Friday 22 April 2016

We Are Bandicoot - Bouncy Ball Soup


Harvey Nowers
We Are Bandicoot
Simon Briley - vocals
Antony Grant - lead guitar
Harvey Nowers - rhythm Guitar
Lewis Osmant - bass
Matt Chesson - drums

Simon Briley

Date - 14th April 2016
Venue - The Slaughtered Lamb
Current release - Limitations (Blizzard Records, 2016)



Lewis Osmant
Upcoming dates
22/04 Oxford, The Cellar
26/04 Bury St Edmunds, The Apex
30/04 Maidstone Fringe Festival
13/05 Chelmsford, The Asylum
20/05 Milton Keynes, The Stables




Antony Grant
Kent 5 piece ‘WE ARE BANDICOOT’ have followed up their debut 2015 EP with the release of cross boundary single  ‘Limitations’.   In support of the ‘Limitations’ single release the band will be heading out on the road for a mix of headline shows and support slots, including dates with Moulettes, Broken Records and Heg & The Wolf Chorus. Lyrically, Limitations explores what lead singer Simon describes as a ‘small minded culture’ that is spreading through young people in Britain – hatred and prejudice towards certain social groups and a lack of desire to achieve greatness.
 
 

Matt Chesson
We Are Bandicoot push us through the mixer like an abused ingredient. Rolled in crumbs, baked gently, burnt hard, licked and grated, split and cut. Suckle my pig, depth charge emotions. Don't forget to eat me, but push it in my face, gorge on this band, so that the juices run over your cheeks and well in your ears.
 
Open and rangy, their buzz slices through with free lines, pylons that reach into the distance. The sound is a bouncy-ball soup of influences that are not worth throwing a net over here. Why capture these dancing joys.
 
Krakatoa Kinkitoa, Crackerjack smack.
 
AL.
 
 

Wednesday 20 April 2016

Richard Maule - Sugar Coated Pill

Richard Maule
Richard Maule

Date - 14th April 2016
Venue -  
The Slaughtered Lamb, London
Current Album -
Esoteric Groove EP


Upcoming dates
EP Launch - Siren's Call
Half Moon Putney
4th May 2016


Richard Maule mixes drums, soaring synths, looped vocals and many other instruments in his ambitious stretch towards the audience. His amenable songstrokes have been championed by Radio 2's Dermot O'Leary as well as being nominated for a Shure's singer songwriter award.
 
Grapes picked one by one, the stepped rise of a stairway empire. One man, synth, pedal, wash. Breath long draw, sucked through colours, the burred change of hues. Maule washes us clean like we were aniseed balls in the mouth, he reveals the purity of white beneath. The hard shelled truth, a sugar coated pill.
 
AL.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 




Thursday 14 April 2016

The Posies - Buzzing Solid States

Ken Stringfellow
The Posies
Jon Auer - guitar, vocals
Ken Stringfellow - guitar, vocals, keys
Frankie Siragusa - drums

Date - 6 April 2016
Venue -  100 Club
Current Album - Solid States (Release April 2016 on Lojinx)


Frankie Siragusa
Upcoming dates
15 April – Mejeriet, Lund, SWEDEN
16 April – Monkeys, Hamburg, GERMANY
17 April – Tavastia, Helsinki, FINLAND
19 April – Kafe Antzoki (small room), Bilbao, SPAIN
20 April – Sala Arena, Madrid, SPAIN
21 April – Razzmatazz 2, Bacelona, SPAIN
22 April – Loco Club, Valencia SPAIN
23 April – Sala Budokan, Cartagena, SPAIN
24 April – Sala Malandra, Sevilla SPAIN

 
When the Posies long time drummer, Darius, died suddenly and unexpectedly last year, Posies founding members Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow were devastated. Hard as it was to continue without such a close friend and great musician, the moment called for a reinvention. SOLID STATES is their 8th album that charts the dramatic changes in their lives, music and evolution of the band. The Posies retain their legendary melodic abilities, their trademark vocal harmonies and their lyrical agility.
 
The multi­year gap between albums has been spent in countless other projects that now bring new skills and experiences to the latest manifestation of their sound. Their raison d'etre as ever rests on their desire to take risks and keep on exploring, wherever that may take them
 
Jon Auer
The Posies are the sweet and the sour, the voice and swathe of guitar. They are the itch you feel in your fingers when you see a bacon slicer, that whirring steel upon steel sound, that desire to reach for the meat, and also to touch the blade. The two bar fire gently warms with a molten glow and despite it's soothing orange you know its buzzing electricity stokes a shock with a sickening kick. Irresistible, curious, reminiscence and through angry melted tears a wash of the future.

AL.

Wednesday 13 April 2016

The President Lincoln - 100 Club

Pete Fussey
Alex Maws
The President Lincoln
Alex Maws - lead vocals & guitar
Pete Fussey - guitar
Lee Norton -  keyboard
Cliff Annicelli - bass
Kevin Hutchins - drums
Mo Doshi - backing vocals

Kevin Hutchins
Date - 6 April 2016
Venue -  100 Club
Current Album - The Sinking of The President Lincoln (2013)


Mo Doshi

The President Lincoln began as a lo-fi and lo-budget recording project of singer-songwriter Alex Maws who recorded "The Sinking of the President Lincoln" on his laptop in the spare room of his London home. For the better part of a year, Maws mostly recorded alone, but aided by a cast of 24 contributors who have never all been in the same country at the same time, let alone in the same studio. Collaborations took place over email between musicians in London, England; Austin, TX; Los Angeles, CA and Asheville, NC.


Lee Norton
The President Lincoln has grown from a “recording project” into a proper band. Maws has recruited a lineup of musicians (some British, some American, of course) to figure out how to play the songs live. The core lineup of The President Lincoln now consists of guitarist Pete Fussey (who also played on the recording), keyboardist Lee Norton, bassist Cliff Annicelli, drummer Kevin Hutchins and backing vocalist Mo Doshi.

------------------------------

Cliff Annicelli
A whirlpool of defiance spins in our eyes as the alien ray-gun of Maws and Fussey pins the audience with their truth serum shots. This is the honesty and the romance of The President Lincolns, the revelations that are shared on the far reaches of the football field, curtained behind nervous Leylandii.

This Could Be Our Country is a land held up by buzzing pillars of slots and arcades. It is an in-between world that is neither field green nor field grey. On the map it lies between generations, between sexes, an oasis, like a faded English Las Vegas.

AL.

Tuesday 12 April 2016

Maciej Grzywacz & Nigel Price - Twin peaks

Maciej Grzywacz
Maciej Grzywacz - guitar
Nigel Price - guitar
Kelvin Christiane - tenor saxophone and flute
Richard Sadler - bass
Noel Joyce - drums
Lesley Christiane - vocals

Noel Joyce
Date - 22 March 2016
Venue -  Twickenham Jazz Club
Current Album Maciej Grzywacz - Solo (2015)


Nigel Price

Maciej Grzywacz is a guitarist and composer who hails from seaside resort of Sopot in Poland. He earned his music laurels from both the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw, Poland and the Higher School of Music in Munich, Germany. In addition to numerous concert and festival appearances in Poland, Maciej has toured in Canada, Israel and several countries in Europe, including Germany, France, Austria, Russia, Sweden, Finland, Bulgaria and Romania. He can now add England to this burgeoning list of nations after being the chosen recipient of the yearly cultural Jazz exchange between Twickenham Jazz Club and Poland.

 

Kelvin Christiane

Maciej Grzywacz has five albums as a leader to his credit - "Solo" recorded entirely on classical guitar, “Black Wine” with american drummer Clarence Penn and bassist Yasushi Nakamura, "Things Never Done" which features renowned New York trumpeter Avishai Cohen, "Forces Within" with Canadian drummer Tyler Hornby and "Fourth Dimension" with alto sax player Maciej Obara.
 
Maciej received a “Fryderyk”, Polish award nomination in the Jazz Album of The Year category twice.  He is a faculty member at Academy of Music in Gdansk, Poland.
 
Richard Sadler
A night dominated by the twin peaks of guitarists Maciej Grzywacz and Nigel Price although my sketch pad can never resist the walking totem of the moustachioed and besatcheled Richard Sadler.
 
Price toyed with us, his mouth opening and closing like the chomp of a Hungry Hippo, musical marbles poured out, cascading down the hill into the audience's laps. It was our job to keep on our toes, navigating Price's dexterous feints and jabs.
 
Faces of Nigel Price
Maciej Grzywacz is a roller skater, a glider, he sways in and out of Price's obstacles, rising above the plane on which our everyday ears twitch and stretch. Kelvin Christiane was full of capers, back to a carefree groove after months ploughing the winter furrow.
 
Always we were drawn back to the interplay between Grzywacz and Price. The former sang a light and soulful song while Price dug into clods of earth. Although the rise of Maciej lifted the spirits it was the lure of getting your hands dirty with Nigel that appealed to the filthy hearts of Jazz.
 
AL.
Lesley Christiane