Back On The 'Tet Offensive'

Afternoon all,

Sitting in my room with a handy day off work for reasons I can't be bothered to go into, I feel I've been given the perfect opportunity to write about an album I've been enjoying for some time now. I'm watching the wind rage outside and am sadly transported to the Island of the Phillipines where thousands of corpses lie awash the streets and many more thousands face the reality of a short-term future at the very least without a home. Aid is now arriving in droves, especially it has to be said from the US who are said to be providing support on an 'unprecedented scale'. But with a current confirmed death toll of 2300 and the grave admittance from the UN that more than 11 million people will be affected by this typhoon, the affects aren't going to be felt for weeks; they will be felt for years. Horrifically depressing stuff to think about but it's definitely at times like this where our lives can be placed into perspective by events in the world thousands of miles away. The Phillipines has always been a country in jeopardy, battling with democracy ever since World War Two as varying dictators have attempted to take hold since its independence and it has equally experienced natural disasters, not to the scale of this one but fearful nonetheless. Now the mass rebuilding operation can slowly begin, and with as much help from the west as humanly possible I hope it can be as successful as an operation of this size could possibly be.

This week I've been listening pretty much non-stop to Four Tet's new LP Beautiful Rewind. It had been only a while since we'd heard a peep out of Kieran Hebden a la Four Tet but enough of a while to lead to the slight beginnings of a genuine frustration at the lack of a current release from one of Britain's most influential dance producers of the recent decade. 2012's Pink was mostly a collection of previously released 12-inches with a couple unreleased but listened as a whole it was a masterpiece and one which I enjoyed for some while, far more experimental than some of his previous work but with a beautifully metronomic feel to it which lend itself very well to the type of background music you could have playing while say revising for an exam or having a kip. Beautiful Rewind was released back in mid-October (I'm a tad late on the uptake but wanted to get a good listen in first) with virtually no hype attached to it. It was simply announced by one tweet stating there would be 'no pre-order, no youtube trailers, no itunes stream, no spotify, no amazon deal, no charts, no bit coin deal, no last minute rick rubin'. This hasn't in any way prevented from either selling badly or gaining highly favourable reviews. 

The album itself moves away from Pink's sleepy metronome and draws in part upon Hebden's DJ work (a residency at East London's Plastic People) mainly in the UK garage and grime scenes but with some  traditional floaty two-step infused for good measure. This is noticeable more than anything on the most publicised of the tracks, 'Parallel Jalebi'. This tune opens with and is suffused throughout by a speedy garage beat which lends it pace but it is overtoned with a certain female vocal 'airy-fairyness', breathing life into it and making it a personal highlight. As with the majority of tracks off of Rewind, we are greeted with an approximate 30-second mini-pause in the middle, before Hebden throws a new surprise at us or simply continues where he has left off. Opener 'Gong' follows a similar formula but is far more influenced by the Middle-Eastern and African beats which Four Tet so loves and has been so noticeable on his previous works. This tune is far sharper, the vocals are all-male and are more reflective of an MC rather than a singer. They are used to good effect on many of the other tracks and help to back up my main point about the album which is Hebden's keen ambition to demonstrate to his listener just how much he is enjoying his DJ-ing at the moment. 'Kool FM', a shout-out to one of his most-loved London radio stations, begins in a similar vein to 'Parallel Jalebi' but is turned on its head in the traditional mid-pause by a yelp of 'Hey-hey-hey' which appears totally disconnected to the track and transports us to the underground. It is fascinating to listen to and is something we haven't heard much of from the Tet before. 

'Buchla' follows and shares a similarity with 'Kool FM' in the sharpness of its over-dubbed MC track, while being slightly too grimy for my tastes it certainly isn't bad and with the right atmosphere would be an absolute banger. Nearing the end of the LP, Hebden veers off course into a totally different direction and treats us to album closers 'Unicorn' and 'Your Body Feels'. 'Unicorn''s intro sounds strangely like the soundtrack of an old Nintendo adventure game but is quickly hurried along with more foreign drumming and a sweet under-layered bass line, it is another undoubted highlight of mine. 'Your Body Feels' closes the LP in a style which Hebden has imbued into his more recent work, this time he involves trumpets and saxophones along with a constant eerie clap and more of the tried and tested repetitive female vocal outlay which works a treat. 

Overall this is an album of heavy multi-layering - spanning different genres, influences, sounds and possibly most importantly professions (think Hebden as performing DJ compared with Hebden as bedroom sound producer). It is one of the year's most intuitive releases and one which should be heard by all, more surely to come from Four Tet in the not-too-distant future. Here he is in one of those roles:

I hope everyone enjoyed and apologies for the wrist-cuttingly painful thought of the day placed serenely at the top of this page, don't know what I was thinking! Also check out the beautiful Disney-esque video for 'Parallel Jalebi' below, I only discovered it today and it's a goodun (got a live version of 'Kool FM' as well, think it showcases it in its best light even if the camera is a tad on the shaky side and the people in the background won't shut the fuck up).

Enjoy the day people,

Max

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Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves (Haim & Chvrches)

Good day to one and all,

Hope everyone's enjoying the weekend. Been meaning to write this blog for quite a few days now but obstacles to my writing were frequent so now here I am on a grey yet mild Saturday afternoon relishing the idea of spending the day doing absolutely shit-all. In the news, the Daily Mail has once again been revealed for the blood-curdling spineless drivel spouter that it has always been, using the diary of a scared 16 year old refugee miles away from home to communicate him as 'hating Britain' and laying down an 'evil legacy' while its sister paper had the sheer audacity to send a reporter only days afterwards to a memorial service for one of his close relatives and the uncle of the man they were truly trying to slander (Ed Miliband). Miliband's popularity has only been increased by the debacle, all mainstream politicians have leapt to his side and yet the Mail refuses to apologise. But there you go, the same brand of crass idiots will still be reading that paper by the time we enter the apocalypse.Skin-crawling stuff. Here's the idiot that allowed all this to happen, balding egg-head and all. And if you want to have a butchers at his deputy being torn a new a-hole by Alistair Campbell then head over in this direction.

The last couple of weeks have seen albums released which have spawned a mini-revival of girl-bands with edge but with far more of a focus on the 'edge' part and far less on the 'girl-bands' bit. Haim are undoubtedly the most talked about new-band of the year, ever since being tipped by the BBC back in December as the 'ones to watch' for 2013. Their debut Days Are Gone has been hotly anticipated but unlike many new bands they continued to dispel the pressure to release a first LP quickly and tweaked and tweaked for months until it was finally issued last Monday (a solid year after the release of first single 'Forever'). Turns out it's just a little bit of a masterpiece. What these raunchy sisters have somehow managed to do is fuse about three decades worth of high-quality music (70's - Fleetwood Mac, 80's - Phil Collins, 90's - RnB) and span genres which many thought previously unspannable - the phrase 'breath of fresh air' barely even covers it.

The trio made that always rather ballsy decision to throw in all the singles right at the top of the tracklist leaving the listener initially compelled to listen to more without having much knowledge of what's to come but each new track supplants fresh ideas about the girl's individual talents. It takes a few listens to understand the more nuanced successes of the album - the sleek production of the synths in 'If I Could Change Your Mind', the dreamy lyrical shapes constructed in 'Honey and I' and 'Running If You Call My Name' and the spectacularly sharp guitar riff in Yeezus-esque RnB ballad 'My Song 5'. Anyone who watched these girls perform at Glastonbury or Reading will have known they witnessed a performance akin to that of a headliner and an extreme vision of what may be to come, the energy was electric. When listening to Days Are Gone two things are for sure, one is that contrary to earlier comments made in this blog Haim are in no way actually a 'girl-band' in the traditional sense of phrase but a musical tour-de-force in their own right and two is that it's certainly not looks which have carried them this far but sheer talent and grit albeit they are all very very hot, especially when surrounded by balloons. 

Chvrches have a far more localised following than the Haim girls but have still excelled themselves with much-anticipated  debut The Bones Of What You Believe . OK so with only 33.33% of their members being female the 'girl-band' label becomes even less applicable to these guys but in Lauren Mayberry they have a lead singer capable of following in the footsteps of the Kate Bush's and Sinead O'Connor's of this world and this is coupled with her having quite the smart head on her shoulders, writing in The Guardian Music blog this week on the perils of online misogyny. 

I personally have been looking forward to the release of this album for a good many months, ever since I first heard lead single 'Lies' followed by Chvrches fantastic remix of MSMR's 'Hurricane' and became addicted to the Glasweigan trio's strange brand of authentic electro nu-folk. Don't be fooled by the strong dialectical accent, these guys are no Biffy Clyro, in as much as, well, they're not shit. Instead they're very very good and just as with Haim, what's so intriguing about their debut LP is not the already accredited singles but the new and unheard genre-spanning tunes. 'Tether' begins in a slow-riffed ballad form but ends with epic synths-galore as Mayberry belts out 'I feel incapable of seeing the end/I feel incapable of saying it's over'. Just like with King Krule's album as discussed in the last blog, there is a raw honesty to the lyrics of the album which adds to the bands aura of modesty. 'Lies' follows 'Tether' and still remains one of my favourites but a real pearler comes slightly later on in the form of 'Science, Visions'. A daunting intro juxtaposed by Mayberry's sweet vocals and a vocal loop undertoning the entire thing is then joined by thumping bass and the somehwat underrated backing vocals of Mayberry's bandmates Iain Cook and Martin Doherty. The tempo is upheld throughout the three minutes and 58 seconds of awesomeness and the closing three tracks are equally as bold, the industrial bridge in 'Lungs' is exquisitely placed as is both guitar and drum riffs working side-by-side in epic closer 'You Caught The Light'. Chvrches began with a tiny internet-based Scottish fan-base and are now attracting a far wider range as interest in their brand goes global, the only way from here really appears to be up.

So that's that then, two bands I've been looking forward to writing about for ages and whose music deserves to be listened to across the land. Hope everyone enjoyed and as always cheers for reading.

Max

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Being Krule To Be Kind

Hi everyone,

The weird title will be explained in due course.

The age of mainstream social commentators gravitating to the top of the charts seems to be nearing its end. Morrisey, Shaun Ryder and more recently stand-up figures like Mike Skinner and the young Dizzee Rascal are far harder to come across and their likes tend to be buried deep within the musical underworld. That is why I'm hear today children to talk about what I believe to be one of the most important, underrated and probably unnoticed albums of 2013. Archy Marshall aka King Krule may look like a lactose-intollerant pre-pubescent teen but he is in fact one of the most talented musicians I've come across in quite some time.

The bare facts - As London as it gets, Marshall began his career operating under the moniker Zoo Kid and released his first single in 2010 'Out Getting Ribs' (a crowd favourite which has made it on to the album) but he developed into King Krule when he released his first self-titled EP in late 2011. King Krule being so named after the Donkey Kong character King K.Rool but quite why the reason for this change in stage name I'm not too sure, personally I prefer it. His talent was under no doubt from an incredibly young age. Very few people know that Marshall attended Brit School (graduates include Ed Sheeran and Amy Winehouse) from 2008 till 2011, meaning he would have been just 14 when in his junior year. A child prodigy destined for stardom then, but since leaving he has followed a very different path to that of the likes of his ginger compadre Sheeran.

Krule's debut 6 Feet Beneath the Moon has been virtually on repeat on my iPod since its release but it is by no means an easy listen. More of a conceptual piece than an album laden with tunes, it really has to be listened to as a whole for its full affects to be soaked up. Each track floats over the listener and creates a beautiful sense of paradox between the rhythm of the synths and Krule's rather cutting tone. Make no mistake, if you're looking for a strong vocal range then this isn't the album for you but fuck me his lyrics are good.

Krule is the voice of reason, the voice of a generation toiling with the frustration brought about by an extreme lack of opportunity and being stared down upon from all sides by the educated yet somewhat totally uneducated elite. His take on the state of modern Britain indicates a maturity well beyond his 19 years (hard to believe he's almost three years younger than I am). This is apparent from early on in the LP, opener 'Easy Easy' is an outspoken attack on modern-day policing, "The same old bobby same old beat/ but yeah they got nothing on me" and it sets the tone for an hour of pure unashamed anger. The honesty of his propositions are as emotional as their actual content, spinning phrases such as "Another disappointed soul/ well I tried, tried to keep it in control/ well I will end up on the dole" from 'Has it Hit' alongside the simple realities of just another disappointed teenager failing to get himself laid in 'Baby Blue' - "Edging closer/ You swing my way/ I've got no chance/ and nothing to say".

If I could pick a favourite, it would have to be 'Lizard State'. This bucks the one-tempo trend of the majority of the album and is a far more upbeat rant at those bringing Marshall down - "In my head I'm getting dead tired of this shit/ you fucking bitch". The trumpets are interesting and a worthy addition and the vocals represent Marshall's highly influential hip-hop background, it's a necessary tune to break up an album which could be accused by certain portions of the music press of being a tad samey. As it goes, 6 Feet Beneath the Moon has generated increasingly favourable reviews and is nearing universal acclaim on metacritic with an average score of 77(always a good indicator). It is deserving of every accolade it receives and long may the King's future as a vaunted musician continue. He may not be the easiest listen but boy can he write a song, I would urge all to give him a chance. Below I've linked a couple of tunes from the album along with the feature vocals he added to electronic duo Mount Kimbie's 'You Took Your Time' which is an absolute banger. And if you had no clue what I was on about with the earlier description "Lactose-intollerant pre-pubescent teen" then this photo should stand you in good stead.

Cheers as always for reading and remember you can give me a tweet with any recommendations at any time - @goldbart1.

Max

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The Rise and Rise of Arctic Monkeys

Afternoon to everyone,

As promised in Thursday's post I've taken great pleasure this afternoon in writing a few words on the new Arctic Monkey's album AM. Had to wait five days for the darn CD to arrive and then immediately uploaded it on to my laptop making me truly appreciate just why no one buys CDs anymore, if I'd downloaded it I could have done the exact same thing for free and got it on the day it came out with absolutely no drop in sound quality - the album picture might still have even popped up on my iTunes. Instead I spent 9 quid to twiddle my thumbs for five days.

Anyway the problem subsisted and now I'm here with Alex Turner crooning 'Do I wanna Know' in my ear and I'm bloody loving it. If I could compare the Arctic Monkeys to any band of a past generation then listening to this, their fifth LP in just seven years, I would probably have to shout the Rolling Stones. The Stones started out as a protest band but it wasn't much time before they developed into an outfit developing records which were far more sexy than they were angry. Having a little listen to the masterpiece that is the Monkey's debut Whatever People Say I Am That's What I'm Not, the development draws many a similarity. While once upon a time Turner was penning lyrics about being thrown out of grotty Sheffield dive bars, the boys are now based in LA, sporting teddy boy haircuts and producing songs with titles like 'No1 Party Anthem' and 'Why Do You Only Call Me When You're High'. Does it matter? Course it fucking doesn't because the music remains simply fantastic.

We knew exactly what to expect having already been treated to opener 'Do I wanna Know' and singles 'R U Mine' and the aforementioned 'Why Do You Only Call Me...' but each of the other new tracks delivers its own little piece of happiness, be it with a cheeky lyric, a riff of pure originality or one of Matt Helder's trademark drum solos (plus way way more of his beloved falsetto). And the brains behind it all... Mr Turner. If You didn't know it already, Alex Turner is an absolute lyrical genius. I read and strongly agreed with a review of the album the other day which claimed he has an unfounded ability to find rhyme in the middle of a sentence where other songwriters simply wouldn't have a clue, 'I'm sorry to interrupt it's just I'm constantly on the cusp of trying to kiss you' is a prime example. This gives each melody it's own unique Monkeys feel and sets a tone for something new in every crevice of his work. For me, he leaves his best lyrical prowess for last, producing scintillating metaphor after metaphor in perfect closer 'I Wanna Be Yours' - 'If you like your coffee hot/Let me be your coffee pot' etc.etc. These lyrics challenge my previous favourite Monkey's metaphor - 'Your rarer than a can of dandelion and burdock/and those other girls are just post-mix lemonade'.

Lyrics aside, 'Mad Sounds' finds the Monkeys at their most touching and is probably the most anthemic of the tunes, alongside the wonderfully titled 'No.1 Party Anthem' of course, both of which sound like they were ripped straight off Turner's EP for the Richard Ayoade directed Submarine (another work of absolute genius from the Sheffielder, where does he get his time from). 'Knee Socks' features vocals and production from Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme and a riff to die for alongside a slightly fresher poppier feel while earlier on in the LP there's Arabella' and FUCK ME IT'S A TUNE. Each instrumental addition is bathed with funk and the chorus has to be one of the best these guys have ever produced, moment of the album for me has to be the pre-chorus in which two sliding chords cut across Turner's claim that 'My days end best when this sunset gets itself' before launching into 'As Arabellllaaaaaaaa'.

What this album has confirmed is that the Monkeys can really do what the fuck they want and keep on and on producing LPs of better and better quality. Some are saying that this is only the beginning and connecting this record with the first in terms of its importance for the band but on this point I strongly disagree and point to the strength and success of the three albums which came in between. There is however a layer of fresh maturity on top of AM which has guaranteed the critical acclaim along with the mass album and single sales ('Why Do You Only Call Me...' reached no.8 in the UK charts, no mean feat for a guitar band in 2013).The  hope and moreover the assumption is that the Monkeys continue to release LPs of this calibre and as prolifically as they have been over the past few years. I don't doubt it, and what I also don't doubt is that if this is to be the case then there's no reason why in thirty years time we can't be talking about them in the same terms as we're talking about the Stones in 2013... we can certainly begin to compare Turner with Jagger. And who wouldn't love to see the Arctic Monkeys headlining Glastonbury 2043?

Many thanks as always for reading as I've certainly enjoyed writing.

Max

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Updates and Mercury Musings

Evening all,

As I familiarly say because I publish this blog so damn rarely... it's been a while. In terms of my life, University is now done and dusted, I spent a month having the trip of lifetime in the US of A and have now had reality give me a massive slap in the nuts as I return to my parent's home in London and a relatively dead-end 9 to 5 job. The two things I learnt in America:

1) EVERYONE  loves Disclosure.

2) NO ONE and I repeat NO ONE in the US has heard of Jimmy Saville.

Anywho... to keep me going I thought I'd try and carry on publishing the stuff I'm listening to and promoting new bands whenever I see fit, along with the odd thought of the week. The focus of the posts will probably shift away from Yorkshire a bit and spread around the country but no one think for a second that Sheffield doesn't still occupy a really quite hefty place in my heart.

Yesterday was mercury prize nomination day. A yearly event which pretty much everyone forgets about and very few people care about but is always a good indicator of the state of the UK music industry at any given time. If this year's nomination pool is anything to go by then this hasn't been the freshest year for new musical talent, every band on the shortlist who has released more than one album has been nominated before, leaving debutants Jake Bugg, Disclosure, Rudimental, Laura Mvula and Savages (so in all fairness quite a few). Last year Alt-J scooped the prize and were touted by a number of bookies as the most highly-backed band in history to win the gong in its fledgling 20-odd year run. This year things look a little bit tighter. While art-rock trio London Grammar were favourites to win the prize before the nominations were announced, it came as a shock to many a fan, me definitely included, to see them not even make the shortlist. Their airy floaty new-xx vibe seemed exactly the kind of sound the judges would be looking for and the fact they released debut offering If You Wait precisely on the final day that albums could be considered for the listing made perfect sense (have a gander at my review of the new LP right over here, shameless plugging I know and for that I'm majorly apologetic).

Instead of the Grammar, the new favourite to emerge is David Bowie of all people. I must admit at this juncture that his is the only album on the list I'm yet to get round to listening to and to be frank I somehow can't see it happening very soon but I hear great things. Would it be a major step backwards however to issue the main prize to a man who was at the height of his talents over 40 years ago? Maybe I'm being a tad cynical I don't know. Other front runners include Arctic Monkeys who's new showing AM was released last Monday and will be a certain topic for my next blog (I'm still waiting for the fucking CD in the post and feel a right mug for pledging not to listen to a single track before it arrived, hurry the fuck up Amazon!) is leaving critics speechless and could stand the Monkeys in good stead to become  the second act in history to win the Mercury twice (PJ Harvey did it in 2001 and 2011 but to be fair she's really fucking strange so I may consider them the first).

Post-punk trio Savages have drawn praise from all quarters of the musical critiquing world for their angry raunchy debut Silence Yourself and could be considered an outside bet while if this was only a few months ago and everyone wasn't so fed up of his unbelievably moody teeanger-going-through-puberty-like-scowl (see below) I'd have given Jake Bugg a real shout. James Blake's Overgrown is his second consecutive nomination and deservedly so but I somehow struggle to see him quite making that final final cut and can't really see him giving too much of a shit about the whole ordeal.

But the really seriously important part is my opinion and for me it's got to be a two-way scrap between Disclosure and Jon Hopkins. These are the two that have really pushed the boundaries this year and if that's what the Mercuries are all about then they really can't be ignored. Guy and Howard Lawrence of Dislclosure, both under the age of 21 demonstrated that house music can have strong pop elements while still being lauded by critics and set loose a fresh array of young British electronic talent into the limelight while Jon Hopkins demonstrated just how far-reaching and emotive a  techno record can be, his nomination Immunity is an absolute masterpiece and should be heard by all.

It's a strange list... some serious talent but nothing truly breathtakingly exciting with the possible exception of the two mentioned in the above paragraph. This more than anything could possibly be down to the fact I discovered yesterday that bands have to pay a fee in order to even be considered for nomination. There must be some serious gems out there that didn't have the funds or simply couldn't be bothered to submit to this tiring process which is a bit of a shame. Quite why you have to pay to probably not win a prize is a bit puzzling but there you go, that's capitalism for you (only joking, I'm really not that guy).

Until early next week, when AM will have dropped swiftly through my letterbox and I'll be bumming it out to my heart's content. I've linked a few of the better tunes off the nominees records at the bottom if anyone fancies a cheeky listen.

Cheers as always for taking  the time to have a read and if anyone's got any music to recommend hit me up at @goldbart1 on twitter or on facebook.

And oh shit I didn't even mention Foals, another big name to throw into the mix, bloody fantastic album.

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Glastoblog!

Top of the afternoon to ya!

As anyone who has in any way crossed my path in the past week you may know that last weekend I attended a mass gathering in the middle of a gigantic farm in Somerset to watch a load of musicians frolick around varyingly-sized fields and enjoy some well-earned merriment. This was Glasto Effing Bury and here's a little run-down of the bands I saw and the general highs and lows (there weren't actually any lows but you can't just say general highs) over the weekend.

Friday 

After a Thursday night in the dance area, experiencing sets from the 2 Bears and T.Williams along with Glastonbury's own answer to Propaganda, the morning promised our first experience of the Pyramid Stage and all it had to offer - kicking off with three Jewish sisters and a random drummer who no one really cares about, all harbouring bags and bags of sass.

HAIM - The weekend couldn't have gone off with more of a bang if you'd set off a shit load of dynamite. Haim were the BBC's sound of 2012 and this performance made it easy to understand why. Their presence is constant and uplifting and they interlink their more well-known hits with the jams and periods of hard-ass drumming which give their live shows a real standout feel. An absolute treat.

JAKE BUGG - A disappointment from start to finish. Jake was clearly nervous which is utterly fair enough from someone who consistently has the complexion of a moody teenager on the way up to his bedroom but he approached the nerves in the totally wrong way. While other evidently-nervous acts I viewed over the weekend (see Jagwar Ma) were more willing to acceept them, Jake's attempts to hide the nerves made him appear sullen and almost rude. Undoubtable tunes like 'Seen It All' and 'Lightning Bolt' prompted big sing a longs but lil' Jakey has much to learn about big performances. My advice - don't hide the nerves, embrace them.

THE LUMINEERS - I absolutely love these guys and they didn't disappoint. By no means one hit wonders livng off the proceeds of a popular E-On advert, their debut self-titled album boasts tune after tune and these were replicated beautifully on this sunny Friday afternoon as I sat at the Other Stage munching on a six pound falafel. A band perfect for festivals, the performance was replete with energy and emotion and before I knew it it was being closed off perfectly with 'Stubborn Love', my personal album highlight. There was also the chance to hear some new stuff.

TAME IMPALA - I had the pleasure of watching the Australian trip-rockers in Sheffield back at the end of 2012 and the night ranks highly in my top ten gigs list. This particular performance had all the technical capability of that night in South Yorkshire but was ever so slightly self-indulgent. Lead singer Kevin Parker took the jamming part of the set a bit too far and appeared to be almost wasting time when he could have been exhibiting one of the many many tunes the Impalas have to offer from 2010's Innerspeaker or NME's number one album of 2012 Lonerism. However closer and fan favourite 'Half Full Glass of Wine' will never disappoint for as long as I live and the intro chords are still echoing round my head as I type.

ALT-J - Attracting one of the biggest crowds the Other Stage saw all weekend, the most pretentious band in the history of pretense looked brimming with confidence and were highly impressive. Their sets remain a bit wooden and they should really start experimenting with some of their live songs in terms of both order and tempo but not too much to complain about really.

FOALS - These guys are fucking mental. My most looked forward to band of the weekend, they set their intentions out from start to finish and didn't quieten for a second. New-album highlight 'Late Night' was an especial treat but the balance of the set was perfect and highly uplifting and reaffirmed Foals status as an essentially 'live band'. Watch out for the manner in which lead singer Yannis Phillipakis nods his head forward while lost in a solo, he takes the duck walk to whole new levels. While me and my crew missed the closing couple of tracks , closer 'Two Steps Twice' (as watched by moi the day after I got home on iPlayer) looked like it had all the capabilities to bring the house down... had there been a house present.

ARCTIC MONKEYS - Not too much to say on the Monkeys that hasn't been said already. This was my fourth time seeing them (fifth coming up in October) but it never ceases to amaze me just how tight they remain as a band. They opened with a teaser of how album number five may well end up sounding in the form of  'Did I wanna Know'. Bar that, the set included one more teaser and tunes from their recent and more distant back catalogue. A symphonic version of 'Mardy Bum' was as compelling as it was unexpected and a particularly touching moment came when Alex ordered his adoring fans to sing happy birthday to his mum (who's name continues to escape me). The perfect end to a first day of what I hope will be many.

Saturday

The weather came out to play in earnest on Saturday as thousands of slightly tubby middle-aged men and women set out their deck chairs in the front rows of the Pyramid Stage as early as midday to prepare for the coming of one of the biggest bands of the century. The Excitement was rippling through Worthy Farm.

JAGWAR MA - My day began with an Australian band in the John Peel tent who I've been keeping tabs on for a while. The lead singer looked incredibly overrawed but he worked with it, lost himself in the music and fast became a source of adulation for the crowd. This is an up and coming psych-rock duo who's music has already been touted by Noel Gallagher as 'more important than an Oasis reunion' and as I left the tent the phrase 'that was fucking fantastic' echoed round the crowd , making me feel a little as if I'd just been viewing an early set by the Gallaghers myself.

AZAELIA BANKS - I've never been a huge fan but boy does she put on a show. After the initial shock of seeing her weird contact lenses, Banks showed off a variety of tracks from her records of which I'm told she has many but there was also a certain recognition that she needed to break the performance up, allowing her sassy dancers time to strut their stuff and giving her DJ a slice of the limelight while she was taking breaks. Clad in brown spandex and a spiky green suit, Azaelia was one of the surprises of the weekend.

PRIMAL SCREAM - We had a bit of a break between Azaelia and the evenings entertainment (some in my camp took it too far and partook in a mass three and a half hour nap which spanned the entirety of the Stones set) and next up was Primal Scream. I only caught the back-end of this performance which was rich with energy and served up a slice of the album which put these moody Scotsmen on the map but what was clearer than anything was that lead singer Bobby Gillespie was utterly wankered. As the crowd moved less and less, his frustration grew more and more ending with a pleading wail of 'come on you fuckers!' Enjoyable nonetheless.

ROLLING STONES - The main event was here and boy was it worth it. All the angst of a two hour wait melted away when Jagger and co rolled on stage and launched into 'Jumping Jack Flash'. What followed was a lengthy set replete with variety and technical innovation. All the tunes were there, 'Gimme Shelter' was magnificent, 'Sympathy with the Devil' came accompanied with a fire-shooting bird and 'You can't always get what you want' proved to be a real tear-jerker. I don't confess to be anywhere near the world's biggest Stones fan but to enjoy this performance you really didn't have to be, you just had to love music.

Sunday

I awoke with a start Sunday morning in a tiny crevice of a tent pod that should fit two but was at that point harbouring four. We'd spent the evening before at Glastonbury's clubbing 'district' Shangri-La and to anyone who's been to Glasto but hasn't made it there then you need to sort yourselves out. My immediate thought was that the blister I'd slowly been developing on my small left toe was now covered in blood and somehow a small trace of urine but I put this out my mind and focused on a final day which had come around all too fast. First port of call was the reggae tent.

BLUE KING BROWNS - Whenever you get a spare couple of hours and the weather is nice, the reggae area is always a shout. At around 4 in the afternoon I happened upon this multi-insturmental Australian reggae troop and spent the next hour staring in awe. For a start the lead singer is a babe but beyond that their  blend of politically driven music and chilled-out reggae beats made for perfect listening and they were also there on a slight ulterior motive. Towards the back-end of the set a freedom fighter from a province of Indonesia called West Papua which is under autocratic rule was brought on stage and told to regale his experiences. It was a moving moment and the crowd loved it as the troupe promoted a cause incredibly close to their hearts.I hadn't heard of West Papua before the performance and so it was proof in itself that music can really bring people together and make a difference.

OF MONSTERS AND MEN - The perfect festival band on the late afternoon Other Stage slot. Plenty of hey-hey-heys and la-la-las got a tad samey near the end but thoroughly enjoyable and the female singer is an absolute darling while the male one is chubby, bearded and adorable.

EDITORS - Had wanted to see these guys for absolutely ages. While new album The Weight of Your Love is coming in for an unnecessary ton of stick, they dug into their back catalogue a la Arctic Monkeys and pulled out some absolute bangers. Lead singer Tom Smith is as erratic as he is baritoned with his self-hugging dance move one to definitely look out for. Another ultimate festival band, this was the fifth time they had played Glastonbury!

THE xx - We made the ever-so-slightly controversial decision to give baffled pyramid headliners Mumford and Sons a miss and instead opted for something a bit softer. What followed was anything but soft. The xx's live performances are an absolute spectacle. Each song is given its own mini-makeover by head DJ Jamie xx and the resulting creations are both soulful and ambient. Not one member of the crowd wasn't having a good time and the joy which the band were so obviously gaining from their own performance was great to watch. Couldn't have chosen a better way to end.




That's it then, we returned to the campsite, lit a fire and made a toast to the end of our first Glastonbury in as clicheed a style as we possibly could. I leave you with the man who makes all the shit happen.

Till next time,

Max

The First Day Of The Rest Of My Life... and Fossil Collective

Afternoon,

Exams are over and with that the end of my time at the University of Sheffield is sadly nigh. Thought I'd talk a bit about one of the bands who really got me through what is always a gruelling and consistently dull period.

Firstly though I've in the past couple of days had to face the nagging realisation that what will in all probability be the best period of my life has reached its conclusion. University is everything it's cracked up to be and more and this should never be over stated. Faced with the grave question of what's coming next, some are as clueless as the next person while others are self assured and readying themselves to enter the world of full time work. Personally I would consider myself one of the inbetweeners - back off to mummy and daddy's to get what will in all honesty probably turn out to be a highly unstimulating job for a year before I return to the grind of full time education at Cardiff completing an MA in Journalism which will in no way guarantee me an immediate job. It's both exciting and panic-inducing.

For us history students our final semester consisted of a new and largely pointless module dubiously dubbed 'The Uses of History'. This module consisted of us questioning the entire releveance of our degree and how  history as a subject can be 'applied' to the wider world. It's been a constant source of frustration to hear talk of the 'transferrable skills' aspect of the degree rather than just being left alone to pursue our own interests and we've constantly been fed the idea that history is most definitely not the be all and end all and that there are a variety of career options open to us which have absolutely nothing to do with History.

 Looking back though, there has not been a single day in the past three years when I've questioned the 'usefulness' of what I'm doing and it's something which I will always look back upon with a smile.As pointless a musing as ever but one which I really felt I wanted to get down in some form.

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Anyone whose seen the delightful French comedy The Intouchables (sitting comfortably in IMDB's top 100) will have heard a track called 'Red Lights' by the oddly-named Leeds music collective Vib Gyor (so named as it's an acronym of the colours of the rainbow). Vib achieved moderate success including airtime on BBC Radio's 1 and 6 but had difficulties and in 2010 two members Dave Fendick and Jonny Hooker broke away and formed Fossil Collective. Anyone who's been lucky enough to come across their music up until now will no doubt have been taken in by the lilting guitars and Fleet Foxes-esque vocals but to anyone unfamiliar, I speak of them in high terms.

Debut album Tell Where I Lie was released in April but their music had been doing the rounds for quite a while, an EP with lead single 'Let It Go' being issued in July of last year.While the album has yet to propel them to anything near the heights of the likes of Fleet Foxes, it has helped them achieve a solid following in the UK, two of which are friends of mine who went to see them play at Sheffield's Harley a number of weeks ago and were full of praise for the duo. These two even got a chance to speak to support act Joe Banfi, subject of the blog a couple of months back (plugging my blog on my own blog, who the hell do I think I am). I've linked 'Let It Go' along with another crowd-favourite, 'On and On'. These songs exhibit some of the finer strengths of the duo but the whole album is worth a listen and is great for annoyingly long periods of study to act as background music.

This album cover has to be the definition of epic.Cracking beards.

Away from Yorkshire, Birmingham's finest mood-rockers Editors are readying a fourth LP and I was shown a little sample of it the other day. This new track 'Honesty' is vintage Editors - soulful, emotional and a return to their guitar-led sound of albums one and two. The synths appear to have been ditched.

Cheers to all for reading and let's hope this hangover cures itself soon before death becomes a more readily available option.

Max

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