FOLLOWERS of New York quartet Asobi Seksu will know their fourth album is already drawing favourable attention.
But for those not yet familiar with the group’s latest offering – Fluourescence (out this week) – a visit to Relentless Garage, Highbury Corner, on April 17, may shed some light on what all the fuss is about.
Asobi Seksu melt from dream pop to shoegaze to soaring heavy-effect instrumentals, which have historically attracted comparisons with My Bloody Valentine.
Singer and keyboardist Yuki Chikudate is an accomplished frontwoman, playing the solid lead role around which her three male counterparts congregate, while remaining solitary and disparate onstage.
The scattered stage arrangement provides a strong visualisation of Asobi Seksu’s newer stripped down sound, while the remaining heavier riffs defy gravity as they lay thick in the air.
As guitarist/singer James Hanna said: “This time, our agenda was to not have one at all, to be mellow about the entire process instead of obsessing over everything.”
They may have made a conscious decision to keep things sparse but their resolve has proven patchy at best, allowing the power chords for which they are most popular to remain, even more pronounced against a newfound crystalline audio backdrop.
Showing posts with label Relentless Garage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Relentless Garage. Show all posts
Thursday, 31 March 2011
Saturday, 5 February 2011
COCKNBULLKID'S POP THERAPY
COCKNBULLKID – that’s it, that’s her name now.
Dropping the prefix “the” is the first sign something’s different about Anita Blay.
Known for her electro tunes of the past, Anita’s turned to pop for her debut album.
Single Hold on To Your Misery (out March 7) is every bit the snappy pop song to which she aspires.
Anita – as CocknBullKid – is part of talent-pushing festival HMV Next Big Thing, a concentrated chance to see the picks of the future – across venues including Camden Barfly, Jazz Cafe and Relentless Garage for the flat rate of £10.
She plays Upstairs at the Garage alongside James Yuill, Trophy Wife and Visions of Trees (Feb 10).
Also chalked up at various venues are Jessie J, The Airborne Toxic Event, Skepta, The Chakras, and Chilly Gonzales (full line-up – www.hmvnextbigthing.com).
In fact, Anita has just settled in a deli after recording vocals for the eclectic Canadian musician Gonzales – who worked on her album – when she speaks to Grooves.
She said: “He’s charismatic, good fun to work with, very much an artist and quite independent. He pretty much makes things happen for himself so he’s good at giving tips and advice on how to make sure everything is yours. It’s becoming harder for people to control what they do. He’s quite old school in the sense that he takes care of every aspect of his career.”
While Anita absorbs his advice, she is well aware of the fortunate position she is in: “Although I’m signed to a big label (Island) I’m with an independent (subsidiary Moshi Moshi). It’s not like everything has to be turned up to 11 and have bells and whistles on. I’ve got the best of both worlds, the muscle of a major but the creativity of an independent.”
Album Adulthood touches on life as a Londoner of Ghanaian descent and some good old teenage angst – to an upbeat soundtrack.
She said: “My parents split up at a very early age and I was separated from my mum when I was about 12 so I grew up with a male patriarchal figure. I wasn’t raised by a woman in the most important times in my youth. While he was doing a stellar job – I love my dad to bits – there are certain quirks/things you can’t help but sometimes attribute to not having a female figure.”
Her father, a bus driver, is so proud of Anita’s work that he keeps all her cuttings.
She said: “Considering he was from a different background, from Ghana, quite traditional, he’s still quite open-minded and I think that’s shaped me.”
Anita grew up in Hackney, torn between where to ally herself – and her confusion over her origins –is detailed on the album.
She said: “The older you get it’s less of a clash and more of a fusion. There’s good and bad but I’ve learned to straddle both, be proud that I’m British and proud to be Ghanaian.”
An explanation of her stage name is also on the album: “A lot of people ask why I called myself Cocknbullkid. I’m not talking about anatomy I‘m referring to a cockerel and bull – it’s another way of saying to spin a yarn, tell a tale, bullshit someone. Something I’m fascinated with.”
At the moment it’s all about pop: “It is a craft writing a pop song – it’s a lot easier to be experimental and waffle on for nine minutes. Now three minutes, there’s something very satisfying about a pop song.”
Making the album has doubled as therapy. Said Anita: “If you’re old enough to be honest about how you feel and put it on a record, hopefully you feel better for it – almost exorcising your demons. I do feel a lot better. I listen back to songs and think wow I don’t feel like that anymore. I’m happy I’ve been honest about it. “
She added: “My dad’s really proud. I’m definitely a hard worker when it comes to music. That’s the only way you can feel any sense of achievement for something because you work for it. My dad’s a bloody hard worker. That’s part of the reason I’m so ambitious because I want to make him and my family proud. I want them to be comfortable, he struggled for so long.”
• CocknBullKid’s website is www.cocknbullkid.com and twitter name is @cocknbullkid
Dropping the prefix “the” is the first sign something’s different about Anita Blay.
Known for her electro tunes of the past, Anita’s turned to pop for her debut album.
Single Hold on To Your Misery (out March 7) is every bit the snappy pop song to which she aspires.
Anita – as CocknBullKid – is part of talent-pushing festival HMV Next Big Thing, a concentrated chance to see the picks of the future – across venues including Camden Barfly, Jazz Cafe and Relentless Garage for the flat rate of £10.
She plays Upstairs at the Garage alongside James Yuill, Trophy Wife and Visions of Trees (Feb 10).
Also chalked up at various venues are Jessie J, The Airborne Toxic Event, Skepta, The Chakras, and Chilly Gonzales (full line-up – www.hmvnextbigthing.com).
In fact, Anita has just settled in a deli after recording vocals for the eclectic Canadian musician Gonzales – who worked on her album – when she speaks to Grooves.
She said: “He’s charismatic, good fun to work with, very much an artist and quite independent. He pretty much makes things happen for himself so he’s good at giving tips and advice on how to make sure everything is yours. It’s becoming harder for people to control what they do. He’s quite old school in the sense that he takes care of every aspect of his career.”
While Anita absorbs his advice, she is well aware of the fortunate position she is in: “Although I’m signed to a big label (Island) I’m with an independent (subsidiary Moshi Moshi). It’s not like everything has to be turned up to 11 and have bells and whistles on. I’ve got the best of both worlds, the muscle of a major but the creativity of an independent.”
Album Adulthood touches on life as a Londoner of Ghanaian descent and some good old teenage angst – to an upbeat soundtrack.
She said: “My parents split up at a very early age and I was separated from my mum when I was about 12 so I grew up with a male patriarchal figure. I wasn’t raised by a woman in the most important times in my youth. While he was doing a stellar job – I love my dad to bits – there are certain quirks/things you can’t help but sometimes attribute to not having a female figure.”
Her father, a bus driver, is so proud of Anita’s work that he keeps all her cuttings.
She said: “Considering he was from a different background, from Ghana, quite traditional, he’s still quite open-minded and I think that’s shaped me.”
Anita grew up in Hackney, torn between where to ally herself – and her confusion over her origins –is detailed on the album.
She said: “The older you get it’s less of a clash and more of a fusion. There’s good and bad but I’ve learned to straddle both, be proud that I’m British and proud to be Ghanaian.”
An explanation of her stage name is also on the album: “A lot of people ask why I called myself Cocknbullkid. I’m not talking about anatomy I‘m referring to a cockerel and bull – it’s another way of saying to spin a yarn, tell a tale, bullshit someone. Something I’m fascinated with.”
At the moment it’s all about pop: “It is a craft writing a pop song – it’s a lot easier to be experimental and waffle on for nine minutes. Now three minutes, there’s something very satisfying about a pop song.”
Making the album has doubled as therapy. Said Anita: “If you’re old enough to be honest about how you feel and put it on a record, hopefully you feel better for it – almost exorcising your demons. I do feel a lot better. I listen back to songs and think wow I don’t feel like that anymore. I’m happy I’ve been honest about it. “
She added: “My dad’s really proud. I’m definitely a hard worker when it comes to music. That’s the only way you can feel any sense of achievement for something because you work for it. My dad’s a bloody hard worker. That’s part of the reason I’m so ambitious because I want to make him and my family proud. I want them to be comfortable, he struggled for so long.”
• CocknBullKid’s website is www.cocknbullkid.com and twitter name is @cocknbullkid
Saturday, 28 August 2010
SAN FRANCISCO LIFE, CARNIVAL WITH MAN LIKE ME, WIN TICKETS FOR BRANDON FLOWERS & TRICKY HITS KOKO
“IF YOU’RE going to San Francisco...,” you must be me! Sorry I can’t bring you any deeply thought-out Alistair Cooke type Letter From America – I’m more like Sesame Street’s Alistair Cookie.
So far all I’ve discovered musically in SF is, there are a lot of open-air jazz bands around and I hear Snoop Dogg played somewhere near on Sunday. Smoking is violently disapproved of here, the smell of cannabis is everywhere but so far the hippies have evaded me.
• One of the finest live bands around, Camden’s smile-inspiring Man Like Me, join an all-day cast of live music at The Old Queen’s Head, Essex Road, on Sunday (3pm-3am). King Charles, Josh Weller and
SixNationState complete the bill and it’s free before 8pm.
• Fans of The Killers might like to know frontman Brandon Flowers plays a special gig at Relentless Garage (Sept 8). The only catch is there are only 200 tickets and you have to pre-order his album from HMV through the venue’s website by Wednesday (Sept 1). Good luck.
• Ready for Carnival? What about the vital after-party? Reggae Roast is promising to throw the biggest Roots Reggae party in the capital at the Big Chill House (Aug 29) with BBQ and Carnival vibes through the night with Manasseh feat Charjan, Moodie & Exel, Ramon Judah, Louis Slipperz and Dub Hunter. Course that’s just till 3am, you’ve still got the rest of the night to play with.
• Tricky – responsible for one of my all time favourite albums, Maxinquaye – plays Koko (Sept 22) to promote album Mixed Race. Ever evolving, I don’t expect a return to the suffocating headiness of
Maxinquaye but it’s sure to be an unpredictable evening.
So far all I’ve discovered musically in SF is, there are a lot of open-air jazz bands around and I hear Snoop Dogg played somewhere near on Sunday. Smoking is violently disapproved of here, the smell of cannabis is everywhere but so far the hippies have evaded me.
• One of the finest live bands around, Camden’s smile-inspiring Man Like Me, join an all-day cast of live music at The Old Queen’s Head, Essex Road, on Sunday (3pm-3am). King Charles, Josh Weller and
SixNationState complete the bill and it’s free before 8pm.
• Fans of The Killers might like to know frontman Brandon Flowers plays a special gig at Relentless Garage (Sept 8). The only catch is there are only 200 tickets and you have to pre-order his album from HMV through the venue’s website by Wednesday (Sept 1). Good luck.
• Ready for Carnival? What about the vital after-party? Reggae Roast is promising to throw the biggest Roots Reggae party in the capital at the Big Chill House (Aug 29) with BBQ and Carnival vibes through the night with Manasseh feat Charjan, Moodie & Exel, Ramon Judah, Louis Slipperz and Dub Hunter. Course that’s just till 3am, you’ve still got the rest of the night to play with.
• Tricky – responsible for one of my all time favourite albums, Maxinquaye – plays Koko (Sept 22) to promote album Mixed Race. Ever evolving, I don’t expect a return to the suffocating headiness of
Maxinquaye but it’s sure to be an unpredictable evening.
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