Love Is Love
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In The Middle Issue 11 13.02.15 Love is Love Music • Clubs • Fashion • Arts • Lifestyle and Culture • Society 2 Credits Editor-in-Chief Jasmine Andersson [email protected] In The Middle Associate Editor Benjamin Cook inthemiddle@thegryphon. co.uk Music Andrew Kemp Daoud Al-Janabi Oliver Walkden Emily Watts Clubs Harriet Shepherd Maddie Davison Fashion Esther Eldridge Jessie Jones Claire McQue Tiffany Grous Emma Clark Arts Hannah Woodhead Melissa Baksh Rachel Groocock Beth Galey Lifestyle and Culture Laura Rowlands Jess Murray Katie Dawtry Society Maddy Keating Columnists Ellie Parkes Jen Pritchard Creatives Ben Sandin Frazer Sparham Sophia Kossoski Head of Photography Sam Broadley In The Middle Ad 3 Contents 5 18 In The Middle caught up with Ali Wells The tide seems to be turning on the to talk about ten years of Perc Trax, his box though as transgender actors are changing tastes, and why he wants to finally allowed to leave their mark. And make techno political. what is the videO games industry doing to challenge stereotypes of the LGBTQ community? 9 20 Frankie Knuckles, The Warehouse and Got a case of the munchies? We visited DJ Sprinkles. How House got back in touch the long-anticipated The Joint and it with its queer roots. definitely didn’t dissapoint. 10 21 David Bowie, Annie Lennox and Tilda Everything you need to know about Swinton. Androygnous fashion has always LGBT Society. They’re there if you need captured our imaginations. We loOk at help, or just if you want to show your the success and future of gender-netural support. fashion. 13 23 Despite the runaway success of Pride and This week our columnists are pissed off. The Imitation Game last year, the struggle Pissed off at the internet, and sick of you for LGBTQ representation on the silver all hating on Valentine’s day. screen continues. In The Middle Contents 4 Interview: Jack Savoretti It’s 11am and the phone is ringing. I am and such reflection of rawness is what any surviving on four hours sleep from the listener is looking for. previous night, but I am immediately woken by a soft, friendly, Italian voice on the other This honest sound is reflected in the Gig end of the phone, belonging to the extremely production process. Each song on the album talented Jack Savoretti. was written in a single day. Savoretti’s openness is refreshing and very engaging. Savoretti, now releasing his 4th album, I have to remind myself that we are not old Written in Scars, has taken a completely friends, and yet I feel I can understand his Guide different approach to prior albums. Co- entire musical journey. written and co-produced with Samuel Dixon, Adele’s musical director, and rhythm “When you write a song, you go into Friday 13th February and blues expert, all your subconscious”, it’s The Twilight Sad at Jumbo Reocrds, Free songs have developed about “here and now”. A healthy dose of scottish melancholy from “rhythm upwards”. This immediacy draws delivered through the medium of loud Though Savoretti When you me further into the guitars. states “100%, lyrics are “ conversation and it is equal to music,” this write a song, clear that music is what Saturday 14th February emphasis on rhythm Savoretti calls a form of Django Django at The Wardrobe, £15 shines through in a you go into your “craftsmanship”. With Django Django bring a tidy side-helping of motivated sense of influences like Simon spice to guitar music’s staple ingredients. purpose in each track, subconscious.” and Garfunkel, and accompanied by lead singer of Sublime, Sunday 15th February soulful, husky vocals. Bradley Nole, it is LUU Music Society Charity Concert Tribal sounds and a emotion that Savoretti at Leeds Town Hall, £10 rooted feel are evident in songs like ‘Home’ connects to and creates. Beautiful music for a beautiful cause. A and ‘Written in Scars,’ and the recurrence of LUUMS ensemble showcase that shouldn’t be “revolution” and “fight” throught the songs’ He tells me he is very excited about missed. lyrics, demonstrate the artist’s full presence his upcoming tour, especially his biggest with the listener. This makes sense when headline show in London, 4th March at Ten at Wharf Chambers , £4 I am told that while the first three albums Shepherd’s Bush Empire. Jack Savoretti will Warm ambient music in a warm ambient were written in the midst of experiences, be playing at the Brudenell Social Club, 15th setting. even pre-emptive of situations, Written February. in Scars is “post the fight,” a retrospective Monday 16th Februry account of “local and global events”. He is [Nina Fine] Dope Body at Brudenell Social Club, £7 “channelling an idea rather than making it”, Power punk with bulging muscles. Tuesday 17th February Gruff Rhys at Brudenell Social Club, £16 Everyone’s favourite Super Furry Animal will sing, purr, growl and howl. Wednesday 18th February Arrested Development at Stylus, £20 The band, not the TV show. Still good though. In The Middle Music 5 In The Middle with Perc “I never really had a plan for the label”, artwork for the Perc Trax 10th Anniversary to turn it into a slightly harder techno track. says Ali Wells. Discontented by how long Slowly Exploding vinyl releases. I’m over that.” it was taking smaller labels to put his music out, Wells found himself with spare Wells’ music also manages to be distinct Wells has also pursued a change in terms cash due to a redundancy package and a by virtue of how head on he can be of performance, playing more shows outside question; “What better way to spend your politically. His latest album, The Power and of the club space that has long defined spare redundancy money than to press up The Glory features a track called “David him. He recently graced Shipley’s Golden some records and see what happens?” The and George”. “The political side of things Cabinet for a stunning show where he result is Perc Trax; initially created to put is definitely something I’d like to expand,” followed on from noisey drum therapists out tracks under his Perc alias, it is now Wells states. “I would never ruin a track with Sly & the Family Drone, who are decidedly celebrating its 10th anniversary as one of sloganeering vocals. There’s nothing worse not on the deeper spectrum of techno that the UK’s most endearingly abrasive techno than a really politically outspoken track Wells usually follows. Looking back at labels. where the music isn’t strong.” He is definitely the gig, Wells considers this a challenge aware of the danger musicians face by navigated successfully. This bodes well, Though he now regularly puts out music introducing political elements to their especially having recently announced a by other artists, the label has always show at London’s Birthdays with friend maintained its core intention, of providing Dan Chandler, whose anti-club attitude has Wells with ammunition for his DJing. This “What better way influenced the shift between this sort of meant that initially releases were “all over show and standard club nights. the place” but as time has worn on, “things to spend your spare have solidified and become clearer.” This Fundamentally however, some things will clarity comes through in the releases, but redundancy money stay the same. The future of Perc and Perc is considerably more lucid when you listen Trax is about staying the course as well to Wells’ own material. Defined by “huge than to press up some as trying new things as typified by Slowly powerful drums” and a brutalist attachment Exploding. It was important to him to have to abrasion, the Perc sound is nothing if not records and see what “a mixture of the close or established Perc recognisable. Wells puts this down to his Trax family like Forward Strategy Group, experiences as a teen in a rock band that happens?” Truss and Sawf” while also covering newer instead of a drummer had a “little Yahama artists like Happa and those to whom he is drum machine” that “lacked any sort of music, but ultimately he thinks you should. indebted to, like Berlin’s Kareem. power in the drums”. Being teenagers, those “Especially if it’s something you believe in. fortunate bands who did have drums took If you lose a couple of people then so what? Wells will continue his partnership with the piss out of them, which Wells reckons You’ll probably gain a few people at the fellow techno musician Truss, creating must have scarred him psychologically. same time.” releases and DJing together. As for the new, “It’s just something that comes out of me Wells seems content to enjoy the position [because] I don’t want to go back to people This belief that the music is what should he’s in at the moment. Financially Perc laughing at me”. come first and foremost is also part of what Trax is in a good place, allowing for his appears to be a marked shift in everything recent forays into even more experimental Wells has also developed a very singular Wells has done to date. The Power and The territories via his Submit imprint. As far as aesthetic for his label visually, though once Glory featured the likes of Factory Floor’s future collaboration, Wells is open minded. again this was something that came with Nik Void and Dan Chandler of the late Gazelle Twin is a new discovery he really time. “In the beginning I had this idea that it Dethscalator and Sex Swing contributing the admires though nothing is planned, and didn’t matter and… it’s all about the music.” sort of abstract and abrasive vocals befitting perhaps, he might even follow Surgeon’s As with most things, this changed with a Wells’ releases.