Elizabete Balcus 'IKA' Wall of Sound Reviewed by John Robbins

Elizabete Balcus hails from Riga in Latvia, and having started her career making a hybrid of pop and baroque classical styles, she's now opted to fuse her gorgeous voice and fluttering flute with very assured sounding electronics.  The results are quite unique.

We'd first been alerted to her music by various reports of her spectacular and unashamedly eccentric live appearances at a number of festivals over the summer, where reports of a leotard-clad Balcus playing an array of MIDI-synched vegetables had got a number of different reviewers pouring forth with the praise.  A great live show doesn't always equate to a corking recorded output though, but we're happy to report that 'IKA', the first song from a forthcoming second album is very definitely living up to the hype.

With its lyrics based around the ancient Greek myth of Icarus, who flew too close to the sun and plunged to a watery grave when his wings melted, it's a curious but compelling mixture of a mutated two step garage bassline, washing ambient soundscapes, that trademark flute sound and a haunting vocal performance.  You've got to particularly love the track's central hook, which is just Balcus laughing to herself.  You can look forward to eliciting plenty of strange looks from onlookers when you spontaneously sing it aloud top yourself in public.  Which, take it from us, you will do.

With mushrooming fan bases around Europe especially - the Italians were on the case early and particularly love her - she is venturing away from her Latvian base more and more, and no doubt will be playing the Uk again soon, after a storming Camden show in support of Extricate faves Gabi Garbutt & The Illuminations back in June.  In the meantime, we'd recommend five portions of 'IKA' a day for healthy living. 

Hear Elizabete Balcus on Soundcloud: here

Text by John Robbins 2018

In The Studio with James Johnston

Richard Barr has taken 10 photos of James Johnston in his South London Studio...

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ARTIFICIALLY YOURS: ' THE MERGER' 1-2-3-4 RECORDS Reviewed by John Robbins

To see ARIFICIAALY YOURS's video click: here

Punk attitude comes in many shapes and sizes these days, as befits something which was more of an idea and an attitude more than a sound. What is for sure, though, is whether you're talking about Sleaford Mods or Aphex Twin, it's something that is instantly recognisable. It might be hard to define, but God, you certainly know it when you hear it.

And the Colchester-based trio Artificially Yours definitely have by the truckload. Their songs are about living life in the commuter belt anonymity of M25 satellite towns being destroyed by international corporates and the sinister forces that have a stranglehold on the globe. All delivered with a derisory sneer from behind dark glasses, accompanied by the throb of cheap laptop electronics, purloined hip-hop beats and slashing, molten metal guitars.

Like another more famous Colchester band we could mention, they definitely believe that modern life is rubbish, But while they may share a slice of the bored restlessness and erudite sarcasm that informed Blur, it feels like the solution Artificially Yours have is not to observe from the sidelines, but rather get stuck with active resistance, to fight back.

So while 'The Merger', the lead track from their current EP of the same name on the 1-2-3-4 label might, on the surface, seems to be about apocalypse and the imminent collapse of society – with perhaps a nod to Killing Joke, the video splices riot scenes with North Korean military parades and mushroom clouds – there's a vibe of positive fightback lurking just beneath. Far from being a depressing thing, it seems to be saying 'the old world is falling apart, it's up to us to rebuild it in our own image.'

The music is violent but energising, built on piledriving riffs and a haze of warm fuzzy distortion, topped off with spacey wooshes and dives, evoking the days before the Pistols when John Lydon used to skulk around the back of Hawkwind gigs selling acid.

This is only one fact to their sound, as recent gigs have show they're equally adept at cheeky and very catchy hip-hop influenced grooves too. But as introductions go, it's a pretty spectacular and no holds barred way to enter the arena.

'The Merger' EP is released on 24/08/18

Live dates:
29/08/18 – Old Blue Last, Shoreditch, London
12/09/18 – Monarch, Camden, London.

Jesus on Thyface reviewed by Simone Hoffs

Several short biographies of Jesus of Nazareth went on to become the best selling book of all time. Jesus on Thyface may not sell quite as many copies as The Bible but it does contain a lot more laughs. The more familiar you are with the nonsense of Facebook the more you will laugh.

I love the timeline exchanges Jesus has with James the Less and James Zebedee:

Jesus: "What shall it profit the man if he gain the whole world and loses his own soul?"

(Sent Thursday 11th September 32AD at 4:09pm) 

James: "Oh, I know - the world!"

(posted at 4:27pm)

James Zebedee: "He was being rhetorical, dude." (posted at 4.29pm)

Yes, you guessed it - 'Jesus on Thyface' is a very silly book but if you loggeth in and signeth up you won't be disappointed. 

Other updates included: "John the Baptist has joined the group Cooking with Locusts". I also love the fact that Satan has 666 friends including Hitler and L Ron Hubbard, and his status is: "Fallen".

Text by Simone Hoffs 2018
'Jesus on Thyface' is written by Denise Haskew and Steve W Parker. The book is published by Simon and Schuster.

SIR-VERE 's new single: 'Night Time' reviewed by John Robbins

Extricate first encountered Sir-Vere when they headlined a jam-packed line up of Wall of Sound-affiliated live acts at Birthdays in Dalston. Among the many things to love about this trio of Milton Keynes misfits was the way they seemed the very opposite of the studied cool that their hipster-friendly surroundings appeared to demand of them. A shaven headed man in an x-rated t shirt stood behind the decks, one ear of his headphone clutched to his ear, as a syccession of crashing breakbeats, bleeps and rumbling basslines poured forth. To his right, cloth capped, bearded guitarist Gary Morland alternated between overdriven power chords and superfly funk licks, while front man Craig Hammond stood centre stage, throwing menacing, effect-laden vocal pronouncements into the resulting collision of sounds.

It's a sound that could only really have been concocted away from London and its legions of subcultural tribes, where every sub-genre is catered for. Sir-Vere sound more like the product of that one alternative space that exists in most towns and smaller cities, that bar or pub or club that acts as the only refuge from mainstream pop culture. Where you'll hear Prodigy or Kraftwerk on the jukebox one minute, AC/DC or Metallica the next, where Kraftwerk and Killing Joke rub shoulders with James Brown or Parliament on the playlist.

All of which is particularly relevant when it comes to their latest single 'Night Time', the teaser for their September-scheduled 'Psychoballistic Funk' album. The lyrics revolve around a weekend spent embracing smalltown delights to the full – jumping in taxis, hitting dancefloors, getting wasted and pursuing objects of desire, in this case a mysterious woman just back from Milan who plays her Rickenbacker “like Johnny Marr.”. The simple pleasures in life, basically.

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That's all set to a soundtrack that's every bit as riotous and unrestrained as their live show. Rampaging live drums processed with precision, guitars that sound closer to explosions than melody and vocals with just a whiff of the late, great Mark E Smith. It’s an irresistible combination whatever time of the day or night you encounter it, and one that’s got us salivating at the thought of their impending long player. Sir-Vere, we salute you Sir!

Text by John Robbins July 2018

Photo by Frazer Waller

All For You by Lara Smiles reviewed by Ben Willmott

The tag singer-songwriter brings certain images immediately to mind – acoustic guitars, floral dresses or beards (sadly, never together) and a misguided prioritising of navel gazing self-examination over good old-fashioned entertainment.

Luckily for us, these are all cliches that London singer-songwriter  Lara Smiles appears more than capable of neatly sidestepping.  Enlisting the production skills of Killing Joke bassist, McCartney collaborator and super-producer Youth, this is the first fruit of the sessions for her forthcoming debut album and it's quite the stonker.

'All For You' kicks off by laying down a slinky, tight funk groove – the press release namechecks ESG but to these ears it's more like their fellow NYC comrades Liquid Liquid – and then throws itself headlong into classic pop chorus in a hail of crunchy guitar crossfire.  The ghosts of the Big Apple's legendary punk petri dish CBGBs in general, and Blondie and Talking Heads in particular, seem to be coming out to play as the barriers between dance and rock, pop and punk, headbanging and footsto9mping all dissolve in front of our ears.

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Which, from what we've heard. is very much the modus operandi of the album to follow.  While it won't all sound like this – Smiles is just as fond of twisting the templates of electronic music to her needs as this guitar-heavy sound - it will doubtless show a similar disregard for convention, which is just how we like it. In the meantime, we challenge to hear this and not catch yourself humming it all next week.

Text by Ben Willmott 2018

Burnt Ends by Hot Sauce Pony reviewed by John Robbins

As Wiley mockingly asked in his hilarious, pigeonholer-mocking song of the same name.... 'Wot U Call It?!'

Well, that's not an easy one. A quick listen to 'Burnt Ends' – and at one minute, ten seconds, a quick listen truly is the only way to hear this song –reveals the following... A distorted bass intro that could be Lemmy in a particularly grumpy mood. A lurching groove that's so implausibly heavy it makes a good case for being included in the periodic table of elements. A rising wall of feedback fed through an array of mysterious pedals, and splintered guitar notes that sound like glass shattering. It's way too weird to be metal, too clever to be punk and it would have the average wimpy indie kid involuntarily evacuating their bowels in fear.

And above this amorphous explosion of sound, arrives the voice of Caroline Gilchirst, as pure and heavenly as her accompaniment is grimy and hellish. Just to add to the lovely confusion, you understand. 'Burnt Ends' is a teaser for this South London four piece's self-titled debut album, and in many ways it raises more questions than it answers, not least 'when can we have some more?!' Whatever it contains, we can only really be certain that it will be like nothing we've ever heard before.

On closer inspection, their promotional bumph reveals that the band themselves have created a name for it – avant hard. It makes total sense, even if you're unlikely to find a section devoted to it in Rough Trade. So take up their challenge and immerse yourself in the sonic equivalent of a star collapsing on itself or the atom being very violently split Go on – come and have a go if you think you're avant hard enough.

'Burnt Ends' is out on Brixton Hillbilly on June 22. 

Text by John Robbins May 2018