http://www.justbecause.ch/archive.htmlNewest Archive at Just Becausehttp://www.justbecause.ch/archive_703E32363D353C.htmlSamual Galley2012-04-27T18:54:26 Ebony Bones is a star. It’s as simple as that, or it can be more complex if you’d prefer. If you want to look closer, you’ll see that this south Londoner is very much a artist of our times; a self-taught bedroom musician who was among the first to share her songs over the internet, and who’s polymorphous sound reflects the pick n’ mix approach to genres the kids growing up in iTunes World have. But really, whether you label her as the New DIY Superstar, a Kate Bush for the iPod Generation, or simply the Next Big Thing, it all amounts to the same thing: she’s a ruddy star. Always has been in fact. Mark Rylance, artistic director of the Shakespeare Globe Theatre knew it when he spotted the then Ebony Thomas just after she’d left primary school and gave her a part in MacBeth. And the producers of TV drama Family Affairs knew it when they cast her as glamorous young Yasmin. Ebony’s problem at this stage, was that though she knew she wanted to perform, acting just wasn’t right for her. “I was always getting into trouble on it, annoying the producers and almost getting sacked,” she recalls, “I was only 15 when I started, and I couldn’t do what I was told, which isn’t good for an actor. I’d customize all the costumes, amend all the scripts, annoy the other actors. I think that was due to realising I wanted to be an artist in my own right. I ended up bringing in a laptop to my dressing room, and made tunes on a crap version of Pro Tools.” Ebony Bones, then is an artist of the moment, and for the future. A vibrant, wild and very human riposte to every bland, over-marketed, plastic pop princess on the planet. Or as Ebony puts it: “I am Cleopatra reincarnated, in search of KFC.” http://www.justbecause.ch/archive_703E32363D353A.htmlSamual Galley2012-04-27T18:52:30 They sound pretty good. Really good. Punked-up pop and rapped-up electro-rock from Paris - what's not to like? They look... interesting. With their beards, 'taches and wild pony hair, their colourful patterned knitwear apparently borrowed from their parents, they look like lapsed '80s hippies or drug dealers in an episode of Miami Vice. Sleazy does it. Imagine a chilled-out Chilis or a strung-out Strokes, or a collision between Daft Punk and Beastie Boys, Chromeo and The Virgins, for some idea of the sound achieved by Naive New Beaters on their fabulous debut album, Wallace.
which brings us to the next question: why Wallace? "It's just a word we use sometimes, like « bang », singer David Boring - that's his real name, by the way, as presumably are those of guitarist Martin Luther BB King, gadget operator Eurobelix - sort of explains. The band is currently touring, attracting a hipster and eclectic crowd - who are flocking to witness the trio’s energy, synchronised dance routines and cheap pyrotechnical effects - and to be earning them invites as tour support from the likes of The Kills or Cassius. Their live performance is a must see, making the crowd dance, smile and party with them. Can’t wait. http://www.justbecause.ch/archive_703E32363C3A3A.htmlSamual Galley2012-04-16T10:01:06 The band have been together since 2007. Steve and Phil met whilst at school and even worked together as labourers. They met Chad at college and then became aware of Andy and Ben on the local music scene. They recently signed to Parlophone, a major British label, which includes artists such as Coldplay and Kylie Minogue. The name came about from the days when Phil was working as a plasterer and Steve his labourer. It used to require early mornings and travelling to get to their various jobs. They referred to this as doing the 'morning parade'. They also say the name refers to the transition period between night and day. Morning Parade have an album to be released in 2011 and have so far released one track off that album, "Under the Stars" which was played on Zane Lowe's show on BBC Radio One, and released on November 29, 2010. It was also featured on The Vampire Diaries. The band released the video for Under the Stars on December 2 on You Tube, which was first shown exclusively on The Sun's website on November 30. The song has been played on Radio 1, BBC 6 Music, XFM, Absolute Radio and Q Radio. Morning Parade have so far released their first single, "Under the Stars". Their second single will be "A and E" and is to be release in February. It will include "Marble Attic" as a b-side along with two remixes. Other songs they have performed have been "Cardiac Arrest", "Headlights", "All I See", "Home To Me" and "Pieces". The b-side to "Under The Stars" is "Monday Morning", played live for the first time at The Square, Harlow,at the band's homecoming gigs. They have also received praise from MTV and Vogue. Their so far unnamed debut album will be released in 2011. The single 'Under the Stars' has already been released off that album as well as B-sides 'Monday Morning', 'In the Name' and 'Your Majesty'. They have been recording the album at the '13 Studios' owned by Damon Albarn and been working with longtime Blur collaborator Jason Cox. They have already supported the likes of Feeder and Florence and the Machine and were even a low support act at a pub gig with Kylie Minogue. In the summer of 2010, they played at many major music festivals including Newquay, Latitude Festival and Underage Festival as well as playing to local crowds at Stortford Music Festival, Rhythm Of The World Festival in Hitchin and Caz Fest. They completed 2010 with two sold out gigs at The Square in their home town of Harlow. On November 29, 2010 they announced their 2011 UK tour. http://www.justbecause.ch/archive_703E32363C363C.htmlSamual Galley2012-03-29T11:05:35 WhoMadeWho may lack a question mark after their name but their music will certainly have you asking after them. Why do they dress up in skeleton suits when they play live? Why does a band supposedly known for disco punk start their second album with an outbreak of omnious sounding woodwind? And why do they fill their most breezy pop moments with teutonic synths? The Danish trio are difficult to pin down but their music sounds as effortless as it is stylistically and sonically adventurous. WhoMadeWho are on a mission to eschew convention. The band formed in 2003, with falsetto voiced bassist Tomas Hoffding coming from the Scandinavian Garage-Rock underground, singer songwriter/guitarist Jeppe Kjellberg from the avant garde jazz scene (with beard to match), and drummer Tomas Barford – who also records as Tomboy – a rising star of electronic music. They released several 12-inches on leading German disco label Gomma Records including ‘Out The Door’ and ‘Space To Rent’, culminating in their eponymous debut album in 2005, which won them a devoted audience who evangelised about their new favourite band, making it the sleeper hit of the year. But in the end: It’s impossible to describe the musical genius that accounts for the world of WhoMadeWho. A wideness and complexity but at the same time simplicity and depth that’s quite unique in today’s music. Call it New Age Dance Pop. Call it Advanced Indie Disco. You have to hear – no: better feel for yourself. Because – as London’s i – D magazine put it: It’s out of any categories…it’s simply brilliant!” http://www.justbecause.ch/archive_703E32363C363A.htmlSamual Galley2012-03-29T11:03:25 Avec le recul, on pourrait s’amuser que Don Rimini, aka Xavier Gasseman, ait explosé avec un morceau intitulé Let Me Back Up – plutôt ironique de la part d’un type qui a laissé enfoncée la touche fast-forward depuis 2007. Quatre Eps, des dates dans tous les sens, 5 continents traversés l’année dernière au long de 120 Dj sets qui ont filé le tournis à l’Australie, l’Amérique, le Japon et l’Europe sans même laisser une rose sur l’oreiller. Des sets intenses, hystériques, de la frénésie même. Une expérience. Jamais là où on l’attend (sa relecture musclée du Bust A Move de Young MC sur le mythique label Delicious Vinyl) mais toujours là où on l’espère (en train de coller le public au plafond à Sonar de Barcelone, au I Love Techno de Gent ou au Hard Fest de Los Angeles). Rimini a multiplié les remixes comme autant d’enfants plus que légitimes (Sinden [and] Rye Rye, Designer rugs, Steel Lord…) et lâché ses propres hymnes en pâture dans les clubs du monde entier (2 Many DJs, A-Trak, Diplo – tous les grands fauves s’en sont régalés). Avec un titre comme celui de son quatrième EP (Nlarge Your Parties), Don Rimini a le mérite d’annoncer la couleur : après avoir écartelé les dancefloors de la planète, l’homme a décidé de voir encore plus grand. D’élargir la fête jusqu’à ce que l’élastique cède et laisse une belle marque rouge aux platines. Du son XXL (All About), de l’onde classée X G.O.O.D.), du beat mutant pour X-Men (Riminology), de la cascade musicale eXtrème (Whatever)… L’efficacité s’est trouvée une nouvelle alliée - la musicalité – pour un résultat définitivement plus sexy, plus fun. « Un pote m’a dit récemment que si tous les mecs de la fidget avaient préféré jouer cette carte là au lieu de pousser les potards à fond, on aurait plus rigolé ces derniers temps – et, qui sait, vu sourire plus de filles. Ca m’a hyper touché », avoue Rimini, qui a griffonné toutes les idées de lyrics de ces nouveaux titres avant de produire le moindre son, enregistrant toutes les parties de voix en amont avec Silver Jonz : « Silver est un génie capable de faire toutes les voix possibles et inimaginables à la perfection». Nlarge Your Parties, c’est plus qu’une promesse : un disque qui vous fout les boules à facettes et danse jusqu’au bout de la nuit sans jamais se retourner. Normal : Don Rimini garde toujours un oeil sur le rétro, et le bon. Celui qui lorgne avec respect sur l’école de Chicago – DJ Rush, DJ Sneak, Paul Johnson – et le panthéon house – Armand Van Helden, Underground Resistance, Basement Jaxx, et tous ceux qui ont roulé sur les conventions de la dance music en 4/4. Le Don a rangé la turbine pour appeler la Ghetto House par son prénom et construire des morceaux (de bravoure, forcément) qui vous attrapent par la ceinture pour mieux vous secouer le cerveau (Riminology et son hommage au mythique batteur Bernard Purdie). Le genre de rouste qui donne envie de dire merci et de tendre l’autre fesse… http://www.justbecause.ch/archive_703E32363C353E.htmlSamual Galley2012-03-29T10:49:49 AU (pronounced "ay-you") is the work of multi-instrumentalist/singer Luke Wyland. Begun in 2005 while finishing up his degree from the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, then moved across the US to Portland, OR. Currently a full time duo with Dana Valatka on drums (Jackie-­‐O-­‐Motherfucker, Mustaphamond), it can be a loosely defined amalgam of players that can swell to double digit numbers with full choir in tow and sees some of Portland's finest lending a helping hand. It's sound is vast and "deftly treads a a narrow bridge between the loose-­‐associations of the backwoods freak-­‐folk crowd and the more formalized concoctions of art-­‐poppers like Brian Eno. "Since the release of it’s critically acclaimed debut album in 2007, it has become a road worn live act who have been touring incessantly for the last few years throughout the US and Europe with great bands including most recently Deerhoof, the Dodos, and the Parenthetical Girls and an upcoming US tour with WHY?. AU has released two LP’s (Au and Verbs) including an earlier solo album under the moniker ‘luc’ entitled peaofthesea (Aagoo 2005). AU’s latest EP, Versions, will be released as a limited edition of 500 on 10” vinyl in October of 2009 on Aagoo Records. Recorded in Vermont and New Hampshire through the winter of 2008-­‐9, it stands as a document of the duo’s distinctive ability to reinterpret songs from their recorded form and the heightened energy of their live show. With Dana's virtuosic drumming spawned from a youth playing in heavy metal bands, Luke's ability to multitask on numerous instruments at once, and their “special one-­‐on-­‐one musical, almost telepathic connection,” it is a snap shot into their sprawling sets that find them deftly navigating between bombastic walls of sound, lilting lyrical numbers, and carnivalesque organ celebrations. http://www.justbecause.ch/archive_703E32363C353C.htmlSamual Galley2012-03-28T15:07:20 Often described as one of the most talented voices in the country, Jarle Bernhoft has built his career step by step. From small roles as a child on stage in the Norwegian Opera, via success with heavy rock and a record deal in Los Angeles, to his first soul influenced solo album, has his music style taken many bends and detours. Now it starts to materialise like a long, wide road with a distinctive character which is unique in Norwegian music. With Bernhoft’s stage performance described as ‘a giraffe high on PCP’ and having once himself been called ‘the thinking man’s The Hives’, there was certainly never any lack of pace and energy. Span was the hardest working band. Intensive touring extensively across Europe led them to a deal with Island Records in London, later with the American label Interscope Records. When they released the debut album ‘Mass Distraction’, produced by Gil Norton (Pixies, Foo Fighters, Echo [and] The Bunnymen) in 2004, the future seemed bright for this four headed rock monster. However, Span played their last concert for a sold out Rockefeller venue in Oslo in October 2005. New challenges were waiting. The album ‘Solidarity Breaks’ is also the result of Bernhoft’s rediscovery of himself as a solo performer. It was recorded in London, produced by Fred Ball (Pleasure, Bertine Zetlitz, Brett Anderson) and has become an organic adventure where Bernhoft admits that being solo has its pros and cons. There are twelve tracks on the album. Most of them are written by Bernhoft and some in collaboration with the producer Fred Ball, one with the renowned artist Ed Harcourt, one with Jimmy Hogarth (Amy Winehouse, Duffy, Beverly Knight) and one with the keyboardist David Wallumrød. The album is mostly recorded by Jarle’s one man band with guest appearances by among others Knut Reiersrud (for the occasion on harmonica), drummer Torstein Lofthus, David Wallumrød, Ed Harcourt, bass player Audun Erlien and backing singer Kwame Ogoo. It is is mixed by Steve Fitzmaurice who has worked with among others U2, Depeche Mode and Kylie Minogue. As the title indicates, this time it’s about solidarity: “With this album I would like to tell many stories, but my main issue is solidarity on both small and larger scales. It’s about everything from solidarity in politics, solidarity with other humans, in society, in relationships - on how difficult it can be to live together both under small and big conditions”, he explains. When it comes to music, the album is a particular mix of some familiar and less explored directions for him: “I have among many things listened to a lot of hip hop, the part of pop music I think develops most today. I gather I’m more open today than before, and my shoulders are more relaxed. Jokingly you can say that the album sounds like my former one taking a couple of fish leaps via early Nik Kershaw and The Roots and has landed in 2020”, he laughs. http://www.justbecause.ch/archive_703E32363B3E3C.htmlSamual Galley2012-03-19T11:51:21 ‘Glowing Mouth’ is the breathtaking debut UK album from Brooklyn five piece Milagres (Portuguese for “miracles” pronounced mil-ahh-gris). From the opening bars of ‘Halfway’ it’s an album full of languorous splendour and easy grace, the ambitious musical scope matched by main man Kyle Wilson’s swooping, soaring vocals. First a little background. In 2009, having grown stale kicking around in the NYC music scene, Kyle took off to the coldest, most remote part of British Columbia to find some space, rock climb and recharge. However, while scaling one of the remotest peaks he fell, resulting in a serious back injury and months in hospital. Initially, the injury was bad enough that Kyle thought he might have to leave music behind entirely, but slowly he recuperated and during these long days of recovery, inspired by a new sense of vulnerability and renewed passion, he returned to his songwriting. Upon recovering he headed back to New York with a batch of songs and regrouped with Fraser McCulloch (bass, vocals, keys), Eric Schwortz (guitar, vocals, percussion), Chris Brazee (piano, keys) and Steven Leventhal (drums, percussion) and set to work on what would become the album Glowing Mouth. So you have first single, title track ‘Glowing Mouth’, a slow-burning epic made for star crossed lovers, gently pulsing like an electronic heart. Elsewhere ‘Here To Stay’s euphoric bucolics have more than a hint of shadow thrown across them, whilst songs ‘Fright Of Thee’ and ‘Moon On The Sea’s Gate’ possess a dark, hypnotic beauty of their own. In these songs Milagres deliver recurring images of empty beaches, shafts of light, isolated mountain ranges and memories of childhood. With Kyle Wilson’s vocals sitting comfortably in the lineage of great rock falsettos from Prince to Wild Beasts it’s a record remarkable for its confidence and poise, dynamics and drama. ‘Glowing Mouth’ will be released in January 2012 and Milagres will embark on their first UK tour in support. . http://www.justbecause.ch/archive_703E32363B3E36.htmlSamual Galley2012-03-13T11:41:13 The Mondrians formed in the Summer of 2005, recorded their first home-made demo tape in their mountain-based rehearsal studio, including the songs « Pearl Of The Lake » and « The Shout ». Then, the young Swiss band started touring, first in Switzerland, then in France and the United Kingdom. They also played in Paléo Festival, Pully For Noise and Les Eurockéennes. Press and radio started talking about the guys like « Swiss pop-rock new talent […] one of the best rock'n'roll band at the present time ». After three years on the road gaining both critical success and a strong following, The Mondrians recorded their first album in Spain with producer Gordon Raphael (The Strokes, Regina Spektor). You will necessarily fall in love with this record full of energy, with lively songs and soft ballades. Their brand new album is scheduled to come out mid-november this year on distributed by Irascible. For the most impatient, you can already have an idea of how talented these four boys are, by downloading a few songs of To The Happy Few, following the link below. http://www.justbecause.ch/archive_703E32363B3D3E.htmlSamual Galley2012-03-08T17:24:14 This is a beautiful story. Three vagabonds travel across the world with no direction home, record music whilst on the road, meet up in New York City, and form a band. Drawing a symbiotic balance from the soundtracks of West Africa, Turkey and beyond, Brainfeeder hip-hop, UK Bass and 60s psychedelic soul, Young Magic is an ethereal exploration into past and future. Appearing at Iceland’s Airwaves festival in October 2011, New York’s CMJ festival in the same month and touring as main support for Youth Lagoon nationally throughout America and Canada this November, Young Magic’s sound is spreading far and wide in the lead up too the release of their debut album Melt on Carpark Records February 14th 2012. Young Magic began with singer and songducer Isaac Emmanuel. In early 2010 he quit his world and left his hometown in Australia with all of his belongings packed into a suitcase. He wandered through northern Europe, across the UK, over to New York City then down to Mexico, recording with a microphone, his voice and whatever instruments he would find along the way. There were no plans, no accommodation and insurance: instead couch surfing with friends, always low on coin, always high on the thrill of it all. Whilst living in a small Mexican town called Tepoztlan, Isaac had been in touch with an old friend from Melbourne who was on his own world adventure, Michael Italia. A musician and photographer who was also traveling around the world with little more than a backpack, and some portable recording gear, and producing sounds to document the journey. He found himself drifting across Southern Europe and the UK, and eventually hitch-hiking across South America. Volunteering wherever he could in exchange for food and accommodation, he spent months on the road writing and recording material for what would later make up part of the Young Magic record. Back in New York, Indonesian born Melati Malay was making beautifully wistful songs, ghost spirits caressing perfectly still bodies. The Brooklyn based vocalist had met Isaac and Michael a few years earlier, and they immediately shared a common love of sounds with an eternal rhythm, big and delicate, sounds that help you drift up and off, sounds to make your heart and head melt in equal measure. In early 2011 the three landed back in NY and rented a space above an illegal 1920s cabaret venue in Brooklyn. For the first time, it was becoming a band. They started recording together, collaborating, pulling all the pieces together like a puzzle ~ a collection of sounds and common experiences from the last year. Releasing a pair of 7”s in 2011, the band’s debut full length album Melt is set for release on February 14th 2012 through Carpark Records. http://www.justbecause.ch/archive_703E32363B3D3C.htmlSamual Galley2012-03-08T17:10:15 This is a beautiful story. Three vagabonds travel across the world with no direction home, record music whilst on the road, meet up in New York City, and form a band. Drawing a symbiotic balance from the soundtracks of West Africa, Turkey and beyond, Brainfeeder hip-hop, UK Bass and 60s psychedelic soul, Young Magic is an ethereal exploration into past and future. Appearing at Iceland’s Airwaves festival in October 2011, New York’s CMJ festival in the same month and touring as main support for Youth Lagoon nationally throughout America and Canada this November, Young Magic’s sound is spreading far and wide in the lead up too the release of their debut album Melt on Carpark Records February 14th 2012. Young Magic began with singer and songducer Isaac Emmanuel. In early 2010 he quit his world and left his hometown in Australia with all of his belongings packed into a suitcase. He wandered through northern Europe, across the UK, over to New York City then down to Mexico, recording with a microphone, his voice and whatever instruments he would find along the way. There were no plans, no accommodation and insurance: instead couch surfing with friends, always low on coin, always high on the thrill of it all. Whilst living in a small Mexican town called Tepoztlan, Isaac had been in touch with an old friend from Melbourne who was on his own world adventure, Michael Italia. A musician and photographer who was also traveling around the world with little more than a backpack, and some portable recording gear, and producing sounds to document the journey. He found himself drifting across Southern Europe and the UK, and eventually hitch-hiking across South America. Volunteering wherever he could in exchange for food and accommodation, he spent months on the road writing and recording material for what would later make up part of the Young Magic record. Back in New York, Indonesian born Melati Malay was making beautifully wistful songs, ghost spirits caressing perfectly still bodies. The Brooklyn based vocalist had met Isaac and Michael a few years earlier, and they immediately shared a common love of sounds with an eternal rhythm, big and delicate, sounds that help you drift up and off, sounds to make your heart and head melt in equal measure. In early 2011 the three landed back in NY and rented a space above an illegal 1920s cabaret venue in Brooklyn. For the first time, it was becoming a band. They started recording together, collaborating, pulling all the pieces together like a puzzle ~ a collection of sounds and common experiences from the last year. Releasing a pair of 7”s in 2011, the band’s debut full length album Melt is set for release on February 14th 2012 through Carpark Records. http://www.justbecause.ch/archive_703E32363B3D3A.htmlSamual Galley2012-03-08T17:07:27 Haugesund, an idyllic small town by the Norwegian west coast in the mid-nineties. Susanne Sundfør likes growing up here. The astute ten year old’s favorite hangout is the library, for she loves to immerse herself in books. She also enjoys the cinema, and withdrawing to her parents little cabin with her dad's tapes of a-ha and Cat Stevens. Susanne is having piano lessons as well. Proudly she presented her first composition to her teacher. “She told me to learn the piano properly first.“ An episode, which 25-year old Susanne has had to re-tell again and again. So often in fact, that the pianist and songwriter –the early discouragement would not put her off eventually – has been quoted as saying; „I feel a bit sorry for her, because so many people have picked up on it. It was only a silly piano tune. I don't think she was really at fault.“  It is still a great way  to introduce Susanne Sundfør, darling of the critics. The artist that collects awards as well as chart hits and about whom the national newspaper Dagbladet wrote: “Norways other young artists have to cry when they hear her, so far is she ahead of them.” That daily newspaper is not exaggerating. We can hear that on The Brothel (2010). This is a record unlike any you have heard before. It is artistic. It is deep. It is ambient. It is exotic. It is brimming with tension. Piano-lines fight against and melt into woodwind to suddenly burst into industrial samples. We hear ensembles of strings and sounds from the hard drive harmonize with arabian harmonies (“Turkish Delight”) or choral hymns (“Father Father”). Above all this: Susanne’s voice. She is belting, she is soothing, wallowing, whispering and wailing. She always hits the perfect tone in this enchanted world of sound of hers. The record has been a turning point for Susanne Sundfør, not only because it is the first to be released outside her home country. “I don't think I really decided that I really wanted to to dedicate my life to making music until I was 22, when i finished my last album. Before I wasn't sure if maybe I did want a normal job.” So Susanne would immerse herself even more deeply in the creation of her third album, collaborating with some of the biggest names of the Norwegian scene happy to lend a hand. http://www.justbecause.ch/archive_703E32363B3D38.htmlSamual Galley2012-03-06T17:29:49 Following the release of new single ‘Silicon’ through Distiller Records, Sound of Guns announce their biggest tour to date in support of new album ‘Angels & Enemies’, which drops March 5th. Recorded at the Distillery in Bath, the album was produced by Dave Eringa who has previously worked with The Manic Street Preachers and Ocean Colour Scene. Having already secured a headline slot at HMV’s Next Big Thing in February 2012 and being nominated for the 2011 XFM New Music Award, Sound Of Guns kicked off the new year with support from XFM’s Mary Anne Hobbs, a slot on her evening playlist, Single of the Week on Rich Walters XFM show and BBC Radio 1 support from Zane Lowe and Huw Stephens. Discovered by BBC Introducing, Sound of Guns have developed as a band since releasing their debut album ‘What Came From Fire’, which was one of the ten albums shortlisted for the 2011 XFM's New Music Award. Having now crafted ten new and original tracks for ‘Angels & Enemies’, Sound of Guns have their sights set once again at the top. The journey for Sound of Guns has been far from dull. Since forming, the band have gone from having their guitars stolen, studio burnt to the ground to being surrounded by armed police (a misunderstanding after a local at a gig heard the band talking about ‘guns’). More recently they have toured with The View, performed at Radio One’s Big Weekend, Glastonbury, Reading, Leeds and recorded at the legendary BBC Maida Vale studios Sound Of Guns are not afraid to appeal to the masses. With the support of Mary Anne Hobbs, Radio One heavyweights and bands including Everything Everything, Miles Kane, The Courteeners and Delphic, it’s now time for Sound of Guns to take centre stage. http://www.justbecause.ch/archive_703E32363B3C3C.htmlSamual Galley2012-03-01T15:54:32 Diagrams may be an unfamiliar name, but the voice will be instantly recognisable: this is the new project of Sam Genders, former co-frontman and songwriter of experimental folkies Tunng. Diagrams bears all the invention and imagination of the band Genders founded with Mike Lindsay, who has led Tunng since Genders’s departure, but channels it in a different direction. This is crisp, minimalist pop music that fizzes with electronic effects, synth-bass, programmed beats and low-key funk grooves, bringing to mind the leftfield pop of Arthur Russell, Metronomy, Hot Chip, Steve Mason and Peter Gabriel. It’s a new, playfully eclectic side of Genders’s songwriting, but one that maintains the colourful and impressionistic lyrical imagery he’s famous for – Antelope talks of a girl with “Tiny ants under her skin, sending messages to her mind.” A solo project of sorts, Diagrams sees Genders working with a rolling cast of collaborators including Danyal Dhondy (string arrangements), Laura Hocking (vocals), Hannah Peel (backing vocals and trombone) and drummers Matt McKenzie and Tom Marsh. Live it expands to an all conquering nine-piece who made their debut to an ecstatically full tent at this year’s End Of The Road festival. It’s named Diagrams for the defining sound of clean, sharp production and programming Genders has cooked up with co-producer Mark Brydon. “I feel like this music is less lo-fi than the music I’ve made in the past,” says Genders. “It’s quite precise and angular in places, so Diagrams felt perfect.” That idea extends to Diagrams’s visual side too: graphic artist Chrissie Abbott has created Flatland-inspired imagery incorporating clean lines and polygons. Diagrams marks Streatham Hill-based Genders’s return to performance. After quitting Tunng, his professional focus fell on production and writing for artists such as former Gomez frontman Ben Ottewell and Brazilian chanteuse Cibelle. Personally, he’s been preoccupied with getting his life back on track. “I was in quite a dark place personally before and, to an extent, during Tunng and I needed to stop and take a break to work on myself a bit and find my self-confidence,” he says. “I cured myself by working in an inner city primary school for three years! I’ve come out of myself a lot and the music has come from that.” That period of reinvention has ingrained itself in Black Light. The riff-driven Ghost Lit is about, “How relationships can bring up all the ghosts from your past and reveal all your worst insecurities;” the reflective Night All Night is about, “Fighting off your demons and trusting that it's ok to be in a relationship.” Most tellingly, Appetite is inspired by Genders’s experience of getting his life back on track. “I read a lot of psychology and self help stuff and I've found it very helpful,” says Genders. “I think it's helped me to change from an insecure and unhappy person into someone who genuinely enjoys life. Nonetheless, I've always felt inclined to keep those books in a brown paper bag in a cupboard underneath the sink. Appetite is either a tongue in cheek parody of the self help mindset or it's my attempt to write a song that celebrates the sheer 'bloody hell what an amazing experience'-ness of life. I'm more inclined towards the latter view these days.” The title, Black Light, sums up Genders’s experience: “I like the idea that good and bad or dark and light aren't always so clear. Sometimes the most difficult experiences can lead to the best things in life. Life is full of good and bad, dark and light. That's just how it is.” http://www.justbecause.ch/archive_703E32363B3C36.htmlSamual Galley2012-02-28T11:02:55 Originally conceived as a guitar based project, NZCALINES has been transformed into a suave, synth-pop sensation that combines pop melodies with R [and] B beats and lush arrangements with multi layered harmonies. Produced by fellow LOAF/LO label-mate Charlie Alex March and mixed by Ash Workman (Simian Mobile Disco Club, Metronomy etc), together with main man Michael Lovett they’ve created one of the years most thrilling debut albums. From the opening bars it’s clear that there’s a unique and beautiful talent at work. Something about the clarity of the arrangements, the crisp harmonies and insidious melodies that sets it apart from other releases. Shimmering slices of dream pop the like of which have not been heard since Scritti Politti’s ‘Cupid [and] Psyche’ , follow one after another to create a future world rooted in timeless magic. It’s partly that timeless quality that makes the music feel so good (a lineage that stretches back to the Beach Boys, check the barbershop harmonies that make up ‘AM Travel Interlude’) and partly the exhilaration you feel as you zoom into the future taking in The Neptunes, Junior Boys, Timbaland and Bogdan Raczynski along the way. In the same way that the great Nazca Lines of Peru from which NZCA LINES take their name, can only be perceived from high above, so the music of NZCA LINES can only be taken in gradually, such is its scope and depth. Think of it as a musical teleportation system beaming sounds and vibrations from different eras into the present whilst at the same time projecting them into the future. There’s already been significant press attention with features in Dazed, The Guardian and NME and there’s now a fully focused live show which encompasses a drummer and bassist, leaving Michael free to emote in style. NZCA LINES tomorrow is yours. http://www.justbecause.ch/archive_703E32363B3B3A.htmlSamual Galley2012-02-27T17:19:50 While their songs are far-reaching and musically fantastical, Swimming’s roots are somewhat closer to home. The band is the brainchild of idiosyncratic lead-vocalist John Sampson, who has lived variously in Australia, England and Cocos Island before settling in Nottingham. The band consists of his brother Peter (aka The Petebox)– together with Joff Spittlehouse, Blake Pearson (who creates the band's artwork) and most recently Sam Potter of Late of the Pier. Swimming self-released their debut album The Fireflow Trade on their own Colourschool Records, an eclectic collection which saw them compared to over 50 other artists Autechre to Late of the Pier, Eno to Sonic Youth. It found a place in many 2009 ‘Best of’ lists, including The Fly, and paved the way for a European tour and attention from the US. After regrouping back in Nottinghamshire and working on new material, a new single, Sun In The Island, was released on EVR Records by New York’s influential East Village Radio, and received across-the-board support from Radio 1, NME, The Fly, Q and The Times. One of the station’s DJs, Tim ‘Love’ Lee, was so smitten by the band that he offered them an album deal on his own Tummy Touch Records for their second album, Ecstatics International. Ecstatics International spawned the single Neutron Wireless Crystal, an imaginative blend of swirling synths, psychedelic rock, drum machines and intense, melodic pop. The album itself was critically lauded by the likes of Q (“Hypnotic”), The Fly, The Guardian, Metro (“Anthemic”) and Artrocker (“Simply Majestic”), and was listed in Clash magazine’s Top 10 debuts of the year. Swimming songs are uniformly uplifting. They never wallow in the mire; rather, they are joyous, all-embracing affairs with the capacity to reach, and touch, thousands. “People tell me they meditate to our songs, that such and such a track helped them through difficult times,” says John. Despite couching his ideas in metaphors and esoteric language, the intention is not to be inaccessible or obscure, but to express their positive messages to as broad an audience as possible. As well as acclaim for their songwriting and a steadily swelling fanbase, Swimming are also attracting attention for their innovative approach to sound recording. As well as incorporating field recordings and found sounds into their songs, they’ve also collaborated with Dallas Simpson on a series of binaural recordings. The technique, which creates 3D stereo sound by using two microphones, allows the listener to hear ‘through the ears’ of Simpson as he moves around while the band performs. They recently played a headphone-only binaural show at Nottingham’s Broadway Cinema, and a short documentary on a series of their outdoor binaural recordings premiered at the Berlin International Directors Lounge in February. It was also the subject of a six page feature in the industry’s sound recording bible, Sound On Sound. Swimming are now touring Europe with The Megaphonic Thrift, and will shortly release a new double A-side single, All Things Made New / I Do (Come True). http://www.justbecause.ch/archive_703E32363B3B36.htmlSamual Galley2012-02-27T16:02:06 the first White Rabbits album, “Fort Nightly” was released in May 2007 on Say Hey records.  Jamie, who had originally been brought on as manager, was recruited as an actual band member as the band realized their increasingly complex and intertwining rhythms required another drummer (and as a manager, Jamie was a fantastic drummer), and such was the beginning of the sound and material that would become album #2. White Rabbits' critically acclaimed sophomore album “It’s Frightening” was released in May 2009, featuring what the band felt was a more stripped down, abrasive approach--you know, the tried and true formula for career suicide...  which resulted in the song, “Percussion Gun,” which racked up a million hits on Youtube and wound up featured everywhere from “Friday Night Lights” to FIFA World Cup. The band’s new album, “Milk Famous,” is set to be released on March 6th.  The title of the record, “Milk Famous,” Stephen explains as meaning, “To be known but not for something you intended to be known for.” Which you may have figured out on your own. Or you might have wondered for a while what it meant if he hadn't said that. Or just wondered what becomes of the truly "Milk Famous" late in their careers. Like Bobby Brown. Is he alive? I mean, how stupid are you going to feel if you're trying to think of other people who are “Milk Famous” when Bobby Brown could be lying face down in a ditch? “Milk Famous” is both the third White Rabbits album, and the band's second release for tbd records, the label most famous for being Radiohead’s current home. You’ve probably already heard “Heavy Metal,” the first track from "Milk Famous" to go public, which will prepare you for the upcoming single, “Temporary.” Singles are a funny thing, y’know? That is, in terms of someone choosing which song you should listen to first. But with an album as hauntingly textured yet awe-inspiringly pop, we could all benefit from some assistance on a solid starting point. And your starting point may be loving "Heavy Metal" or it may be loving “Temporary.” But you’ll equally love other songs such as "Back For More” (which Stephen and Alex produced themselves), “I'm Not Me,” “The Day You Won the War," "I Had It Coming"... Hell, there isn't a clunker in the bunch. And if you disagree, you are listening to music incorrectly. Go back and start from scratch. Finally, and somewhat unrelated, I’m told Bobby Brown is definitely not in a ditch. Maybe Elvis Costello could write a sweet tune about Bobby Brown dying in a ditch. I bet it would be vaguely creepy but ridiculously catchy. Kinda’ like the new White Rabbits record. Make sure to ask the band what they think about that when you see them live on tour this year. http://www.justbecause.ch/archive_703E32363B3A3E.htmlSamual Galley2012-02-27T15:41:29 If a year is a long time in politics, five years in music can be a career. The fact that 120 Days have taken half a decade to deliver the follow up to their debut album might have counted against them, especially in a world where things have never seemed more ephemeral, even more so since they flippantly admit that they spent as much time “lucid dreaming and partying” as they did “recording and touring”. But there’s no point making a record when you’re not ready, as any band forced to return to the studio prematurely will tell you. The old adage about having a lifetime to make your first record and only a few months to make the second is based upon truth, and 120 Days will testify to that, having entirely scrapped their original follow up. They had good reason: by the time they’d concluded the heavy touring that followed the late 2006 release of their self-titled debut, they were, quite simply, “sick of seeing each other’s faces”. Friends since they were teenagers – some of them since they used to kick a football around at the age of seven – in the Western Norwegian “nowhere town” of Kristiansund (not to be mistaken with the bigger Kristiansand), they were forced into even closer proximity when they moved to Oslo to kickstart their career and shared a Winnebago. To make matters worse, it was parked under an abandoned bridge in an area where all the city’s junkies had begun to congregate after the police had chased them from the capital’s main station. It’s no wonder, then, given the intensity of the band’s early years and the pressure they felt when they found success, that they deemed their first attempts to record a follow-up as failures. 120 Days have been playing together since 2001, initially using the name The Beautiful People, and their debut took them around the world, from America, where they signed with Vice Records, to Japan, where they played to crowds of 17,000 who all knew singer Ådne’s name (even if they pronounced it ‘Ooh, Da Nee’). It won them two Norwegian Grammys – they accepted these by playing a pre-recorded speech to the audience on a cassette player they held under the microphone – and was not only critically acclaimed but also commercially successful, especially in their homeland. But those subsequent five years have given them valuable, well-earned perspective, and their second attempt at a sophomore album proves that it’s worth taking a little time out. 120 Days II is darker, dirtier, fiercer and sharper than a debut full of, as Pitchfork loftily put it, “towering edifices”, one which the website also claimed possessed “the conviction that all this technology has the potential to amplify, not suppress, the transmission of human emotion, should humans be courageous enough to try”. To put it rather more simply, this new one is even better than the first. The roots of their new, advanced level of savagery are varied: time spent working with other artists, including Serena Maneesh, Bygdin and Masselys, have undoubtedly broadened their horizons, and their equally broadened tastes in music have no doubt done wonders for their writing. Alongside Kraftwerk, Joy Divison, Neu!, The Cure and Primal Scream – XTRMNTR-era, naturally – new influences have come into play: “the hard minimalist industrial sound of Detroit Techno, the transcendental drone jazz of (early) Alice Coltrane, and the over-the-top orchestral maximalism of Wagnerian opera,” they claim rather magnificently. “When we recorded our debut, we were very much into minimalism, and a ‘changing chords is for pussies’ dogma. In the first years after we released it, we went even further in that direction, so, in a way, you could say that the scrapped sessions were our minimalist peak, and after that we started playing around with song structure again. 120 Days 2.0 sometimes likes listening to the Carpenters. We would never admit that before!” In truth, any evidence of The Carpenters’ influence on 120 Days II is as hard to discern as were the traumas that lay behind the lives of that particular hit-making duo. But though the band are happy to admit that they’re a bit older – “Some of us even managed to have kids!” – they’re quick to add that, “we wouldn’t use the word ‘mature’. We're mostly well behaved, but sometimes our Viking blood takes us on a rampage ride. The four of us sometimes seem to be a bad influence on each other.” So if one assumes that this is as true inside the studio as it is outside, it’s worth considering some of the scrapes they’ve got themselves into over recent years. These have included stealing a forklift truck at Japan’s Summersonic Festival, where they attempted to pick up Avril Lavigne’s car, something which may have ended in failure but still didn’t prevent “two very drunk Norwegians with nothing but shoes, shorts, sunglasses and two beers each” reaching the nearby freeway. Singer Ådne was also nearly strangled in his dressing room by an irate American after he jokingly did the rounds kissing everyone backstage while wearing heavy makeup. “And that was in San Francisco!” they laugh. But, though this is a band that took their name from the Marquis De Sade’s 120 Days Of Sodom, there’s a serious side to the quartet too. Take Ådne, who’s developed a hobby making conversation with religious fanatics. “When two Jehovah's Witnesses came knocking on his door,” Kjetil confides, “he invited them in and talked until they left on their own initiative. They still come back. And every Friday, Ådne spends an hour or so reading and arguing with them. They're already halfway through the Old Testament. Ådne is still atheist, though. More than ever.” They’re just as thoughtful about the recording process as they are about the meaning of life. The dense textures of 120 Days II are ample proof of their careful approach, as are the complex, winding paths that each track takes and the fact that they’re letting the machines do far more of the talking, the vocal lines now significantly less abundant. Listen to the manner in which they let the fuse burn before the ten minute ‘Dahle Disco’ finally explodes, while ‘Sleepless Nights’ is a disorientating sliced eyeball of organic, psychedelic, electronic shoegaze, My Bloody Valentine filtered through a love of Vangelis. Or there’s the crunching, atonal arpeggios of ‘Lucid Dreams 3’, which roll over a middle ground somewhere between Underworld’s melodic narratives and the electro-industrial aggression of Skinny Puppy, maybe even Cabaret Voltaire. And there’s ‘SF’, evidence of their deep understanding of dynamics, and, judging from those woozy synths and the paranoia that rears its head at random moments throughout the track, possible proof that – following that strangling incident in the city after which the track is named – they may have experienced other ‘influences’ than the ones they traditionally exert on each another. Finally it ends with ‘Osaka’, a euphoric but filthy climax to a relentless journey, the perfect end, and yet also the perfect beginning - it will be the album’s first single. Like the entire collection, it’s far heavier on the synths than they used to be with their guitars. As they put it, “Right now, we don't know what's more rock'n'roll: rock or techno!” So, five years it may have taken to make, but they – or at least the years – weren’t wasted in any way. “This time we did almost all the recording, engineering, thinking and fighting in our own studio,” they point out. “It's great in the way that you're in complete control of the finished music, but it probably takes a little longer!” Fortunately, parts of the early rejected work in the end bore fruit. “Some of the musical ideas, melodies and beats survived,” they elaborate. “The skeleton of ‘Osaka’, the chord changes in ‘Sunkissed’ and the synth hook in ‘Lucid Dreams’ all had their birth in that first session. We took the best ideas with us, and scrapped the rest.” As it happens, their process is naturally intuitive and open. “We never start out knowing exactly what the final mix is going to sound like,” they explain. “Making music for us is an open-ended process of trial and error. It's like you start out in complete darkness, light a candle, and build from what you see. It's about creating from nothing, to try to make the music we want to hear. The only guideline is whether or not we like it. It’s never, ‘Is this what people want?’ For us, music is communication, and it doesn't help that someone has a pleasant voice if what they're saying is shit.” So here they are, at last: 120 Days, Norway’s finest, back once again, wiser, leaner, a little older for sure, but definitely no less wild. The perfect combination, if you think about it, and that’s definitely how they see it: “It’s been an adventure, but we're all glad we don't have to search for leftover syringe needles in the dark before going to bed anymore,” they conclude, looking back one last time. “We wouldn't have existed without the craziness. It's a part of our history now. We're sure there’ll be more, though…” http://www.justbecause.ch/archive_703E32363B3A3A.htmlSamual Galley2012-02-27T15:12:14 Virtue This album isn't about Emmy The Great.   This album wasn't meant to be about Emmy The Great.   But this album is all about Emmy The Great. It began as a series of stories just after her engagement to an atheist; after he left for the church, she realised who the stories were about.   Euan Hinshelwood, the other man in Emmy’s life, and Emmy had started work again. First Love, their debut album, felt like a long time ago.  Emmy was due to be married, writing songs about characters being trapped in strange situations, and the need for the characters to make their way through it.  Together, they were thinking of ways to develop the sounds of the songs, to create heightened shapes and textures. Emmy started using symbols borrowed from fairy tales and mythology in her lyrics – people trapped in houses and towers, overgrowing hair and flowers. Then she added the icons that have replaced them in our modern consciousness – industrial buildings, mushroom clouds, West London’s Trellick Tower. This was Emmy’s personal collection of myths that she fitted to her music – a genre she refers to, to herself, as digital medieval. She knew that we all have archetypal stories working away in our subconscious; that we sometimes we don’t know the difference between being awake and being asleep; how our dreams are meant to teach us things, give us messages; how songs, those tricky creatures, also live in that space. She was experiencing vivid dreams that spoke to her about the strange isolation of engagement, and of the possibility of dark times to come.   Emmy noticed that women only make it through the woods in big myths – knotty, gnarled and foreboding –  if they keep their virtue. As a forthright, young woman, as scalpel-sharp as she is sweet, coldly clinical in her writing but still oddly comforting, she felt lost in the woods twice while writing the album, she says - first when she got engaged, and became the bride-to-be, when a culture’s worth of female roles came and swallowed her up. The maidens, the sirens, the witches, the sybils. The second time came when the stitches came apart. He left their flat one-day, and never came back. He had undergone a rapid conversion to Christianity, and left the country. Emmy stayed behind with the pieces, the cancellations, the confusions. She hid in the country at her parents’ house, got lost in books about saints, archetypes, and folk tales, trying to make the world work. She went weird, she says. But she didn’t want the album to be about her. It had to save her from what had happened, but be about everything. Virtue was made in London and Sussex. This time round, Euan and Emmy took the reins, rather than develop the songs with their full band in the studio. Euan came up with the guitar palette, strange, ambient, twisted and atmospheric, while Emmy wrote backing vocals for different voices – hysterical women, nuns and sirens, who she voiced herself. The ghosts of the Cocteau Twins and Suzanne Vega are here, as well as the stories of Margaret  Atwood and Angela Carter, and the writing of cultural theorists like Marina Warner. Emmy wanted a cast for this album, to lift up the world she was trying to conjure, and kept albums in mind that have similar ambitions – Neutral Milk Hotel’s In The Aeroplane Over The Sea; Janelle Monae’s The Archandroid. While making it, she listened to girly pop like The Bangles, tempered with religious choirs, folk from the South Pacific, while Euan became obsessed with post-punk and Bulgarian choirs. They even spent a night Googling Enya.  Gareth Jones – known for his work with These New Puritans, Depeche Mode and Grizzly Bear ­­– was their producer. He indulged their romanticism, but understood their wish to make the music sound precise, rather than precious. Emmy also knew she had to let go, and this was the time to do it – to confront things without fear, to throw her head high, say what she thought, things she couldn’t say to herself without music. It’s this record, she says, that’s made her feel like a person.   Dinosaur Sex introduces us to a world where power stations shiver weep and leak, where trees shed their leaves, and the future is told in them. Century Of Sleep reveals a woman alone in her house as rosemary grows, and she “shifts into greenery”, and the pipes are “running bone”. Iris appears, and wonders if sights could take her eyes; Cassandra daily sees something coming, gives warnings, but can’t run.  Creation imagines phantom limbs, characters wanting to be inked, Exit Night an accident coming, and the sound of sirens. North tells of missionaries who feel they have the map of humanity, without understanding some hearts beat to other rhythms. And Trellick Tower tells us Emmy’s story from its seeds to its blossom, praying for the pain to clear, as he waits on ascension.   This is a record, Emmy says, waiting for one person to get in touch - a person who will say, that happened to me too. Another person who doesn’t want to curl up, lost forever in the roots and the undergrowth, vanishing into mythic memory, into the mulch. Another person who wants to howl, endure, survive.   Virtue gives us songs for our battle sleeves. Emmy The Great wears theirs for all of us. http://www.justbecause.ch/archive_703E32363B3A38.htmlSamual Galley2012-02-27T15:10:25 Virtue This album isn't about Emmy The Great.   This album wasn't meant to be about Emmy The Great.   But this album is all about Emmy The Great. It began as a series of stories just after her engagement to an atheist; after he left for the church, she realised who the stories were about.   Euan Hinshelwood, the other man in Emmy’s life, and Emmy had started work again. First Love, their debut album, felt like a long time ago.  Emmy was due to be married, writing songs about characters being trapped in strange situations, and the need for the characters to make their way through it.  Together, they were thinking of ways to develop the sounds of the songs, to create heightened shapes and textures. Emmy started using symbols borrowed from fairy tales and mythology in her lyrics – people trapped in houses and towers, overgrowing hair and flowers. Then she added the icons that have replaced them in our modern consciousness – industrial buildings, mushroom clouds, West London’s Trellick Tower. This was Emmy’s personal collection of myths that she fitted to her music – a genre she refers to, to herself, as digital medieval. She knew that we all have archetypal stories working away in our subconscious; that we sometimes we don’t know the difference between being awake and being asleep; how our dreams are meant to teach us things, give us messages; how songs, those tricky creatures, also live in that space. She was experiencing vivid dreams that spoke to her about the strange isolation of engagement, and of the possibility of dark times to come.   Emmy noticed that women only make it through the woods in big myths – knotty, gnarled and foreboding –  if they keep their virtue. As a forthright, young woman, as scalpel-sharp as she is sweet, coldly clinical in her writing but still oddly comforting, she felt lost in the woods twice while writing the album, she says - first when she got engaged, and became the bride-to-be, when a culture’s worth of female roles came and swallowed her up. The maidens, the sirens, the witches, the sybils. The second time came when the stitches came apart. He left their flat one-day, and never came back. He had undergone a rapid conversion to Christianity, and left the country. Emmy stayed behind with the pieces, the cancellations, the confusions. She hid in the country at her parents’ house, got lost in books about saints, archetypes, and folk tales, trying to make the world work. She went weird, she says. But she didn’t want the album to be about her. It had to save her from what had happened, but be about everything. Virtue was made in London and Sussex. This time round, Euan and Emmy took the reins, rather than develop the songs with their full band in the studio. Euan came up with the guitar palette, strange, ambient, twisted and atmospheric, while Emmy wrote backing vocals for different voices – hysterical women, nuns and sirens, who she voiced herself. The ghosts of the Cocteau Twins and Suzanne Vega are here, as well as the stories of Margaret  Atwood and Angela Carter, and the writing of cultural theorists like Marina Warner. Emmy wanted a cast for this album, to lift up the world she was trying to conjure, and kept albums in mind that have similar ambitions – Neutral Milk Hotel’s In The Aeroplane Over The Sea; Janelle Monae’s The Archandroid. While making it, she listened to girly pop like The Bangles, tempered with religious choirs, folk from the South Pacific, while Euan became obsessed with post-punk and Bulgarian choirs. They even spent a night Googling Enya.  Gareth Jones – known for his work with These New Puritans, Depeche Mode and Grizzly Bear ­­– was their producer. He indulged their romanticism, but understood their wish to make the music sound precise, rather than precious. Emmy also knew she had to let go, and this was the time to do it – to confront things without fear, to throw her head high, say what she thought, things she couldn’t say to herself without music. It’s this record, she says, that’s made her feel like a person.   Dinosaur Sex introduces us to a world where power stations shiver weep and leak, where trees shed their leaves, and the future is told in them. Century Of Sleep reveals a woman alone in her house as rosemary grows, and she “shifts into greenery”, and the pipes are “running bone”. Iris appears, and wonders if sights could take her eyes; Cassandra daily sees something coming, gives warnings, but can’t run.  Creation imagines phantom limbs, characters wanting to be inked, Exit Night an accident coming, and the sound of sirens. North tells of missionaries who feel they have the map of humanity, without understanding some hearts beat to other rhythms. And Trellick Tower tells us Emmy’s story from its seeds to its blossom, praying for the pain to clear, as he waits on ascension.   This is a record, Emmy says, waiting for one person to get in touch - a person who will say, that happened to me too. Another person who doesn’t want to curl up, lost forever in the roots and the undergrowth, vanishing into mythic memory, into the mulch. Another person who wants to howl, endure, survive.   Virtue gives us songs for our battle sleeves. Emmy The Great wears theirs for all of us.