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Arcade Fire – Reflektor

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Arcade Fire – Reflektor

A grand - sometimes cacophonous - inquisition into what comes next... Sooner or later, it all comes down to intimations of mortality, musings on the impermanence of life and thoughts on what comes next, if indeed there is a next. Reflektor, the Arcade Fire’s fourth album, is full of such reflections. It's an album wracked with theological doubt and the agonies of bereavement, right from when the title track strides in on an electro pulse pickled with congas, and Win Butler proclaims, "If this is Heaven, I don't know what it's for/If I can't find you there, I don't care." Something, or rather somebody, has been lost, and that loss has had its domino effect, sending emotions tumbling in those left behind. But of course, it's not as simple as it seems, with Butler going on to reveal, "We fell in love when I was 19, I was staring at a screen." What sort of relationship was this? An erotic fixation with a distant screen icon? A Skyped liaison dangereuse? Or maybe just a narcissistic obsession with his own reflection? Questions, questions... As always with Arcade Fire, the meaning slips in and out of focus, but there's always a nagging return to the same concerns. Here, it's matters of mortality, departure, escape, return, whether it's the glam-rock boogie tribute to the martyred "Joan Of Arc" ("They put you down 'cos they got no heart"), or the further post-life ponderings of "Here Comes The Night Time", which speeds up and slows down abruptly before it's even started, eventually settling into a jerky, juddering two-step rhythm with oddball, offbeat piano and what sounds like steel pans. "If there's no music in Heaven, then what's it for?" asks Butler, going on to castigate missionaries for imposing their morality on others. Heaven, he believes, is "behind a gate, they won't let you in". But as he suggests, is it a party worth crashing? Doesn't the other DJ have all the best tunes? These and similar issues are broached throughout a sprawling double-album that's equal parts hardcore electro-rock, Talking Heads-style arty party album and vertiginous sonic maelstrom, eventually reaching some sort of conclusion with the penultimate track "After Life", a swirling dub-funk groove in which Butler claims, "After life, I think I saw what happens next". And what happens next, judging by the closing "Supersymmetry", is memory: "I know you're living in my mind," he sings. "It's not the same as being alive." The rolling momentum of organ, electric piano and congas gradually recedes, morphing into a closing passage of mild drone textures that doubles the track's length to 11 minutes, like evanescent, ghostly spirits flitting into the aether. So this is how the world ends: not with a beat but a whisper. In between these musings on mortality, Reflektor spurts off in various directions. "We Exist" strides in on a bassline that recalls "Black Is Black", with layer upon layer of banked keyboards building to a rolling tsunami of sound, overwhelming and possibly over-egged. "Flashbulb Eyes" opens with a harsh, brittle musique concrete of heavily reverbed electronic beats and noise, before settling into a reggae groove, a spiky dub whirlpool of echoing snare and zippy synth sounds. And perhaps the album's standout track, "It's Never Over", bowls along on a big, striding groove assailed by choppy funk guitar and itchy 16th-beat hihats that recall Miles Davis' On The Corner. It's also one of the wisest reflections here, Butler advising, "Seems like a big deal now/But you will get over/When you get older/You will discover it's never over." Then, right at the end, performs a volte-face and admits, "It's over too soon". Both "Normal Person" and "You Already Know" are heralded by bogus live gambits, the former with live ambience and stage platitude ("Thank you guys so much for coming out tonight"), the latter by an MC acclaiming "The fantastic Arcade Fire!" - though both songs soon disappear beneath a barrage of sound, sucked into a maelstrom of shrill guitars and plastered effects. This is a recurring aspect of Reflektor: the majority of tracks come in around the five or six-minute mark, and seem to expand in size along the way, as if the band can't resist adding more and more parts. Perhaps it's a side-effect of having such a big band of musicians: with so many involved, there may be an anxiety about justifying their position in the lineup. Some of these tracks would be vastly improved by paring away some of the swaddling layers of sound. "Awful Sound", for instance, starts out like a rolling Sun Ra-style drum processional with strings and sparse acoustic guitar chords, but soon drowns in waves of encumbering sound. But while the overall sound is massive, it's become somewhat restricted in tone and texture, most tracks careering towards climaxes of cacophonous synth whines and heavy rock guitars, a narrower palette than on previous albums. It's undeniably imposing, and typically impressive. But you know what? I sort of miss the hurdy-gurdies. Andy Gill

A grand – sometimes cacophonous – inquisition into what comes next…

Sooner or later, it all comes down to intimations of mortality, musings on the impermanence of life and thoughts on what comes next, if indeed there is a next. Reflektor, the Arcade Fire’s fourth album, is full of such reflections. It’s an album wracked with theological doubt and the agonies of bereavement, right from when the title track strides in on an electro pulse pickled with congas, and Win Butler proclaims, “If this is Heaven, I don’t know what it’s for/If I can’t find you there, I don’t care.” Something, or rather somebody, has been lost, and that loss has had its domino effect, sending emotions tumbling in those left behind. But of course, it’s not as simple as it seems, with Butler going on to reveal, “We fell in love when I was 19, I was staring at a screen.” What sort of relationship was this? An erotic fixation with a distant screen icon? A Skyped liaison dangereuse? Or maybe just a narcissistic obsession with his own reflection? Questions, questions…

As always with Arcade Fire, the meaning slips in and out of focus, but there’s always a nagging return to the same concerns. Here, it’s matters of mortality, departure, escape, return, whether it’s the glam-rock boogie tribute to the martyred “Joan Of Arc” (“They put you down ‘cos they got no heart”), or the further post-life ponderings of “Here Comes The Night Time“, which speeds up and slows down abruptly before it’s even started, eventually settling into a jerky, juddering two-step rhythm with oddball, offbeat piano and what sounds like steel pans. “If there’s no music in Heaven, then what’s it for?” asks Butler, going on to castigate missionaries for imposing their morality on others. Heaven, he believes, is “behind a gate, they won’t let you in”. But as he suggests, is it a party worth crashing? Doesn’t the other DJ have all the best tunes?

These and similar issues are broached throughout a sprawling double-album that’s equal parts hardcore electro-rock, Talking Heads-style arty party album and vertiginous sonic maelstrom, eventually reaching some sort of conclusion with the penultimate track “After Life”, a swirling dub-funk groove in which Butler claims, “After life, I think I saw what happens next”. And what happens next, judging by the closing “Supersymmetry“, is memory: “I know you’re living in my mind,” he sings. “It’s not the same as being alive.” The rolling momentum of organ, electric piano and congas gradually recedes, morphing into a closing passage of mild drone textures that doubles the track’s length to 11 minutes, like evanescent, ghostly spirits flitting into the aether. So this is how the world ends: not with a beat but a whisper.

In between these musings on mortality, Reflektor spurts off in various directions. “We Exist” strides in on a bassline that recalls “Black Is Black”, with layer upon layer of banked keyboards building to a rolling tsunami of sound, overwhelming and possibly over-egged. “Flashbulb Eyes” opens with a harsh, brittle musique concrete of heavily reverbed electronic beats and noise, before settling into a reggae groove, a spiky dub whirlpool of echoing snare and zippy synth sounds. And perhaps the album’s standout track, “It’s Never Over”, bowls along on a big, striding groove assailed by choppy funk guitar and itchy 16th-beat hihats that recall Miles Davis’ On The Corner. It’s also one of the wisest reflections here, Butler advising, “Seems like a big deal now/But you will get over/When you get older/You will discover it’s never over.” Then, right at the end, performs a volte-face and admits, “It’s over too soon”.

Both “Normal Person” and “You Already Know” are heralded by bogus live gambits, the former with live ambience and stage platitude (“Thank you guys so much for coming out tonight”), the latter by an MC acclaiming “The fantastic Arcade Fire!” – though both songs soon disappear beneath a barrage of sound, sucked into a maelstrom of shrill guitars and plastered effects. This is a recurring aspect of Reflektor: the majority of tracks come in around the five or six-minute mark, and seem to expand in size along the way, as if the band can’t resist adding more and more parts. Perhaps it’s a side-effect of having such a big band of musicians: with so many involved, there may be an anxiety about justifying their position in the lineup. Some of these tracks would be vastly improved by paring away some of the swaddling layers of sound. “Awful Sound“, for instance, starts out like a rolling Sun Ra-style drum processional with strings and sparse acoustic guitar chords, but soon drowns in waves of encumbering sound.

But while the overall sound is massive, it’s become somewhat restricted in tone and texture, most tracks careering towards climaxes of cacophonous synth whines and heavy rock guitars, a narrower palette than on previous albums. It’s undeniably imposing, and typically impressive. But you know what? I sort of miss the hurdy-gurdies.

Andy Gill

Arctic Monkeys to play two huge outdoor shows in Finsbury Park in May 2014

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Arctic Monkeys to play two huge outdoor shows in Finsbury Park in May 2014
Arctic Monkeys have announced that they will play two huge outdoor shows in London's Finsbury Park next May. Earlier this month, Alex Turner had hinted that the Sheffield band were interested in playing their own outdoor gigs in 2014 following their headline slot at this year's Glastonbury Festiva...

Arctic Monkeys have announced that they will play two huge outdoor shows in London’s Finsbury Park next May.

Earlier this month, Alex Turner had hinted that the Sheffield band were interested in playing their own outdoor gigs in 2014 following their headline slot at this year’s Glastonbury Festival. Now, they have issued a statement on their official website confirming that they will play Finsbury Park on Friday May 23 and Saturday May 24, with support to come from Tame Impala, Miles Kane and Royal Blood.

Tickets for the event, which is only for fans aged 16 and over, are limited to four per household and will go on sale on Friday November 22 at £55. For more information, click here.

Sinead O’Connor says Miley Cyrus spat created ‘important’ dialogue about mental health

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Sinead O’Connor says Miley Cyrus spat created ‘important’ dialogue about mental health
Sinead O'Connor has claimed that her spat with Miley Cyrus has helped create an "important" conversation about mental health. O'Connor published an open letter urging Cyrus not to let the music industry take advantage of her in October this year. Since then, the pair have swapped barbs in public, ...

Sinead O’Connor has claimed that her spat with Miley Cyrus has helped create an “important” conversation about mental health.

O’Connor published an open letter urging Cyrus not to let the music industry take advantage of her in October this year. Since then, the pair have swapped barbs in public, with Cyrus receiving criticism from mental health charities for mocking O’Connor’s battles with psychological illnesses over the years.

O’Connor later said that she had received threatening messages from Cyrus fans urging her to commit suicide but, in an interview with Time, the singer said she thought their dispute had also been beneficial as it had created a platform to discuss larger issues.

“I think what was more important really that came out of the Miley thing was this issue of being able to conversate about how mental health and human rights is now,” she said. “I think she was actually very helpful. I think the two of us, without meaning to, did quite a good job in terms of creating conversation about something really, really important.”

An interview with Cian Nugent

John Mulvey
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An interview with Cian Nugent
Cian Nugent & The Cosmos’ “Born With The Caul” is one of my favourite albums of the year, as I tried to explain as part of this blog from a month or so back. The album came out this week, anyhow, so I thought it was worth posting this Q&A with Cian here. Some really nice stuff on his i...

Cian Nugent & The Cosmos’ “Born With The Caul” is one of my favourite albums of the year, as I tried to explain as part of this blog from a month or so back. The album came out this week, anyhow, so I thought it was worth posting this Q&A with Cian here. Some really nice stuff on his influences, especially…

Why did you decide to switch to an electric band for this album?

In short for the joy of playing with a band! It was a pretty natural development from the last record where I got together a band to play the stuff live. We played a bunch of gigs and after some personnel changes we settled into a band lineup. David Lacey, the drummer, and I had been jamming some new stuff together and I was trying out playing more electric stuff and the material just developed from there. This record was really fun because about half the material we came up with all together as a band so it has way more of a group feel.

Can you tell us a bit about the other musicians in The Cosmos?

The band is me, David Lacey playing drums, Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh playing electric viola, Conor Lumsden playing bass and Brendan Jenkinson playing organ. We’re all good friends and just seem to work well playing together. David and Ailbhe played on my previous record, so we already had a group dynamic. David and I have been playing together for about five years, we used to just do duo stuff. He’s one of the best musicians I know, he’s very musical but also very irreverent.

On this new record Ailbhe is stepping out more, sharing leads with me, which is great as she’s a wicked player. She’s really come in to her own as a player in the past few years. Conor’s one of my oldest buddies. He learned the whole set the day of his first gig with us, which was actually two gigs in one night, the first of which was opening for the Magic Band. Just before we went on Rockette Morton came over and sat down next to us and said, “My name’s Rockette, how you doing?” An intimidating start. Conor looked terrified for the whole set but sounded great. His playing is great, pins everything down but also has a lot of flair. He brings a lot of the glam to the group.

Brendan started out playing bass for a whole when Conor was living in England, and he’s on the “Hire Purchase” seven-inch, which he also recorded. Now he’s playing organ and I really love what he does, he has a great sense of harmony and gives things a real magic.

I wrote in a blog a while back that the album felt as if it operated in the space between “Marquee Moon” and “A Sailor’s Life”; did that make sense to you?

Definitely those two songs are big ones for all of us. The guitar solo in “Marquee Moon” is one of my favourite pieces of music ever! I love how clean the guitar tone is and how it still really screams. And on “A Sailor’s Life” the same, I love how with both Tom Verlaine and Richard Thompson their playing is bluesy but not blues, if you get me, there’s something not typically American blues rock about it. My friend Matt Baldwin calls it Celtic Blues, which I think kinda gets it. As Iggy Pop said about Neu!, “free from the tyranny of blues rock and roll”. I think there definitely must have been some influence on Tom from Richard, I hear a lot of Jerry Garcia too and maybe some Roger McGuinn too? Also a big inspiration for us is the interplay between the guitar and violin in the Fairport stuff, how they are trading leads and both stepping out.

Were there any specific records that influenced the sound of “Born With The Caul”?

The ones you mentioned, “Marquee Moon” and “Unhalfbricking”, for sure are big influences, some of our favourite records. Some other big ones would be “Easter Everywhere” by The 13th Floor Elevators, “Radio City” by Big Star, all the The Velvet Underground albums particularly the live stuff, all the electric Popol Vuh albums, the first Hendrix album, “Live/Dead” by The Grateful Dead, “Dropping The Writ” by Cass McCombs, live Allman Brothers stuff, Sonny & Linda Sharrock’s “Black Woman”, “Future Blues” by Canned Heat, all the ‘60s/’70s Neil Young and Crazy Horse albums. “Maggot Brain” by Funkadelic, an Azerbaijani sax player called Edalat Nasibov. Other inspirations were seeing some great gigs over the past few years: The Family Elan, Gunn Truscinski Duo, Cass McCombs, Thee Oh Sees, that enough?!

Also, it feels like a record which consciously moves beyond American Primitive music/psych-folk etc to incorporate some Celtic textures and influences (it makes me think a little of The Waterboys, perhaps crudely, and maybe The Dirty Three as well). Is that in any way true?

Interesting to hear you say about The Waterboys, to be honest I’ve not really sat down and listened to their stuff but have always liked what I’ve heard of them growing up, I remember years ago seeing them on TV and liking the violin playing a lot. Similarly for The Dirty Three ,I’ve never listened to their albums, but always liked what I’ve heard. People have been saying that to me for a few years that we sound like them, so I finally got to see them last year and they were great. I do love a lot of folk music from Ireland and Britain; Nic Jones, The Watersons, Tommy Potts, Anne Briggs, Bert Jansch, that Paul Brady and Andy Irvine album, that one has become a big one for me in the past few years. I think a touch of that has always been in my music, but yeah, maybe has come to the fore a bit more on the new record. None of us really know how to play trad, but I think we all like it.

Do you feel part of a community with Steve Gunn, Chris Forsyth, William Tyler etc? What do you think has prompted the emergence of what feels, without being too reductive, a bit of a scene?

I do really like what those guys are doing and I really like them as people too. I hadn’t thought of it as a scene before but I guess it kinda is, we all live in different places, and i always think of a scene as being in one place. But hey, fuck borders. I definitely feel a musical kinship with them in that we all are playing guitar and trying to do something new with it drawing on a bunch of similar influences. Also really like what Matt Baldwin, Ryley Walker & Daniel Bachman are doing!

Any more Desert Heat work planned? Or other collaborations? Do you have an idea what 2014 will hold?

I would love to do more Desert Heat stuff, though there is an ocean between us, no metaphor intended. Hopefully we’ll all be in the same place sometime soon and be able to do something. As far as other stuff goes, I’ve been working on a new band here in Dublin called Cryboys with Dylan Phillips from an excellent Irish band called Dinah Brand, David Kitt and Ruan van Vliet. We’ve been playing for about a year now, really been enjoying it. My first song band where I’m writing songs and singing, which is a buzz. So hopefully we’ll make this record we’re cooking. Also I’ve been playing with another band here in Dublin called The #1s which is a kinda punk/power pop band and we’ve had a few singles out, but hopefully in the next year we will work on an album too. Also aim for some Cosmos touring and to start work on some new tunes too!

Oh yes, could you explain the title for us, too?

Well my friend Grace’s Auntie Ellen runs this Mythology Summer School on Clare Island and Grace has lots of good mythology stories, so she told me the story of the mythological character of Cian, who I heard was born with the caul. I didn’t know what it meant but liked the sound of it so looked it up and was disgusted by Google Images, but really liked the folklore around It. What it means is that some babies are born with a piece of membrane around their head, it’s quite rare. And traditionally it was considered a sign of good luck, that the baby was destined to greatness. People would keep the piece of membrane and give it to sailors as a sort of talisman to keep them safe at sea. Traditions differ all over the world, but it seems to be treated with some significance everywhere. So one day I asked my mother, had she ever heard of this tradition and she quite calmly said “oh yeah you were born with the caul, I kept it for a while but it’s been lost somewhere along the way.” So it seemed a pretty good title for the record.

Update 15/11/13: I’ve compiled a Youtube playlist of other songs in the “Marquee Moon”/”Sailor’s Life” interzone that you can watch here.

Follow me on Twitter : www.twitter.com/JohnRMulvey

Wes Anderson presents… Castello Cavalcanti

Michael Bonner
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Wes Anderson presents… Castello Cavalcanti

Apologies for the brevity of this blog - we're on deadlines - but I thought I'd share this, a new seven minute short film from Wes Anderson. It's released as part of the Prada Presents... strand, which kicked off last year with Roman Polanski's A Therapy. Castello Cavalcanti finds Jason Schwartzman in 1950s Italy playing a race car driver who crashes his car into a Jesus sculpture in a small town called - of course - Castella Cavalcanti. It's a nice little appetizer while we wait for the main feast - Anderson's next full-length film, The Grand Budapest Hotel, which is due here in March next year. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWnKRJ4c8xY Follow me on Twitter @MichaelBonner.

Apologies for the brevity of this blog – we’re on deadlines – but I thought I’d share this, a new seven minute short film from Wes Anderson.

It’s released as part of the Prada Presents… strand, which kicked off last year with Roman Polanski‘s A Therapy. Castello Cavalcanti finds Jason Schwartzman in 1950s Italy playing a race car driver who crashes his car into a Jesus sculpture in a small town called – of course – Castella Cavalcanti.

It’s a nice little appetizer while we wait for the main feast – Anderson’s next full-length film, The Grand Budapest Hotel, which is due here in March next year.

Follow me on Twitter @MichaelBonner.

Radiohead approved music shop saved from closure

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Radiohead approved music shop saved from closure
Professional Music Technology, a music store in Oxford which counts members of Radiohead and Supergrass as fans, has been saved from plans to turn it into a restaurant. Travelodge own the site on which the shop sits and are set to open a hotel on the upper floors of the unit and wanted to turn the ...

Professional Music Technology, a music store in Oxford which counts members of Radiohead and Supergrass as fans, has been saved from plans to turn it into a restaurant.

Travelodge own the site on which the shop sits and are set to open a hotel on the upper floors of the unit and wanted to turn the ground floor, which is currently occupied by the shop, into a restaurant. However, yesterday (November 12) Oxford City Council voted unanimously against the proposal, reports BBC News.

Speaking to the Oxford Mail about his fondness for the store, Radiohead’s Colin Greenwood said: “I love PMT. It is the first place I go to when I need to get anything. It is very down to earth. I have known those guys for a long time. It is a drop-in place to meet and chat. I still get my own gear and they can answer difficult technical questions about computers and synthesisers.”

Solo singer Gaz Coombes, formerly of Supergrass, said: “I’ve been going to PMT Music shop since I was young, as have many fellow musicians and friends. There is nothing like it in Oxford and it’s vital for the continual nurturing of Oxford music… It’s the cultural soul of Oxford and the birthplace of many great artists and musicians, with PMT providing an important hub for the vast amount of creative people living here.”

When the verdict was revealed, Coombes tweeted: “Congrats to all at @PmtOxford !Application to close down PMT music store in Oxford refused!! Decision unanimous! You lose, Travelodge!!”

Roger Waters records first new rock album in 21 years

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Roger Waters records first new rock album in 21 years
Roger Waters is recording his first new rock album in 21 years. Speaking to Rolling Stone, Waters confirmed, "It's 55 minutes long. It's songs and theater as well. I don't want to give too much away, but it's couched as a radio play. It has characters who speak to each other, and it's a quest. It's...

Roger Waters is recording his first new rock album in 21 years.

Speaking to Rolling Stone, Waters confirmed, “It’s 55 minutes long. It’s songs and theater as well. I don’t want to give too much away, but it’s couched as a radio play. It has characters who speak to each other, and it’s a quest. It’s about an old man and a young child trying to figure out why they are killing the children.”

Waters last rock album was 1992’s Amused To Death, though in 2005 he released Ça Ira, a three-act opera.

Waters recently finished his 219 date tour of The Wall. He told Rolling Stone he has no immediate plans to support the new album with live shows.

“I’m suffering a little bit of withdrawal after ending the Wall tour,” he said. “It’s sort of a relief to not have to go out and do that every night, but they’re such a great team. There were 180 of us together everyday. That piece was very moving every night.”

Watch David Bowie’s latest video for “Love Is Lost”

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Watch David Bowie’s latest video for “Love Is Lost”

A new video for David Bowie's 'Love Is Lost' has been unveiled. Click below to watch the 10 minute long promo for the James Murphy remix of the song, which was directed by Barnaby Roper. The video, which features a naked couple kissing, premiered on Vice and follows the first video for the track, which cost just £8 to make and featured a pair of puppets from Bowie's archive, that premiered at the Mercury Prize ceremony at the end of last month. The first video was shot on a home camera and was described by those close to Bowie as a "strangely moving gothic inflected story line perfect for Halloween". The only cost incurred in the whole process was the $12.99 (£8.08) needed for a USB stick to download the finished video onto. The James Murphy remix of "Love Is Lost" appears on The Next Day Extra.

A new video for David Bowie‘s ‘Love Is Lost’ has been unveiled.

Click below to watch the 10 minute long promo for the James Murphy remix of the song, which was directed by Barnaby Roper. The video, which features a naked couple kissing, premiered on Vice and follows the first video for the track, which cost just £8 to make and featured a pair of puppets from Bowie’s archive, that premiered at the Mercury Prize ceremony at the end of last month.

The first video was shot on a home camera and was described by those close to Bowie as a “strangely moving gothic inflected story line perfect for Halloween”. The only cost incurred in the whole process was the $12.99 (£8.08) needed for a USB stick to download the finished video onto.

The James Murphy remix of “Love Is Lost” appears on The Next Day Extra.

Producer teases “top secret” Beatles project

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Producer teases “top secret” Beatles project

Kevin Howlett, who helped compile the second volume of The Beatles Live At The BBC collection has teased a "top secret" project he is working on with the Fab Four's back catalogue. Howlett, alongside Mike Heatley, put together On Air – Live at the BBC Volume 2, which was released on Monday [November 11]. The first collection of recordings was released in 1994, hitting Number One in the UK charts and selling more than five million copies worldwide within its first six weeks of release. Speaking to Billboard, Howlett says that there are no plans for a third volume of BBC recordings but did let slip about another project he is working on. "I think these two albums are wonderful from the point of view of presenting the real highlights of The Beatles' BBC sessions," said the producer. However, he continued: "The Beatles completists out there may want to own every version of 'Twist And Shout,' and I can understand that because every version of 'Twist And Shout' is really good, but I don't know that we want to go that far." Asked if there is more archive material away from BBC radio sessions that could be released, Howlett added: "There is something, but I don't think we're allowed to talk about it yet. If you're involved in these Beatles projects, you have to be very discreet. It's all top secret." Between March 1962 and June 1965, 275 Beatles performances were broadcast by the BBC in the UK. The group played live on 39 radio shows in 1963 alone. One day in 1963, the band recorded 18 tracks for three editions of their Pop Go The Beatles show. Click here for the full tracklisting for The Beatles Live At The BBC Volume 2 Click here to read the Uncut review of The Beatles Live At The BBC Volume 2

Kevin Howlett, who helped compile the second volume of The Beatles Live At The BBC collection has teased a “top secret” project he is working on with the Fab Four’s back catalogue.

Howlett, alongside Mike Heatley, put together On Air – Live at the BBC Volume 2, which was released on Monday [November 11]. The first collection of recordings was released in 1994, hitting Number One in the UK charts and selling more than five million copies worldwide within its first six weeks of release.

Speaking to Billboard, Howlett says that there are no plans for a third volume of BBC recordings but did let slip about another project he is working on. “I think these two albums are wonderful from the point of view of presenting the real highlights of The Beatles’ BBC sessions,” said the producer.

However, he continued: “The Beatles completists out there may want to own every version of ‘Twist And Shout,’ and I can understand that because every version of ‘Twist And Shout‘ is really good, but I don’t know that we want to go that far.”

Asked if there is more archive material away from BBC radio sessions that could be released, Howlett added: “There is something, but I don’t think we’re allowed to talk about it yet. If you’re involved in these Beatles projects, you have to be very discreet. It’s all top secret.”

Between March 1962 and June 1965, 275 Beatles performances were broadcast by the BBC in the UK. The group played live on 39 radio shows in 1963 alone. One day in 1963, the band recorded 18 tracks for three editions of their Pop Go The Beatles show.

Click here for the full tracklisting for The Beatles Live At The BBC Volume 2

Click here to read the Uncut review of The Beatles Live At The BBC Volume 2

Arcade Fire cover The Clash and Devo at London shows

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Arcade Fire cover The Clash and Devo at London shows

Photo: Gus Stewart Arcade Fire covered The Clash's "I'm So Bored With The USA" at their show at London's Roundhouse last night [November 12]. This was the band's second show at the London venue: the band had also played the previous night [November 11], where they had covered Devo's "Uncontrollable Urge". You can watch footage of their Devo cover below. The band - billed on tickets The Reflektors - had asked the audience to come wearing fancy dress. For their 90-minute set, the band played tracks from their fourth album, Reflektor, as well as material reaching back to their 2004 debut, Funeral. Arcade Fire's set on November 12 was: Reflektor Flashbulb Eyes Power Out Joan Of Arc You Already Know We Exist It's Never Over Afterlife Haiti Normal Person I'm So Bored With The USA Here Comes The Night Time Encore: Sprawl II Supersymmetry http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4pixRcVifk

Photo: Gus Stewart

Arcade Fire covered The Clash’s “I’m So Bored With The USA” at their show at London’s Roundhouse last night [November 12].

This was the band’s second show at the London venue: the band had also played the previous night [November 11], where they had covered Devo’s “Uncontrollable Urge”. You can watch footage of their Devo cover below.

The band – billed on tickets The Reflektors – had asked the audience to come wearing fancy dress. For their 90-minute set, the band played tracks from their fourth album, Reflektor, as well as material reaching back to their 2004 debut, Funeral.

Arcade Fire’s set on November 12 was:

Reflektor

Flashbulb Eyes

Power Out

Joan Of Arc

You Already Know

We Exist

It’s Never Over

Afterlife

Haiti

Normal Person

I’m So Bored With The USA

Here Comes The Night Time

Encore:

Sprawl II

Supersymmetry

Public memorial for Lou Reed to take place in New York this week

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Public memorial for Lou Reed to take place in New York this week

A public tribute to Lou Reed will take place in New York on Thursday (November 14). New York: Lou Reed at Lincoln Center will take place between 1-4pm at the Paul Milstein Pool & Terrace at Lincoln Center in New York later this week. A post on Lou Reed's Facebook page claims that the event is, "A gathering open to the public - no speeches. no live performances, just Lou's voice, guitar music & songs - playing the recordings selected by his family and friends." Last week it was revealed that Reed left his estate to his wife and sister. The singer left his Manhattan penthouse, his home in East Hampton, New York and the majority of his estate to his wife, musician Laurie Anderson. The couple married in 2008 and had no children. Anderson recently paid tribute to her husband, saying "he died while looking at the trees." In addition to Anderson, Reed's sister is said to have inherited about a quarter of his estate and a further $500,000 to look after their elderly mother. Meanwhile, licensing and copyrights for Reed's music will be looked after by his business manager and accountant. Lou Reed died on Sunday October 27 aged 71. Many musicians have paid tribute to Reed, including David Bowie, John Cale and The Who. Morrissey has also written a personal tribute to Reed. You can hear Neil Young, Elvis Costello and Jim James cover a Lou Reed song here. You can read a 2002 interview with Reed from the Uncut archives here.

A public tribute to Lou Reed will take place in New York on Thursday (November 14).

New York: Lou Reed at Lincoln Center will take place between 1-4pm at the Paul Milstein Pool & Terrace at Lincoln Center in New York later this week. A post on Lou Reed’s Facebook page claims that the event is, “A gathering open to the public – no speeches. no live performances, just Lou’s voice, guitar music & songs – playing the recordings selected by his family and friends.”

Last week it was revealed that Reed left his estate to his wife and sister. The singer left his Manhattan penthouse, his home in East Hampton, New York and the majority of his estate to his wife, musician Laurie Anderson. The couple married in 2008 and had no children. Anderson recently paid tribute to her husband, saying “he died while looking at the trees.”

In addition to Anderson, Reed’s sister is said to have inherited about a quarter of his estate and a further $500,000 to look after their elderly mother. Meanwhile, licensing and copyrights for Reed’s music will be looked after by his business manager and accountant.

Lou Reed died on Sunday October 27 aged 71.

Many musicians have paid tribute to Reed, including David Bowie, John Cale and The Who.

Morrissey has also written a personal tribute to Reed.

You can hear Neil Young, Elvis Costello and Jim James cover a Lou Reed song here.

You can read a 2002 interview with Reed from the Uncut archives here.

U2 to announce new album at Super Bowl in February?

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U2 to announce new album at Super Bowl in February?
U2 will reportedly release their new album in April 2014, according to reports which also claim the album could be announced at Super Bowl XLVIII in February. The band are due to release their first album since 2009 next year with Adam Clayton recently confirming that the group were planning to wr...

U2 will reportedly release their new album in April 2014, according to reports which also claim the album could be announced at Super Bowl XLVIII in February.

The band are due to release their first album since 2009 next year with Adam Clayton recently confirming that the group were planning to wrap up recording by the end of this year.

Billboard today [November 13] reports that the album is likely to arrive in April with representatives for the band currently negotiating a deal with brands to announce the album during the Super Bowl.

The report claims that Madonna manager Guy Oseary has been running U2’s day-to-day affairs and is “reaching out to potential sponsors on the band’s behalf.” If successful, the album announcement would be seen by millions during the half-time of the annual NFL final on February 2.

Details of Jack White covers album revealed

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Details of Jack White covers album revealed

A new compilation album paying tribute to the music of Jack White is to be released later this month. Artists from the formative years of rock, rockabilly and punk such as Wanda Jackson and Gary U.S. Bonds have all contributed to Rockin’ Legends Pay Tribute to Jack White, released on November 18. Jackson, who has covered The White Stripes' "In The Cold, Cold Night" for the album, previously worked with White on her 2011 solo album, The Party Ain’t Over. Speaking to Rolling Stone about the album, Jackson said: when I heard "Cold, Cold Night" for the first time I knew it was a song that I wanted to record some day. When the opportunity came around to pay tribute to Jack on this album I thought it was the perfect opportunity to lay it down in the studio. I’m very pleased with how it turned out, and I hope Jack approves of the job we did." A list of contributors to Rockin’ Legends Pay Tribute To Jack White and their covers can be seen below. Big Jay McNeely and Nik Turner – 'I’m Shakin'' Gary U.S. Bonds – 'Salute Your Solution' Sonny Burgess and the Legendary Pacers – 'Steady As She Goes' Joe Clay and Cranston Clements – 'Trash Tongue Talker', Robert Gordon and Chris Spedding – 'Another Way to Die' Knox, Walter Lure and W.S. "Fluke" Holland – 'Seven Nation Army' Johnny Powers – 'Fly Farm Blues' Bobby Vee – 'We're Going to Be Friends' Rosie Flores – 'Blunderbuss' The Dirt Daubers – 'Fell in Love With a Girl' Rejected Youth Nation feat. Cyril Neville – 'You Don't Know What Love Is (You Just Do As You’re Told)' the Denver Broncos U.K. – 'Top Yourself' Los Straightjackets – 'Icky Thump'

A new compilation album paying tribute to the music of Jack White is to be released later this month.

Artists from the formative years of rock, rockabilly and punk such as Wanda Jackson and Gary U.S. Bonds have all contributed to Rockin’ Legends Pay Tribute to Jack White, released on November 18. Jackson, who has covered The White Stripes‘ “In The Cold, Cold Night” for the album, previously worked with White on her 2011 solo album, The Party Ain’t Over.

Speaking to Rolling Stone about the album, Jackson said: when I heard “Cold, Cold Night” for the first time I knew it was a song that I wanted to record some day. When the opportunity came around to pay tribute to Jack on this album I thought it was the perfect opportunity to lay it down in the studio. I’m very pleased with how it turned out, and I hope Jack approves of the job we did.”

A list of contributors to Rockin’ Legends Pay Tribute To Jack White and their covers can be seen below.

Big Jay McNeely and Nik Turner – ‘I’m Shakin”

Gary U.S. Bonds – ‘Salute Your Solution’

Sonny Burgess and the Legendary Pacers – ‘Steady As She Goes’

Joe Clay and Cranston Clements – ‘Trash Tongue Talker’,

Robert Gordon and Chris Spedding – ‘Another Way to Die’

Knox, Walter Lure and W.S. “Fluke” Holland – ‘Seven Nation Army’

Johnny Powers – ‘Fly Farm Blues’

Bobby Vee – ‘We’re Going to Be Friends’

Rosie Flores – ‘Blunderbuss’

The Dirt Daubers – ‘Fell in Love With a Girl’

Rejected Youth Nation feat. Cyril Neville – ‘You Don’t Know What Love Is (You Just Do As You’re Told)’

the Denver Broncos U.K. – ‘Top Yourself’

Los Straightjackets – ‘Icky Thump’

The 42nd Uncut Playlist Of 2013

John Mulvey
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The 42nd Uncut Playlist Of 2013

Apologies for the frustrating gaps that appear in this week’s playlist. A lot of 2014 releases arriving in the office now, some of which haven’t been officially announced. As a consequence I have to keep their identities suppressed for the time being; I’ll try and fill in the missing words once these albums are formally unveiled. In the meantime, another plug for the Morgan Delt record; a gentle suggestion you watch Springsteen playing my favourite Springsteen song; a reminder that the brilliant Cian Nugent album I’ve been hyping for months is now in the shops; and a warm welcome to the new Tinariwen and Stephen Malkmus LPs. This is what the latter has to say about “Wig Out At Jagbags”, an album title I can’t imagine I’ll ever tire of reading: “‘Wig Out At Jagbags’ is inspired by Cologne, Germany, Mark Von Schlegel, Rosemarie Trockel, Von Sparr and Jan Lankisch, Can and Gas; Stephen Malkums imagined Weezer/Chili Peppers, Sic Alps, UVA in the late ‘80s, NYRB, Aroma Charlottenburg, inactivity, Jamming, Indie guys trying to sound Memphis, Flipper, Pete Townshend, Pavement, The Joggers, The NBA and home life in the 2010s...” Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnRMulvey 1 Max Richter – Memoryhouse (130701) 2 Mogwai – Rave Tapes (Rock Action) 3 4 Autre Ne Veut x Fennesz – Alive (Mexican Summer) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exJfXqnEr5Q 5 Various Artists – I Heard The Angels Singing: Electrifying Black Gospel from the Nashboro Label, 1951-1983 (Tompkins Square) 6 Jackson C Frank – Jackson C Frank (Earth) 7 Tinariwen – Emmaar (Anti-) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PduOJidnB_M 8 Shonna Tucker & Eye Candy - A Tell All (Sweet Nectar) 9 Bruce Springsteen - New York City Serenade (Rome 11/7/13) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-IZWISZ8CY 10 Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks – Wig Out At Jagbags (Domino) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYC5JASqWnI 11 Morgan Delt – Morgan Delt (Trouble In Mind) 12 Cian Nugent & The Cosmos – Born With The Caul (No Quarter) 13 14 Manfred Schoof Quintet – The Munich Recordings 1966 (Sireena) 15 Hi Rhythm – On The Loose (Fat Possum) 16 Warpaint – Warpaint (Rough Trade) 17 Crayola Lectern – The Fall And Rise Of… (Bleeding Heart) 18 Peter Skellern – Snakebite (Island) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPbXC_dIMSE 19 Michael Head & The Red Elastic Band – Artorius Revisited (Violette) 20 Mutual Benefit – Love’s Crushing Diamond (Other Music)

Apologies for the frustrating gaps that appear in this week’s playlist. A lot of 2014 releases arriving in the office now, some of which haven’t been officially announced. As a consequence I have to keep their identities suppressed for the time being; I’ll try and fill in the missing words once these albums are formally unveiled.

In the meantime, another plug for the Morgan Delt record; a gentle suggestion you watch Springsteen playing my favourite Springsteen song; a reminder that the brilliant Cian Nugent album I’ve been hyping for months is now in the shops; and a warm welcome to the new Tinariwen and Stephen Malkmus LPs. This is what the latter has to say about “Wig Out At Jagbags”, an album title I can’t imagine I’ll ever tire of reading:

“‘Wig Out At Jagbags’ is inspired by Cologne, Germany, Mark Von Schlegel, Rosemarie Trockel, Von Sparr and Jan Lankisch, Can and Gas; Stephen Malkums imagined Weezer/Chili Peppers, Sic Alps, UVA in the late ‘80s, NYRB, Aroma Charlottenburg, inactivity, Jamming, Indie guys trying to sound Memphis, Flipper, Pete Townshend, Pavement, The Joggers, The NBA and home life in the 2010s…”

Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/JohnRMulvey

1 Max Richter – Memoryhouse (130701)

2 Mogwai – Rave Tapes (Rock Action)

3

4 Autre Ne Veut x Fennesz – Alive (Mexican Summer)

5 Various Artists – I Heard The Angels Singing: Electrifying Black Gospel from the Nashboro Label, 1951-1983 (Tompkins Square)

6 Jackson C Frank – Jackson C Frank (Earth)

7 Tinariwen – Emmaar (Anti-)

8 Shonna Tucker & Eye Candy – A Tell All (Sweet Nectar)

9 Bruce Springsteen – New York City Serenade (Rome 11/7/13)

10 Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks – Wig Out At Jagbags (Domino)

11 Morgan Delt – Morgan Delt (Trouble In Mind)

12 Cian Nugent & The Cosmos – Born With The Caul (No Quarter)

13

14 Manfred Schoof Quintet – The Munich Recordings 1966 (Sireena)

15 Hi Rhythm – On The Loose (Fat Possum)

16 Warpaint – Warpaint (Rough Trade)

17 Crayola Lectern – The Fall And Rise Of… (Bleeding Heart)

18 Peter Skellern – Snakebite (Island)

19 Michael Head & The Red Elastic Band – Artorius Revisited (Violette)

20 Mutual Benefit – Love’s Crushing Diamond (Other Music)

Stevie Nicks to appear in American television series

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Stevie Nicks to appear in American television series
Stevie Nicks is set to guest star in a forthcoming episode of US TV show American Horror Story. Nicks will appear in the current series of the supernatural thriller show. The third season of the show is subtitled American Horror Story: Coven, and is set in New Orleans. News of Nicks' cameo was reve...

Stevie Nicks is set to guest star in a forthcoming episode of US TV show American Horror Story.

Nicks will appear in the current series of the supernatural thriller show. The third season of the show is subtitled American Horror Story: Coven, and is set in New Orleans. News of Nicks’ cameo was revealed by the show’s creator Ryan Murphy earlier today on Twitter. He wrote:

“Guess who’s visiting the Coven? The legendary Stevie Nicks!”

Murphy is a long-time Fleetwood Mac fan. Speaking recently to Entertainment Weekly , Murphy said, “When I was growing up, I was always obsessed with those Stevie Nicks songs like ‘Rhiannon’ and ‘Gypsy’. And I remember reading an article where Courtney Love called Stevie Nicks the ‘white witch’ and Grace Slick the ‘dark witch.’ And I have a good relationship with Stevie because of Glee. She is one of the few artists that have come to hang out. She had been writing Lea [Michele] and I regularly since the Cory [Monteith] situation, because she really loved Cory [who passed away in July]. So she’s just a wonderful, wonderful person.”

Meanwhile, Nicks recently revealed that she would “love to write music for Game Of Thrones“. The singer started watching the hit HBO fantasy show after contracting pneumonia following the death of her mother, Barbara Nicks, and credits author George RR Martin for helping her through the grieving process on her road to recovery.

Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks announce new album and tour

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Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks announce new album and tour
Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks have announced plans for a new album and a UK tour, both set for January of next year. Wig Out At Jagbags is the follow-up to 2011's Mirror Traffic and will be released on January 6, 2014. The LP will be followed by a run of four tour dates, starting at Leeds Brudene...

Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks have announced plans for a new album and a UK tour, both set for January of next year.

Wig Out At Jagbags is the follow-up to 2011’s Mirror Traffic and will be released on January 6, 2014. The LP will be followed by a run of four tour dates, starting at Leeds Brudenell on January 13, followed by Glasgow Oran Mor on January 14, Manchester Gorilla on January 15 and London Forum on January 16.

Scroll down to listen to “Lariat“, the first single from the album, which was recorded in Ardennes. Speaking about the album, Malkmus commented: “Wig Out At Jagbags is inspired by Cologne, Germany, Mark Von Schlegel, Rosemarie Trockel, Von Sparr and Jan Lankisch, Can and Gas; Stephen Malkums imagined Weezer/Chili Peppers, SIc Alps, UVA in the late 80’s, NYRB, Aroma Charlottenburg, inactivity, jamming, indie guys trying to sound Memphis, Flipper, Pete Townsend, Pavement, The Joggers, The NBA and home life in the 2010’s.”

The Wig Out At Jagbags tracklisting is:

‘Planetary Motion’

‘The Janitor Revealed’

‘Lariat’

‘Houston Heels’

‘Shibboleth’

‘J Smoov’

‘Rumble At The Rainbo’

‘Chartjunk’

‘Independence Street’

‘Scattegories’

‘Cinnamon & Lesbians’

‘Surreal Teenagers’

Pic: Tom Oxley/NME

Bono: “Lou Reed made music out of noise”

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Bono: “Lou Reed made music out of noise”
Bono has paid tribute to the late Lou Reed, who passed away last month. Writing in Rolling Stone, Bono explained how he first worked with Reed on the Amnesty International Conspiracy of Hope tour in 1986 and said that he was a fan of his deadpan humour. "His deadpan humor was easily misunderstood ...

Bono has paid tribute to the late Lou Reed, who passed away last month.

Writing in Rolling Stone, Bono explained how he first worked with Reed on the Amnesty International Conspiracy of Hope tour in 1986 and said that he was a fan of his deadpan humour. “His deadpan humor was easily misunderstood as rudeness, and Lou delighted in that misunderstanding,” wrote Bono.

He went on to say that Reed took heavy inspiration from New York and he “made music out of noise. The noise of the city.” He added that the singer was “thoughtful” and “meditative”. Bono wrote:

“It’s too easy to think of Lou Reed as a wild creature who put songs about heroin in the pop charts, like some decadent lounge lizard from the Andy Warhol Factory. This couldn’t have been further from the truth. He was thoughtful, meditative and extremely disciplined. Before the hepatitis that he caught as a drug user returned, Lou was in top physical condition. Tai chi was what he credited for his lithe physicality and clear complexion.”

Read the full essay by clicking here.

Morrissey meanwhile is paying tribute to Reed by releasing a cover of his song “Satellite Of Love”. The live version will be available from December 2. Recorded live at The Chelsea Ballroom at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas on November 25, 2011, this digital single will be available from December 2.

University plans Bruce Springsteen theology class

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University plans Bruce Springsteen theology class

A US university is offering a theology class on Bruce Springsteen. Rutgers University in New Jersey is offering student the chance to take a semester-long class looking at the biblical references in The Boss' lyrics – from his 1973 debut'Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. to his 2012 album The Wrecking Ball. According to Time, Azzan Yadin-Israel, a Jewish studies and classics specialist, said in a news release: "Interestingly, Springsteen refers more often to the stories of the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament) than the New Testament. On a literary level, Springsteen often recasts biblical figures and stories into the American landscape." He continues, "The narrator of 'Adam Raised A Cain' describes his strained relationship with his father through the prism of the biblical story of the first father and son; apocalyptic storms accompany a boy’s tortured transition into manhood in 'The Promised Land', and the first responders of 9/11 rise up to “someplace higher” in the flames, much as Elijah the prophet ascended in a chariot of fire ('Into the Fire')." As Time points out, Rutgers is not the first US university to bring The Boss into the realms of academia. Princeton University has a sociology course on Bruce Springsteen's America, while Monmouth University in West Long Branch, New Jersey has hosted symposiums on the rock star’s legacy. Meanwhile, the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York offered a history course on the musician.

A US university is offering a theology class on Bruce Springsteen.

Rutgers University in New Jersey is offering student the chance to take a semester-long class looking at the biblical references in The Boss’ lyrics – from his 1973 debut’Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. to his 2012 album The Wrecking Ball.

According to Time, Azzan Yadin-Israel, a Jewish studies and classics specialist, said in a news release: “Interestingly, Springsteen refers more often to the stories of the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament) than the New Testament. On a literary level, Springsteen often recasts biblical figures and stories into the American landscape.”

He continues, “The narrator of ‘Adam Raised A Cain‘ describes his strained relationship with his father through the prism of the biblical story of the first father and son; apocalyptic storms accompany a boy’s tortured transition into manhood in ‘The Promised Land’, and the first responders of 9/11 rise up to “someplace higher” in the flames, much as Elijah the prophet ascended in a chariot of fire (‘Into the Fire’).”

As Time points out, Rutgers is not the first US university to bring The Boss into the realms of academia. Princeton University has a sociology course on Bruce Springsteen’s America, while Monmouth University in West Long Branch, New Jersey has hosted symposiums on the rock star’s legacy. Meanwhile, the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York offered a history course on the musician.

The BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Shoreditch Electric Light Station, November 9, 2013

Michael Bonner
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The BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Shoreditch Electric Light Station, November 9, 2013

Last year, I interviewed the film director Peter Strickland about Berberian Sound Studio, his tribute to the Heath Robinson-style endeavours of analogue sound designers. Strickland and I chatted about the influences for his main character, a tweedy sound engineer called Gilderoy; Strickland mentioned pioneering figures like Adam Bohman, Vernon Elliott and Basil Kirchin. “That whole garden shed thing, which leant towards the dark side sometimes,” he explained. “It’s a very English thing. Like the BBC Radiophonic Workshop characters had this dark streak, alcoholism and so on. If you look at the old tape designs from the period, the actual boxes, the commercial blank tapes, they look like sigils or some kind of pagan symbol, so you can imagine if your eyesight goes a little wonky up late and night looping again and again… you might flip somehow. The weird thing about analogue, it’s a very ritualistic thing. The idea of splicing with razor blades and so on.” Strickland was referring to the earliest version of the Radiophonic Workshop, established in the BBC’s Maida Vale Studios in 1958 by former studio managers Daphne Oram and Desmond Briscoe. Oram and Briscoe came with a lofty vision, envisaging the Workshop as the British equivalent to the French GRMC, where Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry devised tape-editing techniques in their electroacoustic music studio. Certainly, once it was up and running, the accomplishments of the Workshop were formidable, from sound effects, jingles and music for radio dramas, TV series, educational programming and – of course – their work for Doctor Who. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75V4ClJZME4 True to their questing spirit, many of their most famous achievements were created by surprising means: the sound of the TARDIS materialising and dematerialising was made by running a door key along the bass string of a piano then treating the sound electronically. The score for the 1968 Doctor Who story The Krotons – described to me over the weekend as “the sound of a computer getting wasted” – is full of electronic drones, glitches and bleeps that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Boards Of Canada album. The only surviving original member of the Radiophonic Workshop is Dick Mills, a sprightly 77 years old whose credits run from Quatermass And The Pit to The Goon Show and The Two Ronnies. Mills is currently captaining a live version of the Radiophonic Workshop, whose performance at LEAF, the London Electronic Arts Festival, alongside such luminaries as Giorgio Moroder and New Order is indicative of their pioneering status. Indeed, Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono, Hendrix and Pink Floyd all sought out the Radiophonic Workshop at various times. Mills, dressed in a white lab coat and a sailor’s hat with what look like a pair of early 80s Sony Walkman headphones round his neck, takes centre stage at today’s lunchtime performance. He has the honour of operating the reel-to-reel machine that sits centre stage, a proud reminder of the Workshop’s exploratory roots. Mills’ fellow conspirators are from the Seventies’ incarnation of the Workshop – Roger Limb, Paddy Kingsland, Peter Howell and Mark Ayers, a resilient greyhaired Radiohead slipped through the space time continuum. While Mills operates his beloved reel-to-reel, his colleagues are behind Korg, Roland and Yahama keyboards. There are some who would claim that the day the Workshop took hold of an EMS Synthi 100 modular system was the day they said goodbye to the culture “razor blades and Chinagraph pencils”, as Mills describes it. The magic of the Sixties’ era of ramshackle ingenuity and inquisitiveness, where having “nothing recognisable that could produce music” as Mills remembers it, was replaced by a keyboard. Certainly, there is some distance between the freakbeat electronica of “Ziwzih Ziwzih OO- OO-OO” (written by the Workshop’s most famous alumni, Delia Derbyshire, and “sung” by robots in a Sixties’ anthology series called Out Of The Unknown) and the more conventionally recognisable piece of music they play later from the Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. It’s apparent in the “Doctor Who Suite”, too, which opens with the original theme and morphs into the Eighties’ version: what once sounded genuinely strange and unsettling became less so once the synths moved in. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jetzY-W78gg But broadly this is a terrific show. Look! Here’s Mark Ayers jamming on an electronic clarinet! Watch Paddy Kingsland and Peter Howell duel on Thermin and voice modulator! Here’s Roger Limb’s fantastic rainbow-striped jumper! There are unexpected moments, too, like "Vespucci", an improbably funky track that sounds like the theme tune to a lost TV series. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QbmZDG_0B8 These gentleman are craftsmen, working to the highest standards possible. Soak up the wonderful noises and effects created here – strange synthesized ululations, the sound of machines chattering and oscillators firing up. At the end of the performance, a crowd of people make their way to the front of the stage, camera phones on, taking pictures of equipment. A very particular form of worship. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFznOcOOSec Incidentally, the Radiophonic Workshop are playing Rough Trade East on November 25. You can find more details about the event here. There's also two vinyl reissues due, BBC Radiophonic Music and BBC Radiophonic Workshop which come highly recommended. Follow me on Twitter @MichaelBonner.

Last year, I interviewed the film director Peter Strickland about Berberian Sound Studio, his tribute to the Heath Robinson-style endeavours of analogue sound designers. Strickland and I chatted about the influences for his main character, a tweedy sound engineer called Gilderoy; Strickland mentioned pioneering figures like Adam Bohman, Vernon Elliott and Basil Kirchin. “That whole garden shed thing, which leant towards the dark side sometimes,” he explained. “It’s a very English thing. Like the BBC Radiophonic Workshop characters had this dark streak, alcoholism and so on. If you look at the old tape designs from the period, the actual boxes, the commercial blank tapes, they look like sigils or some kind of pagan symbol, so you can imagine if your eyesight goes a little wonky up late and night looping again and again… you might flip somehow. The weird thing about analogue, it’s a very ritualistic thing. The idea of splicing with razor blades and so on.”

Strickland was referring to the earliest version of the Radiophonic Workshop, established in the BBC’s Maida Vale Studios in 1958 by former studio managers Daphne Oram and Desmond Briscoe. Oram and Briscoe came with a lofty vision, envisaging the Workshop as the British equivalent to the French GRMC, where Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry devised tape-editing techniques in their electroacoustic music studio. Certainly, once it was up and running, the accomplishments of the Workshop were formidable, from sound effects, jingles and music for radio dramas, TV series, educational programming and – of course – their work for Doctor Who.

True to their questing spirit, many of their most famous achievements were created by surprising means: the sound of the TARDIS materialising and dematerialising was made by running a door key along the bass string of a piano then treating the sound electronically. The score for the 1968 Doctor Who story The Krotons – described to me over the weekend as “the sound of a computer getting wasted” – is full of electronic drones, glitches and bleeps that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Boards Of Canada album.

The only surviving original member of the Radiophonic Workshop is Dick Mills, a sprightly 77 years old whose credits run from Quatermass And The Pit to The Goon Show and The Two Ronnies. Mills is currently captaining a live version of the Radiophonic Workshop, whose performance at LEAF, the London Electronic Arts Festival, alongside such luminaries as Giorgio Moroder and New Order is indicative of their pioneering status. Indeed, Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono, Hendrix and Pink Floyd all sought out the Radiophonic Workshop at various times.

Mills, dressed in a white lab coat and a sailor’s hat with what look like a pair of early 80s Sony Walkman headphones round his neck, takes centre stage at today’s lunchtime performance. He has the honour of operating the reel-to-reel machine that sits centre stage, a proud reminder of the Workshop’s exploratory roots. Mills’ fellow conspirators are from the Seventies’ incarnation of the Workshop – Roger Limb, Paddy Kingsland, Peter Howell and Mark Ayers, a resilient greyhaired Radiohead slipped through the space time continuum. While Mills operates his beloved reel-to-reel, his colleagues are behind Korg, Roland and Yahama keyboards. There are some who would claim that the day the Workshop took hold of an EMS Synthi 100 modular system was the day they said goodbye to the culture “razor blades and Chinagraph pencils”, as Mills describes it. The magic of the Sixties’ era of ramshackle ingenuity and inquisitiveness, where having “nothing recognisable that could produce music” as Mills remembers it, was replaced by a keyboard. Certainly, there is some distance between the freakbeat electronica of “Ziwzih Ziwzih OO- OO-OO” (written by the Workshop’s most famous alumni, Delia Derbyshire, and “sung” by robots in a Sixties’ anthology series called Out Of The Unknown) and the more conventionally recognisable piece of music they play later from the Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. It’s apparent in the “Doctor Who Suite”, too, which opens with the original theme and morphs into the Eighties’ version: what once sounded genuinely strange and unsettling became less so once the synths moved in.

But broadly this is a terrific show. Look! Here’s Mark Ayers jamming on an electronic clarinet! Watch Paddy Kingsland and Peter Howell duel on Thermin and voice modulator! Here’s Roger Limb’s fantastic rainbow-striped jumper! There are unexpected moments, too, like “Vespucci”, an improbably funky track that sounds like the theme tune to a lost TV series.

These gentleman are craftsmen, working to the highest standards possible. Soak up the wonderful noises and effects created here – strange synthesized ululations, the sound of machines chattering and oscillators firing up. At the end of the performance, a crowd of people make their way to the front of the stage, camera phones on, taking pictures of equipment. A very particular form of worship.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFznOcOOSec

Incidentally, the Radiophonic Workshop are playing Rough Trade East on November 25. You can find more details about the event here. There’s also two vinyl reissues due, BBC Radiophonic Music and BBC Radiophonic Workshop which come highly recommended.

Follow me on Twitter @MichaelBonner.

Omar Souleyman – Wenu Wenu

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Omar Souleyman – Wenu Wenu

500 albums into his career, a Syrian cult hero hooks up with Four Tet for his first trip to a studio... For Omar Souleyman, life is full of contrasts. He’s a household name in parts of the Middle East, a prolific former wedding singer whose pounding electronic dabke is sometimes dismissed as “music for taxi drivers”. Yet in the west he’s a cult figure, an enigmatic 40-something outsider in a grey djellaba robe and red and white kaffiyeh whose foot-stomping Arabic exotica never fails to thrill festival crowds. In interviews conducted in Arabic via a translator, his eyes hidden behind ’70s-cop aviator shades, the language barrier makes him appear inscrutable, almost unknowable. Onstage, however, he sings of girls and romance like a besotted teenager, albeit one who smokes 40 a day. And as he steps back into the spotlight with Wenu Wenu, an album of traditional courtship songs sympathetically produced by Kieran Hebden, better known as British techno polymath Four Tet, at home he and his family are living as refugees in the Turkish border city of Urfa, having been forced to flee their Syrian hometown of Ra’s al’-Ayn after life there became too dangerous following violent clashes between Assad’s forces and the Free Syrian Army. Not that the unfolding tragedy of his homeland is woven into the narrative of Wenu Wenu, his first major release on an international label. For Souleyman has been a professional crowd-pleaser since the mid-’90s and his lyrics, poetic but apolitical, reflect this. At a stretch you could reason that “Wenu Wenu”, which translates as “Where is she?”, might refer to Syria and its people, the lyrics beseeching in Arabic, “You, the one with a beautiful heart, tell me how are you, my love?/ You didn’t want me to suffer, my precious beloved”, but with wedding gigs once Souleyman’s bread and butter, and “Wenu Wenu” being a delirious high-energy floor-filler, it’s unlikely this old-school entertainer would radically alter his routine. Like the sentimental material first compiled by the Sublime Frequencies label that helped put him on the western stage, Wenu Wenu draws on the music indigenous to Souleyman’s Jazeera stamping ground in northeastern Syria, a mongrel mix of Syrian, Kurdish, Iraqi and Turkish folk songs and rhythms. Here, for example, “Warni Warni” is a traditional Kurdish number tooled up for the dancefloor, a sizzling synth line liberally drizzled across it. News of Hebden’s stewardship of the record initially raised eyebrows, chiefly because it seemed a truly excellent match: his edifying approach to electronics made him well placed to handle Souleyman’s wild rhythms. But unlike, say, his collaborations with the late jazz drummer Steve Reid, Hebden’s presence is pretty much undetectable on Wenu Wenu. Rather, he enhances and tightens these seven snaking, thumping tracks, letting Souleyman and his sparring partner, the keyboard maestro Rizan Sa’id, do their thing live in the studio. There are supposedly well over 500 Souleyman albums in circulation, mostly live recordings from weddings that are presented to the couple and later bootlegged and sold in kiosks, but Wenu Wenu is being touted as his first ever studio set (though he tells Uncut he made one in Istanbul some time ago). Certainly, he uses the album to finally record old live favourites such as “Khatthaba”, an Arab-world smash when broadcast on TV in 2006. Its lyrics outline the four conditions of modern marriage, the first two of which are to give the bride a brand-new Mercedes and a kilo of gold. And on frenzied jig “Ya Yumma” (“Oh Mother”), part of his repertoire since 1995, Souleyman sings from the point of view of a girl pressured into marriage: “I beg you mum to convince dad to let me marry my loved one/ I don’t want to get married to my cousin, he’s like my brother”. After years of compilations and hand-me-down live recordings that presented an appealing caricature of Omar Souleyman, an impression of the artist, Wenu Wenu is at last the genuine article. That it also captures the chaos of his live show is no small achievement either. Piers Martin Q+A Omar Souleyman Whose idea was it to make Wenu Wenu in New York with Kieran Hebden? My manager suggested the idea. We agreed and then we went and recorded it. I hope next year I will do it again in New York or a different place. How did you feel about working with Hebden? I had never met him before but I had heard of him. After we had recorded, I listened to the album and I was really happy with how it had come out. I sang relaxedly and no one interfered with us during the recording. Kieran’s technique is something he did on his own and the result is really clear on the album. I didn’t tell him to change anything. He let me do my thing. What is the main difference between the western music business and its Turkish and Syrian counterparts? Language. When I sing in Syria and Turkey everyone can understand me, but it’s challenging to sing in the west because I the audience doesn’t understand me. Yet I do not think of singing in English. I go to the western world to sing in Arabic and this is my style. Every artist has to be true to his style. Is it hard to concentrate on music when Syria is in such turmoil? I feel bad for what is happening in Syria, but this is out of my hands. I have to work and go about my daily life as usual. I have to work. INTERVIEW: PIERS MARTIN

500 albums into his career, a Syrian cult hero hooks up with Four Tet for his first trip to a studio…

For Omar Souleyman, life is full of contrasts. He’s a household name in parts of the Middle East, a prolific former wedding singer whose pounding electronic dabke is sometimes dismissed as “music for taxi drivers”. Yet in the west he’s a cult figure, an enigmatic 40-something outsider in a grey djellaba robe and red and white kaffiyeh whose foot-stomping Arabic exotica never fails to thrill festival crowds. In interviews conducted in Arabic via a translator, his eyes hidden behind ’70s-cop aviator shades, the language barrier makes him appear inscrutable, almost unknowable. Onstage, however, he sings of girls and romance like a besotted teenager, albeit one who smokes 40 a day.

And as he steps back into the spotlight with Wenu Wenu, an album of traditional courtship songs sympathetically produced by Kieran Hebden, better known as British techno polymath Four Tet, at home he and his family are living as refugees in the Turkish border city of Urfa, having been forced to flee their Syrian hometown of Ra’s al’-Ayn after life there became too dangerous following violent clashes between Assad’s forces and the Free Syrian Army.

Not that the unfolding tragedy of his homeland is woven into the narrative of Wenu Wenu, his first major release on an international label. For Souleyman has been a professional crowd-pleaser since the mid-’90s and his lyrics, poetic but apolitical, reflect this. At a stretch you could reason that “Wenu Wenu”, which translates as “Where is she?”, might refer to Syria and its people, the lyrics beseeching in Arabic, “You, the one with a beautiful heart, tell me how are you, my love?/ You didn’t want me to suffer, my precious beloved”, but with wedding gigs once Souleyman’s bread and butter, and “Wenu Wenu” being a delirious high-energy floor-filler, it’s unlikely this old-school entertainer would radically alter his routine.

Like the sentimental material first compiled by the Sublime Frequencies label that helped put him on the western stage, Wenu Wenu draws on the music indigenous to Souleyman’s Jazeera stamping ground in northeastern Syria, a mongrel mix of Syrian, Kurdish, Iraqi and Turkish folk songs and rhythms. Here, for example, “Warni Warni” is a traditional Kurdish number tooled up for the dancefloor, a sizzling synth line liberally drizzled across it. News of Hebden’s stewardship of the record initially raised eyebrows, chiefly because it seemed a truly excellent match: his edifying approach to electronics made him well placed to handle Souleyman’s wild rhythms. But unlike, say, his collaborations with the late jazz drummer Steve Reid, Hebden’s presence is pretty much undetectable on Wenu Wenu. Rather, he enhances and tightens these seven snaking, thumping tracks, letting Souleyman and his sparring partner, the keyboard maestro Rizan Sa’id, do their thing live in the studio.

There are supposedly well over 500 Souleyman albums in circulation, mostly live recordings from weddings that are presented to the couple and later bootlegged and sold in kiosks, but Wenu Wenu is being touted as his first ever studio set (though he tells Uncut he made one in Istanbul some time ago). Certainly, he uses the album to finally record old live favourites such as “Khatthaba”, an Arab-world smash when broadcast on TV in 2006. Its lyrics outline the four conditions of modern marriage, the first two of which are to give the bride a brand-new Mercedes and a kilo of gold. And on frenzied jig “Ya Yumma” (“Oh Mother”), part of his repertoire since 1995, Souleyman sings from the point of view of a girl pressured into marriage: “I beg you mum to convince dad to let me marry my loved one/ I don’t want to get married to my cousin, he’s like my brother”.

After years of compilations and hand-me-down live recordings that presented an appealing caricature of Omar Souleyman, an impression of the artist, Wenu Wenu is at last the genuine article. That it also captures the chaos of his live show is no small achievement either.

Piers Martin

Q+A

Omar Souleyman

Whose idea was it to make Wenu Wenu in New York with Kieran Hebden?

My manager suggested the idea. We agreed and then we went and recorded it. I hope next year I will do it again in New York or a different place.

How did you feel about working with Hebden?

I had never met him before but I had heard of him. After we had recorded, I listened to the album and I was really happy with how it had come out. I sang relaxedly and no one interfered with us during the recording. Kieran’s technique is something he did on his own and the result is really clear on the album. I didn’t tell him to change anything. He let me do my thing.

What is the main difference between the western music business and its Turkish and Syrian counterparts?

Language. When I sing in Syria and Turkey everyone can understand me, but it’s challenging to sing in the west because I the audience doesn’t understand me. Yet I do not think of singing in English. I go to the western world to sing in Arabic and this is my style. Every artist has to be true to his style.

Is it hard to concentrate on music when Syria is in such turmoil?

I feel bad for what is happening in Syria, but this is out of my hands. I have to work and go about my daily life as usual. I have to work.

INTERVIEW: PIERS MARTIN

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