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dimanche 29 mai 2016

Album de la Semaine : Yeti - Amidst

Yeti
Amidst


Chronique de Amidst, par Tracy Killz de Metal Oddities

Vous avez déjà chassé le Dahu ? Non pas Etienne, l’autre, la bestiole qui selon la légende vit dans les montagnes mais que personne n’a jamais vue. A part ceux qui vous demandent d’aller la chasser. C’est simple, il vous suffit d’un sac et des bâtons, et c’est parti. 
Plus beaucoup de patience certes. 
Mais avez-vous déjà chassé le Yeti ?
Ce truc immense qui lui aussi vit dans les montagnes, que les Ricains appellent le Bigfoot, en nous ressortant de vieilles photos trafiquées pour nous prouver son existence…Chasser le Yeti demande aussi beaucoup d’abnégation, et puis admettons. Vous le trouvez. Qu’allez-vous lui dire ? Que la vie est belle lorsqu’on s’assume en tant que masse de poils ambulante ? Pas sûr qu’il soit convaincu par l’argument…
Moi, je suis plus fort que tout le monde, mais vous le savez déjà. Je l’ai trouvé le Yeti. Mais je n’ai ramené aucune photo pour que vous puissiez voir à quoi il ressemble. J’ai ramené beaucoup plus que ça. Un témoignage audio de son quotidien. Parce qu’aussi hirsute et asociale soit la bête, elle s’exprime par un vecteur musical tout à fait valide et surprenant. 
Amidst.
C’est comme ça qu’elle a appelé son enregistrement. Et aujourd’hui, par le biais des trappeurs Send The Wood Music, vous pouvez tous découvrir sa voix, son talent, et son monde à part. Sauf que la surprise risque d’être de taille. Car il n’y a pas qu’un seul YETI. Il y en a deux en fait. Aussi velu l’un que l’autre. D’où, plus de créativité et de liberté.
Alors, lancez le disque. Et bienvenue dans la grotte du fantasmagorique bestiaire de l’improbable.
Vous n’aurez donc pas besoin de traquer la fourrure dans les cols enneigés, puisque « Yeti vient se caler au coin du feu pour raconter ses histoires de brouillard électrique dans une ambiance intimiste et noise. ». Petits veinards, les bêtes s’invitent chez vous…Vous n’avez pas de cheminée ? Faites brûler quelques palettes dans le jardin, ça marchera aussi. La procédure est simple, et expliquée qui plus est. Car « Yeti fait du Sonfle : une musique parasitée, ambient, parfois éthérée, parfois pesante, toujours sincère et mouvante, un poil caractérielle et qui, malgré tout, trouve sa place parce qu'il y a toujours un coin dans ton coeur pour un Yeti. ». Exposé sous ces termes, l’affaire se présente opaque. Mais une fois les pistes s’évaporant dans l’air, elle devient lumineuse et profondément apaisante, tout en gardant ce caractère un peu chafouin qui a permis à la créature de rester cachée aussi longtemps.
Et cette bestiole, velue, est plutôt du genre paisible en fait, et n’incarne pas du tout la menace que le Folklore local a bien voulu lui attribuer.
A dire vrai, elle est même très stable et posée. Presque introspective. Donc…
…loin de l’énervement Metal auquel vous êtes habitués. Faites la donc entrer sans crainte, elle n’abimera pas le mobilier.
Tout ceci n’a en effet que peu de rapport avec le genre de trip que nous faisons religieusement à intervalles réguliers. Il est même difficile de parler de pèlerinage Rock en évoquant le voyage de la bête, qui préfère les chemins de traverse Folk, les haltes dans des gîtes Ambient, et les longues marches électroniques presque Dream Pop. Elle est aussi capable de se poser quelques minutes, et d’évoquer le vent glacial qui balaie sa fourrure, en prenant une guitare acoustique, pour vous chanter sa solitude à deux très paisiblement. « Assis Là », c’est comme ça que l’hydre à deux manteaux appelle son ressenti, et c’est très pur, très beau, ça ressemble même un peu à MONO, THE OCEAN, mais c’est très personnel, comme une vieille comptine qu’on se refile de grand-mère à petite fille.
La narration est fluide, mais souvent heurtée de sons bizarres, de samples, de bruitages saccadés, et surtout, prend son temps pour planter le décor. « The Path », qui décrit le périple à travers les neiges est aussi long que l’effort fourni pour rejoindre la civilisation, mais se suit avec ferveur et émotion. Une voix pas très assurée mais « vraie », une mélodie simple et habitée, presque hantée par les larmes, et quelques stries grondantes en arrière-plan qui incarnent la difficulté de quitter son habitat naturel. C’est raconté en huit minutes, mais ça passe comme dans un songe. A vous d’ouvrir les yeux pour vérifier ce que vos oreilles entendent vraiment. Les deux bestioles prennent parfois leur temps pour dévoiler leur vraie nature, et les non-dits sont importants pour elles. « Singing Grass » par exemple, utilise le silence pendant de longs instants, avant de laisser un banjo subtil se superposer à la narration atone.
C’est touchant, glacial, hivernal, mais ça réchauffe le cœur.
Même lorsque les dangers de la vie sauvage s’incarnent dans un « Wolves » dont le titre aurait pu suggérer une emphase Rock, ils se trouvent finalement dans un pardon harmonique qui suggère plus l’amertume que la violence ou la crainte. Les saisons sont abordées évidemment, presque comme des interludes Ambient (« Fall Is At Dawn »), tout comme la découverte de l’urbanisme (« Buildings »), qui suscite des réactions mitigées, un peu Drone ou Noise.
Cette créature existe donc, et il était difficile de savoir à l’avance qu’elle avait un jumeau. Mais la symbiose entre les deux parties est telle qu’on peut continuer de ne la concevoir que comme un tout. Et la musique qu’elle nous offre est un océan de tranquillité et de beauté, qui dépeint à merveille les grandes étendues de neige et de glace des montagnes refuge. Pas Rock du tout, encore moins Métal mais pas Indie non plus, juste des harmonies, des mélodies, et des arrangements sonores en textures de brise. Une initiation au merveilleux.
Un trip hallucinatoire qui marque. 
Des pas dans la neige qu’on suit sans se retourner, au risque de perdre tous ses repères.

Line Up :
Vincent Bouillet
Label :
Send the Woods Music
Tracklist :
01 – Ph•s
02 – Buildings
03 – Amy
04 – Fall Is at Dawn
05 – Farewell
06 – Wolves
07 – Assis l…
08 – The Path
09 – The Scene
10 – Monowl
11 – Singing Grass






dimanche 22 mai 2016

Album de la Semaine : Eagulls - Ullages

Eagulls
Ullages


Interview de Eagulls, par Skiddle

How do you feel the band have evolved from your first album? What do you think separates the new material from earlier stuff and at the same time what would you say connects it? 
I feel we have evolved our overall song craftsmanship in comparison to album one. The first album was all about stating an emotion in its full complexities without taking our feet off the accelerator.
It was about creating a record that was a mirror-image of our live show at that exact period in our lives - non-stop and very full on. The new material differs from the first album in a number of ways with pace being one of them, as the first album was strictly 4/4 beats we wanted the second album to venture into different time signatures.
Sonically on ULLAGES we were more fixated on the idea of creating beauty in our music more than the speed-ridden, harsh forces of album number one.
Lyrically, ULLAGES is more advanced exploring varied subjects inspired by various themes like social mentalities to contemporary artists. I feel the connection between these records is our ability to capture and marriage melody and energy into one.
How much of a focus/discussion point was texture on this record? It feels like a very rich and dense record - what were some of the desires, sonically speaking, on this record?  
We were extremely focussed on portraying arrays of textures from the word go on this record. The last album had some great qualities to it, but was always leaning towards the heavier, brash side of the spectrum.
We felt we should display all ends of the spectrum on this record, harsh to soft, thick and thin, and I feel we have achieved that. We wanted the textures to represent emotions in a see-saw effect, enabling the listener to be up and down throughout the album.
The first album openly dealt with some issues around things like anxiety, has a steady period of touring and being on stage aided this at all? Do you feel more confident or comfortable now?  
Suffering from anxiety is something that I will have to live with for the rest of my days. A lot of the first albums lyrics were about the complexities of the common mental health issue and also an exploration into trying to understand why it was occurring not only to me, but also my generation.
It’s an on-going issue that isn’t really resolved by going on tour or putting a plaster on it, as you say. But, I do feel I have more clarity on the issue now than in 2013.
It's likely the new record is going to draw some comparisons to some big hitters from the 80s: The SmithsThe CureCocteau Twins etc - are these bands you feel comfortable being associated and compared with? Is there also any link between a fascination with or desire to explore sounds particularly from that decade?
As much as it’s great being compared to those bands that we were lucky to have to listen to growing up, it also can become quite a burden of a label on us. I hope some people can put aside the comparisons and listen to our songs as new, original material.
Surely by now everybody knows that art is always inspired by the art that comes beforehand. And also how post can post-punk get, now it's 2016?
I feel comfortable being associated and compared with those great bands though, as they were the last flock of bands to really explore rock and pop music in a contemporary and tasteful manner.
Our fascination with sounds from that period has much more to do with the equipment those bands were using at the time, as for us an analogue sound is by far more interesting than these poor quality digital sounds modern bands are constantly using in a throw away manner. Effects were so much lusher and open back then compared to nowadays digital sounds.
Eagulls have always struck me as being a quintessentially British band. Which I know sounds daft given you are of course British but given how many young British bands seem locked into pretending they are from mid-nineties America, it feels refreshing. I wonder if you consider yourselves to have a strong British musical identity and if so, what that means to you? 
It’s kind of daft as yes, we are all British! You see when we started our band the whole nineties American thing was in full swing in the English underground, just like the whole neo-psychedelia movement is in full swing in the underground today.
Personally I just couldn't associate myself with it. I feel lost in my own country, so why get myself lost inside an imaginary other land? I guess those bands just try to escape our dreary UK in some deranged idea of the expat California dream. The thing is with us is that we are not actors. We are who we are and that’s what comes across in our music and words. We don’t try to be British, we just are I suppose.
When you listen to ULLAGES yourself, what feelings, images and emotions does it bring up for you? Where does ULLAGES take Eagulls when they listen to it or play it? 
Listening to the record places me into the mind frames I was in at the times when writing the songs. I think about all the surroundings that I somehow absorbed and all the art and writings I’d read around those times that helped me put my subconscious thoughts down onto paper.
The record makes me feel all kinds of feelings, but the main emotion is a sense of pride that we got it completed as it was quite a battle this time round.
I'm aware you have quite a hardcore fanbase from the DIY/punk scene, do you think they will follow the slower and more melodic direction happily and do you care if they do or don't? 
I feel like most people will take our new direction happily and will enjoy our progression. I feel our previous fans music tastes will have matured along with our song craftsmanship and they’ll happily accept what we’ve made.
Of course we care about our fans, but at the end of the day music is like public art, we display it for anyone to engross in and if they don’t like it they’re very free to walk on to the next artist’s piece.
What are you plans for 2016? Anything beyond the usual touring and festivals circuit? 
We’re trying to play the more interesting independent venues around the UK when we can as we want to keep the live act and overall experience a little more interesting than the usual mundanities.
Other than the UK we have a bunch of EU dates planned, including festivals and headline slots. A US tour is being planned etc, etc. We missed out on some big festivals this year as our album came out too late so, hopefully more of them next year.  We have a new website that we promise we’ll update too! So head to that to see our future plans.

Line Up :
  • Mark 'Goldy' Goldsworthy
  • Henry Ruddel
  • Liam Matthews
  • Tom Kelly
  • George Mitchell

Label :
Partisan

Tracklist :
01 – Head Or Tails
02 – Euphoria
03 – My Life In Rewind
04 – Harpstrings
05 – Velvet
06 – Psalms
07 – Blume
08 – Skipping
09 – Lemontrees
10 – Aisles
11 – White Lie Lullabies




dimanche 15 mai 2016

Album de la Semaine : Future of the Left - The Peace and Truce of Future of the Left

Future of the Left
The Peace and Truce of Future of the Left


Interview de Future of the Left, par Will Fitzpatrick de The Skinny

Andrew Falkous is a reformed character. “I’m really doing my best not to slag off other bands,” he explains, following a sixteen-year career as one of the premier agent provocateurs of UK rock music, first with Mclusky and now with the remarkable Future of the Left. “I’ve done interviews where I’ve made one disparaging remark about a band, and that’s always the headline. It’s always ‘MATT BELLAMY A GOBLIN, SAYS FALCO’. I didn’t say he was a goblin!”
This newly-placid Falco certainly echoes the title of his band’s new album. The Peace and Truce of Future of The Left is suggestive of a much more sedate affair than their usual serrated riffola. It’s a relief, then, to discover that FOTL remain as brutal and noisy as ever, with their frontman’s barbed lyricism on devilishly hilarious form as he tears strips from themes such as bourgeois self-entitlement and cultural complacency alongside a host of additional topics, all ripe for ridicule. With cosier concepts such as ‘peace’ and ‘truce’ seeming pretty far from the record’s true essence, we have to ask: what’s with that title?
“It actually comes from a movement in the early middle ages called The Peace and Truce of God,” he says, “which was kind of a version 1.0 of chivalry – a code placed on knights to try and formalise their behaviour, to stop them from attacking strangers and taking all their stuff. It sounds far more worthy and mighty than it was – a bunch of rules for a gang of bullies, a formal reaction to misbehaviour. Basically, ‘God is with you, but don’t be too much of a bastard. There are limits to how much of a bastard you can be.’”
That almost makes it sound like the album itself is a manifesto, we suggest. This meets a skeptical response.
“Perhaps… That’s unconscious though. It’s one of my least favourite things about bands, when they have a manifesto. Maybe they grew up during the heyday of the music press, when you had to say a succession of really stupid things in order to hide the fact that your band sounded like Guns n’Roses. Don’t get me wrong, it’s very nice to have things to say, but a rock band’s main function is to make rock music, I would think. Unfortunately, we have a lot of artists – and I use that term loosely – who say controversial things in order to cover up the fact that they make incredibly bland music.”
Clinging firmly to his resolution, he offers no examples to support the point – this older, wiser Falco seems comfortably resigned to armistace: “If a band has an audience, that justifies the band and its actions, I suppose. Can’t blame people for being themselves. And the people that go out and support it… that’s their business.” He chuckles to himself. “I don’t have controversial opinions – it’s the fans who are at fault!  It reminds me of that Bill Hicks line about being in the unusual position of being for the war, but against the troops.”
The antagonism hasn’t entirely gone away then, we note.
“Yeah,” he replies. “The people I admire are prepared to grow on… well, not on a dailybasis, who can be arsed? Fuck that. But even for somebody who enjoys speaking my mind, I’m genuinely horrified if I really offend somebody. Sometimes that’s a good thing, ‘cause if you’re gonna offend somebody with something you might say, maybe you should look at why. And then, after you’ve looked at it, maybe you can go, ‘nah, fuck those people.’ But at least you’ve thought about it, rather than accepting everything about yourself uncritically.”

Falco's sense of humour

The whole Future of the Left experience seems to ride on their mordant sense of humour, which meshes seamlessly with a penchant for pulverising riffs. The joke often seems lost on listeners, however, much to Falco’s exasperation:
“I think humour is generally lost on people in music unless it’s of the Bloodhound Gang variety, the kind which screams, ‘I’m being funny now!’ In some cases it’s used to disregard [FOTL], I think, to make it sound as if it’s some kind of comedy band, which it definitely is not. I guess you’ve got to be quite serious about being funny to get it across properly. You’ll have heard popular comedy music, stuff like Tenacious D or whatever, where I’m assuming the prime reason is to make people laugh, as opposed to actually being this great rock band. If you want real hilarious comedy in your music you could always – no! I was gonna slag off a band! I’m not gonna do it!”
Songs like new effort Miner’s Gruel, or Singing of the Bonesaws (from 2013’s How to Stop your Brain in an Accident) even see Falco driving the point home by adopting exaggerated, caricature-esque voices, adding an extra layer to his already performative delivery. It’s almost like character acting.
“It’s never really planned,” he says after a few seconds’ thought. “I just reach a stage where I get sick of hearing the sound of my own voice. I know I need a break when everything I write, I play it back and think, ‘who’s this fucking idiot singing?’”
In keeping with Falco’s muse since his time in Mclusky, current musical trends get quite a kicking on The Peace and Truce. This time it’s the turn of ‘serious’ musicians striving for pop music’s singular most worthless fallacy: authenticity, as depicted on The Proper Music. Its author seems to have expanded his thoughts on the subject since writing the album, however.
“It’s a bit of a weird one – at this moment in time, I’m as bored by the opponents of ‘proper music’ as I am by the proponents. In their desire to write brilliant thinkpieces on pop, they have fundamentally misunderstood the main calling of pop music, which is certainly not to have fucking thinkpieces written about it. It’s to jump around like a twat!” 
(Continues below)

More from Music:

Protomartyr "How does the internet work?" – words with Protomartyr


"I have a problem," he continues, "in that I am completely contrarian. If you put me anywhere I’m going to end up disagreeing with everybody fundamentally. [Politically] I lie on the left, but I find a lot of people on the left incredibly fucking smug. There’s even some comedians or political thinkers where I agree with everything they say, but the condescending way they put it across makes me want to disagree with them.”
Again, he offers no specific names (“I’ve just had so many problems over the years”), but continues the thought with a different kind of example.
“I don’t believe you stop anybody being racist by leaning over and screaming ‘racist!’ at them for 20 minutes. I just don’t think that works. Do you honestly want to solve the problems in the world, or do you just want to scream ‘racist’?’ I’m not saying that’s not a valid way to spend your time, but don’t be surprised when nobody ever fucking changes their mind. It’s one of the things with the world: everybody thinks they’re right. Nobody’s deliberately being wrong. Apart from…  nope! I’m not gonna say it! It’s tough for me, I’ve punched myself in the balls four times during this interview.”

The politics of Future of the Left

Future of the Left are often pegged as being a political band, although in keeping with Falco’s own irritations, this is an observational tendency rather than a means of hectoring or addressing subjects head-on.
“I admire anybody who holds political viewpoints which are contrary to their own interests. For example, the selfishness of a lot of people on the right – ‘I have this money and I’d like to keep it,’ you know? Even though I don’t agree with that, I can understand it. Whereas it’s very easy to be on the left: to earn not much money and to want more for yourself and the people you know. It’s voting essentially with self-interest. So I’m very aware that, with the economic position that I’m in, by default I’m on the left, unless I’m a crazy person. But let’s face it: 98% of the people who come to our shows are gonna be… if not Labour supporters, then certainly not Conservative. That’s true the whole milieu of indie rock.
“I remember we [Mclusky] were on tour during the US elections in 2004, and saying a little joke about George W Bush on stage every night. After 22 shows, we finally had one dissenting voice in LA, in all that time. But it’s not that America is 98% behind us, it’s that indie rock clubs are 98% behind us. I mean, it’s unusual, isn’t it, when you see Conservative musicians? I read an interview with Phil Collins which made me feel a little bit sorry [laughs] about things I’ve said onstage about him over the years. I wasn’t even necessarily singling him out; Phil Collins is just a funny collection of words. I could probably think of a more deserving target like Andrew Lloyd Webber; somebody fiercely Tory.
"But yeah, talking about politics would feel patronizing, like engaging in an echo chamber. A three-minute pop song isn’t an incredibly discursive medium, I suppose. It tends to fall one way or the other, and emphatically. It’s very difficult to write songs saying, ‘I passionately believe in this, however there’s a caveat.’ It doesn’t make for a great rock song. ‘I believe political correctness is a good thing; however the movement can have its excesses.’ – that isn’t the way papers or concert tickets get sold. ‘This guy has a nuanced opinion on social justice, they rock!’”
The really dangerous figures like Trump and Johnson are already beyond parody.
“Well, this is it. How do you parody trump? Johnson’s bloody had a go at doing it himself; let’s face it, that man is far cleverer than he puts across. His bumbling fuckwittery is a tactic to disarm, whereas Trump is amoral. I feel anybody who has an ideology like it’s a religion, or dogma, who only accepts information that confirms what they already know, it’s a sad position to be in.
“If I had a choice between Jeremy Corbyn and David Cameron, I don’t need to tell you which one I would save; it would be the real person rather than the android construct. But on Facebook the other week somebody said, ‘How dare Cameron insult the way Corbyn looks? The ham-faced twat.’ And you’re like, ‘Don’t you see the irony in what you’ve just said?’ Apparently people don’t, and they gravitate towards what they know and what they like.” He laughs bitterly. “Good on them, that’s what I say! Let’s have a big fucking war. Like a colonic cleanse of the planet. Let’s reduce the overcrowding issue; let’s take that one off the table by eliminating 50% of the population of the earth.”
The Skinny makes a thoroughly cheap gag about mandatory conscription for a certain type of listless, landfill indie band, which gets a more generous laugh than it deserves: “What would you call it though? And who would be the instructor at rock boot camp? The possibilities literally have an end. Let’s not think about that.”
Of course. After all, we’d be wandering dangerously close to singling out individuals if we went down that route. Falco laughs once more.
“Yeah, we don’t want to single out individuals! Unless it’s for praise.”
Is that a hint of sarcasm we detect? Surely not. With the peace and truce of God on his side, provided he keeps his levels of bastardry within reason, who could doubt the sincerity of a changed man?
Line Up :
Andy "Falco" Falkous
Jack Egglestone
Julia Ruzicka
Label :
Prescriptions
Tracklist :
01 – If AT&T Drank Tea What Would BP Do
02 – In a Former Life
03 – Running All Over the Wicket
04 – Miner’s Gruel
05 – Grass Parade
06 – The Limits of Battleships
07 – Back When I Was Brilliant
08 – Eating for None
09 – Reference Point Zero
10 – White Privilege Blues
11 – 50 Days Before the Hun
12 – Proper Music
13 – No Son Will Ease Their Solitude