Psyche-pop, Welsh, twee… That’s probably about as close as you’ll get at describing Gruff Rhys’ new album, Candylion. With songs like Skylon! - a 13-minute epic about the ‘master of the skies’ and Gyrru Gyrru Gyrru which, as far as I’m aware, means something along the lines of “can I have a Coke please?” this album doesn’t make sense. But it’s rather nice.
There’s a certain beauty in disorder. And when that disorder finds itself in a head on collision with the doomy expanse of melancholy, then I for one am there. Upon the initial wary listens, Apartment’s debut offering: The Dreamer Evasive, desires its place in this elusive set, where it might not quite reach the throes of darkness, it’s certainly making itself known in the turning point of twilight.
So, I am back at the Scala for the third time in as many weeks, this time to see Brazilian uber-art-rock group Cansei de Ser Sexy, otherwise known as CSS. This fantastically exuberant six piece appear to have at least four guitars and bass on stage at once – a real reminder why people have gone back to playing instruments – because it’s just so much fun, damn it! Why play air guitar when you can have the real thing? CSS are living out the dreams of every art student in this land and beyond – their androgynous figures kitted out in the same kind of art-school mix ‘n’ match clothing that is worn the world over.
Well, the Purple Turtle is nothing like I expected; after years of cycling past it I finally got to go to a gig there, and I was very pleasantly surprised. It looks like a studenty-goth cum fantasy games shop from the outside, and yet it is spacious with a cute little stage and a great little lighting rig. The website is really user-friendly too, so all in all a good egg.
Running extremely late, it’s lucky that I now have a boyfriend to keep me company on the phone in the stairwell. Two Gallants are currently at the centre of an interesting newspiece – they were involved in a brawl with an overly eager policeman in Texas, who proceeded to tazer a bunch of the audience at one of their gigs – all because the sound was not turned down in a licensed venue!
Well, I have just spent the last three days intensively shooting the Sheffield band the Harrisons for their press shots – they are currently putting the finishing touches to their debut album in a remote studio called The Chapel in Lincolnshire with reknowned producer Hugh Jones, who has worked with such luminaries as Echo and the Bunnymen. The studio has seen many famous bands pass through it’s environs – the Arctic Monkeys being the most recent to record their block-busting album in what would once have been the alter of the chapel and is now a cosy wood panelled studio. It was really fun, if hard work – getting the boys out of bed early enough in the morning to get moving and actually get enough shots done before a) they had to return to carry on recording and b) the sun went in for good – jeez the days are short, especially in the north-east – was quite a lot of effort. They range in age evenly from 20 – 23 yrs old and it’s just not very rock ‘n’ roll to get up before lunchtime anyway.
