Arts, Music & Events Preview, January 2012

As mentioned in a previous post, the Midwinter supplement of Lass Fest is ongoing at Lass O’Gowrie with an array of comedy and drama productions until Sunday 29th, but there is plenty more to shelter you from the gales.

We’ll start with a relaxed event on Wednesday 11th; down in Didsbury there’s a Manchester Friends of the Earth endorsed film night, screening ‘No Impact Man’, in which New Yorker Colin Beavan decides to eliminate his personal environmental impact for one year.

Onwards to Thursday 12th, which is when the top shout on the Song, By Toad label / blog’s tips for 2012 list, Easter, will be headlining a show at Dulcimer with fellow reverb-friendly post-rockers Outer Dark (three quarters of To Sophia) and Cyril Snear. Before you head along, you will have had ample time to discover and download (legally; ie paying the music maker) the new Borland EP, Romantic Animals, which is organised via local label Gulf Records and sits in the early Nathan Fake-esque cosmic soundscapes corner of electronica.

If you were playing a magical version of Monopoly and encountered a Community Chest card that says you could be a giant for one day then Saturday 14th might be the day to opt for, so that you could leapfrog through town and sample a bit of each of the following. Mellowed out ambient duo A Winged Victory For The Sullen pop into Academy 3 to emit some peaceful tones, the Underachievers clubnight continues its Roadhouse stint by welcoming local indie favourites Brown Brogues and Great Waves and Kraak welcomes the justifiably hotly tipped Trailer Trash Tracys. Given the lack of such a card, you’re going to have to take a chance and choose.

Take a deep breath for a few days after that one.

The first Now Then Manchester show for this year of supposedly imminent oblivion will play host to Dan Haywood’s New Hawks, Samson & Delilah and Ottersgear. Haywood himself has been likened to Nick Drake and Mark Kozelek by critics who were running out of superlatives to describe his self-titled debut album, released late in 2010. That LP documents the ornithologist Haywood’s five years of bird-and-people-watching during travels around Highland Scotland. Combined with the New Hawks, a band comprising talented musicians such as Paddy Steer, Mikey Kenney and Mia Bleach, Dan emits a crazed stage presence, which can be sampled on Thursday 19th at Dulcimer.

If your disco feet are getting itchy by now, then never fear! Casiokids are here. I remember when ‘Fot I Hose’ planted itself in my subconscious back in the day and it hasn’t left since, such was the rhythmic infection bestowed. The Scandinavians’ sophomore LP is due out this year to coincide with a tour that stops at Deaf Institute on Friday 20th.

Humble Soul, believe it or not (you'll have to believe it because it's the truth), will have been promoting some of the area’s finest music for five years this month and have assembled a typically stellar bill for the occasion. Denis Jones, Paddy Steer, Table, Aidan Smith and GladEyes all jostle for attention at Band On The Wall on Saturday 21st. Then as an after party option the Spektrum attic club at Sankeys hosts another edition of Continue through the early hours, this time roping in a recently arrived Manchester resident in the shape of R&S and Magic Wire signee Lone.

Some more folky types will be showcasing some songs at Dulcimer on Sunday 22nd; Imploding Inevitable presents the Manchester leg of Laura J Martin’s album launch mini-tour. As a multi-instrumentalist (flute, piano, mandolin) who favours a looping pedal to build her compositions, Martin brings an off-kilter zaniness to the alt-folk template, leading chirpy melodies through meandering sonic textures. Emily of former Red Deer Club cohorts Stealing Sheep supports in Emily & The Faves guise.

Last year an arts group based at Islington Mill decided that the best way to counter the public sector cuts would be to subject their work to a fiery communal death, very much shaped by its participants, in order to rise again from the ashes with new ideas and outlook. The Artists’ Bonfire returns this year with concern for funding in the arts still ablaze, but interpretations of the event needn’t be as incendiary as the fires, as artists are encouraged to join for reasons both political and personal. This will take place at Islington Mill on Thursday 26th but be aware that the deadline for submissions is Friday 20th.

Warehouse Project may be cocooned for hibernation again pending an announcement of their new lodgings – supposedly in, around or nearby Manchester – but that won’t stop them from treading a nomadic path along with Drop The Mustard in pursuit of some of the best international electronic musicians. Nicolas Jaar is scheduled for Saturday 28th with the likes of Scuba and Damu at the ever impressive Sound Control, which is entering its third year in the dubiously named Southern Quarter.

Also on 28th will be Air Cav's first show of 2012 across the Irwell at the Kings Arms

And if neither of those are striking the right chord then there's the grand reopening of Antwerp Mansion, Rusholme’s answer to Islington Mill. No concrete details as yet, but they don’t tend to operate on anything less than full-speed so it’ll be worth a look. And while your eyes are on the Mansion, have a glance down to the Now Then Manchester monthly there; 4th Thursday of the month from February. More info soon...

On the subject of self-promotion, our monthly Sunday Soirée slot at Dulcimer recommences on Sunday 29th. That one opts for an acoustic feel featuring Dr Butler’s Hatstand Medicine Band and Aidan Smith, with support from James Munro and Shen. Future Sundays will assemble some of the best local comedy (February) and electronica (March), all maintaining an earlier start of 5pm.

Neko Neko has a new single ('Trouble In The Streets' / 'Ya Playin'') lined up for vinyl release via My First Moth on Monday 30th, so I suggest you dust off your record player in preparation. Also scheduled for that day, the home of the aforementioned Samson & Delilah, Little Red Rabbit Records have a taster for Last Harbour's forthcoming album in the form of a single entitled 'Never'.

To finish the month off, Grey Lantern are teaming up with dependable shoegaze selectors Sonic Cathedral, whose signings of a few years back, The Early Years, have reformed and are back on the gig trail, calling at Kraak on Tuesday 31st.

A quick peek into February illuminates an enticing double promoted by Hey! Manchester. Saturday 4th sees a Jesca Hoop show at The Annexe room in The Cornerhouse and then on Monday 6th they bring back the folk / electronica crossover collaboration King Creosote & Jon Hopkins, this time at Central Methodist Hall.

Then a little further along is a special tour for Now Then interview alumnus The Electronic Exchange, who are set to treble in numbers for a full band performance at Kraak on Friday 10th. Also on that bill is Dayse & Aver from the always excellent hip hop collective The Natural Curriculum.

And for the photogenic amongst you, contact The Last Party about appearing in their forthcoming single's video alongside various local celebs from the radio and telly. (The catch is that you'd need to be available over the weekend of Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th February).

I’ll stop there before I chew any further into February...

Words: Ian Pennington

Interview: Touring with Dan Haywood’s New Hawks

In this brief interview conducted during February 2011, poet/singer/ornithologist Dan Haywood discusses critical reception of his 32-track triple-disc record (released on Manchester’s Timbreland Recordings in December 2010) on the eve of several UK dates with New Mexico’s A Hawk and a Hacksaw.

“Defiantly individual” [24/7 mag], Dan Haywood’s New Hawks has already been reviewed as a “cult classic” [24/7 mag]; monumental and rich. Performed live the experience can go from elegant to dangerous in a hair’s breadth.

Matched with the North American duo, these 'Hawk on Hawk' dates promise a night of aural migration. Whilst AHAAH take inspiration from Balkanic eruptions, New Hawks maps a new Highlands - chasing the ghosts of folk, rock’n’roll and psychedelia; found or spliced into the Caithness/Sutherland areas of upper Scotland. As Dan explains, “it's a kind of country music without much human history to go on, made from studying what remains - and examines the severed links rather than perpetuating traditions like folk tries to.”

Here, Dan converses with Tom Bramhall about the project, some of the players involved and what audiences can look forward to at the coming shows.

Dan, last time we spoke like this, the record was on the verge of release. It's a few months on, some reviews have been written. How have people responded?

It was on the verge of release then, and it's still on the verge of something now. But of what, Tom? Of what?

The record has had a fair amount of press. Mostly positive, but it hasn't been much fun for us because the reviews are so often just regurgitations of the label press release. The art of paraphrasing is fit as a fiddle. We're not really learning much.

I assumed it would be tough for people to get a fast, critical turnaround on a project so (apparently) big, but that said - it's no excuse for sloppiness… Could you describe an ideal reader/listener response?

No. But things that our small number of buyers have said have been more illuminating to us than any 'official' verdicts. That's the beauty of spontaneity. They're lucky enough not to be watching the clock and scanning the press release for clues. And illumination is what I need, because the album's still a bit of a mystery to me.

Fans have spread their words on message-boards. Some great, sensitive responses. I like how they've rallied on some of the more far-out comparisons.

Well, some press comparisons have included Fairport Convention haven't they? Because it's faintly folky. We have the wick Mikey Kenney on fiddle, but he's very much his own man, as opposed to Dave Swarbrick, (who's a little over-rated). Superficial resemblances.

Yet to read anybody weave you into a contemporary context though - which surprises me. I’d anticipated some critical reception off the back of the folk revival-revival vibe - I'm thinking about books like Electric Eden, Sweers’ Electric Folk and Brocken’s The British Folk Revival 1944-2002, etc… Bands like Trembling Bells.

There's time yet. We'll get woven into the past. And then the music'll be posthumously contemporary... Or something! I dunno...

The album's partly concerned with folk music; there are new songs on there about folk music... Also experimental songs that emulate folk... But it's not trad and it's not even folk-rock in the traditional sense. The album's too restless.

Folk Roots magazine declined to review New Hawks because they thought it "outside their remit". Man, it's about folk roots!

But what do I know?

You're set to tour the Kingdom with A Hawk and A Hacksaw…

Yes. We do about nine or ten dates with them in April. Some as a small band, some with the usual larger set-up.

On the surface it looks like a nice marriage. The two acts could be seen to share some similarities. It feels like AHAAS are exploring Turk, Euro and Balkanic threads in much the way you're mutating Anglo-Celt, American and again, European stuff?

Yes, you could be right. I'm interested how the music will relate each night. I look forward to it, because AHAAH fans are broadminded adults; open-minded, because their music truly crosses over... I'm hoping we can let our hair down in front of their audiences. Occasionally I tone performances down. Out of fear, see.

What's the fear?

Just plain, old-fashioned fear.

The shows seem to go full spectrum. I've caught you comic and sublime, always dangerous - each night seems to offer a different interpretation of the songs…

Thanks. Yes, it's like an old sex gang trying to spice up its love life. Some of the songs are innately restless, and different sides just come out without any warning. And to complicate things further we throw in more deliberate rearrangements and some tricks. Often there's no set list and the rest of the band chase me around all night. Bill (one of the drummers) hates it. Mind you, I sometimes think he hates everything. We've never done the same set twice... so we're rarely bored. For the April tour I've told myself that we should perform each of the 32 songs from the album at least once over the ten days - in the spirit of equality and to try and keep things fresh. I suppose one of the better things about being commercially woeful is that we don't have to do the greatest hits every gig.

Dan Haywood’s New Hawks play at Islington Mill on 14th April 2011.

Words: Tom Bramhall
Images: Courtesy of Dan Haywood

Tom Bramhall writes for po)))nies www.futurepizza.blogspot.com/

Manchester Records of 2010 (Part Two)

Acrifolia - Lament
[Self-Released]
Nov 2010
This aptly-titled debut offers contemplative combinations of lonely piano and guitar over echoing, swirling backing drones. Lament as a theme is obvious throughout, but, like the introspective emotion to which the word refers, there is little joy in some areas of the record.

The sense of loss is tangible, and that loss is a bassline or percussive element that would help the musical scenes progress. But in a sense it is within these desolate soundscapes that a reflection of lamentation’s stagnant depth as an emotion is strongest. Nuance of volume change is the Manchester duo’s answer to a lack of beats, illustrated on opener ‘Peace Within’, which welds Walls-esque electronic crackling to aching acoustic ivories. The mood largely continues through ‘Inscape’ and ‘Caldera’, as piano mixes between anxious and subdued, while the latter switches to a smattering of restrained optimism akin to Moby’s more cerebral tracks.

Long-held notes lend a sort of half-speed Boards of Canadian interlude feel; perhaps into a beat-less Move D & Pete Namlock or Eno/Moebius/Roedelius should they have favoured sparse monotony over intricacy on more of After The Heat.

While Lament predominantly shuns too much build or development, the final two, lengthiest, tracks have more time to fluctuate under Acrifolia’s downtempo template; succeeding better in holding attention through ringing guitar effects and simple, shimmering beauty manifested through waves of foamy, fuzzy undercurrents. An intriguing debut.



Dan Haywood's New Hawks
Timbreland Recordings
Dec 2010
Manchester’s Timbreland Recordings’ double-disc release of chief raconteur Dan Haywood’s folky stories includes work recorded over more than four years. Fans of The Decemberists should lean in closer at this point; Haywood doesn’t necessarily share the Canadian quintet’s passion for the concept album, but does deliver a similarly engaging collection of tales, hinged together by his lone explorations of remote, rural Scottish coastlines.

The double disc format would test any listener’s attention span, never mind that of the mp3 shuffle generation, but perseverance is rewarded; the songs grow in stature, while Haywood’s distinctive vocals – think Gideon Conn merged with The Decemberists’ Colin Meloy – are cushioned by some dextrous musicianship. Amongst his assembled New Hawks are former 808 State, and current Homelife and solo, multi-percussive talent Paddy Steer, whose shuddering timpani rolls are noticeable in the more free form tangents of ‘Middle Nowhere’.

Elsewhere, the mellow sways and slide guitar of ‘Drinking In The Big Towns’ are welcome comfort against bittersweet vocal tones and the subsequent ‘Spate River’ is a standout; darkly creeping up in its dramatic and scathing narrative; lyrically crisp and eloquently articulated. Settings are generally sparser through the flip CD side, briefly losing musical accompaniment altogether for the a cappella ‘Ghost Post’.



Denis Jones – Red + Yellow =
Humble Soul
Oct 2010
Around the turn of the last century, The Hives proclaimed themselves to be Your New Favourite Band. Whether you agreed with them or not depends on your expectation of what a band should be. With the same degree of certainty, Denis Jones could take that attitude and profess to be your new favourite: 'solo electro-acoustic loop pedal connoisseur'; 'avant garde glitchcore bluesman'; 'folky beatbox live producer’, depending on when and where you may've seen him. It may seem like a wide variety, but it’s a fair response when you’re faced with a veritable deluge of cacophonic sounds, bombarding your eardrums with similar multi-modulation and apparent imprecision.

While his debut humdrum virtue showed potential, its mixed reception was in part indicative of the room for improvement. But there is also a certain glass ceiling for Denis Jones, in that the concept of a song with defined boundaries suffocates his aptitude for irrepressible freeform tangents; the experimentation in soulful electronica is what earned him the accolade of the inaugural beneficiary of Futuresonic's (now FutureEverything) artist development program. Last year’s sophomore Red + Yellow = has taken that on board and aimed to channel the aforementioned live show gusto through its eight tracks.

Many compositions, such as a modification of Tom Waits’ ‘Clap Hands’, the fidgety ‘Sometimes’ and a beautifully crafted homage to the impersonator ‘Elvis’, are familiar to anyone who’s seen his sterling live set; these versions do go some way further to capturing and retaining that raw feel of layered reverberation. ‘Rage’ in particular manages to box in the sheer pounding intensity and intimidating vocal rhythms synonymous with its live production. However, you still feel that boxing this music into recorded format is to its detriment.

A rare collaborative performance at Band on the Wall last January displayed how the latter, more widely instrumental, recordings fit alongside a recognisable acoustic accumulation. The shift into the realms of full-band glitch jazz through ‘New Note’, ‘Conception, Consumption and Radiation’ and ‘Bastion of Blood’ offer a conversely minimalistic approach to the thicker, industrially delivered early-album solo looping.

Ultimately Red + Yellow = follows the same mantra as humdrum virtue in that the most uplifting is saved until last. ‘Blengin’ is very much this album’s ‘Beginning’; indication that better still is to follow. The future’s bright; the future’s Red + Yellow =.


Words: Ian Pennington