“Up until the moment I put the needle into the outer groove of Flying Saucer Attack’s ‘Chorus’ I believed several things about recording.

I believed that recordings were made in recording studios, and that recording studios were expensive, and manned by highly trained individuals with specialised knowledge of an obscure and faintly occult progress. Records were expensive to make but that was okay because recording artists sold loads of them, and anyway, record companies paid for all that stuff.

Within the space of forty-five minutes I discovered that what I was listening to was made possible without any of those things being true. Flying Saucer Attack records were made in bedrooms for nothing by people who worked it out for themselves, paid for it themselves and sold in quantities guaranteed to get them dropped by any major label.

I had just bought a four-track cassette multi-tracker, a machine marketed to musicians as a way to make home demos. FSA used them to make whole albums, five in fact - three “proper” albums and two collections of EPs and 7”s. When I first heard the glorious other-worldly tape hiss of FSA, I simply could not believe that something so lo-fi had been pressed up on vinyl and sold in record stores the world over.

The sound world FSA created was baffling and bewitching - I couldn’t believe that this was all done using guitars - surely there had to be synthesizers in there? This was my Punk Rock Awakening. Four-tracks were not for making demos in the hope of catching the ear of some London A&R man who hears “promise” or “potential” in them. Four-tracks were for making whole albums, singles, EPs; records that in their heyday were released by the fearlessly innovative Domino Recording Company. After an impulse purchase in Beggars Banquet Records in Kingston my world changed forever. This was DIY.

At Reading ’95, whilst Smashing Pumpkins headlined the main stage, on a smaller stage on the other side of the site (it may as well have been on another planet), FSA were creating an unearthly racket that Billy Corgan’s tens of thousands of dollars of signal processing couldn’t come close to. Dave Pearce was armed with a guitar, a delay pedal and a set of screwdrivers.

I quickly devoured every bit of info possible on this mysterious outfit - who were they? How did they make those sounds? I soon learned of a like-minded cabal of Bristol musos - FSA, Movietone, Crescent and the, quite frankly, frightening Third Eye Foundation. A jubilant NME review of Third Eye Foundation’s debut ‘Semtex’ opened with the line “I don’t know what to do with this record...”

Choosing a university, I had my heart set on Bristol before I even so much as looked at a prospectus. At that point and ever since when you mentioned Bristol and music you heard the names Massive Attack, Portishead, Tricky - all exceptional artists - and a long list of highly respected and frequently innovative dance producers. But it was the sound of a strange group of like-minded autodidacts that left a musical breadcrumb trail to the centre of this extraordinary city, and held me hostage to its heart ever since.”

Gravenhurst’s LP ‘The Ghosts In Daylight’ is out now on Warp.

Read more Circles Of Influence features from Andrew Weatherall, Micachu and Matthew Herbert.

Anton Newcombe comes with a certain reputation.

Leading the Brian Jonestown Massacre for more than two decades, the American-born / Berlin-based artist matches nigh-on peerless space rock with stunning mood swings. At times, it can seem that through pouring his heart and soul into his music that Newcombe can be incapable of accepting criticism; backing himself into a corner, the songwriter can often seem prickly, defensive evasive.

But not today. The voice on the other end of the phone crackles with enthusiasm and – despite the odd ranting conspiracy theory – Anton Newcombe is a welcoming, open soul. Hell, he even signs off by sincerely wishing we meet again “because you seem like a good and decent person”.

Aw shucks...

Of course, he’s got every right to feel confident. New album ‘Aufheben’ is an overwhelming artistic success, finding a rejuvenated Brian Jonestown Massacre setting their controls for the heart of the sun. We begin, though, with Berlin.

- - -

To begin with, you’re in Berlin now - how’s the city?
I love Berlin because it leaves me alone. I don’t speak German, so I’m oblivious to the advertising and if I should even catch small talk it’s incomprehensible.

Do you spend most of your time in the studio then?
Well, yeah, I come out everyday. I don’t live in my studio, it’s set up like.. with even bunk beds and a shower and a kitchen and everything, it’s like a two storey auto garage sort of thing.

Why did you move to Berlin in the first place?
A few reasons: in the UK, anywhere, if you walk into the street... the minute you leave your door life is going to intrude on you. If you go to a party someone is like “oh, so how do you know Sue?”or “I’m Jim, I work for Mojo magazine..” blah blah blah blah blah. In German culture it just doesn’t happen. That’s one side of it, plus the city has everything, it’s cheap, the art and everything, it’s international, it’s all right there if you need it.

You’ve got a point. Do you feel more free in Germany then?
Well I am because I’m an artist of means and I just go about my business. So I have a very good life and I love this culture and I love the people. It’s safe for women and children where I live, and that’s important to me. Whereas the high street in Cardiff on a Saturday, it’s anybody’s guess if you’re going to make it home. So it’s a totally different thing.

It is clear from this album as well that you do love British music, you’ve got ‘I Want To Hold Your Other Hand’ and ‘Blue Order/New Monday’.
Well that’s a quick story, see Bernard Sumner and whoever...Graham Cox? The bass player, Bad Lieutenant, they lifted my whole fucking riff. That’s not just a guitar lead, it’s a specific twelve string melodic motif from my song ‘When Jokers Attack’. He even played a twelve string, played the exact same notes. I thought that was not cool at all, to not even say “I like this other group” or something. So do you know what I did? Algorithms, baby. Now and for all time that dumb ass mother fucker, check this out, he can’t get away, you type in their biggest hit ever and you get my song. Because I’m a real group, I’m really on iTunes, I’m really on Google, so for a thousand years from now I’ll get paid every time somebody...there’s a possibility I’m married to that song now, just because the way a computer works, because they can’t pay Google to say; a search engine to say ‘not buying Jonestown Massacre’. See, so it’s just a scramble of worlds. Plus, there’s another whole side to the illumination aspect of it, like for instance in Free Masonry the first three steps equal the blue lodge and the blue order. Then, that is like a solar cult, with a solar deity, hence illumination and light. But then the more Julian Cope people, their all into the moon and the Goddess, that’s the other cult. So it’s like the Blue Order - the sun guys, and the moon people.

To talk about the album, let’s start with the title ‘Aufheben’, what made you choose that?
Believe it or not I was reading the Economist, a left wing intellectual political magazine from the UK, and this person brought up some word, and I think it was in regards to the power position that Germany now has within the continent, but they go, “How scary is it that they have this word with multiple meanings that are all contradictory?” When I looked at it I thought wow, that is interesting. But when you apply that word to German culture in the last century, it means to abolish or destroy, to pickup and preserve. So tearing apart something to save it. If you can imagine that in relation to...you know they had the East Germany intergration back in...the whole culture, the history of national socialism, they had to tear apart this society to build it up to save it. I love that.

Matt Hollywood’s on this album, do you two just have a certain chemistry that brings out something musically out in you?
Well I taught him how to play guitar and we taught each other how to play music and really make a band, even though we have an interesting notion of stability and roles that everyone plays in this business. So, there’s that psychic thing that twins have, it’s almost like that. I have an idea and he automatically knows the sensibility and then we’re both boiled down to “I don’t want you to be singing that topic.” I write like Mozart, literally it comes like a lightening bolt and I can hear a symphony. I go what is that sound in my head, and I go what is this song I am singing? Oh, it’s mine, I better get to work on it. Most of the time that’s how it really happens.

You really have taken to the internet and you use the web to kind of communicate with people. What is it as a format that you really enjoy about that?
Well I’m interested...the words to the song...“I use the enemy, I use anarchy,” to quote Johnny Rotten, right. I’ll use fucking anything. If you’re sitting there making a BandCamp and your big fucking plan is to add Johnny Marr on Facebook as a means to furthering your career by pestering him with your fucking BandCamp, you don’t have a fucking plan. All that BandCamp is - putting your fucking demo up on BandCamp doesn’t magically make it an album. I hate to tell you, the internet didn’t bring that to anyone, and that’s only for fools that believe that. Just because the Daily Mail talks about who Wayne Rooney fucked doesn’t make you a star just because they print it, that reflects the taste of people...like pigs that eat slop. It doesn’t mean anything. In fact, the more they print about stuff, it just lowers the bar so low that you should feel good about yourself if you're doing anything you enjoy, because you’re doing more than all the people just reading about other people losers fucking and what car they smashed. But, check this out, right on. Get him, he’s pissed! So, I can’t remember what the question was.

It was the internet.
The internet! Instead of making BandCamps alone, if you were to...I make these tunes with my mates - whatever they are, you can define how you want - me and my mates make videos to them, you can check out that. And we play down at the pub. So you’re doing all these different things instead of like “listen to my record on my BandCamp,” I’ll just put that with the rest of my one million unanswered emails. So do everything that can occur to you, do it just for the joy of doing it. That’s something, then you can at least look anybody in the eye on planet earth, whether it be the NME or your mom and you can say “I’m doing all kinds of stuff, mom.”

Are you looking forward to getting back out on the road or would you prefer to just sit in Berlin and make music?
I want to do...what a fucking hypocrite, right, I’m talking about pestering Johnny Marr on Facebook like the young ones, I want to pester Simon Pegg into making a decent movie and me getting all my mates that I know and making an insane soundtrack that will define our technological generation. A skill level. Drag everyone into it. Tweak it, remix it, do just mad stuff, so when you’re sitting in the theatre and the movie is already compelling, then it wouldn’t even matter...

Hollywood’s not in the movie business, their in a billion dollar of anything business. They don’t give a rat’s ass about quality, the best idea they can is going to rip off Guy Ritchie or whoever. Anybody who’s got an idea or formula. That’s the best you’re going to get, ripping off somebody else. Could you imagine a compelling film? Like it was cool watching ‘Trainspotting’ when they kick in the Iggy song and all that shit, it’s genius. Could you imagine something you’d never heard before that kicks your ass even further into gear? Fuck, this is our time, thank you. So, that’s what I want to be a part of as a mature.. I don’t have any reasons to be a teenager, like that’s not what it’s about. Who’d want to be a fucking teenager, Jessie J’s a fucking muppet. Fuck it. I want to make dope shit!

- - -

'Aufheben' is out now.

The Brian Jonestown Massacre have also lined up a few British shows, dates are as follows:

July
6 Scotland T In The Park
7 London Shepherds Bush Empire
8 Manchester Ritz
9 Birmingham Academy 2

Click here to buy tickets for The Brian Jonestown Massacre!

In terms of British music, Nottingham is very much a forgotten city.

The area has always had a thriving scene, but somehow this has escaped the attention of the watching world. Thankfully, the success of Late Of The Pier, Swimming and more has helped alter perceptions.

Returning this summer Dot To Dot is an ambitious tri-city event, spanning dozens of venues and countless new groups. Fresh faced indie songsmiths Dog Is Dead are amongst them, with organisers handing them the chance to enjoy a no doubt emotional hometown show.

Ahead of their set, ClashMusic tracked down Dog Is Dead to get a brief guide to Nottingham, it's music scene and more...

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Trev
I have been going to see live music in Nottingham since the tender age of 14. I remember my first gig; I went to see the Kings of Leon at the Nottingham Ice Arena. It was their Aha Shake Heartbreak tour and it was incredible; though now you won’t see a band at that stage of their careers play the arena unless it's The Wanted or something. After I got my first taste of live music, I ventured out into some of Nottingham's smaller venues if I could. A lot of shows were 18+ but luckily for me it was around the time of the rise of All Age gigs. I soon discovered some of Nottingham’s incredible venues like Rock City, Rescue Rooms, The Chameleon and The Bodega. From watching big acts like Metronomy and Hot Chip at Rock City to various math rock bands at the Chameleon, I had the privilege of growing up in Nottingham as a fan of live music.

When we started Dog is Dead (2007) we used to put on our own shows in tiny venues and fill them up with under age sixth formers who couldn’t buy booze. We were fortunate that there were venues that would even let us play - even if some of these venues doubled up as Robin Hood exhibition centers or workingmen’s clubs. As we progressed we found that Nottingham was a great city to bag local support slots with the amount of touring bands coming to Nottingham. We got the chance to play with bands we were into and learnt a lot.

Daniel Harvey
I’ve had a much different experience of Nottingham to the other guys – I didn’t grow up here. Growing up in the countryside, I found it almost impossible to find good live music without travelling an hour to the nearest cities like Leeds and Sheffield. So when I moved to Nottingham (about a year ago when I joined Dog is Dead) I didn’t know what to expect from the music scene and nightlife.

Nottingham seems to be a hub for a great mix of incredible local talent and touring bands. Pretty much every day of the week there’s a gig I want to go to – although we don’t really get the time to see many at the moment. Traditionally Nottingham hasn’t had that much commercial success and I think the hardest thing for any local band is breaking out of the city. There’s a lot of support here for local music and the rest of the world is finally starting to take notice. Five Notts artists got signed to major labels last year! There are still loads of opportunities for new artists to get good shows too. There are competitions to play the two big festivals in Nottingham: Splendour and Dot to Dot. I think Dog is Dead were very lucky to start off here and it meant a lot to us getting the chance to headline one of the best venues in the UK, Rock City.

- - -

Dot To Dot runs between June 2nd - 4th.

“Considering Labi Siffre has had at least a couple of Number Ones, directly or indirectly, he’s maybe not an obvious choice as an outsider.

From being sampled by Eminem for ‘My Name Is’ to the Madness cover of his song ‘It Must Be Love’, his fingerprints have been on popular music for many decades now. In typically modern fashion though, his actual voice is rarely heard.

We may inadvertently know about what restaurant Rihanna is eating in tonight via Twitter, but we probably can’t note one important thing about Labi Siffre - one of the most important British musicians of the last fifty years.

You might be able to say he wrote ‘Something Inside So Strong’ which topped the charts in the late-’80s, or even spot him sampled on a recent Kanye West album, but the UK record industry has done a pretty good job of pretending he doesn’t exist. Which is a travesty.

I can’t name a single musician in this country that has so perfectly mastered the craft of songwriting as Labi Siffre. I’d go further and say nobody comes close. He takes suspiciously simple sounding chords and strings them together in ways that still surprise me years later.

One of the most intense concerts I ever went to was on his ‘Last Songs’ tour. Just him and an acoustic guitar. Stripped of all music’s usual excesses, these songs with their uncomfortably direct lyrics skewered me to my chair with their emotional, visceral, elegant, bespoke punch. Here was his world in all its bare glory, burnishing brighter than any golden coat of arms or regimental cuff links.

You can see why a music industry, so enamoured with surfaces, would scurry from this intensity; it just structurally can’t cope with such authentic, genuine, justified rage or political potency.

In this system, the money always comes first. It’s a colossal betrayal, because if a gay black man can’t even feel safe or at home in a supposedly creative, liberal environment like the music business, then where can he?

He was, of course, dropped for being gay and having the temerity to talk about it in public. It makes the irony that little bit more delicious - that he’s such an accomplished musician and songwriter that it’s impossible for his music (and thus politics and sexuality) not to creep in to our world again and again.

We should treat him as an elder, a guru, an authority. Instead he’s an outsider.”

Read more Circles Of Influence features from Andrew Weatherall, Micachu and Gravenhurst.

Damn you writer’s block, stifling any attempt at a memorable introduction to get things under way. Another piece of paper screwed up and headed towards the bin...what’s that though...Grand Slam grunter Serena Williams has released a hip-hop track? And subsequently has shown true rapper heritage by getting annoyed at having it leaked online? You couldn’t make it up, and that, ladies and gentleman, is this month’s introduction written. Keep on with those volleys and chop-shots Serena.

Wanna watch a mid 80s hip-hop documentary overseen by an impossibly-named, Dutch Jarvis Cocker-lookalike? Of course you do. All jokes aside, Bram van Splunteren’s ‘Big Fun in the Big Town’ has been stumbled upon having been presumed AWOL for decades, and brought back to the masses with some fantastic Q&A footage of LL Cool J, Schooly D, Russell Simmons and Run DMC. Getting the absolute feel of hip-hop preparing to take over the world while still breeding from a crack-gripped concrete jungle and with a nice nascent naivety to it as well (the hopefuls freestyling outside of the Def Jam offices, just on the off chance), it’s essential viewing for nostalgics or those with just time to kill.

Now with extra dubstep tear-ups involving True Tiger, Sukh Knight, Bok Bok and Rack n Ruin, and Baobinga and Zed Bias bringing jump-up bass, Riz MC’s ‘MICroscope’ nips back into a deluxe format and stays provocative. Still showing there’s room for the funkiest of funk breaks to get the job done (that means it’s ‘Apache’ time), the reliable and widely respected pro Marc Mac follows ‘Dirty Old Hip-Hop’ with ‘Hipology’, his Visioneers project a head-smoothing masterclass with added jazz suaveness and lazy day beats and rhymes. Jehst jumps on Seb Roachford’s ‘Seven Nine Zulu’, a grim banger with a tribal remix posing the ominous threat of wearing “the Elmer Fudd hat, cooking rabbit stew”, and Just P’s ‘Just Call Me P’ is 60 minutes of free show-n-prove and unceremonious life lessons in a cloudy gravel of North London discontent.

Punchline king and former Megahertz/Eastern Conference battler Copywrite is back. Though the amount of hook-ups throughout ‘God Save the King’ is like he’s only discovered Instant Messenger until recently - Royce da 5’9” Killah Priest, Evidence are for the Stars and Stripes, Iron Braydz, Genesis Elijah, Melanin 9, Akala and Jaguar Skillz are on the UK end of the collect call – it packs more punch than a suitcase full of seaside puppets, if done as a patchwork-network. Copy torches all and sundry as soon as the mic’s switched on but with presence of mind to keep his open, and covering Dire Straits’ ‘Money for Nothing’ doesn’t bring the horrific reaction you’re expecting.

Rumour is Raekwon and Nas are planning a double-up that could well make heads explode if it ever sees light of day, but with nothing in concrete for now, enjoy the Chef’s teaming with LEP Bogus Boys for a coke cookery show instead. Never forget that Wu-Tang is for the children, and Young Dirty Bastard is doing his best to show that the apple doesn’t fall from the tree. The supreme title of ‘Women Are the New Dogs’ is not the latest Jeremy Kyle special, but Saigon’s case for gender equality. Talib Kweli and Res are Idle Warship, doing a hip-hop-soul-pop thing with this vid directed by RA the Rugged Man – surprises all round then.

LA’s Radioactive embarks on a cultural criss-cross with ‘The Akashic Record’, a bubbly excursion with the bumpiness of a camper van hitting desert speed bumps, topped up with a doo-wop diss record coming straight out the playground. Seattle’s social media favourite Grieves, the assured rhymer putting fingers to lips, is one of the Rhymesayers breed handling themselves with dignity and confidence while covering a cracked, complex soul. Slug and Ant fans should probably find space on their playlist for ‘Together/Apart’. Rhymesayers also have Brother Ali prepping a new full-length – get a heads-up here, while over in the D, House Shoes’ ‘The Time’ EP is eight tracks of Detroit kick-backs and dusty drum beatings in the area’s best traditions, ahead of LP ‘Let It Go’.

Mouse-clickers and joint rollers, you may think all your munchies attacks have come at once; the LRG-sponsored ‘4:20 The Classics’ has Statik Selektah spinning an hour’s worth of THC treats, lit up by Luniz, Jay-Z, Red & Meth, Cypress Hill, Pharcyde and stacks more Mary Jane puff-puff-passers. Rubbish concept, great mix. Showbiz and AG, with DJ Premier in tow, fire off ‘Mugshot Music: Preloaded’, a freebie before the album main event and a creditable set from the DITC veterans getting by with plenty of strong armed tactics not exactly playing poster boys for the grown man movement, with a well done twist on the whole history of hip-hop thing on ‘The Bond’. Just time as well to mention Roach Gigz’ piping hot mixtape giveaway ‘Hot Air Balloons and Cinnamon Sticks', and Sixo’s woozily tidy left-fielder ‘Free Floating Rationales’.

Finally, the death of Beastie Boys’ Adam ‘MCA’ Yauch was met with a slew of deserving musical tributes, many of which you can YouTube, from Coldplay to Jay-Z. Just prior, the trio were inducted to the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, with a commemorative Mick Boogie ‘Grand Royal’ mixtape showing MCA at the apex of his artistry. Hunt it down post haste.

Words by Matt Oliver

Taking an industrial sized canister of Mr Sheen to what sounds like an infinite bank of synths means Greg Feldwick is now sailing on the impossibly lustrous dreamboat of electro/rave, having done the dirty work of glitch and bass pulled from pillar to post. After a graduation from no less imprints than Donky Pitch, Planet Mu and Ramp, and after four EPs for new employers Ninja Tune (including one cheeky Busta Rhymes bootleg), his debut album ‘Time Team’ (yes yes, all those at the back making remarks about Channel 4 and Baldrick, please stop) looks backwards as much as it goes forwards. Yet it’s completely perfect for ‘now’, entering that fast-expanding category of bass music where bottom ends found themselves secondary. While there’s the odd revisit to crunches past (‘Moonbeam Rider’), the vapour emissions and stereoscopic headswims perform an enthralling hyper-jitterbug.

As Slugabed tells Clash, his spring clean is not a matter of latching onto fads or trends, but more ‘Time Team’ catching him in a particular mood, while he goes on to discuss the enjoyment of working in solitude, time management and...er...sinus issues.

- - -

For someone who may have been sleeping, you’ve switched from the pretty grotty sounds of ‘Donky Stomp’ to a cleaner, more luminous style; fair comment?
“I think for the album I wanted to do something more heartfelt, a bit more...if it was an LP of all intense stuff like that it might get a bit trying on the ears. I’ve become more comfortable in wanting to create slightly more atmospheric music. I think it’s definitely fair comment to say that...maybe I’ve toned it down a bit, not in the sense of creativity or anything like that, just a bit less trying to put out the most intense shit I can.”

The balance between ‘dirty’ and ‘clean’ sounds – is one easier to make than the other?
“It’s not something I really think about, it’s more like what mood you’re in when you write the music, just what you’re feeling at the time. For the album it wasn’t like I made a real conscious effort to make slightly more uplifting kind of music, it was just...I was feeling nice feelings and was excited about making the album.”

So you didn’t become a daydreamer before executing ideas? ‘Time Team’ sounds like a computerised fantasy...
“It wasn’t like I had to, it was just where I was at the time I was writing it. I guess it’s a kinda honest reflection of how I was feeling and the vibe I was on when I was doing it.”

Are you able to put a percentage on what’s futuristic and what’s retro on the album? Or is the scene as such that you can’t tell whether it’s nostalgic or visionary?
“That’s a tough one actually...listening back to the album I’d like to say it’s 100% new. There are definitely big elements of drawing from the past...er...I’m struggling with that one (laughs).”

It sounds like walls and walls of synthesisers were used - what’s your average studio set up like? Full to the rafters, or a more moderate collection of tried and tested gear? Vintage computers maybe, given the 8-bit sound you’ve become associated with?
“The actual studio is mostly just using Fruity Loops with some shit speakers. I’ve got a lot of software synths, so I got back to them every time, real kind of funk synths that have served me well.”

Is that the beauty of technology today, you can create a mass of layered sound from very little set up?
“I never strive to get the newest gadgets or shit like that, I’m more interested in writing actual music. It’s not about coming up with something clever. I’m a big fan of analogue synthesisers, and I’d love to have more, but I’m not really elitist about it.”

Regardless of being synth-laden, you still get the association with all things bass – how’s your hearing from all those low-end tremors?
“I have waxing more than hearing troubles to be honest. With my sinuses I lose my sense of smell every couple of days and my hearing goes now and then. But not much noise damage yet!”

Did the fact that this is your debut album play on your mind at all? Did you feel any extra pressure during its conception?
“Its extra pressure, but it’s nice though. It’s a bigger project that you can throw more of yourself into. It’s a lot more rewarding in the long run. There was a point about half way through where I thought “right I need to actually knuckle down and make this coherent, something worth putting out as a long player”, and I feel it paid off. This is the most exciting thing for me so far in my career – the music I’m most pleased with so far, and I think it’s because of the pressure wanting to make such a solid piece, that pushed me to make music I feel so strongly about.”

Did you adopt the same approach for this album as you would any other production?
“With a lot of singles, sometimes you just wanna hit people instantly - you wanna make a banger or something a bit weirder than the next thing y’know? For an album, it’s not a different process technically, it’s a different process mentally. You know you’re putting out this body of work - it’s one big project, and not just a collection of songs. When you know that...I can put some tracks in there that I wouldn’t necessarily release as a single because they wouldn’t make sense out of the context of the album. That’s the main difference.”

What did you learn along the way, and what obstacles were you faced with?
“The main lesson was how long it took to come up with a final product that I was really pleased with. Along the way, maybe even a year before I actually finished it, there were points where I thought “hey I’ve got an album, I really like it”, and then someone would say “hmm, it’s not quite right”. I’d be pissed off for a couple of weeks and then I’d think actually they’re right, then begin to rework it. Especially for my debut album, there was a lot of revisiting and thinking about how I could make it a real nice solid piece.”

Are you someone who can produce wherever you go, or does the studio door have to stay locked for days/weeks on end?
“The last few years I’ve been doing it on a much more scheduled kind of basis; I live with my girlfriend who lives by a schedule, so I get into the studio when she’s studying at uni. I get creative as soon as I’m in the studio, like I’m flipping a switch or something I guess. If it’s going places I can’t really stop, I’ll go right into the night. But usually I try to stick to a 9-5.”

Will ‘Time Team’ give you much live scope? There sounds like a natural visual connection is waiting to happen...
“I’m doing the live set here and there at the moment, playing keys etc...I’d be very interested in turning it into an audio-visual thing eventually, but it’s quite a big task I think. Quite daunting, because I’ve never done anything like that before. I’ve always just DJ’d before that.”

So breaking out of the studio holds no fears for you then?
“I do like it – it’s very different. I do think I’m more a studio-based kind of person though. With the live set it’s something I have to work out thoroughly at home before I go out and do it. I really like getting stuck in and lost in my own creativity, being thorough and being on my own doing it.”

Has the step up to Ninja Tune been everything you expected, more daunting than anticipated, or an unexpectedly easier transition to make?
“It’s been great actually. I’d recommend it! They all seem to be really ‘on it’, really enthusiastic, they’re always there when you need them. They’ve a lot of good advice as well. Most people working there have been there for a long time, the label’s been around for 20 years, so they’ve got a lot of experience. It’s actually better than I thought it would be.”

So you’ve a debut album, on a long-celebrated imprint – do you enjoy the stuff that comes with it, like having to do interviews like this?
“It’s something that I almost enjoy (laughs). I do like talking about my music and I’ve become more comfortable doing so. Recently I’ve had a lot of interviews, and I’ve got more used to it and enjoy being able to say how I actually feel about things. At first you’re so nervous and conscious about what you’re saying that you don’t actually get it out right; so it was always a kind of an awkward situation. I’m getting to a place where I’m alright with it, it’s the not exciting part of the process, but it’s cool.”

Onto some ‘Time’ and ‘Team’ questions now – is now the best time to be Slugabed?
“It’s really working out for me. I feel really excited that I’ve accomplished this album. It’s a really nice place for me for sure.”

Tying in with the fantasist idea, is there a particular time in history that you’d like to visit, and for what reason?
“In music, it’d be nice to be around and in the right sort of scene when B-bop was starting, when it was blowing people’s minds and upsetting some people. I think I’d be into that. Otherwise, the Iron Ages, or something real rugged like that.”

Are you an individual to the point where you dislike working in a team, or does being part of a crew appeal to you?
“I do feel more comfortable working completely on my own. I like collaborating in the sense where I’m sent ideas but get to focus on them on my own. I sometimes struggle a bit sitting down with someone else in the room, trying to bounce ideas off them. I’m kind of a perfectionist where I think I’m always right (laughs). I’m very open to the idea though, I wouldn’t want to turn down any good opportunities.”

Do you look ahead in time, and if so, has the next album entered your thoughts yet?
“I’m thinking about it, definitely. I haven’t started work on it, but I’m always thinking about my next project, though just thinking about the next one or two tracks - no major schemes. There’s always something ticking away in my head.”

What’s your timekeeping like?
“I’ve got better (laughs). It’s partly where the name comes from – laziness, and bad organisation. I’m not as bad as I used to be (laughs).”

Words by Matt Oliver
Photo Credit: Trevor Traynor

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'Time Team' is out now.

“In terms of digestible nuggets of Harry Partch recommendations to listen to, I’d say the ‘Eleven Intrusions’ are a good introduction.

My dad recommended it to me while we were out record shopping. I thought it was fucking weird. I literally hadn’t heard anything like it before and I think that’s what was so striking. It sounded completely cosmic and exotic. On the cover was this bearded old man, but I put it on and found this rich exotic sound.

Harry Partch was just really before his time in a lot of ways. He’s interesting to me because he swayed between two different worlds: the first one being very free. So he spent a lot of time in the (great) depression as a hobo, and that partly was because he was gay and it was more of a liberal kind of society. He was constantly wrestling with wanting to be accepted by that world at the same time as disagreeing with most of how it worked.

He put out his own music; that must have been in the ’40s and ’50s. He thought performances should look physical. In terms of classical music he really did want to change things and just had the simple logic of if you want to make music, you might as well make the instruments with which to write your music on. It’s another way of giving yourself your own sound, which loads of people do now.

He did a lot of work around micro tonality. Audibly, he found forty-three pitches within one set of twelve notes on the piano, and then he spread it across an organ. He basically adapted some instruments - the guitar, the viola - to fit this new tonality he’d organized, and he demanded physicality - they’re built in mind of performance. So first of all, they look brilliant, and second of all, some of them are built for performance. Like the ‘Cloud-Chamber Bowls’ are hanging and they’re spread quite far away from each other so that when a person plays it they have to move around and it’s quite physical and looks exciting and sounds exciting.

He had really cool names for his instruments as well. He had instruments called ‘The Cry’ and ‘Bloboy’. ‘The Cry’ is a tall thing you can bend; I guess it sounded like a cry. ‘Bloboy’ is basically built out of bellows; it sounds like a steam engine. ‘The Boo’ is a series of six bamboo cut to different lengths to fit the different intonation. He’s got the ‘Mazda Marimba’, which is made out of Mazda light-bulbs. He’s got a ‘Spoils Of War’, which is lots of inert bombshells and bits and bobs.

I think part of him going fruit picking, harvesting and riding the trains was because he was interested in what people had to say and wasn’t so interested in high society and literature and media and any of that stuff. He had a freedom there. He did a lot of handy work for money and places to stay, which therefore built up his carpentry skills, which enabled him to make these instruments. As much as it was a difficult time, that’s where he collected a lot of his skills, lyrics and philosophy.

Also, he doesn’t quite fit into classical music and it also doesn’t quite fit into pop or rock or folk music either. He’s really in his own world.”

Read more Circles Of Influence features from Andrew Weatherall, Mathew Herbert and Gravenhurst.

It’s often difficult to splice apart your senses, to distinguish – say – the smell of lemonade from its taste. Go on, just think about it – the two are intertwined, the fizz sparkling on your tongue and searing your nose.

So when we say that My Best Fiend’s debut album ‘In Ghostlike Fading’ has a visual quality, that their music simply suggests something for the eyes, this isn’t an observation we come to lightly. Named after a Werner Herzog film, the New York group boast a background in visual arts which has deeply influenced the way they approach making music. “There are many non-musical influences on the album – everything from visual arts, I work in an art gallery in New York. My background is in fine arts. I’ve had lots of inspiration from everything. Even artwork. Artists like Turner, or Whistler.. we use them as touching points” muses Fred Coldwell.

At one point studying sculpture, Coldwell is now focussing full time on music and gallery work. “I’ve kind of gotten away from making artwork now, just through not having the time. I’m focussing on music right now. Like everything else, I’m sure it will raise its head somewhere later in life” he sighs. “It’s really fun to talk about all these influences.. At the time of writing these songs I was reading a lot of Proust. Not that I would even dare make a correlation there! It does influence you. You make your way into the album in different ways”.

Almost from its title to the final note, ‘In Ghostlike Fading’ is an album informed by a sense of the spiritual. Tracks such as ‘Jesus Christ’ pay explicit homage to religious imagery, something Fred Coldwell absorbed from a young age. “I was raised Catholic, I went to Catholic school. Damian – the bass player – and I grew up in Catholic school together” he says. “A lot my take on it comes from my mum on particular, she was a nun for ten years before she became kind of disillusioned with the more organised aspects of the church and left. Then met my father.. She raised us up in the Catholic school system and the church, so that’s where I was introduced to music, at an early age was singing and learning how to play guitar”.

This isn’t to say, however, that My Best Fiend are a Christian group. The twin themes of sin and redemption that run through their debut album smother rock music, appearing in work from The Rolling Stones to Spiritualized and beyond. “I believe a lot of music is just intrinsically spiritual. Whether or not it’s in a direct context of what you call ‘worship music’ – I actually really like that term – you go to Baptist church.. I frequent Baptist churches in New York, in Harlem and Brooklyn, pretty regularly just to get that music, that spirit. There’s a true energy in the air. In our world, which is a much more secular world, we use that imagery in a different way, which is something I’m much more comfortable with. It’s something I think about. I guess talking about faith isn’t really a particularly hip thing to do these days, but you can’t really concern yourself with that” he says, before adding: “There are probably more Jesus references on ‘Exile On Main Street’ than there are on ‘In Ghostlike Fading’”.

At times redolent of Spiritualized, My Best Fiend’s narcotics soaked take on rock’s legacy is a Trans-Atlantic journey. Sure, there are plenty of nods towards the noise excess of the shoegaze scene – Swervedriver are a neat counterpoint – but ‘In Ghostlike Fading’ is still an album that feels American. “It’s funny. A lot of the bands that we get compared to, or say we are influenced from, have a decidedly English feel” the singer explains. “That may be true to an extent but I’m really proud of the fact that we’re making American music. It may be our take on something which has its roots in English towns but there’s always something of a cross-current there, musically and I think that’s something to be celebrated”.

But defining ‘American’ as a musical quantity proves to be as enduringly frustrating as ever. “It’s more of an internal honesty. It’s knowing that at the end of the day the music we’re making comes from inside, it comes from a culture that we understand. I think at the root of this music it has the whole cosmic American music feel – Gram Parsons is a big influence”.

‘In Ghostlike Fading’ is dominated by a lack of certainty, but a sense of doubt that manifests itself in various ways across the album. “The lack of certainty is present.. I don’t know I just feel more comfortable trying to explore these things without any answers. When it comes to matters of faith, my beliefs are very conflicted” he explains. “I don’t really trust people who claim to have answers. I’m endeared to people who have more questions. That lack of a finite destination is something to strive for. Even in that transience, a lot of the songs were coming from a place in my life which may have been a bit darker personally. Some were written in the wake of friend’s passing and I think those ghosts, and spirits of those no longer with us have made their way onto the album and that’s something I’m very proud of. I’ve always been uncomfortable with the fact that you’ll maybe talk about them for a month after they’re gone and then they rarely come up again. You shy away from using their name or even talking about their memory – it’s not a way to respect life, y’know?”

But art is a wonderful repository for memory, Clash suggests, it soaks up life and preserves it - in an emotional sense, if nothing else. “That’s true. Proust is an influence, more through that influence of habit on memory, the numbing effect that habits can have on memory” he continues. “Habits are such an artificial imposition into your life, they really take away from a lot of the beauty. Those habits – drug use, obviously there’s a narcotic vibe to the album and that’s got a lot to do with struggling with drug use, getting rid of those demons. They’re replaced by other things constantly”.

“I’m not necessarily condemning those things – everyone has a routine and you need it, really, to function. It’ll find its way into the most exciting life. Even being on tour, we’ve been on the road for three weeks now and there are certain things, tropes that you fall right into” he finishes. “I mean, the tour’s been going great but I never fail to be amazed by the human capacity to put the blinders on and not see the world around them. It’s a mixed bag”.

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'In Ghostlike Fading' is out now.

Ah, the humble single.

Even after the Beat boom, punk, Acid House and countless other revolutions the single still stands as the staple currency of pop music. It's cheap, cheerful and - especially in the days of the instant download - manageable.

Each week ClashMusic runs a singles review column, rating and slating the platters which come across our desk. This time round, we thought we'd hand the responsibilities over to Saint Etienne.

Legendary music-philes, the trio's output is marked by an astonishing degree of pop literacy. New album 'Words and Music by Saint Etienne' is out now, so we pieced together a list of the week's singles in celebration.

Here are their thoughts...

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The Black Keys - Dead And Gone
I loved the Black Keys 'Thickfreakness' album back in 2003 but the new record is a real departure in sound for them. It's good to see rock bands like The Black Keys and My Morning Jacket getting more adventurous - taking chances. This has an almost spaghetti western feel - great vocals from Dan Auerbach too!

The Black Keys - Dead And Gone

- - -

Spector - Celestine
The Killers have a lot to answer for! Corporate indie rock with zero originality. This is a real yawnfest and not for me. Sorry chaps! Next!

Words by Sarah Cracknell

Of Monsters And Men - Dirty Paws
This starts out like Icelands answer to Trevor Moss and Hanna Lou but soon heads off into quiet/loud territory. It's folk and rock in equal measures and ultimately leaves me cold, cold cold.

Mac Miller - Loud
Starts with some promising spooky synthery, then some dodgy woops and "ladies and gentlemen this is Narcadelic" sets us on an Ebeneezer Goode style downward spiral.
The brainless chorus "I like my music real loud, real loud, can you turn that shit up for me right now, right now" has a kind of charm though.

Deaf Havana - Little White Lies
"The 10 people who don't like Deaf Havana are deaf" proclaims a YouTube fan of the band. Although I suspect 10 might be an underestimate, I am one of their number (although I prefer
to be referred to as def *arf arf*).

alt J - Breezeblocks
My internal jury is out on this one.. for the defence: very catchy, the use of the word Germolene in the lyrics, adam and the antsesque section. For the prosecution: arch-art school kookery, the spectre of the Fratellis, overly raised eyebrow.

alt-J - Breezeblocks

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Words by Pete Wiggs

Mayer Hawthorne - The Walk
Not the Jimmy McCracklin song of the same title (it's not as good). Or The Cure's (it's better). And I'm really not sure about swearing in the opening couplet - you have to be Amy Winehouse or GG Allin to get away with that, and Mayer is much closer to Curtis Mayfield which doesn't seem right at all. I LOVED his I Wish It Would Rain a while back - this is melodic enough, he's got a good knack for hooks, but this time he doesn't climb that extra rung beyond pastiche.

Paul Weller - When Your Garden's Overgrown
Starlite was possibly my favourite single of 2011, Balearic heat-haze pop, and I hope some of its magic rubbed off on our new album. This has nice squelchy synths, a good line about the "brush strokes of age", and it's chunky all right. Possibly it's a bit more conventional than I was hoping for... I wonder which "Bobby" he's singing about?

When Your Garden's Overgrown

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School Of Seven Bells - The Night
Breathy, slightly posh femme vocals, which are very much up my street. This comes over like a buffed up mix of Lush and Black Tambourine. Snazzy enough, but while I was sitting here waiting for the chorus, the middle eight turned up out of the blue! What's that all about then?

Words by Bob Stanley

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'Words and Music by Saint Etienne' is out now.

Just for good measure, so is Saint Etienne's new single 'I've Got Your Music' - which they didn't review. Sadly.

Music flits in and out of our lives at its own enchanted leisure. Sometimes these rhythmic discs bring other thoughts or open doors we’ve never seen before .

We asked four artists who are true explorers of sound, Andrew Weatherall, Micachu, Matthew Herbert and Gravenhurst, to bring a significant album out on the street and unleash some noise around why exactly it is in their life, and what it means to them.

Andrew Weatherall on G.G. Allin

“I once had the pleasure of interviewing a founder member of a Detroit-based militant electronic music collective and asked him a question that I thought he might answer in a way that would help me with an artistic struggle I’d been having since hearing the phrase ‘sell-out’ at the age of fourteen during the punk rock wars of 1977.

“As you get older and possibly have to burden financial responsibilities such as a family,” I asked, “does it become harder to maintain outsider credentials and anti-commercial principles and pragmatism begins to take hold?”

He listened politely and pondered for a minute or two and answered: “Everything I do comes from God.”

I once had the pleasure of interviewing all the members of a Hackney-based militant industrial music pioneers and asked them a question that would help me with an artistic struggle I’d been having since being offered money from corporate interests wanting to use my music as product flogging background noise.

“Do you think that using the money from commercial projects to further un-commercial projects is acceptable?” I asked.

They listened politely, pondering for all of two seconds, before one of them replied: “Absolutely not. The art created with that money will be tainted.”

I never had the pleasure of interviewing pioneering Vietnamese video artist Nam June Paik, but apparently when asked a question in a similar vein to those above, he answered: “An artist should always bite the hand that feeds...but not too hard.” (Warning: You will be reading this quote again in any interviews I give to promote my forthcoming triple CD mix on Ministry Of Sound.)

Occasionally I still have to ponder the ‘selling-out/buying in’ conundrum and always wish I had the balls displayed (sometimes literally) by the subjects of the following: Simon Ford’s book Wreckers Of Civilization: The Story Of Coum Transmissions And Throbbing Gristle, and Todd Phillips’ film Hated: G.G.Allin And The Murder Junkies.

It is to the latter that I respectfully draw your attention to today. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, please stand well back as I introduce Mr G.G. Allin.

Recording and touring between prison sentences, G.G. was first committed to vinyl in 1979 with a single on Orange Records called
‘Bored To Death’ and an album on the same label entitled ‘Always Was, Is And Always Shall Be’.

Although an exuberant and high physical front man in the Iggy mould at the time of these releases, as time passed the crowd started to expect G.G. to go one step further, and on-stage antics that Mr. Osterberg had pioneered (and long since abandoned) featuring peanut butter and razor blades were being acted out with excrement and switch blades. I hesitate to use the word ‘recommend’ in relation to Mr. Allin’s work, but as far as vinyl is concerned I could point you in the direction of, and I quote, ‘Needle Up My Cock’ by G.G. Allin and The Texas Nazi’s or ‘My Bloody Mutilation’ by G.G. Allin and the Aids Brigade.

However, rather than just an oral introduction (sometimes via recordings than go beyond lo-fi) I would suggest the full visual assault delivered by Hatred, an on-the-road-documentary of the G.G. Allin train building up a monumental last head of steam before crashing on June 27th 1983 after a gig in Manhattan the night before.

G.G. Allin doesn’t so much bite the hand that feeds him rather than rip it off at the wrist and force it back into his victim’s mouth. G.G. Allin is outsider art by dint of its creator’s impotent rage and blood-lured vision in the face of humanity…or was he just a bitter junkie who sold out at a far cheaper price than those he derided?

Maybe I’ll put it to someone in a future interview or get that nice Mr. Achora to put it to a dead Vietnamese video artist…”
 
Read more Circles Of Influence features from Micachu, Mathew Herbert and Gravenhurst.

The Diamond Jubilee is fast approaching. Street parties and unnecessary but much appreciated days off will sweep the country in a haze of drunken national pride. With Australia’s long history of being a colony of the UK, who better to show us a guide to partying than thrash rock duo DZ Deathrays, who have signed up to play an exclusive gig on the 3rd June at Sailor Jerry’s Hotel Street venue on Charing Cross Road.

Hailing from Brisbane, Simon Ridley and Shane Parsons grew up playing gigs at peoples houses, trying to burst through their chaotic songs while holding back the chunky vomit. So let lead singer and guitarist Shane Parsons plan your extra long messy weekend - happy anti-Jubilee everybody!

Where To Host Your Party
I’d have to say a warehouse. They’re really good because people bring their own drinks so it’s kind of like their drunken destiny is in their own hands. It’s not like they can run out of money. But a house party is pretty good as well, as long as the neighbors aren’t total pricks and shut it down.

Who To Put On The Guestlist
Probably not family...probably just an open house. After parties are always good, especially when people want to kick on after a gig when they’re already hyped up; want to get out and so something to wind out the night out until the early morning. So, maybe just people from a show and have an after party would be cool.

What Music To Play
I’d play rock music then slowly get it into more dancey stuff. Not too much of one thing...not too much dubstep. Maybe some Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and some Black Sabbath and ‘Zeppelin.

What Live Band To Put On
The dream would be Andrew WK. Who would you put on at a party?
Simon: Ohhh, there’s this band we saw in Japan once called King Brothers, they were like a heavy blues band. I reckon they’d put on a freaking amazing house party. So I’d use those guys and Andrew WK!

What Drinking Games To Play
Best drinking game we’ve been playing recently is rock, paper, scissors. Say there’s five people in a circle, it goes round in one rotation, so if that one person beats the first person that person has to drink one drink, then they go against the second person, and if they beat the second person, the second person has to drink two drinks, but if they lose then the original guy has to drink two drinks. It’s kind of the ultimate way to get fucked up. Even if you’re winning you end up losing somehow, because you have to lose at some point and you’ll end up having five drinks.

Me and Si did a drinking game once - we put on the first album by The Bronx and we tried to finish a beer within each song, but some of those songs are in 2:20 or less, and once you get to about track five or six it gets pretty brutal.

What Decorations To Have
"It would be cool to have some inflatable toys or a piñata or something. Something that people can smash, because people always wanna break shit when they’re wasted. So if you can give them something to break rather than your own stuff that helps.”

What Food To Have...If Any
“Nachos, party pies (Australian version of pork pies), Cheerios (Australian version of tiny sausages) - get a food fight going.”

What Movies To Show
“Hot Tub Time Machine!”

How To Handle TheVomiting Situation
“You just look after that the next day. People are going to do it anyway they can. Sometimes it’s behind the couch or in a plastic bag, or on the floor or in a bathtub. Just count your losses and maybe put the dogs in there later on to eat it up.”

Lastly...Their Opinion Of The Queen
“Being from Australia I guess there’s some sort of relationship there. All I know is what my grandmother told me - and she hated the Queen. She grew up in Newcastle and she was just like: “The Queen made me stand out in the rain,” because everyone had to go out and wave to her when she was a kid. So, she said: “I don’t have anytime for the Queen any longer.”

- - -

DZ Deathrays promise to put on a memorable show at Sailor Jerry’s newly opened Hotel Street bar. Not saying that it could disestablish the monarchy or anything, but it could well happen. Come and find out.

Words by Jamie Carson

Their Library is an excuse to let musicians mouth off about a subject which might otherwise be neglected - books.

The influences which sluice into your favourite album are not merely restricted to music - literature, cinema and more help inspire and provoke new artworks.

London newcomers Zulu Winter have been causing ripples of hype over the past 12 months, and finally deigned to release their debut album 'Language' earlier this week.

Tracking down drummer Guy Henderson, we probed the musician about the literary influences which drive him forward.

- - -

What is your favourite book and why?
'The Secret History' by Donna Tartt. I read this book as a student in the 2nd year of my degree course and found it particularly poignant as at the centre of the story is a young man going through student life, making new friends and growing up. There's a sense of danger and mystery surrounding the central characters of the book that's exciting and the plot unravels very cleverly. The thing I find most incredible is the way that Donna Tartt is able to get inside the head of a young man and write in the first person of a male character so truthfully.

What other authors do you like?
Martin Amis, Mikhail Bulgakov, Charles Bukowski, Ayn Rand to name a few I've recently been enjoying.

What draws you to certain books?
With books, as with films, I most often pick up books that come as recommendations from friends… As a band we're always throwing copies of this and that at each other and it's fun when a book does the round and we can all chat about it. Right now I've just been reading a lot of classics.

Do your literary influences have a direct impact on your songwriting? Personally speaking I'd be lying if I said I'd specifically fed my literary influences into songwriting. However I do believe that the music your writing at any given time will draw influence from many different things going on in your life and that might often be a book your reading. As a band a very important part of our writing process is to share influences with each other… Obviously its mostly music that we share that influences us but equally if there's a book we've all read at the same time, or a theatre production we've all been to or an art exhibition we've all enjoyed then we might find a shared mood that comes across in the music we're working on. I also know that lyrically Will often get's strongly influenced by what he's reading.

What are you reading at the moment?
'The Plague' by Albert Camus.

What is the first book you remember reading as a child?
'The Twits' by Roald Dahl.

Did you make good use of your library card as a child / teenager?
I was very lucky to have a great Library attached to the school I was at and I did use it a lot.

How do you think literature achieves timelessness?
I believe the most important element to contribute to all timeless art is that it's honest and comes from a truthful place. Particularly with literature I think is very important that it's rooted in the human condition.

Do you read book reviews?
I rarely do.

Would you ever re-read the same book?
I've never actually completely re-read a book before but there's been a couple of occasions when I've read half or 2 of a book and then lost and come back to it from the beginning.

Have you ever identified with a character in a book? Which one and why?
I frequently identify with character's in books I read and think the best books always make you do that…

Do you read one book at a time or more than one?
I usually like to just read one book at a time although I'l quite often be reading a book of non-fiction alongside a novel.

Is there an author / poet you would like to collaborate with?
At the moment I'm very interested in collaborating with a playwright. There is a playwright/writer called Kenny Empson that I've known for a few years who I'm keen to pin down for a collaboration at some point (although he can be rather elusive). I haven't seen him for a while and I'm pretty sure he's not aware of it so if he's reading this itcould be an odd way for him to find out.

Photo Credit: Tom Oxley

- - -

'Language' is out now.

The final part of Kris Needs Fifty Outiders list for Clash magazine's Outsider issue includes such musicians as Mark Stewart, Daniel Johnston, Underground Resistance, MF Doom and more.

41. MARK STEWART

Emerging from punk’s maelstrom fronting the fearsome Pop Group, Mark Stewart charted an idiosyncratic collison course with hip-hop, funk and dub reggaes; one of the most volcanic but subversive creative minds this country has produced.

42. JEFFREY LEE PIERCE

After screaming into the Eighties with his Gun Club, Pierce blazed a kamikaze trail of incendiary gigs, epoch-making albums and hell-raising behaviour, claiming his life when he died of a brain haemorrhage in 1996.

43. PRIMAL SCREAM

Few other bands have so doggedly followed their musical passions, rock ‘n’ roll fantasies and punk principles as defiantly, and often controversially. The last gang in town who turned outsider status into a fine art.

44. ANDREW WEATHERALL

Repeatedly lauded for his Primals connections, Weatherall is that rare beast that can deliver the ultimate knockout house music DJ set, while relishing boosting Suicide rockabilly mantras in decaying East London pubs.

45. DANIEL JOHNSTON

The manic depressive schizophrenic singer-songwriter found his mental health deteriorating while recording his debut album ‘1990’ (released that year). On more of an even keel this century, feted by the likes of Tom Waits, Matt Groening and Henry Rollins.

46. UNDERGROUND RESISTANCE

During the 1990s, the most mysterious and uncompromising Detroit techno missives emanated from a deeply-underground bunker manned by ‘Mad’ Mike Banks, Jeff Mills, Robert Hood and cohorts, firing out ‘electronic battle weapons’ which subverted techno in militaristic anonymity.

47. BASIC CHANNEL

Few electronic operations carried deeper mystique in the Nineties than Berlin’s Basic Channel, launched in 1993 by Moritz Von Oswald and Mark Ernestus, releasing nine twelve-inch singles which shaped a new ultra-minimal dub techno template.

48. PETE DOHERTY

Initially appearing with Carl Barat in the 21st century’s first (potentially) great songwriting duo, Doherty’s spent the last few years ducking and diving as lone Johnny Thunders-style journeyman, playing to the faithful and teenage newcomers having their first dabble in wild side romance.

49. MF DOOM

After becoming a victim of the cut-throat rap industry as a member of K.M.D., Daniel Dumille was homeless on New York’s streets until reappearing in 1999 as the permanently masked MF Doom, based on the Marvel comics villain, introducing a new style of badder boy.

50. METAMONO

Can collaborator Jono ’Kumo’ Podmore, Paul Conboy and Mark Hill eschew sampling, overdubbing and digital polish in favour of the analogue machines which electronic music was built on, bringing back electronica‘s crusading spirit and vital edge.

Find out more about Clash Magazine's Fifty Outsiders list.

It’s an older, more mature Bethany Cosentino who greets Clash over the telephone line. Putting the stoner-girl routine to bed, the follow-up to 2010’s meteoric ally successful ‘Crazy for You’ sees her ditch the Twitter over-share and instead pour that emotion directly into her lyric book.

Influenced by her beloved California and the pressures of the road, ‘The Only Place’ takes an unflinching, unapologetic look at what’s going on. The trademark fuzz is gone, replaced with a clearer sound – courtesy of maverick producer Jon Brion, famed for his work with Kanye West and Beck. No topic is out of bounds. Self-scrutiny, selfish boyfriends and the pressure of expectation are all examined amidst instantly classic 3 minute pop songs. Put simply, it’s a record about growing-up in the limelight; being misunderstood, missing friends and being homesick.

It’s definitely a new model. Even Best Coast mascot/phantom member Snacks the Cat is in temporary hiding, replaced on the cover with a bear holding a map of California. No distractions this time. Now, it’s all about the music. Well, apart from the Urban Outfitters clothing line….

- - -

So, we’re here to talk about the new album – 'The Only Place'. How are you feeling about it?
I’m excited and I’m pretty ready for it to come out. It was really fun to record.

Best Coast songs have always been pretty emotional and honest. But on the new album, it seems especially raw. What was influencing you as you wrote these songs?
I was listening to a lot of Fleetwood Mac, and I think that the way that they tell these very personal stories in their songs inspired me – it kind of gave me the courage to just write my own very personal songs for this record.

What is 'The Only Place'?
It’s referencing California. Like, ‘the only place’ to me is California. It’s the place where I feel most comfortable and confident and happy. It’s sort of like my safe place. The record was all written in times of feeling very homesick. I’d come home from tour and I’d be home for like, two days, and I’d write a bunch of songs. But it was like, coming home to that place; coming back to that place that gave me real creativity and space to write. So I wanted to make this record about California and L.A.

You sound like you’ve changed. There’s a maturity and introspection to songs like 'Last Year' and 'How They Want Me to Be'. It’s a lot less carefree than 'Crazy For You'. How does it feel to document your growing-up process so honestly in your lyrics?
Um, I think it’s a good thing. It helps me kind of deal with what I’m feeling, what I’m going through. I view music as a form of therapy and to talk about what I’m going through makes it just….easier to deal with. For me, anyway. I don’t mind that it’s personal and that people will know what I’m experiencing. It makes the music more believable that way.

So you don’t worry about making yourself too vulnerable?
No. I mean, it happens regardless. I just kind of don’t really care. I write the music that I write because that’s the only way I know how to do that.

How did it feel to deal with the success of the previous record? Did you feel the weight of expectation for the next one?
Kind of but I tried to not let it affect me. I tried to like, do what I knew best. And that was to write music.

You recorded at Capitol Studios with Jon Brion – who’s previously worked with Kanye and Fiona Apple. What was the mood in the studio?
It was great. He’s a great guy and a friend of ours. So it was very relaxed and not tense at all. It was a blast, such fun.

Bob was his assistant for a while, right?
Uh-huh.

It’s less lo-fi – your vocals and lyrics particularly sit a lot closer to the fore. Was that a conscious thing?
Yeah. I worked really hard on my vocals for this record. I studied a lot; different vocal training techniques and listened to a lot of different female vocalists that inspired me. I drank a lot of weird ‘throat’ teas and things that I had heard would be good for my voice, because I did want my voice to be at the forefront of the record. I wanted to kind of ease that talent because I think it’s the strongest tool that I have as a musician.

Lyrics are pretty telling. 'Better Girl' speaks of a need to be kept from what is being said about you. Do you feel in a better place with whatever you were going through at that point?
Yeah. I think writing the record helped get through that point and I feel a whole lot better now.

Favourite track?
Um, I think my favourite is 'Up All Night' – which is the last song on the record. I just got to sing my hardest and my best. It’s my favourite, and I think that lyrically it’s one of the only songs that I can still remember writing it and thinking ‘I’m really proud of this song and what I’ve achieved with it.’

Looking forward to the tour? How have the new songs been received?
It’s been good. People are still learning the songs and it’s fun to see people sing along to the new songs because the record isn’t even out yet. It’s just really cool to see the way people are reacting and yeah, we’re excited to go out on tour and play new material.

Personally, you’ve designed a range for Urban Outfitters. What were your visual references for the collaboration? Is it an on-going thing?
It’s not on-going, no. It was just a spring collection. Hopefully I’ll be able to do more clothing design though because I’ve found that I really enjoy it. My main references were like, California in the 80s and 90s.Valley Girls. Things like that. Stevie Nicks was a massive influence on the way it turned out too.

And I thought a lot about the girls who come to Best Coast shows and the way that they dress. I’m always kind of noticing that girls at my shows are dressed very cute, all with their own little sense of style. So I took a lot of inspiration from them and what I thought they’d wear.

Words by Marianne Gallagher

- - -

'The Only Place' is out now.

In part four of Kris Needs Fifty Outiders list for Clash magazine's Outsider issue we look at The Residents, The Slits, Larry Levan, Arthur Russell, Throbbing Gristle and others.

31. FLAMIN’ GROOVIES

San Francisco’s Flamin’ Groovies were spitting high-energy rock ‘n’ roll with punky attitude during psychedelia then, when punk exploded, donned Beatle suits to homage the British beat boom.

32. LEGENDARY STARDUST COWBOY

Texan psychosillybilly pioneer Norman Carl Odam donated space-fixated name and out-there agenda to Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust master-plan, his cacophonous ‘Paralyzed’ single dominating World’s Worst Records lists.

33. THE RESIDENTS

For nearly forty years, a mysterious clutch of avant-artists sporting eyeball headgear have released around sixty albums on their Ralph Records.

34. THE SLITS

The Slits trampled sexual roles and musical barriers, making one of the punk era’s finest debuts in ‘Cut’, influencing future female outfits immeasurably in sound, looks and attitude.

35. LARRY LEVAN

Manic showman who revolutionised New York’s gay disco underground while blueprinting modern clubbing at New York’s Paradise Garage, bombarding his euphoric flock with dramatic effects and heart-soaring anthems. Besieged by rampant drug abuse, he died in 1992.

36. RON HARDY

If Frankie Knuckles was the face of Chicago’s 1980s house music explosion, Ron Hardy was its manic heart and soul, holding court at the hole-in-the-wall Music Box, hammering DJ Pierre’s newly-created ‘Acid Trax’ until the crowd screamed.

37. ARTHUR RUSSELL

Shy avant-disco cellist/producer Arthur Russell flew under the radar during New York’s Eighties downtown revolution until dying of AIDS in 1992. A complex, driven individual who dreamed of stardom but more obsessed with the creative process.

38. JACKIE LEVEN

Outsider troubadour who led the senses-shattering Doll By Doll out of Maida Vale’s squat-land at the height of punk, going against 1977’s grain. After the band imploded, Leven released over twenty intimately-charged albums until his recent untimely death.

39. THROBBING GRISTLE

The most dangerous, scary outfit operating in the UK during punk, Genesis P-Orridge, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Chris Carter and ‘Sleazy’ Christopherson took revolutionary sonic innovations and taboo subject matter to new levels.

40. WESLEY WILLIS

Known for strange outings like ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll McDonalds’, Willis produced hundreds of ink-pen drawings of his native Chicago. Poor while living, his drawings go for thousands since his 2003 death.

Find out more about Clash Magazine's Fifty Outsiders list.

On the 18th of May of each year, fans from all over the world make a pilgrimage to the pit of Lancashire known as Macclesfield to pay tribute to Ian Curtis. Coming up to the thirty second year since death at his own hand, the passion of fans has only become more fervent whilst the commercialisation of his death has reached its lowest ebb, sneakers, bath-towels, Disney t-shirts, his band's bass player hawking third rate cover versions, that kinda thing.

I'll take my life
Into my own hands
I'm the one that I will blame
I'm the one that understands

Sense of Purpose

On the 26th of April each year there is nothing. There are no 180 gram re-issues, no crying fans arriving from Japan, no commemorative box sets, nothing. Even a canny career move such as death, especially as shocking as suicide, has gone un-noticed but it’s what Adrian Borland would have expected. As the lead singer and guitarist of South London post-punk four piece The Sound and ten years as a solo artist he had become used to his heartfelt outpourings being looked over for artist more glamorous and photogenic. On the morning of the 26th of April 1999 after dealing with a lack of recognition and sever manic depression, he ended the many years of internal turmoil, he jumped in front of a train.

Despite almost everyone saying no when asked if they have heard The Sound, their extensive back catalogue rich with 80’s alternative gloom-rock can be heard in almost every recent band of misery guts from Interpol to Editors, O Children to White Lies. Adrian Borland as a lead singer is cut from the same mould as the barely suppressed fury of Kurt Cobain and Craig Nicholls of The Vines, watch his incandescent performance of ‘Missiles’ on YouTube and see for yourself.

Back in 2007 I was given a CD of MP3’s by a friend who had recently spent £40 on what I eventually found out was The Sound’s second album ‘From The Lion's Mouth’. I dropped the usual line of ‘yeah I’ll take a listen’ and the CD ended up in some pile or other, forgotten about. During a half arsed attempt at a bit of spring cleaning I came across the CD and decided to put it on. Taken aback by what was coming from the speakers I sat and listened properly to this band I’d never even heard of let alone heard anything by.

Light a flame in the dark
Light a flame in my heart
Light a candle to see me through these times
Hands reach for hands now
We just need each other now
Someone to hold on to in these times

New Way Of Life

The fact they are so overlooked is made even more confusing when you take a look at their contemporaries at the time, all of whom enjoyed much love; they shared a record label with Echo and The Bunnymen, they supported a young U2 and could be bunched in with Joy Division, early Simple Minds and The Chameleons. Their critical acclaim failed to translate into actual sales but they had a dedicated albeit small following in UK and achieved bigger success elsewhere in Europe while holding a healthy disdain for their attention receiving rivals The Smiths which was actually illegal at the time. Since that accidental listen to ‘From The Lion's Mouth’ I’ve become familiar with most of The Sound’s material, they easily held their own amongst the bands mentioned above, anyone who goes on to listen to their scratchy post-punk debut ‘Jeopardy’, the jagged indie pop of sophomore ‘From the lions mouth’ and personal fave ‘Heads And Hearts’ will reap the endless benefits of a back catalogue that endlessly gives and expects nothing back.

When you reach the end of your tether
It's because it wasn't strong enough,
I was going to drown,
Then I started swimming

Winning

Their status as a long lost band could be down to a number of things; who needed another alternative guitar band in the early 80’s? They didn’t have the lips of Mac, the glorious pomp of Stephen Patrick or the ultimate sacrifice of Curtis. People go on about how pop music these days is all about image rather than musical integrity but The Sound's lack of success could easily be attributed to their non-image: a lead singer carrying a few extra pounds than the ‘norm’ (and a short fuse) was not Smash Hits pull out poster material at the time.

The Sound split up in 1988 after a fifth album the year prior, Borland continued to make music while Mike Dudley, Graham Bailey and Max Mayers all retired immediately. I managed to track down one of the two surviving members of the band (Mayers died in ’93 of a HIV related illness), Mike Dudley and asked him several questions about his time in The Sound….

One of the main things about The Sound’s lack of success to me seems that you either had indie bands on indie labels or rock bands on majors, the two scenes were very much separated. The Sound were an indie band but on a major label so they weren’t taken that seriously by indie fans and treated with suspicion by rock fans, it was an incredibly snobby time for guitar scenes at the time therefore I guess you guys suffered because of it.

“That’s an interesting hypothesis and I suppose there may be something in it. My own feeling is that our lack of further success following a promising start was down to a lack of promotion from the record company, who seemed to prefer focusing their resources on Hairdo and the Funnymen".

They probably thought Mac was a safer commercial bet, what with him being prettier and all...

"To be frank, we didn’t do ourselves any favours either. We were a truculent bunch. Not the sort to meet a record company halfway over anything, really“.

These days it’s the direct opposite, there are very few indie labels left but the concept of indie is anyone with a guitar regardless of them being on 4AD or Universal, do you think you would have stood a better chance if you were active now?

“Brutus: “There is a tide in the affairs of men.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
is bound in shallows and in miseries...”

Or, to quote Captain Beefheart: “When it’s time for steam trains, it steam trains.”

There’s an interview on YouTube where there’s some reference made to the Smiths and Adrian gets really pissed off and spits something really angrily out about them, was there rivalry, jealousy about those guys, if so, why?

“Adrian was often spitting angrily about something or other. A journalist was probably unwise enough to ask him what he thought of The Smiths and I just think he was excoriating Morrissey for being the antithesis of what he considered to be a genuinely passionate artist - like his heroes Iggy Pop and Patti Smith, for instance. Personally, I’ve always been fond of Morrissey’s louche and slightly mocking approach, but that was Adrian for you - forceful when speaking or singing from the heart.”

There seems to be a rapid progression from the proto-punk stuff with the outsiders and the harder bits of debut album ‘Jeopardy’ to the mature musical subtlety from ‘From The Lion’s Mouth’ onwards where it seemed to click as a band, is that the case?

“I suspect that Adrian had known from early on that, although he was as enthusiastic about the first wave of punk as we all were, it wasn’t going to last. He soon wanted to move on and explore more creative depth and this is why his manager, Geoffrey Cummant-Wood, approached me as being a different type of drummer when Jan wanted to leave The Outsiders. I tried to encourage a more exploratory approach to making music with the band, although I do remember one very early rehearsal round at my place where Jan was trying to teach me how to play along to The Stooges’ 'TV Eye' - 'just hit the kit four to the bar, Mike....'"

I read that third album’ All Fall Down’ was a deliberate attempt at commercial suicide, this is used as an excuse these days for why the audience didn’t buy it. Was that the case here or did you go out to deliberately challenge your fans, what was the reaction to this?

“’All Fall Down’ was to be an attempt at a more “commercial” direction, as encouraged by Warner Brothers, into whose care we had been sloughed off by Rob Dickens at Korova. Naturally, we were having none of that! Adrian and Graham, as their alter-ego '2nd Layer', had had some success with the album 'World of Rubber' and felt that, as our (hand) gesture at commerciality, we could incorporate some of the '2nd Layer' techniques into the new album’s style".

"We felt completely pissed off at the situation which we saw as being a complete lack of faith in us from the 'business' and we were in no mood to be dictated to. As it happens, some of the “electronic” approach worked and some of it didn’t. It’s a real mixed bag for me, but does have some of my favourite stuff on it. 'Monument', 'Party' and (the original) 'We Could Go Far', for instance“.

With the benefit of hindsight you can see hints of Adrian’s depression through his lyrics just as much as you could with Ian Curtis. When did you realise there was something wrong and what did the band do to help?

“At Adrian’s wake, his mother Wyn reminded me that as far back as 1984 I had mentioned to her that I suspected Adrian was having some sort of internal problem. It did not become a full-blown situation until around 1986, when Adrian’s mood swings and unusual behaviours were beginning to have a detrimental effect on the band and the organisation around him, he had become very difficult to deal with on all sorts of levels. We did what we could, in our different ways, to cope or to try and help, but of course none of us had any experience in dealing with serious psychiatric illness“.

My favourite album of the catalogue is ‘Heads And Hearts‘, it’s the one that sounds the most contemporary twenty five years later. The keyboards and drumming in particular stand out especially the tribal sounds on tracks such as ‘World As It Is’ and ’New Way Of Life’; you sounded like a band on fire with some of Borland’s most desolate lyrics. It’s a pretty intense album, was it an intense one to make?

“There are some songs on this album that display Adrian at his most gloomy and unattractive and they are my least favourite songs of our whole output. 'Wildest Dreams', 'Under You'... For a long time, they caused me to dislike the album as a whole, but over time I’ve grown to appreciate the better songs".

Also featured on the album is the great saxophone playing of Ian Nelson. His work on 'Love Is Not A Ghost' and 'Whirlpool' is just some of the best I’ve heard, and I’m a particular fan of the great jazz players - Cannonball Adderley, 'Lockjaw' Davis and John Coltrane for instance. It is very moving to think that he hit such breathtaking artistic heights whilst playing with us, before passing away through illness not long after, sadly".

You left the band prior to the dissolution in 1988, was this down to the pressure of dealing with Adrian’s illness or general ‘musical difference’ issues?

“I thought that Adrian needed to get off the treadmill and seek alleviation of his illness, this being more important than the survival of the band at that stage in my opinion. It may have been that, in time, we could re-convene and make some progress in a sort of “Part 2” career. Although this strategy had been agreed upon between myself and Max and Graham, when push came to shove, I found myself standing alone".

"However, it seemed to me that to hold to this principle, I would have to resign and that if I did so, the band would not be able to carry on and the outcome would be that my aim of getting Adrian to a quieter place away from the pressure would succeed. This proved to be the case“.

There seemed to be a time when The Sound were going to get back together, during the mid 90s and the reason it didn’t happen seems to have the fingers pointing at you, is that the case?

“I think you are referring to a later interview where Adrian said that he had made this point moot. I did not hear about it at the time, although I would have said no and I recall that in the interview, Adrian had said that he would have expected me to say just that".

"I had got myself what mothers everywhere refer to as a “proper job” by then and was enjoying the luxury of a regular salary cheque. Besides, I would have had no wish to re-attach myself to three such unhappy, disappointing and difficult working relationships, as they had all become”.

- - -

Words by Chris Todd

Every DJ has one.

A night when everything that can possibly go wrong does - and it does so in spectacular fashion. ClashMusic brings you DJ Disasters, featuring some of the most respected figures in the dance world reminiscing about those moments when it all went badly wrong.

Jack Beats link together two completely different disciplines. Plus One is a Scottish turntablist with roots in the hip hop scene, while Beni G cut his teeth with The Mixologists.

Somehow, though, it works. Except for this one time...

- - -

So we were doing a set in Oxford in the UK a year or so ago, and we were playing after Annie Mac. As she was finishing, we began setting our stuff up and both noticed a weird electrical burning smell, which is kind of unmistakeable. Both of us thought Annie's mixer was about to blow, but nothing. We took over, started our set... same smell.

We got halfway through our set, same smell was there but more intense. We both knew something might be wrong, but carried on. as our set drew to a close we had 15 mins left to play, and then suddenly a bunch of the crowd started pointing and looking to our left. So we looked over, and we saw a full floor to ceiling stack of front of house speakers with a fire in the middle of them! They had caught on fire!

So we stopped the music because there was a lot of smoke, and suddenly loads of panic and madness behind us broke out as the bouncers and security started running around like headless chickens looking for a fire extinguisher. As this was all happening, we started to grab our gear, and looked over to the right and saw the other stack of speakers suddenly catch fire too... yes... both stacks were on fire and we were burning the club down!

Pure panic ensued, the club evacuated, the promoter accidentally turned the lights off onstage so momentarily blinded the bouncers who were trying to tackle the fire, so they started falling over the monitors and both sets of monitors then came crashing down on stage. At this point, whilst the club was ablaze and the stage was getting trashed, we decided to leg it! And as if nothing had happened, we disappeared into the night, only to realise that we were in such awe of what happened that we had forgotten to film any of it on our phones!

- - -

Jack Beats - You Should Know

Jack Beats ft Donae'o 'You Should Know' is out on May 13th.
http://www.jackbeats.co.uk

Read part three of Kris Needs Fifty Outiders list for Clash magazine's Outsider issue with appearances by George Clinton, Can, Suicide, Patti Smith and more.

21. TIM ROSE

Drunken bad boy of the Greenwich Village folk scene, known for the version of ‘Hey Joe’ which blueprinted Hendrix’s first hit. During 1967’s summer of love, the alcoholic Rose roared murder ballads and desperate love laments, taking folk to new levels of intensity, but blowing his career with drunken behaviour and patchy albums until resurrected by Nick Cave in the ’90s.

22. GEORGE CLINTON

George Clinton and his Parliafunkadelicment marauders drew inspiration from acid and Hendrix to bring previously-unseen levels of anarchy and freedom to black music. One of the most influential funk soul brothers of all time, but still on the periphery with his wild funk dog behaviour.

23. ‘WILD MAN’ FISCHER

LA-born Larry was institutionalised at sixteen after attacking his mother with a knife; diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic and bipolar, but deemed sufficiently ‘entertaining‘ by Frank Zappa to release his nursery rhyme rantings on his Bizarre label.

24. MOTT THE HOOPLE

With gigs packed and rowdy, Mott were painted as disruptive outsiders by press and prog fans. After leaving Mott in 1974, Ian Hunter embarked on the uncompromising solo career he still pursues today, releasing a soaring anthem called ‘The Outsider’ in 1978.

25. CAN

Fired up by Hendrix and the Velvets, classically-trained Irmin Schmidt formed Can in 1968 with fellow former Stockhausen student Holger Czukay, free jazz drummer Jaki Leibezeit, avant guitarist Michael Karoli and New York singer Malcolm Mooney. Too far out for the mainstream but inestimably-influential on anyone from PiL to Primal Scream.

26. THE STOOGES

With Iggy taking onstage self-immolation to its most extreme levels, The Stooges’ nihilistic, wired and ravaged influence was felt by a crucial few, then massively a few years later.

27. SUICIDE

Suicide remain the most confrontational outfit of all time, Alan Vega and Martin Rev channelling their incendiary onstage rampage, electronic battle rhythms and doowop swoon into room-clearing live assaults and epoch-making albums.

28. NEW YORK DOLLS

New York’s proto-punks spent much of their supernova-brief first phase facing mockery, (self-imposed) obstacles and tragedy. Sylvain Sylvain: “We were young and screaming our generation’s next move.”

29. JAYNE COUNTY

In the Seventies New York underground, Wayne County took risks, broke taboos and amplified Warhol’s freak fantasies, then challenged 1977 punks by displaying real outrage, seeing it through to become Jayne in the Eighties.

30. PATTI SMITH

High poetess of punk, Patti’s insatiable passion for rock ‘n’ roll’s pure spirit and opiated romantic lyricism carried her through the CBGB’s punk explosion and beyond. An unstoppable torrent who, even at the height of her fame, would rather homage her rebel heroes than play the game.

Find out more about Clash Magazine's Fifty Outsiders list.

South America is a torrent of musical influences, intersections.

The continent's indigenous population forged their own rhythms, their own sounds, before the influx of Spanish conquerors - and their African slave population - altered the make up of South American life forever.

Located in the cities of Columbia, the sound of Cumbia ties together each one of these styles. Focussing on the rhythm, Cumbia is the seam which runs through almost every aspect of Columbian life.

English producer Will Holland grew so fixated with the sound of Cumbia that he emigrated to Columbia in order to soak it up - all day, every day.

Returning with new album 'Los Miticos Del Ritmo', Holland has set out on the road. Using his Quantic moniker, the producer has teamed up with Alice Russell and the Combo Bárbaro.

ClashMusic tracked down Will Holland at his home in Columbia to discuss the roots, style and future of Cumbia.

- - -

What was your introduction to the Cumbia sound?
I came accross Cumbia LPs and 45s in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Mainly large groups from Colombia like La Sonora Cordabesa and Hermanos Martelo, the more orchestrated sound of cumbia. After listening to alot of Mambo, Descarga and Pachanga, it attraccted me that Cumbia was slower, laid back and close to music like Rocksteady, Calypso and Compas.

Where did it evolve from?
Cumbia’s roots lie in the Carribean coast of Colombia, the rhythm, like so much of the Amercian continents great music, came out of the mix of European, African and Indigenous strands interwoven during the Colonial period. There are also many styles that seem quite close to cumbia at first glance, these are Porro, Tambora & Chande. Cumbia itself, popularised on a international level when the recording industry took off and it spread to Mexico, Peru and Argentina. Now it can be found in many forms, both folkloric and urban, and now digital.

What is the root of Cumbia? Is it the rhythm?
The rhythm is important, it is played on the Alegre drum, Llamador (that marks the off beat) and the Guacharaca. But in recent history, say since the 60s, the Acordeon has played a big role too in Cumbia. Like with all folkloric music around America, Latin America and the Carribean, the Accordion has been introduced into the folk music palette of instruments. In Colombia, its role is very important, just like with it is in Merengue from the Dominican republic or in Tipica music in Panama. Traditional cumbia is also played with the ‘Flauta de Millo’ and ‘Gaita’.

How wide spread in Columbian culture is Cumbia?
Historically speaking Cumbia, Vallenato and more widely ‘Musica Costena’ have been immensely popular in Colombia since the 40s, widely eclipsing all other Afro Colombian rhythms such as Curulao from the Pacific. Cumbia recordings are nothing new in Colombia, it is something that every generation has gotten down to since the phonograph was introduced to the Country. Its hard to consider it underground as it was the some of the best selling music in the late 60s, just like Mambo or Rumba was in the States in the 50s. Today, in a modern setting, I’d say that the resurgance of the cumbia sound is underground, though its getting more popular day by day, especially in the club scene of Bogota.

How have Western forms filtered into Cumbia? Are they welcomed, or seen as a dilution?
In Cartagena, Barranquilla and all around the coast, you cna find traditional folkloric groups
who most likely play a style that is unchanged, something close to what you might hear 200 years ago, but who really knows for sure. The most interesting thing about Folklore, is that it should reflect community in its present time while at the same time preserve the town’s memory: its history, oral tales and melodies. With time marching on and modernism changing lots of rural Colombia forever, that oral history and style is being lost. Today oral history is heard in recordings, thats the new folklore.

Costeno music and all of its rhythms: Cumbia, Porro, Garabato, Chande, Gaita, Maestranza, Paseo, Puya, Merengue, Son etc... continue to be preserved. But we cannot overlook the outside influences, in the past there were alot of influences from Cuban Son, Haitian Compas, Rock and Salsa. Bands were listening to new things, copying international trends, just like they do today. The barranquilla carnival has always been a central musical focus, where aside from the wealth of home grown music played, there is also a lot of Hi Life, Soukous, Salsa and Reggae to be heard.

Is Cumbia a live music, or have DJs taken control?
In the internet world, cumbia is the music of DJs, Ableton Live producers and bedroom cumbiamberos, but in its birthplace, the coast, it is still played live and recorded live with real
instrumentation. Music in that part of Colombia is not a material or life fashion choice, its just a part of daily life, an integral part of the culture they have there.

Where is Cumbia played?
At barranquilla Carnival every year, At the Cumbia Festival of El Banco Magdalena every year, by Carmelo Torres on Acordeon every night in San Jacinto, by the Picos (sound systems) in Cartagena and Barranquilla, At the many new clubs nights that play cumbia in both folk and electronic forms in Bogota, by the Sonidero sound systems of Mexico, in Peru, Argentina, Europe, the States....

Is the Cumbia scene attached to certain aspects of society?
In Colombia, Cumbia is something of the past, I think most young, lower class people are listening to reggaeton or romantic Vallenato. You have to remember the size of Colombia and that it is immensely musically diverse. So in Cali lets say, no one is listening to cumbia in the Barrios, it's irelevant, only maybe when you’re at a family wedding or birthday party. The good thing about the new interest in cumbia is that younger people are begginning to get into it again.

Is Cumbia politicised?
In Colombia, very rarely, only very recently and more because of a influence of rap culture. But cumbia in Colombia has always been a dance form, something celebrationary and lyrically more mystical than political. But new urban pioneers of Cumbia like Pernett and Systema Solar are changing that.

Has Cumbia moved beyond Colombia? Are there territorial divisions between South American musicians?
Well, people always will argue about the real origins of musical styles. The roots of Cumbia are firmly in Colombia but they ahve spread across all of the Americas. When Cumbia was dwindling in Colombia, it was thriving in Mexico, it has been kept alive by the people, which is a very wonderful thing.

Where is Cumbia heading next?
It seems to be getting more abtract and digital. I personally would like to hear less about cumbia in the future and more from the Pacific or styles like Porro and Champeta too.

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'Los Miticos Del Ritmo' is out now