denny
Doherty (four). With the Wrecking Crew and
producer lou adler in place, the mamas golden
age lasted three years, during which time they
scored original hits with the evergreen monday
monday, i saw Her again, Words of love,
Creeque alley, twelve thirty (Young Girls
are Coming to the Canyon) their spector-ish,
tambourine-heavy ode to the pull of la and
Dancing Bear, as well as a clutch of covers.
the dream was shattered by infidelities,
sackings, drug addiction, legal challenges and
a shaky 80s revival (the new mamas and the
Papas), but these pop glories endure.
EXTRAS: none.
ShARON OCONNEll

marCH 2016 | UnCUt |

93

Archive

BERT
JANSCH
Avocet
EARTH

stEVE sPaRKEs

Guitar maestros inspired,

avian-themed instrumental
set from 1978. By Neil Spencer
What is it with
folkies and birds?
songs hymning birds
and flight are legion
in pop, but most
merely use our
winged friends as a
symbol of longing
and liberty. Folk
singers, meanwhile,
to get particular,
9/10 like
to single out species
and project an inner
life on the gull of their dreams. alasdair Roberts
Waxwing for example, or songs by David
Rotheray, Jim Causley or the imagined Villages
simon Emmerson. twitchers all.
so was Bert Jansch, whose Blackbirds Of
Brittany (a fundraiser single for the RsPB) and
Bird song are stand-outs in the oeuvre. Folks
connection to birds is obvious enough, the
wellspring of tradition being rural and infused with
nature. the 18-minute title track of Avocet, for
example, has its genesis in the centuries-old
Cuckoo, a commonplace song but one that
obsessed the much-missed British folk pioneer,
whose heavily elaborated version took months
of development.
Jansch had finally taken to playing the piece live
with bassist Danny thompson and fiddler/flautist
Martin Jenkins when the trio took to the road in
1977. it was an opportune gap in their careers,
with Janschs Conundrum project a busted flush,
thompson off-duty from John Martyn and Jenkins
a perfect available accomplice. With punk and new
wave raging overhead, the only game in town for

94 | UNCUt | MaRCh 2016

folk was the live circuit, where scandinavia had

long been a second home.
When Janschs Danish manager, Peter
abrahamsen, heard avocet live he financed an
album, with the title track occupying one vinyl side.
Four other instrumentals that Jansch had
accumulated were added, plus one from Jenkins,
each named after a sea or wading bird, and the
record was released in 1978 on abrahamsens
Ex-Libris label, arriving, tardily, a year later
on UK Charisma.
the album is thus something of a curio in Janschs
career, yet one that was especially close to his heart.
You can see why. Jansch himself is on peak form, his
rapport with his bassist effortless after their years
together in Pentangle, while Jenkins does all that
was asked of him in what Colin harpers insightful
liner notes make clear was a meticulously prepared
session. Jansch knew what he wanted. he had it
clear in his head how each piece could flow together
in continuity, in terms of key rather than tempo,
recalls Jenkins.
there was real care, too, in the production at
Copenhagens sweet silence studios, whose clarity
and warmth have been winningly remastered for
this new edition. a photograph from the sessions
shows a shaggy, beaming Jansch at the console
surrounded by a smiling team.
avocet is the albums wonder, with the antique
air reprised in assorted guises, at times elegant and
almost mediaeval, at others driving and jazzy, while
Jenkins violin has
an almost futurist
quality. this is
Jansch leading us a
merry dance, and his
guitar is at the heart
of everything; restless
and intricate, string-

snappingly fierce and

gently otherworldy.
thompson, likewise,
oscillates between
thrumming overdrive and
sparse statement. its 10
minutes before anything
like a conventional folk
approach arrives, with
Jenkins adding flute,
before a final, joyous
section that reminds us
that while the song is
named after a longlegged wader, charismatic
and graceful, something
of the greenwood clings
obstinately to it.
Lapwing couldnt
be more different. For
starters its Jansch at the
piano, its short, its in
waltz time and its tune is
etched among cryptic
flurries that hover
midway between jazz and
modern classical. a twominute delight. Bittern
sounds the changes
again, a skipping blues
played on acoustic, though its serpentine melody is
infused with skirls of electric guitar and driven by
busy bass parts that owe more to Charlie Mingus
than to the elusive, secretive heron after which
the piece is named. Meandering and lovely.
Kingfisher is more contemplative, its melody
played on fiddle while Jansch and thompson
compete on string-snapping techniques. Jenkins
Osprey slows down further, led by a violin melody
that carries something of the power and menace of
its subject. Jansch contrasts with impatient picking,
shifting into unexpected jazz chords. Kittiwake
is the simplest piece here, another seemingly
effortless little melody intricately explored.
it is, as Colin irwin puts it, gloriously timeless
music, so out of time that Avocet re-arrives 30 years
on sounding fresher and more adventurous than
most of whats presently rolling off the music mills
of any persuasion; folk, jazz, classical. Like its
creator, Avocet answers to all yet none of those
names. Grounded in tradition, deeply schooled in
the art of folk-picking that lay behind so much of
pops glory years (the White album, the Byrds
and Zeppelin wouldnt have existed without it),
a songsmith and a composer who expressed
admiration for classical guitarist Julian Bream,
Jansch transcended genres. On Avocet, his vision
found a point of perfection.
EXTRAS: CD comes in slim, stylish book with bird
7/10 prints. Vinyl edition has all six prints in
large format.

CHRIS MARKER
La Jete

JIMMY RABBITT
& RENEGADE
The Texas
Album

SUPERIOR VIADUCT

STREETWALKERS
Im Walking
MADFISH

A key 20th-century film,

bumped to audio
Perhaps one day, people
will look back on French
8/10 filmmaker, photographer,
prose stylist and
multimedia pioneer Chris Marker as one
of the most significant artists of the 20th
century. Born in 1921, Marker lived a long,
productive life, making an incredible
amount of essay films and documentaries.
in later years, his influence would find sure
footing in experimental and underground
music, as well: Damon & Naomi published
Markers Immemory via their Exact Change
publishing house, while musicians such as
Oren ambarchi and Pimmon have produced
tributes to his films. he even crossed over
into popular music consciousness, directing
a film clip for Electronics Getting away With
it. Dystopian science-fiction short La Jete
may be his finest work it is certainly
his best known, with its central conceit
of a time-travelling experiment borrowed
by terry Gilliam for Twelve Monkeys. the audio
track is presented here in full, trevor Duncans
score mirroring the dark claustrophobia
of the film, the dialogue evocative as
ever, even without Markers stunning
photomontage visuals.
EXTRAS: a different language on each side
8/10 of the LP, one in French, the other
English: a good way to deal with the effects
of translation.

Authentic outlaw
country album,
8/10 unreleased for 40 years.
Jimmy Rabbitt was a DJ
in texas and the 1960s who played British
invasion mixed with american garage rock,
adding enough patter to make him the local
celebrity who introduced the Beatles at a Dallas
concert in 1964. Rabbit moved to La and, being
a southern man, began playing the likes of
Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings to his West
Coast audience. Rabbitt could perform, as well
he released some garage 45s in the 1960s and
in the mid-70s formed a band to play cowboy
tunes in La bars. the band originally called
texas, later Renegade were signed to atlantic
and released a terrific album produced by
Waylon Jennings in 1977, but several other
recordings never saw the light of the day. this
album collects sessions produced by Jerry
Wexler in 1973 and includes a mix of covers
and originals, all soaked in the beer-andwhisky spirit of honky tonk. several songs are
magnificent the brilliant cover of tom t halls
homecoming, which has a New Orleans roll
thanks to James Booker on keys, or the punchy
original sweetness is in You, with Rabbitt
growling about cocaine in the ashtray
making it something of a mystery why this
has only just been released.
EXTRAS: Five additional takes on download
6/10 card.

1974-1977: detailed recap of

Chappo and Charlies
post-Family affair
the attentions of Jenny
7/10 Fabian who based her
salacious 1969 novel Groupie
on her time with Leicesters jolie-laide gift to progpop were some consolation for Family as they
failed to follow fellow arts lab faves Pink Floyd
to worldwide celebrity, but after their demise,
gargle master Roger Chapman and guitarist John
Whitney clearly hungered for something bigger.
this hubristically colossal 15CD set tracks their
cocaine-dusted swipe for Faces-style celebrity,
the occasional bursts of subtlety on their selftitled 1974 debut the fragile sue, Betty & Jean,
the trad-jazz flashes on Roxianna fading out
into faintly funky cock-rock as they toured with
Black sabbath and the Who. streetwalkers were
kitschy English kinsmen to the sensational alex
harvey Band by the time they peaked with their
third LP, 1976s Red Card, featuring bouncy
drumming courtesy of future iron Maiden man
Nicko McBrain, priapic coulda-been hit Daddy
Rolling stone and more nuanced ramble
Decadence Code. however, punk was to issue
their marching orders within months, and while
Peel sessions and live sets strip away some flab,
Chapmans sour conclusion in the fine booklet
notes may sum the band up a bit too well: there
was just too much racket and too many drugs.
EXTRAS: a limited run of 1,500, it includes replica
8/10 poster, tour programme and beer-mat
replicas of each of the four original album sleeves.

jON DaLe

Peter watts

jim wirth

THE POP GROUP

For How Much
Longer Do We
Tolerate Mass
Murder? (reissue, 1980)

SAINT ROCH RECORDINGS

How To Buy...
BEST OF KIN

The Family familys finest hours

FAMILY

Music In A Dolls House

FREAKS R US

Second LP from Bristol

6/10 post-punks gets its first
ever CD issue
the Pop Group appeared on the cover of NME in
september 1978, before the teenage quintet had
even released a record; a mark of the potency of
their music, a blend of free jazz, dub, funk and
radical politics that took punks insurrectionary
promise and ran with it. But come 1980, their
stridency was beginning to count against them:
reviewing For How Much Longer in NME, Paul
Morley accused the group of anti-sentimentality
of a peculiarly self-deluding and unpleasant
kind they could be the consequence of a failed
revolution. Certainly, this is a harder LP to love
than its predecessor. Whereas Y cuts like thief
Of Fire felt visionary in their quasi-mystical
language, the second LP can be more hectoring:
Nixon and Kissinger should be tried for war
crimes/For the secret bombing of Cambodia,
screeches Mark stewart. still, the groups itchy,
hairshirt funk can be bracing and impressively
ambitious hear guitarist Gareth sager channel
everyone from Nile Rodgers to Philip Glass on
Blind Faith and there are glimpses of humour:
see Rob a Bank, a demented wah-wah riff on
the Robin hood theme tune. sadly absent is the
original LPs Last Poets collaboration, One Out Of
Many, though the addition of non-album single
We are all Prostitutes softens the blow.
EXTRAS: Vinyl adds four double-sided posters.

5/10 LOUis PattisON

REPRISE, 1968

Paisley-sunburst debut 45 Scene

Through The Eye Of A Lens was
Familys most psychedelic moment; their first LP,
the following year, was a step on. A deliciously
awkward juxtaposition of Traffic-alike rootsiness,
creepy Victoriana and Roger Chapmans
inimitably leather-lunged take on the blues.

8/10
FAMILY

Fearless REPRISE, 1971

Familys billing as art-rockers

remains fairly spurious, with their
giddy fifth the closest they come
to experimental. Whimsical flashes include the
wonky tempos of Spanish Tide and the working
mens club funk of Save Some For Thee.

8/10
ROGER CHAPMAN

Mail Order Magic KAMERA, 1980

Not punk compatible for all his

rough edges, Familys frontman
joined a good number of his peers
in heading for new-wave-neutral Germany when
the going got tough. This set Chappos stall out
for the upcoming decades with the thunderous
Byrds of the Unknown Soldier and beer-bellied
apocalypse Higher Ground.

7/10
JIM WIRTH

TANGERINE
DREAM
The Official Bootleg
Series: Volume Two
ESOTERIC REACTIVE

Two vintage concerts

from synth explorers:
7/10 4CDs in a clamshell box
in January 2015, Edgar
Froese experienced a sudden change of his
cosmic address. But the death of its sole
continuous member, it would seem, is not
climactic enough to halt this long-running
kosmische groups musical activities. instead,
a new lineup featuring German electronica
maven Ulrich schnauss dropped Quantum
Key, a brand new EP based on Froeses ideas,
last November. Meanwhile, Esoteric continue in
their exhaustive reissue campaign, restoring the
groups imperial age recordings to print. this 4CD
box collects two live concerts, one well-known
among collectors, the other comparatively rare.
a lesser-heard 1978 set recorded at Paris Palais
Des Congrs appears to be a fan recording,
although its a good one, and an eye-opener to
anyone who had tD pegged as wishy-washy
ambient muzak. With sometime iggy Pop man
Klaus Krger pounding the drums and steve
Joliffe darting between sax, flute, and Damo
suzuki-ish vocal incantations, here is close to two
hours of surging, symphonic improv far superior
to that years studio LP, Cyclone. Meanwhile, a
crisp 1980 set at Palast Der Republik in East Berlin
welcomes keys man Johannes schmoelling to the
fold, setting the groundwork for the cascading
new age reveries of that years Tangram.
EXTRAS: illustrated booklet, essay.

6/10 LOUis PattisON

MaRCh 2016 | UNCUt |

95

Archive

Specialist
The

VARIOUS ARtIStS
Golden State
Psychedelia

Lost soul and jazz

Lizzy Mercier Descloux

Descloux: postcolonial music

LIZZY MERCIER DESCLOUX

Mambo Nassau/Zulu Rock/
One For The Soul/Suspense
LIGHT IN THE ATTIC

Four reissued albums chart the further adventures of a French

maverick after making a splash in no-wave-era New York
The early years of a musical career are so often dominated by an artists
efforts to find his or her voice. Yet what makes Lizzy Mercier Descloux
8/10
such a fascinating case study is that the French singer, poet and artist
found so many voices. Given her musics fundamental eccentricity and
plurality, its no wonder that these four albums largely failed to garner
wider recognition when they first arrived in the decade following her
1979 debut, Press Color, the collection of hyperactive mutant disco that
launched Light In The Attics Descloux reissue programme last year.
Further complicating matters is the fact that the matter of voice takes
on both figurative and literal meanings when it comes to Descloux.
Dispensing with the no-wave angularities of her earliest dalliances with
Ze Records boss Michael Esteban, she worked in an astonishing
9/10
diversity of musical styles throughout the 80s. Most notable are her
weird and steamy take on Caribbean funk on 1981s Mambo Nassau
recorded at Chris Blackwells Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas
and the spirited collisions of Shangaan disco, mbaqanga rhythms and
arty Europop on Zulu Rock, the 1984 album that was her biggest success
in France. Made in apartheid-era South Africa, Desclouxs exercise in
cultural exchange preceded Graceland by two years and now seems
three times as exuberant as Paul Simon could ever manage.
Inspired by her quest to create what Esteban calls a post-colonial
music, Descloux is irrepressibly inventive and inquisitive in her
7/10
approach to global styles. Better yet, the joy she exudes in these pursuits
compensate for the inevitable lack of coherence. Alas, Desclouxs music
is marred by her liabilities in regards to the other kind of voice. In a
remark included in Vivienne Goldmans excellent sleevenotes, one
collaborator admits his first impression of Descloux was that she
couldnt sing.
Of course, thats not strictly true. Like her fellow Compass Point
habitue Grace Jones, she generally made stellar use of her limited
means, whether that meant her ecstatic yelping on Mambo Nassaus
brilliantly deconstructed rendition of Kool And The Gangs Funky
6/10
Stuff or her thin but fetching crooning on One For The Souls Fog
Horn Blues, one of several songs cut with Chet Baker during the
trumpeters final sessions in Brazil in 1985. Even so, she generally fares less well with the
more mannered pop of One For The Soul and 1988s Suspense, a disappointingly stiff- and
sterile-sounding swansong whose commercial flop prompted her decision to forego music for
painting as her primary creative outlet, until her death of cancer at the age of 48 in 2004. Yet Light
In The Attics reissues serve as an often thrilling testament to the vitality and questing spirit she
demonstrated in nearly all her voices.
JaSon anDerSon

BIG BEAT

Acid archaeology: outstanding psych artefacts

you never knew existed
9/10 For years the prime curators
of rarest psych material, Big
Beat and its archivist Alec Paleo touch down on a
high plane here: 25 all-but-unheard tracks that
walk a tightrope cultural/creative sea change
mixed with skewed commercial pop aspirations
culled from Friscos Golden State Recorders studio
and produced by Leo Kulka in the late 60s/early
70s. Think of it as psychs darkened basement,
in contrast to the jamming Dead/Airplane/
Quicksilver/Big Brother axis of festival extroverts.
In this case, the bands include The Goody Box,
The Short Yellow, and Celestial Hysteria, all bent
on one-upping, artistically or commercially or
both, the aforementioned. The outliers amid
the outliers fuzzed-out-of-their-minds
Magician, whose Fuck For Peace is a punk/
psych marvel, and Wet Chant, an eerily spacedout stratospheric piece by The Immediate Family
are deserving headline-grabbers. Yet theres an air
of discovery, of transcendence running through
every track: The Tow-Away Zones crazed, Easternflavoured Shabd is both representative and
definitive. More conventionally, the Ticket Agents
raw garage-rocker Black Diamonds and,
especially, the dark pop melodicism and stop-start
rhythms of The Bristol Boxkites timeless Mad
Rush World, stunningly dress down so many
canonised icons of the era.
EXTRAS: None.
luke torn

VARIOUS ARtIStS
Soul Sok Sga
STRUT

Bewitching, deeply funky

brew of African, Asian and
island sounds belatedly
travels beyond Mauritius
8/10 Successively colonised by
the Dutch, the French and
the English and populated by the descendants of
native islanders, African slaves and immigrant
labourers from India, China and elsewhere,
Mauritius boasts a cultural makeup that was
bound to yield sounds unheard anywhere else.
But even devotees of the recent spate of surveys of
tropical music scenes will marvel at the riches on
Struts latest set. Soul Sok Sga celebrates the 70s
golden age of sga, the sinuously funky homegrown style that was a favourite of dancers and a
symbol of national pride even if it was largely
eschewed by Mauritius sole radio station. One of
two selections by local superstar Jean-Claude
Gaspard, Sga Souval is a typically stirring
example of the form as Gaspard performs his
lyrics in Creole, the players provide an underlay of
rhythms culled from throughout Africa and Asia.
The same songs quintessentially Gallic accordion
part may seem incongruous to western ears, but
the same could be said for the fuzzed-out guitar in
John Kenneth Nelsons ZEnfant Misre, the
shimmering synth on Michel Legris Elida or
singer Ti lAfriques raw RnB-style delivery on
the collections title track. Thanks to the
Mauritian musicians savvy interweaving of
elements from far and wide, this highly particular
island sound is as surprising as it is soulful.
EXTRAS: None.
JaSon anDerSon

96 | UNCUT | MARCH 2016

Archive
VARIOUS ARtIStS
Still In A Dream: A
Story Of Shoegaze

StEVE WARNER
Steve Warner

CHERRY RED

EARTH

Nostalgic primer for a

once fted, later reviled,
now rehabilitated genre
Caution insists that this 5CD
comp deem itself merely A
Story. Opening with The
7/10 Jesus And Mary Chains
1990 single, Rollercoaster,
its documentation of a scene that celebrated
itself so disproportionately that its excesses were
laughed out of town by grunge and Britpop is
neither chronological nor definitive: East
Kilbrides finest may have helped inspire the
murky, hypnagogic sounds that characterised
shoegaze, but by then theyd begun
reappropriating more classic rocknroll tropes.
Additionally, the absence of, say, undervalued
alumni like Earwig and Shiva Affect (or, as
compilers acknowledge, bigger names like MBV
and Verve) in favour of Spitfire or Bardo Pond
may trouble true acolytes. Nonetheless, these 95
tracks offer a considered survey of a now revered
era, from early meanderings like the post-Sarah
Records psych of 14 Iced Bears whose pale
vocals were echoed by many subsequent pedallovers, including Mark Gardener of Ride
(represented here by Drive Blind) to the
droning hypnotherapy of Bowery Electric in
1995. With neglected nuggets from Ecstasy Of St
Theresa, Bark Psychosis and Dr Phibes sitting
alongside Chapterhouse, Lush and
Swervedriver, this provides a rewarding
interpretation of the shoegazing tale.
EXTRAS: None. WynDHaM WallaCe

(reissue, 1979)
Precious psychedelic
folk from lost Aussie
coffee-house auteur
7/10 Its interesting to wonder
how much great old music
still remains undiscovered. This wonderfully
odd record was three years in the making, partfunded by a bank loan and an Australian Arts
Council grant. For his sole release, Warner
wrote, played, sang, produced, mixed, and
even manufactured the record himself, before
getting limited distribution via Tasmanian
label Candle. This was first released in 1979, but
thats misleading. The 13 songs here dressed in
artful arrangements and resourceful production
should have brought it to the surface a decade
or so earlier. Much is of unimpeachably highquality: brilliantly flickering, hemp-scented
experiments in folk, prog and pop. The pianodriven Summer and Well Go On recall Bill
Fays first records; Poems In Your Eyes has the
snaking logic of the best Incredible String Band
work. Other touchstones include Al Stewart if
only for that clear, dreamlike voice and dextrous
fingerpicking. But this is not mere copycatting,
as Warner coaxes the authenticity and acidic
charm Wooden Wand and Tunng have spent
years attempting to perfect. Comforting reel-toreel tape hiss haunts each track, and you
imagine this will sound particularly good on
vinyl good job its getting a proper black
plastic release, too.
EXTRAS: None.
Mark Bentley

How To Buy...

WARREN ZEVON
The Coffee Break
Concert: WMMS
Studios, Cleveland,
Ohio 1976

WARREN ZEVON LIVE

Disorder in the house

Accidentally On Purpose:
Classic Live 1978 Concert
Broadcast GO FASTER, 2015
Appearing before an invitation-only
audience, backed by a fine band,
guitarist Waddy Wachtel churning out spiraling
leads, this is Zevons most glowing rocknroll
moment. Hes ragged, intense, funny, feverishly on
point yet barely under control. And the repertoire
including bludgeoning editions of Werewolves
and Lawyers, Guns & Money is devastating.

8/10
Stand In The Fire
ELEKTRA/RHINO, 1980

Thanks to hard-hitting, nuts-andbolts bar band Boulder, this is an

incendiary set. It starts amped up
to 11 with the title song, and is even more intense
by the time Zevon reaches the rampaging closing
medley, Poor Poor Pitiful Me/Ill Sleep When Im
Dead/Bo Diddleys A Gunslinger.

9/10
Learning To Flinch GIANT, 1992
With his more commercial , banddriven years behind him, Zevons oneman shows became experimental
and improvisational. Always a
nimble, inventive pianist, he integrated hypnotising,
slash-and-dash guitars to fine effect. A 13-minute
piano showcase/wrestling match with Roland The
Headless Thompson Gunner is oddly definitive.

9/10

Luke Torn

GOOD SHIP FUNKE

Werewolf at ground zero:

8/10 fly-on-the-wall look into
LA outsiders humble start
I left out the strange verses, Warren Zevon
chides upon winding down an unexpectedly
stark, melancholy Excitable Boy, the opening
cut on this radio broadcast with Cleveland DJ
Matt The Cat. That song, some two years away
from being released, featured a murderous
protagonist that surely unsettled discerning MOR
FM radio listeners primed for, say, a mindless
dose of peaceful, easy SoCal rock (maybe thats
why Zevon chose to play it twice!). Then again,
Zevon was always knee-deep in the subversive
elements of the macabre peppering his cinematic
narratives from the start. Even given superstar
Linda Ronstadts cover of Poor Poor Pitiful Me,
performed here, though, Zevon was a virtual
unknown in 1976. The result all solo, backing
himself on piano is a hungry, focused intensity,
Zevon with something to prove, and delightfully
reclaiming the songs essence from their
perfected studio renditions (though the DJs
commentary oddly both ingratiates and provides
insight). Mohammeds Radio, exuding a
soulful heat, is radiant and gut-clenching;
Desperados Under The Eaves and a cover
of JD Southers Simple Man, Simple Dream
arent far behind. In short, a lucky-to-have-it
portrait of the man at the height of his powers.
EXTRAS: None.
luke torn

coming
next
month...

As we attempt to adjust
to a Bowie-less world, heres
some small consolation
or distraction, a host of
promising records on the
horizon. Underworld have
made what sounds at this
point like their best record
in decades, with the propulsive Barbara Barbara,
We Face A Shining Future, while Loretta Lynn
returns with her first LP since 2004s Van Lear
Rose Full Circle, a concept album based around
Lynns life, features duets with Willie Nelson
and Elvis Costello. Fresh from producing Mavis
Staples Livin on A High note, Oregons M Ward
releases his eighth long-player, More Rain. Primal
Scream are back with Chaosmosis, while The
Coral promise Distance Inbetween, a harderhitting follow-up to 2010s Butterfly House. And
from across the Atlantic, White Denim release
their seventh LP, Stiff, and psych supergroup
Heron Oblivion make their self-titled debut.
In the busy world of archive releases, March sees
a newly unearthed set of Jeff Buckley recordings
released as You And I the tracks, mostly cut
in 93, consist of covers of Dylan, Led Zep, Sly &
The Family Stone and more, plus two originals,
one previously unheard. Alex Harveys career
gets a definitive overview with The Last Of The
Teenage Idols, a 14-disc, 217-track box, while
Pere Ubus 1979-82 period is chronicled in full on
Architecture Of Language. If that
VISIT
UNCUT.CO.UK isnt enough, various 90s and 2000s
fOr OVEr 5,000 albums from Bowie collaborators
ArCHIVED
Sonic Youth including 1998s
rEVIEWS!
peerless A Thousand Leaves
are reissued on vinyl.
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T H I S M O N T H : T u b b y H a y e S | J ac q u e S r I v e T T e | fa T S d O M I N O
is arguably The Residents greatest
hit although most people who care
enough to want to know long ago came
to the conclusion that, despite denials,
the men behind Cryptic Corp and the
men behind the eyeballs were actually
one and the same.
Members of Cryptic past and present
remaining duo hardy fox and
homer flynn, departed colleagues Jay
Clem and John Kennedy all sit for
interviews in director don hardys film,
and the strength of the documentary is
its insider nature, although, as it goes
on, this becomes its greatest weakness.
On the plus side, hardy has free access
to The Residents archive, meaning
plentiful clips from such brainscrambling projects as the legendary,
aborted Vileness fats, a projected
14-hour musical shot on rudimentary
monochrome video in the early 1970s
that sits roughly midway between 1920s
dada and david Lynchs early work.
Material from myriad video projects
and live extravaganzas is the most
stimulating stuff here, but the earliest,
crummiest archive is perhaps the most
striking of all: footage of their first live
performance, when they stormed san
francisco folk hang-out The Boarding
house in 1971, to bewilder singerThe residents: making
songwriter sensitivities with a
a song and dance of it
performance that suggests an
beside the golden gate
Bridge, 2015
unrehearsed collision between their
beloved Beefheart, The fugs and the
Bonzos. Whats most startling today is
that they are unmasked although the primitive
video quality provides grainy cover.
as a narrative, however, only this earliest
section holds together, charting how, far from
being Paul and George getting back together for
a lark, The Residents originated as school pals
in the suffocatingly conservative southern
climes of 1950s-60s shreveport, Louisiana, then
gravitated to California dreaming of psychedelia
and getting laid. from here, the story slips
frustratingly away.
With hardy and his interviewees intent on
maintaining that The Residents are not
The reason a Residents documentary is especially
participating fox, flynn, Clem and Kennedy
intriguing is more basic, and more complicated:
refer to the band in the third person, and can only
namely, how do you make a film about a group
guess their motives and feelings the insider
most famous for secrecy? Outside their devoted
nature results in them losing focus on the story.
army of fans, The Residents are best known for
events only fans will be aware of, such as the
their anonymity, never speaking, appearing only
early-1980s bust-up
behind masks. Many selfbetween The Residents and
respecting music nerds would
Cryptic, are referred to
be pushed to name one or two
without explanation or
of their 50 or so studio albums,
even context. More
yet most could identify them as
damagingly, there is no
the guys who wear the massive
overview of their output:
eyeball-heads and top hats,
what albums such as Eskimo
like aliens from a paranoid
are like, why they might
1950s sci-fi trying to blend in by
matter, is never discussed.
dressing like fred astaire.
as the roster of contributors
in the 1970s, when The
suggests everyone from
Residents name first began to
Simpsons creator Matt
spread, fans swapped rumours
Groening and comics guru
that those masks hid famous
Gary Panter, to magician
faces: everyone from
Penn Jillette, Talking heads
ex-Beatles (whose vandalised
Jerry harrison and devos Jerry Casale its never
images adorned 1974s debut LP, Meet The
less than interesting. But maybe an outside
Residents) to members of Talking heads. By then,
eyeball would have been of benefit.
The Residents had acquired a management/PR
EXTrAs: a plethora of remastered clips of from
company, The Cryptic Corporation, whose
8/10 The Residents video archive and
members acted as their representatives on earth.
That their true identities have never been revealed
extended interviews.

THeOry Of ObScurITy
A Film About The residents
FiLM MoVEMEnT/ rsK

The eyeballs have it in fascinating overview of

anti-musics longest, strangest trip. By Damien Love
These days, if you threw
a stick, youd hit a dozen new
music documentaries on
figures great, cult and all-but
unknown, and at least 10
would be worth watching.
even so, the appearance
of a film telling the story
of pre-punk post-punkers
The Residents remains
particularly tantalising.
Not simply because, for over
four decades of strange,
subterranean, determinedly dissonant, stubbornly
diy activity, these enigmatic avant-garde anti-rock
pioneers operating out of California have been
responsible for some of the most distinctive,
challenging, gleefully stupid and downright
disturbing records ever released.
Nor because, stressing the visual as much as the
aural, its debatable whether they count as a band
at all. Blurring artrock lines until they vanish,
The Residents (proudly described here as failed
filmmakers) seem closer to a rotating multimedia
art collective, one whose entire project could be
categorised as a sustained, by turns prankish and
sinister attack on rocks sacred cows including the
very idea of the band.

7/10

Projects like the

aborted musical
Vileness Fats sit
roughly between
Dada and David
Lynchs early work

MaRCh 2016 | UNCUT |

101

DVD & Blu-ray

FATS
DOMINO
The Big Beat

THE JACQUES
RIVETTE
COLLECTION

SHANACHIE

Piano pioneer
gets due kudos
An extended PBS
special, Joe Lauros
documentary
celebrates Fats
8/10 Domino as the most
under-appreciated
of the rocknroll
greats, despite a glorious 65-year career
and his first million seller, The Fat Man,
predating the genres birth. Raised in the
Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, and
tutoring himself on piano while delivering
ice, Dominos music catches jazz and blues
in an illicit embrace, never more thrillingly
than on the extended version of You Can
Pack Your Suitcase, featured here, in full.
EXTRAS: PBS edit included.

6/10 ALASTAIR McKAY

ARROW

Rarities motherlode from

French master
An important occasion, this
16-disc set makes available
the rarest work by one of the
French New Waves finest.
9/10 The main event is 1971s
Out 1, a dense, elusive,
trying, rewarding 13-hour
experience conceived for TV (but never
broadcast), hitherto almost impossible to see
except as the radically remixed, mere four-anda-half-hour cut, Out 1: Spectre (also included).
Concerning theatre, loners and a shadowy
cabal in post-68 Paris, this part-improvised
collision between reality and fantasy is a
mountain to be climbed. Rivettes Duelle (1976),
Norot (1976) and Merry-Go-Round (1981) are
also included.
EXTRAS: Documentaries, interviews, booklet.

9/10 DAMIEN LOVE

THE LAST
PANTHERS

SICARIO
LIONSGATE HOME
ENTERTAINMENT

HBO

Promising heist
series disappoints
With its hip cachet
(Bowie theme
tune; Warp Films
provenance) and
stellar cast (John Hurt;
6/10 Samantha Morton),
The Last Panthers, the
tale of a diamond heist
by a Balkan gang, seemed a likely classic.
As it turned out, its attempt at a Wire-style
broad canvas, in which investigation of the
crime pulls Mortons character into a world
of corruption and personal demons, quickly
became tedious. There were some poetic
moments of bleakness, but the diffuse
narrative meant the themes of family,
loyalty and conflict ended up having to be
rather hammered home.
EXTRAS: tbc
JOHN ROBINSON

RATION
BOOKS AND
RABBIT PIES:
FILMS FROM
THE HOME
FRONT
BFI

Boiled cabbage for

tea again!
Alternately charming,
8/10 fascinating, hilarious
and oddly moving, the
BFIs latest spiffing
archive rummage collects a host of World
War II public information and propaganda
shorts, offering tips on cooking, growing
veg, staying fit and making-do-andmending. Cinephiles will treasure
animation auteur Len Lyes When The Pie
Was Opened, but the calm common sense
will ring bells with anyone staring down
austerity, even without the Blitz raging
around your ears.
EXTRAS: Jolly decent booklet.

8/10 DAMIEN LOVE

102 | UNCUT | MARCH 2016

Brooding, tense,
drug cartel thriller
Emily Blunt stretched
her wings from
romantic comedy to
high-quality action in
Denis Villeneuves
7/10 suspenseful thriller.
A work of tension and
release, the film was an
epic trip into the landscape of Breaking Bad,
following a Mexican drug cartel from an
initial macabre discovery, into a complex
world of shady government agencies and
moral compromise, personified by Benicio
Del Toros CIA operative, Gillick. A brooding
and occasionally explosive movie, its bigger
picture was articulated by a menacing
score, and some expertly orchestrated
set pieces.
EXTRAS: Featurettes.

5/10 JOHN ROBINSON

TRUE
DETECTIVE
SEASON 2
HBO

Second series
falls short
Hard to imagine a show
more eagerly anticipated
than the second season
of Nic Pizzolattos
6/10 anthology series.
Vince Vaughn and Colin
Farrell on shady moral
ground, as a land deal goes murderously
wrong? Were there! Sadly, even with great
performances, and a rich evocation of Los
Angeles as a place of sprawl and sleaze, the
shows lack of narrative purpose revealed
its reliance on tropes from Chinatown, LA
Confidential, even Mulholland Drive. As
in the series itself, it was an unhappy ending
but there remained a glimmer of hope.
EXTRAS: Making Of, behind the scenes,
6/10 commentaries.
JOHN ROBINSON

Tubby Hayes:
blow by blow

Tubby
Hayes

A Man In A Hurry
MONO MEdIA

Sax magic. By Richard Williams

IN RONNIE SCOTTS phrase,
Tubby Hayes was a man with
a predilection for burning
any and every available
candle at both ends. That
hectic urgency was
immediately evident in
his playing when he
appeared on the British
jazz scene at the start of
the 50s as a teenage
8/10 tenor saxophonist whose
virtuosity would soon invite
comparison with the work of his American heroes.
Hayes died on an operating table in 1973, his body
having given up the struggle against the excesses of
which Scott spoke. He was 38, and his star had
faded since the years when he won polls as if by
right and was almost universally considered to be
the British jazz musician most deserving of world
stature. Neglected in the decades following his
death, his reputation has been restored by a process
involving CD releases of both long unavailable and
newly unearthed material, and a recent biog
Simon Spilletts The Long Shadow Of The Little Giant
meticulous and sensitive enough to be considered
definitive. Now comes this hour-long film, in which
writer Mark Baxter and director Lee Cogswell
reconstruct Hayes life from a wealth of archive film
and the testimony of contemporaries, including
saxophonist Bobby Wellins, poet Michael Horovitz,
painter Peter Blake and clothes shop owner John
Simons, and younger admirers who discovered his
merits posthumously, such as Spillett and Robert
Elms. The film outlines his early progress from the
bands of Kenny Baker and Bert Ambrose, to his own
small groups and big bands, notably the celebrated
Jazz Couriers, which he co-led with Scott. If British
jazz musicians of their generation aspired to little
more than an accurate copy of the musics leaders
on the other side of the Atlantic, Hayes fluency and
inventiveness allowed him to transcend imitation,
his musicianship also encompassing mastery of
flute and vibraphone
Some of the claims made here are a little too
strident, but had heroin and other damaging habits
not derailed his life, it wouldve been fascinating to
see how he got on in an era when British jazz finally
claimed its own identity. In the year before his
death there was a hint of a possible future when he
was invited to join Splinters, in which he and a
couple of bop-era peers pianist Stan Tracey and
drummer Phil Seamen improvised freely with
members of the Spontaneous Music Ensemble.
Deprived of the customary harmonic guidelines,
he sounded surprisingly at home, happily trading
provocative ideas with representatives of a newer
generation. For sure, there would have been more
of that to come.
EXTRAS: Meet The Filmmakers

5/10

DIGITAL EDITION AVAILABLE EVERY MONTH

DOWNLOAD NOW
www.uncut.co.uk/digital-edition

DONT
FORGET
TO RATE &
REVIEW!
UNCUT.CO.UK

Films
by

m ich a el bon n er

This month: Ryan Gosling and cos

banking-crisis comedy; Janis Joplin
uncovered; Tilda Swinton in Euro
drama remake; womens motor racing
in the West Bank; Hitchcock vs Truffaut

he Big Short Towards the end of

director adam mcKays new film,

two characters stand on the empty
trading floor of Lehman Brothers
bank following the 2008 crash.
What did you expect to find? asks one. his
colleague shrugs. I dont know. Grown-ups?
mcKays adaptation of michael Lewis book of the
same name presents the subprime loan crisis as a
screwball comedy, complete with to-camera
asides. But perhaps the only sane response to the
loathsome skullduggery behind the 2008
financial crash is to laugh at it. Just as martin
Scorseses The Wolf Of Wall Street presented the
career of disgraced Wall Street stockbroker
Jordan Belfort as a madcap scramble, so mcKay
pumps this particular round of despicable
financial misconduct for all the laughs he can.
The Wolf Of Wall Street is a useful comparison.
mcKay brings a similar flexible narrative and
freewheeling style of filming to The Big Short
the flashbacks, freeze frames, jumpcuts and
multiple voiceovers familiar from many Scorsese
films. all it needs is a montage sequence edited to
Gimme Shelter to qualify for the Full marty.
Unlike Belfort whose crimes largely took place
in the 80s the subprime loan crisis is still a
recent memory. how, then, do you make a
scenario that left millions in america
unemployed and homeless palatable to
mainstream cinema audiences? mcKay tries to
overcome this by focusing on four characters
who, while seeking to cash in on the crisis,
qualify as outsider figures. his leads are two
eccentric hedge fund managers one-eyed
michael Burry (Christian Bale) and the Cartmanesque mark Baum (Steve Carell) plus permatanned Deutsche Bank employee, Jared Vennett
(ryan Gosling), and a retired trader Ben rickert
(Brad Pitt). Only Baum and Vennett interact on
screen. Burry is largely contained within the four
walls of his office a situation that suits his
chilly, awkward character. Baum is mcKays de
facto lead: a ball of incandescent rage, routinely
sent into paroxysms at the unfolding chicanery of

Its all your fault!

Ryan Gosling (far
right), as trader Jared
Vannett, feels the
heat in Adam McKays
The Big Short

the financial institutions. after Foxcatcher last

year, Carrell continues to deliver solid dramatic
work. Pitts rickert shuffling, dishevelled and
shapeless recalls Philip Seymour hoffman.
Gosling seems to be playing a parody of himself.
mcKays attempts to cover so much ground is
not entirely successful. Cutting to margot robbie
in a bath to explain subprime loans or celebrity
chef anthony Bourdain in his kitchen to talk
through Collateralised Debt Obligations are
neat tricks, in keeping with the films skittish,
exhilarating pace. But it becomes apparent that
Burry, Baum and the rest are no better than the
bankers themselves, regardless of how they are
presented. The history of cinema is littered with
bad guys, from Tony Camonte to Darth Vader; the
difference is, unlike the banking community,
they got their comeuppance.
Janis: Little Girl Blue Forty-five years after
Janis Joplin died, a biopic has never been made
about her life. Thats not to say there havent been
attempts over the years, rene Zellweger, Pink,
Zooey Deschanel, Brittany murphy and amy
adams have all, at one time, been attached to
various failed projects. Speaking to Uncut a few

months ago, the documentary filmmaker amy

Berg admitted, as a woman in the 27 club, she is
remembered different from the men. I think Janis
suffered from her legacy having to do more with
her drug overdose than her career and musical
abilities. She just got the star on the Walk Of
Fame, I think, two years ago. Bergs film is as
much a celebration of Joplins music as it is a
depiction of a freer, looser time and Joplins place
within that environment. Shortly before her
death in 1970, she returned to her hometown of
Port arthur, Texas to attend a high school
reunion. In footage from that visit, she confessed,
I didnt go to the high school prom. Pressed by
reporters as whether she was invited to attend,
she replied, No, I wasnt. I dont think they
wanted to take me. and Ive been suffering ever
since! Joplins insecurities stemming from her
troubled childhood were amplified as her
success increased. hard drugs were readily
available and used casually. We would get
together and do heroin in these peoples rooms
and just kind of, not nod off or go to sleep, but
have really nice, mellow conversations, recalls
Big Brother and The holding Company guitarist
Sam andrew. Bergs strongest suit are the singers

Reviewed this month...

THE BIG
SHORT

JANIS: LITTLE
GIRL BLUE

A BIGGER
SPLASH

SPEED
SISTERS

HITCHCOCK/
TRUFFAUT

Director
Adam McKay
Starring
Steve Carell,
Christian Bale
Opened Jan 22
Cert 15

Director
Amy Berg
Starring
Janis Joplin,
Chan Marshall
Opens February 5
Cert tbc

Director Luca
Guadagnino
Starring
Tilda Swinton,
Ralph Fiennes
Opens February 12
Cert tbc

Director
Amber Fares
Starring
Noor Daoud,
Marah Zahalka
Opens March 25
Cert tbc

Director
Kent Jones
Starring
Martin Scorsese,
David Fincher
Opens March 4
Cert tbc

7/10

104 | UNCUT | marCh 2016

7/10

7/10

8/10

7/10

Films
Formula One chief executive Bernie Ecclestone
was asked whether he envisaged a time when
female drivers might feature on the grid. I doubt
it, he said. If there was somebody that was
capable they wouldnt be taken seriously
anyway, so they would never have a car that is
capable of competing. In amber Fares film,
female drivers have a lot more to contend with
than simply the regressive views of Ecclestone.
The Speed Sisters are the first womens driving
team in the arab world. Fares compelling
documentary follows manager maysoon and
drivers mona, marah, Noor and Betty as they
navigate not just the dusty market squares of
Palestine where many of their races take place
but also life under occupation. Their practice
ground is a stretch of wasteland near an Israeli
detention centre: at one point, one of the drivers is
struck in the back by a tear gas canister.
Speed Sisters is a film about a clash of
generations and of cultures. While delighted to
receive offers from German magazines keen to
arrange photo shoots, they receive Facebook
posts commenting, This is a sign that the world
is coming to an end. In one sequence, maysoon is
stuck in a checkpoint queue when a commotion
begins ahead. The smell of tear gas reminds me
of my childhood, she says.

private correspondence she wrote to her family,

which act as the films narration, read in
voiceover by Chan marshall.
A Bigger Splash Following an operation
on her vocal chords, rock star marianne Lane
(Tilda Swinton) is recuperating with her partner
(matthias Schoenaerts) on a remote Italian
island. Their sunny idyll is interrupted by harry,
mariannes producer and former beau, who
arrives unexpectedly with Penelope (Dakota
Johnson), who he claims is his daughter. harry
played with a loose abandon by ralph Fiennes
is an avuncular presence, full of tales about his
time working with the Stones. In one of the films
most memorable sequences, harry concocts
a hilarious, Jagger-style dance routine to
Emotional rescue. But despite his endearingly
ramshackle charm, harry still harbours feelings
for marianne and as director Luca Guadagninos
film unfolds in the parched mediterranean
splendour, it becomes clear that there is more to
his visit than just al fresco dining with friends and
another marvellous yarn about Charlie Watts.
Guadagninos film is a remake of La Piscine,
a languid Euro drama from 1969 that starred
alain Delon, romy Schneider, maurice ronet
and Jane Birkin. But while Guadagnino keeps
intact the sultry dynamics between the four
players, the most memorable work here is done by
Swinton and Fiennes. In flashbacks, Lane is
revealed as a Bowie-esque glam rocker, complete
with silver jumpsuit. In the present day, Lanes
post-op silence provides a graceful counterpoint
to harrys endless banter.
Speed Sisters During an interview with
Canadian broadcaster TSN, in January this year,

Hitchcock/Truffaut In 1966, Franois

Truffaut published a series of interviews with
alfred hitchcock about his career, film by film.
at that time, the general consensus and climate
was of bullying, as usual, by the establishment as
to what serious cinema was, says martin
Scorsese. So it was really revolutionary. Based
on what the Hitchcock/Truffaut book was, we
became radicalised as filmmakers. It was almost
as if someone had taken a weight off our
shoulders and said, Yes, we can embrace this. We
can go. Scorsese is not alone in offering glowing
testimony to the books influence peers Paul
Schrader and Peter Bogdanovich are joined by
younger directors Wes anderson, David Fincher
and richard Linklater. Director Kent Jones
accessible documentary presents the Hitchcock /
Truffaut book as a cornerstone of contemporary
cinema, without which modern movies from Jaws
to Gone Girl wouldnt exist. It also addresses a
pivotal piece of cinema history the interviews
themselves, which took place over a week at
hitchcocks offices at Universal Studios in 1962
when the 63-year-old hitchcock was a household
name and Truffant, 33 years his junior, had made
only three films. The French New Waves
fascination with hitchcock did much to bolster
his critical reputation; and subsequently what
interested the French New Wave had a wideranging influence on the generations that
followed. This is somebody whose mind is
racing with ideas, which is why we refer to him all
the time, says anderson. But there is more to
hitchcock than his fathomless ingenuity and
craft. Despite his revered status, hitchcock
was hardly a benevolent patriarch. his films
mischievously carried murder and madness to
mainstream cinema audiences. as the Japanese
director Kiyoshi Kurosawa notes, he portrayed
himself as a mainstream figure, but hes really at
the farthest edge of things.

Also out...
THE AMERICAN DREAMER
OPENS FEBRUARY 5
From 1971. Little seen Dennis Hopper doc,
shot at his home in Taos, New Mexico
while working on The Last Movie.

DADS ARMY
OPENS FEBRUARY 5
Toby Jones is Captain Mainwaring and Bill
Nighy plays Sgt Wilson in update of classic
sitcom. Dont tell him, Pike! etc.

LEE SCRATCH PERRYS VISION

OF PARADISE
OPENS FEBRUARY 5
Shot over a 15-year period, director Volker
Schaner reveals Perrys unique wisdom
and insights. The Orb, Adrian Sherwood
and other dubnologists pay tribute.

POINT BREAK
OPENS FEBRUARY 5
Kathryn Bigelows moderately forgettable
early-90s actioner is remade, with surfing
updated to extreme sports.

TRUMBO
OPENS FEBRUARY 5
An Oscar nomination for Bryan Cranston
as a blacklisted Hollywood screenwriter.
Reviewed last issue.

Ryan Reynolds
in Deadpool

DEADPOOL
OPENS FEBRUARY 10
Marvel Comics latest, possibly more
grown-up than usual. Stars Ryan Reynolds
as a former Special Forces operative
hunting down the bad guys.

ZOOLANDER 2
OPENS FEBRUARY 12
Looking to reconnect with mainstream
audiences after While Were Young, Ben
Stiller revives his clueless male model for
more laffs. Well, the trailer looks good.

BONE TOMAHAWK
OPENS FEBRUARY 19
Sheriff Kurt Russell leads the posse
in S Craig Zahlers moody cannibal
Western. Reviewed last issue.

MAVIS!
OPENS FEBRUARY 19
Doc charting singer Mavis Staples life and
times, from the gospel sound she helped
pioneer in the 1950s to the present day.
See Album By Album, page 44.

GRIMSBY
OPENS FEBRUARY 24
Sacha Baron Cohen plays the idiotic
younger brother to Mark Strongs suave
MI6 hitman in this action-comedy.

marCh 2016 | UNCUT |

105

ROCKING IN THE FREE WORLD

set list

stick in the wheel

WHATS COOKIN, LEYTONSTONE EX-SERVICEMENS CLUB,
LONDON, JANUARY 6, 2016

From the London riots to 18th-century laments on English

injustice, the critically acclaimed band bring folk back home

aDRian caLLaGhan

uthenticity has
long been a contentious
issue in folk music. From
its politicised post-war
revival, through Dylan
turning electric, and this centurys
appropriation of the term by anyone
strumming a guitar, it continues to be
elusive. fRoots album Of the year
winners stick in the Wheels solution
is to sing centuries-old songs that
connect them as directly as possible
to their own London history, along

with new songs of their own that

share the same spirit. although their
debut LP, From Here, mixed revivalist
instincts with folk-punk attack, at
heart theyre not that different from,
say, the unthanks, Martin carthy or
ewan Maccoll, whose rollicking
truckers song im champion at
Keeping em Rolling is sung tonight.
theyre not reinventing the wheel, but
keeping it turning.
a decade ago, lead singer nicola
Kearey and guitarist ian carter were

Stick In The
Wheel at a local
old folk home

106 | uncut | MaRch 2016

in dubsteppers Various Production.

While splicing folk music with new
styles such as grime (Jim Morays
reboot of murder ballad Lucy Wan)
can be occasionally effective, it is not
something Kearey has much truck
with. she draws from the citys folk
songs for their strengthening depth
of time and place.
stick in the Wheels roots are in
east London and essex, so this
regular night at Leytonstones
ex-servicemens club offers a rich
hometown context. From Here was
mostly recorded around here, and
accordingly the venue is packed out.
this songs about epping Forest
says Kearey, introducing all the
things to cheers before adding:
being burned down. her
deadpan links suggest perhaps
erroneously that she is grumpy and
uncomfortable onstage.
hard times is an exception.
Dating from the 18th century, and
since passed by the copper Family,
the song locates injustice growing
naturally in our soil. its not a rosecoloured vision, Kearey explains.
its about how shit england was.
and its still shit. she is joined on
harmonies by Fran Foote (who is

1 Rigs/Marrabones
2 Common Ground
3 MenBecky
4 Hard Times
5 All The Things
6 Im Champion At
7 The Blacksmith
8 Four Loom Weaver
9 By Of River
10 Poor Old Man/Bows Of London
11 Hasp
12 Bedlam
ENCORE
13 Seven Gypsies
14 Jail Song
15 Barbara Allen
from a copper-style lineage of essex
folk singers) and by Footes husband
si on percussion, who help grow the
song into a stately lament. Written
during the napoleonic era, its
message is still relevant and
powerful in a modern setting.
the more contemporary Men
Becky is a great song about the 2011
London riots. Strangest shopping Id
ever seen, its protagonist observes.
No-one got a receipt. Fran Footes
concertina adds to a sweeping sense
of exhilaration during the riots before
the mood changes to reflect the
subsequent guilt at the burned-down
shops and, finally, a retaliatory
response by the authorities. the lack
of such stories in mainstream pop is a
loss. as are Kearey and Footes
working-class accents. When they
sing we come from here in By Of
River and of taking the things that
belong to me on common Ground,
they seem to be suggesting it is
possible to be exiled in the country
where youre born.
stick in the Wheel dont say
anything heavily, though. the
Blacksmith is a ballad of lost love
sung with as much aching feeling as
Four Loom Weaver, a terrible tale of
poverty, with its shocking line, Ive
held my tongue till Ive near lost my
breath. theres an intimate sense of
community as they chat and sing,
reflected in modest music which
plays to all the genres strengths.
NICK HASTED

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Books
by

David Bowie at the

Beckenham Arts
Lab, 1969

A llA n jon e s

Reviewed this month...

Way Down in
Louisiana: Clifton
Chenier, Cajun,
Zydeco And Swamp
Pop Music
Todd Mouton

Psychedelic
Suburbia: David
Bowie And The
Beckenham
Arts Lab
Mary finnigan

UniversiTy Of LOUisiana
aT LafayeTTe Press

JOrvik Press

7/10

ou kind of hope from its title that Todd

Moutons Way Down In Louisiana:

Clifton Chenier, Cajun, Zydeco And

Swamp Music will be a full biography

of the great Zydeco bandleader or

otherwise a comprehensive history of the musical
traditions he did so much to popularise. in the event,
its a bit of both and not quite enough of either.
Most histories of Louisiana music concentrate not
irrelevantly on new orleans. But as Rolling Stones
david fricke remarks in a typically well-turned
introduction, new orleans is just one deep pocket
of blues and giving in a greater state of song and
sharing. West of new orleans and to the north of
the vast Atchafalaya Basin swamp that once cut
south Louisiana in half is the territory called
Acadiana, settled in the mid-18th century by
Canadian immigrants, driven out of northwest
Canada by the British army, their reluctant exile
poignantly evoked by The Band in their last great
song, Acadian driftwood. Their descendants,
known as Cajuns, mixed with the indigenous
population and slaves freed after the American Civil
War to create a fiercely protected independent
culture, out of which two musical styles evolved,
basically defined by race: the mostly fiddle-led
Cajun of white culture and its African American
equivalent, Zydeco. This was the accordion-driven
rhythm and blues that its greatest modern exponent,
Chenier; the son of a sharecropper, born into
poverty near opelousas on Louisianas isolated
coastal prairie, brought to the world.
Something like half of the book consists of
recycled magazine articles about some of the
contemporary musicians who have been inspired by
Chenier, musical preservationists like BeauSoleil
(the worlds greatest Cajun band), Coteau (the
Cajun Grateful dead) and Cajun supergroup Lil
Band of Gold (the southern Louisiana Buena Vista
Social Club). Mouton devotes four long chapters to
Cheniers life and career and writes well about
landmark albums like Louisiana Blues And Zydeco
(1965), Black Snake Blues (1967), Out West (1974), the
blistering The King Of Zydeco Live At Montreux (1975)
and Clifton Chenier And His Red Hot Louisiana Band
(1977). The basic facts of Cheniers life are all here.
But as biography, these chapters seem like an
extended chronological timeline punctuated with
record reviews.
Mouton gives us very little sense of the man
beyond the music. Chenier was a charismatic
performer, a demanding bandleader, reminiscent

from various descriptions of Bruce Springsteen. His

repertoire was vast. four-hour sets were not unusual
and, like Springsteen, he didnt tolerate sloppiness,
missed cues or dropped beats. He toured relentlessly,
up to his death in december 1987. He must also have
been a smart businessman as a canny self-promoter,
who managed his own career, largely on his own
terms, and you want to know more about how he
prospered in an industry dominated by racial
prejudice and unscrupulous practice. The influence
on Chenier of Cajun and Zydeco pioneers like
Amd Ardoin and dennis McGee, Hector dubon,
Alphonse Bois Sec Ardoin and dewey Balfa are
also only fleetingly mentioned. By the books end,
the full story of the musical tradition that Chenier
was heir to remains tantalisingly untold. There is
much to enjoy and discover here, but it still feels like
an opportunity missed, however narrowly.
originally intended to coincide with david
Bowies 69th birthday, but now published at the
time of his death, Mary finnigans Psychedelic

Suburbia: David Bowie And The Beckenham

Arts Lab is a slight but knowingly eye-catching
memoir of the nine months in 1969 when Bowie was
first finnigans lodger, briefly her lover and very
quickly someone she no longer recognised, as he
mutated from woolly-haired troubadour to glam
rock superstar. finnegan moved to London in the
early 60s to escape a dull marriage to a much older
Cheshire businessman, renting a ground floor flat
at 24 foxgrove Road in Beckenham. She first met
Bowie in April 1969, when he was visiting her
upstairs neighbours. She offers him tea and some
tincture of cannabis and he sits at her kitchen table,
gets stoned and asks her if he can play her a new
song that turns out to be Space oddity. Bowie at
the time is living at home with his parents in nearby

Bromley. But hes charismatic, charming and sexy

and finnigan is immediately smitten. He soon
moves into her flat and her bed and, although she
cant really afford it, she starts supporting him
financially. To make some money, they start a folk
club at a local pub, the Three Tuns, later the
Beckenham Arts Lab, sweetly recalled by finnigan
as a suburban mecca for countercultural activity, a
bit of Haight-Ashbury in the Home Counties.
The books tone is apparently nostalgic, a special
time in her life recalled in a wallowing glow. The
genteel prose barely disguises, however, the
resentment she feels when she discovers Bowie has
been merely using her while he tries to re-boot his
career after the failure of his debut album. She had
assumed she was in a monogamous relationship
with Bowie, although she finds out later that shes
merely one of several simultaneous lovers,
including a Chinese-American A&R man, mime
artist Lindsay kemp and a 19-year old American
girl called Mary Angela Barnett, soon to be Angie
Bowie. in finnigans description, Angie is part
angel, part hellcat, wholly cunning and entirely
manipulative, prone to ballistic hissy fits, theatrical
strops, carefully calculated tantrums, anything to
get her own way. Surprisingly, the two women get
on well enough to end up in bed together.
After the success of Space oddity, Bowie and
Angie move into Haddon Hall, where Bowie works
on The Man Who Sold The World, Hunky Dory and the
life-changing Ziggy Stardust By now, finnigans a
bystander to his accelerating career, excluded from
his inner circle. Leaving a party at Haddon Hall to
celebrate a Ziggy show at Earls Court, Bowie takes
her aside. Goodbye, Mary, he tells her. ill never
forget you. She never saw him again, and 45 years
later is still incredulously miffed that she was so
easily discarded from the rest of his life.
MARCH 2016 | unCuT |

115

RAy STEVEnSon/REX SHuTTERSToCk

8/10

Sonic Editions presents:

The David Bowie

Collection
Limited Edition Music Photography

Iconic images of David Bowie

through the years.
All prints limited and individually
numbered - from 49/$79
unframed, 79/$129 framed.

Visit www.SonicEditions.com/Uncut

Not Fade Away

Fondly remembered this month

Lemmy in 1982:
Rocknrolls
had a good time
out of me

LEMMY
Hawkwind and Motrhead legend
(1945-2015)

Lemmy never
changed his belief
in rocknroll as
an escape from
the everyday

MArCH 2016 | UNCUT |

117

MICHAeL PUTLAND/GeTTy IMAGeS

or over 50 years, Lemmy, who has died aged 70, personified the
rocknroll experience. His discography as a founder member of
Motrhead, the band he led for 40 years, is a ragged compendium
of fast and often artful heavy music, the product of an intelligent
man leading a fast and heavy lifestyle.
Born Ian Fraser Kilmister, the son of an rAF chaplain, Lemmy walked
it like he talked it: gruffly and generally wryly, all integrity and no regrets.
A laconic, witty speaker, he offered the kind of eloquence
you could have tattooed on your arm. Ive had a good
time out of rocknroll, he told Uncut last year, of his
unique career path. And rocknrolls had a good time
out of me.
His was a life lived with an eccentric purpose, and
it birthed a powerful legend. Lemmy could terrify
Motrhead audiences away from disrespectful
behaviour, always stood his ground, but was secure
in occasionally sending himself up, which only served
his notoriety. A Tv advertisement from the 1980s had
Lemmy caught receiving backstage pension advice via
telephone, then hastily arranging for his bath to be filled with tequila.
Lemmys 2003 memoir White Line Fever detailed entertainingly how this
legend came to be. A free spirit, Lemmy was never destined for long-term
commitments other than to rocknroll, and pursuit of its raucous essence
led him into the orbit of bands of the British beat boom. An intimate of The
Birds and The Artwoods, Lemmy was a member of Manchesters riotous
rockin vickers, roadied for Jimi Hendrix, played in the gently psychedelic
Sam Gopal, before alighting in his first major band, Hawkwind.

To Hawkwind, Lemmy brought the musicality at the root of the bands

lysergic swing. To the bands surprise, he also became the vocalist on their
Top 10 hit Silver Machine. on 1972s live orgone Accumulator, during
which the band play a 10-minute psychedelic garage tribute to Wilhelm
reich, Lemmys bluesy runs and bass chords bring a sense of space to a piece
with potentially ungenerous dimensions. The performance, he explained in
his book, took place under the influence of drugs. He had been told if he took
more than a few paces forward, he would fall into the audience.
Drugs, which he became in later life reluctant to discuss, were
instrumental in his departure from Hawkwind, and in creating the role for
which he became best known. While some of Hawkwind used psychedelics,
Lemmy used amphetamines. His 75 composition Motorhead, (written
about the speed lifestyle for the Hawkwind LP Warrior On The Edge Of Time)
became the cornerstone of his next project when he was
eventually ejected from that band.
From 1975-1982, Motrhead offered a megatonne take
on Leiber & Stoller-style rocknroll. Their furious pace
and well-concealed musicianship turned the band from
anomalies of the UK underground to unlikely chart
stars, and Lemmy into an unlikely national hero. Ace
of Spades became their anthem, but their repertoire
contained a wealth of classics, and their 1981 No Sleep
Til Hammersmith live LP was a No 1. After the breakup in
1982 of Motrheads classic lineup (featuing Lemmy
alongside guitarist Fast eddie Clarke and drummer
Phil Philthy Animal Taylor), the band lost some of their roll. However,
sustained by Lemmys enduring interests in sex, drugs and warfare, they
never lost their subject matter, or their rock. respectful of his past, his music
and what it represented to the people he played it for, Lemmy became as
close as career irresponsibility was likely to get to an establishment figure.
Late in life, Lemmy moderated (somewhat) his lifestyle, but never changed
his belief in rocknroll as an ethos: a recreation worth believing in, an
escape from the drabness of the everyday. JOHN ROBINSON

obituaries
Brett Smiley
Cult US glam rocker
(1955-2016)
Brett Smiley brought a dangerous
theatricality to glam rock, albeit
briefly. A former child star he
appeared in Oliver! on Broadway
Smiley moved to LA and auditioned
for The Partridge Family, before
falling in with Andrew Loog
Oldham. At 18, Smiley signed a
200,000 publishing deal and flew
to London, where he released the
single Va Va Va Voom and
appeared on The Russell Harty Show.
His sole LP, Breathlessly Brett, was
recorded in 1974, but not issued until
2003. That music was of my heart
and soul he told Uncuts Phil King
and the glamour and the glitter.

Natalie Cole
American soul/R&B singer
(1950-2015)
Nat King Coles daughter was a great

Paul Bley, circa 1960:

lyrical, angular and
endlessly inventive

singer in her own right. In the

mid-70s, she released a clutch of
funky pop-soul albums including
Grammy-winning debut
Inseparable (1975) and Natalie
(1976), each led by its own US
R&B No 1 This Will Be and
Sophisticated Lady (Shes A
Different Lady) respectively.
She suffered with drug addiction,
and a spell in rehab in the mid-80s
signalled a career switch.
Thereafter, she majored on big pop
balladry and standards, typified by
global hits such as Miss You Like
Crazy, Springsteen cover Pink
Cadillac and the computer-aided
interactive duet with her
deceased father, Unforgettable.

JohN BradBury
Specials drummer
(1953-2015)
As drummer for The Specials,
Coventry-bred John Brad
Bradbury was a key architect of
the 2 Tone ska sound. He called his

approach to percussion
attack drumming and,
according to bandmate
bassist Horace Panter,
he mixed the drive of
Northern soul with a reggae
feel. Brad joined The
Specials in 1979 and played
on their two peerless studio
albums. He moved on to
The Special AKA with Jerry
Dammers in 1982 and
co-wrote tracks including
Racist Friend for 1984s
In The Studio LP. Brad was
later a prime mover in the
reformed Specials lineup in
2008. His own band the
Motown-influenced JBs
Allstars also toured and
recorded extensively.

Gary maGiC
marker
Bassist and recording engineer
(1943-2015)
California-born and trained at

The Specials John

Bradbury: a key architect
of the 2 Tone ska sound

Berklee College Of Music in

Boston, Gary Marker was a highly
skilled session musician and
recording engineer, and a key
influence on the early career of
Captain Beefheart. His first band,
the Columbia-signed Rising Sons,
was a rival act to The Byrds during

Paul Bley
Canadian avant-garde jazz musician
(1932-2016)

TOM COPI/MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES

118 | UNCUT | MARCH 2016

MIKE LAYE

O CALL PAUL Bley a jazz pianist fails to recognise his

huge contribution to jazz over a six-decade career or the
influence he had in bringing other artists to prominence,
including Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry and Bleys first
wife, composer and organist Carla Bley. Born in Montreal,
Bley attended the renowned McGill Conservatory as a child but
it was jazz that bewitched him, and no less a figure than Oscar
Peterson asked the 16-year-old Bley to deputise for him at a gig in his
home city. Bley co-founded the Montreal Jazz workshop, and while
still in his teens was working with Charlie Parker and Lester Young.
In 1953, he was invited by Charles Mingus to help record his 10-piece
group. To repay the favour, Mingus played on and released Bleys
first album, Introducing Paul Bley, on Mingus own Debut label
completing a formidable trio with drummer Art Blakey.
In the mid-50s, Bley met and married Swedish/American Lovella
May Borg later to be known as Carla and the pair moved to
California. A long-term residency at the Hillcrest Club in LA
signalled the formation of Bleys first great group: a quintet
completed by Coleman, Cherry, Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins.
Live At The Hilcrest Club 1958 was not issued until the 70s, but it is a
key text in the free jazz movement, critic Robert Christgau noting:
I have the feeling when I want people to understand what free jazz
meant, this is what Ill play.
Bleys work throughout the 60s and 70s illustrated his ability
to move Zelig-like through the changing worlds of avant-garde
jazz. He co-founded the Jazz Composers Guild in 1964, bringing
together luminaries such as Archie Shepp, Sun Ra and Cecil Taylor,
organising a weekly live show that explored jazzs outer limits.
He toured and recorded with Sonny Rollins and Coleman Hawkins
and was one of the first musicians to pioneer the use of the Moog
synthesiser. Bleys own label, Improvising Artists, issued the earliest
recordings of Jaco Pastorius and Pat Metheny. Recent decades saw
him continuing to tour, teach and record. His vast discography
stretches to in excess of 60 albums, including 2014 solo set
Play Blue, on ECM.
As a musician, he was lyrical, angular and endlessly inventive.
In Bleys own words: Anything you play twice is once too much.

Pierre Boulez

Pierre Boulez
in 2005: his
precision was
legendary

French composer and conductor

(1925-2016)

the mid-60s and a finishing school

for some of Californias biggest
talents, including a teenaged
Ry Cooder, Taj Mahal and future
Spirit drummer Ed Cassidy.
Markers friendship with Beefheart
led to early production work on
Safe As Milk and though he
rejected an offer to join the Magic
Band permanently Trout Mask
Replica. His bass playing can be
heard on Moonlight On Vermont
and Veterans Day Poppy.

Stevie WriGht
Australian rock singer
(1947-2015)
The Easybeats were the most
prominent Australian rock band of
the 1960s, and frontman Stephen
Stevie Wright was widely
considered the countrys first
internationally known pop star.
Wright co-wrote many of the bands
early Australian hits, but it was the

Boulez is known to rock audiences for his work with Frank Zappa
on 1984s challenging The Perfect Stranger. As Boulez said of Zappa in
2010: Zappa stood out from the ranks because he shunned commercial
logic. Provocative, leaning much to the left, he loathed the market into
which music had compromised itself. Its an epitaph that could equally
apply to Boulez himself.

Vanda/Young composition Friday

On My Mind fired by Wrights
energetic backflips and mod
dancing that broke the band
internationally, making the UK Top
10 and US Top 20 in 1966 and 1967
respectively. The Easybeats split in
69, but Wright continued to write
and record his 1974 solo album
Hard Road (featuring AC/DCs
Malcolm Young) is considered
a landmark Australian release.

roBert
StiGWood
Entertainment industry
magnate
(1934-2016)

Robert Stigwood with

the BeeGees in 1977

Born in Australia, Stigwood

moved to the UK in the 1950s,
and set up his own theatrical
agency. Thanks to Joe Meek,
his client John Leyton scored an
unexpected 1961 No 1 (Johnny
Remember Me) and the music
business beckoned. A skilled
operator, Stigwood struck deals
with EMI, Polydor and Brian
Epsteins NEMS, before going on
to manage Cream and finance
big-budget musical hits
including Hair and Oh! Calcutta!.

Success with the BeeGees signed

to his own RSO label allowed
Stigwood to branch out further,
delivering movie blockbusters
(Saturday Night Fever, Grease)
and infamous flops (Staying
Alive, the Sgt Pepper musical) in
almost equal measure.

William GueSt
Soul singer, Gladys
Knight & The Pips
(1941-2015)
A first cousin of Gladys Knight,
William Guests rich vocals
feature on all the Grammy-winning
groups key releases, from their
time at Motown in the 1960s
to their chart peak in the 1970s
and beyond. Guest also worked
with the Pips on the soundtrack
to 1974 movie drama Claudine with
producer Curtis Mayfield. Guests
2012 autobiography Midnight Train
From Georgia: A Pips Journey
chronicles life in one of musics
most famous backing groups.
In tribute, Knight said: From day
one, we were two road warriors,
succeeding against the odds
of the show business.
MARK BENTLEY

MARCH 2016 | UNCUT |

119

MICHAEL PUTLAND/GETTY, MEHDI FEDOUACH/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

NY MUSICIAN WHO has not experienced the necessity

of dodecaphonic music is USELESS. The son of an
engineer from the Loire, Pierre Boulez rose to become
the pre-eminent figure in modern French classical
music a pioneer of improvisation, experimentation
and electronic music, a revered conductor and a fierce critic of what he
saw as the passivity and restrictive confines of classical music.
As an award-winning conductor, Boulez was known for his
performances of composers including Bartk, Bruckner, Mahler,
Stravinsky and Varse. His 26 Grammys are testament to a brilliant
rhythmical technique delivered using only his hands, and no baton.
His precision was legendary; Boulez could reportedly hear a moment of
faulty intonation in even the most challenging, densest compositional
pieces. As leader of some of the worlds most celebrated orchestras
including the New York Philharmonic and the BBC Symphony Orchestra
he brought new prominence to modern classical music.
Following discussions with French premier Georges Pompidou, Boulez
created and developed the Institut de Recherche et Coordination
Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM) in the 70s, a high-concept conservatoire
dedicated entirely to the exploration and development of modern music.
Like key figures in his circle such as Stockhausen, Berio and John Cage,
Boulez championed philosophical techniques in composition including
serialism, pitch multiplication and controlled chance. A powerful
polemicist, his fiery intelligence and controversial opinions were
captured brilliantly in the 1971 book Boulez On Music Today.
Boulez was a specialist on the ondes Martenot one of the earliest
electronic instruments and his most famous compositional works
such as Le Marteau Sans Matre demonstrated his synthesis of
different cultures and influences, including jazz, African and Japanese
music, and is claimed as a turning point in modern classical. Other
works including Polyphonie X, Structures and Pli Selon Pli based
on the work of 19th-century French symbolist poet Stphane Mallarm
proved more controversial.

letters

Feedback

Email [email protected] or write to: Uncut Feedback, 8th Floor, Blue Fin Building,
110 Southwark Street, London SE1 0SU. Or tweet us at twitter.com/uncutmagazine
UNCUTS TOP 200:
BLUES DONT RUN
THE GAME
The 200 Greatest albums Of all
Time [Uncut, February 2016] makes
for interesting reading. however,
I cannot help but feel there is a
terrible sense of injustice in the
absence of so many great blues
artists. Perhaps the no
compilations rule is to blame,
but I hope it is not, because were
somehow losing touch with just
how great this music remains.
To effectively present the best
music of all time without even
mention of the blues, or anything
from the Chess or Sun canons,
seems incongruous. These labels
and artists reshaped music: where
are howlin Wolf, Willie Dixon,
muddy Waters, Little Walter, BB
King, Chuck Berry, Buddy Guy, Etta
James, Koko Taylor, ray Charles,
Son house, robert Johnson? how
much of this list would exist
without their influence? The
revolution in music took place a lot
earlier than the 1960s, so much so
that the concept of albums was still
to be fully formed, something that
should be acknowledged. I too
dislike compilations, but they
remain one of the few ways of
accessing this culturally
significant, vital music.
Ben Pinnington, Merseyside
I know your lists are designed to
provoke a response, and I told
myself to stay calm before I read it,
but when I saw In Utero in the list
with no room for Nevermind,
I knew we were in the familiar
hipster terrain that appears
whenever music journos get
together to stroke their beards.
Three Byrds albums, but no room
for LA Woman? What rock snobs
you are! Free? Lizzy? motrhead?
Purple? Genesis? Creedence?
Too popular for you? Plus, a lot of
other genres got very short shrift:
psychedelia, folk, prog, blues,
metal, 70s hard rock and new
wave, grunge, Britpop, glam, to
name a few.
my first response was to wade in
with my own catalogue of cool
whither Tim Buckleys Starsailor,
Terry reids River, Skip Spences
Oar? Theyll still be talked about
after Joanna Newsom has long
been forgotten.
Nigel Hodgkins, via email

120 | UNCUT | marCh 2016

an interesting list
(more than half of which
feature in my collection),
but surely your 200
Greatest albums Of all
Time chose to be with
some exceptions: Dr John,
Captain Beefheart and
The Incredible String
Band a rather safe
selection? Uncuts 200
is also notable for a
significant genre being
neglected. Im talking
about prog. Can you really
overlook such important
albums as Hero And
Heroine from The Strawbs,
Genesis Foxtrot, King
Crimsons Lizard, Van Der
Graaf Generators The Least
We Can Do Is Wave To Each
Other, The Yes Album,
Procol harums A Salty Dog
or Jethro Tulls Thick As A
Brick? Lists, by their very
nature, are provocative and
Im sure my reaction is partly
what the Uncut 200 was meant to
achieve. So well done!
John Millar, Irvine, Ayrshire

MORE TOP 200

THOUGHTS
TRANSFORMER A
HEAP OF POO?
I absolutely loved the re-emergence
of the Best LPs Ever list but,
obviously, have my issues (which is
presumably the point of publishing
it). The first is that it really should
be called the 200 best rock-oriented
LPs ever. There is a small intrusion
of jazz LPs here which, while they
may have had an influence on rock,
were not influenced by it in any
way. and I doubt a serious jazzer
would have chosen those four or
five to represent the whole genre
(most of them think Kind Of Blue
is trite)! having said that, Bitches
Brew definitely deserves to be
there: a monster, a genuine
fusion and hugely influential on
rock and jazz.
and could we really only manage
one reggae LP? Heart Of The
Congos? Good album, but not
exactly genre-shattering. If we
are going for rock-oriented,
then I find it amazing that the first
Island Wailers album (Catch A Fire),
or Live!, couldnt find a place.
But then that is democracy, I
suppose, and how the votes were

weighted. I wonder what the list

would look like if you gave 50
to the first choice, 40 to the second,
30 to the third and then one point
each to all of those outside the
top 10? Go on, do it!
Personally, I think the only
records that should be considered
are those that are, firstly, over
10 years old (as anything younger
we dont know the importance
of yet); should have had either a
significant cultural or musical
impact at the time or been
significantly influential going
forward; and still be listenable
and enjoyable today. If that filter
was applied, quite a lot of these
would pass out and others, more
worthy, would pass in.
Democracy and fashion has
robbed us, however, of Led
Zeppelin II (by far their best and
most influential album), In The
Court of The Crimson King (an
absolute game-changer in 1969 and
still awesome today), Live/Dead
(the best acid album ever), Hot
Rats, Deep Purple In Rock (just as
much a metal template and far
more listenable than Paranoid),
Blues Breakers (invented blues
rock) and, more recently, Songs
For The Deaf and Californication,
two towering examples of the
incredible reinvigoration of rock
at the beginning of this century.
But it has given us: four Joni

mitchell LPs, three

from The Cure, The human
League, Donald Fagen,
Oasis (why not Slade Alive!
and have done with it?), The
associates, two from that
most neanderthal and
pointless of bands, The Fall,
The Slits, and, like some
sort of Japanese knotweed
infestation, U2. and the
wrong LPs from Elvis
Costello (This Years Model,
surely?), The Only Ones
(Even Serpents Shine is
their best) and robert
Wyatts dismal Rock
Bottom (rather than Soft
machines Third).
Interestingly, only one
of your panel chose Pet
Sounds as No 1. But
four chose Forever
Changes. I just played
both. Forever Changes is
a sophisticated, spiteful,
romantic, beautifully
structured and fully integrated
suite of genuinely weird and
brilliant songs. It was and remains
timeless. Pet Sounds is what we
know it is; a patchy, throwntogether collection of genuinely
great stuff and filler. Very much
a period piece. I defy you once
you have put on Forever Changes to
take it off and to actually listen to
Pet Sounds through without
skipping tracks.
Obviously those on the panel
who chose as their best LPs ever
Gang Of Four, The Streets, Chic,
Lou reeds Transformer (I am a
Velvets fanatic and I have never
owned a copy of this heap of poo),
The Go-Betweens, rodriguezs
Cold Fact (dont get me wrong I have
loved this album for 20 years but
the best ever? Give me a break!)
need to have all their votes
cancelled as, somewhere along
the line, they have utterly lost
their perspective compasses!
Jon Groocock, Glastonbury

AND MORE: TRULY

A CROCK OF SHIT
So, 2016 is set to be the crash-andburn year where I find that
everything I believed rocknroll to
be requires a radical reappraisal.
John Lennons John Lennon/Plastic
Ono Band album, far from being (as
I thought) the greatest album of all
time, barely scrapes into Uncuts

crossword
Top 200 listing. I blame myself for
failing to consider that naturally it
should languish way behind The
Slits Cut, Spiritualizeds 1997 opus
and LCD Soundsystem. Equally,
I should have taken for granted the
non-appearance of Aladdin Sane,
All Things Must Pass, The Holy
Bible or any of the first three Led
Zeppelin releases when faced
with such venerable competition as
the Beastie Boys and GZa. Perhaps
I should assuage the bile your
listing has created by recognising
that Steely Dans Cant Buy A Thrill,
probably the strongest debut album
ever, was in touching distance of
the Top 100, and that Laura Nyro,
Todd rundgren and Gene Clark
all managed to get through the
entry gates. Seriously, didnt
someone at the Uncut office stand
back prior to publication and say,
Comrades, on reflection, this
listing truly is a crock of shit?
Paul Payne, Powys

THE SAN JOSE

COUNCIL CHAMBER
ACID TEST
I really enjoyed rob hughes
recounting of the early acid Tests
[Uncut, December] that were
perpetrated in Northern California
over the winter of 1965-66. But I
was profoundly disappointed that
mr hughes gave zero mention to the
most historic test of all the one on
December 4, 1965, in downtown
San Jose. It was that night when,
at a large house near the local
university, the Grateful Dead
played their first-ever gig under
that name, as Ken Kesey and his
merry Pranksters staged their usual
mayhem. meanwhile, The rolling
Stones were playing a concert the
same evening at the nearby San
Jose Civic auditorium, and the
Pranksters recruited participants to
the test by passing out leaflets on
the auditorium steps to exiting fans.
In Bill Wymans autobiography,
he writes that Keith richards and
Brian Jones attended the event and
spent the evening tripping out in
the crawl space beneath the house
(richards claims to remember none
of this, which I suppose should
shock no-one). The historic house
still exists but was moved to
another location because San Jose
chose to build its new City hall on
top of the original acid Test site. So,
in a fantastic rocknroll fact, the
San Jose city council chamber now
pretty much sits directly above the
spot where the Grateful Dead first
performed as the Grateful Dead.
Some of us locals are working to get
a plaque erected to mark this
extraordinary location. I hope
Uncut readers will wish us luck.
Mark Purdy, San Jose, California

One of three copies

of Bert Janschs reissued
Avocet on CD

Take 226 | march 2016

4

Editor John mulvey

Associate Editor michael Bonner
Associate Editor John robinson
Art Editor marc Jones
Senior Designer michael Chapman
Production Editor mick meikleham
Acting Album Reviews Editor Tom Pinnock
Picture Researcher Phil King
Editor At Large allan Jones

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19

13

15

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26

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21

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Time Inc. (UK) Ltd, 8th Floor, Blue Fin

Building, 110 Southwark Street, London SE1
0SU. Tel: 020 3148 6982 www.uncut.co.uk

32

Contributors Jason anderson, Ben

Beaumont-Thomas, mark Bentley, David
Cavanagh, Tom Charity, Leonie Cooper,
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hasted, mick houghton, rob hughes, Trevor
hungerford, John Lewis, Damien Love, alastair
mcKay, Geoffrey macnab, Gavin martin, Piers
martin, andrew mueller, Sharon OConnell,
Louis Pattison, Sam richards, Jonathan
romney, Bud Scoppa, Peter Shapiro, hazel
Sheffield, Laura Snapes, Neil Spencer, Terry
Staunton, Fiona Sturges, Graeme Thomson,
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Williams, Nigel Williamson, Jim Wirth,
Damon Wise, rob Young
Cover Photograph: John rowlands/
Zumapress.com/Corbis
Photographers: Jimmy King, Carl Batson,
Joe Dilworth, andy martin, michael Putland,
Ilpo musto, Joe Stevens, Gijsbert hanekroot
Thanks This Issue: robert Sekula, ali mcQueen
(sub-editing); Thomas Seal, hannah hart-Smith,
Tara hodgson

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HOW TO ENTER
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will win a prize. Closing date: Monday, February 22, 2016. This competition is only open
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ClUES ACROSS

ClUES dOWN

Creative Media

1 Could a clue often be rewritten for a Neil

Young live album? (8-4)
7 Big Brovaz hit single that was just a bit of
a joke (2)
10 And I know that if she had me back again,
I would never make her sad, Ive got a _____
____ __ ____, 1965 (5-4-2-4)
11+15d Everyone is ignorant about this one
from Queens Of The Stone age (2-3-5)
12 Frank Sinatra had them in 1959, Pink
Floyd in 1994 (4-5)
14+32A Small Faces number in its older
form (3-7)
16 Direction Reaction Creation was the title
of their 1997 five-disc boxset anthology (3)
18 (See 6 down)
21 (See 26 down)
22 The army on manoeuvres with Gene
Vincent (2-5)
23 _____ For The Deaf album includes
the one from 11 across (5)
25 how to address Bono (3)
27 american band so bad he turned over (7)
29 If the ____comes, they run and hide
their heads, they might as well be dead,
Beatles (4)
30 Gaye Bykers On ____, late 80s grebo
rockers headed by monkees single (4)
31 King Crimson album that was partly
predictable (3)
32 (See 14 across)

1 Fleetwood mac not really facing up to

things (6-3-4)
2 Hitch a ride to the end of the highway,
where the neons turn to wood, 1970 (2-6-3-4)
3 Someone off his head in The music and
Chumbawamba (6)
4 Pretty woman, I dont believe you, youre
not the _____, roy Orbison (5)
5 Frank Zappas album cover designer gets
musical at the end (3)
6+18A The Byrds giving a measured
performance in a rather hypothetical
way (5-9)
8 Deadens the band with No Wow (5)
9 Dido opted to include a Dutch dance act
with eponymous No 1 single (4)
13 Well youre built like a car, youve got a
hub cap diamond star halo, 1971 (3-2-2)
15 (See 11 across)
16 (See 19 down|)
17 Get down on the floor with someone
from Suede (3)
19+16d __ ___ ___ _____, we got a thing
going on, we both know that its wrong,
1973 (2-3-3-5)
20 (See 28 down)
24 Jeff Buckley not playing in Bad manners
style (5)
26+21A It didnt matter how prepared
we were in 1996, both The Lightning
Seeds and the Fugees were coming for
us (5-2-3)
28+20d Until Len has somehow worked out
where an Orange Juice compilation album
can be put (2-1-8)

ANSWERS: TAKE 224

29 angus, 32 La, 33+12a In

Search Of Space

ACROSS

dOWN

1+26a Still Got That hunger,

9 Thrak, 10 membranes,
13 Weirdo, 16 Eye, 17 Others,
18 Este, 21 Lilac Wine, 23+34a
Candi Staton, 24 Lay Down,

2 Thrasher, 3+11D Like a

rolling Stone, 4 Gimme
Shelter, 5 Time, 6 horses,
7 Ten, 8 Strokes, 15+14D
Cracklin rosie, 19+28D Did

You Ever, 20 Bachman, 22 Can,

25 Wilco, 27 Nice, 29 ash,
30 Gas, 31 Sea
HIddEN ANSWER

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Peacock Suit
XWORd COmpIlEd by:

Trevorhungerford

marCh 2016 | UNCUT |

121

my life in music

Lucinda Williams
Inside the surprising record collection of a great
singer-songwriter. Dont mention Americana!

My starting point

A huge influence

Bob Dylan

Robert Johnson

Highway 61 Revisited 1965

King Of The Delta Blues Singers,

Vol II 1970

This was the first Bob Dylan album I heard

and, even though I was only 12, it really made
an impression on me. It was the first album
I heard that I understood: he was taking
traditional folk music and putting it together with the literary world,
and I understood both those worlds, because of my dad [miller Williams]
being a poet. Id just started taking guitar lessons, too, learning folk music,
so this was a really significant album.

An otherworldly album
The Doors
The Doors 1967
I still listen to this album, and to me its still
really relevant. Theres just something about
what Jim morrison was saying, the imagery
and just the whole vibe and moodiness of it.
They didnt have a bassist it was just guitar, keyboard and drums,
which was really unusual to begin with so that gave the album this
whole other sound. and then Jims voice he was so sexy-looking, just
the whole thing.

A British blues peak

Cream
Disraeli Gears 1967

INTErVIEW: TOm PINNOCK. PhOTO: DaVID mCCLISTEr

When I was a teenager there was all this music

coming out all at once which felt so new. a
lot of the British bands back then were really
influential, and most of those were bluesbased. Cream, The rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, even Bert Jansch I love
his album [1969s] Birthday Blues and John martyn I loved a lot of the
British music at that time. Bands like Cream were really influential [in
America], and they did such a great job.

In the early 70s, everyone was listening to this.

It was real blues, and different to anything Id
heard. he wrote like no other blues artist, stuff
like You can squeeze my lemon til the juice runs down my leg, which
ended up in Led Zeppelin [The Lemon Song]. his stuff informed my
writing a lot. I have a line in my song, 2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten: Mr Johnson
sings in a corner by the bar/Sold his soul to the devil so he could play guitar.

A vocal and style

inspiration
Bobbie Gentry
Ode To Billie Joe 1967
all the female singer-songwriters I knew, like
Joan Baez and Judy Collins, had these pretty,
high voices, and I never felt like Id be able to
sing like that. But when I heard this album I went, Wow! Cos Bobbie
Gentrys voice is so low and smoky. and there she was in those little tight
jeans and T-shirt with her black eyeliner and a little bitty guitar That
didnt escape me, and Im sure no-one else, cos she was just gorgeous.

An album I play
all the time
Thievery Corporation
The Cosmic Game 2005
They dabble a bit in Brazilian and world music,
and blend it with all these beats. Its just very
fresh, and I love the way it feels and sounds.
and they can pull it off live some people might listen to the album and
think, Oh, this is all overdubbed, but when they play live they have these
different artists all doing stuff. I saw them play in austin and they had
Jamaican guest artists sitting in. Theyre cool, sweet guys, too.

My introduction to
white American blues

A recent favourite

Various Artists

Southsiders 2014

The Blues Project 1964

This was a compilation of white blues artists,
mostly from the midwest, people like Geoff
muldaur, Dave Van ronk and mark Spoelstra.
It came out in 1964, but I didnt discover it until 1967. I read [in a previous My
Life In Music] Gary rossington on how their introductions to the blues were
through the English guys, which is, yknow, a little hard to admit. But thats
what was happening! I heard bands like Cream, then got into these guys.

Atmosphere
a lot of people are surprised when I mention
this one. The rapper, Slug, is just an amazing
writer. hes very socially conscious theres
this one song he wrote about one of his close
friends who died, Flicker, and its like poetry. There needs to be
another name for this kind of music besides hip-hop its like saying
americana. People dont know what to label me, I still get referred to as
americana, or country, and, you know, whatever.

Lucinda Williams The Ghost Of Highway 20 is out now on Highway 20/Thirty Tigers

In next Months UncUt:

122 | UNCUT | marCh 2016

hed go from blues growl to incredible soprano... he could do so much, it was almost a curse

From the makers of Uncut, a monthly magazine celebrating

50 years of the music that changed the world.
Month by month, it will build up into an unprecedentedly
detailed chronicle of the music and musicians we love.

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