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Day: 10 May 2016

Festival Preview: Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia

Written by Jacob Nicholas on . Posted in Music.

Liverpool, England
23-24 September

Returning for the 5th time, Liverpool Psych Festival promises to bring together every kind of music that messes with your head. Headlining are the endlessly shapeshifting Horrors, as well as Welsh ridiculousness peddlers Super Furry Animals. The lineup has something for everyone, from the retrofuturist revivalism of krautrock purists Cavern of Antimatter to the iconic, genre shaping experiments of Silver Apples to darker, shoegazier affairs like Spectres and Taman Shud. The acts cover drone to garage psych to lo-fi Brainfeedr-type affairs and everything in-between. However, what really makes the festival special isn’t just the musical variety but the national variety. The ‘International’ is in the title for a reason – Liverpool Psych Fest is a truly global affair, with bands coming not just Britain and America but Andalucía, Sweden, Mexico, Italy and more. Perhaps most exciting then is Tokyo label Guruguru Brain’s showcase, bringing bands not just from Japan but Pakistan and Taiwan, such as Minami Deutsch’s endless motorik charge, and Nawksh’s madcap productions. These acts are exceptional and otherwise hard to see in the UK, so having so many of them in one place is rare and brilliant. Whilst writing about psychedelic bands is usually just filled with mundane drug references, Liverpool Psych Festival deserves more. It doesn’t just provide lazy imitations of bands that were tedious by the time our parents were students, but music that’s genuinely exciting, varied and intelligent. These bands, composers and producers are pushing forward and doing what all the best modern music should – taking what came before and changing, twisting and combining it to create brand new, mind-altering sounds, not just music for some middle-aged divorcee at The Happy Mondays staring at his hands by the time the support act’s finished. Kill the Pink Floyd tribute act, this will be so much better.

Reading Festival 2016 – A Preview

Written by Hannah Brierley on . Posted in Music.

A bit like Leeds…but the better one down south.

Reading and Leeds are two of the biggest annual rock music festivals in the UK. Running every year simultaneously on August bank holiday weekend. However Reading, the ‘original’ of the two, has been running slightly longer since they started in 1971 compared to Leeds starting in 1999. Through the years they have both experimented with different genres of music, but with Indie, Alternative, and Rock remaining the main dominant contenders.

And let’s be honest here, with Reading being further down south, there’s far more chance of sunshine, therefore less mud, and then less chance of an embarrassing drunken mud wrestle. Reading have had massive names headlining previously, such as The Rolling Stones, New Order, Oasis, Eminem; the list goes on and on. This year they have even more headliners than ever, with five in total, meaning even more talent squeezed into one weekend.

Friday night opens with Co-headliners Foals and Disclosure, Scottish pop band CHVRCHES, with other appearances such as Maximo Park and Asking Alexandria.

Saturday night has a whole mixture of big names, such as the much-acclaimed Eagles of Death Metal. Radio One’s one to watch in 2016, Jack Garratt, and Blossoms. Finishing the night with the world famous Red Hot Chili Peppers.

And as if this wasn’t enough, as the weekend comes to a close, it definitely will not start to tone down the names of those playing, offering The 1975, The Vaccines, and Half Moon Run, headlining with the almighty Biffy Clyro, who have only just announced their upcoming album Ellipsis. Biffy are also co-headlining with American counterparts Fall Out Boy!

Sunshine, alcohol and five headliners.

…. Is this more than you bargained for yet?

Newcastle SU introduces cheap drug testing kits for students

Written by Charlie Spargo on . Posted in News.

In a move to ensure greater drug safety on campus, Newcastle University Students’ Union (NUSU) has become the first SU in the UK to offer kits to test for the contents of drugs to students.

For only £3 at the Union’s Advice Service students can buy a kit which can test for adulterants in drugs, using a colour changing substance that can be compared against a chart to find out what substances are really present, as part of the campaign ‘Test Your Drugs, Don’t Test Yourself’.

Each kit has tests for ecstasy and ketamine which flag up other foreign substances if they are present in the drug so as to alert the user if their drug contains a chemical other than what they were expecting, and are on offer at less than half of the retail price.

The movement to introduce these was achieved by the Newcastle arm of Students for Safer Drug Policy (SSDP), a nationwide organisation aiming to create “an open platform of discussion for drug-related issues and to develop sensible drug policies.” It recognises that unknown substances mixed in with drugs can often be more dangerous than the illegal substance itself.

“We aim to put the lives and wellbeing of young people first”, said Holly Robinson, SSDP President.

“Although drugs are illegal, statistics suggest lots of young people still use illegal drugs, and that the prevalence of this use is even higher within student communities.

“We recognise the safest way to take drugs is not to take drugs but, as some individuals will always choose to take them, we believe it is important to make information and services available to minimise the risks.”

Newcastle University reversed its zero-tolerance policy on drugs in 2015 after lobbying by SSDP. University management have welcomed the new, cheap testing kits, reinforcing that it is not condoning drug use but contributing to safety.

In recent weeks Manchester clubbers have been repeatedly warned to take extra care buying or taking drugs, following a number of incidents. Last week a 17-year-old died after taking a pink ‘Mastercard’ pill, which allegedly contains twice as much MDMA per tablet as normal. Only a few days later, two 21-year-olds were hospitalised by a red ‘Lego’ pill.

Club of the Year: Mr Scruff’s ‘Keep it Unreal’

Written by Mancunion on . Posted in Music.

Mr Scruff’s sets are veritable feasts of eclecticism. As one of the lesser known Manchester musical heroes, Scruff’s legendary ‘Keep it Unreal’ club nights have developed a deserved cult following over the last decade. To start with, Band on The Wall is a great choice of venue; aside from the levelled dance floor there was a spacious chill out zone full of sofas. Music is piped through to this room so you won’t miss anything; with Mr Scruff’s sets being as eclectic as they are, this is a godsend– you don’t want to miss a beat. I challenge you to name any other club night that has a stand selling tea, biscuits and fruit like Mr Scruff’s tea shop, alongside heavily discounted records and merchandise.
The set itself was a work of art, lasting 5 hours and spanning nearly every genre, from disco, to jazz, to reggae, to house, to reggaeton. In what would normally be a jarring mix of genres, Scruff managed to perfect craft the atmosphere and ease through each transition of style. Example: our arrival was met with Born Under A Rhyming Planet’s ambient gem ‘Analogue Heaven’ drifting seamlessly into Paul McCartney dazzling ‘Secret Friend’, the most eclectic of choices. Genius. Who knew Macca was making proto-house in 1980? Mr Scruff, that’s who.
As night approached morning, Scruff turned things up a notch with Bileo’s disco screamer ‘You Can Win’, as well as the rare cut that is Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes’ ‘Prayin’. Somehow, the atmosphere dipped at no point, even as Scruff moved into Peruvian tropical house from Quechuaboi, and into the better known ‘Disco Balls’ by Flying Lotus. As the set began to close up with 30 minutes to go, Scruff played some choice cuts from his own back catalogue including the fantastic ‘Get On Down’.
The ‘no phones on the dance floor’ policy gave the night a very relaxed vibe, as fears of being captured drooling in the side of someone else’s picture or being dazzled by camera flashes were allayed. Worryingly this also meant no Shazam. For those of us prone to FOMO, being stuck on a dancefloor with no Shazam is like being stranded in the peak district without a map, but thankfully Mr Scruff uploads all of his sets online afterwards, the code for which you are given on a card upon entry, so that the next day you have a ticket to go on an expedition across the internet discovering all of the obscure artists and labels that Scruff has so lovingly stitched together into one giant patchwork. If we can recommend one thing to do before you leave Manchester, this is it.

Gig of the Year: Grimes

Written by Mancunion on . Posted in Music.

She came, she saw, she conquered our hearts. The usually blasé and disaffected Mancunion Music team couldn’t contain themselves. They were reportedly covered in glitter, drinking a bit too much Lucozade and shouting “I LOVE YOU” in between giggles and squeals.
Flanked by three bamboozling backing dancers, the gig was an audio-visual extravaganza from beginning to end. After set opener ‘Genesis’, the set largely focused on new album Art Angels, with ‘REALiTi’, ‘Flesh Without Blood’ and ‘Scream’ following in quick succession.
Grimes’ disciples of freaks and geeks were all in attendance, looking either incredibly futuristic or incredibly dated, many managing both at the same time. Grimes herself is impossible to periodize, but she definitely looks like she’s appeared from the future. Springing between the stage and her synths and still belting out her ranging vocals. Despite the ferocity of tracks like ‘Scream’, Grimes was endearingly bashful when it came to talking to the crowd in between songs. She even swerved doing an encore as she professed to “getting so nervous coming on stage that I wouldn’t come back on”. Not that this mattered, for despite the disappointing omission of ‘California’, the show was practically perfect.
Grimes’ movement from underground to unashamed pop is telling of music at the moment; gone are the days of generic watered down indie boy bands and indie rock, and in with interesting genre spurning multi platform performers and artists. High octane, brash, colourful and exciting; this is how live music should be done. “I’ll never be your dream girl”, sang Grimes at the end of ‘Butterfly’. Claire, you will always be our dream girl.

Opinion: Rewinds

Written by Tai Kolade on . Posted in Music.

“Bound 4 the bound bound 4 the reload”… yeah Oxide and Neutrino, maybe not.

“Re-e-wind when the crowd say bo selecta”… Oh sorry Craig, can you hear that silence? Maybe it’s because the crowd never says bo selecta!

This is not a rant at old school garage, oh no, this is a rant at the rewind. Just picture it now, there you are cutting your shapes or windin’ on down and then THAT banger comes on. You know, the tune that makes you and your fellow revellers come bounding through flinging their limbs about and then… the rewind, the pull up, the reload, whatever you want to call that irritating scratching sound of the DJ spinning back the turntable. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it.

Why? For me, its always to do with the timing of which they hit reverse. As I placed the scene before, the rewind occurs at that peak of excitement, when the mix of inebriation and joy hit the special summit of euphoria and then, so suddenly, with a few flicks, it’s gone. No matter what the song is it will never rise to hit that same level of euphoria as you (Mr or Mrs DJ) so deservedly had them at and then so nonchalantly threw away. What bonus do you get from the rewind? The song’s lost its impact, and I’ve lost my exuberance. Before you had the crowd hitting the ceiling, now they barely get 3cm of air. I’m not hyped anymore… I’m not hyped anymore. You see?

Maybe I’m wrong. Do I simply not understand the use of the rewind? Are rewinds an ingrained expectation within some genres? The cries from the crowd muffle my apparent obverse distaste for it. Let’s take Grime for example. When the bars of the MC stab across the dance floor, “Everybody’s locked in like them man ah hard”, but after yet another rewind (the jockey has already done it three times already in the night), the track’s oomph is long gone. This isn’t just a problem confined to DJs, it’s infiltrating live acts too. How can Jay Z and Kanye have the audacity, I repeat, the audacity to reload ‘Niggas in Paris’ 11 times when they perform it!? (Note: they were in Paris when they did this and they did stop at a normal interlude in the song to the rewind it). You can say this is not exactly the same as DJ rewinding, but in essence, it is. It’s a form of self-indulgence that they believe that what they just played was so good we deserve to hear it again.

Doing some research, I have found that the rewind is ingrained in some music cultures. Reggae historian David Katz points to the plausible beginning for the rewind being in Jamaica 1968, where an instrumental played by Ruddy Redwood sends the crowd into hysteria. He was made to play it for 30 minutes over again and again. But this was something that the people had never experienced before, a new sound. Something that was historical. Not some bait song that you know will get a half-hearted reaction, and has been overplayed just music ten too many times.

It seems that I am not alone in my disdain. For those who support my noble quest to stop the rewinds, there is a website that stands up for our cause. Subtly named bantherewind.com, you can download pdf stickers and iron-on t-shirt labels to openly show you hate. Those who don’t want to go this far, an obnoxious “BOO!” will be enough.