THE ALGIERS TRICKY GY!BE Jim Kotsis SPARKLEHORSE Gillian Welch ONYX
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THE ALGIERS TRICKY GY!BE jim kotsis SPARKLEHORSE gillian welch ONYX ISSUE 1 / July 2018 Turn it up! Contents INTRODUCING THE BAND “Come on stage, play for an hour and fuck of f. No chat, no encore, no filler and every single note a killer! anonymous fan from the Kerrang letter page complaining about the bloated Black Album era Metallica”” gigs “Its all about the music man Bullshit!!!!! Would Led Zepplin have the legacy and the great photos capture this. Lets they have, had Robert Plant been a fat celebrate this........oh OK, we can talk middle aged bald guy? Would grunge about the music a little if we must. have hit the way it did without the photos of Charles Peterson and the Welcome to the debut issue of the new words of Everett True? Can a band make music fanzine, “A Beautiful Noise”, a look it in todays industry without a headline at the images and words behind the noise. making video? Music has always, always Guest photographers, writers, musicians been as much about the image as it is and artists growing into a collective about the music. George Epstein got it, unit. From national touring bands to Oasis got it, Courtney Love got it and young unsigned upstarts, it will all get ultimately the Gorillaz certainly got it. covered here. Live reviews, anniversary You don’t believe me? Yes you do, Rock memoriums, interviews interspersed with n roll is sexy, exciting and rebellious plenty of general chitchat. Turn it Up!. Contents Beautiful Noise. www.gordonhaswell.com 2 2 CONTENTS 4 portfolio A collection of musical images taken over the last few months. 18live The Algiers live at Temple Tricky live at Fuzz Club 40top5 Godspeed You! Black Emporer at Gazi A desert Island discs if you will 30interview Jim Kotsis takes us through a musical life in the Greek capital It was20years ago today Revisiting records as they celebrate their 20 year anniversary. 41spin the Sparklehorse - Goodmorning Spider Gillian Welch - Hell Among The Yearlings Onyx - Bakdafukup! black circle The 3 wise monkeys sit around a table and discuss 3 records from various themes that they deem worthy of discussion Contents Beautiful Noise. www.gordonhaswell.com 3 Contents Beautiful Noise. www.gordonhaswell.com 4 Contents Beautiful Noise. www.gordonhaswell.com 5 Contents Beautiful Noise. www.gordonhaswell.com 6 Contents Beautiful Noise. www.gordonhaswell.com 7 Contents Beautiful Noise. www.gordonhaswell.com 8 Contents Beautiful Noise. www.gordonhaswell.com 9 Contents Beautiful Noise. www.gordonhaswell.com 10 Contents Beautiful Noise. www.gordonhaswell.com 11 Contents Beautiful Noise. www.gordonhaswell.com 12 Contents Beautiful Noise. www.gordonhaswell.com 13 Contents Beautiful Noise. www.gordonhaswell.com 14 Contents Beautiful Noise. www.gordonhaswell.com 15 Contents Beautiful Noise. www.gordonhaswell.com 16 Contents Beautiful Noise. www.gordonhaswell.com 17 LIVE REVIEWS THE ALGIERS p.6 TRICKY p.9 GY!BE p.14 Contents Beautiful Noise. www.gordonhaswell.com 18 Contents TheTemple Algiers Athens, Beautiful Noise. www.gordonhaswell.com 19 leads to an incredibly A BEAUTIFUL visual set, all eyes firmly focused on the 2 at the forefront, allowing the 2 remaining members, guitarist Lee Tesche and ex RAGE Bloc Party drummer Matt Tong to remain in the shadows adding radiohead textures and furious tribal beats. Cry of the Martyrs, Cleveland, Death March, the songs passed he phrase beautiful noise could not be more by in a whirlwind, maracas, loops, ableton live, a chainsaw of some apt than The Algiers in Athens in the dark type, were all utilized to enforce that this was not your standard rock early months of 2018. Hailing from Atalanta band. Sure they could rock, but they could also be cinematic, they could be Georgia, but formed in London, they crashed romantic, they could be comedic. They were not here solely to mosh but to Tinto this South Eastern section of Europe with dance as well. You are left wondering what would Beck have sounded like if unbound fury. Promoting their second record, the he hadn’t gone towards the lush ambiance of his more recent output. rather wonderful ‘The Underside of Power’. Playing to a full house at the cosy but beautifully formed Any moral preaching was left to the stage craft and the songs, very little was said Temple club in the Greek capital, they brought on stage, this is of course, a blessing, nothing like destroying the atmosphere their blend of rock, funk, gospel, technology and by rambling on with ill conceived jokes and, cough, splutter, banter. It was left politics, and delivered it in an angry powerhouse of for the music to batter and jive, to give life and to destroy, sometimes within a performance that ensured the audience left the the constraints of a single song. venue firmly entrenched in their camp. This is no ordinary band, their ability to fuse such different styles while retaining With US politics and worldwide race relations at the anger and the funk is a true gift, embrace them. a seemingly low point, guitarist Franklin James Marshall, looking resplendent in black leather, posed 90 minutes later they were gone, cheers, thanks, yada yada yada, they were out an intimidating and angry figure. Sporting a black of here. As i left I ran into the promoter, he never has time for small talk, “That lives matter pin badge you couldn’t help but see was fucking awesome” he screamed into the night. Indeed it was sir, indeed it a Black Panther within him. With his Hendrix style was. guitar leanings, he prowled the stage, whether he was banging the Rhodes piano, attacking his guitar or looping his vocals, or doing all three at once, allowing the noise to cascade over the crowd while bass player Ryan Mahan danced like a man possessed. And here “The revolution may not be lay the secret, an angry, highly charged political group, screaming at the world and its injustices while never televised, but this doesn’t mean it forgetting to dance. can’t have a funky soundtrack”. The revolution may not be televised, but this does not mean it can’t have a funky soundtrack which all Contents Beautiful Noise. www.gordonhaswell.com 20 Contents Beautiful Noise. www.gordonhaswell.com 21 TRICKY Fuzz Club, Athens Greece January 31st 2018 n the early 90’s UK television had a show called Bouncers. Long before the glamour of the scripted reality TV that would emerge a decade later, this was a TV crew following the lives of a firm Iof doormen as they worked the doors of Bristol’s nightlife. For someone who had never been it sure did look rough, really fucking grim. Bristol huh? Remember that place as one I never want to go to. Fast forward a few years and with the decline of Seattle and the emergence of trip hop it had become as the downbeat atmosphere becomes uneasy, tense the coolest place on the planet. What happened? and claustrophobic. Well a lot apparently, and ultimately 25 years later, i find myself in Greece watching one of the main It was neverending, the drum and bass, the low growl protagonists on stage showing us why we still care of Tricky, the darkness ever so infrequently punctuated about this city and the art it produced. by slithers of light. The odd strobe, the emergence of Breanna Barbara taking the place of Martina Topley- It cant be ignored that the stage is dark, and by Bird gave brief respite but the darkness would soon dark I mean really dark. The crowd love it and the return. The gig was everything you would expect and photographers hate it, cameras aren’t focusing and want, a career retrospective rather than heavy on his if you listen carefully you can hear the ISO meter new album although the cover of Hole’s ‘Doll Parts’ being increased all around us. The band open with was definitely a highlight, as was set closer ‘Vent’ an instrumental version of Sweet Dreams, it sounds from his earlier work. ominous and menacing Tricky emerges wearing a shirt which he immediately removes leaving us So has my opinion of Bristol changed since those questioning the point of wearing it at all. Regardless, documentaries? Have I embraced it as a metropolis pacing the stage is the Tricky we know and love. His haven of beatniks and peace loving artists? I have no spoken style brutally punctures the music beneath idea, I have still never been. Contents Beautiful Noise. www.gordonhaswell.com 22 Contents Beautiful Noise. www.gordonhaswell.com 23 Contents Beautiful Noise. www.gordonhaswell.com 24 Contents Beautiful Noise. www.gordonhaswell.com 25 Contents Beautiful Noise. www.gordonhaswell.com 26 THEGazi FIREHall May 31st 2018 INSIDE BLACKGODSPEED EMPORER YOU! When news broke that Godspeed You! very apparent. They may be put under the Black Emperor were lumbering into same umbrella as bands like Sigur Ros and Greece for the first time in 8 years, Radiohead but as a visual show, they are expectations were understandably high. miles apart. This however, is not necessarily Such was the demand that the venue a bad thing as the static demeanor on stage was soon changed and it was for this allows the audience to focus on the real reason that the Gazi music Club saw a star of the show, the projectionist who capacity crowd descend upon it for the spends his evening juggling 4 old school arrival of these enigmatic Canadians. film projectors like a turntable. Reams of Arriving on cue at 10 they, as ever, began tape hung up beside him, he constantly with the rising Hope Drone.