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Day: 29 April 2015

Club: Selective Hearing presents Robert Hood & Sunil Sharpe

Written by Patrick Hinton on . Posted in Music.

24th April

Salford Warehouse Location

8/10

After unfortunate circumstances forced Robert Hood to pull out of Selective Hearing’s party back in December, Manchester has been patiently awaiting this rescheduled appearance. Patience is a virtue, and after four months of such righteous behaviour it was only fair that the revellers tonight rewarded themselves with some debauchery at the altar of the techno god.

The delay also conveniently allowed time for the completion of a new tailor made warehouse space in Salford that plays host tonight. With the December party planned to take place in Sankeys this is a marked upgrade – the eye-watering drinks prices are the same but the system is banging so no complaints.

Sunil Sharpe is pushing the Void speakers to their limit as I arrive at midnight. The Dublin DJ warms up for Mr. Hood expertly, driving energy levels upwards with the relentless kick of Slam’s ‘Catacoustics’ and Ben Sims’s throbbing remix of ‘Anipintiros #5’.

Then up steps Robert Hood – one of the few people capable of looking snappy in a pair of Beats by Dre headphones – and the repressed energy of four months waiting explodes within the crowd. He is everything a DJ should be: crafting a set of slick grooves and thumping beats, finding that perfect balance where the impact of high points of euphoria are propelled by the darker moments underpinning them. Drawing for Richie Hawtin’s ‘Spastik’ floods the room with rolling percussion, building a tension that is unleashed as the funk fuelled ‘We Magnify His Name’ comes in. Hands rise to the gospel vocals in a mood akin to religious fervour, dancers become disciples celebrating a master at work.

Calling that set a tough act to follow is an understatement, but Selective Hearing parties are not ones to peter out. Their roster of residents always ensure top to bottom strength on every bill, showcased tonight by recent addition Cleric’s closing set. His selections are minimal but atmospheric: the synths of UVB’s ‘Mixtion’ creep through the room before the stripped down percussive loop of ‘Rave (Dirt mix)’ keeps the room pounding until curfew.

Here’s to the next time Robert Hood graces Manchester; I’m waiting patiently.

Live: Jam City

Written by Patrick Hinton on . Posted in Music.

24th April

Soup Kitchen

5/10

The transition from jagged, bare-bones production to brooding, woozy song-writing was never going to be a smooth one. Despite Jam City aka Jack Latham’s claims that there were clear signs for this being the logical next step in his music, the release of ‘Unhappy’ last October – with its jangly guitars and politically charged vocals – being greeted with widespread bemusement tells another story.

His second album Dream A Garden has some remarkable high-points, but ultimately it seems a little intermediate. A producer making an evolutionary movement along the sonic food-chain, but not quite being at the stage of the assured and fully-formed apex predator.

The signs of a disenchanted fan base are present tonight: last time Jam City performed at Soup Kitchen in November 2013 he played an all night long DJ set to a sold out crowd; tonight his live set draws a modest attendance of barely quarter capacity. Or maybe that’s just the nature of live gigs vs. club nights in electronic music?

Either way, the live show feels undercooked. Opening with sampled news bites detailing events on the “streets of London” amongst throbbing bass notes, the political message is lost amongst the underwhelming performance. Dream A Garden highlight ‘Crisis’ is stunted by untidy arrangement; Latham hangs off the microphone, knees bent, with the actions of an emotive frontman, but the sounds produced are hazy and unengaging – the audience’s decision to hang back around the outskirts of the venue reflecting this.

Write Jam City off at your peril however, I have full faith he can pull off this new direction. Latham already has one seminal album under his belt, this live show is just a step on the way to his next.

Opinion: Profit, Politics & Principles – How They Don’t Mix

Written by Bradley West on . Posted in Music.

The music industry is arguably one of the most secretive and difficult businesses to break into and survive in, and from the outside at least, appears to be a power struggle between two groups, one championing art and the other profit, but is this really the case?

The catalyst for raising this question is Sankeys’ recent sacking of long-running Tribal Sessions resident Darius Syrossian, a DJ who identifies himself as someone who is all about the music, and the people who travel miles to see him play it. Scrolling through Facebook the other day it was surprising to see a post from Sidney Charles, one of the 3 Sankeys Tribal Sessions residents, saying that he and Santé, firm friends and colleagues of Darius, would not be playing any more shows at any of the Sankeys venues in support of him, coining the hash tag #BROSOVEREUROS to help convey the message. The statement was measured and diplomatic, but definitely draws a moral line in the sand regarding what the present focus of the music industry is, and puts forward the question of control—is it with the artists or the promoters?

You would think that the two factions would typically have different goals. On one side, the ambition of making music that excites and causes listeners to connect with the artist, and on the other, the objective of profiting from people’s desire to experience that connection. In recent years, however, the lines between the art and the business have been blurred. In not too subtle a way, the finger can be pointed squarely at the business-driven culture surrounding artists such as the self styled “hardest working man in music” Steve Aoki, and others including David Guetta and Afrojack, to name a few who truly embody the definition of ‘commercial’ in Commercial Dance Music. As a result of this, you can see why it is attractive for some promoters have artists on their rosters who have goals aligned with their own, and aim to make Euros over supporting their Bros. This definitely breeds a profit-driven culture, and enables the dubious politics that come with generating revenue in an industry that’s primary output is considered an art.

With this in mind, recent events really make me wonder whether the goals of some artists and promoters have become so misaligned that they can no longer work together to deliver music to the fans that really want to hear it. Was Darius Syrossian sacked, as he claims, for caring and standing up for the fans that travel to see him, or did his principles no longer match the goals of Sankeys, and as they allege, cause conflicts? Unfortunately, the unique way that PR works means that we’ll probably never know for sure.

If anything though, the whole debacle makes me thankful for the smaller independent, ‘underground’ promoters that we have in abundance in Manchester, whose focus is absolutely on bringing people the artists that they love, and making just enough money to keep the lights on so that they can do it again. At a risk of touching a nerve, if championing the underground means getting the show the artist wants to deliver, instead of the most profitable one, then long live the underground.

Interview: Josef Salvat

Written by Christoph Otto on . Posted in Music.

When I first met Josef Salvat I had already read articles about him, watched a couple of performances on YouTube and checked his clicks on Spotify. Let’s say I had an idea of Mr Salvat in my mind; a young man on the rise who seems to have his shit together—and does the music in that one Canon advert. I can officially confirm: He’s nice.

After meeting me we immediately sat down to talk. I sipped my beer, his drink of choice was tea—foreshadowing of a no excess mentality. Mr Salvat was born and raised in Australia, where he studied Law until eventually deciding to move to the UK. What for? For the simple reason of music! Josef explained that he has been doing music for as long as he can remember and named Amy Winehouse, Florence Welch, Mark Ronson and Rich Cooper as his major influences. In order to create the style of music he wanted, Josef argued, London is the place to be. Whereas upside down, apparently, is not. Fair enough.

While I was smooth talking him in the green room of the Soup Kitchen, the venue slowly filled up—with both people and tension. It was the second time he played in Manchester, so I tried to bring up some trivia into our conversation: The Soup Kitchen is opposite the Koffee Pot, namely the place where The Smiths used to hang out. In various interviews Josef has been compared to Morrissey (I am not a fan of stale comparisons, but I’d add that he looks a bit like Joaquin Phoenix’s younger, more stable brother). Because of that I had to ask him what he thinks about the Morrissey connection, and potentially annoy this charming man. However he laughed and said he does not particularly like him; there were far important musical mentors in his life which are mentioned above—though he appreciates what Manchester gave to his music history, of course. His bottom line was “The streets feel good here.”

So what is his general approach towards making music? One approach could be this: If you image-search Josef Salvat you will see a certain type of ‘corporate identity’. The face in press photos is blank, malleable. The type of self-assured face you can project things onto. The type of face that’s lived a lot but remains weirdly serene. So I asked if he tried to create a stage persona that differentiated from the private Josef Salvat. He grinned again and said: “This is just the part of me that makes music. But I wouldn’t say never.” A perfect example of keeping it simple.

So how does he get to know new music? Well, as it turns out he is not a great fan of Soundcloud, which one wouldn’t expect to hear from an artist in 2015. His channels are mainly YouTube and friends and everything in-between. As he was talking I looked at the wooden table in front of us. On it was ginger tea and orange juice. Unfortunately no booze was going on here, nothing exciting to write about. Just a nice talk with a man who apparently takes sobriety very seriously on stage. This sobriety would later be channeled into intense dancing spasms in the vein of Ian Curtis.

In Your Prime is his most recent EP, including his cover of Rihanna’s ‘Diamonds’. Josef told me that the EP was a collection of material he’d recorded over the last eight years. Songs and riffs he wrote a while ago, mixed with mint new stuff. His music, and especially his EP are part of an idea he described as “my music express[ing] life in the context of sometimes bittersweet songs.” It is supposed to be a little journey through life.

Josef is a really nice young man, who, by the way, did not get rich by making music for the Canon advert. Maybe he will when he releases his new album, which, according to the man himself, should be out by September 2015.