GOLDFRAPP: O2 Academy – the Electro- REVEREND BLACK’S ACOUSTIC Djmblaze and Darkspark

[email protected] @NightshiftMag NightshiftMag nightshiftmag.co.uk Free every month NIGHTSHIFT Issue 296 March Oxford’s Music Magazine 2020 “Dance your cares away, worry's for another day!” photo: Jason Warner @ Fyrefly Studios @ Fyrefly photo: Jason Warner

Pandapopalypse Positive thinking and dancing in the face of disaster with Oxford’s big beat bears. Also in this issue: TRUCK, CORNBURY, WILDERNESS, NOCTURNE & OH COMMUNITY line-ups announced Introducing LIMPET SPACE RACE Plus All your Oxford music news, previews, reviews and six pages of gigs for March. NEWS Phone: 01865 372255 email: [email protected] Online: nightshiftmag.co.uk

a tour with The Divine Comedy. Over the years the Oxford-born singer’s songs have been used on CSI: Miami, Bones and Grey’s Anatomy; he has collaborated with Alison Moyet and The Cranberries’ BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB, CATFISH & THE BOTTLEMEN Noel Hogan, and recently formed and THE KOOKS will headline this year’s TRUCK FESTIVAL. a new band, LYR, with poet Simon The 23rd Truck runs from 30th July – 2nd August at Hill Farm, in Armitage; their debut single, ‘Never Steventon. In addition to the main headliners, Blossoms will head up Good With Horses’, is out now. Thursday’s line-up. Other names announced include: Sundara Karma, DMA’S, La Roux, Pale THE OXFORD DEAF AND Waves, The Big Moon, Easy Life, The Pigeon Detectives, The Hives, RICHARD WALTERS releases a HARD OF HEARING CENTRE Swim Deep, Shame, Sports Team, The Magic Gang, Dinosaur Pile Up, new album in May. ‘Golden Veins’ looks set to close at the end of The Lathums, Matt Maltese, The Hara, The Snuts, Chappaqua Wrestling, is the singer’s fifth studio album; March. The venue, in St. Ebbe’s, has Fickle Friends, Lazarus Kane, Lauran Hibberd, Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs it is released on the 8th May on become a regular venue for local Pigs Pigs, The Orielles, Kawala, Genghar, Working Men’s Club, Buzzard Cooking Vinyl and Walters will DIY promoters, notably Divine Buzzard Buzzard, Rhys Lewis, The Pale White, Noisy, Lola Young, be playing a homecoming show at Schism, and is one of Oxford’s most The Goa Express, Aaron Smith, Abbie Ozard, Mr Motivator, Barryoke The Jericho Tavern on the 20th accessible music venues. Currently presented by Shaun Williamson, and The Oxford Symphony Orchestra. May. A single from the new record, th the future of the building is unclear The line-up announcement on the 30 January coincided with the release ‘Kintsugi’, is available to stream but as it stands, the final gig there of earlybird tickets for the festival, which follows on from last year’s sold- now. Talking about the album, will be the Piney Gir, Samantha out weekend, headlined by Wolf Alice, Foals and Two Door Cinema Club, Richard said: “‘Kintsugi’ uses the Waite and Fiona Bevan show on which raised over £100,000 for charities including The Batemans Trust; Japanese art of repairing broken th Helen & Douglas House; Footsteps Foundation and the Game & Wildlife pottery with lacquer, resulting in the Friday 13 March, hosted by Young Women’s Music project as part of Conservation Trust. Tickets are on sale now at truckfestival.com. golden veins of the album title, as a th metaphor for my relationship with their 20 anniversary celebrations. my wife, and my newfound sense would like to thank everyone over Island Statues and Juniper Nights. of creativity and inspiration and the MSRY have gone on indefinite the last three years that we’ve had Kanadia released their debut album very nature of being human. When hiatus. The local metalcore band, the pleasure of performing to, in February 2019 and saw them she and I got together ten years ago, who released their acclaimed ‘Loss’ selling merchandise to, sharing the make the Nightshift front cover I was a mess; I was taking too many EP last year, featuring a guest stage with, the promoters that have debut. ‘Meet the End’ from the drugs, drinking too much, not living vocal contribution from Cancer booked us, the audio engineers album was included in Nightshift’s as well as I should, and as a result I Bats’ Liam Cormier, announced that have made us sound better Tracks of the Year. felt very fragmented. I was broken their decision on Facebook at the than we could’ve hoped for, the and she put me back together. But beginning of February, saying: videographers and photographers DESERT STORM release their st it’s also about rediscovering the joy “Everyone here at MSRY has that captured not only our awful new album ‘Omens’ on the 1 May in life and music again. Kintsugi agreed we need a break from all concentration faces but those who on APF Records. The local rock is an art-form that highlights things about the band for a while. got images of us looking like the titans play a hometown launch show imperfections and for me, when We have all agreed some time 4.5/10s we really are.” at The Wheatsheaf on Saturday rd I meet new people, I’m always ago that it be best if we go on an 23 May; support comes from the relieved to find out that they’ve got indefinite hiatus. We’ve come to this KANADIA launch a new single recently reformed Undersmile, plus flaws too. Those small cracks make conclusion due to personal reasons, next month with their first local Battalion. ‘Black Bile’, the lead us more interesting and stronger.” other endeavours and to concentrate headline gig since early 2019. track from ‘Omens’, is on Youtube Last year Walters celebrated the on more important aspects of our ‘Buried’ will be available to stream now. tenth anniversary of the release of lives at the moment. Note, we are all on Spotify on the 2nd April and th release their his debut album ‘The Animal’ with still great friends and haven’t fallen downloadable on the 10 , the VIENNA DITTO semi-posthumous second album in a vinyl release and a series of shows out.” same day the quartet play at The April. The synth-pop-psych-blues that included orchestral concerts and The message continued: “We Bullingdon with support from Easter duo release ‘Flat Earth’ on the 10th April on Ubiquity Records. A single, FOALS AND SUPERGRASS will headline this ‘Dose of Salts’, is released the same year’s Wilderness Festival. day. The band, formed by singer The local heroes top the bill over the weekend of the Hattie Taylor and synth/guitar man 30th July-2nd August at Cornbury Park. They’re joined Nigel Firth, announced their split by fellow headliner Loyle Carner as well as Kelis, in 2018 after a decade earning a BICEP Live and Elder Island. Kidlington born and reputation as one of the best, and raised reggae legend David Rodigan also features. certainly most chaotic, live bands The festival will be Supergrass’ first Oxfordshire show in Oxford. Talking about the new since reforming last year and follows on from Foals’ album, Nigel said: “This is fitting, triumphant Truck Festival headline set last year. as it’s the album that broke Vienna This year’s Wilderness is the tenth and as well as live Ditto, after we’d been pushing our music, will feature its usual mix of art, theatre, dining ramshackle electronic blues for over and weird and wacky stuff. ten years. After finishing not only Tickets at www.wildernessfestival.com. Cont’d over... composer John Hull. Later in the festival live music NEWS comes from Rebecca Lee & Marie Thompson, Coims & Adam Bohman, and Shirley Pegra with Dom Lash at Ovada warehouse on the 17th March; Hen Ogledd, Katz Mulk, Beth Shearsby, Simon Blackmore and Jacek Smolicki on the 19th at Modern Art Oxford; the 20th sees Parkinson-Saunders, Irene Kurka and Paul Whitty at The Holywell Music Room, while on the 21st Dan Linn- Pearl, Lee Riley, Cities & Memories, BIG JOANIE headline a new one- and Limpet Space Race perform at day festival in April. Fusion Arts, while Clara de Asis, Oh Community!, organized jointly David lacy, Ain Bailey and O Yama by Divine Schism and Freak Scene, O are at Ovada. JACK SAVORETTI AND THE WATERBOYS headline the Saturday takes place at Florence Park th As well as the live performances of Cornbury Festival. Both were acts were announced on the 12 Community Centre on Saturday th Audiograft, hosted by Brookes’ February as the festival drip-feeds its line-up in the build up to the event 11 April – Easter weekend. The th th Sonic Art Research Unit along over the weekend of the 10 -12 July at Great Tew Country Park. event is set to raise money for the with Oxford Contemporary Music, Kid Creole has also been confirmed for the Saturday, with Dido and Van Young Women’s Music Project, features exhibitions at Modern Art Morrison already announced to headline the Friday. which celebrates its 20th anniversary and Ovada. Full programme details Tickets for Cornbury are on sale now at www.cornburyfestival.com. this year. at www.ocmevents.org. Big Joanie, who recently played with Bikini Kill and Gossip and are DEADBEAT APOSTLES have who also co-ordinate the live music GLOFEST AND FLOFEST due to tour with Sleater Kinney, released a new video for their song at The Jericho Tavern, has raised return on Saturday 20th July. The return to Oxford and will be joined ‘Paint a Picture’. The song was over £70,000 for Reading MENCAP twin community events take place by Cheerbleederz; Charmpit; written around World Mental Health since 2013. This year the event in Florence Park with the free, Schande; Me Lost Me; Lande Hekt; Awareness Day and is taken from is partnering with Safe Gigs For family-friendly Flofest running Eilis Frawley; Fight Milk, and their ‘Bring Out Your Deadbeats’ EP Women. Full line-up and ticket info from 11am through to 4.30pm and Snake Chain, plus local acts Junk of last year. The band are currently at www.areyoulistening.org.uk and the ticketed Glofest kicking off at Whale and EB. in the studio recording two new facebook.com/aylfest 6.30pm and running til 23.30. Cuban Earlybird tickets are on sale now, singles: ‘I’m a Man’ and ‘Viva la dance ensemble Rank Kan Kan priced £12, which then go up to Evolution’, due for release in the JAZZ AT ST. GILES celebrate the are the first act to be confirmed for th £16. Oh Community! is an all-ages next couple of months. 900 birthday of St Giles Church Glofest, with Megan Henwood, The event. Tickets are available from The next Day of the Deadbeats with a spring jazz season. Pete Oxley Tropics, The People Versus, Young wegottickets.com. event, hosted and headlined by & Nick Meier’s Guitar Project kick Women’s Music Project, Decovo, the band, takes place on Friday off the special three-show season Manouche and Norren & Adrian so 1st May at The Bullingdon, where on Saturday 2nd May, followed by the recording, but also a successful far confirmed for Flofest. The Deadbeats will be joined by concerts from Oxford University big crowdfunding campaign to raise the A ticket launch event for Glofest Wonderland and Tiger Mendoza. Band The Donut Kings on Saturday money to release it, the band fell takes place at Tap Social on Tickets on sale soon – follow them 16th May and Ben Holder’s Gypsy th apart, leaving the record unreleased. Friday 15 May with details to be at facebook.com/deadbeatapostles. Jazz on Saturday 6th June. Now the money’s all gone but we announced. The regular Jazz at St Giles autumn figured we should release it anyway SELF HELP, LITTLE season returns in September. as the vinyl’s taking up too much OVER THE HILL returns this year BROTHER ELI and THE space in my flat. We’ll be more of after 2019’s sold-out inaugural event. AUGUST LIST are the latest AS EVER, don’t forget to tune into an online phenomenon from now on The celebration of Americana and Oxford acts to be added to the line- BBC Introducing in Oxford every but we can shamelessly direct your roots music, organised by Glovebox up for this year’s Are You Listening Saturday night between 8-9pm on readers toward our Patreon: Live, takes place at Cogges Manor festival. The event takes place on 95.2fm. The dedicated local music st www.patreon.com/viennaditto.” Farm in Witney on Monday 31 Saturday 25th April across various show plays the best new Oxford August. This year’s festival features venues in Reading town centre. Kid releases and demos as well as AUDIOGRAFT runs from the sets from Bennett Wilson Poole, four- Kin was the first Oxford act to be featuring interviews and sessions th nd 12 -22 March, with a host of new times UK Blues Awards nominee announced for the festival. Other with local artists. The show is performances added to the annual Elles Bailey, and Nashville’s new additions to the line-up include available to stream or download at celebration of experimental music Kaitlyn Baker, with more acts to Warmduscher and Matt Maltese, bbc.co.uk/oxford. and sound art. The festival opens on be announced. The festival is open who join BC Camplight, Dream th the 12 with a screening of Notes on to all-ages and is fully accessible. Wife, John, and Melt Yourself Down OXFORD GIGBOT provides a Blindness at the John Henry Brookes Tickets and info at across the day. Are You Listening, regular local gig listing update on Lecture Theatre, a film documenting www.overthehillfestival.co.uk. organised by Black & White Music Twitter (@gigbot), bringing you news of new gigs as soon as they’re SIMPLE MINDS are the latest act to be confirmed for announced. They also provide a free Nocturne Live. weekly listings email. Just contact The Scottish rock stars will play on Friday 19th June at [email protected] to join. Blenheim Palace, performing a Greatest Hits set as part of this year’s four-day live music season. Support comes THE NIGHTSHIFT PO BOX from fellow Scots Deacon Blue. address will cease to exist from th Nocturne Live kicks off onThursday 18 June the end of March. The decreased th with David Gray celebrating the 20 anniversary of amount of physical post has made his ‘White Ladder’ album; he is supported by The it unsustainable. All releases and Lighthouse Family and Nina Pallot. tracks for review should be sent as th Saturday 20 sees Lionel Richie play an already sold- downloads or streaming links to out show. Sunday’s concert is yet to be announced. [email protected]. Tickets and info at www.nocturnelive.com A Quiet Word With worrying about any rules. I think Brothers. To our ears, quite a lot effect change in the world, they must and a simple set of kit to lug about. Confidence Man, a band we admire, of contemporary pop actually also see some of the worst of things. It’s definitely an advantage when have said similar things about being draws on features that big beat acts Do they follow their own positive setting up for gigs if you don’t have indie kids having a stab at dance used heavily, such as the extended message in life? to transport and set up a drum kit. We music. We took a leaf from big beat, crescendos, big drops and use of Rachel: “People say I’m a positive wanted to make sure we wouldn’t by taking samples, chopping them up varied samples. We hear it in loads person. My jobs mainly involve have to turn down too many gigs – if and putting them back together, the of new songs: ‘I Don’t Think I Can interacting with people and helping we ever got offered them – and that Pandapopalypse main difference being that we create Do This Again’ by Mura Masa and them, so even if I don’t necessarily anyone was replaceable, e.g. in case the samples ourselves; typically by Clairo being one recent example. feel it on the day, I try and project they moved abroad, as seems to recording jams or snippets of songs And more generally big beat broke positivity as much as possible, and happen a lot. We could do it all with we’d written, rather than hacking bits the divide between rock and dance then that makes you feel better live performers, which would be ace, from old funk records. So that was that existed in the 90s, and helped anyway…” if there were about 15 of us on stage; also quite a departure: having been create today’s continuum. However, Clare: “It can be tricky, but for so maybe we’ll ditch the laptop – the used to individually composing full we’d welcome a proper mainstream me, it’s about putting things into panda-machine – for our first arena songs on a guitar or piano, we now revival – it’s well overdue!” perspective and realising there are tour, ha!” tend to start with a riff or beat of some things that you have more We guess it makes touring easier. some kind and build from there.” ‘Pandapopalypse Now’ is control over than others.” “100%! We can get everything into out this month, and saying all that Stu: “I fail regularly and fairly a car boot. We’ve even looked into Just as the music is stuff about the band’s exuberance miserably at following our own whether we could feasibly do it awash with positivity, the name and positivity, there’s an almost lead: hence the constant need for with a bike trailer, to be sustainable, Pandapopalypse is similarly melancholic feel to ‘Do Ya Wanna’, reminders in the music we make.” avoid parking issues, and mean we ebullient, if something of a the lead track on the EP, even as it What single piece of life advice don’t have to do rock-paper-scissors spellchecker’s nightmare. The trio to decide who’s designated driver. photo: Jason Warner @ Fyrefly Studios @ Fyrefly photo: Jason Warner wanted something that evoked “Bring back all those sweets and fizzy drinks That’s perhaps something to work happier, more innocent times. on for 2021. Mind you, we once “One night in the Jericho Tavern with E numbers that used to make kids got five people, a drum kit, guitar, we were brainstorming band names bass, guitar amp, sax and clarinet in with some stand-up comics who go crazy. We could give them away to our a Ford Focus, so I guess anything is were rehydrating after their Jericho audience at gigs!” possible.” Cafe gig. We wanted a retro sounding name and we were thinking of things delivers a ‘live for today’ message. would you give to the world? Sadly, the Panda Pops, from our childhood, like Panda Pops, Do we detect some downheartedness “Dance your cares away, worry’s for the kids’ drinks that gave the band but also needed a rock element. In a amid the good cheer? another day!” their name, no longer exist. What moment of genius someone came up Clare: “It’s a song about other now deceased treats from with Pandapopalypse. We tried what helping each other out. It’s about ‘Pandapopalypse Now’ childhood would Pandapopalypse seemed like a billion other options acknowledging when you’re not will be launched with a show at The most like to resurrect, sugary or but nothing quite beat it. We have getting anywhere so need someone to Port Mahon on Friday 13th March, otherwise? to tell people the name at least three pull you along with them, and having with optimism set to trump the Rachel: “All those sweets and fizzy times before they get it, and almost the bravery to set your own direction unlucky connotations of the date. drinks with E numbers that used to everyone spells it wrong. But on in life. I’d say I was going for more Just to enhance those good vibes, the make kids go crazy. We could give the plus side, it is memorable and of an empathetic sound, if that’s a band have picked poet/producer EB them away to our audience at gigs, Googleable, if not easily spellable, thing, than perhaps melancholic, and as support, another artist who brings and they would have enough energy and we only have a black and white building to a positive ending.” a sense of fun to her shows. What to dance all night! In terms of music, printer, so pandas work for flyers.” ‘Make Plans’, meanwhile, feels like a appeals to them about her music? kids TV shows used to have the best “We’re not sure it was provide some light, some positivity lead track, ‘Glitter & Gems’, made it various members were in various That first EP went down an absolute musical sibling to the debut’s ‘Be the “Beanie Tapes brought us together. theme tunes, things like Henry’s important to have fun, upbeat music to counter to darkness. to Number 4 in our end of year Top bits of Europe, America and the storm and saw Pandapopalypse Best’, with its almost lifecoach go- They very kindly asked us to be on Cat, Dangermouse, The Really Wild to listen to, but it’s the type of music Pandapopalypse are that musical 25 – nestled between local big guns Middle East. We all miss it terribly, playing at Cornbury Festival last get-‘em message. Was that something their ‘Continuous Play’ mixtape and Show, The Flumps and Grange Hill we – selfishly – want to make right light. Ride and Foals. but there’s no re-emergence likely summer where they, unsurprisingly, you intended? to play at its launch at the Truck were all great.” now,” say Pandapopalypse when anytime soon. went down well on a hot summer Stu: “Entirely right! Rachel came Store on Cassette Day last summer, Stu: “I miss the Garbage Pail Nightshift asks them if their songs Pandapopalypse are This month the trio “Pandapopalypse is definitely the day – described as “as infectious up with the ‘Be The Best’ lyric and where we caught EB’s set and we Kids, despite getting an unfortunate are a necessary reaction to all singer and keyboard player Rachel are back with a follow-up: main musical thing for us all right as chickenpox but without the melody on the first EP, and I wanted were won over. Her music has a nickname after one of them at school. that’s wrong in the world right now. Ruscombe-King, saxophonist Clare ‘Pandapopalypse Now’, which now, although Rachel still writes irritation.” Was it the intention to make something with a similar sense of playfulness and very smart And there were some sweets called “Partly it’s an internal dialogue,” Heaviside and guitarist and singer carries on where their debut left off: and performs solo on rare occasions, to create music that provoked an theme. It was actually going to be production that creates a unique and fizzy dizzies – little hard boiled they continue, “we need the positivity Stu Wigby. The trio came together exuberant, beat-lead synth-folk-pop and Clare is fairly busy as she plays unabashed positive reaction? one short song, but then I started thoroughly appealing act. We were things with a highly toxic sour sugary ourselves, as a release and distraction last year “to keep busy during down- that’ll make you want to dance and saxophone with Moogieman and Rachel: “Yes! We were drawing writing a second tune and realised I’d stoked when she said yes to play at coating – that probably accounted for from the horrors on the news because time in other projects.” Rachel had then head into your day with a smile the Masochists and The Shapes, and inspiration from 90s big beat acts and used exactly the same chords. That our launch party, although it gives us half of my childhood calories, and it’s true that there seems to be an previously been playing in local folk and sense of can-do. plays with the Oxford Beatles in The more recent bands like The Go! Team is why it now has a bit of a Day-In- a tough act to follow! We will also dentist trips.” extraordinary number of negative outfit Ragdoll as well as pursuing a While that first release came as Sgt Pepper Orchestra.” and Superorganism, so it was always the-Life feel to it: I just shoved the have Enjoyable Listens supporting And looking to the future, should things happening at the moment.” solo career, while Clare and Stu were Rachel, Clare and Stu took time out “Stu does bits and pieces, but going to be fairly upbeat. Clare new song in the middle. Actually, we us, who were unlike any act we have the world – as always teetering on part of previous Nightshift cover stars from other musical projects, the new producing Pandapopalypse’s songs and Stu also wanted to bring over did the same with ‘Take Me Home’. seen before: a real charismatic pop the brink of myriad disasters – avoid These are dark days The Balkan Wanderers. EP sees Pandapopalypse as their takes him forever, so he hasn’t time some of the energy that the Balkan The verse in ‘Make Plans’ is an crooner with lots of stage presence.” an apocalypse and instead headed indeed – both literally and Their debut EP, released exactly main focus with both Ragdoll and for too much else!” says Clare. Wanderers had. I came up with some affectionate, if not particularly witty, full-on into the pandapopalypse, figuratively. As Nightshift chats a year ago, was an effervescent The Balkan Wanderers on indefinite Pandapopalypse is quite a departure highly motivational lyrics, and had a riposte to Alice Cooper’s ‘School’s As well as that what could we expect – should we be to local electro-pop-cum-big beat blast of good vibes: a giddy mess hiatus. from what each of the trio have done desire to bring joy and dancing to the Out’. I was trying to point out that hometown launch gig, the release afraid or excited? dance trio Pandapopalypse, the of skronking sax, skittering beats, “Ragdoll reached a point where our before, which if not exactly trad folk, world, so we’ve run with that!” work brings rewards, as exemplified of the new EP will hopefully allow “That depends on whether skies are a grim gun-metal grey in squawking synths and chopped-out attentions turned to other things in was rooted in various folk traditions. The influence of 90s big beat on by Mr Furnier himself.” Pandapopalypse to head out on the you’re a goodie or a baddie. The the wake of Storm Dennis, which guitar that partied round Rachel’s our lives and other projects,” says Was it hard to transition to something Pandapopalypse’ sound is well Pandapopalypse’s positivity might road and take their message to a pandapopalypse, when it comes, will has brought devastating flooding to pure, smoky jazz-folk voice to make Rachel; “the end was amicable but so much more pop? documented and freely admitted; is be seen as either appropriate or wider world. The three-piece line-up only wipe out nastiness, leaving a parts of the UK. Around the world for a relentlessly exuberant pop a resurgence is not on the cards, “We were keen to deliberately depart that music they grew up with and is it ironic given the trio’s day jobs. makes for a pretty compact set-up; world filled with good people, music, populist demagogues are taking over; sugar high. It was dance-friendly particularly as not all of us live in from what we’d done previously, due a mainstream revival? Rachel’s work involves getting could they imagine having to expand dancing, joy, fizzy pop, and black nationalism is on the rise; climate pop music with FUN writ large Oxford anymore.” to make a clean start. But that did “Totally, we used to thrive on it in people involved in campaigns at The at all as and when bigger stages or and white furry mammals.” breakdown is ever more evident and across its forehead. Nightshift’s “True to name, several of the mean we had no idea what we were the late 90s heyday, when it was Citizen’s Advice Bureau; Stu is an events beckoned? Brexit has finally happened. review of the EP concluded: “never Balkans took to some seriously doing! Making electronic music was a staple in clubs, and particularly evolutionary biologist, and Clare is “We put some thought into our Pandapopalypse release In dark times, music can go one of mind the apocalypse, here’s the long-distance wandering, and spread pretty exciting, and the naivety can liked acts like Fat Boy Slim, a climate scientist studying climate setup at the start, and deliberately ‘Pandapopalypse Now’ on Friday two ways: rise up in anger and match Pandapopalypse and everything is themselves pretty well spread around facilitate creativity – we just went Propellerheads, and The Chemical change, so as well as working to went for practicality: few members the 13th March. the ferocity of those it opposes, or going to be bloody great.” The EP’s the globe, “ adds Stu. “At one point by what sounded good to us, without Sponsored by WORRY ‘Good Person’ (Self released) RELEASED Good things come in small packages. Four songs in little more than seven minutes means that the THE SUBTHEORY THE GREAT ‘Good Person’ EP is a bit like an early Mike Tyson fight: it throws a series of well placed and wild ‘Ventura Blvd’ WESTERN TEARS punches and gets everything over and done with as (RetroReverb) quickly as possible. Andy Hill, the man behind The Subtheory, ‘Trials of the Apple Isle’ There are few bands around at the moment that describes this EP as “an electronic journey (Self released) commit quite as strongly to the hardcore sound as through the decaying night streets of Los Angeles. The Great Western Tear’s new album is based on Worry and ‘Good Person’ sees them continuing to This isn’t the LA of palm trees, Rodeo Drive and stories, emotions and the landscape of Tasmania. blaze their way through four songs that leave you Ferraris but closer to the decaying, rain sodden Singer-songwriter Dava Waterhouse is a traveller breathless by the time the last beat hits. city streets of Bladerunner.” by nature and has previously sung deeply emotive With opener ‘Consequences’ they seem content The Bladerunner comparison is appropriate with songs about far-off lands and the loss and love that to keep things relatively mid paced, indulging in these four instrumental tracks harking back to two inhabits them. OCTAVIA FREUD a relentless rolling riff and growled vocal from ORDER#227 separate strands of 80s music: the dark electronics On the face of it ‘Trials of the Apple Isle’ is Nathan Bell. “I didn’t want to let you down / I only of early synth-pop and industrial music, and the earthier and more tethered than the band’s previous ‘Smoke & Mirrors’ ever want to make you proud,” he hollers as his ‘This Promised Land’ epic guitar solos of bands like Toto at times. releases, but it gradually reveals itself a slow- (Self released) band thunders around him with a finely controlled (NotOneStepBackRecords) One of the few short passages of human voice burning album, one of subtle shifts rather than bold On the surface there seems to be a lot of love aggression. ‘Know When To Rest’ ups the ante in Order#227 first gave Nightshift a copy of here comes right at the start – a cheesy cinema strides. At the heart of every song here is Dava’s on Octavia Freud’s new album. Just look at the terms of aggression, with Luke Allmond’s filthy their debut full album at a gig last September announcement which enhances that 80s feel even retro cheesy, as on the flouncy synth sounds on rich, rough-hewn baritone, a voice that’s not so track titles: ‘Love Me Again’; You Love To bass tones riding roughshod over Joe Turner’s when they were supporting punk veterans The further. ‘Vengers Revenge’, but that’s compensated for much hangdog as slightly battered and bruised: Watch’; ‘End Love/Solo’; ‘I Am Lost to a Higher phenomenal drumming. It ebbs and flows between Xtraverts. Not only did we no longer have the From here it’s into moody, clinical electronica, on the darker, grimier ‘Two Years’, the track that experience having lent it a sense of resignation. It’s Love’. In reality these ten tracks conjure up explosions of speed and an unsettling scree of noise CD by the time we got home, we don’t even like a hip hop-conscious take on John Carpenter’s most sounds like it could live alongside Vangelis’ tempered in the album’s finest moments by co- images closer to dimly lit basement S&M bars at the close. “Know when to rest” hollers Bell, remember being given it. Which feels appropriate compositions for Halloween or Escape From New seminal soundtrack, although with the epic guitar singer Fern Thornton, whose far lighter tones bring than soft-focus honeymoon scenes. while clearly not really taking his own advice. Even for a band whose mission statement seems to be York; you can imagine a couple of the pieces here it’s maybe more Terminator, or even Dune. a little sunshine to the likes of opener ‘Spirit Well’ Octavia Freud – the work of musician Martin as the pace slows, there’s a malevolence at play, “Six Cans of cider and The Truth”. being used on drill tracks. Synths swirl, wow and Evoking such movies is obviously the intention or ‘Kind Woman Highway Blues’, cutting through Andrews – is part of a tiny but fertile local suggesting that the band is readying themselves for From a bellowed “It’s alright for you but not for us bubble ominously, electronic beats clatter and and Hill has created a neat, unabashedly retro the solemnity of the latter. She’s also pivotal to the electronic music sub-scene alongside the likes another onslaught. And there is another onslaught, / Fuck you, lying cunts!” on ‘In the Bag’, through click with steely precision and at times you can soundtrack that balances cheese and sleaze with record’s high point: the turbulent ‘Let It Storm’, of Tiger Mendoza, Means of Production and The with ‘False Gods’, which sounds like an off choice sloganeering lines like “Gonna kill you cos almost hear the rain sheeting down onto grim, something like cyborg efficiency. released as a single back in 2018, sounding like Subtheory, all eschewing the modern, mangled cut discovered in the Black Flag vaults. Worry you’re different to me” on ‘Generation Genocide’, grey pavements. Occasionally it gets very slightly Dale Kattack Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra cast adrift on lightweight incarnation of the term for darker, save their best til last with ‘Judge’; discarding Order#227 are old-school anarcho-punk street a tempestuous ocean, Ben Heaney’s violin only heavier, more austere electronic sounds. the straight-up hardcore approach, they throw scrappers: beer in one hand, Molotov in the other, blastbeats into the mix alongside gut-punching influences, it takes some skill to create music adding to the tension in the song as it builds to a In Octavia Freud’s case the starting points are “Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me” painted on bass, squalling guitar and a howled vocal. It lasts THE ELEPHANT TRIP that feels ‘real’ and like something more than a stormfront of cumulonimbus. 70s synth pioneers Suicide: from the reverbed- the back of their battered leather jacket. 90 seconds but doesn’t need to hang around any generous pastiche. The sparse arrangements on tracks like ‘Still Wild, to-buggery vocals of the title track and the Across a dozen songs in just 30 minutes they ‘The Devil At The River’ longer. Seven minutes is all it takes to prove that Simon Minter Still Threatened’, just voice and guitar, find The giddy yelps on ‘No Final Light’, to the almost kick it out bolshy and simple in the style of third- Great Western Tears dropping into too-standard rockabilly propulsion of ‘You Love to Watch’, Worry are a band to take seriously. Whether they’re wave punk acts like Anti Pasti, Vice Squad and, / ‘Surf Flamenco’ downbeat country territory, while ‘Shadow Cast’ Vega and Rev are Andrews’ touchstones. good people or not, they’re more than capable of at their high octane best, GBH. Subtlety, both (Self released) borrows from classic country blues without adding He’s at his best when he’s at his darkest: the making vital and breathless punk. musically and lyrically, doesn’t so much take a The first release from Oxford psychedelic types APHRA TAYLOR much, but there’s always something better round bubbling, lo-fi minimalwave of ‘Photographs and Sam Shepherd backseat as get left at home to watch the battle The Elephant Trip, whose vocalist and bass ‘The Night Dances’ the corner: banjo and steel guitar lifting ‘In the the lysergic ‘Love Me Again’ that sounds like unfold on telly as they cover social injustice, male guitarist Jo Chapman has a long, rich history Valley’ to greater heights, touching on The Velvet Depeche Mode through the prism of a fractured violence and euthanasia among a host of fun issues. of exploratory musical wig-outs in this town, (Four Red Points) Underground at its peak, while ‘Fuji Time’ too is sound mirror. Best of the lot is the sleek, dark ‘Stay Alive’ is a rare moment when the trio let the ‘The Devil At The River’ and ‘Surf Flamenco’ Named after a poem by Sylvia Plath, Aphra wilder, while retaining a heavy heart. ‘Safety in Numbers’. pace slacken a little and they lose sight of what showcase two sides to the band, albeit ones that Taylor’s debut EP shares a similar sense of Closer ‘Van Diemen’s Land’ (the original name The album tends to run out of steam towards makes them work; ‘Pub Crawl’ is pure yobcore – bewilderment, sorrow and longing as that great are both very much enrobed in the music of the for Tasmania) is a classic tale of a man lost in the the end; ‘We Are Killers Tonight’ should be Angelic Upstarts via Cockney Rejects – replete poet’s work. mid-to-late 1960s. wilderness and a woman left behind, but mixed up scowling industrial bleakness but needs to be with closing c-bomb, while ‘Paedo Playground’ Like fellow local singer Joely, 17-year-old Of course, much time has passed since the 60s, with colonial barbarism and an overbearing sense much, much heavier and loses the plot when the is the band’s most memorable anthem: all nonce, Aphra sounds older than her years as she providing at least a few generations’ worth of of mortality. Not only does it once again showcase piano comes in, while ‘End Love/Solo’ might little nuance, and a proper beast of a riff to power sings about emotional disturbance, feelings of subsequent acts that pass down an increasingly Heaney’s sublime string skills, it’s a perfect fusion aim for Prince or maybe Heaven 17 with its it all along. being let down by loved ones, a sense of being complex set of influences. So ‘The Devil At of Waterhouse and Thornton’s voices and provides electro-funk but falls short on both counts. Six months after losing that original CD, the band insignificant in an overpopulated world and The River’ sounds as much informed by the a beautiful, sorrowful finale to a richly textured, Mostly though, ‘Smoke & Mirrors’ is enjoyably post us this replacement and it’s safe to say that anxiety about entering adulthood. portentous tones of Echo And The Bunnymen precisely scripted album that rewards repeated low-rent synth-pop, inventive enough to rise Order#227 probably haven’t mellowed an iota in Occasionally such feelings seem to swamp – particularly in the strident, intense vocal style listens handsomely. above its production values to deliver its stark the interim. The worse the world becomes, the her songs; ‘Distortion of Importance’feels not of Chapman – as it does the fuzzy repetition of Dale Kattack message: there is no love here, just the beating more furious they’re gonna get, so choose a side, fully formed, a breathless sigh in the face of Loop and Thee Hypnotics. And that’s before heart of the machine. yeah. all that bad stuff. But at her best she articulates Dale Kattack Ian Chesterton we even reach back enough to mention the twin such existentialism well: ‘Sixteen’ is weary sources of The Doors and just-post-Barrett Pink yet soulful in its sparse arrangement – spidery Floyd, also evident here. acoustic guitar and unimposing drums allowing So we have local ghostly legends recounted; about Ipsden’s highwayman ‘Surf Flamenco’ follows a different path, her voice to do the main work; on ‘Red’ she STEVE DANIELS in ‘Alas My Brother’, with its hints of early Genesis guitaring, and previously set out by a whole lineage that runs captures the craving for more innocent comforts Checkendon’s ‘Green Triangle’ about US Airmen based there in WW2, from Dick Dale to Shadowy Men on a Shadowy that everyone feels at some point as she sings “I ‘Green Triangle’ where he spectacularly rhymes “Jeep” with “eternal sleep”. Then there is the Planet and Man or Astro-man?: instrumental, want to go back to those days” with exactly the (Self released) delightful bluesy lady called ‘Serpentine’ who apparently has the kind of face surfy guitar music that The Elephant Trip have right kind of longing, and in particular on EP “Words are flowing out like endless rain” sang John Lennon, and for Steve that “commits crimes”, and a Medieval mystery ‘Miraculous Beam’, fashioned nailed in terms of accuracy and echoey aural highlight ‘I Thought You Wouldn’t Be Here’, a Daniels words are his prime colours for these twelve pleasing “song paintings”. in the style of Chris de Burgh’s ‘A Spaceman Came Travelling’, another oral delight. lo-fi, grunge-informed lament that’s brittle but During a working lifetime, initially as a school teacher and then onto the narrator that Steve sits well alongside. With this strong, enjoyable pair of songs, The melodically strong. fringes of the music business with Edition UK, Steve has scratched his itch It’s probably true that inside every music publisher there is a personal album Elephant Trip continue in the Chapman tradition Given her age it’s unsurprising that Aphra’s by singing in minor bands with poster-gold names like Plussupport, while gnawing to get out, and with beautiful help from his erstwhile bandmates – Ollie of carving out the reality of a musical whim, songs sometimes sound like works in progress, simultaneously working up his own material for this debut release. His fine Clark (drums), Graham Field (bass) and Matt Arthur (keyboards) – and all with enough technical chops and background but this is a very decent base to be building up voice has a rich, easy quality, much like Justin Hayward, and it’s that, along produced by the redoubtable Ian Davenport at Courtyard Studios, this is Steve’s knowledge to make it sound both authentic and from. with the mining of the folk idiom of fulsome old tales and supernatural stories, legacy time, because off in the land of ghosts you can’t take it with you. original. Even when in the midst of an array of Dale Kattack that brings to mind echoes of the Moody Blues, but without any prog bombast. Paul Carrera OXFORD DUB CLUB: East Oxford and heading off on tour with Mondo Generator Community Centre – New dub club night in as they release new album ‘Violet Hour’ . town, tonight’s opening night featuring Field They’re joined by Reading’s bowel-quaking Frequency Sound System and Truth and Rights doom’n’blues crew Morass of Molasses and Sound System. local sludge-blues/groove-rock stars The THE DIRTY BIG CANAL DANCE BAND: Grand Mal. Wolvercote Village Hall – Ceilidh night with OPEN MIC SESSION: Harcourt Arms – GIG GUIDE Jon Fletcher alongside members of Owl Light Weekly open night. Trio and Xogara, playing English, French and st th SUNDAY 1 FRIDAY 6 Breton dance tunes. th SUNDAY SOCIAL: The Half Moon (3pm) TEMPLES: O2 Academy – The psych-pop SLEDGEHAMMER: Fat Lil’s, Witney – MONDAY 9 – Free afternoon of live music with sets from project returns – see main preview 80s covers. OPEN MIC SESSION: The Castle Lost Dogs, Des Barkus, The Scott Gordon MARCH RYDERS CREED + MOLLY KARLOFF + PETER KNIGHT & JOHN SPIERS: Nettlebed Folk Club – Gigspanner, Steeleye Band, Ady Davey, and Franklin’s Tower. OPEN MIC SESSION: Harcourt Arms – BLACK TREE VULTURE: The Bullingdon th BEARD OF DESTINY + FRANKLIN’S – Classic hard rocking from Staffordshire’s SUNDAY 8 Span and Feast of Fiddles man Knight plays Weekly open night. FRANKLIN’S TOWER + THE SCOTT the first of three shows at Nettlebed this TOWER + MARK BOSLEY BAND: Ryders Creed, touring their new ‘Lost Souls’ th Donnington Community Centre (6pm) – album, alongside grunge/alt.rock crew GORDON BAND + THE WHITE TIPS + month, tonight teaming up with local folk hero Friday 6 nd Free early evening of live unplugged music, MONDAY 2 Molly Karloff, set to release their new EP ASTEROX: The Wheatsheaf (3.30-7pm) – and former Bellowhead man John Spiers. ISLET / DESPICABLE with blues from Beard of Destiny, Grateful KEIFER SUTHERLAND: O2 Academy ‘Supernaturalation’. Klub Kakofanney host an afternoon of free Dead songs from Franklin’s Tower and gothic – David Powers; Nelson Wright; Dr Daniel DRUM&BASS: The Bullingdon – Self- live music in the downstairs bar. th ALUNAH + MORASS OF MOLASSES TUESDAY 10 ZEE: Florence Park rocking from Bosley. P Schreber; Jack Bauer, and again tonight, explanatory club night. JESSE MALIN BAND: The Bullingdon + THE GRAND MAL: The Port Mahon PUZZLE CREATURES: Natural History Country rock Kiefer – see main preview KLUB KAKOFANNEY with KAIJU BLUE – Grimy, downbeat tales from New York Community Centre – Super heavyweight rocking triple bill at Museum – Immersive contemporary dance OPEN MIC SESSION: The Castle – Weekly + THE RELATIONSHIPS + SCREAMIN’ from Jesse Malin, former glam-punk with D Islet’s 2010 set on the Barn stage tonight’s Buried in Smoke show with doom scored by local musician Seb Reynolds open night. IRENE: The Wheatsheaf – The monthly Generation; Ryan Adams collaborator, and remains one of the great Truck Festival and desert sludge riffage from Alunah, fresh in conjunction with Neon Dance and set NANCY KERR & JAMES FAGAN: KK party hosts Gloucester/Dorset techno- mate of Bruce Springsteen, back in the UK shows, the Welsh outfit’s wide-ranging from playing the Heavy Psych Sounds Festival designers Numen/For Use. Nettlebed Folk Club pop-punk duo Kaiju Blue, plus local tweedy having previously supported Chuck Prophet adventurousness and ability to be both psychedelic heroes The Relationships and mayhemic experimental showboaters and a rd and touring new album ‘Sunset Kids’, his first nd rd Aylesbury’s grunge rockers Screamin’ Irene. Tuesday 3 since 2015’s ‘Outsiders’. fantastically cohesive rock band making for Monday 2 TUESDAY 3 ISLET + DESPICABLE ZEE: Florence an unforgettable spectacle. Back then the THE BIG MOON: O2 Academy – Juliette PENGSHUI: O2 Academy – Kerrang!’s Park Community Centre – Strange sounds THE BIG MOON: Powys band refused to even have a Myspace KEIFER Jackson and gang bring the pop – see main Fresh Blood tour brings London grime- from darkest Wales – see main preview punk-metal supergroup Pengshui to town, page – and doesn’t that date them and us preview O2 Academy – and if they’ve succumbed to Facebook, SUTHERLAND: MAKE THIS OUR HOME: Port Mahon The Big Moon are increasingly looking the trio having variously played with Goldie, they’ve remained a resolutely enigmatic, – Local alt.folk and country rock stars The like Truck Festival’s house band as they Foreign Beggars, Gentlemens Dub Club and th almost reclusive act as befits their slightly O2 Academy WEDNESDAY 4 Epstein continue their monthly residency, return again this summer (thus far one of Submotion Orchestra. Received wisdom has it that actors make remote origins. This month they release their tonight with special guests The Deadbeat depressingly few female acts on the line- INTRUSION: Cirkus – Monthly goth, lousy musicians; the bloated, indulgent sixth album, and have punningly named it th Apostles. up) having played in 2016 and 17. They’re industrial ebm and darkwave club night with vanity projects of Bruce Willis, Russell THURSDAY 5 ‘Eyelet’, almost in some kind of “whatchoo DESMOND CHAUCER + POLLY a band whose star continues to rise, even residents Doktor Joy and Bookhouse. Crow and Kevin Bacon outnumber rare, THE ARISTOCRATS: O2 Academy – gonna do about it?” statement. The new JOSEPHINE + KADI LINDA: The given their high starting point. 2017’s debut unexpected turns by Scarlett Johansson Technical instrumental rock fusion from record is their first for the reliably excellent Jericho Tavern – Blues storytelling from album ‘Love in the 4th Dimension’ was a th and a scant handful of others several to Guthrie Govan’s Aristocrats at tonight’s Haven WEDNESDAY 11 Fire Records and finds the trio continuing Desmond Chaucer – previously Chancer. critics’ favourite and earned them a deserved one. Don’t even mention Laurence Fox Club show, the guitarist having made his name THE CALLING: O2 Academy – Stadium- to pursue an off-kilter mix of highly Support from local soul, blues and jazz singer Mercury nomination, but this year’s follow- (seriously, don’t). There’s no doubting playing alongside Asia and Hans Zimmer over sized rocking from LA’s Alex Band, kicking it rhythmic electro-pop, woozy krautrock Polly Josephine, singing standards by Ella up, ‘Walking Like We Do’, has been a Kiefer Sutherland is a superb actor but can the years, while bassist Bryan Beller’s credits out in the vein of U2, Bon Jovi and Pearl Jam. and lysergic dreampop. Isolation, as is so Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Etta James, Nina commercial success too, earning them a he cut it as a grizzled country rocker? He include Stevie Vai and Joe Satriani. often the case, can make for the best kind of Simone and Bessie Smith amongst others. Top 20 placing to go alongside the positive grew up on a ranch and was an adept rodeo SO FETCH: The Bullingdon – Noughties th musical experimentation. Fittingly it’s one LAURA OAKES: Quaker Meeting House – reviews. Where their debut was all post- rider early in life, so he has the roots at retro dance night. THURSDAY 12 of Oxford’s best experimental musicians Pop-friendly country-roots from Liverpudlian grunge indie rock – with Pixies, Sleeper and SPIN JAZZ CLUB: The Wheatsheaf – Jazz least. His show here two years ago proved LIGETI QUARTET, LAURA JURD & supporting them tonight, and on their short singer Laura Oakes, inspired by Dixie Chicks St Vincent the primary influences – the new pianist Alex Hutton is tonight’s special guest. that he’s as authentic and accomplished as SOOSAN LOLAVAR: Holywell Music UK tour – Despicable Zee, the work of and Carrie Underwood. She’s on tour to album is poppier and more lushly produced CATWEAZLE: East Oxford Community you could hope for, not to mention a great Room – Mercury-nominated trumpeter Laura Zahra Tehrani, whose exploration of ideas promote her self-titled debut EP having toured with more prominent piano, keys, vocal Centre showman and excellent company, possessed Jurd returns to Oxford for tonight’s OCM of heritage, longing and belonging through with The Shires, Ward Thomas, and Raintown. harmonies, even flute and horns to match the REVEREND BLACK’S ACOUSTIC of a grizzled and gravelly, whisky-soaked concert, joined by string quartet Ligeti, plus the prism of electronic music, with Middle ROCK FOR HEROES: The Cornerstone, guitars. Juliette Jackson, though, remains CABARET: The Half Moon – Acoustic baritone reminiscent of Steve Earle, Waylon Anglo-Iranian santoor player Soosan Lolavar, Eastern and Persian motifs, all chants, hums, Didcot – Classic rock covers in aid of veterans both an excellent singer and songwriter and blues, country, folk and classic rock with live Jennings and Johnny Cash, that suits his together playing material from Jurd’s new vocal samples and loops, marks her out as charity Help For Heroes, with tributes to one of contemporary indie’s best lyricists, sets from Indiana Dave & The Raiders, Tom boozy songs about stupid stuff he used to album ‘Stepping Back’, plus a selection of Oxford’ answer to Gazelle Twin – and there Queen, The Eagles, Toto, Bon Jovi, Guns N both caustic and romantic as she sings Ivey and Richard Brotherton. get up to, or favourite horses. And unlike specially composed pieces. is no higher praise. Roses, AC/DC, Dire Straits and more. about boys, friendship and escapism: there’s many A-listers he’s more than happy mixing SPIN JAZZ CLUB: The Wheatsheaf – The a real sense of longing about songs like it up in the crowd after shows to share legendary local jazz club hosts veteran British th th ‘Dog Eat Dog’ and ‘It’s Easy Then’, but FRIDAY 13 rocking, spaghetti western soundtracks, Tex- stories, selfies and a drink or two. While saxophonist Art Themen. SATURDAY 7 PANDAPOPALYPSE + EB + ENJOYABLE that old spikiness is never too far from the Mex, rockabilly and shanties from everyone’s most Hollywood stars’ musical careers CATWEAZLE: East Oxford Community METAL TO THE MASSES: The LISTENS: The Port Mahon – EP launch surface and The Big Moon look like being tick down quicker than a bomb timer on Centre – Oxford’s oldest open night continues Wheatsheaf – First quarter-final of the rock show from this month’s Nightshift one of the few indie bands who can make 24, Sutherland looks like he’s in it for the to showcase singers, musicians, poets, and metal bands competition to win a slot cover stars – see main interview a successful transition into the musical duration. Like the whisky, it’s in his blood. storytellers and performance artists every at this year’s Bloodstock, with Transients, feature mainstream. week. Gutlocker, Weaponry and Arimea battling it PINEY GIR + SAMANTHA JON BODEN: The Cornerstone, Didcot out with riffs for weapons. WHATES + FIONA BEVAN: – Post-Bellowhead, Jon Boden continues SIMPLE feat. DJ STINGRAY: The Oxford Deaf & Hard of Hearing his journey to becoming the greatest living Bullingdon – Oxford’s long-running house Centre – Young Women’s Music British folk musician, while having to build and techno club night welcomes Detroit Project host a show as part of their a succession of new mantelpieces to keep all electro veteran Sherard Ingram, aka DJ 20th anniversary celebrations – see his awards on. Virtuoso, maestro, genius – Stingray, whose pioneering style has taken him main preview probably all labels you could stick on him, his to Berlin, Madrid, Glasgow, Amsterdam, Paris PEERLESS PIRATES + skill with the fiddle, as well as myriad other and, London as well as his hometown scene. INFLIGHT MOVIE + THE instruments, put him in the top echelon of folk GARAGE NATION: O2 Academy – UK KENNEDYS ARE COMING: The music people. garage club night. Wheatsheaf – Roustabout 80s indie ANAMANAGUSHI: O2 Academy – Punky roots crew The Rag & Moan Men. Satan priest, touring his new album ‘Taller’, BAND + BEARD OF DESTINY: The Loose chiptune from New York’s leading lights of THE HOLY FOOLS + WATERFAHL + THE reworking classic Whitehouse, MZ.412 and Cannon, Abingdon – Music Cannon night the pixel-pop scene, back with a new album, CIRCLE: The Loose Cannon, Abingdon – Stalaggh songs. ahead of Abingdon’s Make Music Day. ‘[USA]’, six years after their break-out First of a new series of Music Cannon gigs, OPEN MIC SESSION: The Castle ‘Endless Fantasy’ opus, this time featuring raising funds for Abingdon’s Make Music Day th a roster of guest singers amid the clutter and in June. FRIDAY 20 th GNARLAH + LAKE ACACIA + NEW clatter of electronic space debris and sweet- LIVE JAZZ: Abingdon Arms, Beckley TUESDAY 17 REBECCA LEE & MARIE THOMPSON + DEPTH: The Jericho Tavern – Brighton’s natured glitch-pop nuggets. (6.30-8.30pm) – Free live jazz with a trio of COIMS & ADAM BOHMAN + SHIRLEY alt.rock trio Gnarlah make their Oxford debut MUSICAL MEDICINE feat. KAMMA & Stuart Henderson (trumpet), Frank Harrison PEGRA & DOM LASH: OVADA at tonight’s FourTwenny Records show, the MASALO: The Bullingdon – Good vibes (piano) and Mark Hodgson (bass). Warehouse – An evening of collaborations band’s riff-heavy sound inspired by Biffy th from Amsterdam’s Brighter Days DJ duo and experimental sound exploration to kick Clyro, Muse and Audioslave. They’re joined th Friday 6 Kammer & Masalo at this month’s Musical Thursday 19 th off this year’s Audiograft festival, hosted by by caustic, harmony-led Banbury rockers Lake Medicine, with the emphasis on nu-disco, funk MONDAY 16 TEMPLES: JAMIE CULLUM: The New Theatre – Brookes’ Sonic Art Research Unit alongside Acacia, picking up praise from Kerrang!, and and disco house. LEE SCRATCH Industrial death-rock and grindcore from OCM and Supernormal. local newcomers New Depth. OTTO + TOBY LLEWELLYN: The O2 Academy the controversial singer and Church of CABIN BOY JUMPED SHIP + RED CAT EMPIRE: O2 Academy – Good-time When Temples released their debut album Wheatsheaf – Bluesy grunge rocking from PERRY: O2 Academy METHOD + THE UNCHARTED: The Latin dance, reggae, ska and jazz fusion from It’s incredible to think that at the age of ‘Sun Structures’ back in 2014 they found OTTO at tonight’s It’s All About the Music Bullingdon – Electro-metal, trancecore, Melbourne’s festival-friendly collective The 83 – or thereabouts, not even he’s certain themselves at the crest of a new wave of show. th Friday 13 dubstep and metalcore from Leicester’s Cabin Cat Empire, mixing up lively Cuban-style – and over sixty years into his wildly Brit-born psychedelia alongside the likes of CHRIS WOOD: Old Fire Station – Boy Jumped Ship, touring new album ‘We party tunes with Marley-esque reggae numbers prolific careers, Lee Scratch Perry is still The Horrors, Toy and Hookworms. Even Traditional English folk songs brought up to PINEY GIR / the Heartless’, taking inspiration from Enter and back over in the UK to promote new as vital and visionary as dub reggae comes. back then the band, from the decidedly date from Wood, bringing an emotional and Shikari, While She Sleeps and Bring Me album ‘Stolen Diamonds’. Last year’s ‘Rainford’ album, his fourth unpsychedelic town of Kettering, were human element to his political stories. SAMANTHA WHATES the Horizon. They’re joined by tech-prog- PARKINSON-SAUNDERS + IRENE collaborative vocal album with long-time lighter on the reverb and heavier on the pop STORYTELLER: The Harcourt Arms – / FIONA BEVAN: deathcore crew Red Method, back in town KURKA + PAUL WHITTY: Holywell Music chum and musical foil Adrian Sherwood, tunes, singer James Edward Bagshaw, with Reggae, funk and pop fusion. after playing last year’s Rabidfest. Room – Experimental sound exploration from saw them continue to bring out the best his corkscrew curls and bejewelled face, a BON GIOVI: Fat Lil’s, Witney – Bon Jovi Oxford Deaf & Hard of Cage and Fluxus-inspired duo Parkinson- in each other, while its follow-up, ‘Heavy deadringer for Marc Bolan and musically tribute. Saunders at tonight’s Audiograft performance, Rain’, was heavier on the dub, harking closer to the classic psychedelic pop of Hearing Centre WEDNESDAY 18th th the pair joined by soprano Irene Kurka and back to his legendary 70s Black Ark work The Beatles and Syd Barrett, bringing it all th Having celebrated their 20 birthday last GAYGIRL + DEATH OF THE MAIDEN + SARU founder and sonic adventurer Paul but bringing it into the digital 21st Century, up to speed with the modern age by way SUNDAY 15 month, the Young Women’s Music Project BEDD: The Library – Glowering grunge and ELVIS COSTELLO & THE IMPOSTERS: Whitty. showing he still knows how to make music of The La’s, The Coral and in particular tonight host a gig featuring three female noise-pop from London’s Gaygirl at tonight’s The New Theatre – return to town for MAX BLANSJAAR + APHRA TAYLOR + that make your ribs itch, and featuring a Tame Impala. If the band’s slightly more musicians ploughing highly individual Freakscene show, the band channelling PJ the songwriting genius, Grammy-winning ALLY CRAIG: Fusion Arts – Homemade team-up with Brian Eno, teasingly titled experimental follow-up album, ‘Volcano’, musical furrows. Piney Gir should be no Harvey, Hole and Sonic Youth on singles elder statesman and national treasure and hotpot pop fusion from mighty Max, playing ‘Here Come the Warm Dreads’. It’s just the didn’t really build on that early promise, stranger to Oxford audiences: the Kansas- ‘Sicknote’ and ‘Hair’ and supporting the likes his current band, continuing to defy genre a hometown headline show, taking the latest cut in an astonishing life and career they’ve survived (despite leaving Heavenly born, London resident has been a regular at of Shame, Sorry and John along the way. and classification as he bestrides new wave, influences of Beck, Jeffrey Lewis, Graham that’s seen Perry produce the likes of Bob Records and losing drummer Sam Toms Truck festival over the years in her various They’re joined by darkly emotive Nightshift country, acoustic pop and soul to jazz, classical Coxon and more and making a winning psych- Marley; Junior Murvin; King Tubby; Sir indirectly to Fat White Family), and their bands, she’s most recently supported Ride song-of-the-year winners Death of the Maiden, and opera across an almost 50 year career. garage-grunge-pop noise. He’s joined by Coxsone; The Heptones; Max Romeo, and most recent album ‘Hot Motion’, despite on tour and provided backing vocals for and Bedd, the new band fronted by former Who knows what tonight’s set will bring fellow local teen star Aphra Taylor, tonight The Congos, helping develop reggae and mixed reviews, found them upping the Gaz Coombes, and is set to do the same Daisies, Medal and Family Machine frontman given his extraordinary back catalogue but launching her debut EP, her emotive, poetic practically inventing dub while pioneering riffage while retaining that pop-friendliness for Noel Gallagher later this year. No Jamie Hyatt. expect hits of the calibre of ‘Oliver’s Army’, confessional songs reminiscent of Cat Power sampling among other studio techniques. that’s made them enduring festival favourites surprise then that her band features three ‘Watching the Detectives’ and ‘(I Don’t Want and kd lang. Opening the show is brilliantly Perry’s importance in the history of over the past half a decade. In fact their most of our city’s finest musicians: Nick Fowler, to Go to) Chelsea’ alongside unexpected th oddball songsmith Ally Craig, with a skewed Jamaican music is irrefutable and no-one is recent Oxfordshire showing was at Truck, Mike Monaghan and Garo, who similarly THURSDAY 19 covers and more. And if you’re really lucky, WARMDUSCHER: The Bullingdon – Rock form of observational noise-pop that draws going to stop him behaving like the king of which showed they could do proper big have played with Gaz. From synth-pop, ‘Shipbuilding’, simply one of the most and roll excess and a little lunacy in the night inspiration from sources as diverse as Slint, all eccentrics. How he performs or what he stage wig-out psych as well, if not better, through country rock to new wave, Piney astonishing and moving songs ever penned. – see main preview Shellac, Ivor Cutler and Sonic Youth. plays can range wildly between shows, but than pretty pop songs. has mixed and matched styles at will, whatever happens, everyone here tonight SELF WORTH + RECLAIMER + recent album ‘You Are Here’, her seventh, LEE SCRATCH PERRY: O2 Academy RUSTY SHACKLE: The Bullingdon – Lively roots’n’roll from south Wales folk- will know they’re in the presence of a CRIMSON TUSK + BROKEN EMPIRE: a characteristically sunshine mix of all – The Grand Dubfather returns – see main rockers Rusty Shackle, touring new single genuine one-off. favourite seafaring rock voyagers. The Bullingdon – Dancing Man Leon those styles plus a hefty dollop of 60s West preview ‘Sam Hall’ and back in Oxfordshire after ROWAN RHEINGANS: The North Wall celebrates his birthday with a double dose of Coast folky psych-pop. Joining her tonight HEN OGLEDD + KATZ MULK + BETH playing Towersey Festival and Bunkfest in – A solo show from the Lady Maisery and melodic hardcore, courtesy of London’s Self are singer-songwriter Samantha Whates, SHEARSBY + SIMON BLACKMORE + AIN BAILEY + O YAMA O: OVADA recent times. Rheingans Sisters fiddle, guitar and banjo Worth and Lincoln’s Reclaimer, plus local whose sparse, ethereal folk songs are a JACEK SMOLICKI: Modern Art Oxford – Warehouse – Final live performance of the player, songwriter and award-winning folk heavyweights Crimson Tusk and Broken perfect vehicle for her pure vocal style with Live music as part of Audiograft, with Welsh BANGERZ & LASH: The Bullingdon – Audiograft festival, with Spanish composer Club anthems. pioneer, her ‘Dispatches on the Red Dress’ Empire in support. its rich Scottish burr, plus Fiona Bevan, avant-folksters Hen Ogled, featuring cult hero and guitarist Clara de Asis, Irish percussionist tour telling the story of her German great SUNDAY SOCIAL: The Half Moon (3pm) whose mellifluous, soulful folk-pop calls Richard Dawson, plus electronics and field THE JERICHOS + THE ORKIDS + THE and sound recordist David Lacy, sound artist grandmother’s childhood in Nazi Germany. – Free afternoon of live music, with sets from to mind Joanna Newsom, Kate Bush and recordings from Katz Mulk and more. FOLIANTS + SATURN FARMHOUSE: and DJ Ain Bailey and Japanese folk-inspired Indie rockers The Jerichos THE SUPERSONIC 70s SHOW: O2 blues rockers Mojo Demon, Beard of Destiny, Erykah Badu. In addition to the show, all CLANNAD: The New Theatre – Donegal’s The Wheatsheaf – experimentalists O Yama O. headline tonight’s It’s All About the Music Academy – 70s hits brought to life, featuring Artisan Blues Trio, and Larry Reddington. three artists will be hosting an afternoon at most famous family band celebrate 50 years PALACE: O2 Academy – Solemn anthems to showcase. songs from ELO, Elton John, Abba, Queen, SUNDAY SESSIONS with ROGER the Faculty of Music, talking about their bringing Irish folk and folk-rock to global love and loss from London’s Palace, touring Tribute to Queen. Fleetwood Mac, Suzie Quatro, Cher and more. BEAUJOLAIS + THE TROPICS: Florence experiences in the music industry. attention – 15 million album sales and QE2: Fat Lil’s, Witney – second album ‘Life After’, the follow-up to RAVING TRIPPY: The Bullingdon – Park Community Centre (2-5pm) – Family- counting – with a career-spanning anthology, 2016’s ‘So Long Forever’. Psychedelic house and techno club night. friendly music session with jazz and pop ‘In a Lifetime’, tracking their evolution st CRUCAST OXFORD: O2 Academy – fusion from local vibraphone virtuoso Roger from traditional, Gaelic-voiced folk tunes SATURDAY 21 FAST LOVE: The New Theatre – Big stage DAN LINN-PEARL + LEE RILEY + Drum&bass club night from indie label Beaujolais alongside London-based jazz-funk to the later more electronic sounds of their tribute to George Michael. CITIES & MEMORY + LIMPET SPACE Crucast on tour, with south London’s Skepsis five piece The Tropics. breakthrough success. RACE: Fusion Arts (2-5pm) – Multi-media and Nottingham’s Darksy among those on the OPEN MIC SESSION: Harcourt Arms The th SPIN JAZZ CLUB: The Wheatsheaf – sound art from Welsh conceptual artist decks. SATURDAY 14 THE MIGHTY REDOX: The Tree, Iffley (4- weekly jazz club night hosts renowned singer Linn Pearl at this afternoon’s Audiograft METAL TO THE MASSES: The TWIN ATLANTIC: O2 Academy – 6.30pm) – Blues, rock, funk and more from the and pianist Liane Carroll. performance, joined by Stuart Fowkes’ globe- Wheatsheaf – Second quarter-final of the Glasgow’s melodic post-hardcore stars return local veterans. JODY & THE JERMS: The Jericho Tavern spanning field recording project Cities & rock and metal bands competition to win a to town, touring fifth album ‘Power’, the YOUR MUSIC with FIREGAZER + ANNA Indie pop in the vein of Best Coast, Summer – Memory, undertaking a psychogeographical slot at this year’s Bloodstock, with Damaged follow-up to Top 10 hit ‘GLA’, the band RENAE + THE RAG & MOAN MEN: Camp and Blondie from the local newcomers. journey through the sounds of Venice, plus Reich, The Grand Mal, Sleeper and Burned increasingly moving into synthier territory, Guildhall, Abingdon (2-5pm) – Live music and CATWEAZLE: East Oxford Community dronemeister Lee Riley, and electro-folk duo For Heresy. with hints of Depeche Mode and Duran Duran talks on the art of songwriting with folksters Centre Limpet Space Race. RESTRUCTURE + OCTAVIA FREUD + in their impassioned, anthemic rocking. Firegazer and Anna Renae, plus Americana and SIDEKICKZ + THE MARK BOSLEY CLARA DE ASIS + DAVID LACY + MEANS OF PRODUCTION + MOJAVE: SUNDAY 22nd sounds and Bach, on a variety of guitars, at psych-pop from Dada Paradox. newcomers. tonight’s Spin Jazz Club. VOLUME#20: The Bullingdon – The SENSATIONAL SIXTIES: The New Theatre drum&bass club night team up with Barrage rd CATWEAZLE: East Oxford Community – 60s retro night with Mike Pender from The MONDAY 23 Centre with sets from Bryan Gee, Power, Didz, Searchers, plus The Trems, The Fortunes, The GOLDFRAPP: O2 Academy – The electro- REVEREND BLACK’S ACOUSTIC DJMblaze and Darkspark. Swinging Blue Jeans and The Dakotas. th pop duo celebrate the 20 anniversary of ‘Felt CABARET: The Half Moon – Acoustic WHITE MAGIC feat. SEANI B: O2 RAN KAN KAN + ALMA DE TAMBOR: Mountain’ – see main preview blues, country, folk and classic rock with live Academy – Reggae and dancehall club night Old Fire Station – A night of Cuban dance RUMOURS OF FLEETWOOD MAC: The sets from The Holy Fools, Mila Todd and with a guest set from 1Xtra’s Seani B. music with local 20-strong ensemble Ran Kan New Theatre – Tribute night. Richard Brotherton. CLOCK OPERA: The Jericho Tavern – Kan playing mambos and son montuno classics OPEN MIC SESSION: The Castle First Oxford show in many moons from Guy made famous by Buena Vista Social Club; FEAST OF FIDDLES: Nettlebed Folk Club th Connelly’s electro/indie posters, set to release there’s Cuban rumba from Alma de Tambor, – Nettlebed’s annual celebration of traditional FRIDAY 27 their third album, ‘Carousel’, having made his a female percussion and vocal group led by JOANNE SHAW TAYLOR: O2 Academy – fiddle music returns over two nights, with name with remixes for Metronomy, Everything Gerardo de Armas Sarria, plus a rumba class Sultry, soulful blues from the star of the UK Peter Knight and Chris Leslie leading a line Everything and Christine & the Queens. with Cuban dancer Ariel Rios. blues scene, Brummie singer and guitarist th th that includes Phil Beer and Dave Mattacks. KAZU & FRIENDS: The Harcourt Arms OSPREY & CO: The Half Moon – Funky Friday 27 Thursday 19 Taylor having risen and risen through the THE PEOPLE VERSUS: Modern Art blues from the local stalwart and chums. ranks to become one of the country’s most th Oxford – Sweet-natured, hymnal chamber pop DECOVO: James Street Tavern – Free show SQUID: WARMDUSCHER: TUESDAY 24 successful performers, coming on like a cross with a hint of folk and bluegrass from the local for the local indie rockers. ELEPHANT SESSIONS: The Bullingdon between Stevie Ray Vaughan, Bonnie Raitt The Bullingdon The Bullingdon THE A-WATTS: Brewery Tap, Abingdon – Having made their Oxford debut with a low- We first saw Warmduscher live at Ritual – Rocked-up traditional Scottish folk from and Dusty Springfield, with a vocal delivery rd Classic 50s and 60s rock’n’roll. key festival warm-up at The Wheatsheaf Union back in 2018; they were one of those Inverness’s award-winning quartet, out on tour that matches her much-admired guitar playing. Monday 23 last July, Squid arrive back in Oxford as bands that made you wonder how or where to promote new album ‘What Makes You’. Shaw Taylor started playing at the age of th one of the hottest bands around, and it’s they met – two cool, skinny mod-punk lads WORRY + SCRAP BRAIN + GHOSTS 14 around her native Black Country clubs GOLDFRAPP: SUNDAY 29 no surprise that tonight’s gig is long-since flanking a guy in a Stetson, cheap tracksuit IN THE PHOTOGRAPHS: The Library – and was performing at Ronnie Scott’s by the FIREGAZER + TONY BATEY & SAL O2 Academy sold out. The London/Brighton quintet’s and shades who looks like he’d fallen off the Virulent hardcore noise from local stars Worry, time she was 16. Discovered by Eurythmics’ MOORE + ONE FOR THE WALL + PETE Although they never really got the credit angular, angsty and uptight fusion of punk, back of a Trump rally. The chemistry was tonight launching their new ‘Good Person’ Dave Stewart, she spent the summer on tour LOCK & MARK BOSLEY: The Wheatsheaf for it, Goldfrapp were one of the most krautrock and disco seems to be the sound all there though, possibly in pharmaceutical EP alongside ferocious anarcho-punk crew with him, Candy Dulpher from Prince’s (3.30-7pm) – Klub Kakofanney host an influential artists of the Noughties, of now as they, along with the likes of Black form as they motored through obstinate Scrap Brain and cinematic post-rock/shoegaze band, Jimmy Cliff and Parliament’s Mudbone afternoon free music in the downstairs bar. influencing everyone from Madonna and Midi, celebrate post-punk’s funkiest outer blues-punk with all the requisite mayhem soundscapists Ghosts in the Photographs. Cooper in the supergroup D.U.P and has also OPEN MIC SESSION: Harcourt Arms Bat For Lashes to Florence & the Machine, reaches, with heavy nods to Talking Heads and hysteria you’d hope for from a band FEAST OF FIDDLES: Nettlebed Folk Club played alongside Bill Wyman and BB King on BLUES JAM: Fat Lil’s, Witney (3pm) – with singer Alison Goldfrapp becoming an (not just musically but in singing drummer who careered from Dick Dale surf rumble – Second night of the fiddle extravaganza. her way to becoming a table-topping star in Monthly open jam session. iconic pop figure along the way. At their Ollie Judge’s borderline hysterical tales of to Jon Spencer Blues Explosion garage- her own right. best Goldfrapp and musical partner Will the mundane – high rents; anonymity at rock craziness, through The Fall’s acerbic th SQUID: The Bullingdon – Uptight, maniacal th WEDNESDAY 25 Gregory’s trick was to take the best ideas work); The Rapture, LCD Soundsystem punked-up rockabilly and intermittent post-punk funk from Brighton’s rising stars – MONDAY 30 PLAIN WHITE T’s: O2 Academy – Tom from the musical underground and turn them OPEN MIC SESSION: The Castle and McLusky. With no frontman as such, squalls of feedback and somehow managed see main preview Higgenson’s Platinum-selling, Grammy- into pop gold, like the techno-glam boogie DAOIRI FARRELL: Nettlebed Folk Club – bass and drums take the lead on singles like to finish up sounding like Aerosmith. How CUT THE TRAP: The Bullingdon – Hip hop nominated alt.rock/emo/pop veterans tour new of ‘Strict Machine’ or the sultry disco Traditional Irish folk from BBC Folk Awards ‘Houseplants’ and ‘The Cleaner’: frenetic, they actually met was as an impromptu and trap club night. album ‘Parallel Universe’. pulse of ‘Ride a White Horse’. The career- Horizon winner Farrell, playing songs from wired funk workouts with their teeth set jam band at a NYE house party involving FLATLINERS + DANIEL McKEAN: The STARBELLY + CHEAP PETROL + BONE defining `Black Cherry’ was close to modern his recent `Trueborn Irishman’ album, drawing on edge. It’s a move on from 2016’s debut various members of Fat White Family and Wheatsheaf – It’s All About the Music show. MACHINE + MILA TODD: The Bullingdon day electro-pop perfection, while 2008’s comparisons to Christy Moore, Andy Irvine and single, ‘Perfect Teeth’, which resided at the things just spiralled from there, involving THOMAS TRUAX: The Port Mahon – – Gothic shoegaze from Starbelly at tonight’s ‘Seventh Tree’ took a complete stylistic Paul Brady. other end of post-punk’s spectrum: dour and various departures and arrivals but, for Eccentric musical adventuring and invention It’s All About the Music showcase. Support about-turn and brought a dreamy electro- atmospheric in the vein of Joy Division. all the chaos, the band kept getting better from crackpot poet and boffin Truax, a regular from rockers Cheap Petrol, Pixies tribute pop sheen to spooky pagan folk music, Having spent most of last summer on the and better and last year’s ‘Tainted Lunch’, visitor to town over the years, particularly TUESDAY 31st Bone Machine and dark, soulful rocking from at Truck Festival. Here he is back again inspired by The Wicker Man. Tonight’s festival circuit and touring across Europe, which featured cameos from Iggy Pop th Ciphers singer Mila Todd. gig, though, is part of the 20 anniversary you feel 2020 is going to be Squid’s year, and Kool Keith, ended up in myriad Best with his oddly shaped songs and even more MIKE LAND + KEIRA GABRIELLE: The celebrations for ‘Felt Mountain’, the band’s catching the crest of a musical wave that Albums of the Year lists. Live, though, oddly shaped instruments, from a drum Wheatsheaf – It’s All About the Music new machine made of old bike wheels, to his (in) elegant, graceful debut which spawned Nightshift listings are free. Deadline for inclusion is feels unstoppable. Give them another six is where it’s at: the spirit of rock and roll th artists night. classic Goldfrapp tracks ‘Utopia’, ‘Human’ the 20 of each month, no exceptions. months and venues this size will be a dim mayhem to the fore, something sleazy, famous hornicator – a souped up gramophone rather than something you’d find in an adult and ‘Pilots’, the duo bringing John Barry, Listings are copyright of Nightshift and may not be and distant memory. debauched and very slightly unhinged th catalogue. Shirley Bassey and Nancy Sinatra into the used without permission. pouring from the band. THURSDAY 26 realms of sci-fi lounge-pop. They went on to BILLY WALTON BAND: The Bullingdon TIM FRIERS & THE MERCENARIES: produce better records, but ‘Felt Mountain’ – Blues-rock in the vein of Hendrix, Clapton The Jericho Tavern – Celtic-flavoured pop in remains an exceptional debut and it’ll be a The Port Mahon – A night of local electronic and Stevie Ray Vaughan from the New Jersey the vein of World Party and Crowded House. chance to hear many of the songs from it music, with politicised rap, hoolie rave and guitarist, who has played around his local THE ORANGE CIRCUS BAND: Fat Lil’s, live for the first time in years, not to mention 80s electro-pop references from Restructure, scene since his early teens, jamming with Witney – Bluegrass, gospel and American the chance to catch one of the best pop acts plus dark electro-industrial man Octavia Springsteen, Gary US Bonds and Double folk-roots from the Virginia collective who’ve of the past two decades in the flesh once Freud, inspired by Depeche Mode and Suicide; Trouble along the way. made their name on this side of the Atlantic again. dark post-punk and synth-pop from Means VOYAGE TO THE INTERNATIONAL playing at Glastonbury, Black Deer and the of Production and Aphex Twin-style ambient LIMPET SPACE RACE STATION: Studio Cambridge Folk Festival. soundscaping from Mojave. Space, Cowley – Local electro-pop / acid BOOTLEG BOSS: The Jericho Tavern – jazz / future-folk / trip hop duo Limpet Space SATURDAY 28th Bruce Springsteen tribute. Race play an immersive audio-visual studio GAPPY TOOTH INDUSTRIES with BACK TO THE 80s: The Bullingdon – 80s show with video artist Siobhan Cox, the MANDRAKE HANDSHAKE + RIPSY retro club night. culmination of a residency in the Upcycled MAY + DADA PARADOX: The Wheatsheaf PHIL BEER: Tiddy Hall, Ascott-under- Sounds and Fusion Arts Studio where – Another quality triple bill of new talent Wychwood – Wychwood Folk Club welcomes they’ve been installing various contraptions, at the monthly GTI, tonight featuring local Albion Band and Show of Hands mainstay DIY instruments and surround sound – see psychedelic explorers Mandrake Handshake, and multi-instrumentalist Phil Beer, currently Introducing feature taking a space flight from the 60s sounds of out on a solo tour as he prepares to release a SPIN JAZZ CLUB: The Wheatsheaf – Jefferson Airplane through the strange lands of compendium charting his 40 years on the UK Virtuoso guitar display from Nick Meier, from The Brian Jonestown Massacre and onwards folk scene. Jeff Beck’s band, and Pete Oxley, from world to Ride’s shoegaze noise. They’re joined DOG WITH TWO HEAD: Fat Lil’s, Witney jazz group Curious Paradise, together playing by lovelorn London-based poet, painter and – Status Quo tribute. music inspired by Turkish and Latin American songwriter Ripsy May, plus anti-folk and LIVELIVE photo: Jason Warner @ Fyrefly Studios @ Fyrefly photo: Jason Warner

Young Women’s Music Project. PEANESS Her mum and dad are in the crowd The Wheatsheaf and any parent would be proud to “Can we get a Whoo! for the room and cuddle any passing bunny today and a simplicity about their hear their daughter making music new song, please,” chirp Peaness rabbits. songwriting that belies the dextrous of this quality. partway through tonight’s set. It’s Here, as elsewhere along tonight’s construction and the playing behind ‘Beatles Song’ comes with a hefty a moment that sums the trio up: hour-long set, Peaness sound like them, Peaness barely waste a single scoop of Shangri La’s sunshine here’s a band who, in the middle of we imagine Talulah Gosh might note. Clutter and clatter are kept to but it’s closing number ‘Kaizen’ post-Brexit angst and a rising tide have if they’d formed in the wake a minimum and the barbs that do that gets the biggest cheer, of post-punk gloom and aggression, of grunge and Sleater Kinney: add some sting to their sugar-sweet unsurprising, a big pop anthem seem to exist to put a smile on songs like ‘Breakfast’ have just the songs are like kittens’ claws: small that most brings out that grunge people’s faces. right amount of ramshackle about but sharp. undercurrent while maintaining Even when they announce a song them to make their effervescent, With their debut album out this a sense of effusive positivity. “I is about feeling sad, they seem supremely well crafted pop nuggets month, the Chester-formed trio are want to get lost with you,” they unwilling to bring anyone’s mood feel like they tumbled out of a on a roll: tonight’s gig is sold out in sing with perfect, gilded harmonies down. ‘Fortune Favours the Bold’ giddy child’s imagination, pure advance and the band are in good on ‘Seafoam Island’; anyone who might dream of leaving but it does and wide-eyed, and that’s how spirits, not least singer/bassist Jess truly loves pop music would it with an infectious exuberance great indie pop should be. With who’s back on home turf, having follow them to the middle of that makes anyone with a heart and some of the best vocal harmonies grown up in Kidlington and who nowhere. a soul want to bounce around the you’ll hear anywhere in music began her musical journey with the Dale Kattack THE WORKING MEN’S CLUB / LAZARUS KANE The Bullingdon Tonight is Lazarus Kane’s second expedition to Oxford, and it is no less Minsky-Sargeant now shares dual vocals with The Moonlandingz’ icy entertaining than their debut at Ritual Union last October. Before the band Mairead O’Connor in a Smith/Brix style. take to the stage all that is visible is a classic ‘Electro Voice’ styled Vegas Minsky-Sargeant is a live wire too, he comes into the crowd, shirtless, Elvis mic. When Lazarus swaggers on, swathed in a silk dressing gown, three times, firstly on ‘JCC’, which feels like early Cabaret Voltaire, and Paisley scarf and stars and stripes shirt and lets loose his southern drawl, his intrusion feels somewhat intimidating in its intensity. ‘Be My Guest’ the comparison to a manic preacher is complete. The rest of the band builds and builds and has a great section punctuated with a guitar duelling look like they have just completed a spree in a charity shop: mullets are assault to produce a stereo effect of the same riff set against a backdrop of combined with face paint and pet dog t-shirts; they really come across as strobing lights. Penultimate song ‘Angel’ has a Neu!-style keyboard intro a bunch of oddballs and misfits, in the best kind of way. Musically they’re which is coupled with swirling guitars, while throughout the set the bass is a combination of choppy guitar, pounding bass lines, flowery flute spirals, undeniably indebted to Peter Hook. and keyboards which vary between cheesy 80s pop and squelching acid The grand finale is an extended version of the recently remixed ‘Teeth’, 303; the guitars layer funk and soul on top for a melting pot of styles that which again sees the lead singer in a dance pit. There is no need for complements their wonky attire for a set of happy gonzo chaos. an encore as the set is perfectly bookended, and mercifully they don’t Working Men’s Club are a wholly different proposition: dark, moody spoil things by coming back on. Heavenly Records must be pleased and intense, combining Krautrock and Suicide-like electronics with with themselves to have collected Working Men’s Club’s scalp as the industrial beats and a gothic edge. In places there are also hints of ‘Frenz band’s forthcoming debut album must be one of this year’s most highly Experiment’-era Fall, most notably on second song (and debut Melodic anticipated debuts. single) ‘Bad Blood’ where last original member and main-man Sydney Mark Taylor JACKDAW WITH CROWBAR / MOTH LIVE DROP / BRUNO MUERTE The Wheatsheaf While Gappy Tooth Industries enjoys its How to describe Leamington’s 80s art- reputation for eclectic line-ups, tonight’s pop survivors Jackdaw With Crowbar in triple bill shares a love for all things synth mere words? Led by Tim Ellis – kind of photo: Helen Messenger and by the time the show is over people the meeting point of prime panto-era Peter are talking about a potential gig of the year Gabriel and Cravats frontman The Shend contender. – tonight’s incarnation of the band is a Bruno Muerte might start in slightly quartet – expanded since we last saw them disjointed fashion, their instrumental as a duo at The Library, all silhouetted electro-spaghetti-western-soundtrack gallop by a shifting lysergic backdrop, quickly coming to a close just as we’re set to ride and sometimes disorientatingly veering off into the sunset, but soon they’re soaring, between punky rant-pop, arty noise rock, Stefano Maio and Roberto Bini ranging pulsing electro and some stuff that’s all from Depeche Mode-inspired electro-goth, of those and something alien at once. A into heavier psychedelic synth-doom and Glitterstomp Beefheart; a Toytown Faust; onto something that might be an acid house a Moroderpop Pink Floyd; a Dadaist Ultravox, Stefano going the full Billy Fall; Jackdaw With Crowbar are music Currie, the pair playing with a real sense and theatre, an absurdist spectacle where of exuberance. It’s a brilliant, carefree set. silliness is a big part of the fun but never Ben fatto, Bruno Muerte. overshadows the superb music the band It’s a live debut for Moth Drop, the solo throw out. The show ends with Ellis work of Brendan Morgan, ditching the carrying an artillery shell into the crowd March garagy grunge noise of his band Grub to while wearing a Godzilla mask as the band 1st The Sunday Social feat. Lost Dogs / Des Barkus / Scot Gordon Band / Ady Davey / Franklins Tower @ The Half Moon 3pm free explore heavily-textured synsthscapes that go full-fried Suicide synthabilly. In a world 13th The Peerless Pirates / In-Fight Movie / The Kennedys Are remind us of Clark or, as someone suggests, of sensible, sensitive, soulful dullards, Coming @ The Wheatsheaf 7.30pm a stoned Autechre, on what appears to be music needs this lunatic fringe more than 14th OttO / Toby Llewellyn & more @ The Wheatsheaf 7.30pm his phone, which is some feat in itself. ever. And yes, it might only be January 15th The Sunday Social feat: Mojo Demon / Beard Of Destiny / Artizan Blues Trio / Larry Reddington @ The Half Moon 3pm free From dark atmospherics to a euphoric but any band hoping to pip Jackdaw With 20th The Jerichos / The Orkids / The Folliants / The Saturn closing space race, it should maybe come Crowbar to the title of gig of the year are Farmhouse @ The Wheatsheaf 7.30pm with spectacular visuals and armchairs for going to have to seriously up their game. 21st Live Electronica feat: Restructure / Octavia Freud / Means Of the audience, but it’s consistently inventive. Dale Kattack Production / Mojave & more @ The Port Mahon 7pm need to experiment with rhythm 22nd TBC LUCY LEAVE / DUCKS / THE COOLING PEARLS and pitch, and to appropriate a mass 25th Starbelly / Cheap Petrol / Bone Machine / Mila Todd of styles for their own purposes, @ The Bullingdon 7pm Oxford Deaf and Hard of Hearing Centre 25th New bands/ solo night feat: Mike Land / Keira Gabrielle pushing their discoveries as far as HYPERDAWN / KID KIN / THE BOBO Alt.folk soundscapists The Cooling and the accompanying harmonies “We are different, you can tell,” @ The Wheatsheaf 7.30pm they can. Tonight amongst what 27th Flatliners / Daniel McKean & more @ The Wheatsheaf The Library th Pearls are fronted by tonight’s and heartbeat of a drum for the sing Lucy Leave, and their fanbase, we hear is not only psychedelia 28 Osprey & Co plus special guests @ The Half Moon 8.30pm promoter, Divine Schism’s Aiden almost unbearably sad and beautiful who know they are and love them and grunge but 1970s Joni Mitchell By 2030, middle-aged hipsters will complain this is glossy music for shiny CDs, not Canaday; he possesses a restrained ’You Drew Your Breath’, about the for it, are here in numbers to about two things: the disappointing scuzzy tapes, from the tricksy Detroit drum April 17th The Relationships @ The Port Mahon and, in the interlocking vocals of Dec 13th John Otway & The Big Band @ The Bullingdon... tickets intensity as he delivers his often last moments before death; it’s an celebrate the launch of the band’s ‘Thumbs’, reverberations of Steve appearance of tattoos on sagging street programming to the grown-up, ironed-shirt on sale now poetic lyrics, accompanied by incredibly difficult thing to get right, second album, ‘ Everyone Is Doing Reich’s ‘Clapping Music.’ food and craft brew bloated flesh, and why keyboard curlicues (one selection of near- the band, often playing old world but it couldn’t have been done better. So Well’, with them. Lucy Leave combine this with an their beloved tapes now sound rubbish, cheesy piano flourishes is high-end easy dance rhythms. Their opener, Sheffield’s wonky synth pop The trio’s songs take on diversity; admirable looseness and freedom the permanence of both having been ill- listening made ruggedly cool – Richard ‘Galloping Major’, could be an duo Duck are making their first the dangers of male privilege; in their playing that turns many of considered in different ways. Still, there’s an Clayderman, you da man!). One track arcane Scottish dirge-cum-waltz; visit to the city. We have to admit miscommunication; the climate their numbers into a high wire act aesthetic in the sounds of tape degradation reminds us of Boards Of Canada, so perhaps then there’s a slow polka for ‘Black to a personal bias against acts crisis; mental health, and personal that could come crashing down that one can appreciate, even as it spoils the set would sound even better recorded to Elizabeth’, before the urgency of that instead of having a human well being. So their message is that at any moment. The trio are too once cherished recordings. For example, VHS and left in the attic for a decade or so. the closing ‘Skyscrapers’. The on drum kit have the electronic everyone isn’t doing as well as the good to let this befall them, but new Oxford artist The Bobo utilises layers Salford duo Hyperdawn smash the Spanish and Arabic rhythms that alternative, but Duck have charm, album titles hopes. The lyrics are the possibility does add a delicious of fuzzy, twisted samples of their own voice outmoded into the modern, their tables accompany a tale set in the Bristol some good melodies and a singer sharp but the greatest strength of tension to what develops into a as virtual accompanists, in a fashion that laden with tiny sleek keyboards and digital channel are an unexpected twist. with an appealing voice, and on this bassist Jenny Oliver and brothers triumphant hour long set. Musically, recalls that odd pre-emptive ghost track triggers, alongside two huge reel-to-reel The highlight tonight, though, is showing their first Oxford gig won’t Mike and Pete Smith is what seems Lucy Leave is doing so well. that occurs on some worn cassettes. These tape players. This wonderful set can be not a dance but the poignant vocal be their last. to be their relentless, even reckless Colin May enticing vocal pile-ups are joined by effected thunderously huge or timid and tiny, but synth stabs, strewn brightly like scrunched from vast sad looped choirs that sound sweet wrappers. Tonight’s performance is like 10CC’s ‘I’m Not In Love’ sung by SORRY / THYRSIS a little hesitant, and could do with a touch bone-tired analogue banshees, to creamy more variation, but is often excellent in lopsided r’n’b croons, it never moves far The Jericho Tavern obscuring epic pop behind a glitchy sonic from melancholic melody lines that are Thyrsis is the latest musical vehicle for former members of local prog hit factor gets a bit lost amid the mud, but it does allow Asha Lorenz to miasma, much in the way that Jenny Hval as delicate as the long tape loops wound stake her claim as the heir to Shirley Manson’s imperious indie queen crew The Aureate Act, notably singer-pianist Dominic Baum whose might: one track sounds like the pale spectre around a handy mike stand. ‘Plastic’ striking vibrato brings an operatic edge to the band. Initially, as he throne with a sense of detachment that adds genuine edge to the creeping, of a Kosheen banger wandering lost in a introduces a home-made string instrument, sits over his keyboard, all corkscrew curls and soprano drama, we’re crawling machine-beat gothica that is Sorry’s sound for the most part. barrage of field artillery, which is something and comes off like Tom Waits’ backing imagining a meeting point of Sparks and Adhoni, but musically Thyrsis’ When they pick up a bit of propulsion there’s a hint of The Breeders we’re eager to revisit. band having a crack at Cocteau Twins, and complex jazz rock, with its occasional Latin flourishes and understated about them but mostly they burrow down deep and keep it dark. Which Kid Kin is back to solo performance after ‘The End Of The World’ features frenetic prog excursions, is closer to Field Music. If they take a bit of getting into, means there are times when the set lacks colour and becomes too sullen, a brief hiatus, and, in swapping guitar for mic rubbing that could be an attempt they reward the effort: a band with that rare what-the-heck factor? but the arrival of some sax on ‘Rock’n’Roll Star spices things up and keyboards, Peter Lloyd has made the music to isolate and capture a single strand It takes a brave or foolish band to kick off their set with their best, and ‘More’ steals steals the show, taking them into sharper, heavier, more cleaner and crisper than ever, a spick-and- of feedback for a sonic lepidopterist’s best known, song, but playing ‘Right Round the Clock’ does allow Sorry rhythmic art-rock lands – somewhere the stylistically restless band span contemporary version of the sort specimen drawer. The response from the to precede their appearance in stage with a tape of Gary Jules’ version of should fully aim for and suggesting the best may yet be to come from of tuneful clinical lushness you’d find as spellbound crowd is simply, wow! Not to ‘Mad World’, which Sorry appropriate in parts on their own song. It’s a Sorry. instrumental beds for non-trailer cinema ads mention, flutter. slight shame the mix isn’t fully worked out in time and its radio-friendly Ian Chesterton and corporate videos circa 1992. As such, David Murphy

LIVE

a festival of sonic art Photo: Hugh Pryor (www.hughpryor.co.uk) & experimental music in venues all over oxford

12 - 22 march

www.audiograft.co.uk

Dele’s man not only makes it growl and thunder DELE SOSIMI’S AFROBEAT ORCHESTRA but also coaxes it into purring and reaching sweet sounds further up the register than we’d expect Cowley Workers’ Social Club it to go. Dele’s arrangements give plenty of space It’s a coup for Bossaphonik having Dele Sosimi repeated ‘churp churp’ sound of the wood block for the brass players and other band members to and his full band play what‘s only the second leads the dance. impress individually. Another aspect of what we gig in their new venue. It helps if you’re surrounded by good musicians, are coming to realise is Dele’s generosity in his At 16 Dele joined uber-legend Fela Kuti’s and Dele appears to have made sure he is, calling to the stage local musicians who’ve done Egypt 80, and since has become Afrobeat particularly the brass section; in unison they a pre-gig workshop with him. The locals do not Harcourt Arms ambassador to the UK. No wonder then there is rattle our filings but their soloing is even more let either him or themselves down. a sizable crowd inside. impressive. The trombonist has his moments and Sosimie and his band play without a break for Dele is a dignified figure at the keyboards the sinuous trumpet solos are quality and keep well over two hours (more of his generosity) and on vocals. He’s often nearly motionless, coming, each one different but seeming even with one of our favourites being the social yet he’s charismatic and charming, leading his better than the one before. But it’s the playing of commentary of ‘Money Get Power’. When he 14th March seven-piece Afrobeat Orchestra through a mix the rarely sighted bass saxophone that astonishes does call time it’s with an atmospheric train song; of popular Afrobeat tunes and newer numbers. most; we speculate that to get through a gig you we can hear the wheels turning and the whistle His greatest gift is as an arranger; while often probably have to work out regularly to be able to blowing before he announces that “this train he has the beat pounding through the soles of lift the monster and then have extraordinary lung terminates here, all change please.” Really, the our feet to the delight of the dancers, sometimes power as your superpower. Perhaps this is why whole gig’s been a fantastic ride. Story73ller it’s cleverly understated, as when the hypnotic this instrument isn’t seen out and about that often. Colin May

LISA O’NEILL The Bullingdon 28th March It’s some kind of talent to switch from a cover of Ivor Cutler’s sweetly telling the tale of how a charity skydive and learning about turbulence whimsical ‘Squeeze Bees’, to a highly emotive paean to a dockworker inspired ‘Potholes in the Sky’. trying to explain to his wife and children why he no longer has a job, as The arrival of Mic Gerachty on Harmonium brings yet further depth and on ‘Rock the Machine’. But Lisa O’Neill is that kind of talent. darkness to O’Neill’s more drone-influenced songs, but a passage in the Kazu and Throughout tonight’s set – one witnessed by an audience that remains middle of the set where it’s just her and her banjo on stage provides the rapt and respectfully silent through every hushed moment – the County high point. Protest songs, like ‘No Train to Cavan’, and in particular the Cavan singer-songwriter proves adept at mixing and separating such stunning ‘Rock the Machine’ come in the form of very human stories, be Friends whimsy and despair, armed with a voice that is several shades of they redundant dockers or wheelbarrow smugglers, and the Irish traveller wonderful, with a rich, deep timbre that recalls Lankum’s Radie Peat at songwriting tradition runs through much of her material. times. There’s a respectable cover of The Pogues’ ‘Lullaby of London’ and Open Mic Every She begins her set with that voice alone, a funereal a capella lament that another Ivor Cutler piece (‘Everybody Got a Triangle of Hair’), but she leads into ‘England Has My Man’ where she picks up her guitar and is keeps her most devastating moments til the very end: a mesmerising take Sunday joined by Christophe Capewell on violin, the song mournful and lovelorn, on Nina Simone’s defiant anti-racist poem ‘Four Women’ and a closing a perfect reflection of the utter stillness in the room. cover of ‘Blue Moon’ that works to keep the rarefied atmosphere in the live music at the heart of jericho Not that she’s without humour. Each song is introduced with a story, room even after one final round of rapturous applause. Some kind of Cranham Terrace Jericho Oxford ox2 6dg which often detour into self-deprecating asides. “I think this introduction talent indeed. 01865 556669 has gone on longer than the actual song,” she suddenly remarks after Dale Kattack LIVE photo: Sam Shepherd

Something’s UPP

minutes, starting off sounding like JADE HAIRPINS / BASIC DICKS / JACK GOLDSTEIN a raucous power-pop take on The Beach Boys before picking up a bit The Library of electronic squelch and cruising Jack Goldstein has drenched Flaming Lips fronted by Freddie well-aimed musical (vegan) Doc into the melodic heart of The himself with water before he’s Mercury. Sometimes Jack looks, Martin boot to the groin of the Clash, drummer Tamsin powering even started his set and he doesn’t acts and sounds like Alvin Stardust patriarchy, a clutter and a clatter of everything along at an unfussy really let go of the madness reincarnated as a demonic imp; Crass-style punk that reaches its rate of knots, the band calling in from there. Across an intense 25 it’s sometimes preposterous, peak with ‘Slap’, a celebration of at Talking Heads-style disco-punk minutes, backed only by his MP3 occasionally ridiculous, but never, wearing make-up and sticking two and coming to a glorious final player, he contorts, cavorts and ever less than thrillingly fun, fingers up to the male gaze, and a destination with recent single Coming soon throws himself to the ground in a and it’s easily the most physical short, sharp set ends with bassist ‘Mother Man’, which could be New perfectly choreographed display performance we’re likely to witness Jen being presented with a birthday Order’s ‘Love Vigilantes’ given an of art-pop theatre and funky disco this year. cake – a little sweetness after the acid house noise-rock makeover. mania, switching direction so Jack’s back later in the night with bitter pill. Too soon it’s over and we’re out quickly you’ve only just had time his band Jade Hairpins, but before Jade Hairpins is a new band formed into the tail end of Storm Dennis, to imagine James Brown possessed that we have the new line-up of by former Jack Goldstein along but tonight’s gig in The Library’s by the spirit of Gibby Haynes Basic Dicks. Still fronted by sisters with members of Fucked Up and Es intimate confines, was a force of before you’re witnessing what Loz and Taz Corona they’re no less and they’re every bit as good as that nature all by itself. Fri Apr 17 2020 might be a South Park tribute to visceral than Jack before them, a suggests – a brief set, just twenty Dale Kattack

www.uppcinema.com TIM TURAN’S SESSION NOTES INTRODUCING.... Part Fourteen found on cheap Hi-Fis Nightshift’s monthly guide to the best local music bubbling under and labelled “Rumble Mastering: Part 4 – What Is Equalisation or EQ? Filter” and “Scratch Filter. It’s time to look at the most powerful of all audio tools: the Equaliser. The They are to be found on Limpet Space Race Equaliser, or EQ as it is commonly referred to, is a tone control. Most of us are virtually every mixing familiar with the simple bass and treble controls on Hi-Fi equipment and other desk. In the mastering Who are they? audio devices. These are a basic form of equalisation. The idea is to make the studio I use them to reduce Oxford electronic music duo Limpet Space Race are Niko O’Brien (drums/ range of frequencies equal across the whole audible spectrum. The reality of excessive low frequencies guitar/DIY electronics) and Hannah (Jakes) Jacobs (vocals/synths/bits and this is not necessarily musical. Different genres of music require different EQ usually caused by wind bobs). Niko is a sound engineer from Paris and Jakes is a musician from procedures. In mastering you have a ‘final’ mix that you then use EQ to achieve noise on microphones and Suffolk. They have lived in Oxford for a few years doing music stuff but the optimum sound for that track. Using these devices we can make things sound excessive high frequencies finally met properly through environmental activism and “bonded over weird bassy, trebly or middly. Yes, middly, is now a word. There are essentially three usually caused by pushing bands”. Limpet Space Race began two years ago “to see how much noise we types of equaliser that can be used to shape the frequency response of music. the cymbals too high in could make with two people”. They released their ‘Cartograffiti’ EP in 2018. a mix. The last of these The pair also run a recording studio and label (Upcycled Sounds), promote 1. Graphic Equalisers: these are very common on car stereos and PA systems. filters are known as gigs and a festival and run an electronic music residential in their studio space The outboard unit will consist of a row of fixed frequency sliders that are shelving filters. These in Cowley together: “so we hang out way too much”. recently and her voice and writing are just the top.” detented in the centre position. You raise the slider to boost or lower it to reduce are the bass and treble tone controls you find on most Hi-Fis and consumer What do they sound like? If they could only keep one album in the world, it would be: the gain (or volume) of that particular frequency. The frequencies are always playback systems; they will raise or lower the gain above or below a set Using and array of homemade instruments, Limpet Space Race employ a “Camille – ‘OUÏ’. French wordplay, insane vocals, synths and rhythms. from left (bass) to right (treble). You can have two sets side by side for stereo. frequency using a gentle shelf response. Finally, there is the ‘notch’ filter, used similar mix’n’match to music, fusing elements of electronic pop, folk, prog Many layers to dig through and we never get sick of it.” There can be as many as 30 bands for each channel with a fixed frequency for cutting a very narrow range of frequencies. and jazz to create atmospheric, pastoral pop atmospheres on songs like ‘Half When is their next local gig and what can newcomers expect? usually spaced at ⅓ of an octave apart. The range or bandwidth is fixed. Light’, as well as what could be the soundtrack to elengantly doomed sci-fi “We’re headlining an Audiograft show on the 21st March and doing a One of my first purchases as a fourteen year old was a 12 band per channel 3. Parametric Equalisers: These, as you can guess from the funky technical films. Or, in their own words: “imagine Pink Floyd, Hiatus Kaiyote, Rozi residency show in the Upcycled Sounds studio on the 26th, after a week stereo graphic equaliser for my Hi-Fi to improve the sound of my albums. name, are quite complex and very powerful tools. They are also known as Plain and Tame Impala had a confused and low budget child.” building an installation of sound contraptions, DIY instruments, surround They are called graphic equalisers because they provide a visual graph of the ‘peak’ or ‘Bell’ EQs. With a Parametric EQ you have three controls: a Gain What inspires them? sound and a bunch of old TVs. Expect soundscapes, noises of accidental and settings you choose. It is very common to see a ‘smiley’ face setting on a lot pot (rotary knob known as a potentiometer, hence the word “pot”) to boost “Experiments and their disasters; multiple homes; Jakes’ many hospital trips; deliberate origin, and love songs to abandoned tech.” of graphic EQs. People like loads of bass and treble in their music and boost or cut the volume; a Frequency pot, to select the preferred frequency, and a working on other people’s tunes; Queer Caff; finding a weird way around a Their favourite and least favourite things about Oxford music are: these frequencies and cut those harsh middle frequencies. If you reverse these Bandwidth pot, which widens or narrows the range of frequencies to be worked capitalist thing; people being silly; house shares; climate apocalypse.” “Favourite: an ace scene with lots of energy for things close to our hearts – settings you will have a ‘sad’ face graph because it will sound like your music on. The bandwidth is also known or labelled as ‘Q’. This stands for Quality Their career highlight so far is: accessibility; equality; DIY culture; eco-friendliness; the EU. Least favourite: is coming out of the telephone – which it often is these days. Factor and is derived from the world of physics and engineering. These types “We got commissioned to do a piece about climate change and landslides for it’s crazy expensive. Creative folks getting squeezed, venues priced out, of EQ are extremely powerful, you can use the Q control to make a very gentle electronics, surround sound and orchestra for the Ashmolean Proms. Seeing soulless shopping centres decimating the town centre, blah blah blah. We do 2. Filters: filters do exactly what you expect them to do. Like a filter on a slope either side of the selected frequency or an extremely narrow precise our dumb band name on a classical music programme was funny.” music/production full time and love it but it’s hard to survive, especially with coffee machine that lets the coffee through but not the grounds, audio filters ‘notch’ which will affect a very small range. I use a mixture of all the above EQ And the lowlight: roots in other places.” allow only certain frequencies to pass. The three common types are the High types in the mastering studio depending on the material I’m working on. “Breaking down on tour in the Netherlands and trying to jump start our You might love them if you love: Pass Filter (HPF) that cuts bass frequencies; the Low Pass Filter (LPF), which 30-year-old Volvo using a bunch of stolen extension cables and the help of a Pink Floyd; Tame Impala; Jaala; Joan As Policewoman; Jon Hopkins; Talk Talk. cuts high frequencies, and finally ‘shelving’ filters. These first two were often Next month: the uses of these types of EQ and the reasons for my choices. very stoned and confused guy we’d just met. Obviously it was unsuccessful.” Hear them here: Their favourite other Oxfordshire act is: facebook.com/limpetspacerace; instagram.com/limpetspacerace; “Harsh question! Gonna say Theo, cos we’ve been working on her stuff limpetspacerace.co.uk

T H E W H E A T S H E A F Nephewlah Gosh! th Dr SHOTOVER: Thursday 5 March – 8:30pm WOTCHA. Welcome to the East Indies Club, bro. Whassat - Dr Shotover? THIS MONTH IN OXFORD Oh, he’s at a regimental reunion – I’m his nephew, yeah? So, as my uncle ALL OUR YESTERDAYS MUSIC HISTORY th Friday 6 March – 7:45pm would say… pull up a beanbag and buy us all a sexy little vegan beer. Yeah- yeah, it’s pretty intense here, right? But it’s also ummm a SAYFE SPAYCE. Trivium, Field Music, Hadouken!, Turin Brakes th 20 YEARS AGO 10 YEARS AGO Saturday 7 March – 7:30pm and, erm, Peter Andre – all at the O2 Academy ‘Guest Headline’ Do you remember the CELLAR? We saw some AMAYZING gigs there back Evidence that Oxford’s music venue situation has Back in March 2010 , celebrating its fifth in the 90s and early Noughties… yeah-yeah, OLD SCHOOL! The acts who been a perennially up and down issue comes with anniversary on the airwaves, and coinciding with – while living legend Patti Smith was at The are, y’know, like, the Indie-Rock-Royalty of Todayyy… before they got a look back 20 years to March 2000’s Nightshift. the 15th anniversary of ‘The Bends’, Introducing Holywell Music Room and First Aid Kit were just starting out at The Jericho Tavern. th FAYMOUS, yeah? Item one: ELIZABETH, who later turned into FOALS. Things were very much on the up at the time with released ‘Round The Bends’, Radiohead’s classic Thursday 12 March – 8:30pm None more royal than ELIZABETH, geddit? Item Two: MARSCAPONE the launch of a new world music and folk venue album covered by myriad local stars, including – Roots.net in Park End Street, on the site of The Winchell Riots, Borderville, The Epstein, Little th CLUB – later YOUNG KNIVES! Nothing cheesy about them, eh, EH? Not 5 YEARS AGO Friday 13 March 7:45pm to mention RACHAEL DADD-ROCK – recently, you know, played by Mr Jam Factory. Promoters Matt Sage (of Catweazle Fish, Witches and Xmas Lights, as well as a star “Sometimes we feel like people are almost Stuart Macaroni on his Freaky-Deaky-Zone programme? It’s er literally fame) and local folk star Jon Fletcher were seeking turn from The Evenings, turning ‘Street Spirit’ into disappointed when they meet us and realise we’re ALL HAPPENING, to bring stars from around the globe to own and a major key anthem. actually just nice people.” So said Undersmile, th began with a five-day festival that featured British- In less celebratory news, Stornoway, The Oxford’s darkest doom-mongers, who were on Saturday 14 March 7:45pm yeah? I can’t Asian collective Sister India; South American Candyskins and Richard Walters played a special the cover of Nightshift for the second time, talking believe those OLD th 12-piece Salsaddiction; Ukrainian gypsy band instore show at Videosyncratic, which was shutting about their masterpiece ‘Anhedonia’ album as well Thursday 19 March – 8:30pm FARTS closed the Zvuk Bazaar; Ghana’s Kakatsitsi and Pentangle its doors for the final time. The video rental shop as puppies and kittens (“Why make us choose? Cellar down, man. th guitar legend Bert Jansch. The venue was also to had become a hub for the local scene when it started WHY!?” exclaimed singer/guitarist Hel). Friday 20 March – 7:45pm Just when I’d got include a musical instrument shop and café. selling local bands’ CDs, and while we mourned On the lighter side of the musical coin, there was my RAD RAP act Also opening was the new-look Jericho Tavern its closure (and its legendary customer service) it a sold-out headline show at The O2 Academy together. Now, and Jongleurs comedy club started a weekly live paved the way for Truck Store to open in its place. for fast-rising local stars Glass Animals, who st Saturday 21 March – 7:30pm ‘Guest Headline’ heyyy, what about music night, while over in Witney The Pit – behind Leaving us too were Youthmovies, who bowed had recently found themselves becoming one of another drink? The Hollybush pub – had a new promoter in Dan out with a farewell show at The O2 Academy. “We the biggest live bands in Australia on the back of Ohh, I’m just going Goddard who was to usher in a golden age for the are miles apart and it’s time for something new,” huge Spotify success for their singles ‘Hazey’ and

th to have a dairy-free town’s gig scene. That only one of those venues declared singer Andrew Mears, revealing plans for ‘Gooey’. The band were set to release their debut Thursday 26 March – 8:30pm ALMOND-MILK- still exists tells you all you need to know about the his new band, Pet Moon. “The best things about album, ‘ZABA’ this month. precarious nature of grassroots music. the past years have been all the travel, playing with On the slightly stranger third side of the coin were th STYLE SKINNY Friday 27 March – 7:45pm LARTAY? No, not But where do the stars of tomorrow begin life? people like Foals and Adam Gnade and getting paid Bug Prentice, who were this month’s Nightshift At grassroots level, as we saw again with a glance to be antagonistic vagrants.” The hugely influential Introducing act. The trio, led by local songsmith th to drink, bro – just Saturday 28 March – 8:20pm to INSTAGRAM! at the gig guide and a new young band called experimental rockers reformed for two shows in aid and Oxford’s prime punmeister Ally Craig, had Cheers! Coldplay opening for Terris at The Point. of The Brain Tumour Charity Michael Barry Fund just released their first single, ‘Nicholas Ray’ b/w Other acts coming town this month included Nitin back in 2018, a reminder of just what an astonishing ‘Spoons’. “Silly words with pretty tunes, or vice Next month: Sawhney and Gallon Drunk (The Zodiac); Beth group of musicians they were. versa,” said Ally by way of describing the band. Oxford Imps - Every Monday during term - www.oxfordimps.com / The Spin Jazz - Every Thursday - spinjazz.net Abnormal Service Nephew Rhymes: ‘I could bear some spare facial www.facebook.com/wheatsheaf.oxford Orton (Brookes Union) and Hugh Cornwell (The Big names in town this month included Ellie Oi, about time we had some more of that strange The Wheatsheaf, 129 High Street, Oxford, OX1 4DF is Resumed hair, yeah? But would it grow, bro?... No.’ Bullingdon). Goulding, Paloma Faith, The Courteeners, musical goodness, old chap. TILLY VALENTINE ALEX WELLKES Tilly Valentine might similarly fit in with More heavy duty man-rock here. What that set, possessed as she is of a smoothly joy. Actually, some of this is pretty decent. TRACks refined take on r’n’b-inflected pop, ‘Put It In Order’ is sullen and grungy if a Sponsored by Track of the Month wins a free remix lightweight, soft and feathery and what little leaden, like it wants to be Mudhoney from Soundworks studio in Oxford, might be less than flatteringly labelled but somehow ended up rather closer to courtesy of Umair Chaudhry. Visit “tasteful”. Over a bed of semi funky bass Stiltskin or – whisper it – Babylon Zoo www.umairchaudhry.co.uk/nightshift and beats and very slightly off-kilter keys (look ‘em up, kids. Actually maybe don’t), her voice plays birdlike with the remains and ‘It Was All There’ is 80s electro- the county, lurching trees, trellises and of a relationship. “Our relationship was rock balladry that might be Ultravox TOP trampolines across the road, for a dozen fit for a king, but you left it behind,” she at their Midge Ure-fronted pomp and peaceful minutes, it does. sings to her emotional betrayer but it all deserves kudos for being so unabashedly feels a bit too polite and lacking in real overwrought but ‘Whats This Life For’ TRACKS drama or trauma, as if she’s bemoaning (sic) is ponderous and pompous, all heroic IT the fact her other half has finished all the guitar soloing, towering piano and what THE BOBO & Then again, some things would do well semi skimmed rather than left her heart in sounds like the singer competing with not to be so ambient, laidback or easy on tatters. himself to be the most sky-searchingly KID KIN the ear. IT here isn’t, sadly, the evil clown intense person in the room, simultaneously As you read this Nightshift is sealed in its from the Stephen King novel, or even winning and losing his personal battle. office, surrounded by a wall of Bombay someone who helpfully tells you to turn THE ADY BAKER From here the vaguely grungy rock wins Bad Boy Pot Noodles waiting for the your computer off and on again to see if out, everything Alex can find in the studio pandemic to pass so we can venture back that fixes the problem, but is instead short SOUND gets hurled into the mix and cranked up outside to reclaim our dominion and And back into the world of rock and roll for Iman Taghol, who describes himself to maximum volume and the effect is a maybe become masters of the remnants in all its brash, sweaty glory from The as a trance producer. And we guess this is bit like being chased down the road by a of humanity, establishing a new form of Ady Baker Sound, whose ‘Ten Ton Smile’ trance of a kind as it bubbles and bobbles steamroller stuck in second gear but the religion based on Killing Joke’s more maybe overestimates the weight the song amiably along, flirting with piano house verge is too steep and slippery for you to apocalyptic lyrics. Not that that narrows conveys but does manage to deliver a very for brief moments but doesn’t get our escape so you have to keep running else it down too much. In the meantime we solid wall of sound: vaguely psychedelic bodies moving, moving, instead mostly you’ll get flattened. On balance standing need something to make the solitary garage rock that harks back to the sort of fluffing about in the background, sounding out in the middle of Storm Dennis and confinement and claustrophobia more stuff Oasis were capable of once upon a like it would be better off acting as bed getting decapitated by a flying trampoline bearable, which is why we have this time but which both Liam and Noel have music for rolling news idents, Youtube would be quicker and funnier. TURAN AUDIO.co.uk one-song offering, ‘Sprinter (At Last)’, compilations of people doing vaguely monumentally failed to keep alive in their Professional, independent from The Bobo and Kid Kin on repeat inspirational stuff on beaches, or maybe respective careers since. Unlike certain audio mastering play. The Bobo is the musical moniker kids’ TV cookery shows. There’s some other blokey rock offerings this month of singer and electronic musician Maria, nice squelchy synth sounds along the way (see below for details), this lot do at least TOILET Mastered in the studio last month; Apple approved joined here by long-time Nightshift fave and the whole thing – it’s an album-length sound like they mean it, man, and are a GORDON HASKELL, EAN JONES, THE mastering Kid Kin, together the pair’s mix of gently set of instrumental tracks all named after bit pissed off about, y’know, stuff. It has TRACKS WEE CHERUBS, SLOW LEARNER, swarming synth-pop and ghostly vocals chemical elements – has a nice linear a bit of a wild streak about it and could REFUSED, BROTHERS OSBOURNE, MIRAGES, sounding like a midnight meet-up between simplicity about it, but much of the time probably drink you under the table. It’s DESERT STORM, SINFUL MAGGIE, BLASPHEMER, Mazzy Star and Chvrches. It’s as much a THE ASSIST it sounds only two-thirds finished and we also likely got a few Stooges and Sonics FLIGHTS OF HELIOS, THE WEDDING PRESENT, mood piece as a song; it doesn’t really go records in its collection, so we’ll give This month’s overdose of laddish rocking have to ask, is IT banging? To which we WILL COX, GRAVID, ELIXIER, SEN3. anywhere in particular, instead luxuriating feel compelled to answer: IT is not. them the benefit of any doubt. reaches its zenith, or nadir depending on which way you look at it, with The in the splendour of its own existence, 01865 716466 [email protected] and deservedly so. It manages to be Assist. Of the many things we can lay the simultaneously ominous and wonderfully JESS LEE THE WHILE blame for at the feet of Liam Gallagher soothing, existing in a dreamlike state, If there’s a trend in local music right now This lot, by contrast, sound like The it’s that tendency to elongate vowels to possibly one where the laws of physics it’s the emergence of a small swathe of Ady Baker Sound might if they left that almost comical effect, something that COURTYARD are redundant, or at the very least, you jazz, r’n’b and folk-inclined female artists sense of abandon in a box in the garage continues to be aped by generations RECORDING STUDIO can survive on nothing but Pot Noodles seemingly set to join the dots between alongside the Stooges and Sonics records of geezers desperate to assert their 2 Tracking Rooms. Superb Control Room with: and vodka. A sad, serene soundtrack to Jorja Smith and Joni Mitchell, via Mahalia. they’d decided were a bit too crazy and working class credentials. Gor blimey NEVE 5106 32 Channel Console. ProTools HD3 imminent Armageddon. Recently we’ve heard from Joely, Theo and decided instead to saunter nonchalantly guv’nor, strike a light and let’s ‘av some MTR 90 2” 24 Track Tape Machine. Vintage EMT Plate Reverb sunshiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine. Fuck off. Really, just Loads of Brilliant Outboard Gear Jen Berkova, and now here’s Jess Lee to into town in slow motion, imagining they Loads of Great Mics, Vintage and Modern join the merry throng. Or maybe no merry were The Lizard King himself rather than fuck off. This lot sound like some arse-end Old School Akai/Roland Synth Modules since this four-track EP tends more towards someone who believes Noel Gallagher’s of Madchester popped in the microwave Upright Piano, Fender Rhodes, Amps and great vibes. FOCI’S LEFT the downhearted side of life and song. The High Flyin’ Birds are far crazier and with a side order of Arctic Monkeys, a Residential recording studio in Sutton Courtenay. Compared to Foci’s Left’s new music, first impression you get from Jess is that inspiring than Hendrix, Led Zep and Iggy Reverend and the Makers gravy and a www.courtyardrecordingstudio.co.uk The Bobo sounds like a funked-up punch- rolled into one. On a superficial level dusting of The Twang. Then forgotten and In-house producer: Ian Davenport www.ian-davenport.co.uk she has a great voice: smoky and soulful Email: [email protected] up at a children’s birthday party. The left to go rancid. It’s like a distillation of and more than capable of delivering the it’s got a bit of 60s psych-rock gumption Phone: Kate on 01235 845800 work of prolific local electronic music gentle heartache of her lyrics. If sometimes about it but it’s paint by numbers stuff, everything indie rock has needed saving artist Mick Buckingham, it’s twelve her songs fail to be the vehicle her voice stilted and sounding like the desperate from over the past 25 years, music to drink minutes of microtonal hums interspersed demands or deserves – the rhythmic but wannabe kid who turns up in last year’s too much Stella and swagger around ‘avin’ with occasional echoey, disembodied slight ‘Best Nightmare’ doesn’t seem to cool trainers asking to join the gang. Go it large to. Doubtless coming to another voices and yawns and reflects the kind of go anywhere much after a promising start home for tea fellas, there’s some proper male-dominated festival near you this tranquillity you imagine its maker craves and ‘Enough’ doesn’t match the hushed mad bastards in here and you’re likely to summer. And probably every summer until in life. The first 20 seconds or so of the intensity of Jess’ voice – at her best she get squashed. COVID-19 comes to save us all. piece, entitled ‘The Daredevil Details’, can be richly engaging. ‘Takes’ could be Rehearsal and Recording studios are little more than silence, and it doesn’t a lost Sade song with its smooth, jazzy get much more animated from there. But, vibes, twinkling electronics and dextrous Four state of the art rehearsal rooms you imagine, this slowly shifting slab of and a professional recording studio. guitar playing, but the best song here is ambient minimalism could tame all the ‘Rose Tinted Glasses’: soulful and sad- Send tracks, downloads or streaming links for review to [email protected], For bookings call Jamie on 07917685935 terrors in the world. “Life doesn’t stand eyed, sparse and spacious but with a sense clearly marked Demos. IMPORTANT: no review without a contact phone number. If you Glasshouse studios, Cumnor, Oxford • glasshousestudios.org still” breathes Mick towards the end, but of purpose and showcasing Lee’s very can’t handle criticism, please don’t send us your demo. Same goes for your stupid, as Storm Dennis follows Ciara across obvious vocal talents at their best. over-sensitive mates. facebook.com/o2academyoxford twitter.com/o2academyoxford instagram.com/o2academyoxford youtube.com/o2academytv

Fri 28th Feb • 6pm Fri 27th Mar • 6.30pm Fri 24th Apr • 6.30pm Hot 8 Brass Band Joanne Shaw Taylor Whitechapel + Sonia Leigh + Dyscarnate + Vexed Fri 28th Feb • 6.30pm Vex Red Sat 28th Mar • 6.30pm Sat 25th Apr • 6.30pm + Ciphers + Sœur Bingo Lingo UK Foo Fighters (Tribute)

Sat 29th Feb • 6pm Thur 2nd Apr Sat 25th Apr • 11pm The Shapes Hayseed Dixie King Shine Vs Empire + Emma Hunter + The Autumns Saints + 8 Ball Aitken + Dandelions Mon 27th Apr Fri 3rd Apr • 6.30pm Mystery Jets Mon 2nd Mar Cut Capers Kiefer Sutherland Sat 2nd May • 6.30pm Sat 4th Apr • 6.30pm Tue 3rd Mar Beardyman Fleur East: The Big Moon The Fearless Experience Sun 3rd May Wed 4th Mar • 6.30pm And So I Watch You From Afar Ally Pally Comes to Oxford Sat 4th Apr • 6.30pm Bulsara and His Queenies Tue 12th May Uni Student Darts Lime Cordiale Thur 5th Mar Tue 7th Apr Red Rum Club Sat 16th May The Aristocrats Rhymeskeemz Live Wed 8th Apr Fri 6th Mar • 6.30pm Tue 19th May Everyone You Know Temples Mark Lanegan & Band Fri 10th Apr • 6.30pm Tue 10th Mar Fri 22nd May Dutty Moonshine Big Band Kerrang! Radio Fresh Blood The Springsteen Sessions Tour: PENGSHUi + Funke and The Two Tone Baby Tue 2nd Jun + Kid Bookie + Bring The Onslaught Fri 10th Apr • 6.30pm • SOLD OUT + Damaged Reich The Night Cafe Asleep At The Wheel Wed 11th Mar • 6.30pm + Dreamers + On Video Thur 11th Jun • 6.30pm

The Calling Sat 11th Apr • 6.30pm BETSIE GØLD

Sat 14th Mar • 6.30pm brixtons Sat 13th Jun • 6.30pm Anamanaguchi + Only Sun The AC/DC Experience + yeule + Lovekraft Mon 13th Apr – Bad Boy Boogie Tour Adore Delano - The A/D Tour Sat 14th Mar • 6.30pm Fri 4th Sep • 6.30pm + La Demi Twin Atlantic Ultimate Coldplay + bloxx Thur 16th Apr Henge Fri 11th Sep • 6.30pm Thur 19th Mar The Dualers Lee Scratch Perry + LEIFXMATHI + Zaia + Count Skylarkin Fri 17th Apr • 6.30pm Tue 29th Sep Scott Bradlee’s Fri 20th Mar • 6.30pm • SOLD OUT Goldie Lookin Chain Postmodern Jukebox The Cat Empire Sat 18th Apr • 6.30pm Sat 3rd Oct • 6.30pm Sat 21st Mar • 6pm Fell Out Boy Nirvana UK (Tribute) Palace & The Black Charade + We Aren’t Paramore Thur 8th Oct Mon 23rd Mar The Smyths - Meat Is Murder Goldfrapp Thur 23rd Apr • 6.30pm A warm-up show ahead of their upcoming UK tour Ally Pally Comes To Brookes 35th Anniversary Tour Student Darts Wed 25th Mar • 6.30pm Fri 16th Oct Plain White T’s Thur 23rd Apr CASH: Paying respect to the + Harry Marshall The Hara (Evening Show) Man in Black

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