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Day: 24 September 2014

Album: Alt-J – This Is All Yours

Released 22nd September

Infectious

8/10

Alt-J’s sophomore album was always going to be a challenge. The departure of member Gwil Sainsbury cast their future into doubt at the start of the year, and their hugely popular award winning debut, An Awesome Wave, was hailed as one of the albums of the decade. How could they possibly live up to it, especially one man down?

Their defiant response of a second album, This Is All Yours, does enough to silence the doubters, but perhaps won’t induce quite the level of delight as the first. However, this conceivably owes to a slight maturation in sound, so it’s not all bad. They haven’t quite let go of their pots ’n’ pans vibe, but neither are they living in the shadow of tracks such as ‘Breezeblocks’ and ‘Tessellate’, forging on and sounding more organic.

‘Intro’ begins a capella, lyrically nonsensical and minimalistic, before the layers build up to a sitar-laced, hypnotic banger of an instrumental. Then, as soon as they’ve got you going, they slow you right down again with ‘Arrival In Nara’, the first of a trilogy concerning the Japanese city. The bare first two minutes of a single soft guitar and piano is again sonically uncharacteristic, before the more energised but melancholy ‘Nara’. The song energises the album once again, but make what you will of the lyric “love is a pharaoh and he’s boning me.”

The trip continues with the more well-known ‘Every Other Freckle’ and the blues rock pastiche, ‘Left Hand Free’, before breaking back into geography with ‘Garden Of England’, ‘Choice Kingdom’ and ‘Warm Foothills’. These provide calming interludes either side of the first single, ‘Hunger Of The Pine’, controversially (yet ironically) sampling Miley Cyrus singing “I’m a female rebel.” While this lacks the idiosyncratic intensity of previous singles, misty electronica has a relaxing effect. Conversely, in ‘Bloodflood pt. II’, the lyrical themes of confrontation and aggression, matched by the instrumental, have impetus – if anything the vocal is more sinister for its melodic tenderness.

This Is All Yours is less overtly brash than its predecessor, reflected in the bittersweet final track, ‘Leaving Nara’, which rounds off the trilogy. It is arguably less distinctive than An Awesome Wave, and perhaps it won’t live as long in immediate memories, but this album still stands alone as an impressive piece.

Live: Luke Sital-Singh

13th September

Gorilla

8/10

Following low key support slots from Gynmast and Karima Francis, the latter baring an uncannily familiar appearance evoking Pattie Smith and any of the Ramones, Luke Sital-Singh enters to an audience apparently in a state of reverie. Wading through the purple light that illuminates the smoky Gorilla stage, Sital-Singh delivers not a word to his audience, launching instead straight into set opener ‘I Have Been A Fire’.

The power of Sital-Singh’s voice is immediately evidenced, far exceeding anything that could be expected from his tame recordings. His originally dour demeanour quickly fades away. Following third song ‘21st Century Heartbeat’, Sital-Singh tells his energetic audience “this is quite depressing music, don’t forget.” Later he will invite them to join him in celebrating ‘deprestival’, his response to “too many fucking festivals.”

Parallels could be drawn to Jeff Buckley in Sital-Singh’s performance. Soaring, often biting, vocals accompany guitar playing that set him ahead of rival heartbroken singer-songwriters. His stage persona? Sarcastic—he’s unimpressed. The only stumble in an otherwise flawless set comes when Sital-Singh botches the opening of ‘Honest Man’ from his debut EP Fail For You. Even this is passed off—”it’s a shit song anyway,” declares the singer-songwriter, visibly feeding off an audience he brands “the best on the tour.”

For a young performer, Sital-Singh evidences both his confidence and his inherent ability to craft songs of genuine sensitivity. Set closers ‘Nothing Stays the Same’ and ‘Fail for You’ hold the crowd at total attention, the first rousing a massive sing-along in the small, full to capacity, venue. “If you want another hour, pay another tenner” he tells his audience as he leaves the stage. His coolness, however, is undermined by the beaming smile that accompanies him as he scampers backstage, away from his plaudits.

Opinion: Rage Against the Mau5chine

Dark clouds gather over Disneyland. Lawyers scurry into position, their pens and paper prepared to fend off the oncoming assault. At the gate, Deadmau5 stands tall in the name of all things electronic and mousey…

If this sounds ridiculous, you’d be 100 per cent right. The currently unfolding legal battle between Disney and Deadmau5 isn’t the last stand of one musician against the corporate machine. It’s just a clash of two big money making interests, plain and simple.

What does Deadmau5 owe Disney? Take a look. The mask that transforms Joel Zimmerman into Deadmau5 is at best a blatantly twisted caricature of Mickey Mouse. At its worst, it’s an insight into Mickey’s weekends off, blowing off steam by dabbling in some ‘Disneys’ or ‘Nintendos’ – or whatever the kids down in Orlando call them these days. Either way it’s clearly the famous cartoon critter whether you’re 5 or 15 and that’s the point. Deadmau5’s live show feeds off this whole idea—the video game visuals and cartoon animations that illuminate the audience also bring them back to a place of happiness within their childhood.

Deadmau5’s success and the infamy of his live shows makes it clear that he’s doing this well. But to turn around and copyright what is blatantly derived from a well-known icon of childhood – the Deadmau5 head from the mickey head – is disrespectful to the underlying influences that differentiate him from the rest of the soulless swathes of EDM producers. Getting the copyright doesn’t make his music any better, nor his shows any brighter. He’ll only make it harder for others to take cues from him as he has from Disney. Ultimately, it just takes him one step closer to becoming yet another bland, entertainment based, corporate entity.

Photo Of The Week

“This is a small shop I found in Valencia while I spent two months there au pairing. I thought it was really retro and so unusual for a shop so I took a quick photo. I think it is now one of my favourite pictures I’ve ever taken.”

If you have a photo that you would like to share, email [email protected]

Where Are The Women In Art?

Emma Watson’s deeply moving speech about gender equality at the UN conference last week in New York sparked many controversial debates throughout social media. Her message was clear. Gender equality is at the forefront of our modern world and it is the men who need to play a greater role in ending the inequality that we still see today. While her speech was generally supported, she still saw a backlash and has also been targeted with threats.

The era of the ‘hierarchal household’ has recently become a thing of the past, today we regularly see women working full time and men cooking and cleaning, but challenges still arise all across the world.

Emma’s speech is highly important, but why has society only decided to do something about it now? Why was this not voiced hundreds of years ago?

Before the outbreak of the World Wars, one of a woman’s only way of communicating her opinion was through art. It was expected of a woman to be able to draw, however all the major fine art galleries in the world, be it the Louvre in France or the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York hold collections upon collections of various prolific male artists. Women, however, seem to be scarce.

There is no lack of art to have been created by females; if anything, more women drew than men in the years preceding the wars. But there were huge economic and social barriers that women just could not negotiate while their male counterparts could. In 1882 a law called the Married Property Act was passed and this meant that a man effectively owned all of his wife’s property. This vast differentiation in power between the sexes meant that women who wanted to pursue her art career were completely dependent upon their husbands giving them permission.

However, in a male dominated industry, women were not considered to be serious contributors to the field of art and had great difficulty in obtaining a public showing, even once they had their permission. Women had the burden of wifely work, such as the raising of children, running the house and maintaining the family’s respectability socially which meant that they couldn’t easily break this mould.

The idea of women painting, and showing their work, was also highly looked down on by society at the time. During the periods of baroque and neoclassicism in the 17th and 18th centuries, many artists depicted religious scenes containing nude figures. For a woman to draw and paint these kind of pictures was seen as extremely improper.

However, there were a few female artists who managed to make their mark in the industry in the 19th centuries. Rosa Bonheur is known to be one of the most famous of these women with two of her most well known paintings on display in the Metropolitan Museum in New York and another in Musee d’Orsay in Paris. However, she didn’t have a husband, any children, or anyone to help in the house. This just shows that breaking the pattern and not adhering to social structures caused just as many problems for women.

Women have undoubtedly been seen as unequal in the art world. Because of this, the thousands of works painted by females have gone unknown, while the works of men have been preserved for eternity. What we now have is a male’s view of life and society hundreds of years ago. The female’s is lost and any opinions expressing the feminist view that Emma Watson so clearly articulated have been unable to get into the public eye.

Maybe now that we are seeing society tying to change this in-balance, female artists will appear and maybe even produce a new era of masterpieces.

Spotlight: CATS

CATS, the Cancer Awareness in Teenagers and Young People Society, is a brand new society which aims to promote awareness of the common signs and symptoms of cancer around campus and in the local area. We want to highlight the importance of being aware of the symptoms of the most common cancers in young people.

We are hoping for a strong start to the cause and will be running multiple awareness campaigns and events throughout the year. We begin with stall challenges in the Stopford building, followed by big Movember celebrations, all concluding with a huge night out in 256 on the 30th—so get working on your moustache (yes, everyone!) and come join us for a fan’tache’tic night! Throughout the year we’ve got lots to offer students such as lectures from some of the country’s leading oncologists. There’ll also be nights out, acoustic nights, challenges and much more, so keep an eye out for us around campus—we’ve got a few surprises coming your way too!

James Adams, CATS President, says: “We’re really excited about CATS and the support we’ve received so far has been amazing, but we want to do more, so if you’d like to get involved in what we already do or you’d like to suggest some new ideas we’d love to hear from you!”

It’s really easy to join up and if you would like to learn a bit more about us and get involved, just email us at [email protected], leaving your name, course, year of study, preferred email address and mobile number. We’ll get in touch with some volunteering opportunities (you might even get a nice shiny certificate for your portfolio). Get involved!

You can also find us on facebook: www.facebook.com/CATSmanchester

Key Dates:

11th October – Stand Up To Cancer March

20th October – Oncology lecture by Dr Martin McCabe

1st – 30th November – Movember Awareness Month

30th November – Moustache-themed night out at 256, Fallowfield

Article provided by CATS Manchester.

Spotlight: Sexpression Manchester

Sexpression Manchester was formed in 2009 and is one of 27 branches of Sexpression:UK, a nationwide network of student projects committed to empowering young people to make informed choices relating to sexual and reproductive health and relationships. This is achieved through teaching informal sessions to young people in the community on subjects such as consent, sexually transmitted diseases, sex and the law, abuse and other areas. Each session is tailored towards the individual group and situation, which can range from youth groups to in-school teaching of a wide variety of ages. Training days are offered throughout the year for anyone interested in getting involved and there is no minimum or maximum number of sessions required, meaning that there are no obligations or huge time commitments.

In addition to teaching in local schools, Sexpression also offers STI testing and provides free contraception on campus. This is available through the year, both in halls and in central locations such as the Students’ Union (free contraception is also available year-round from the SU). It is also possible to be trained in the the provision of sexual health testing and get involved through that; again, there is no set time commitment.

As a national organisation, Sexpression:UK is also campaigning for the introduction of compulsory Sex and Relationship Education (SRE) in Scotland, which currently is not a legal requirement for schools. Scotland has comparatively high rates of young pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections; 24 per cent of schools have no staffed trained in SRE provision and over 70 per cent of denominational schools have expressed views that contraception should not be discussed (even if raised by pupils) and were largely unwilling to discuss sexually transmitted infections. Sexpression is also a member of STOPAIDS, an advocacy and awareness group of HIV/AIDS that campaigns for access to life-saving medicines and compulsory inclusion of HIV in school education.

For more information, or to register as a member, join their Facebook group or on the societies page of the union site.

You Can’t Handle the Truth! – Book to Film Adaptations

Take a look at the biggest movie releases of the last 5 years and count how many of those films were not a) a se/prequel b) a book adaptation c) a depiction of real events d) a remake. Have you counted? Yes, you’re correct, about two. This trend aggravates and terrifies me. It truly is the sign of a decaying society that for a movie to be funded it has to already have a line of people waiting to see it. Not to sound hyperbolic, but it’s obliterating creativity and is rotting the minds of our children.

I really feel like it’s an issue in the film industry right now, because the implication is, unless you write a bestselling novel with the potential for a sequel, you’re going to struggle to get a film made that’s targeted at a younger audience. That means that today’s children will grow up on series of movies that are engineered purely for ticket sales and to the advertising agendas of some higher power. Where’s the originality? Where’s the creativity? This doesn’t just go for children’s movies, just have a gander at what Hollywood’s finest has to offer. It’s not that these films are always bad; it’s that they’ll never stand up to the book, so they’ve already lost the creative battle. The success of these movies is only ever going to be measured in ticket sales.

Not only is this bad for the film industry, it’s bad for the book industry as well, as it takes pretty much all the magic away from reading. When you’re reading a book, you’re going on a long journey with some characters, and they exist in your head in a completely different way to someone else. And then you talk to someone who’s read the same book, and you’ve had a shared experience where you both sat down for more than 90 minutes and invested yourselves in a fictional world. And it’s long, and tumultuous, and you laughed, and wept, and were sad when you finished it. But then the film comes out and everyone claims they love it just as much, and you just know they’ll never truly understand it like you do, they’ll never know the minutia or the side plots that were cut for time, and these people are sharing in a zeitgeist that they don’t belong. And then it’s nineteen years later, and you’re standing at a train station with your future children, and you shed a tear for their lack of literacy.

Review: Romeo and Juliet

As I left HOME’s production of Romeo and Juliet, I was complaining to my friend Ellie, who accompanied me, that I did not know how to feel. We all know the classic Shakespeare story, and we all know the characters, on which so many of our modern love stories are based. However, I was still in dismay and, if you like, in complete and utter woe. I had completely adored director Walter Meierjohann’s production, staged in promenade at Manchester’s historic, and beautiful, Victoria Baths and every element of the interpretation seemed to fit, like an exquisite, star-crossed puzzle that was designed to entice the audience and forget the pains of standing for the majority of three hours.

The production was staged in 90s Eastern Europe, with nonchalant musicians narrating, cigarettes hanging from their lips, an interesting choice some may say as we discover our feuding families, The Capulets and The Montagues, bringing certain Godfather and This is England vibes, respectively. The bath houses themselves are already beautifully designed and there was little need for spectacular scenery and designer Ti Green achieved just the right level of interruption of the space, without overwhelming the action or the gorgeous glass and tile-work already in place. The highlight, without question, was the final performance room, as Juliet lay in her death-like state on a bronze-coloured cross covering the entirety of a pool, with candles and roses floating on the water around her, reflecting onto the glass ceiling above. As the audience made their way into this final space, the gasps of delight and astonishment said more than enough for Green’s achievements.

As with any show, it is truly the cast that makes, or breaks, a production and the cast assembled by Meierjohann were the true crowning glory. Stand out performances came from Rachel Atkins as Juliet’s mamma-italia nurse, Ncuti Gatwa as an outlandish and flamboyant Mercutio and Juliet herself, played by Sara Vickers, who managed to overcome the challenging task of giving Juliet a soul. Perhaps due to the character itself, it is common for many a Juliet to become overwhelmed with her innocence and unquestionable love for her Romeo. Vickers’ interpretation, however, created true meaning to her desire for love, and her anger toward her family as well as her desire to die were most definitely legitimate and believable.

Alex Felton as a Hipster Romeo. Photo: HOME

So despite my love for the production, why my woes? After much thought and deliberation I have decided that it was our Romeo who caused me such confusion. “I hate him”, is all I could say to Ellie as we talked during the interval and I was, and still am, unsure if I do. Played by Alex Felton, the interpretation was that of a coke-addicted hipster, obsessed with singing in falsetto, who is going off the rails without any meaning in his life. I found Felton to be hugely self-indulgent as both character and actor, and was hoping it would pass as his love for Juliet blossomed, but it didn’t. Ideally, I would like to meet Felton to truly see how close to this Romeo he is, or not. If so, it is sad that our ‘hero’ would be played by someone so cocky with a desire only to show off; if not, his capability as an actor is truly immense. I’m going to hope for the latter, as it would be a shame for there to be only one weak link in the production which has given HOME a very exciting start on the Manchester arts scene.

5/5

Standing opens for 2014 Student Officer Elections

Student Officer elections for this academic year opened on the 8th September, including the positions of Faculty Officers, Liberation Officers and Action Group Officers.

On commenting on the importance of the elections General Secretary Charlotte Cook stated, “students need to know that they have a voice and an opinion worth hearing; that it should be these voices leading the work of their Union and directing the way the university engages with them.

“That is what the elections offer the opportunity to do. You can run to represent your course but you can also be a faculty rep and represent all students across disciplines.

“We also believe strongly in autonomy and equality which is why we have liberation representatives who specifically represent Black Minority and Ethnic, LGBTQ, Women and Disabled student groups.”

This year however the entirely new position of Student Community Officers has also been introduced. The Mancunion asked Community Officer Ellen McLaughlin as to why the Exec team believed the new role to be necessary.

“Primarily this role has been introduced to represent students living outside of halls. As the majority of students live in the private rented sector it seemed imperative to me that those students had a representative voice at the Students’ Union, the university and the council.

“The Student Community Officers will have the responsibility to gather student opinion in their areas and voice it to the university, Students’ Union and local MPs.

“However, Student Community Officers will hopefully also help foster positive relationships between students and local residents—who are currently more exposed to the negative actions of a tiny minority of students. The Student Community Officers will have the important responsibility to challenge this perception and ensure the hugely positive impact students make is celebrated.”

McLaughlin further expressed the hope that the new role will challenge the potential exploitation of students within the private rented sector.

Standing for the positions closes on Thursday 9th October at 5pm and voting will commence on Friday 17th October, with the successful candidates due to be announced in late October. Applications can be found on the Students’ Union website.

Funding boost for Manchester Alzheimer’s researcher

A dementia researcher in Manchester has been awarded a £30000 sum from Alzheimer’s Research UK for a groundbreaking research project due to commence later this month.

Dr Richard Unwin, who is based at both the University of Manchester and Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, will begin a study into thousands of proteins in the brain with the hope of producing a detailed map of what happens in the brain of an Alzheimer’s sufferer.

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, affecting roughly half a million people in the United Kingdom alone. There is no cure for the disease and current treatments merely help with symptoms. The country’s leading dementia research charity, Alzheimer’s Research UK, is dedicated to funding scientific studies to prevent, treat, or cure the disease. Since its formation in 1992, the charity has committed nearly £40 million to dementia research. September is World Alzheimer’s Month and it is hoped that this award will raise awareness of the disease.

Dr Unwin’s project will involve looking at how Alzheimer’s disease changes the biology of different parts of the brain. He will map the relative amounts of over 3000 proteins in the brain with the aim of studying the biology of these areas in detail. Tissue donated by both Alzheimer’s sufferers and people without the disease will be used in the study. The project will enable doctors to study how the brain works on a more detailed molecular level.

Dr Unwin said, “I’m really pleased to have won this award, which will support an important new project in my laboratory. We’ve already started to study the metabolism of seven different areas of the brain in Alzheimer’s—that is the chemical reactions that generate the energy brain cells need to work—and we see some important changes associated with the development of the disease.

“This new funding will help us to expand our research by looking at thousands of proteins in the brain to get even more detailed information about how these changes are controlled, and how the brain is working. We can ultimately use these data to build detailed maps of how Alzheimer’s affects the human brain.

“By comparing our information about the brain in Alzheimer’s to previous research measuring these changes in other conditions, we will be able to see if there is overlap between Alzheimer’s and conditions such as diabetes. Understanding what’s going wrong in the brain in Alzheimer’s at a molecular level will open up major opportunities for finding new treatments that are so urgently needed.”

Dr Simon Ridley, Head of Research at Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “This innovative Pilot Project has the potential to give us large amounts of detailed information about the brain and how it is affected in Alzheimer’s. The closer we can get to understanding what’s driving this disease, the better chance we have of designing effective treatments to help the thousands of people affected by it.

“While awareness of dementia has grown over recent years, funding for research still lags behind other common conditions. To deliver real improvements for people with Alzheimer’s and other dementias we must see increases in funding for research. As a fundraising charity, we don’t receive any government support so we’re very grateful for our supporters who have made this research possible.”

All data from this upcoming project will be made available to other dementia researchers across the globe in a bid to speed up progress.