Malcom Middleton GB

Lu 7 sept 20h « Middleton incarne le genre d’ami cabossé avec qui l’on rêverait de vider un bar pour se réchauffer » : cette image du mu- sicien écossais, sortie des pages de l’incontournable revue indie L’Abri Magic en 2009, parle d’elle-même. Mais dix ans après la sépara- tion de son groupe, les mythiques Arab Strap, le « clown triste » Ouverture des portes à 19h30 du rock britannique a su rebondir sans jamais lâcher sa plume in- comparable ; en attestent ses nouveaux projets succédant à cinq En collaboration avec L’Abri albums acoustiques en solo. Si l’année passée il collaborait sur un album écrit et illustré à quatre mains avec son compatriote David Le 7 sept à 18h à la Shrigley, artiste plasticien non seulement (re)connu pour son hu- Bibliothèque de la Cité, mour absurde mais aussi pour la beauté de ses dessins, Malcolm rencontre avec Malcolm Middleton a récemment rebranché les guitares électriques avec Middleton sous le titre Music sa nouvelle et passionnante formation, Human Don’t Be Angry. Un and Word. second souffle artistique lumineux !

Rencontre en partenariat avec les malcolmmiddleton.co.uk Bibliothèques Municipales

© DR

Dossier de presse 1 La Bâtie 2015 Malcom Middleton

Malcolm Middleton is a guitarist and songwriter who shot to relative success in the late 1990s as one half of the Scottish alternative rock band Arab Strap. Over the course of 10 years they released 6 studio albums and toured most of the toilet-sized venues of the world, even playing some mid-sized bathrooms latterly during their well-in-advance-announced farewell tour in the winter of 2006.

Malcolm released his first solo album in 2002 after the band took a short hiatus following the release of their 5th studio album The Red Thread. 5:14 fluoxytine seagull alcohol john nicotine was a very minor hit and was criticised and acclaimed by some parts of the music press, as well as by a new following of miserable folk who also liked slow music and bleak comedy.

After this came the 2nd album Into The Woods, an upbeat fiasco which masked some deftly morbid ly- rics. Well received by friend and friend alike the album was awarded 5 stars (*****) by Mojo magazine, as well as being placed at number 8 in their best albums of 2005 list.

Reeling from all this new-found positivity and still in shock from the split of his band of 10 years, Mal- colm went into the studio in the summer of 2007 to record his magnum opus. That didn’t happen. What did happen though was an outstanding slab of upbeat Scottish indie pomp-rock. Featuring the number (3)1 smash hit Christmas single We’re All Going To Die Malcolm well and truly burst through into the mainstream, and for most of late 2007 and early 2008 teenagers up and down the land were wearing « Malcky Says... » t-shirts and declaring a pending or distant death to all who didn’t yet realise the inevitability of their situation. That didn’t happen either, but it nearly did.

Where to go from here ? One way, obviously. Soon followed the acoustic leftovers and covers LP Sleight Of Heart. Offered to his label for free because he felt so bad about all of his un-recouped royalties, this was perhaps the most ill-advised moment of « Malcky’s » career. However all was not lost in the daftness of this charity as the album contained some of his most memorable and audience-pleasing moments in the likes of Blue Plastic Bags and Total Belief. A brief tour to promote the LP was followed by a slump and some moping around the summer festivals. Little did Malcolm know that the Autumn of 2008 would give birth to... the most boring and lacklustre album of his career (so far). Waxing Gibbous. The title implied some kind of fruition, a coming to roundness, which indeed he was. Inspired by the McVities’ biscuits « Hob Nobs » and being « mundanely depressed with life but not in a cool way that needed expressing », this was the sound of one man stuck in a room with cheap midi instruments, no motivation beyond a desi- gnated small monetary advance, and the pressure of following on from a leftovers and covers acoustic album. The album did have a couple of stand-out moments however, like the single Zero, if you played it more than once. As the album reached the shops and a few pairs of hands circa mid-2009, Malcolm declared that this would be his swansong and that he was retiring from the music biz. And off he went. Sans histrionics. And then he came back in 2011 with an unreleased collection of old songs from his pre-Arab Strap days: A Quarter Past Shite. In 2012 Malcolm once more surfaced above the musical radar with his « Human Dan’t Be Angry » pro- ject. Consisting of mainly instrumental compositions the album was mildly ruined by the trio of songs that he did bother to sing on. It was however nonetheless shortlisted for the Scottish Album Of The Year Award, but it didn’t win.

Since then Malcolm has been quietly frittering away at his difficult (impossible) 6th album. There is no further news on this. Nothing true anyway. He has recently finished a collaboration album with the artist David Shrigley called Music And Words where he was in charge of the music and David of the words.

2015 will see the release of the second HUMAN DON’T BE ANGRY album on Malcolm’s own Around7Cor- ners Records. The album Electric Blue is limited to 500 vinyl copies and is the first part of a trilogy to be released between now and 2017.

Dossier de presse 2 La Bâtie 2015 Extrait de presse

Artiste écossais acide, drôle et talentueux, nommé pour le très prestigieux Turner Prize en 2013, David Shrigley n’est pas un inconnu pour la musique. Il a réalisé quelques clips (Blur ou Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy), a dessiné de nombreuses pochettes (les 12 couvertures du Friend Opportunity de Deerhoof en 2007 notamment, la pochette de la récente compilation des 10 ans de Full Time Hobby), a déjà enregis- tré un premier album de spoken word, Shrigley Forced To Speak With Others en 2006.

On se souvient surtout de son formidable livre Worried Noodles (The Empty Sleeve), faux disque de vraies chansons interprétées ensuite, sur l’album du même nom publié l’année suivante, par Grizzly Bear, Stevie R. Moore, Franz Ferdinand, Liars, Hot Chip ou David Byrne.

Shrigley revient à la musique cette année, épaulé par Malcolm Middleton, ex-Arab Strap, pour un al- bum à quatre mains mais à beaucoup plus d’idées tordues. “J’ai mal interprété le sens des mots de David, donc j’ai créé un style de musique accompagnant de mauvais thèmes” explique, pince-sans- rire, Middleton dans le communiqué accompagnant l’annonce de l’album.

“J’ai pris une chanson, Sunday Morning, pour une attaque acerbe de la pompe et de l’arrogance de la religion, mais ai ensuite été informé qu’elle parlais en fait de zizis et avait été enregistrée un dimanche matin. Ça fait néanmoins un disque intéressant.” L’album se nomme Music and Words. (...) Thomas Burgel, Les Inrocks, octobre 2014

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Sur www.batie.ch Photos, vidéos et autres infos en lien avec le Contact presse spectacle Camille Dubois Sur www.batie.ch/presse [email protected] Photos libres de droit pour publication médias +41 22 908 69 52 +41 77 423 36 30 La Bâtie 2015 Dossier de presse 3 La Bâtie 2015