[email protected] @NightshiftMag NightshiftMag nightshiftmag.co.uk Free every month NIGHTSHIFT Issue 265 August Oxford’s Music Magazine 2017

“This album could easily be about love but for me it’s about recovering photo: Ian Wallman from loss and finding redemption.”

DEATHFrom post-apocalypic worlds to OF HI-FI post-traumatic stress with Oxford’s electric dreamers. Also in this issue: Introducing MOOGIEMAN & THE MASOCHISTS RIDE, CORNBURY FESTIVAL & IRREGULAR FOLKS reviewed plus All your Oxford music news, previews and gigs for August NIGHTSHIFT: PO Box 312, Kidlington, OX5 1ZU. Phone: 01865 372255 photo: Ian Wallman ge I think we just knew from has given us over the past year and a half.” about the change Gaby said, “ played their last gig in their current incarnation at Truck Truck their current incarnation at played their last gig in Nightshift Coldredlight The band, formed by singer/guitarist Gaby-Elise Festival at the end of July. are planning to re-emer Monaghan and multi-instrumentalist Casper Miles, with a new name and a new line-up in October. to Talking the beginning that we wanted the sound to be bigger than two people couldthe beginning that we wanted the sound to be bigger a fresh perspective and otherallow so it just made sense for us to start anew with stone for us into the next stage,band members. Coldredlight has been a stepping itself will still be us, onlyour influences are constantly shifting but the music with a fresh perspective and some just be starting again We’ll bigger and better. some of the same songs andnew permanent band members, will be keeping wanted to say a massive thankwriting a whole load of new ones.” She added, “I you to all the support Nightshift The Punt in 2016, with Coldredlight quickly Gaby made her local solo debut at style of blues and grunge;building a local following for their dark, emotive was voted Nightshift’s Number 2 song of last year their song `Little Scorpion’ – and the band were picked by Rob da Witch’ `Burn the – beating Radiohead’s in May. Bank to play the main stage at Common People

September th July at Said headline st August at MIND’s Mill at MIND’s August th , don’t forget to tune into forget , don’t are looking for bands to and 5 th Bit Country; Elephantasy; The Country; Elephantasy; Bit Choir and Abingdon Community £7.50 £5 in advance or Tickets, more. full with kids free, plus on the door, at line-up details can be found . www.rabbitholemusicevents.co.uk 31HOURS, Sleepers Dome and among Jamie Corish are Flatland’s the acts playing at Intermix Jungle The event, which runs on this month. the 4 centre on Cowley Road, is a multi- media exhibition and performance, featuring live music, poetry art, design, photography and performance, with an emphasis on improvisation. Find them on Facebook and Instagram. OXROX play a short set of cover versions at on Friday 29th Versions their event ofActs The Bullingdon. December at any genre who are interested should contact Sam at sammietomlin@ yahoo.co.uk. THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT 5 all- dayer raised £3,650 for Children’s Ambulatory Care, the John Radcliffe As One. All Hospital and Children’s The event, on the 1 Business School rooftop amphitheatre featured Soul Devotion, Chasing The Shapes and more and Daylight, localfor raised amount total the brings charities over the last five children’s years to £13,000. TERRORSAURS Musicians Against this year’s Homelessness show in aid of The Birmingham rockers Crisis. Who Killed join Reading punk act Nancy Johnson and Gloucester The rockers Rebel Station at Cellar on Saturday 29 as part of a nationwide series of gigs co-ordinated by MAH patron priced £5 Tickets, Alan McGee. in advance, are on sale now from Wegottickets.com. AS EVER every BBC Oxford Introducing Saturday night between 8-9pm on The dedicated local music 95.2fm. show plays the best Oxford releases and demos as well as featuring interviews and sessions with local The show is available to stream acts. or download as a podcast at bbc.co.uk/oxford.

th Century th September at Phone: 01865 372255 01865 372255 Phone: th September across th Online: nightshiftmag.co.uk have been confirmed as email: [email protected] September at East Oxford Nightshift: PO Box 312, Kidlington, OX5 1ZU Kidlington, PO Box 312, Nightshift: nd If Not Now When? is a new festival If Not Now NEWS The Victoria Arms in Old Marston. Victoria The by local music lover Ed Organised Reckitt, Rabbit Hole features sets from Zaia; Paves; Faith I Branko; Little A Lucy Mair; Zhang & Jane; Community Centre and Fusion Arts. Community Centre and Fusion 30 acts will plays across three rooms, from 2pm through to 3am, with other Tigercats; acts confirmed including: Johanna Glaza; Fever Dream; Garden Centre; Flemmings; Slate Hearts; Kid WOLFS; Kin; Green Hands; Kone; Alpha Porridge Radio; Repo Man; (solo); Birds Tellison Party; Tea Male of Hell; Rough Music; Be Good; Flights of Helios, and Small Hours. priced £18 are available from Tickets, More info on the If Wegottickets.com. When? Facebook page. Not Now, will celebrate STORM DESERT their tenth anniversary with a headline The Cellar on Saturday 25 show at November. The local rock titans, who November. have spent much of the past two years touring the UK and Europe in support of their third album `Omniscient’, are joined for the show by Sons of Thunder and Bad Blood Recovery. priced £7, are on sale from Tickets, Wegottickets.com. is a city- CARNIVAL CURIOSITY wide celebration of academic research with a strong musical theme that takes place on Friday 29 Oxford’s museums, libraries and Oxford’s gardens, as well as locations in the The event aims to explore city centre. how researchers ask questions and discover answers, with an eclectic array of music, including school projects based on sleep research, ancient Greek music, 18 GALLOPS When? in headliners for If Not Now They join Spook School; September. DeathOh Peas; Grace Lightman; Help and Self Weddings; Pedals; also beenProtection Spells, who have added to the bill. jointly by for east Oxford, organised The Divine Schism and Idiot King. one-day event takes place on Saturday 2 songs and grime exploring various themes. More info at www.curiositycarnival.org returns HOLE FESTIVAL RABBIT next month. Now in its fourth year, the festival boasts 14 acts across two stages on Saturday 9 A Quiet Word With Witney Music Festival back in 2013, Those five years, though, are intrinsic relate to that.” Inspired by the heartbreaking chapter says Andy. We were introduced by to the story of the new album: a Does Andy think Death Of Hi-Fi in Alan Moore’s masterpiece V For some mutual friends. Neither Dan nor turbulent time for Andy. are an optimistic or pessimistic band? Vendetta where an imprisoned Evie I had ever really wanted to be stood “It’s been an interesting few years `Lazarus’ (“I’m reborn / I will rise reads the letter Valerie wrote while at the front; we hid behind masks and since `Anthropocene’. It was such up”) at the end of `Follow’ seems to similarly incarcerated and tortured, laptops like the lab assistants we are. a high to release that album and offer hope after some of the more it’s a glorious celebration of love and Lucy seemed to get what we were people got what we were trying downbeat narrative of the album. integrity in the face of hatred and DEATH OF HI-FI trying to do and became the front to do with it. It was fun and nerve “I think that despite everything intolerance. Death Of Hi-Fi have person for our next project.” wracking in equal measure putting that’s happened, I still believe in turned it into one of the most moving Her arrival led to a move away from it together and shaping it as I heard redemption. I still believe in the songs we’ve heard in recent times, its the more straight-up rap of the first it in my head. It was received really human spirit and the will to survive. message as potent now as it was when album as well as opening the door well and I’d wanted to follow it up The story of the album mirrors Moore wrote the original story in the for more regular gigging for Death quickly. I must have made at least the various stages of my life and 1980s. Of Hi-Fi, always a logistical issue ten different albums in the last five `Lazarus’ informs my rise out of “`Roses’ started out as something we previously. years and threw most of them away, the ashes and a sort of rebirth. It’s weren’t too sure about. We finished it “It wasn’t conscious but born out becoming frustrated at being unable ultimately a story of hope, so I and left it in the metaphorical drawer of the need to be able to perform to articulate what I wanted to say suppose that makes me an optimist. for a while. It kept popping back into the album live in as much of its next. my brain before I realised how much I entirety as possible. The first album “For ten years I lived through Looking back now at loved it. We were so happy to be able became almost impossible to play a misunderstood struggle until I `Anthropocene’ and its core theme of to include it on the `We Do Not Have as it featured so many different was finally diagnosed with Post- the idea of aliens creating a musical a Dinosaur’ charity compilation and collaborators from different Traumatic Stress Disorder. It can interpretation of Earth, that sci-fi for people to single it out for praise countries; we could never get them often be an awkward topic but one and industrial vibe carries over onto was mind blowing considering the all in the same place. We had toyed I’ve come to terms with and feel `Follow’, even on a more personal exalted company it was in. We truly with the idea of filming them and are blessed with some fantastic talent beaming them in but that proved in Oxford and I’m always happy to problematic and if not done properly “We all want to know we’re understood in be included in their number. I think would have failed miserably.” that V for Vendetta, like so much of Do you feel the line-up now makes our struggle and find a way to make room for Alan Moore’s work, has had such an it easier for the band to push forward, hope. I think everyone can relate to that.” influence on me. He packs so much particularly with live shows? into each frame and absolutely nails “Absolutely, but I’m never finished; his subject matter – and most other I think there’s always more we is important to not leave behind level, particularly on tracks like `You people’s in the process. At the heart can do. We’ve been talking about as taboo just because it’s difficult. Don’t Know’ and `Ghosts’. of his dystopian view of the UK is a bringing back the visuals for a Many artists thrive on hardship but “It’s always there,” agrees Andy; “it’s pulsing love story and this is reflected while now, so we might explore for a while creativity went out of the always been a huge part of my life in the Valerie/Prisoner V subplot. I that as a complement to Lucy rather window for me. The more I tried to and will always be. I just wanted to wanted to use that imagery of the than a distraction from our lumpen write the more blocked I became; it tell a more human sci-fi story in the eternal battle between love and hate, visages.” was a self-defeating cycle, a bit of a vein of Blade Runner. It was a little peace and war. There’s something that Has reining in the number of rollercoaster. The album could easily like using an Esper machine at times. moves me in the letter she writes and guests on `Follow’ compared to be about love but for me it’s about Who knows where the next one will always affects me deeply. “For three Death Of Hi-Fi’s second singer Lucy Cropper, with guest it remains steadfastly underground. breathe above a rising tide of poverty `Anthropocene’ affected the way you recovering from loss and finding go: maybe a combination of both years I had roses and apologised to no album, `Follow’ opens with a appearances limited to local rap There’s a ton of people I respect on and mundanity, all harsh electronics, went about writing? redemption. observer and observed. At the core one.” There is something noble about portentous sample of Gustav Holst’s star Rhymeskeemz. While less of a the scene, too many to name check stalking beats and churning guitar. It’s “It means more focus, fewer “I reached that point where you of all good science fiction should be that defiance in the face of death that `Mars’ – the bringer of war. What straight-up hip hop album than its without missing people out. I think the possibly the hardest, darkest moment headaches and we can pick and can only crawl upwards again and a human element; even something speaks to me: there’s nothing to regret follows, though, is not a return trip predecessor, it’s possibly an even scene is healthy, especially when you on `Follow’. choose what songs we want to play the more I reached up the more I as pioneeringly bleak as The Purple for her and I love that; it says to me to the planet-scale dystopia of the better record than `Anthropocene’, look at the big names that now play “I’ve long been friends with live rather than being forced into realised I knew what I wanted to say. Cloud explores what it means to that hate will never win.” band’s debut, `Anthropocene’, but a turn towards darker, more soulful shows here; De La Soul, Mobb Deep, Rhymeskeemz,” says Andy, “and playing whatever ones we have The album became catharsis and I be the last human on earth and the a trip into the darker reaches of the pop, industrial soundscapes, old Method Man and Redman, etc. Who we’ve always wanted to work on collaborators available for.” suppose I had a moment of clarity as destructive frustration that causes That resolute sentiment human mind, specifically that of Andy school techno and trip hop, with would have thought a few years ago something together but never really each element began to flow, almost Jeffson to burn cities of the world.” sums up so much about the world, Hill, Death Of Hi-Fi’s co-founder, Lucy’s voice a more settled focal they’d have visited? For me the key managed to work it out. I had written Something else that has uncontrollably. It became a bit of a Similarly, there’s a strong lyrical but also the personal struggles that beatmaker, electronics maestro and point for the band’s sound. is to support each other and push each the track with a rapper in mind but not gone along with the rotating cast of motivation and obsession to get this parallel between `Some Escape’ and have led up to the release of `Follow’; sometime rapper. Live too her arrival has had a big other through rather than trample on him particularly. We were chatting at guests are the masks that Andy and album out of me. `Anthropocene’ highlight `Until I Stop Valerie’s refusal to stop loving or give impact. Previously a Death Of Hi- each other.” the Bully one night and we both said Dan previous wore onstage, as much “The album really at the core is Breathing’ – a strive to survive motif up her last inch of integrity in the face Death Of Hi-Fi released Fi show would see Andy and Dan “There’s a number of people who we should do something together and as a defence mechanism for two guys about love, loss and the struggle with the music’s almost claustrophobic of bigotry and brutality is heroism `Anthropocene’ at the end of 2012. masked and studiously anonymous, don’t quite fit into the classic hip hop it suddenly made sense to have him uncomfortable to play centre stage back to redemption. In a nutshell, urgency capturing the feeling of in its purest form. Andy Hill too has Back then the band was a duo made utilising samples of their various mould and are willing to incorporate on that. A light bulb moment as his as a complement to their music’s it’s about learning how to be a drowning in the humdrum of life. come out triumphant. `Follow’ is a up of Andy and partner Daniel vocal contributors, while now they different things into their music,” writing fits perfectly the feel of what I often steely, alien nature. These days human being again, which is ironic “Totally; the lyrics might be superb album: dark, troubled and Clear alongside an expansive cast of look like a band: Andy hunched over he continues, warming to the theme was trying to achieve with that track. we see their faces, a reflection now considering the first album was a different and come from a different turbulent at times, but ultimately a guest rappers, including local stars his banks of synths or stepping up of Oxford hip hop’s continued It was always destined to be the kick- perhaps of the new more soulful very dispassionate observation of place but the theme is the same. We wonderful piece of art. And personally like Half Decent, Asher Dust and to the mic to add husky, downbeat emergence into the light; “I remember off track for the album and needed and human sound that Lucy’s voice human life on earth.” often do what we do to get by, to he’s come out of the five years with N-Zyme, plus friends from further raps; Dan playing the cyborg back in the days when I started out to be punchy and make a statement; brings to the music. Andy agrees. make it through the day and it’s an a renewed sense of optimism and afield, including Ugly Duckling’s guitar god, and Lucy an exotic, as a rapper I would play shows with Marc perfectly captured the feel of it.” “I think the masks gradually became A triumph of `Follow’ is acknowledgment of that. It’s also the creativity that bodes for even greater Dizzy Dustin. A concept album flamboyant frontwoman. The trio’s indie bands as a bit of a rent-a-rapper less a feature and more of a hindrance, that such a great record has come out opening chapter in the story of the music to come. about aliens creating a musical set at Common People back in May – this was the days of Senser, Credit Elsewhere on `Follow’ plus they smelled terribly after a of such a dark time in Andy’s life. album and sets the scene.” “At the moment, I am writing music interpretation of Earth, made up from was a show-stealing performance to the Nation and Rage Against The we get the cool, languorous trip hop while. We once did a gig straight Tracks like `Swim Away’ are simply for TV and films, splitting my time hearing snatches of radio signals as they flew the flag for Oxford hip Machine – but we opened up a lot of of previous single `Swim Away’; the after spraying them gold and the gorgeous, the calm on the surface One song that hasn’t between here and Los Angeles. from a dying world, `Anthropocene’ hop alongside rappers ShaoDow and doors by playing to non-traditional almost playful hardcore techno of combination of sweat and paint fumes of the water that hides the desperate made it onto `Follow’ is `Roses & Creatively I’ve never been in a better was ambitious, varied and expansive Rhymeskeemz, whose own sets were hip hop crowds. I’d like to see more `Serenity’; the robot-pop-cum-rap of meant I couldn’t see my equipment struggle going on beneath. How much Guns’. One of the first songs written place; I’ve got a side project that I’m and Nightshift hailed it as the best hip similarly triumphant. people step out of their comfort zone `Ghosts’; the almost Madonna-ish properly by the end. Luckily I ramble does he think the themes on the album with Lucy in the band, it’s been a live launching in early 2018 which will hop album to come out of Oxford. and see where it leads.” techno-pop of `Stolen Hearts’, and the on the microphone anyway so no one are universal as well as personal? highlight for a couple of years now be exploring other elements and the “Common People was A high point of that Common People strident industrial sci-fi goth-hop of could tell the difference.” “When talking about universal and its inclusion on the excellent `We softer side of my influences. A bit of Fast forward five years amazing this year! We loved it!” set, and of the new album, was Marc `You Don’t Know’, all with Lucy on topics, the details don’t matter – Do Not Have a Dinosaur’ compilation calm after the storm, perhaps.” and Death Of Hi-Fi release exclaims Andy when Nightshift Clifton (aka Rhymeskeemz)’s rap on vocals. Her arrival in Death Of Hi-Fi Turning the conversation feelings are what get us all. We all last year, which showcased the best its eagerly-awaited follow-up, talks to him ahead of the release of `Some Escape’, an abrasive, urgent marked a huge turning point in the back to `Follow’, the new album has want to know we’re understood in in Oxford electronic music, earned `Follow’ is released on The 11th `Follow’. The band are now a `Follow’ this month; “I think there’s rail against the day-to-day struggle band’s fortunes and musical direction. taken a fair while write and record – our struggle and find a way to make it a placing near the very top of August. Visit www.deathofhifi.com trio, having permanently recruited so much local hip hop out there but to earn a living, raise a family and “We met when I was DJing at five years on from `Anthropocene’. room for hope. I think everyone can Nightshift’s end of year Top 25. to hear tracks from the album.

Sponsored by from your internal jukebox. After a fair few wonder if he can maintain the spell for a full fifty years stuck on the fringes of the local scene – minutes, and for the most part he does. Guitar 1. RADIO promising but never quite the finished article instrumentals like `Lily’s Dance’, and the more 2. NO POINT – The Other Dramas are better than they’ve ever considered `A Kind Sir’, break up the balladry been, and dead set for centre stage. and pay due tribute to Jansch and Renbourn and Songs by The Other Dramas ©℗ Maria Ilett 2017. Sue Foreman when things do fall flat, like the cumbersome RELEASED Vocals/Guitar Maria Ilett. Drums/Vocals Richie Wildsmith. `Hold On’, which sounds like something you’d Recorded at Safehouse Studios Oxford and mixed at WILLIE J HEALEY CO-PILGRIMThe Aviary Studio by Kit Monteith and Mike Bannard. be forced to endure at any number of open mic Mastered at Turan Audio by Tim Turan. sessions, he’s able to follow it with the more LEWIS NEWCOMBE- `People & Their Dogs’ `Moon Lagoon’[email protected] elegant, psych-tinged title track, which could have @theotherdramas been cribbed from the seminal `Bringing in the (National Anthem/Columbia) (Farm Music) JONES “I felt like I was in a dream / I wish someone Former Black Nielson frontman Mike Gale is Mushrooms’ compilation. would help me / Won’t someone pinch my skin / a prolific chap. `Moon Lagoon’ is his fourth `Passing By’ The album’s a bit too long – although rather than Reality,” pleads Willie J Healey on recent single album in as many years: two solo works and two (Self released) cutting out whole tracks, Lewis might do well `Lazy Shade of Pink’, one of the high points of with a full band that features Oxford stalwarts to lop the odd minute or so off a few of them to All rights reserved. Copyright ©℗ 2017 Unauthorised copying, hiring, lending, / It’s five years now since Lewis Newcombe-Jones his debut album. It kind of sums him up; much Joe and Claire Bennettpublic and performance Mike and Monaghan broadcasting of the recording prohibited. won the Nightshift Demo of the Month, and four prevent them drifting too far off into the ether. That if not most of `People & Their Dogs’ feels like (who is surely doing the work of at least half since he graced top spot again as part of Ragdoll, said, the overriding mood of `Passing By’ is that Willie’s looking at life with his head cocked to a dozen drummers these days). These three and bar a couple of brief encounters with him Lewis Newcombe-Jones has all the time in the one side, slightly befuddled after one too many make Co-Pilgrim a three-quarters Oxford act, THE OTHER DRAMAS busking on Cornmarket we’ve not seen or heard world and ain’t nobody going to hurry him along. spliffs and not enough sleep. even if its chief singer and songwriter is from much from the man since, so a fully realised Dale Kattack Album opener `Subterraneans’, with its languid Winchester. We’ll take them for our own though `Radio’ album is as surprising as it is welcome. surf slide and twang is the album stretching on the strength of most of `Moon Lagoon’. First (Self released) Let’s not beat around the bush on this one: Lewis itself awake and in no hurry to go anywhere fast. track `Turn It Around’ is all fuzzgun rumble and Boys might still outnumber girls to a stupid is a bit of a hippy, but despite lyrics like “Why From here we get the heavy-lidded, wandering `Would You Be’, like `Lazy Shade…’ and the shimmering synths, a bold opener and a departure degree when it comes to rock music, but you does the sun never fall? / Why are we here at sax of `Somewhere In Between’; `All These Bolan boogie-tinged `Pipedreams’ demonstrates from the rootsy introversion we’re used to from only need to stand in the way of Maria Ilett’s all?”, and “Why do the flowers grow? / Some Things’, which sounds like it should be sung from what Healey does best: tempering his noisy Gale. It sounds like it might fit neatly on the guitar on new Other Dramas single `Radio’ for things are hard to know,” he’s more loveable than the depths of a hammock on a balmy summer grunge whims with lysergic melody, pretty new Ride album with its wide-eyed sense of pop a few seconds to realise it’s quality not quantity laughable, in thrall to 1960s folk, particularly evening, and the wobbly psychedelia of the harmonies and a sense of trippy euphoria. hope and its close harmonies. The excellently- that counts. It’s gnarly and covered in dirt and Nick Drake and Pentangle, at his best capable of album’s title track. Closer `We Should Hang’ is Brevity is also one of his virtues; nothing titled `You’ll Look Pretty As A Picture When splinters of broken things, the sort of sound rich orchestration and setting a pastoral mood. dreamy and downbeat, as if Healey still hasn’t clocks in much above three minutes, so even The Acid Rain Hits Ya’ is better still: Gale’s intended to get you right in the middle of your In this he’s ably abetted at times by Steph West, quite shaken off that woozy, snoozy feeling. when he occasionally dips, as on the throwaway, serene lead vocal nicely counterpointed by Claire ribcage. Layer on her pop-friendly vocals – sort whose sweet backing vocals on `Shadows’ and It makes for an easy, likeable vibe, but it’s not the formulaic `Sleep All Day’, or the lyrically bland Bennett’s bubblegum cheerleader backing, while of Lily Allen with an edge of Tanya Donnelly – spring raindrop harp playing on album opener whole story. The mood might be predominantly `Marie’s Balcony’, it’s over and done with `Cylindrical Fire Escapes’ is ethereal, lushly and a dash of harmonies with drummer Richie `Wondering’ sprinkle a little fairy dust on the mellow but even a slacker troubadour can get a quickly and we’re back to what he does best. orchestrated, a meeting point between Teenage Wildsmith, and you’ve got a song that keeps just feather-soft melodies and Lewis’ own wistful cob on, and on `Love Her’ in particular he kicks `People & Their Dogs’ is a deceptively dynamic Fanclub and Brian Wilson. enough of the grungy grubbiness intact while vocal performances. out the jams with some real beef and venom – a album (from the determined bass of its opener The album’s title track continues with this sense showing the polished surface beneath, the sort Having set a reflective, misty-eyed mood from searing, overdriven beast of a song possessed of to the marching snare of the closer), but also of optimism, again Bennett’s playful backing of song you’ll hear twice and struggle to shift the off on songs like `Don’t Wake Me’, we Dinosaur Jr’s grungy crunch that stops abruptly enticingly dreamy. “It felt just like a dream,” vocals taking the song to a higher place, but as if someone reminded Willie he wasn’t himself sings Willie on `Lazy Shade of Pink’, but given things drop off in the second half of the album when he was hungry and maybe needed a the way things have been going for him lately, as the languid but bland `I’m Not A Wallflower, Snickers. Similarly the almost yobbish punk of it’s a dream that Willie J Healey might not want I’m the Wall’ lives up to its title, and even the `Greys’ with its scouring crescendos that dissipate to fully wake from any time soon. rich orchestration and atmosphere of `Digging just as they’re about to reach critical mass. Dale Kattack Holes in the Whites of Your Eyes’ can’t detract completely from the fact it might be an old Dire FOR THIS Straits number. `Thank My Stars’ tips its hat SEPTEMBER knowingly to Leonard Cohen’s `Suzanne’ and leads the sky-searching guitar across desolate the album closes with a flourish on the horn-led wastelands, possibly in search of redemption, `Wouldn’t You Like to Dance’, but that initial maybe simply looking for monsters to frighten. vigour and playfulness never fully returns. The opening track here is called `Monsters’ and Debilitating agoraphobia and the loss of one sounds a lot like 1980s Leeds-based gothsters of his parents during the writing of `Moon Rose of Avalanche, all portent and epic churning. Lagoon’ perhaps explains the dip into reflection Riddy’s voice does threaten to tip into parody, and melancholy, but perhaps a more optimistic such is his almost comic intensity, but by the time musical outlook is the best therapy, and on this the band have reached `Sinkhole’ everyone’s evidence, it’s where Co-Pilgrim’s strength really lightened up a few shades for a spaghetti western lies. rockabilly canter, which could actually do with a Dale Kattack slightly higher growly portent quota. Best of the Want to perform at four songs here is the tight, urgent `Turn Out the Light’, the goth switch cranked back up again but Riddy’s gruff Lee Hazelwood delivery sounding the highest level? less like he’s got one eye on panto season. New Level 4 The EP’s title track is almost a gothic country We offer creative courses in Art & Design, Media, Games Performing Arts Foundation MONKFISH lullaby with the guitars stretched to their most Development, Music Technology, Performing Arts and Course epic but the vocals once again toned down a notch Backstage Production, from Level 1 to Level 4. FOR THIS or two, revealing something that could almost be SEPTEMBER `Dark Matter’ mistaken for a softer side. Accredited by the University of the Arts London (UAL). (Self released) It’s all good dark-hearted fun, and such is Monkfish aren’t a band in a hurry. Having taken Monkfish’s OTT approach to rock you can’t Abingdon Campus: ten years off, they reformed in 2015 and returned argue too hard with their regular excesses, Come along to our Drop-in Days:Diploma in PerformingStill not and decided Production about Arts, LevelSeptember? 2 with a Nightshift Demo of the Month. This fully although with three of the four songs here DiplomaThursday and 24Extendedth August: Diploma 10:00am-7:00pm in Diploma and ExtendedWhy not Diploma come inalong Performing to Welcome Arts, Level Wednesdays 3 fledged EP comes two years on from that and is clocking in around the six-minute mark, some Music Technology,th Level 3 Diploma and Extended Diploma in Production Arts (Backstage), Level 3 similarly happy to take its time. concession to brevity might not be out of order and Friday 25 August: 10:00am-4:00pm 19th July-16th August, 10:00-4:00pm at both sites We say happy but there’s precious little joy to be to prevent epic becoming excessive. Foundationat our Abingdon Degree andBroadcast Witney Production, campuses Foundation Degree Communication Design www.abingdon-witney.ac.ukwww.abingdon-witney.ac.uk had here as Kevin Riddy’s husky stentorian growl Ian Chesterton SUNDAY 6th MONDAY 7th SUPERNORMAL: Braziers Park, Ipsden – Day OSIAH + A TRUST UNCLEAN + three and you’re almost certainly down the rabbit BLOODSHOT: The Wheatsheaf – Brutal hole by now – see main preview deathcore from that there pit of hell – see main CONFRONT THE CARNAGE + KING preview BOLETE + GHOUL: The Wheatsheaf – STRUM WHAT YA BRUNG: The Black Swan Deathcore and grind from Confront the Carnage – Fortnightly open mic session. GIG GUIDE alongside doom’n’blues outfit King Bolete and OPEN MIC SESSION: The Royal Blenheim masked horror-punkers Ghoul. st TUESDAY 1 including Peter Hunnigale, Sandra Cross, Ossie S.P.Q.R + SLATE HEARTS + EGRETS: TUESDAY 8th SPARK’S SIDE OF THE MOON: James Street Gad, Adele Harley and Yashema McLeod. The Library – Liverpool’s lo-fi art-rockers INTRUSION: The Cellar – Goth, industrial, Tavern – Weekly open mic night. BOSSAPHONIK: The Cellar – Dancefloor Latin, th SPQR return to Smash Disco for a night of free AND ebm club night with residents Doktor Joy Monday 7 AUGUST Afrobeat, global grooves, Balkan beats and nu-jazz punk noise. Support from raging grunge/garage and Bookhouse keeping it dark on the decks. nd hip hop, grime, r’n’b, trap and dancehall tunes club night, with a live set of gypsy dance, klezmer, rockers Slate Hearts and 90s-inspired alt.rockers/ OSIAH / A TRUST WEDNESDAY 2 vaudeville and rock’n’roll from Chancery Blame & SPARK’S SIDE OF THE MOON: James DC HIP HOP SESSIONS: The Cellar – Deep from the resident DJs. shoegazers Egrets. Street Tavern JAM & OPEN MIC NIGHT: The Brewery Tap, the Gadjo Club, plus host Dan Ofer on the decks. OPEN MIC SESSION: The Harcourt Arms UNCLEAN / Cover hosts a weekly Wednesday free party, with RATS EAT RATS + RESTRUCTURE: The Abingdon th th th Wheatsheaf – Melodic grunge from Rats Eat Rats, WEDNESDAY 9 BLOODSHOT: Friday 4 – Sunday 6 inspired by Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins, with th th DC HIP HOP SESSIONS: The Cellar rd Friday 4 – Saturday 5 THURSDAY 3 support from terrace-punk-rave duo Restructure. The Wheatsheaf SUPERNORMAL: ANTON BARBEAU + THE PINK DIAMOND Osiah were described as the heaviest band in OXROX ALIVE: The Northcourt, Abingdon OXROX ALIVE: THURSDAY 10th REVUE + CHARMS AGAINST THE EVIL Utd FC – Opening night of the two-day rock and the world in a review of their debut album FAIRPORT’S CROPREDY CONVENTION: Braziers Park, Ipsden EYE: The Jericho Tavern – Timeless psych-pop metal festival – see main preview `Terror Firma’, which is some claim, but Featuring the highest concentration of Nightshift Abingdon United FC Cropredy – Fairport Convention’s already sold from Sacramento-born, Berlin-based troubadour METAL GODS: Fat Lil’s, Witney – 80s metal Something that’s been sadly lacking from you don’t have to listen for long to start scribes of any local event, Supernormal is out annual gathering of the folk tribes opens Anton Barbeau, a regular visitor to town over and rock covers. pretty much every local festival line-up in believing it’s more than mere hype. How the event that took a stand against an overly- with a headline set from literate 90s hitmaker the years with his Bowie and Barrett-inspired recent years is some serious rock music, heavy are they? Think Bolt Thrower or commercial, corporatized and overpriced The Divine Comedy. He’s joined by legendary sounds, this time round playing songs from his new th though as anyone who witnessed Desert Behemoth levels of heavy. This is brutal festival scene and come up a winner each and SATURDAY 5 producer Trevor Horn and his band for a run- `Heaven Is In Your Mind’ EP, where he tackles Storm’s monstrous set at Common People death metal mixed up with hellish grindcore every year. It’s small and strange and utterly SUPERNORMAL: Braziers Park, Ipsden through of hits; trad folk stalwarts Show of tracks by Bowie, Traffic and Big Star alongside his would attest, plenty of people want to hear and atmospheric black metal, speed-crazed brilliant, the artist-curated line-up fully focussed – Oxford’s most adventurous music festival Hands; Feast of Fiddles and an acoustic set from own songs. He’s joined tonight by long-time local something heavy, even on a sunny summer beats mixed with titanic riffs and Ricky Lee on the weird, wonderful, experimental and continues – see main preview Fairport themselves. collaborators Charms Against the Evil Eye, with afternoon. So here are OxRox to rectify Roper’s gore-spattered Uruk-hai vocal rasp. square peg in round hole scheme of things. HELL’S GAZELLES + BLACK BULLETS + PETE FRYER BAND: The Wheatsheaf – Free their 80s indie and Paisley Underground-inspired matters. They’ve been putting on old school It’s utterly savage and uncompromising The biggest name on this year’s line-up are TRAUMA UK: The Wheatsheaf – Old school gig in the downstairs bar from the veteran local sound, plus acid-friend surf-rave noisemakers The rock and metal bands on in town for the last but it’s also a tight precision kind of sonic Michigan’s seminal noise trio WOLF EYES rock and metal action from Hell’s Gazelles at blues and rock man and his band. Pink Diamond Revue. few years and this weekender condenses weaponry, the band’s technical edge (pictured) whose malignant sonic journeys are tonight’s OxRox show, mixing up Judas Priest KING TERRIBLE presents THE LORDS OF KING TERRIBLE presents THE LORDS OF all that riff celebration into two solid days prominent in the mix but never allowed equally oppressive and alien. Elsewhere on a NWOBHM riffage with AC/DC theatrics and DISCO WONDER: The Cellar DISCO WONDER: The Cellar – Rock, disco and of noise, complete with camping. Friday’s to temper the onslaught. Hailing from characteristically esoteric and abstruse bill are Guns’n’Roses’ sense of rock melody. Support from CATWEAZLE CLUB: East Oxford 80s tunes every Thursday. line-up is topped by Guns’n’Roses tribute Sunderland – a place hardly renowned as a acts like electronic sound and visuals artists Basingstoke’s sleazy, tat-heavy biker rock brigade Community Centre CATWEAZLE CLUB: East Oxford band GUNS2ROSES who are, let’s be haven of beauty – Osiah have done that rare ZAIMPH; gothic wyrd-folk singer SHARRON Black Bullets, plus Witney punk crew Trauma UK. SPARKY’S FLYING CIRCUS: The Half Moon Community Centre – Oxford’s longest-running honest, probably better than the real thing thing: make an album that fits neatly into KRAUS; Newcastle’s ambient/industrial drone JOE McELDERRY: The New Theatre – Long ACOUSTIC THURSDAY: Jude the Obscure and most eclectic open night continues to showcase these days. They’re joined by local rock stars the extreme metal genre but sound fresh veterans :ZOVIET*FRANCE:; vitriolic before Brexit, the British population learned how BLUES JAM: The Catherine Wheel, Sandford singers, musicians, poets, storytellers and HELL’S GAZELLES, whose own debt and vital. With its murky bass, blitzkrieg speed metal/hardcore crew AGGRESSIVE to break things by voting for the wrong people THE MOTIVE & FRIENDS: Fat Lil’s, Witney performance artists every week. to G’n’R comes with added slabs of Judas kick drum blasts and churning guitar, it’s a PERFECTOR; Amphetamine Reptile-inspired with TV talent shows, which is how Joe McElderry SPARKY’S FLYING CIRCUS: The Half Moon Priest and AD/DC. There’s also a double devastating debut, and we can only imagine noise agitator BRUXA MARIA; post-punk has ended up with an eight-year pop and acting th – Weekly open mic session. dose of Nottingham rock from FAHRAN FRIDAY 11 – while salivating slightly at the prospect – funkers BEARDS; wayward jazz-punks CHOP career after winning X Factor. Credit to the fella ACOUSTIC THURSDAY: Jude the Obscure – and NASTY HIGH, while Liverpool’s FAIRPORT’S CROPREDY CONVENTION: how it will sound cranked up live and loud CHOP; chaotic, rhythmic psych-skronkers though, he’s overcome the odds on a hard exit from Weekly unplugged open mic night. BLACK CAT BONES make a return to the Cropredy – `Downtown’ hitmaker Petula Clarke on the Wheatsheaf’s PA. Great local death/ CATTLE; Tortoise-inspired post-rock jazzateers the limelight by shifting over two million albums BLUES JAM: The Catherine Wheel, Sandford shire. Witney punks TRAUMA UK open tops the bill on the second day of Fairport’s grind support from A Trust Unclean, making EVIL USSES; experimental folk troubadour as well as going on to win even more TV shows, – Open jam session. proceedings. festival. She’s joined on the bill by English folk a rare local live appearance, and groove-led ERIC CHENAUX; abstract minimalist Pop Star To Opera Star and The Jump, as well as Saturday is a full day, with the star turn being guitar legend Richard Thompson, plus Pierce grind newcomers Bloodshot. We’ll be down KELLY JAYNE JONES; Ghana’s rhythmic starring in The Who’s Tommy and Joseph & His th headliner BLAZE BAYLEY (pictured), Brothers, CC Smugglers and The Gigspanner Big the front. We might never come back. We Afro-poppers KING AYISOBA; Japanese FRIDAY 4 Technicolor Dreamcoat. Hurrays and hurrahs all the former Wolfsbane and Iron Maiden Band among others. will have died happy. psych duo PIKACYU & MAKOTO; eldritch SUPERNORMAL: Braziers Park, Ipsden – First round. frontman keeping his own rock dream very THE HISTORY OF JUNGLE: The Cellar – poetry and ambience from PLAGUE DOGS; day of the annual leftfield music and arts festival, OXROX ALIVE: The Northcourt, Abingdon much alive. Joining him will be stoner-blues Jungle anthems and rare classics. th Sabbath-esque blues-doom, and poppy post- with American noise-rock titans Wolf Eyes among Utd FC – Brit metal legend Blaze Bayley SUNDAY 13 heroes DESERT STORM; Berkshire’s 80s GROWLER: Fat Lil’s, Witney – Rock and punk punk joy from SACRED PAWS. That’s just the highlights of a seriously esoteric cast – see headlines the second day of the festival – see main YAM TAN TETHERA #1: Tap Social, Botley thrash and NWOBHM-inspired metallers covers. scratching the surface of a very deep, mysterious main preview preview (1-11pm) – TIGMUS host a full day of live music PRIMITAI; Edinburgh thrash and metalcore REVEREND BLACK: Tap Social, Botley – lake of sound, and if that all sounds far too LIONIZE + KANADIA + A WAY WITH DESMOND CHANCER & THE LONG at Oxford’s coolest new bar, featuring sets from crew DOG TIRED; Worcestershire’s Classic blues and rock. mainstream for you, how about some Ouija WORDS + MATCHBOY: O2 Academy – Arena- MEMORIES + ADRIAN FORD: St. Giles Afro-tinged indie-dance crew Bright Works; jaunty “fantasycore” merchants FURY; northern board-driven sound art from AUTOMATIC sized funk and soul-rock from Washington DC’s Parish Hall – Gutter blues and whisky songs indie types Flatlands; punk newcomers Self Help; powerhouse rockers A JOKER’S RAGE; th WRITING CIRCLE; maybe a festival of Lionize, bringing together influences from Led inspired by Tom Waits et al from the very excellent SATURDAY 12 grunge beasts Slate Hearts, and garage rockers Harrow’s Thin Lizzy and AD/DC-influenced feminist cinema, or perhaps some no-wave Zep and Clutch to Parliament, Funkadelic and Bob Desmond Chancer and chums. FAIRPORT’S CROPREDY CONVENTION: WOLFS, plus Echoic; Rosie Caldercott; Hazey heavyweights MEANSTEED; Bristol’s tennis. Supernormal is like no other festival; it’s Marley on their new album `Nuclear Soul’. In the FREERANGE: The Cellar – UK garage, grime Cropredy – Fairport Convention play their Jane and Holly Redford-Jones. grunge-popsters IDESTROY; Basingstoke’s an absolute gem of an event on the very edge big music stakes they’ll be matched blow for blow and bassline club night, playing the best new traditional epic closing set at Cropredy, joined ADAM & ELVIS + MARK ATHERTON & sleazy, tat-heavy biker rock brigade BLACK of Oxfordshire and the very edge of musical by local stars on the rise Kanadia, pitching up underground tunes. by a cast of guests and former members as they FRIENDS + TONY BATEY & SAL MOORE + BULLETS and local garage-rock duo normality. Time to make the trip. And it is a trip. somewhere between U2, Radiohead and Coldplay, SPARKY’S SPONTANEOUS SHOWCASE & run through their illustrious five-decade folk-rock MARK SOLLIS + ASTEROX: The Wheatsheaf CHEROKII. plus Swindon’s grungy rockers A Way With SPOTLIGHT JAM: The Whitehouse – Open back catalogue. They’re joined on today’s bill by (3.30-7pm) – Free afternoon of unplugged live Words. mic, jam and bands night, hosted by Sparky, Dougie MacLean, Marillion and Cats in Space. music in the Sheaf’s downstairs bar hosted by Klub FREDDIE McGREGOR & ALLSTARS OF tonight with sets from Nash & Triller, Glendale HOUSE PARTY: The Cellar – Hip hop, pop, Kakofanney. REGGAE & LOVERS ROCK: O2 Academy Train and Firegazers. r’n’b and garage with Headchef, Katiusha and – Re-arranged from last month and following on THE MIGHTY DISCO BISCUITS: Fat Lil’s, Muzzletough. th from his showing at the Greensleeves Records OPEN MIC SESSION: The Harcourt Arms MONDAY 14 Witney – Funk, soul and disco covers. OPEN MIC SESSION: The Royal Blenheim 40th anniversary tour show here in April, Freddy PETE FRYER BAND: The White House STEAMROLLER: Red Lion, Old Marston OXFORD CLASSIC JAZZ: Harcourt Arms McGregor returns to town; a singer and producer (4pm) PANDEMONIUM: Fat Lil’s, Witney – Classic with over 50 years of music making under his belt, rock, metal and blues. STEAMROLLER & SUNFLY: Kidlington th taking in ska, rocksteady and lovers rock as well as FC – MacMillan Cancer Trust benefit show with WIREBIRDS: Tap Social, Botley – Classic TUESDAY 15 dancehall, he boasts a monstrous back catalogue. heavyweight blues rockers Steamroller teaming up blues and rock. TOO MANY ZOOZ + THABO: O2 Academy He’s joined by a host of reggae and dancehall stars, with Sunfly for some classic riff action. – Following on from their New York neighbours monthly show in an intimate venue and featuring Tavern BLUES JAM: Catherine Wheel, Sandford Abingdon – Power ballads from the 60s acts to be announced to ticket holders the day WEDNESDAY 23rd FRIDAY 25th through to the 90s. before. DC HIP HOP SESSIONS: The Cellar TERMINUS + SILENT JACK + KING TERRIBLE presents THE LORDS OF FYRESKY: The Wheatsheaf – Classic hard SUNDAY 27th DISCO WONDER: The Cellar th rock and blues covers from local rockers TOWERSEY FESTIVAL: Thame CATWEAZLE CLUB: East Oxford THURSDAY 24 KING TERRIBLE presents THE LORDS OF Terminus at tonight’s OxRox show. Showground Community Centre TOWERSEY FESTIVAL: Thame THE BIG FEASTIVAL: Alex James’s SPARKY’S FLYING CIRCUS: The Half Moon DISCO WONDER: The Cellar CATWEAZLE CLUB: East Oxford Showground – Opening day of Farm, Kingham – Oxfordshire’s largest ACOUSTIC THURSDAY: Jude the Obscure Oxfordshire’s oldest music festival, with farmers market and fast food convention BLUES JAM: The Catherine Wheel, Sandford Community Centre SPARKY’S FLYING CIRCUS: The Half Moon sets across the weekend from KT Tunstall; comes to a close with Madness and more. SHATTERED COMPASS + CONTEK + THE The Blockheads; Show of Hands; Newton SUPERLOOSE + PURPLE MAY + ASH th ACOUSTIC THURSDAY: Jude the Obscure Wednesday 16 REAPER + EDEN FALLS: Fat Lil’s, Witney – Faulkner; Eliza Carthy, and a host of other LEWIS + FREDDY LECRAGG: The Local metalcore crew Shattered Compass launch folk, blues, Americana and acoustic pop stars Wheatsheaf (3:30-8:30pm) – Free afternoon their new EP, `Matters of Mind’, with support BILLY BRANCH & Friday 25th – Monday 28th – see main preview of music from Giddyup Music in the from ambient post-hardcore crew Contek and teen THE BIG FEASTIVAL: Alex James’s downstairs bar. THE GILES ROBSON riffmongers The Reaper. TOWERSEY Farm, Kingham – The world’s biggest OPEN MIC SESSION: The Harcourt ever parade of artisan cheese marches on Arms BAND: th FRIDAY 18 FESTIVAL: a big-stage Kenwood Chef demonstration BLUES JAM: Fat Lil’s, Witney (3-7pm) – The Bullingdon LEST WE FORGET + SWITCHBLADE CITY to a soundtrack of Ibiza hits played in an Open blues jam. A genuine blues legend at The Haven Club + DELLACOMA: The Wheatsheaf – Heavy Thame Showground orchestral style. tonight in the form of Chicago singer and duty fun from OxRox tonight with local metalcore 53 years young, Towersey Festival really CHRIS GOLDFINGER: O2 Academy – th is the genial, gentle-natured godparent of MONDAY 28 harmonica player Billy Branch. Three times crew Lest We Forget alongside Northamptonshire’s Roots and dancehall club night with former- ALL TAMARA’S PARTIES FESTIVAL: the Oxforshire festival scene, its family- a Grammy nominee as well as an Emmy Switch Blade City and Melbourne’s classic rockers Radio 1 and 1Xtra DJ Chris Goldfinger and Tap Social (1-11pm) – All-day festival from friendly traditions evident in the mix of roots winner and recipient of more dedicated blues Dellacoma, kicking it out in the style of Velvet his soundsystem. All Tamara’s Parties, with sets from electro- music, arts, crafts, cinema, folk dances and awards than his mantelpiece can probably Revolver, Guns’n’Roses and Stone Temple Pilots. PYT: The Bullingdon – Disco, funk and blues synthabilly duo Vienna Ditto; funk workshops. Sprawled over a heroic four handle, Branch started his musical life in SOUL SESSIONS: The Cellar – Classic disco, soul club night. and jazz pop starlets Catgod; wonderfully days on Thame Showground, it continues the early 1970s playing with the great Willie funk and soul tunes from the 60s onwards. TERMINUS + FYRESKY: The wonky songsmith Salvation Bill; even more to attract some of the biggest names in Dixon’s Chicago Blues Allstars, eventually LOS PEPES: The Library – Winnebago Deal’s Wheatsheaf – Blues and classic rock covers wonderful and wonky post-punk jazz-rock acoustic, folk, blues and Americana, with taking over harp duties from Carey Bell Ben Perrier brings his new garage rock/power pop from recent Tigertailz support Terminus at pop perverters Lucy Leave; folk/Americana highlights of this year’s event including who went of to form his own band. Later band to Smash Disco’s free gig night. tonight’s OxRox show, with support from duo The Black Feathers; grandiose post- Scottish indie-folk songstress and BRIT and Branch formed his own Sons of Blues band, WOODSTOCK ACOUSTIC CLUB: Woodstock Southend’s gothy hard rockers Fyresky. rock-meets-folk folks The Diamond Family Ivor Novello-winning star KT TUNSTALL featuring Dixon’s son Freddie and has Social Club – Unplugged music club with LA PITCHBLACK SUMMER TECHNO Archive, and Oxford/London acoustic (pictured); dreadlocked troubadour, THE OXFORD become an ambassador for the blues with singer-songwriter Anny Celsi alongside Brian PARTY: The Cellar – Pitch Black host their singer-songwriter Anna McCrae. Poet and raconteur, hitmaker and all-round good egg his Blues In School project, as well as an Wilson percussionist Nelson Bragg and Ireland’s annual summer party with techno from John wit George Chopping is your compere for the RECORD & CD FAIR NEWTON FAULKNER; Steve Knightley ambassador for the city itself. Along his long Duncan Maitland, plus Under the Wychwood and Swede and Jack Ganna-Powell. day, while DJs from Young Women’s Music and Phil Beer’s veteran acoustic folk band and varied career he’s played with Muddy Clark Wiseman. EYE-CON: Fat Lil’s, Witney – Mod Project will be keeping the music going St ALDATES PARISH CENTRE SHOW OF HANDS; local folk hero, singer, Waters, John Lee Hooker and BB King THE A-WATTS: The White House – Classic jive. classics and Britpop hits. between songs. 40 Pembroke St, St Aldates, OX1 1BP fiddle player and record holding BBC and his lengthy, labyrinthine discography TOWERSEY FESTIVAL: Thame th Folk Award winner JON BODEN (eleven th features collaborations with everyone from th SATURDAY 26 Showground Saturday 19 August SATURDAY 19 and counting); Ian Dury’s former backing Johnny Winters, Lou Rawls and Eddy HAZE + BIRTHDAY CARD + FATHER TOWERSEY FESTIVAL: Thame SARCASM + OWNER: The Library – 10am-4pm band THE BLOCKHEADS, with their Clearwater to Koko Taylor and Taj Mahal. DEMO + MILK: O2 Academy – Following Showground Smash Disco host a double dose of post-punk quintessentially English take on r’n’b, punk Rock/pop/jazz/soul/reggae/indie/all other genres Back in 2007 the Chicago Blues Festival support slots with Ratboy, Palm Honey and GAPPY TOOTH INDUSTRIES with noise with London’s Sarcasm channelling and funk; FOY VANCE with his mix and Accessories/memoriabillia/books. honoured his 30-plus years of music making Cabbage among others, local post-punk starlets BRIGHTWORKS + PFAFF + SEMI Gang of Four and Crisis, while Owner match of Irish folk and southern states jazz, Brand new and back catalogue/Rare Vinyl with a three-hour live performance but Haze play their biggest headline show to date, the URBAN FOX: The Wheatsheaf – Afropop, worship at Wipers’ noise altar. blues and soul; Singer and fiddle player and www.usrfairs.co.uk he’s clearly not resting on any laurels, still band’s unruly noise pop taking cues from Wire, mathrock and funky electro-pop from OPEN MIC SESSION: The Royal English folk royalty ELIZA CARTHY touring his music which is both dextrous The Fall, Parquet Courts and Shame. Support London/Oxford crew Bright Works at Blenheim with her Wayward Band; Newcastle’s and aware of all of blues history – from includes melancholic Aylesbury indie crew tonight’s GTI, the band having just released enduring folk rockers LINDISFARNE; its acoustic southern roots to the electric Birthday Card. their new EP `Cox Works’. They’re joined by th folk traditionalists FLOOK; Yorkshire/ TUESDAY 29 Chicago sound he helped make a global ELECTRONIC SOUND SESSION: The Manchester’s fidgety, angular instrumental Derbyshire folk trio COOPE, BOYES SPARK’S SIDE OF THE MOON: James hallmark, Tonight he’s playing with Giles Bullingdon – Trance, techno and electro station outfit Pfaff, who have tracks with titles & SIMPSON with their close harmony Street Tavern Robson’s band in what should be an essential Electronic Sound brings its playlist to life with like `Social Media Crowdsourcing Doesn’t singing and social commentary; husband and night out for all blues fans. selector Slaw Farb alongside Bart Rose and Tom Really Work For Naming Songs (This Song wife pair – and BBC Folk Award winners th Ranx. Is Called Gary)’. Indie fuzz and jangle from WEDNESDAY 30 for best duo – KATHRYN ROBERTS & Moon Hooch’s visit to town late last year, fellow FRACTURE + STORYTELLER + Semi Urban Fox to open the show. DC HIP HOP SESSIONS: The Cellar SEAN LAKEMAN, and superb Irish folk, subway busking skronkers Too Many Zooz bring KHAMSINA + FUJI: The Wheatsheaf – It’s All EASTER ISLAND STATUES + klezmer, Balkan folk and punk ensemble their “brass house” to the O2 as part of a tour to About the Music local bands showcase. FLATLANDS + TARPIT: The Cellar – st THE ESKIES. Loads more obviously with THURSDAY 31 promote recent album `Subways Gawdz’, the trio FLUID: The Cellar – Bass, grime and drum&bass Folk-tinged indie rocking from Easter Island full weekend tickets available alongside day DANIEL ROMANO: The Bullingdon – high-energy mix of trumpet, sax and beats putting from Fluid DJs in aid of Oxford Homeless Statues. passes and rustic good vibes guaranteed. Countrypolitan mix of honky tonk, country them alongside the likes of UK contemporaries Pathways. SKYLARKIN SOUND SYSTEM: The blues and balladry from the Ontario singer- Melt Yourself Down and The Comet is Coming as THE BRITPOP BOYS: Fat Lil’s, Witney – All Cellar – Count Skylarkin’ hosts his monthly songwriter, keeping the spirit of George Jones st a band taking live jazz into a funkier 21 Century your favourite Elastica, Echobelly and Sleeper reggae, dancehall, ska and soul party. alive in his sad-eyed storytelling. and beyond. tunes… oh, hang on… VOLUME with TAXMAN & MC KING TERRIBLE presents THE LORDS SPARK’S SIDE OF THE MOON: James Street THE MIGHTY CADILLACS: The Brewery TRIGGA: The Bullingdon – Drum&bass OF DISCO WONDER: The Cellar Tavern Tap, Abingdon – Blues, r’n’b and rock’n’roll. club night. CATWEAZLE CLUB: East Oxford THE HEX COLLECTIVE + Community Centre WEDNESDAY 16th SUNDAY 20th TAMAL(ES): Harcourt Arms – Antique SPARKY’S FLYING CIRCUS: The Half stroies and poems set to modern folk tunes. Moon BILLY BRANCH & THE GILES ROBSON OPEN MIC SESSION: The Harcourt Arms BAND: The Bullingdon – Classic Chicago blues THE BIG FEASTIVAL: Alex James’s ACOUSTIC THURSDAY: Jude the Farm, Kingham – Posh chips and Olly Obscure from the legendary singer and harmonica player – st see main preview MONDAY 21 Murs: yours for just a hundred quid. BLUES JAM: The Catherine Wheel, DC HIP HOP SESSIONS: The Cellar STRUM WHAT YA BRUNG: The Black Swan THE CARTHORSES: The Brewery Tap, Sandford OPEN MIC SESSION: The Royal Blenheim THURSDAY 17th SOFAR SOUNDS: Venue TBC – The Oxford TUESDAY 22nd Nightshift listings are free. Deadline for inclusion is the 20th of each month - no exceptions. branch of the global pop-up gig movement hosts its SPARK’S SIDE OF THE MOON: James Street Email listings to [email protected]. All listings are copyright Nightshift Magazine. Photos: Ben Phillips LIVE CORNBURY FESTIVAL Great Tew We were somewhere around hardiest to tears; it’s either that or the Woodstock on the edge of Great effects of the sunscreen melting into Tew when the Pimm’s began to take our eyes. hold. I remember saying something like “the cucumber in this is weird. Stone Foundation have been Pass the lager”. Suddenly there were knocking around for a good while 4x4s all around us. Then camping now but with the recent patronage of chairs. And leather sofas. And fully Paul Weller, they’ve started to make furnished tents. And fridges. And for a real name for themselves. We hear some reason wood burners. After all, them drifting over the fields before it really wasn’t hot enough. The sky we see them and for a short while was full of flags, and a huge angry wonder if perhaps The Style Council sun. Our editor had taken his shoes off have reunited for a secret gig. Their and was pouring beer into his face to attention to detail and commitment to facilitate the tanning process. “What laid back soul grooves is admirable the hell are you yelling about?” he and they’re warmly received by the muttered, staring up at the sun so he crowd. wouldn’t have to set eyes on Scouting For Girls; “pitch your tent and drink Finishing the Friday off are Kaiser this. We’ve got a few hours before Chiefs and on this evidence, they Kaiser Chiefs are on.” might have been better as a closing act for the whole weekend. Ricky So here we are, the last Cornbury – Wilson is an energetic and entirely the Fabulous Farewell as it’s been personable frontman, impossible billed. A civilised journey to the heart to dislike. He might well predict a of the Oxfordshire music dream, if riot but on this occasion, he’s way you’ll allow us to further bastardise off the mark, everything will be just energy and a self-proclaimed “Black up significantly. Sometimes a band a stadium sized show. It’s easy to here three or four times their age. and peppering her set with low key through their spotless renditions of Hunter S Thompson. fine unless there’s a shortage of free Viking Motherfucker!”. His set, a can get a bit too tight though and forget just how many of his songs introspective tunes, it’s as if her a host of old classics. Their version Perhaps the festival that became muesli and real ale or more than a hint whirling mix of funk, soul, rock, hip we hope they haven’t lost that early have drilled their way into our We love a bit of Ultravox, and if they goth alter-ego has taken over for of `Norwegian Wood’ set to `Come dubbed Poshstock might, for this last of profanity. `Ruby’ is, as always, an hop and expletives is the highlight of knockabout spirit. cerebral cortex over the years. When were never the same after Midge the day. Her speech about love and Together’ is a particular highlight hurrah, ditch its genteel veneer and absolute earworm, and by the song’s the weekend. Telling his bassist to “sit he brings his act to town he might not Ure replaced John Foxx, they had a togetherness in the face of terrorism and with Mica Paris joining them allow some proper bad behaviour to conclusion we go off with a tune in in your fucking chair” before moving Back at The Riverside stage we catch bring it heavy, but he does go straight sense of pomp about them that carried is entirely well meaning but it drifts (and putting in a fine performance seep out. Or maybe not, if the apology our heads and a need for a curry in our on to the guitarist and telling him, Ten Millenia’s soundcheck, for the jugular, despite being the their litany of epic synth-rock hits into mawkishness and pulls the for `I Put A Spell On You’) it’s pretty issued after Black Dylan’s set on stomachs. “you hired your fucking guitar, didn’t which promises some Hammond- nicest man in rock (committed vegan, aloft. Today Ure is playing an acoustic power from her set. much all you could ask for. Jools Saturday afternoon is anything to go you?” he’s unpredictable and essential driven gospel, like we’re about to champion of whales and dolphins, set, accompanied by a violinist. He In the face of such worthiness what Holland, with his Rhythm by. Standards must be maintained; this Saturday begins with a brief detour viewing. It also helps that he’s got a be delivered a day early to the best all-round good egg). They’re all here starts promisingly enough with a is needed is a bit of fun, and Right & Blues Orchestra is maybe not isn’t the last night in Gomorrah, after via the local tavern, The Falkland huge pile of decent tunes to match the church in town. When they finally tonight: `Run To You’, `Summer take of `The Voice’ and he’s a funny, Said Fred are nothing if not fun. something we’d ask for, but as an old all. Rebellion at Cornbury generally Arms, where weary writers can attitude. Of course, people complain take the stage all the promise of a Of 69’ and `18 Till I Die’. He runs self-deprecating presence, but the set They’re essentially a Eurovision friend of the Cornbury family, it’s involves ignoring the chair ban in imbibe the best ales, eat a frankly and the organisers are compelled to ballsy soul band disappears in an through `(Everything I Do) I Do It soon slumps into subdued melancholy band that’s never done Eurovision; perhaps appropriate that he closes the the main arena, which makes it one pathetic portion of mushroom lasagne, issue an apology over the PA. instant and it all goes a bit bland. It’s a For You’ (fists are pumped skyward which becomes laborious. We they trot out their usual hits and festival. The highlights come when of the few seated outdoor festivals in and until recently, partake in as much Shortly afterwards David Cameron real shame because there’s something by people of our acquaintance who contemplate leaving, but then he pulls throw in a little Bloodhound Gang he’s joined by Chris Difford for a existence. snuff as they can hoover up. It’s here is spotted stalking across the fields, here, we’re sure of it. should know better), and `Go Down all his aces out and we get `Vienna’, tune for good measure. Inevitably run through of Squeeze’s `Take Me But for all our mocking of festival we find a tweed-wrapped toff dressed unmolested. Weird isn’t it that people As Ten Millenia work through their Rocking’, which by Bryan’s own `Hymn’, `Fade To Grey’ and a closing it’s hard for them to sustain the I’m Yours’ and `Cool For Cats’, but going Cotswold style, this most as a frog helping himself to a pint will complain about someone saying set a river runs through the Cornbury admission sums up his entire career `Dancing With Tears In My Eyes’, momentum for an entire set Ruby Turner’s appearance pushes straight laced of events remains one from behind the bar, pouring it into “motherfucker” yet remain unmoved site. We check the skies. The sun in heroically bluesy fashion. He ends which are reminders that deep down however, so it’s off to catch a little them close. of the highlights of the local festival a tankard sellotaped to his green fist. by the presence of a man who fucked is still set higher than a pensioner’s on a brace of Eddie Cochran and he’s a sometimes phenomenal singer bit of Hope & Glory whose calendar. The music this year might His friends appear to be sporting the entire country. central heating. Behind us a never Elvis covers and it’s a near enough and songwriter, and also that an awful ska covers have the biggest crowd After which we get fireworks – be more middle of the road than a sporrans fashioned from entire dead ending flow of people are snaking perfect finale to the most packed day lot of early 80s pop hits were about for the Riverside all weekend going Cornbury literally going out with line-painter on a dual carriageway, but animals, their glazy eyes peering out Onto something less contentious, across the site towards the Songbird Cornbury has ever known. Perhaps nuclear annihilation. absolutely nuts. a bang at the very end, although there’s always something to keep even from the crotches of their sartorially in the form of Rose Elinor Stage. We check the programme. if they’d all come along before, this perhaps the most surreal moment the most cynical amused. offensive owners. This sunscreen is Dougal, once of the perfect pop We check again. Scouting For wouldn’t be the last one. Nine Below Zero might not The Pretenders’ set is pretty of the entire weekend comes in the really messing with our eyes. parish of The Pipettes. She’s still got Girls? Are there really that many have the charismatic personnel of Dr much everything you could wish for. campsite bar in the early hours. The Keeping things genial on the the sensibilities of her former band, people wanting to see Scouting For Sunday morning, of course, means Feelgood or The Blockheads, but their Chrissie Hynde is quick to assess the corner of Cornbury Festival most Riverside Stage are The August If you’re need of perking up, there’s but now she’s a little more grown up Girls? Evidently there are. In fact tea. And cake, if you can stomach turbo charged pub rock is a force to situation, stating that and delivers inclined to real hedonism break out List, who have realised that no better band the Alphabet in her approach. For a moment, she there are more people wanting to see the world’s largest slab of all-butter be reckoned with. The drum solos on the promise to give the audience in a chorus of “Oh, Jeremy Corbyn” dropping a series of F-bombs during Backwards, who always seem sounds a little like Sonya Madan of them than can fit into the field, and Victoria Sponge in the Tea For Tew might be a little self-indulgent, but the “cheesy stuff” they want. `Brass when we thought Clarkson was more `The Ballad Of James Lucas and to be filled with the joys of life. Their Echobelly, but as the set continues, disappointed punters are starting to tent, the location of which, next to the they can just about be forgiven simply In Pocket’; `Don’t Get Me Wrong’; the thing here. As the song carries Betty Dupree’ is perhaps inadvisable new song `Springsteen’ is a perky she channels the softer side of turn back and head towards the main Riverside stage, gives us one of the because the energy they pump out is `Chain Gang’… they’re all here and across the valley we smile at the at a festival with a strong family ethic. little pop number more in line with Blondie. arena. The thought of battling through surprise highlights of the weekend infectious. belted out as hard as the Cornbury PA idea that even at this most middle They replace the offending word `Glory Days’ than `Atlantic City’. Just We’re worried that POLICE DOG the throng in order to hear `She’s So in the form of The Chipping will allow. They close on `Middle Of England of festivals a little rebellious accordingly, it’s not quite as punchy, as we’d expect. HOGAN have gone over to the soft Lovely’ is too much to bear. So it’s Norton School Jazz Band. The uncrowned Queen of Cornbury, The Road’, a song that sums up the spirit proudly lingers. And we live but getting messed up with The From Springsteen to Dylan. Black side for much of the first half of off to try and find a good spot Bryan School bands can be a horrific of course, is Imelda May. She’s weekend perfectly. in hope that, like the Labour leader, August List is still an excellent way Dylan to be exact. Clearly not their set. For all the tales of “shitty Adams. experience, but as they run through a been here so often she’s probably Cornbury might yet defy all the odds to spend the afternoon. They finish blessed with the self-censorship white wine” (no apologies offered) series of hits, it’s clear they’ve got a entitled to a residency. This year Such a hits heavy set would be the to rise again. It’s too much fun to with `Wilderness’, one of the finest awareness of The August List he’s a there’s an absence of fun early on, While he’ll never hit the heights couple of incredibly talented vocalist she seems a little more subdued perfect finale for a festival in its lose forever. songs to come from an Oxford band potty-mouthed (not our words, the but once they hit `Galway Girl’, a of Springsteen, Bryan Adams on board and a rhythm section that’s than the colourful 50s explosion final year, but there’s still time for a in recent times. It can reduce even the words of a nearby punter) ball of Dubliners-like roustabout, they pick is certainly capable of putting on got more funk than plenty of the acts that we’re used to. Dressed in black few old familiar faces. Staxs run Words: Sam Shepherd, Dale Kattack

photo:Marc West core ofcrushing galley slavebeats,middle-distance barksandhowls, more abstractdiversions, butultimatelytheyreturn totheoppressivemolten they pitchintomore contemplativepost-metalsoundscaping andevensome that’s all-consumingandunrelenting. There aremomentsmidsetwhen quartet Wren isapulverisingtourdeforce –weaponisedfuturefactorynoise to dishoutpunishingindustrialgrooves over. Tonight’s setfromLondon seems tobelaydownabedofambient feedbackfortherestofgroup You knowyou’reontoawinnerwhenbandhasguitarist whosesolejob like yourideaoffun,you’renotinvited toournextparty, youbigsofty. the Devilwithananglegrindermade ofjetengines. And ifthatdon’t sound you withasoundtrackofGodsculptingnearbymountainintostature captivating. It’s likewatchingaslow-movinglavaflowadvancingtowards homage toBlackSabbath’s `IronMan’,butthatdoesn’t makeitanyless Indica Blues’ setmight,atitsheart,beasymphonic30-minute,sludged-up Party, Throbbing Gristle)might makeyouwistful, razor bladesandbodilyfluids(TheBirthday accompanied bymalevolentbehaviourinvolving frontal auralassaultwouldindaysofyorebeen and evenElvisaboutthem. That thiskindoffull playing secondfiddledespitehintsofNickCave noise-storm slowernumbers,thevocalsdefinitely tracks thattheyclickthebestratherthan It’s withtheirmoredriving,drummer-propelled Neubauten recalled,isthereforeacredittothem. World DominationEnterprisesandEinstürzende by slabsofnoisefromtheirfourguitarists, win everyoneoverwithavisceralsetpunctuated New Theatre beforeasparseaudience. That they repeated apologiesastheysneakonstageat The expected toarriveinsackclothandashesuttering at veryshortnotice,Spectresmighthavebeen Having cancelledtheirJuneshowinOxford New TheatreThe RIDE /SPECTRES The Wheatsheaf FVNERALS / WREN /INDICA BLUES LIVE is positively baroque, providing curlicues and is positivelybaroque,providingcurlicuesand plain pulpitsofthe`Tarantula’ era. The music the experimentoflow-churchtrestletablesand immersing thetheatreandreinstatedinfullafter The soniccathedralsarethereofcourse, by swirlinglaserbeams. for aneveningofinsanecatchinessaccompanied the band’s newalbum,`Weather Diaries’,provide back catalogueofsongs,plussomefineonesfrom man ismellifluousinhisdeliveryandastellar of acenturyonfromtheband’s heyday;thefront none ofthecroakinessyoumightexpectaquarter performance areMarkGardener’s vocals. There’s off, themostremarkablethingaboutwhole jazzy shirts,thisreviewernotexcluded.Fromthe Rideemerge toacrowdofbaldingmenwith season wouldn’t bepretty. although theclean-upjobintimeforpantomime Dale Kattack sounds like,we’ll gotoourgraveshappy. also accentuatesits hypnotisingchill,andfrankly, ifthisiswhatourfuneral Such bleaknessis incongruoustothewarmsummer eveningoutside,but like ifthey’dditchedtheirDeadCan DancealbumsinfavourofEarth. Undersmile andMazzyStar, orperhapswhatCranesmighthavesounded sometimes hymnalvocals,theysound likeamidnightmeet-upbetween doomy andmonolithicallyheavy, butfrontedbysinger Tiffany’s spectral, in theairratherthantryingtobatter yoursenses. They’re unstintingly funereal asyou’dexpectfromtheir name;theirmusichangswraith-like Fvnerals aretheghostlyaftermathofbattle,stripped-downandas IfIndicaBluesaretheoncomingstormand Wren theconflagration, after thelaststrandsoffeedbackhavedissipated. scouring guitarnoise,whichlingersinthedarkestreachesofyourbrainlong Rob Langham triumphant? Ridedon’t letusdowninthat respect. ‘All I Want’. When arehomecomingsevernot ‘Charm Assault’ andthedistinctive,newwavey evening. The newstuff impressestoo,inparticular All Behind’ isamemorablecapstonetothe nonetheless welcomeencoreof‘Leave Them a psychedelicwig-out,whilepredictablebut ‘Drive Blind’,itsmiddleeighttransformedinto Highlightsincludeastunningrenditionof ever morerapturousreaction. each successivesongseemstobegreetedwithan roundly ignorethelimitsofall-seatervenue, building backinthedayandasaudiencemembers The Smithsand…er…BigCountryinthisvery nostalgic reasons;herecallsseeingSiouxsie, There’s anadmissionthatthisisabig nightfor confidence. an engagingpresenceasthebandglidewith recall whatfootwearhewaswearingandhas label seemappropriate:Gardenerprobablycan’t flying buttressesofsound.Nordoestheshoegaze voice toJulia,andit’s hervoice is possessedofasimilarlypure BristoliansingerStevieParker genuinely special. to getsoclosesomething deserves, butfornowit’s atreat stages andcrowdsitsoobviously how itmighttransfertothebigger music, whichmakesyouwonder territory. It’s intenselyintimate shifts theduoclosertoGrimes West’, while thetrippier`Ghosts’ cousin of Annie Lennox’s `Into The in `WhateverComes’,aspectral but youcanstillfeelthepassion givening itanoddlyalienfeel, a harmoniserfortheentireset, Walker’s voiceisputthrough demand yourfullattention.Julia `For What It’s Worth’ sofinethey the emotionalcracksinsongslike they’re hushed,almosthymnal, to getupcloseandpersonalto: Says. Here’s abandyouhave for astageastheycanCandy thronged asclosetowhatpasses support actbuttonighteveryone’s at thebackofroomfor you’d forgive peopleforlingering With anearlystartatafreegig Oxford Modern Art STEVIE PARKER /CANDY SAYS rolling her‘r’s, endinglineswith voice, buthervocalquirks–over- Nathassiaherselfhasabeautiful needs amemorablehook. thing, butatraditionalsongstructure quite gotityet.Experimentingisone based ontonight,Nathassiahasn’t best together, andunfortunately, traditions, butthebitsthatwork not justtopickthebestbitsofboth wibbly quarter-tones. The trickis under Middle-Easternstringsand atmospherics thatmeanderoverand glitchy, drum&basselectronicaand sound, giventheperiodsreferenced: all soundshowyou’dexpectitto the ambitionofherpremise.It package, unsurprisinglygiven of the World’ –isaself-made promoting herdebutalbum,‘Light Dutch-bornNathassia–tonight and Third Eyeto AI”. Transhumanism, EgypttoNanotech to thefuture”;“fromPaganism is totakeus“fromourancientpast an incenseshopin1999;thepromise last seenattheclosing-downsaleof fractal wallhangingsinaquantity mystical-symbol-and-fluorescent- The Bullyisbedeckedwith The Bullingdon NATHASSIA

Sue Foreman seem toconjuresoeffortlessly. the sortofmagicthatCandySays acoustic setmighthavedelivered weight of a full band; perhaps a solo when itsnotbeingsquashedbythe this ismusicthatsoundsbetter to itwell.Forthemostpart,though, tackle, butshebringsherownvoice frustrations; it’s ahardsongto Girls’ thataccentuatesthesong’s Jackson’s sublime`Different For – astark,downbeattakeonJoe set comesintheformofacover range, butthehighlightoftonight’s better showcaseforParker’s vocal Off’ issombreandspaced-out,a sound sometimeshides.`Better and sweetnesstheslightlymushy tune someair, revealingafragility and allowsbothhervoicethe strips thesoundbackafewnotches the titletrackofherdebutalbum, Not alwaysthough;`TheCure’, hoping everythingwillworkout. they’re jammingthesetoutand surface, toooftensoundinglike the delicacyofhersongsto band sometimesstruggletobring that carriesherwholesetas Kirsten Etheridge narrative –coherebetter. everything –thesongs,look, restraints. Shejustneedstomake aspirations, andapparentbudgetary You havetoadmire Nathassia’s but toograndforthecontext. wings: aninterestingdevelopment peacock featherstoLED-covered costume changes,takingusfrom This isallaccompaniedbytwo Pendulum-esque tune. esque rompthat’s desperatefora formed songtonight,aPendulum- others’ pointsofview, isthebest- a futurewhenwe’llallseeeach too quick.‘Turning Headz’,about in ourheads(‘Telepathically’) is all communicatewitheachother merge withconsciousnessandwe’ll to Egypt,thefuturewhen AI will that theGermanswon’t giveback the ancientbustofQueenNefertiti leap from‘Egypt’s Queen’,about forgiving ofbizarrenarratives). The concept album(agenrenotablyvery is tooshorttomakeaconvincing journey takenintheeightsongs unnecessary affectations. The what soundslikebirdcalls–are JUICE £3 DOUBLEGIN& / Grime Hip-Hop /Rnb Trap SESSIONS DC HIP-HOP Wed 9th Free Entry 11pm –3am Rock /Disco80s OF DISCOWONDER Presents...THE LORDS King Terrible Thurs 10th Free Entry! 8:30pm –2am Dark Alternative Dress Code: Cyber/ Goth /EBMIndustrial + BOOKHOUSE DJS DOKTORJOY INTRUSION Tues 8th £5 allnight 11pm –3am UKG /GrimeBassline FREERANGE 5th Sat £8 otd 11pm on at 10pm –3am, band (LIVE!) & THEGADJOCLUB CHANCERY BLAME Grooves /BalkanBeats /Global Afrobeat / Dancefloor Latin BOSSAPHONIK Fri 4th Free Entry 11pm –3am Rock /Disco80s OF DISCOWONDER Presents...THE LORDS King Terrible Thurs 3rd Free Entry! JUICE £3 DOUBLEGIN& Trap /Grime Hip-Hop /Rnb SESSIONS DC HIP-HOP Wed 2nd The Cellar, FrewinCourt, Oxford, OX13HZ WHAT’S ONIN AUGUST THE www.cellaroxford.co.uk @CellarOxford @CellarOxford • • 11pm –3am 11pm –3am •

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photo: Ian Wallman flute workouts, anyway. for somepercussively cheekyHerbieMann their bestwhenshe swapsthewide-eyedvocals tastefully looped poptapestriesareactuallyat around theBush.LAURA JMARTIN’s someone likeJoannaNewsom,let’s notbeat for thetastefullybreathykookstimme of performers, buttherearenomale equivalents compare femalemusicianstoother women A bugbearofoursisjournalistswhoonlyever entrancing, andenhancedbysomeStornobass. Occasionally atinybitprissy, butoverall jazzily somewherebetween Wilco andFridge. choice, agyroscopicblurofprog-popthatspins artful, bucolicEnglishprogistheperfect heeled crimecapers Ifwewantedaccompanimenttosuchwell- Brideshead teddybear, now. feel badaboutsneakingindrugsinsideour be themostOxfordpieceofsecurityever;we up apuntandgettinginforfree,whichhasto gazebo beingsetuptostopanyonemooring dense bramblesofsarangiwewatchaspecial influenced doublebassswellsandsnarledin alternately buoyedupbyMovingShadow- KHAN, we’reapttobelievethem. As we’re outstanding and whentheveryfirstactonbillis Irregular Folkssaytheydon’t doheadliners, Victoria Arms, OldMarston IRREGULAR FOLKSSUMMERSESSION LIVE YORKSTON,& THORNE ’s JACK CHESHIRE’s pleasant ifyouwereenjoying thesunand the which wouldprobably soundharmlessly stately, minimalpop from we’re notentirely convinced. There’s more Isaak, andsokeepsusfascinated evenwhen airbrushed windsweptvistasofvintage Chris us thinkingofmid-80sCarlySimon andthe fellow OxonianEstherJoyLane butsoonhas HANNAH BRUCE With hersparseprogrammed backing assessment. of ateachingassistantfailingtheirworkplace whole daywiththespirallingmanicdesperation is thegeniusof Larson orRupertFawcett. And ofcoursethere influence onthesyndicatedsurrealismofGary yurt aboutcartoonistBKliban,forgotten the consistentlyexcellentOdditoriumlecture- have corneredthemarket,asprovedbyatalkin century as Welsh orCocker. NotthattheBrits to Britishpopularcultureofthepastquarter for bringingasmuchquirkilyliterateoriginality that BuxtonandSerafinowiczareasresponsible highpoints areleftfieldcomedies,remindingus Movie Island,ahomeforshortfilmswhose satiny cushionsofthebordello-kinoonMini- schedule, buthedoesallowustoreclineonthe are theonlymis-stepintoday’s musical OLY RALFE’s meanderingpianofripperies PAUL FOOT atfirstremindsusof ROZI PLAIN, , whoMCsthe David Murphy now, andjoinusin2018. werewolf erotica, eh?Bookyourgetawaypunt acts andafireworksdisplay anda TEDtalkon session, either:howmanygigsfeature great you shouldn’t missnextyear’s IrregularFolks you can’t missthisDayglosonicexplosion,and writes theband’s name ALL INCAPITALS; Buck Rogers.Nowondertheevent programme arm insigniaisasmuchBucksFizzit squillion –thecampstagewearwithrainbow presentation isbrasherbyafactorofaboutone `Kish Kash’ madeonacubistSNES,andthe greatest hitsoraversionofBasementJaxx’s like aFlyingLotusremixofGwenStefani’s glitch treatmentsofshinysass-popthatsounds than muchofDoseone’s olderwork,stuttering puncher andmikewranglerCrash,isbrasher AD&D. Musicallytheduo,withfellowbutton hyper-poet whosestyleis ADHD meets alt hiphopyarnspinnerandabstractgeek GODARKisthenewactfeaturingDoseone, makes youthebestactofday. evaporating inagreenhousemadeofspunsugar so itsoundslike The Cardigans languorously Sun Racovermakesyouawesome;doingone Sundays playedby To RococoRot.Doinga with everytrack,untiltheysoundlike The dinner partykrautsubtletydrawingusinmore pays outlikeabanjaxedone-armbandit,their of actsrewardingcloseattention,butRoziPlain when yougiveyourselfuptoit:we’veheard Vicky Arms’ ales,butwhichisspellbinding DEAP VALLY / PINS The Bullingdon Imagine a strip club in downtown Queen’ and `Julian’ from new Hollywood run by the sassiest album, `Femijism’. We can only women ever. Deap Vally would hope that such a genius term makes be the perfect house band. Why? it into the Oxford Dictionary. Self Because they are sexy, sleazy and released after parting ways with raucous as hell. And they can hustle. Island Records, they enlisted Nick Testament to this is the packed Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s and Bullingdon tonight. Men, women, the Karen O comparisons abound, photo: Cristina Camilla Corazza girls and boys who all want a bit of especially on `Royal Jelly’ with California meets Vegas show-woman howls of “If you wanna be queen ship. bee” and a video featuring Georgia As much anything it takes serious May Jagger. guts and even greater talent to But it’s the tracks from first follow Pins on stage tonight after the album `Sistrionix’ that the crowd Manchester quintet put in a stunning really want. `Baby I Call Hell’ performance, the high point of is an earworm chant, casting an which is `If I Was’ where Go-Go’s inadequate lover into the fire for lack harmonies drag a propulsive Can- of being “a bigger man than you”. like mantra to ecstatic heights. First single `Gonna Make My Own If Cherie Currie had got a Fender Money’ is a DIY femme anthem, like Mustang for Christmas and sacked a 1970s version of Hole’s `Gutless’. Kim Fowley, the result would `Bad For My Body’ is the ultimate be Lindsey Troy. The classically guide to not following the guidebook trained badass emits the swagger and making your own rules. No of all great rock and roll heroes and wonder the youngsters love it. is unapologetic in her 60s groupie Lazy comparisons to the White style. Stripes are unfounded, as Deap Her vocal knocks seven bells out Vally carving out a vital energy for of most contemporaries in a dream themselves. More diverse sounds mash up of the Bangles meets Led and song structures would propel Zeppelin via Joplin and Love- them into the next league. Watch this Cobain. This is most notable on space. dynamic tracks such as `Teenage Karlyn King

FAITH AND BRANKO EASTER ISLAND STATUES / THE Albion Beatnik Bookstore OTHER ONES / BREEZEWAX It’s a modern fairy tale: girl goes to appearing less than certain as to the Balkans to find a gypsy violinist what the maestro will do next. It’s The Wheatsheaf to play in Gifford’s Circus Band when they each more or less play The evening heatwave has followed brings to mind The Buzzcocks. and is taken to a house in a village an equal part, as in the sombre us into the venue, but a dope session With air-gulping eclectic pop where an introduction is made. third number, that their music is of laidback chill-hop is on hand from songs like `Wasted Youth’ and Five years later here are Faith and at its best. Certainly all three are Breezewax, aka Ashley Thorpe, a `Forever Young’ their drummer, Branko, married and with their very much on it in a frenzied white local electronic producer /composer Yameen, seriously looks like he is friend Victor on bass guitar, playing knuckle ride of a tune in the second who takes us off to play in the cool going to self combust in the soaring in a venue which in the age of half of the set, and they exchange surf of multi genre influences. After temperatures, until they time out internet book stores is itself a kind smiles at the end, possibly of relief a decade of working up his slick and let him steam while they extol of romantic fairy tale. at not having fallen off the edge. skills at home, producing a dazzling the virtues of the new Marylebone Balkan tropes now are a familiar Also in the second half they add array of EPs and a fine album, to Oxford railway connection and part of the local live scene thanks to more variety. They open it with a `Native Sun’, he’s braving the live the ease with which London bands the city’s own Balkan Wanderers, standard from the Great American stage, and it’s a real treat to slip into can now roll into our gothic pile and and Bossaphonik regularly bringing Songbook, and include a hornpipe; the drowsy mental beachwear of the enjoy new audiences who don’t talk Balkan-influenced bands to town. at the end they come up with a likes of `Blue States’ and PM Dawn all over their sets. The combination of the venue weird closer (“we like weird”), a with the best cuts and mixes from Easter Island Statues have gone one – the nearest thing to a gig in techno gypsy number which it is his new album `Press To Play’. The stage further and actually moved someone’s house without actually said Branko wrote aged just eight. choicest of this ace collection, which to Oxford, from Leeds, to take being in someone’s house – and They play another couple of calls to mind the sweet vibes of advantage of the vibrant scene in the virtuosity of Branko’s electric originals that are evocative of Iamalex, Deeb and Guggez, is `We’ll town. Singer Donald Campbell has violin brings a freshness to the moments in Faith and Branko’s See The World’, coyly sampling the body-built a Lemonheads / Neutral long, swooping lines, staccato story, but it’s when playing those orchestration from `Me & Mrs Milk Hotel feel, pumping it up with rhythms, frenzied arpeggios and Serbian and Romanian tunes that Jones’ to such a tropic effect that I’m country rock and southern boogie mix of near suicidal melancholia they’re at their most impressive almost tempted to go and order a into a blustering, sweaty behemoth. and upbeat village tunes that make and some of the crowd respond by Malibu cocktail. Songs like; `Stunt Flyer’, `Bow & up most of the band’s almost totally doing the seemingly impossible: The Other Ones, from London, Arrow’ and `The Rain’ show their instrumental set. rising from their tightly packed would like to kill fascists with potential songwriting chops, and as Faith on button accordion and seats and dancing where there love, as they shake up their Gappy Tooth Industry host Richard Victor’s bass, (“I am not really appears to be no space. If this is the considerable can of power-punk Catherall wittily observes at the end, a bass guitarist, but I think I am effect they can have as a trio, watch before opening it over us. Where Easter Island Statues could soon bluffing quite successfully”) are out Oxford when they return with the gutsy politics of Sleater stand head and shoulders above a solid platform for Branko’s their full band. Keaney meets the playfulness of everyone else. spectacular playing, despite at times Colin May the Ramones, their clever lyricism Paul Carrera INTRODUCING.... HARCOURT ARMS Nightshift’s monthly guide to the best local music bubbling under Saturday Aug 26th Moogieman Who are they? Moogieman is Shan Sriharan, plus his Masochists: Claire LeMaster (keys); Vincent Lynch (bass), and Stefano Maio (drums/guitar), plus part-time The Hex member Clare Heaviside (saxophone). It began as a solo acoustic project for Shan before he recruited Vincent on electronic drums at an improv night. Claire was recruited at Catweazle Club in 2014 at which point The Masochists were born. After a string of demos the band opened the Oxford Collective Punt in 2016 and last month released their debut, `Girls & Film’, a concept album about analogue photography on All Will Be Well Records. Their favourite other Oxfordshire act is: What do they sound like? “Crandle. Like being in a film joint directed by John Hughes and David They describe themselves as “psychedelic geek pop with synthesizers and Lynch: comforting, glamorous and deeply unsettling at the same time.” & drum machines,” which sums it up neatly. Shan’s idiosyncratic but heartfelt If they could only keep one album in the world, it would be: vocals bring to mind Syd Barrett at times; there’s a stripped-down, wayward “`Chips From The Chocolate Fireball’ by The Dukes Of Stratosphear: a post-punk spirit about the sound, while his obscurist’s eye for lyrical subject reminder of all the different sub-genres of the late 60s.” matter can take the songs into the realms of QI via Photography Monthly When is their next local gig and what can newcomers expect? tamal(es) and Mark E Smith’s strangest acid flashbacks. “There’s ones in the pipeline for September but the next confirmed gig is What inspires them? Klub Kakoffaney on the 3rd November at the Wheatsheaf. By then I’m not “People who do totally off-the-wall things: from a guy I knew at an open even sure what to expect: more synths and more shouting, perhaps.” Monday August 14th mic who made it a rule to go on with absolutely no idea of what he was Their favourite and least favourite things about Oxford music are: going to do, to Ernst Toller, a poet and playwright who commanded the “Favourite thing is Smash Disco, the hardcore/punk/new-wave gig night oxford classic jazz militia of the Bavarian Socialist Republic in 1919 against an attacking force at the Library. In a fairly unpropitious venue the promoters have created of proto-fascist government-backed shock troops because he was the only a high-energy, inclusive atmosphere where pretty much anything goes. one around willing to do it, winning a resounding victory.” Least favourite: there’s so much exciting, innovative, diverse stuff going Career highlight so far: on you’re always having to tell your friends you can’t make their shows “The reception of our first album `Girls and Film’, released in June. Nightshift because there’s three other things on you have to see.” Open Mic Every Sunday and BBC Introducing have been very supportive. Most of all, musicians who I You might love them if you love: live music at the heart of jericho really respect have said some lovely, insightful things about it.” Magnetic Fields; Momus; early Pink Floyd; The Human League; Olivia And the lowlight: Tremor Control; Television Personalities Cranham Terrace Jericho Oxford ox2 6dg “Playing a solo gig at a strip club in Reading. The punters seemed pretty Hear them here: 01865 556669 impatient and strangely unimpressed with my witty lyrical musings.” moogieman.bandcamp.com Dr SHOTOVER: Class `A’ Festival Guide THIS MONTH IN OXFORD Ah, there you are, Lady Yuppington. Have a spiffing time at the posh Oxon ALL OUR YESTERDAYS MUSIC HISTORY T H E W H E A T S H E A F festies, did you? Heyyy, why not buy us an organic micro-brewery strawberry- Friday 4th August – IT’S ALL ABOUT THE MUSIC flavoured cider and tell us all about it? No really, DO. [Suspiciously sincere look 20 YEARS AGO fallout from Truck Festival’s cancellation after of ideas for lyrics and musical feel come directly in eyes]. Was it truly, truly the final ever Cornbury? [Pushes out lower lip in fake In the days before we could take the very excellent the biblical downpours of late July saw the site from that,” said Hel Sterne, co-singer/guitarist RATS EAT RATS sympathy]. Oh dearrrrrr. Echo and the Bunnymen have, after all these years, BBC Introducing in Oxford for granted, we had flooded, while Fopp Records in town closed after with uberdoom rock wraiths Undersmile in the found their way home from Great Tew to Liddypool, have they? Accompany- RESTRUCTURE to rely on the inconsistent largesse of commercial the chain went into administration; fast forward band’s first front cover feature forNightshift back Saturday 5th August – OXROX ing old Bryan Ferry ‘cross the Mersey? Not to mention Bryan, or was it Ryan, a decade and Truck has just celebrated its most in August 2012. The band, who had just released Adams? So, do tell all – how was GLAMPING amidst the forest-glade cashpoints radio to get any kind of local music fix on the radio. Back in August 1997 Oxygen FM, a successful festival, while Fopp is back in town, their debut album `Narwhal’ on Future Noise and and the reiki stalls? Macrobiotic full English, quick head-massage, then a Swing celebrating its first anniversary back in Gloucester talked about touring with Billy Anderson, being HELL’S GAZELLES Out Sister dance workshop with David Cameron, mmm? Followed by some lovely student-run station, decided to axe its local show Green. In happier news The Young Knives were able to clear a venue before their first number was BLACK BULLETS + TRAUMA UK artisan cheese chat with Alex James, eh? And then a set by Jools Holland featur- Edible, reneging on a promise to properly support th shortlisted for The Mercury Prize for their `Voices finished, and how their kids would slam the door Sunday 6 August ing those loveable Mockney millionaires Chas ‘n’ Dave? [At this point Bedingfield the local scene, The show was replaced by a chart on their rehearsal sessions and tell them to shut up. the East Indies Club steward leans across and wordlessly points at a notice over rundown. The station’s head of programming, Of Animals & Men’ album and it was announced No less desolate was the new release from Vienna CONFRONT THE CARNAGE the bar: NO SARCASM OR SPITTING]. No sarcasm? No spitting? Would you take Nick Moulder, is probably a senior advisor to that Supergrass would become the first Oxford away the final pleasures left to me? You’ll be telling me next there’s a smoking Jeremy Hunt these days. band to headline the new Academy venue when it Ditto this month, the duo’s take on Blind Willie KING BOLETE + GHOUL ban! What’s that…? It’s been going for TEN YEARS? You are f***ing kidding! opened in September. Johnson’s `I Know His Blood Will Make Me Monday 7th August – TWO FACE PROMOTIONS An unexpected turn of events of a far more [Lights Balkan Sobranie in jade cigarette-holder, three Clint Eastwood-style cigaril- welcome variety came with the one and (so far) Witches were the month’s featured cover Whole’ a reverb-heavy voodoo blues hammerblow los, and a small Meerschaum pipe loaded with strange-looking herbal tobacco]. only visit to Oxford by Belle & Sebastian, who band, singer Dave Griffiths telling us about the that ranks among the finest cover versions to come OSIAH I’d better… puf-puf… make up for…puf-puf… lost time, then! [Bedingfield clicks played The Zodiac. The band had released their hypnagogic hallucinations (waking dreams) and out of Oxford. Other local releases included Glass A TRUST UNCLEAN + BLOODSHOT his fingers and East Indies Club ‘Health & Safety Officer’ Figgy Sturgess glides out second album, `If You’re Feeling Sinister’, and recurring nightmares that informed his band’s Animals’ `Leaflings’ EP and Peerless Pirates’ Friday 18th August - OXROX of the snug bar with seven ninjas in Rainbow Warrior t-shirts; they surround Dr such was their expansive line-up they had to darkly oppressive pop. `Thieves and Miscreants’. S]. To quote that play with half the band on stage and the rest on Elsewhere A Silent Film and Sharron Kraus This being the height of summer, festivals bearded little LEST WE FORGET a platform in the middle of the venue; a one-off had new releases out, while over in the demo dominated the local gig calendar, with the second stoner from the pages Ally Craig toped the pile for his “tendency Wilderness boasting a line-up that included SWITCHBLADE CITY + DELLACOMA Isle of Wight Festi- show in so many ways. th towards the deliberately obtuse and the feeling Wilco, Spiritualized, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Grant Saturday 19 August – IT’S ALL ABOUT THE MUSIC val in 1970… this is In the build up to Radio 1 Sound City Oxford City Council hosted a public meeting on the event that he neither knows nor cares where songs are Lee Buffalo and Field Music, while at the other a psychedelic con- end of the county, the reliably eclectic and esoteric centration camp, with representatives from Radio 1, the Musicians going or at what pace.”At the other end of the pile FRACTURE Supernormal played host to Warp Records heroes man! Unhand me, Union and the BPI in attendance. Khameleon were “constipated pub-bound rock Seefeel, alongside such household names as STORYTELLER + KHAMSINA + FUJI you eco-fascists! Talking of looking to the future August 1997 saw that took itself so seriously, you want to spend Friday 25th August - OXROX [Drinks spill, glass Nightshift finally launch itself online.www.oxlink. the duration of their interminably laboured demo Hey! Colossus, Bilge Pump, DJ Scotch Bonnet, breaks, general co.uk/nightshift was the rather unwieldy domain. lighting your own farts or sitting on a whoopee Joeyfat and Raagnarok. Oh, and Undersmile, just

TERMINUS SILENT JACK + FYRESKY unpleasantness Don’t bother trying to find it now; it is but dust in cushion just to try and restore some kind of natural to give the whole thing a bit of a summery pop Saturday 26th August – GAPPY TOOTH INDUSTRIES results]. the virtual ether. balance to the world.” vibe. At the northern tip of the Shire, meanwhile, Next month: Cropredy saw sets from Bellowhead, Joan BRIGHT WORKS BANANARAMA Armatrading, The Saw Doctors and Squeeze, PFAFF + SEMI URBAN FOX backwards = 10 YEARS AGO 5 YEARS AGO while Fairport Convention put in a wholly Every Monday ‘The Oxford Imps’ Comedy Club / Every Thursday ‘The Spin’ Jazz Club AMARANANAB. Good and bad in the news section of August “I’ve suffered from nightmares, night terrors and unexpected appearance on the Saturday night. The Wheatsheaf 129 High Street, Oxford OX1 4DF / www.facebook.com/wheatsheaf.oxford Just sayin’. Lady Yuppington: ‘Now this is what I CALL glamping, Dr S!’ 2007’s Nightshift. The main piece centred on the sleep paralysis since I was five years old, so lots Who saw that coming, eh? everyone’s broadened their influences to PALE SCALES the point they’re no longer compatible. Forgive the ridiculous national The Demoiselles look like they’re keen stereotyping but we never really imagine to skip the bit where they’re all reading Italy having a sizeable goth contingent; DEMOS from the same page and sound like they’re Sponsored by it’s a bit warm and sunny down that way, Demo of the Month wins a free half day all playing in different bands from the surely? Tight black clothing isn’t good at Soundworks studio in Oxford, off. It’s the only thing they do sound like Mediterranean get-up. Maybe that’s why courtesy of Umair Chaudhry. Visit they’re in a hurry to do, mind, given the Pietro Sgambati has moved to Oxford. way `Anything Goes’ grinds sluggishly www.umairchaudhry.co.uk/nightshift We’re assuming Pietro’s a bit of a goth along. Anything goes in this case meaning given the gloomy shroud that hangs “do what the hell you like, regardless reefer and smoked it on the strength of around this four-song demo like a thick of what the rest of the band are up to.” DEMO OF demo opener `Hidden Track’, a flight of English pea souper. The Cocteau Twins So in his mind the guitarist is playing in 01865 240250 psilocybin-infused fancy that could be the spangle of `Cherry Tribute’, with its old a rudimentary two-chord grunge band, soft-spoken offspring of a chance meeting school drum machine thump captures the drummer is playing an extended solo THE MONTH of Pentangle and 60s psych weirdoes him at his darkest and most intense, from some epic Rush number and the HP Lovecraft (not to be mistaken with while `Purple Sunset’ is proper solemn, singer thinks she’s Lita Ford cast in the the eldritch novelist of the same name, somehow managing to touch bases with SID VISCOUS although it’s fair to say that’s where they lead role of an Andrew Lloyd Webber We’re in the privileged position here both Slowdive and Pink Floyd. Good got their chief inspiration from). Anyway, musical. (No-one ever cares what the sometimes of getting sent stuff for free stuff, but elsewhere it can sound clumsy: yeah, pixies and an understatedly gothic bassist thinks). It’s a laborious chug and long before mere plebs like you get a `Inside the Nest’’s airy dreampop sounds side of the hippy folk dream. From here a right bloody mess all at the same time. sniff of it. So a few days before we sit like it almost can’t be bothered to get from things get less spooked; `The Misfits’ `Midnight Somewhere’ would appear to down to wade through this month’s pile of start to finish, while the folkier `Still’ is is a melancholic hippy-folk comedown, be their “sensitive” number, which means demos, some lovely PR person sent us a fine other than the feeling that Pietro’s and the feeling that faeries, goblins or energy levels dip even further from that download of the new Gary Numan album, desperately in need of a wee and trying a naked body double of Britt Eckland less than promising starting point, again a full two months before its release date to hold it in until he gets to the end of the are about to appear in the middle of the the drummer smacking stuff elaborately and we’ve been bothering the neighbours’ song. Anyway, welcome to Oxford, young woodland glade goes out the window. all over the shop, while the singer over senses and window fittings with it ever fella; hopefully this sunny spell won’t By the time we get to final track `Packet emotes to the point she gets so shrill we since. The punningly named Sid Viscous last too long and we can get back to the of Dreams’ things have wandered off thing either our eardrums, her tonsils or – aka Ollie Harris – here obviously knows regular downpours and gloomy grey skies into a nearby meadow with a hangdog this here wine glass will go pop, and the the way to our hearts as the opening that brought you here. expression – the hippy dream is over. Still, guitarist finally rouses himself from his track here is called `More Human Than this month’s demo most likely to wear single-minded chug to try and match TURAN AUDIO.co.uk Numan’, which turns out to be a genius flowers in its hair, eat strange fungi and be the drummer with a Snowy White-style Professional, independent mash-up of samples from Bladerunner EASTER ISLAND audio mastering found sat against an old oak tree reading solo. We’re trying to think of positives with samples of `Cars’, plus a glowing about where the band might take all `The Mountains of Madness’, which is STATUES Mastered in the studio last month; silicon sweep of synths that stretches as these thrilling ingredients and how something we should all aspire to. Maybe Pietro could do some kind of THE OTHER DRAMAS, WINTERFYLLETH, far along the autobahn as you can see, cultural exchange with Easter Island they might one day come together in a Apple approved DAYLIGHT DIES, ASTRAL CLOUD ASHES, mastering and some great squelchy acid house vaguely bearable fashion. But like finding Statues, who sing “I’ve never seen so much BUIO ONE MAN BAND, FLATLANDS, REBECCA bloops just for good measure. The title’s yourself on some TV cookery contest THE EULOGIES rain / I hope to see the sunshine again,” HOLLOWAY, CHRIS LACY, KANADIA, NEON TEEPEE, CAPTAIN a play on the Tyrell Corporation’s More Like Slow Learner The Eulogies is a where you’re given a loaf of bread, some on opening song, `The Rain’, a roustabout KUPPA-T & THE ZEPPELIN CREW, I CREATIVE, FIST, THE TOY Human Than Human motto; the track margarine and a bowl of excrement, you one-man band home recording affair, rock shanty that manages to come in just DOLLS, ALEX HEHIR, MAXIMILLION SCHEYER, PROJECT VEGA, itself is absolutely fucking wonderful. We know the only outcome is going to be a but while Pete Lock sounds like he’s off about the right side of Mumford & Sons SEANCE, RAINBOW RESERVOIR, COWBOYMOD. just played it six times in a row, slightly on a mushroom forage, The Eulogies’ with its mandolin twang and the singer’s shit sandwich. louder each time. There are three more Simon Veaney’s poison would appear rich, salty tones, which remind us a little of 01865 716466 [email protected] mostly instrumental tracks here too, to be morphine, or at least a large glass Little Brother Eli’s Alex Grew in the way featuring more Numanesque snaffling of whisky. This is tenderly downbeat he strains his tonsils to keep it epic. `Stunt on the decidedly ebm-flavoured `Lovers THE DEMO rock, which doesn’t quite fall into goth, Flyer’ aims for a more straightforward, Acid’, but then taking a sharp left turn country or folk but mixes a little of each noisier indie rock sound in the vein of The COURTYARD into seriously mangled old school metal into its palette to make a darker shade Maccabees or Kaiser Chiefs, still up and DUMPER with `Supernaut’ that sounds like it’s RECORDING STUDIO of grey. At his best, as on `Ghost Waltz’, at ‘em but maybe lacking `The Rain’’s 2 Tracking Rooms. Superb Control Room with: taken an old Saxon track round to Nurse his lovely, soft-edged croon makes him character. Season 7 of Game of Thrones SWEETMATES NEVE 5106 32 Channel Console. ProTools HD3 With Wound’s workshop to be dealt MTR 90 2” 24 Track Tape Machine. Vintage EMT Plate Reverb sound like he’s off in his own daydream, kicked off last night but all thoughts of With a name that sounds like a brand with. Harshly. Back to the heavy-duty Loads of Brilliant Outboard Gear albeit one where he’s dancing with ghosts, winter being here are out the window, of flavoured condoms and a song called synthetics with final track `Getting the Loads of Great Mics, Vintage and Modern which might make it a day nightmare, at least until the seemingly doomed `Papa Chico’s Semi Freddo’, which Old School Akai/Roland Synth Modules Vapour’ which sounds like a doomy acid and everything’s neatly understated to the Soundcloud deems fit to follow Easter sounds like a disgusting euphemism for Upright Piano, Fender Rhodes, Amps and great vibes. house remake of the Terminator theme Residential recording studio in Sutton Courtenay. point of subdued. Tindersticks and The Island Statues with someone called Voor something we’re not prepared to discuss tune. So there you go: synthesizers, Numan www.courtyardrecordingstudio.co.uk National are the most obvious touchstones Hans and the absolute worst cover version in a family magazine, we’re hoping samples, heavy metal and sci-fi. That’s In-house producer: Ian Davenport www.ian-davenport.co.uk and Simon’s own quote that this is a set of of The Velvet Underground’s `Sunday Sweetmates will be a pervy bunch of pretty much all our favourite things in one. Email: [email protected] “cinematic songs of regret, bemusement Morning’ you can imagine, like a cold, weirdoes who have grown up on a diet of Stick a picture of a kitten on the cover and Phone: Kate on 01235 845800 and wonder that capture something of steady drizzle right into our very souls. Har Mar Superstar, Prince and Throbbing pour us a glass of wine and this is as close the glowing evening light, shadows and Seriously, we’d rather have the Night King Gristle. But no, they’re a cheesy, slightly to perfection as life gets. Frankly no other stick a frozen blade in our heart than have geezerish disco/funk rock band who sound bugger this month stands a chance. ghosts of Oxford’s backstreets” comes close to summing up what he’s about, to listen to that shit again. like a gruesome meeting point between rather being the self-aggrandising bollocks Toploader and Everything Everything. Or most press blurb offers up. It’s not all maybe what Red Hot Chili Peppers would have sounded like if they’d grown up in charm and wonder of course: `That Little THE DEMOISELLES SLOW LEARNER Musical differences are usually cited when Lewisham listening to Level 42. A right Sting’ is clumsy and, by his standards, A decade or so ago there was a great a band’s been together for a few years and old load of horse cock, basically. Rehearsal and Recording studios compilation released called `Gather In The overwrought, which ruins the whole point, while `Summer Rain’ betrays the Four state of the art rehearsal rooms Mushrooms’, which collected some of the Send demos for review to: Nightshift, PO Box 312, Kidlington, OX5 1ZU, or email links to demo’s home recording nature with the and a professional recording studio. best acid-fried folk music from the 60s [email protected], clearly marked Demos. IMPORTANT: no review without a mix all over the place. Still, given its and 70s, from Comus to Magnet. It’s fair contact phone number. If you can’t handle criticism, please don’t send us your demo. We make For bookings call Jamie on 07917685935 to say Pete Lock, the man behind Slow modest origins, it’s mainly a decently soul no pretence to being fair, objective or open-minded and reserve the right to use juvenile insults Glasshouse studios, Cumnor, Oxford • glasshousestudios.org Learner, has heard the record, but truth soothing offering that suggests better to while almost completely ignoring your music should we feel like it. Your Facebook friends are is, he’s probably also rolled it into a giant come. welcome to get all huffy on your behalf, but we’ll laugh at them too. facebook.com/o2academyoxford twitter.com/o2academyoxford instagram.com/o2academyoxford youtube.com/o2academytv

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