LAST HARBOUR + THE DOOMED BIRD OF PROVIDENCE + VIOLET WOODS
Sunday 25th March @ The Portland Arms
Based in Manchester, Last Harbour are an expansive collective playing “swooning dustbowl baroque” (Plan B) that is “rich and foreboding” (Drowned in Sound) . From dusty laments to doom- filled rock, from starkly beautiful duets to drifting clouds of looped noise, the only claims they make for their music are that it is honest and heartfelt.
Their new album ’ Your Heart, It Carries The Sound ’ was written in isolation in a small Northumbrian cottage in October 2010 and recorded in April 2011 in St Margaret’s Church, Manchester. The songs are recorded almost entirely live, with producer Sam Lench employing the church as a soundstage. His approach carefully uses the architecture of the building to sculpt and shape the music, creating a sense of the band within the space.
This new album sees a different approach from their previous album ’ Volo ’ (2010) , a dense, textured album co-produced by Richard Formby (best known for his recent work with Wild Beasts). For ’ Your Heart, It Carries The Sound ‘, the band stripped back the arrangements and placed a mature, more direct concentration at the core of each song. The confident, intimate vocal of K Craig is at the centre, the instrumentation is sparser, and the band’s line-up has changed with piano, tenor guitar, heavily-processed guitar effects and organ to the fore. The addition of vintage analogue synths and waves of natural reverb give ’ Your Heart, It Carries The Sound a timeless, ephemeral aspect.
www.lastharbour.com/
THE DOOMED BIRD OF PROVIDENCE
Aggressive and disturbing tales of the early years of the country of Australia, drawn from texts recounting colonial degeneracy. All set to music heavily indebted to Jacques Brel, Scott Walker and the English Folk Revival, with terrifying results. www.doomedbird.com
VIOLET WOODS
12-string twang, Moe Tucker beats and echoplex vocals from Cambridge folks otherwise seen in The Puncture Repair Kit, Bouvier, Fuzzy Lights, etc.
http://violetwoods.tumblr.com
PATTEN + THE SOFT
Thursday 1st March @ The Portland Arms
Doors 8pm, £5 adv from here
PATTEN
With a debut LP at the sharp-end of many Album of 2011 lists, the elusive Patten is coming to Cambridge, crafting something fresh and new out of the debris of falling genres. Sketches of dirty electronica blend with industrial beats and dance floor breaks, but all heard through the post-dubstep industrial greyness of inner city life. It’s not exclusively dark though. There’s optimism at work here and a joyful blend of noise that brings to mind gloriously Technicolor environments. Influenced by a heady brew of Tricky, Massive Attack and the IDM of late 90’s Warp, there’s no need to classify this – there are echoes of the past, but this is the sound of the future.
www.patttten.com
THE SOFT
Finally a local band to get excited about, Bury St Edmunds’ The Soft have escaped the confines of Suffolk, their music finding influence on both sides of the Atlantic and championed by the likes of No Fear of Pop, Largehearted Boy and The Line of Best Fit. There’s a hint of the xx in their swirling and ambient electro-pop that flirts with darkness and light. There’s an experimental heart to their music, but that doesn’t mean they’ve ignored their obvious love of pop music. Having floored the crowd at last year’s Wish You Were Here festival, the future is very bright for this group of youngsters.
http://thesoft.bandcamp.com/
STANDARD FARE + TIGERCATS + MODEL VILLAGE
Friday 20th January at The Portland Arms
Doors 8pm, £5 adv from here
STANDARD FARE
Originally from England’s highest town, Buxton, the three members of Standard Fare are now based around the North, from where they produce freewheeling, autobiographical indiepop (though never twee) music. Jangly, Lemonheads-esque guitars, bittersweet, swooping twin vocals, and Orange Juice rhythms all came together on 2010’s ‘The Noyelle Beat’ to make make one of the freshest, most unadulterated bits of British guitar music of the last few years. New record ‘Out Of Sight, Out Of Town’ should be out just in time for this gig, and is informed by the escapism induced by their their semi-rural origins, but translated into the elusion of conflict, the complications of relationships, bitterness, that kind of thing. Loved by the kids and by us too.
www.standardfare.co.uk
TIGERCATS
Frenetic indiepop-come-post punk from East London with people who were/are in Esiotrot and Hexicon. A bit like Elvis Costello & The Attractions when they were good.
http://haircutrecords.co.uk/site/tigercats/
MODEL VILLAGE
Humane adult-orientated pop music, recently described as “among the bright and beautiful things the world has to offer.”
http://modelvillagethepopgroup.tumblr.com/
C JOYNES + ALAN WILKINSON + PADANG FOOD TIGERS
Wednesday 7th December at The Portland Arms
Doors 8pm, £5 on the door
C JOYNES
The well-travelled Master Musician of Histon, C Joynes, has been the most enthralling and consistently excellent creator of leftfield music in the Cambridge area for a number of years. His considered and very English take on that whole post-Fahey Tacoma guitar thing is difficult to pin down without sounding trite or contrived. Highly influenced by his frequent trips to the further corners of the globe his combination of technique with a lack of reverance for the self same allows Joynes to eke out a unique facet of authentic folk music, without all of the bullshit trappings of “authenticity”. As we shall be toasting its recent release, it seems likely that he will play selections from his latest offering for the esteemed Bo’ Weavil Recordings, “Congo”.
www.myspace.com/cjoynes
ALAN WILKINSON
A fellow Bo’ Weavil Recordings artist, Alan Wilkinson is one of England’s fieriest improvising saxophonists. First coming to notice through Leeds’ Termite Club, which he was a founding member of, Wilkinson has been a mainstay of London’s free improv scene from the ’90s onwards. As well as working with many of the great modern improvisers - Derek Bailey, Peter Brötzmann, Sunny Murray, Eddie Prévost - he is equally at home with some serious names outside of jazz, such as Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo, Spring Heel Jack and Talibam! Wilkinson will be playing by himself, in support of his new solo CD “Practice”.
http://www.boweavilrecordings.com/wilkinson.html
PADANG FOOD TIGERS
Highly nuanced ambient hissing, elegant sparse banjo, field recordings and mournful open guitar from two of Rameses III.
www.myspace.com/padangfoodtigers
HIGGS CANCELLED
Really gutted to let you know that Daniel Higgs has cancelled his entire U.K. tour, so the gig on Dec 7th won’t be happening. We may well be doing something to recognise the release of the new C Joynes LP on the same date instead.
FLOAT RIVERER + HALO HALO + PETE UM
Thursday 17th November at The Corner House
Doors 8pm, £4 adv from here
FLOAT RIVERER
This couple of nefarious dweebs formed the group Float Riverer whilst hitching around Britain last year. Just guitar and drums, with a mix of barked and crooning vocals, are employed in the creation of super-catchy garage pop gems with dirt under the fingernails. Formerly found in Hotpants Romance and I Had An Inkling, they cook up some kind of Sebadoh/The Clean/Scout Niblett/Sleater-Kinney/The Fall/Thee Oh Sees bouillabaisse, heavy on the pepper. By the time of this gig they’ll have already toured Europe twice, put out an eponymous LP and got Everett True all excited too.
http://floatriverer.blogspot.com/
HALO HALO
Halo Halo are a pretty unlikely-sounding trio who play some kind of South and East Asian pop music mixed with early 80s post-punk dance beats and howling boy-girl harmonies. Named after a popular Filipino pudding they create the same kind of excitement that you probably got the first time that you heard The Slits, except The Slits never used electric banjo. Totally ruling live, believe us.
http://halohalomixmix.blogspot.com/
PETE UM
Grindingly awkward shithop.
http://www.umbusiness.co.uk
**CANCELLED** DANIEL HIGGS + C JOYNES + PADANG FOOD TIGERS
DANIEL HIGGS HAS CANCELLED HIS ENTIRE UK TOUR. FUCKING GUTTED.
DANIEL HIGGS
One-time lyricist and frontman of Baltimore, Maryland’s superlative holistic rock group Lungfish, Daniel Higgs have been pursuing a solo musical path since the mid-2000s. This latest work is far removed from the mesmerisingly grinding sounds of America’s last true folk band, though a common primal and ritualistic streak remains. Mixing drones and jaws harp with banjo and poetic voice Higgs’s stark material tackles the mystical and the evangelical, with flashes of a pure dark humour at the root of it all. On this tour he will be joined by Maya Dunietz (piano/percussion) and Assaf Talmudi (accordion/electronics).
Daniel Higgs at Dischord
Daniel Higgs at Thrill Jockey
C JOYNES
The well-travelled Master Musician of Histon plays selections from his latest offering for the esteemed Bo’ Weavil Recordings.
www.myspace.com/cjoynes
PADANG FOOD TIGERS
Highly nuanced ambient hissing, elegant sparse banjo, field recordings and mournful open guitar from two of Rameses III.
www.myspace.com/padangfoodtigers
KWJAZ + GRIEF ATHLETES + BRIDEBURGER
Monday 10th October at The Portland Arms
Doors 8pm; £6 adv from here
KWJAZ
Mindblowing retro-futuristic jams from the ever-great Not Not Fun label. Structurally, this is all poetic meta-narrative, progressive juxtaposed psychedelic loop-art, globalist sound-collage, provider of the coolest and sweetest oceanic & tropical vistas, like what would have happened if Jorge Ben and Robert Ashley had a lovechild who became a benign, narcotic post-concretist composer. Think of the liquid properties of the most hazy 70s bossanova via Marcus Valle, produced by Spencer Clarke of the Skaters circa NOW, done by Madlib’s little white brother.
KWJAZ on Facebook
http://www.brunchgroupe.com/kwjaz.html
GRIEF ATHLETES
Lo-tec brutalism using bastardised electronics, cheapo keyboards, amps on full and a whole load of interference. Black metal drones meet concrete scrapings.
http://griefathletes.bandcamp.com/
BRIDEBURGER
One-man scratchy shoegazing with assorted electronic interventions adding up to some bleakly harsh sounds.
www.myspace.com/brideburger
LET’S WHISPER + TENDER TRAP + PLANTMAN
Monday 3rd October at The Corner House
Doors 8pm; £5 adv from here
LET’S WHISPER
Let’s Whisper is the bedroom pop project for Dana and Colin from sentinels of the indiepop underground, The Smittens. Based in Burlington, Vermont the duo play heartfelt songs, somewhat melancholic compared to the Smittens’ sweetness and light, but still retaining an unknockable joy. Formed in 2003 they’ve only just got round to releasing their debut album, “The Shortest Days”, on WeePOP! Records. A disc of warm, simple pop, it’s suitable for people who might like K Records, Swedish indie groups, Architecture In Helsinki, that kind of thing. Prepare to be charmed something rotten.
www.letswhisper.com
TENDER TRAP
Tender Trap is the most recent vehicle for venerable indie-pop icons Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey. Amelia was originally lead singer with C86 legends Talulah Gosh, who were joined by Rob just before the band’s break-up. The pair went on to play in the seminal bands Heavenly and Marine Research. Tender Trap were formed in 2001 when they teamed up with John “DJ Downfall” Stanley, another Marine Research-er. They had a bit of a quiet spell before returning in 2009, including a highly fun evening at the Portland Arms. Latest album, “Dansette, Dansette” (Fortuna Pop!) s a hook-packed mixture of 60s girl-group harmonies, guitar fuzz and the stripped down grit of bands like Beat Happening and The Raincoats. Now featuring Emily from our pals Betty And the Werewolves, Tender Trap have got a whole bunch of new tunes ready to try out in front of you, the lucky punter.
www.myspace.com/tendertrap
PLANTMAN
TFC/Go-betweens/Flying Nun style straight-up indie rocking from Southend. www.myspace.com/plantman35
THE LOVELY EGGS + ANGUISH SANDWICH + VIOLET WOODS
Tuesday 29th November at The Portland Arms
Doors 8pm; £5 adv from here
THE LOVELY EGGS
The Lovely Eggs are David and Holly. David plays the drums and things like the xylophone and bicycle bells and squeaky horns and slightly squeaky recorders and things like that. Holly sings and plays the guitar and a floor tom with a wooden stick with lots of thick wool tied around the end. Safely isolated from the music biz up in Lancaster, The Lovely Eggs have developed a refreshingly detached view of the world which they choose to express through the medium of unkempt pop songs. They’ve played gigs with Jad Far and Shonen Knife, both of whom are pretty good reference points for locating what The Lovely Eggs are all about - strange and fantastical images set to a load of scrunchy guitar fuzz. They love nothing more than to play in unusual places and they have performed all over the world from Amsterdam squats and Los Angeles scrap yards to steam trains in Ripley, charity shops in Leeds and tea parties in Manchester. They have slept in record shops in North Carolina, entered female arm wrestling competitions in Chicago and sang on the beach in Bournemouth. After the success of their debut album “If You Were Fruit”, The Lovely Eggs resurfaced in 2011 with their second album, “Cob Dominos” - preceded by the single “Don’t Look At Me (I Don’t Like it)” and its John Shuttleworth-featuring video.
www.myspace.com/thelovelyeggs
ANGUISH SANDWICH
Thunderingly fun reverbed up dance jams with terse lyrics and sit-down bass playing.
http://anguishsandwich.blogspot.com/
VIOLET WOODS
Some Cambridge bods out of various bands and such playing swirly jangly stuff.
