Album de la Semaine : Algiers - The Underside of Power

Algiers
The Underside of Power

Interview de Algiers, par Claire Lobenfeld de FACT

I really want to start with the title of the album. Where did the phrase “the underside of power” come from?
Franklin James Fisher: The initial recording sessions we did for this record were with Adrian Utley from Portishead and his production partner Ali Chant. We did it at Real World Studios, which is Peter Gabriel’s fancy studio out in the countryside in west England. In the evenings, there was this private French chef named Jerome and he made these extravagant meals for us. [We would eat in] this dining room and we would just sit there and talk. Often times we would talk about what was happening with current events because the beginning of these recording sessions when things [with Brexit] were starting to come undone. Ryan would talk about his job – he monitors human trafficking and they help refugees get settled in. He deals with the worst of human nature on a daily basis. All these conversations kind of led me to find a narrative from the perspectives of all these people who are under the heel of the powerful and really can’t do anything about it.

The band is coming from both Brexit and the Trump presidency. FACT is a British magazine, but half of the editorial staff is American, so there has been a communal experience watching the fracturing of our ideals and futures, a thing that didn’t seem possible last year. I was curious about how you guys were able to balance a perspective about what’s going on in the world right now and how you wanted to present that on the record?
Fisher: From my perspective, it was very much a whirlwind, this recording process, and so fragmented. We worked with six or seven different engineers and in all these different studios, from Bristol to London to New York. In the midst of doing all of this, it was just kind of absorbing everything that was happening, for me, without really having the a specific opinion or diagnosis about what was happening, other than I knew what it was rooted in. We kind of knew it was fucked. It was only kind of recently that I’m going back to listen to the record again that it’s starting to become elucidated to me. It was really just about absorbing and reflecting everything that was happening, which is kind of what we’ve always been about.
Tong: I think the whole point of Algiers is to illustrate the myriad things wrong with the way our various systems are set up. We’ve had this wave of public outcry that’s flared up against them, but it’s just a part of a number of similar processes that have happened over the last couple of centuries where fear of the other is exploited for political gain. This isn’t new to us, but I think the important thing to underline right now. Algiers is, hopefully, a long-term project and that [project] is to kind of constantly remind people that these same problems have always existed in various forms.
Fisher: What did Gore Vidal call it? “The United States of Amnesia”? I mean, obviously this is happening: this kind of right wing resurgence of fascist populism in Europe, as well, and in the UK, but the United States is particularly good at erasing or revising history. And the people are particularly good at not learning it or unlearning it. I think there’s a certain indignation underlying what it is that we do as it pertains to this idea that, “Wow, people are fucking idiots and how are they letting this happen again?”
These forces have always been just beneath the surface of the culture and of the politics. That it’s kind of reaching a kind of unprecedented prosperity, for lack of a better word, it’s really angering and frustrating… I lost any sort of faith in the American people after they re-elected George W. Bush back in 2004. But with this election, the Democrats took [Hillary Clinton], this cardboard cutout product of the standardized political electoral machine just resting on her laurels, without any sort of critical self-examination or real zeal going against obvious fascists. Everybody was so self-confident, so self-assured that it was a foregone conclusion that she was going to win. That says more to me about the state of the Democrats than it does about the Republicans.

You guys have a very stacked deck of collaborators: Adrian Utley from Portishead, Ben Greenberg from The Men, Randall Dunn, who has produced for Sunn O))). How did you guys build this team?
Tong: A lot of it was good fortune. At various points, it felt like we didn’t have enough time in the initial sessions with Adrian and [his production partner] Ali [Chant]. It felt like we probably could have done with a bit more time, but our schedule and finances made it difficult to be able to get everything down in that time.
Fisher: With the rare exception of a couple of really bright moments, spending some time at Real World and meeting Adrian and ultimately Ben, for me, personally, recording this album was an utter nightmare.
Tong: It was tricky. It was a real problem child.
Fisher: It was so amazing working with Ben Greenberg because he got it immediately and it’s the not the easiest world for somebody on the outside to kind of step into and understand what we’re trying to do. Our music’s quite weird and the way we go about making it is quite convoluted, but he got it. That was the missing piece of the puzzle we needed. Later on, Ryan, Matt and Lee, at different intervals, went out to Seattle to mix the record with Randall, who is also really brilliant. He did these finishing touches that made it really nice.
Tong: His pedigree speaks for itself. We were very lucky that he wanted to come aboard. He took what was quite messy, giving that we had recorded in different places. He just brought everything into the same world.

Reading the annotations for the record, or even just being told a list of influences, it is a little bit inscrutable, but when you hear the album, all of those references, whether it’s Kraftwerk or Suicide or gospel, all make sense. How do you guys fit those puzzle pieces together?
Fisher: The way that we write as a band changes almost perpetually from one song to the next. A year ago this time, we had just taken a break after the first tour cycle. Everyone went away for a couple months and came back with different sketches and various demos and we kinda sat down and figured out what out of that bunch we would work on. I think a lot of the songs on this record came from Ryan, from his initial sketches. For songs like ‘Death March’, we were looking to incorporate Matt, who is obviously an amazing drummer, and we were trying to do it in a way that was organic. There was some trial and error there, but we were finally able to bring his style into [our] cadence and to have his drum sound that are produced without any kind of weird flashiness or “Look everybody, we got Matt Tong!” You do whatever you need to do to serve the song, but you have to put the craftsmanship first.
Tong: Everyone is really patient to accommodate everyone’s ideas. In my experience, it’s important to be able to do that, but equally as important is to be able to be mindful about when the song could potentially getting away from you. By that I mean, the producer or engineer or whoever it is you’re working with, who is there to help you realize that idea, you have to make sure that they kind of understand what you’re trying to do, as well. You’ve gotten be careful that you don’t go too far to accommodate them that you can’t come back and you have to start again. It’s very tricky.

Another thing that stuck out to me in album details was that the track ‘Walk Like a Panther’ is referred to as a love letter to A$AP Rocky, Drake and other pop star rappers, but the rest of your notes do not make it sound like you have much esteem for them or their music.
Fisher: It comes from my work. My best friend runs a club on the Lower East Side, and he gets me work there checking coats just so I can make some cash when we’re not on the road. I’m really grateful to him for doing it, but at the same time, it completely sucks your soul dry. The music that the clientele wants to listen to is nothing but Drake and Nicki Minaj and bling era hip-hop. It’s a mostly white audience and it’s a white DJ that’s spinning this stuff. It starts to grate on you when you’re in this subservient position and you’re listening to this music. It’s total blaxploitation. It really plays into this narrative that I have been fighting against my whole life which is what is expected of you in the eyes of, not just the mainstream American culture and in the eyes of other black people. Authentic black representation is this bullshit that you hear on Top 40 radio and that you see in fucking movies, which is all fucking manufactured and perpetuated by white-owned corporations and it’s completely fucking destructive to black identity.
Listening to songs like ‘Fucking Problems’ with 2 Chainz and A$AP Rocky with that one line, I can’t get over it: “They say the money makes a nigga act niggerish / But at least a nigga’s nigga-rich.” It’s a room full of drunk white people singing along to the fucking lyrics and, in the meantime, I’m waiting on them. That’s fucked up. And I got sick of it. When Ryan and I were demoing ‘Walk Like a Panther’, he laid out the beat and everything, and he was like, “Just improvise”. I did something, I don’t really remember. He cut it up and re-arranged it and presented it back to me. I wasn’t singing any words or anything. I heard it and I immediately had this image of a modern day Reign of Terror, post-French Revolution, and the black aristocracy, so to speak. The people, the real people, went and rounded up all these motherfuckers for selling them out and they were gonna bring them to the gallows and execute them for their crimes except for at the last minute, they don’t get executed. You realize, ultimately, they’re just playing into the hands of The Man, and if you love somebody, if you love something, then you discipline them. So that’s where it comes from. It’s a weariness and an anger with this entire culture which has gone on uninterrupted since the early ‘90s. This is the pervasive image of what it’s like to be a black person in our culture and, therefore, the rest of the world. It’s bullshit and I’m sick of it.

Do you think there’s any possibility popular culture will change, specifically the portrayals of non-white people?
Fisher: The only real way that you can instigate any sort of change is to give credence to the idea of difference within the people themselves. Dylan called these kinds of songs “finger-pointing songs”. I’m talking to other black people. The irony is other black people don’t listen to our music. But I’m not the most optimistic person in terms of social change, but I know the difference between right and wrong and it’s a moral obligation, once you do know what’s right, [to work toward change]. I think that’s the basis of any sort of social change and the drive to enact change, even if you don’t think you’re gonna see it or you don’t think it’s achievable, at least not in your lifetime. You still must be compelled to do it if you understand the situation and the basis of things. I think that may be a theme of our record.

Line Up :

Franklin James Fisher
Ryan Mahan
Lee Tesche
Matt Tong

Label :

Matador

Tracklist :

01 – Walk Like a Panther
02 – Cry of the Martyrs
03 – The Underside of Power
04 – Death March
05 – A Murmur. A Sign.
06 – Mme Rieux
07 – Cleveland
08 – Animals
09 – Plague Years
10 – Hymn for an Average Man
11 – Bury Me Standing
12 – The CycleThe Spiral Time to Go Down Slowly

Album de la Semaine

Ho99o9
United States of Horror

Interview de Ho99o9, par Noisy

Ho99o9 (à prononcer 'horror', comme vous avez pu vous en douter) sont les nouveaux fers de lance d'un crossover particulièrement féroce, mêlant rap, punk et thrash metal. Oui, tout ça, mais jamais en même temps, car Eaddy et The OGM, les deux types qui forment le groupe, n'ont pas hyper envie de tomber dans des plans fusion. Ce pont entre leur adolescence hip-hop et leur évolution plus rock a récemment pris la forme d'un premier EP, Horrors of 1999 et d'un démanagement à Los Angeles, qui leur a accesoirement permis de faire figurer Ciara le Gale dans un de leurs clips. On a rencontré le duo à quelques jours de sa prestation très attendue aux Eurockéennes, juste avant un concert à Brighton où ils ont débrqué sur scène en robes de mariées, avant d'échanger des bières avec le public et de se jeter dans la foule, pour finir leur show dans le plus simple appareil. Bref, le résultat typique d'une éducation stricte dans le New Jersey.
Noisey : Comment est né Ho99o9 ?
OGM : Trs franchement, c'est juste arrivé comme ça.On était amis depuis longtemps, bien avant de monter le groupe et on a décidé un jour de bosser ensemble sur ce projet. Rien de sérieux au début, c'était juste pour déconner et voir ce qu'on pouvait en tirer... Puis on a commencé à devenir vraiment bons et on s'est mis à y a réfléchir un peu plus sérieusement.
Vous venez tous les deux du New Jersey. Est-ce que tu dirais que votre son est lié à cet endroit ?
OGM : Définitivement. On vient de zones urbaines où la plupart de la musique se résume à du rap pur et dur. On a grandi au milieu des dealers et des gangs. Quand tu ramènes le punk dans le hood, les mecs sont là, 'c'est quoi cette merde ?' Ils nous prennent pour des weirdos.Eaddy : Ouais, on est tarés.
Et donc il s'est passé quoi quand vous avez ramené le punk dans le hood ? OGM : Eh bien ça a carrément changé les choses au sein de notre scène. Avant de monter le groupe, on organisait des concerts - on faisait partie d'un collectif et on organisait des concerts hip-hop et on les mélangeait avec du punk, du rock, des performances artistiques, et les gens ont commencé à s'ouvrir au fur et à mesure, tu vois ? Le quartier ne connaît que le quartier parce que les gens ne cherchent pas à aller au-delà. Donc si tu leur apportes des trucs et que tu leur mets sous les yeux, c'est cool, et ils finiront par l'accepter.
Vous avez déclaré être assez frustés par les concerts hip-hop où le public reste plutôt statique. C'est important pour vous, l'interaction avec le public ?
OGM : C'est ce qui attire l'attention. Les gens viennent te voir, alors tu dois les divertir. Les gens viennent te voir, toi. Tu ne peux pas leur sortir une demi-molle.Eaddy : Ecouter de la musique est une chose, et la voir en live en est une autre. C'est une expérience totalement différente. Tu dois bosser là-dessus.OGM : Le tout doit être parfaitement affuté, la musique comme la perf'.Eaddy : Ouais, parce que si la musique est bonne, c'est ça qui te pousse à aller la voir en live...OGM : … et si la performance est bonne aussi, tu te fais des fans ! Ça m'est arrivé d'aimer des groupes et d'être vraiment déçu après les avoir vu en live. Zéro émotion. C'est vraiment con quand ça arrive.
Vous envisagez vos concerts comme des performances artistiques ?
Eaddy : Ouais je crois qu'on peut dire ça...
Qu'est ce que vous voulez faire ressentir au gens dans le public ?
Eaddy : Je veux qu'ils soient excités, qu'ils se sentent heureux, j'ai envie qu'ils lâchent toute l'agressivité qu'ils ont accumulée tout au long de la semaine. Je veux qu'ils se sentent libres et qu'ils ressentent notre énergie.OGM : Et aussi qu'ils se disent, 'bordel qu'est ce qu'il vient de se passer ? Je veux recommencer !'
Quelle importance vous donnez à votre look ?Eaddy : Ça joue un rôle quand tu es sur scène... Ça te permet de jouer différents personnages, de jongler entre plusieurs alter ego. C'est comme quand on était gosses et qu'on matait des films et des dessins-animés avec des superhéros. On s'inspire de différents personnages.OGM : Même quand on n'est pas sur scène, on aime bien déconner comme ça.
Il y a des concerts qui vous ont particulièrement marqués quand vous étiez gamins ?
Eaddy : Je n'allais pas aux concerts, j'ai été élevé dans une famille stricte donc je n'avais pas la permission de sortir. On allait à des fêtes de quartier, cela dit. Jersey est réputé pour la jersey club, la dance music, et on se pointait à ce genre de soirées. Je ne suis allé à des concerts que bien plus tard.OGM : Ouais, quand j'étais gamin on était juste trop pauvres. On ne quittait jamais le quartier. Je ne pouvais rien demander à ma mère. Et en plus, je ne connaissais rien.Eaddy : Je ne pouvais aller nulle part, même si je savais qu'il se passait un truc à tel endroit. Mes parents refusaient systématiquement tout ce que je leur demandais.OGM: J'ai commencé à sortir en concert à la fin du lycée.
Vous mélangez tous les genres dans votre musique.
Eaddy: Ouais, c'est bien plus excitant ! Si tout était pareil tout le temps, on s'ennuierait très vite. Voilà pourquoi dès qu'un truc qui sort du lot débarque, on le chope au passage.
Vous aimeriez entendre votre musique en bande-son de quel genre de film ?
Eaddy : Sur tout ce qu'a fait Rob Zombie, des trucs comme The Devil's Rejects.
Donc des trucs relativement pétés.
Eaddy : Oui, plutôt... Ce film est bien pété.OGM : Ou les films de Quentin Tarentino. Il faudrait qu'on rencontre ce mec.
Allez-y ! Votre EP s'appelle Horrors of 1999… il s'est passé quoi de si grave en 1999 ?
OGM : Un tas de trucs pétés.
Un truc en particulier ?
OGM : En fait, le projet se concentre sur un paquet d'évènements qui sont arrivés cette année-là. Comme le massacre de Columbine où ces kids se sont juste mis à tirer sur tout le monde. Ça s'est passé en 1999, t'avais oublié ? Checke un peu les évènements de cette année-là, c'est taré tout ce que tu trouveras. C'est la vie, quoi.

Line Up :

theOGM

Eaddy

Label :

Toys Have Powers

Tracklist :

01 – U.S.H.
02 – War Is Hell
03 – Street Power
04 – Face Tatt
05 – When Death Calls (Interlude)
06 – Bleed War
07 – Moneymachine
08 – Splash
09 – Knuckle Up
10 – Dekay
11 – Sub-Zer0
12 – Feels Like… (Interlude)
13 – City Rejects
14 – Hydrolics
15 – New Jersey Devil
16 – United States Of Horror
17 – Blaqq Hole

Album de la Semaine

Agapes
Agapes

Pourquoi Agapes?

The agapes are in Catholicism, in Freemasonry, the meals shared by the practitioners after the rituals. They celebrate their beliefs, discuss ideas, debate while drinking and eating what is layed down in front of their eyes. They feed themselves with both terrestrial and spiritual things.
To us, this is music.
To us, the word « agapes » doesn’t belong to the religious sphere and we gladly take thi...s word for ourselves.
To us, knowledge, of the world and of ourselves, is the key to truth, empathy and freedom. It must not belong to a religion, a government, a company.
We are Agapes.

Line Up :

Thomas Souriau - Vocals
Thibaut Doncker - Bass
Antonia Philippon - Drums

Label :

Third Coming Records

Tracklist :

Haiku

The Believer

Faraway God

Only the Will

Here He Comes

Last Storm

Black Groove (like stars in bright day)

Dancing By the Moonlight

The Streets of Shenzhen

Album de la Semaine : Adult. - Detroit House Guests

Adult.
Detroit House Guests

Interview d'Adult. , par Michael Byrne de Red Alert

My first question is about Detroit, that’s also where I’m from, my hometown. Every time I talk to someone about Detroit, I get two reactions: the first, it’s just this totally gross wasteland, and there’s a second reaction that’s almost the exact opposite of that, from the urban decay fetishists, that it’s just this theme park to explore. The only people I’ve met that aren’t in those two camps are the people that actually live there, who are obviously neither, and, as someone from Detroit I find both reactions offend the hell out of me equally. But I have a hard time describing the middle ground to people, what it means to call Detroit home. What is your Detroit?

Nicola Kuperus: I think Detroit’s kind of a love/hate kind of thing, but I think when you live here you can be that way. Most people that live here are really Detroit proud, Detroit-centric and...

Adam Lee Miller: I know people that have so many different opinions on Detroit from just within Detroit. I know people that say they are not actually Detroiters because they don’t belong to the majority population of Detroiters because our incomes aren’t 200 dollars a year and we’re not black. A lot of people would say that to be white and to have employment in Detroit is to not actually be a Detroiter, which I’m not sure I agree with. But, people like my parents who lived in Detroit until I was 14 years old and have actually turned their backs can’t understand why I would still want to live here.

NK: I think the great thing about Detroit is that it’s really cheap, for the most part, to live here, so you can do whatever you want to do without really being bothered.
ALM: I think it’s the primary thing if you’re asking an artist why they’re living in Detroit it’s because they can keep their expenses low. I mean if you ask somebody on the street why they live in Detroit it’d be something completely different. No way out. That’s often been the case with me: there’s no way out. The expenses are low.

Sam Consiglio: I have a really conflicted opinion of Detroit myself, where one day I love it and one day I hate it. It’s like a family member for me when someone says something like, Oh, you live in Detroit...isn’t that shit? I’m like no, Detroit’s awesome. Shut up. And then if the person’s like oh, I love Detroit, I’m like it totally sucks, shut up.

ALM: I think everybody from here feels that way.

SC: When you talk to someone that’s not from Detroit, and they want to put their two cents in...you’re like shut up, you don’t know what you’re talking about.

NK: It’s kind of a scene in a bad relationship...

ALM: And, it’s like I want the city to do well, but whenever there’s a traffic jam or something then I’m just oh, man, I hate this...this city better not ever get people moving in here. Those kind of conflicts are constant.

Do you have an idealized vision of what the city should become?

ALM: Sometimes you thrive on the isolation, but sometimes you, ah, just want to go to the store. Sometimes you just want to go to be able to go to a store. You’re from Detroit, so you know there’s nothing of that kind in Detroit. It’s not like in Portland or New York or whatever and walk down to the corner and just get yourself a head of lettuce. We’d have to hop in the car, probably in the snow...

SC: There’s like one good kind of hippy/organic bakery/coffee place in the city and it’s so funny...every time you go there you end of parking your car in the alley because every parking spot is taken. It’s only...there’s so few things.

I think I might know the place you’re talking about. What is it?

ALM: Avalon.

Over on Cass?

ALM: Yeah.

I’ve been in there.

SC: You know Larry, the homeless man?

I don’t think so.

SC: Well, he lives in front.

ALM: I think if you ask Larry about Detroit, like what is Larry’s Detroit?, it’d be completely different from our Detroit.

NK: Probably loves it...he’s probably so rich...

SC: Did you see the eyeglasses on recently? He had on the fanciest eyeglasses. Larry always has something for sale, and one time I accused him...I said, well, did you just steal it from somebody? He said, “Sammy, I never steal from anybody. I find everything in the garbage.”

Moving into music: who should we be watching in Detroit music, outside of your label, and over even outside of...well I guess just overall, whether it be techno or rock or...

NK: Probably the band we’re touring with, Genders

SC: Yeah, we’re really proud of them–they’re like our little brothers.

What are they doing?

SC: They have a new sort-of mini LP coming out on Tigerbeat6 and they have a few homemade releases. And they had a real limited run on Ypsilanti Records. I think right after this tour...I have high hopes that this is their introduction to the world, the US.

Are you deliberately moving away from techno, with the inclusions of the live guitars and bass?

ALM: I never thought we were techno, so I would say we’re moving towards it incorrectly because we were never near it, so we have to be getting closer...

NK: I think the history of ADULT. is kind of weird in that, for years and years and years, people have put us in all these strange categories, none of which we’ve truly ever really belonged in, not that we belong in anything now...

ALM: I think I can kinda understand, though: we have a lot of different things going on in our music. If someone’s really into...if someone’s a poet, then they’re going to listen to the lyrics; if someone’s a programmer, then they’re going to listen to the drumbeats; if someone’s a producer, then they’re going hear the mix. I guess if someone listens to a lot to techno, they’re going to really hear the electronic elements of the music. If someone’s more into indie, then they’re going to listen more to the structure and the message. Whenever someone listens, they come with their own set of baggage that’s going to enable to hear something someone else might not. It’s always very odd to hear someone talk about our stuff because for me nothing sticks out.

NK: I think the first things we wrote up until now... We’ve obviously changed as a band, things are a lot organic sounding and less...things are a little looser and less...

ALM: Programmed.

NK: Even myself being a singer...I’m a lot more comfortable being a singer now.

I’ve definitely noticed that in the progression of albums, that the vocals are a lot less manipulated, more live sounding.

In an interview quite a ways back, like back in '99, you were describing a musical movement...you called it “generic music:” music that’s hops genre, that’s always changing. What’s that state of “generic music” now?

NK: Still generic!

Still generic?

ALM: It hasn’t caught on.

NK: Yeah, it hasn’t caught on yet.

ALM: Well, there’s more bands that would fit in it nowadays than back then. It could be a really big bin in the record store.

Name some bands that are doing it right...

ALM: Chromatics, Genders, Numbers...

Going back to genre labeling, which I know is kind of dumb and hurts music ultimately, but people like me love to do it because it makes our jobs easier. Given that, can I use this word: electropunk? Your reactions to that?

NK: I don’t know. People have been throwing that around...I can’t really say I love that...

ALM: I always have a hard time with those things because the definition of each of those terms from one person to the next is completely different and when you throw of two terms with dubious definitions together, it doesn’t make it any more clear what it is so...I mean...

(a phone starts going nuts with video game noises)

SC: Sam’s phone’s about to get techno on us! I mean electro...

NK: Can’t we just fit into the “weird” category?

SC: Yeah, I forgot, we wanted to change “generic” to “weird-o” where the “o” stands for Oprah...

Okay, I like that.

SC: That’s our new genre: weird-o, like Cheerio’s.

NK: It’s good, isn’t it? Then you just know whether you’re going to love it or you’re going to hate it because it’s weird...there’s no expectation like pop music...pop music is pretty across the board. But when you’re in the weird category, it's like, well, you don’t really don’t know what you’re going to get.

ALM: Then, hopefully, the Abercrombie and Fitch jock baseball cap wearing crowd, that’ll hopefully turn them away. Just by the name alone. Punk: you know you’ve got Green Day now, where you’ve got these total doofuses wearing these Green Day shirts–which makes sense–but if they see the word “electro-punk,” they’re not immediately turned off. They’re like, "Yeah, I’m into punk, I love Green Day!"

You don’t even want to convert this crowd?

ALM: No.

Nothing to do with it?

(affirmative vocal noise)

How did Sam come about, in the band? What’s the story behind that?

NK: We kidnapped him.

SC: They’d been emailing for, like, a year trying to get me in.

NK: Put a gun to his head.

ALM: Originally, we’re art space buddies...then we got creepy.

NK: We’ve been releasing music from his other band, Tamion 12 Inch, for a long time. And, um, we needed someone to tour with us because we couldn’t everything ourselves for our D.U.M.E. EP and then it just worked out really well and here we are...

ALM: Sam broke a really nice vase in our house, and we’re making him work it off now.

How long does he have to go?

NK: A loooong time.

ALM: Looooong time.

NK: Waterford Crystal.

You start touring the 19th?

ALM: One week.

One week from today.

NK: That’s my line!

Where are looking forward to playing?

ALM: Portland. Portland. That’s our number-one-looking-forward-to city...is this article for Portland? One my top three favorite people in the whole world moved to Portland recently. And I’m going to see her when I go there.

SC: Wow, who are your other top-two favorite people in the world?

NK: We’ll all be together. I’m really looking forward to play Tucson.

Tucson?

ALM: And Los Angeles.

What about Tucson?

NK: When I was a teenager, I was in Tucson and saw one of the best hardcore punk shows I ever been to there. I got slashed in the face with a nail!

SC: She’s looking forward to it for revenge.

NK: I am looking forward to it. We’ve never played there... Hard to say what will happen.

ALM: Montreal, the MEG festival, with this band Der Plan. I ‘m really excited about that. They’re a very important band.

Who’s responded best to ADULT. in the past? In terms of touring...what cities?

NK: We had a really great show in LA in May.

ALM: And Paris. We’ve had really great shows all over. We like the shows where people are losing control, and you can always tell when people are losing control. It feeds you. And in LA, they really lost control recently. And they also did in Paris...

SC: San Fran, Detroit, Chicago...those are always really good cities for us. Glasgow was really good. Moscow was really good, surprisingly, we didn’t think anyone would know who we are. We’ll see how the rest of the world is ready to meet the challenge of those other cities and show us their cities are ever more off da’ hook. D. A. Hook.

Line Up :

Adam Lee Miller

Nicola Kuperus

Label :

Mute Records

Tracklist :

01 – P rts M ss ng
02 – Breathe On
03 – Into the Drum
04 – We Are a Mirror
05 – Enter the Fray
06 – Uncomfortable Positions
07 – We Chase the Sound
08 – They’re Just Words
09 – Inexhaustible
10 – Stop (and Start Again)
11 – This Situation
12 – As You Dream

Album de la Semaine : The Underground Youth - What Kind of Dystopian Hellhole Is This ?

The Underground Youth
What Kind of Dystopian Hellhole Is This ?

Interview de The Underground Youth, par Roman Rathert de It's Psychedelic Baby Magazine

Can you talk a little bit about how the band started as a one-man recording project?  Where did the initial idea come from and just how did it begin?  When was that?

I’d been writing rough amateurish poetry since the age of sixteen or seventeen.  When I heard Bob Dylan for the first time I realised that I didn’t need any more than a few guitar chords to turn these into songs.  In 2008 I started recording songs in my bedroom with some basic recording equipment; I guess it’s all grown from that.

You recruited band members for live performances in preparation for your tour in 2012 after signing with Fuzz Club Records, how did you go about choosing members or did you already have people in mind? 

I didn’t have anyone in mind from the start, it all just kind of fell into place.  I met our guitarist Tom through a mutual friend.  I’ve never felt more comfortable playing around another guitarist.  Our drummer Olya is my wife, so her entry into the live band was a little more natural.

Was the transition to a full band difficult for you or was it kind of a natural evolutionary process?

It started out easy but then got difficult.  I guess to call it an evolutionary process is the best way to describe it.  While it progresses it changes.  As a live band we will change in time, there’s room for more people and more instruments, it will never feel complete.  I like that about it.

What’s the band’s lineup?

Right now we just use a guitar, a bass and two drums which Olya plays standing up.  Sometimes we just play with two guitars.  It’s a stripped back sound, especially in the psychedelic scene where you can find other bands utilizing four or five guitarists.

Are any of you in any other bands?  Have you released any material with any other bands?  If so can you tell us about it?

Olya and I recorded an EP under the name Noise Exposure.  It was sort of a side project where she had more creative input.  Tom is constantly writing and recording under different names.  I’m not sure which one he’s using right now.

How and when did you all meet?

I guess it was 2011 I first met Tom.  He’s from Liverpool but we met up in Manchester.  We spent an evening drinking wine and discussing music, we’re very different people but we have a connection that really works.  As I said before, Olya is my wife, that’s all you need to know.

Where are you originally from?

I’m from a town in North-West England, Blackpool.  Olya is from Siberia and Tom is from Liverpool.

Where is the band located now?  How would you describe the local music scene there?

Manchester.  For me Manchester’s musical history is better than anywhere but unfortunately, there isn’t much excitement around any new “scene” right now, at least not for what we’re doing.  I think it is growing but in its’ current state there isn’t much to write about.

Are you very involved with the local scene?

No.  We’ve played a small handful of shows in Manchester for a small handful of people.

Has it played a large role in the history or evolution of The Underground Youth?

I would say no but it’s hard to have perspective on that from my position.  It’s been said that The Underground Youth “sound very Manchester”, which is probably just a way of saying we’re obviously influenced by Joy Division.

What does the name The Underground Youth mean or refer to?

One of the early poems I wrote, around the age of eighteen or nineteen, was called Underground Youth.  There’s actually a horribly rough recording of it on my first album of songs Morally Barren.  I just decided to name the project after that song.

Who are some of you major influences?  What about the band as a whole rather than as an individual?

I am hugely inspired by the work of Anton Newcombe and The Brian Jonestown Massacre but the sounds of other psychedelic groups are obvious in the music as well.  Olya’s drumming style is lifted from early Jesus and Mary Chain but she’s also one of the biggest Spacemen 3 fans there is.  My writing is inspired by Bob Dylan and Nick Cave, and there are flashes of post-punk in there while Tom brings a garage blues influence to the live show.

Can you describe The Underground Youth’s sound to our readers that might not have heard you before?

Something between psychedelic rock and post-punk.  It’s haunting and dark but with flashes of a melancholic lightness.  A word that often comes up is cinematic, I’m a huge fan of cinema and my music is hugely influenced by film. 

Can you talk about the songwriting process when you were still a one-man band?  How has The Underground Youth’s songwriting process changed since the addition of the live band?

The songwriting process is, and always has been the same, although a live band is now representing the music and I take this into account when recording.  The songs are all my own creation, for me writing alone is much freer.  The freedom of writing and recording alone is waking up in the middle of the night and creating something from nothing.  The danger is working your way into a corner with no one to bounce ideas off.  But my process is very much at my own pace.  With the right inspiration I can record a whole album in a week or two. 

You self-released five albums before signing with Fuzz Club records and reissuing the Delirium 12” and The Low Slow Needle 10”.  Can you tell us a little bit about the recording of those early albums as a one man project?  Where were they recorded?  Did you record the material yourself?  What kind of equipment was used?

Everything, including the new album, is recorded at home.  I do everything myself on my own cheap and simple equipment in my home.  Over the years I have improved the recording and production of my music, but essentially the equipment and process I go through is the same.  It’s only recently that I started entertaining the idea of working with someone else in the recording process.  There’s a chance the next album I record will feature someone else in a production role, but I definitely prefer to have control.

What were the names of those initial five albums?  How were those albums originally released?

Morally Barren and Voltage were released in 2009, Mademoiselle and Sadovaya in 2010 and then Delirium and the Low Slow Needle EP in 2011.  Back then I would just make copies of the albums on CD myself and send them out to people who got in touch online.  Eventually I uploaded everything online and made it available for anyone to download.  Through the following I built up with those albums I was approached by someone who was “thinking of setting up a record label”.  From there everything happened really fast for both the band and the label.

You compiled some of the tracks from those albums into the Delirium and Low Slow Needle releases, how much of the material from those early releases were compiled to make those two albums or are they straight reissues of the original albums?  Are there any plans to release the rest of that early material in physical or digital formats?

Delirium and Low Slow Needle were released on vinyl exactly as they were originally recorded.  The idea is to work our way through the back catalogue and release the early material on vinyl.

You also recently released a 7” through Fuzz Club Records, Morning Sun.  Are these tracks culled from that pool of older recordings or were they done for this release more recently?

Morning Sun and the B-side Art House Revisited were songs from the album I recorded in 2010 titled, Sadovaya.

You also released a split with a band I’ve been into for a long time at this point, Little Daggers.  How did you get hooked up with them?  Where did the track Juliette come from, was it recorded specifically for that release?

Jacob from Lil Daggers got in touch with me about arranging some shows together if they were ever to come over to Europe but our conversation ended up with us making a split 7” together.  I wanted to record a new track for it, so I wrote and recorded Juliette, which is also on our new album.

You have an upcoming album scheduled for release in the next few months.  I know the band was involved with recording for the first time, was it strange or difficult for anyone going into the studio this time?

August 2nd.  As I mentioned earlier the songs are all my creation.  I had my friend Daria, who lent her vocals to the Low Slow Needle EP, sing again on this record and Tom recorded guitars on a number of tracks.  There’s also a song that came from a bass part that Olya created.  I really do work best on my own, sat at home recording.  It’s much more effective for me than all the pressures that come with studio recording.

Can you tell us a little bit about recording the new album?  What can our readers expect?  Did you try anything radically different with songwriting or recording on this album?  Where was it recorded and who recorded it?  What kind of equipment was used?  What’s the name of the album going to be?

The album has a different feel to it for sure.  It’s my most mature work and has a much wider array of influences.  It’s a really dark and raw record.  We live in an apartment overlooking the outskirts of Manchester’s City Centre so I recorded the album looking out onto this.  I think some of the atmosphere was soaked up by the recording.  There are also some of the most fragile tracks I’ve ever recorded.  I think it’s the best of everything I’ve done rolled into one record.  The album is called The Perfect Enemy For God.

Other than the upcoming full-length do you have any other releases planned for this year?

I have a few new songs that I’ve been working on.  I might end up building them into an album or an EP but it’s too early to say, we’ll see how the new album is received before deciding on what to do next.  We had the idea of re-recording some of the older tracks, compiling a best-of and recording it in a studio with an established producer.  We’ll just have to wait and see.

With the insane recent postal increases here in the states where is the best place for US readers to purchase copies of your music?  What about international and overseas readers?

Fuzz Club Records ship worldwide and I know they try and keep the shipping costs as low as possible.  We have records in a number of independent record stores around the world.  I’d suggest people contact Fuzz Club and ask for more information.

What do you have planned as far as touring goes for the rest of the year?

We’ve got a few shows in Europe around the release date of the new album.  The release party on August 2nd will be in Berlin.  Following that we have a tour of Russia, some dates in the UK and another European tour that’s currently being booked for October/November.

Do you have any funny or interesting stories from live shows that you’d like to share with our readers?

Well we have the usual band horror stories of terrible shows, guitars breaking, drums being knocked over; a monitor once fell on me during a gig.  I love that rawness of a live show though, I don’t go and watch a band play live to listen to an exact recreation of a record I have at home.  I want to see a raw and passionate representation of the music, snapped guitar strings and onstage disagreements included.

Where’s the best place for our readers to keep up on the latest news from The Underground Youth like upcoming album releases and shows at?

The best way is to follow our Facebook page.  I update news on there regularly.  We also have a Twitter account or you can sign up to a newsletter and find other updates on the Fuzz Club Records website.

I must admit to loving my digital albums.  Having the ability to take music wherever I want is really cool, but I just can’t shake my obsession with physically released product.  Having an album to hold in your hands, artwork to look at and liner notes to read all make the listening experience more complete; at least to me.  Do you have any such connection to physical releases?

Absolutely, I couldn’t agree more.  Having a digital copy of an album is great for the ease of listening to it anywhere, but for me you can’t beat listening to an album on vinyl.  For the obvious joys such as soaking up the artwork and the quality of sound, but I think appreciating a record from start to finish is so much easier when listening to vinyl.  With no easy way of skipping a track it’s much easier to appreciate a record as a piece of art.  I understand that this isn’t the most common approach to buying/listening to music, with that in mind all our records come with a digital download included.

While digital music might be undermining decades of infrastructure in the music industry and causing a lot of turmoil it’s also exposing a lot of bands that I otherwise would never have had the pleasure of discovering.  What’s your opinion on digital music and distribution as an artist during these turbulent times?

For me the simple fact is that without the option of creating digital files that could be sent to all corners of the world via the Internet, no one would have ever heard my music.  I certainly would never have been approached to create a physical release.  It’s great for musicians and fans alike that music is so accessible.  I hate most things about the commercial music industry so I try not to think about it too much. 

I try to keep up on as much music from around the world as is humanly possible, so I ask everyone I talk to this question.  Who should I be listening to from your local scene or area that I might not have heard of before? 

As I mentioned earlier Manchester isn’t really the home of a “scene” for us right now but the European psych scene is exploding with great bands!  If you check out The Reverb Conspiracy compilation record it’s full of hidden gems.  My favorite band didn’t get featured on that record though, The Blue Angel Lounge, I can’t speak highly enough of them.

Is there anything that I missed or you’d just like to talk about?

I can’t think of anything, thanks.  Let’s hope we can get over to the States soon to play some shows.

Line Up :

Craig Dyer

Olya Dyer

Label :

Fuzz Club Records

Tracklist :

01 – Half Poison, Half God
02 – Alice
03 – You Made It Baby
04 – Beast (Anti War Song)
05 – A Dirty Piece Of Love For Us To Share
06 – Amerika
07 – The Outsider
08 – Persistent Stable Hell
09 – Your Sweet Love
10 – Incapable of Love

Album de la Semaine : Poni Hoax - Tropical Suite

Poni Hoax
Tropical Suite

Interview de Poni Hoax, par Anne Tandonnet de Le Petit Journal

Nicolas Ker, l’interprète d’origine Khmer, se réveille et nous rejoignons les autres dans le resto d’à côté. L’atmosphère est détendue. Ça parle joyeusement de musique. Vincent, le batteur et boute-en-train du groupe, m’explique très sérieusement qu’il est certain que la barbe – comme celle qu’il arbore fièrement -  va revenir à la mode incessamment sous peu : « Aux States, par exemple, les mecs s’épilent car ils trouvent ça crade de ne pas le faire. Ils travaillent leur poils quoi ! ».
Je ne résiste pas à l’envie de lui demander s’il travaille sa barbe lui aussi : « D’ailleurs je trouve que tu as l’air d’un hipster … »
Il est outré : « Ah bon ? Sérieux ? Merde…mais pourtant j’habite en banlieue…Mais non regarde, ma barbe n’est pas travaillée!...je pensais que j’avais plutôt la tête d’un baroudeur…tu vois genre, je me prends pas la tête… »
[…]Je décide de sortir mon dictaphone discrètement alors que la conversation vient de dévier sur les grandes légendes qui ont marqué l’histoire du rock.
Vincent défend bec et ongle les Pink Floyd : « C’est LE groupe de rock qui a vraiment apporté quelque chose à la musique ! - Il s’adresse à Abib, leur manager – Toi tu me parles de Dire Straits, mais c’est de la soupe Dire Straits. Ça a super mal vieilli. C’est comme Shorter (Wayne Shorter, ndrl), moi ça me file le gourdin, ça me fout les poils ! Il aperçoit le dictaphone, se tourne vers moi très à l’aise et enchaîne : « Tu connais Weather Report ? »
Je lui réponds que non. Il m’explique que c’est un groupe de jazz/rock des années 70 : « Bon, déjà faut aimer le jazz/rock, c’est spécial. Le bassiste Jaco Pastorius s’est fait descendre à Miami à la sortie d’une boîte, il trainait dans la drogue… »
Abib, intervient alors et me demande en riant si je souhaite interviewer Vincent uniquement. Je lui explique que Le Petit Journal voudrait axer l’interview sur les origines Khmer de Nicolas par rapport au contexte politique actuel et le changement qui s’opère en ce moment au Cambodge. Autrement dit, Vincent sert seulement de distraction le temps que Nicolas reprenne des forces.

Entre 2 bouchées de riz, Nicolas m’explique très simplement qu’il a quitté le Cambodge en 1975 lorsqu’il avait 5 ans et que c’est la première fois qu’il y remet les pieds, après 37 ans.
Lepetitjournal.com/Cambodge : As-tu encore des souvenirs de cette époque ?
Je ne me souviens plus de rien. Ma famille a été tuée et j’ai été rapatrié in extremis avec ma mère et ma sœur en France. Mon Grand-père, qui était le bras droit du Roi Sihanouk, a été l’un des premiers à se faire assassiner par Pol Pot.  En l’espace d’une nuit, j’ai oublié ma langue maternelle. J’ai fait un black out total de mes 5 premières années. Ma mère pensait que j’étais devenu fou. Elle est Khmer et en a beaucoup souffert. Mais pour être honnête je n’ai pas vraiment eu le temps de réaliser que j’étais de retour. Pendant des années j’ai évité de revenir pensant que ce serait un choc, et finalement me voilà…en concert c’est un autre contexte évidemment.
Tu serais prêt à travailler ici, de façon permanente ?
Oui, pourquoi pas. Je reviendrai bien une semaine, voire plus longtemps. Mais pour ne faire que de la musique. Je ne sais faire que ça d’ailleurs. D’ailleurs, la diaspora m’a contacté. Je dois les voir après le concert. Ils souhaitent créer un projet avec moi, en tant qu’interprète d’origine Khmer, mais je n’en sais pas plus. Il ne faut pas que je boive trop, ça fait désordre sinon, surtout au Cambodge.
Qu’est ce que tu as envie de dire à la nouvelle génération Khmer qui va assister au concert ?
En fait y’a la génération de ma mère qui a encaissé et qui ne veut absolument pas en reparler et y’a ma génération qui ne possède qu’une image manquante, autrement dit rien. On nous a enlevé les choses et nos aînés ne voulaient pas en parler. Le Cambodge a été mort pendant 30 ans à cause de ça. Et aujourd’hui t’as la jeune génération, dont les gamins du groupe qu’on vient de voir font partie (Underdogs, ndrl), qui n’ont pas connu cette souffrance. Et ça fait du bien de voir que le temps commence à effacer les traces.

Line Up :

Laurent Bardainne

Nicolas Ker

Nicolas Villebrun

Arnaud Roulin

Vincent Taeger

Label :

Pan European Recording

Tracklist :

01 – All the Girls
02 – The Music Never Dies
03 – The Wild
04 – Tropical Suite Sao Paulo
05 – Everything Is Real
06 – The Gun
07 – I Never Knew You Were You
08 – Tropical Suite Pattaya
09 – Lights Out
10 – Belladonna
11 – Who Are You
12 – Through the Halls of Shimmering Lights
13 – Tropical Suite