Ready For Battle: These New Puritans interview

“It’s from the heart. The songs and the subjects are more human,” says Jack Barnett over the phone about These New Puritans’ third album ‘Field Of Reeds’. It’s an unexpectedly candid statement from the otherworldly frontman. Since releasing their spiky, abrasive debut ‘Beat Pyramid’ in 2008, he’s chanted confrontational lyrics about numbers, colours and philosophy, worn chainmail vests on stage and even declared that all music recorded from 1600 to 2005 was rubbish.

Although jetlagged and weary after arriving from the video shoot for ‘Fragment Two’ in New York, he quickly brushes this comment off in his soft, yet intense tone. “I was just joking really when I said that, but there’s some truth to it. I like all sorts of music at different times. I don’t like the obsession with people always chasing what’s new. I would never listen to anything just because it’s new. I listen to stuff because it’s good.”

It’s no surprise then that the band’s third album ‘Field Of Reeds’ (their first for Infectious Music) – named after the Egyptian heavenly paradise “where things carry on as they are forever” –  is scattered with disparate influences, some harder to pin down than others. Having listened to classic songwriters like Burt Bacharach and Leonard Bernstein and the colourful jazz-funk of Steely Dan, Barnett particularly admires the latter group for “their determination to make everything right at all costs.”

Recorded partly in a former radio complex in Berlin with conductor André de Ridder leading their classical ensemble (and co-produced with longstanding collaborator Graham Sutton), the result of Barnett’s perfectionism is a glorious album that ditches the six-foot Japanese taiko drums and blaring dancehall horns of its predecessor ‘Hidden’ (2010) for genre-bending torch songs and spacious, glimmering chamber music.

While the record’s piercing intimacy sounds more refined than their Fall-esque post-punk sketches of ‘Beat Pyramid’ and the ancient military assault of ‘Hidden’ (2010), it retains the band’s unbridled eclecticism that saw the latter album hailed as the “first masterpiece of the 2010s.”

From the sombre piano introduction of the opener ‘This Guy’s In Love With You’, it’s noticeably more personal, with Burnet wrapping his tender vocals around themes of love, life and death. “When I was writing the songs, I suppose the feelings I wanted to try and get across would just override any other sort of consideration, so I wasn’t something I had particular control over,” he explains.

The first single ‘Fragment Two’ exemplifies this new “impulse” perfectly. Beginning with bright piano chords, it transforms into a claustrophobic haze of irregular rhythms, unsettling horns and intriguing lyrics like “In crushed glass by the train line / there is something there.”

“It’s funny because people are saying and writing that it’s ominous and dark,” he points out. “But to me, the song’s quite hopeful. Obviously there are bits of darkness to it as well, but that’s only natural to me.”

This feeling of hope runs through the record’s striking and unpredictable sonic U-turns. The yearning highlight ‘The Light In Your Name’ (inspired by Stephen Sondheim’s song ‘Send In The Clowns’) builds from Barnett’s lovelorn vocal into a cosmic climax of crashing drums and distorted strings, while the foreboding elliptical horn ballad ‘Spiral’ recalls Bjork at her most groundbreaking.

Adding to the intimate tone of these tracks is Portuguese singer Elisa Rodrigues, whose  gorgeously emotive Fado-influenced vocals provide a counterpoint to Barnett’s more rough-around-the-edges delivery. Having discovered Rodrigues’s solo jazz album while searching for Portuguese music on the internet, he took “a bit of a leap” and asked her to lend her rich, bluesy tones to the album.

“I love her voice,” he says gushing, suggesting it was a risk that paid off. “It’s just got enough expression. She can sing incredibly in tune. There’s no wavering on it. It’s just a real amazing tone.”

Renowned composers Hans Ek (who arranged the Swedish soundtrack for ‘Let The Right One In’) and Michael van der Aa also collaborated with Barnett to provide the extra production flourishes that make ‘Field Of Reeds’ a deftly ambitious record.

Other unconventional touches like recording a woman’s half-remembered interpretation of a Burt Bacharach song (for ‘This Guy’s In Love With You’) and using the innovative magnetic resonator piano for the first time on a commercial recording seem particularly admirable. Most bands in their position could have become cautious under the pressure to follow-up an album as widely acclaimed as ‘Hidden’.

Judging by their urge to explore new experimental territories though, it’s clear that These New Puritans aren’t most bands. When Barnett is asked if he’s worried about what fans might think about their change in direction, he asserts: “Not really because I think to an extent our fans sort of expect that from us, which is nice in a way. We’d feel more under pressure if we felt that we had to stay the same. That would be more unnatural to me. We really don’t pay any attention to expectations.

“I feel like if you can see the expectations too much, then that’s actually slightly insulting to the audience because you’re saying, ‘We don’t think you have the intelligence to appreciate something that hasn’t been tailored towards you.’”

The band’s uncompromising ethic has taken them in many interesting directions, including spending a day smashing panes of glass in the studio for ‘The Light In Your Name’ and even recording a Harris hawk’s wings taking flight. While Barnett is aware that “people could imagine we’re thinking, ‘Oh, what’s the wackiest sound we can think of?’, he says it’s always driven by “the music and the writing.”

Where the band really come into their own though is in their live shows. Recently honing their original twenty-piece classical ensemble into a more “nimble” and agile seven piece brass and piano band, the orchestral sweeps add muscle and emotive energy to the tracks without veering into bland, saccharine territory. Most interesting though is the onstage juxtaposition between Jack’s twitchy bedroom producer stance and his more extroverted twin brother George’s violent, martial drumming.

Almost comical in a live setting, it’s just another facet of the band’s dynamic contrasts and fierce individuality that has seen them gain comparisons to innovative UK acts like The xx and Wild Beasts. While they haven’t had the same mainstream recognition as those acts so far, ‘Field Of Reeds’ looks set to edge the band even further away from simple categorisations and into their own dystopian, yet captivating musical realm.

However, when Barnett hints that he’s thinking about “shorter songs” for the next album, it’s hard not to imagine how intriguing results would be if they brought their boundary pushing soundscapes into more commercial territory, especially as he’s previously mentioned listening to a lot of modern American pop.

When asked if this has ever crossed his mind, he replies with endearing perceptiveness: “I would still love to bring in those sounds in a sincere way. It’s just that everything these days has to be ironic or a little in-joke or retro, whereas I just want to forget all that. Let’s just make some music that means something and then hopefully it will mean something to other people.”

Words: James Evans

Photos: Alex Sainsbury

Published in Issue 86 of Clash magazine and on ClashMusic.com. Article here.

Album review: Husky Rescue – The Long Lost Friend (El Camino Records)

Inspired by Husky Rescue’s founder Marko Nyberg getting back in touch with a friend after fifteen years, the Helsinki-based indie collective’s fourth album is a suitably intriguing listen. An ambitious departure from their fragile Scandinavian pop, Joanna Kalén’s rich vocals wrap around jittery synths, violin distortions and dubstep-tinged basslines. This avant-garde vibe can seem self-conscious at times, with the claustrophobic electronica of the title-track recalling The Knife, yet never quite reaching the duo’s disturbing greatness. However, the elated electropop closer ‘Tree House’ shows how infectious the record could have been if the band had let their glowing melodic sensibility match their brimming experimentalism.

7/10

DIG IT? DIG DEEPER: EFTERKLANG, MÚM, BOARDS OF CANADA

Published in Issue 86 of Clash magazine.

 

Their Library: Ian McCulloch

Gaining the nickname “Mac the Mouth” for his witty put-downs of rival artists in the ‘80s, Ian McCulloch inspired a wave of forthright rock’n’roll frontmen.

However, it’s his poignant lyrics exploring love, life and fate and captivating gloomy post-punk with Echo & The Bunnymen that have helped the charismatic lead singer reach legendary status.

With a new album ‘Holy Ghosts’ (which includes orchestral reworkings of the band’s angular indie classics and his latest solo outing, ‘Pro Patria Mori’) out now, ClashMusic asked him about the books that have influenced his thirty-three year journey through rock’n’roll excess, strong opinions and majestic songwriting.

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What is your favourite book and why? 
It’s ‘The White Hotel’ by DM Thomas because I’ve only read to about page forty-seven. I couldn’t get past the poem section, which is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever read. As one solid book of poetry and evocative writing, it’s the best. I thought I was in that poem; kind of similar to the way Leonard Cohen makes me feel like I’m in his songs. I’ve recommended it to anyone who I thought could read.

What other authors do you like?
Shakespeare. I should re-read Othello, but I’d steer clear of the comedies. It’s a bit like watching ‘On The Buses’ now. The power of his great soliloquies is like, “Bloody hell. He’s not only written it, but he’s had to work that out in his head.” It was such a different time then. He had history and politics to draw on, but the imagination that went into his soliloquies, people can’t do that now. That’s where you can say someone’s a genius.

What draws you to certain books?
Only when my brother Peter tells me I should read one. I do loads of crosswords. So I kind of like unravelling them to be honest.  For me, too many authors probably think, “Oh, I want this to be a bestseller. I’ll wack a bit of mystery in there, bit of cloak and dagger. And I’ll decide on a beginning, a middle and an end.” And it’s like, you’ve already fucked it up by thinking like that.

Have you ever discovered a real lost classic? What is it and why?
I was rummaging through some newspapers for a crossword and I came across some of the book I started to write about three or four years ago and shelved for a bit. I wrote a list of things to put in the book that I hadn’t thought of from years ago, which for me was like, “That’s fantastic because that’s why you didn’t finish it.” One of the main themes is treason. It’s not an autobiography about the band. It’s about my thoughts and feelings and stuff.

What are you reading at the moment?
Well, I’ve got the Liverpool Echo upside down in my lap. So I’m reading ‘Five Hundred Cannabis Plants Seized At Former Nightclub’ and ‘Police And Superman Attack At Pyjama Party’. The next thing I’ll read will be ‘The Little Prince’.

What is the first book you remember reading as a child?
It’s hard to remember because I was never drawn to them. The first proper book was the first Star Trek annual ever. I got that in ’66 or ’67. There was the first Star Trek annual and an Outer Limits annual. I got them for Christmas and I loved it. I’ve never ever felt about a book like I’ve felt about them.

Do your literary influences have a direct impact on your songwriting?
Definitely. I think most Shakespeare really. “To be, or not to be: that is the question”. ‘The Killing Moon’ is my version of that. Whereas he leaves it open ended because he didn’t know what I know all those centuries ago, that’s the answer – “Fate up against your will / through the thick and thin / he will wait until / you give yourself to him.”

Have you ever identified with a character in a book? Which one and why?
Iago from Othello. He’s the one. There’s this thing in me where once the seed’s planted, it’s hard to get rid of. And the voices that tell you things, like someone’s made it up in your head and trying to plant seeds of doubt about everything. Iago did that to Othello.

Is there an author / poet you would like to collaborate with?If you had me and Shakespeare, it would be even better than Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. I’d say, “Bill, give me the verse.” And he’ll rattle a verse off and I’d put that to three cords, maybe stick a minor in. And I’d say, “That’s your job done. Now fuck off and go and write a play.” I’d work the chorus out. And there you’d have it: all songs written by McCulloch and Shakespeare.

And finally. How do you think literature achieves timelessness?
I suppose by setting itself to the Greenwich Meridian time zone.

Words by James Evans

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‘Holy Ghosts’ is out now.

Published on ClashMusic.com. Article here.

Album review: Valerie June – Pushin’ Against A Stone (Sunday Best Recordings)

Listening to June’s fourth album is like discovering a ‘40s bluegrass record on a dusty Memphis porch. Stark, yet beautiful Appalachian folk and blues ride up against tales of traumatic workdays, her Tennessee upbringing and how she “ain’t fit to be no wife”. Despite sashaying vocals (which sound like a whiskey-soaked Dolly Parton), too many songs are weighed down by bland Radio 2-friendly arrangements. Braver moments though, like the prowling woman-done-wrong folk of ‘Shotgun’, prove that June is no mere retro troubadour.

6/10

Published in Issue 85 of Clash magazine.

Album review: The Child Of Lov – The Child Of Lov (Double Six)

A melange of futuristic R&B, Southern hip hop and unhinged vocals, you’d think The Child Of Lov (AKA Cole Williams’) debut album was made by a reclusive production whizzkid with only Prince and NERD records for company. Yet amongst themes of infatuation and wanting to find “my wings to fly”, Williams feeds collaborators like Damon Albarn, Thundercat and DOOM through his gritty soul soundscapes with catchy and coherent results – ‘Give Me’ in particular is a thrillingly feral groove with hints of J Dilla’s abstract, off-kilter beats. Despite these influences though, Williams has crafted a frightening, yet infectious world of his own. Compelling stuff.

8/10

DIG IT? DIG DEEPER: MADLIB, J DILLA, DEPTFORD GOTH

Published in Issue 85 of Clash magazine.

Album review: The Elwins – And I Thank You (Self-released)

With album art depicting a man feeding birds in picture-perfect surroundings, it’s unsurprising that The Elwins’ debut album evokes a naïve, child-like utopia. There’s dark oil running through the Ontario band’s Crayola-coloured world though – the breezy pop of ‘Behind My Eyes’ is undercut by lead singer Matthew Sweeney’s resigned “no one cares for me”. Despite its twee, lo-fi production, their intricate ‘60s-tinged ditties bounce through xylophone plinks and sugary harmonies while Sweeney swoons like a boyband member addicted to the vagaries of love.

Although it could be easy for these starry-eyed vignettes to become cloying, it’s only in the meandering ‘Propinquity’ where lyrics like “it feels like when you’re around/ it’s a good thing I have found” feel like a mawkish misstep. Potentially grating moments like ‘Are You Flying With A Different Bird?’ revel in charming eccentricity and sophisticated ‘70s songcraft.

Elsewhere, the gorgeous throwback melodies of ‘I Miss You And I’ conjure images of Conor Oberst ditching folky character sketches to cover ‘Pet Sounds’’ most iridescent  moments.

When album closer ‘Sittin’ Pretty’ arrives with its souped-up strings, the band’s resilient lyrics about getting up after a fall confirm a worldly sensibility beyond their quirky videos and knitted jumpers. Funny, sad and romantic, The Elwins make sitting in a park and basking in lovelorn melancholy seem like a glorious pastime.

7/10

DIG IT? DIG DEEPER:  YOUNG RIVAL, TWO HOURS TRAFFIC, THE BICYCLES

Published in Issue 85 of Clash magazine.

OTW #496: Black Light Dinner Party

With their flowy, intimate electro-pop, it’s hard to imagine any of Black Light Dinner Party prank-calling a porn star.

However, after getting Ron Jeremy’s number from a friend, that’s exactly what bassist Dan Stevens did.

“No-one would believe me, so we called him up,” he says proudly. “He was a really pleasant guy. You could talk to him for five or 10 minutes without him having any concept of who you were.”

The fact that the band later convinced Jeremy to appear as a limo driver in the video to ‘Gold Chain’ is only a small part of their intriguing backstory. Beginning as friends working on separate projects and bouncing ideas off each other, they originally made electronic, Flying Lotus-inspired tracks.

But when lead-singer Jack Côté’s mum became ill and passed away, their focus shifted towards a poppier sound. The result was ‘Older Together’, a melancholic electro-indie gem that kick-started a wave of attention-grabbing releases in 2011.

In the circumstances, though, the band maintained an anonymity. “I guess it felt a little bit sombre and a little unnatural to have complete transparency at that point,” explains drummer Zach Lipkins.

In contrast, listening to their debut album, ‘Sons and Lovers’ (named after the DH Lawrence novel, in reference to their “interesting journey”), feels like stumbling across a particularly candid diary entry. Influenced by personal struggles and love and relationships, the record is a bittersweet synth-driven voyage.

Fitting the band’s favourite description of their sound as “dance music for people who want to do more than dance”, the swelling yet tender title-track represents, in Zach’s opinion, “What we’ve become and where we’re headed – moving forward more than anything.”

Despite infectious hooks, striking videos – ‘We Are Golden’ includes pirates, Tetris shapes and floating narwhals – and energetic live shows supporting Icona Pop, mainstream success isn’t the band’s main priority. Dan points out: “You just want to make something that sounds good to yourself and the others around you and hope that it translates over.”

Where: New York City
What: Glistening, emotive electro-pop lullabies
Get 3 songs: ‘Older Together’, ‘We Are Golden’, ‘Sons and Lovers’
Unique Fact: Their best reception to a live show was at a girls’ college in Pennsylvania. They felt like a boyband afterwards.

Find Black Light Dinner Party online here.

Words: James Evans

Published on ClashMusic.com. Article here.

Album review: Junip – Junip (City Slang)

Given Jose Gonzalez’s maudlin take on The Knife’s ‘Heartbeats’, an album of pastoral folk from his pre-fame band Junip shouldn’t be exciting on paper. Yet, the twinkling psychedelia-infused highlights of their second album could easily soundtrack a trippy, costume-clad folk festival. Intense opener ‘Line Of Fire’ swells from an infectious bossa nova groove into a foreboding climax. However, Gonzalez’s listless vocals can’t rescue the plodding  ‘Beginnings’ and experiments like the baggy Primal Scream-lite strut of ‘Walking Lightly’ sound forced and lack innovation. At their best though, Junip’s exotic folk gems have a slow-burning charm and are an impressive step forward from Gonzalez’s easy listening cover versions.

6/10

Words by James Evans

Published on ClashMusic.com. Review here.

Swan Song: Kelly Jones

How would you spend your last day alive? Kelly Jones from Stereophonics will be tangled up in weeds.

Where would you like to wake up?

I would like to wake up on top of a mountain looking over the valley I was born in in South Wales. I’d swim in the reservoir where we used to swim when we were kids and then I would get on my BMX and ride down the mountain as fast as I could.

What would you like to achieve on your last day?

I’d like to achieve a sense of freedom. All my mates would get a hammer and everybody would smash up their mobile phones and have a sense of innocence and freedom without being connected to the whole world again.

You host a Last Supper: who’s coming?

I would have it around a campfire and it would be my family and the band and my best mates and I think we would have a bit of a send-off – a very smoky, starry night, cooking the simplest things around our fire.

What’s on the menu?

It’s not glamorous, but I’d like us to eat baked beans from the can cooked on the fire so they’re quite smoky and burnt, and wash it all down with some nice wine and some beer.

What is the last song you would like to hear?

There’s a song by Otis Redding which I’ve always loved called ‘Cigarettes And Coffee’. It just sounds like him having this conversation with this girl with a cup of coffee and a cigarette really late at night in some diner somewhere. There’s not many songs that really do paint that picture and I think this one actually does – you really feel like you’re there.

What would be your biggest regret?

I don’t think I’ve got a great deal of regrets. I quite like where I’m at and I quite like what I’ve done, but I guess the regret would be that I’ve allowed life to get too chaotic and I’d like to go back to the simplicity of that time.

What would your deathbed confession be?

I’m not really six feet two.

How are you going to die?

Seeing as we’re all there at the lake and the stars are shining and the fire’s burning, I would imagine that we’d probably get drunk, go for a swim, and tragically I would get tangled up in weeds and I would drown euphorically. Apparently it is one of the finest ways to die.

Who would you like to meet at the Pearly Gates of Heaven?

Johnny Weissmuller, the guy that played Tarzan back in the day, because if I met Tarzan at the Pearly Gates, I reckon he will actually enlighten me how I could have gotten out of those weeds. I would ask Johnny how I could have got myself out of that particular pickle.

Describe your vision of Heaven.

After all that wetness and coldness of being drowned and full of weeds and stuff, I would hope that it would be quite toasty and dry. People handing out nice white robes. People sitting around like a Stanley Kubrick film with all that floral kind of carpet. Everything would be very symmetrical, a bit like 2001: A Space Odyssey.

 If you could be resurrected the next day, what would you come back as, and why?

A goldfish in a bowl. Nothing will ever get boring – as my memory is so short everything will seem exciting every thirty seconds.

10 Things You Never Knew About… Terry Callier

Published in Issue 84 of Clash magazine and on ClashMusic.com. Article here.

Terry Callier’s incredible voice and eclectic blend of Jazz, Blues and Soul could make audience members pass out, yet he flew under the radar of commercial success for most of his career. Here are ten facts to prove his life was just as unusual as his legacy as a revered, if underrated Soul legend.

1. Callier counted jazz pianist Ramsey Lewis and soul singers Curtis Mayfield and Jerry Butler as friends while growing up in Chicago’s deprived Cabrini-Green area. He described it as a “dynamite neighbourhood” where people were doo-woping all the time in different groups.

2. Callier spent lunch periods in high school singing in the bathroom because the marble walls created a decent echo. He continued this into adulthood where, in the late-’80s, he would also practice guitar in his bathroom.

3. While singing in a doo-wop group at school, someone stopped him halfway through ‘This Is The Night’ by The Cool Jets, and said: “Why are you trying to sound like somebody else? Just try to sound like you.” He remembered it as  the most influential thing anyone had told him.

4. His music career came to a brief halt at sixteen after he was invited to go on an American tour with fellow Chess artists Etta James and Muddy Waters. When his mother came home to find him packing his bags, she refused to let him go because she wanted him to finish high school. For a month, they didn’t speak to one another (other than to say, “Pass the mustard”).

5. Seeing John Coltrane’s live act in 1964 almost made Callier want to give up music entirely. He wasn’t prepared for the intensity with which the band threw themselves into the music and it frightened him. He began looking for a job immediately and didn’t play in public for a year.

6. While Callier’s 1968 debut album, ‘The New Folk Sound Of Terry Callier’, only took an afternoon to record, its release was delayed by three years because producer Samuel Charters took the master tapes on a spiritual voyage to the North American desert. Callier only realised it was out when his brother found it on sale in a Chicago antique store.

7. Callier retired from music in 1983 to raise his daughter. He told interviewer Angus Batey in 2002 that when she asked to live with him and go to secondary school in Chicago, he realised he wouldn’t make enough money to take care of her if he stayed in music. So, he landed a job in computer programming at the University of Chicago and pursued a sociology degree in the evenings.

8. Callier continued his day job while his cult status grew in the ’90s. His double life was finally exposed when employers at the University of Chicago found that his major label comeback album, ‘TimePeace’, had won the United  Nations ‘Time for Peace’ award. After picking up the award in New York, he came back to work to discover he had been fired.

9. Callier became overwhelmed while playing occasional gigs in Britain to admirers who knew all the words to his songs. He told a New York Times interviewer in 1998 that he would have to stop shows a few times because it was too “over the top emotionally” to continue.

10. His emotive, intense live performances were said to be a spiritual experience that could move people to tears. David Buttle, founder of Mr Bongo records, recalled of his Jazz Café performances in the late-’90s: “Many people passed out, overwhelmed by the light that shone from him.”

Words by James Evans