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I kNEW WE WERE bETTER!

75
30
bEST
ALbUmS
bEST REISSUES
bEST bOOkS & FILmS FATHER
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MISTY
I HAd 52 LOST
WEEkENdS IN A ROW!

THE RETURN OF
STEELY DAN
FATS DOMINO
R.I.P.

THE WEATHER
STATION
HURRAY FOR
THE RIFF RAFF
THE STAPLE SINGERS
NICO
ST VINCENT
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 The night is dark but the sidewalks bright/And lined with the light of the living

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A
s ever at this time of year, Ive spent more hours than are some tantalising bits of his next album (he also sends me a special hello,
necessarily healthy fumbling with a spreadsheet in order to which is sweet). LCD soundsystems James Murphy reveals some valuable
rank the Uncut writers Albums Of The Year. Forty-four parenting tips how not to remove a babys arm with a machete on a hinge
contributors voted this time round, for 421 different new seems key. And I spend an emotional night in the company of Donald Fagen
releases and 191 reissues. Thats a lot of good records, and its and the steely Dan organisation, creatively coming to terms with the loss of
heartening to see the range and quality of new music still being made in our Walter Becker.
world; rock, once again, is not exactly the spent force the naysayers claim it to A huge thank you, finally, for all your encouragement, insight and support
be. Its been fun, too, to discover a few albums which had previously eluded through 2017. Were very lucky to have such a loyal and engaged readership,
me these past 12 months, like Chuck Johnsons Balsams, a set of ambient and are always keen to hear from you about how were doing. Please never
meditations for pedal-steel guitar that helped us through a few hairy hesitate to get in touch with us at uncut_feedback@timeinc.com; you could
moments in the production process this month. start by letting us know your personal favourites of the year. Im sure weve
If theres one striking fact about our completed 2017 chart, though, its that probably missed something
half of the Top 30 albums were made by women. Three of the Top 10 figure Thanks again,
prominently in these pages Hurray For The Riff Raff, st Vincent and The
Weather station alongside Mavis staples, and the mastermind behind our
Album Of The Month, Bjrk.
What else? stephen Deusner takes a long and deep trip into the world of
Bruce springsteen, and learns the sobering news that, At this stage in your
life, you give up your dreams of immortality. Jaan Uhelszki returns to Laurel
Canyon to look back on a momentous year with Father John Misty, and hears John Mulvey, Editor. Follow me on Twitter @JohnRMulvey

contents

4 Instant Karma!
Fats Domino RIP, Chris Gantry,
REVIEWof 2017 92 Staple Singers
The making of Ill Take You There
Nico, The B-52s Cindy Wilson,
Joshua Abrams
56 Father John Misty 96 Live
The divisive superstar invites us to his
Steely Dan, St Vincent
hideway to talk fame and decadence
12 New Albums
Including: Bjrk, Hans Chew, 62 Albums Of The Year 109 Books No Future, Bruce Dickinson
Dan Michaelson, Jim James, The 75 best records of 2017
Noel Gallagher
70 James Murphy 110 Films
The Killing Of A Sacred Deer, Happy End,
Audience with the lCd soundsystem man
30 The Archive The Florida Project
Including: Wilco, Bob Dylan, 74 Hurray For The Riff Raff
King Crimson, The Rolling Album by Album with Alynda segarra 112 DVD & Blu-ray
Stones, Grandaddy Monterey Pop, Bottle Rocket
76 Reissues Of The Year
44 Bruce Springsteen 80 The Weather Station 114 Not Fade Away Obituaries
The Boss moves in on Broadway! poetic songwriter Tamara lindeman
Uncut follows the long road from the 116 Letters Plus the Uncut crossword
Jersey Shore via Maxs Kansas City and 88 Films Of The Year
the White House to the Walter Kerr 90 Books Of The Year 118 My Life In Music
Theatre. Is his latest show a final bow? Richard Dawson

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JANUARY 2018 UNCUT 3

 This moNThs RevelATioNs fRom The woRld of UNCUT
feATURiNg... Chris gantry | Nico | Cindy wilson | Joshua Abrams
Aint that
a shame
fATs domiNo | 1928-2017
A
ntoine Domino Jr was
just starting to play
around new orleans in
the 1940s whe bandleader Billy
Diamond christened him Fats.
the nickname not only stuck,
but informed his career-making
first single, the Fat Man", in
1949. Derived from an old tune
by the local boogie-woogie
player Champion Jack Dupree
except without all the original
references to reefer the song
made Dominos weight a part
of his brand. They call me the
Fat Man cos I weigh 200lbs,
Domino sings by way of
introduction. All the girls
Domino was
notoriously
shy around his
female fans
they love me cosI know my
way around.
theres a wink in his voice, a
bit of humour in his delivery, but
the assertive lyrics arent even
the main draw. Dominos left
hand plays a rollicking, rolling
bassline while his right hand
pounds out a steady rhythm of
excitable chords. When it comes
time to solo, he scat-sings a high-
pitched waaah waaah waaah.
Hes a one-man band giving a
ABC Photo ArChives/ABC viA Getty imAGes
lively and charismatic
performance, backing up the
gleeful boasts of a man who was
by all accounts anything but
boastful. often Domino is
dismissed by critics and
historians of the era as nice or
harmless, even cherubic, tune. Fittingly, Domino had a hit
and he was perhaps all of those
things. in particular, he was
notoriously shy around the
4 UNCUT JANUARY 2018
female fans who thronged the
stage at his concerts.
Son of Haitian plantation
workers, Domino was also
ambitious and wildly talented at
synthesising Creole and second
line traditions into smooth big-
beat grooves. im Walkin, a
smash single in 1957, opens with
a syncopated kickdrum and
some excitable handclaps, and
his band builds a simple yet
infectious dance tune that
sounds like it might chug along
forever. its not hard to imagine
him drawing the groove out from
the stage, where Domino truly
excelled. Perhaps more than
any pre-rock act, he managed
to attract white as well as black
teenagers to his shows, even
boycotting venues that
segregated audiences or banned
black fans from dancing. on the
other hand, his shows were
often volatile, erupting in racial
violence that only fuelled early
critics of this crass new form
of music.
Domino didnt invent
rocknroll, which developed
over years rather than springing
forth fully formed, but he did
translate the jumping rhythm
and blues of the 1940s into the
wildly popular reeling and
rocking of the 1950s. Most first-
and second-generation rock
stars cited Domino as a
formative influence: elvis
Presley bemoaned that he could
never sing like Fats, and the
Beatles insisted on meeting their
hero when they played new
orleans in 1964. in fact, Paul
McCartney explained that he
wrote Lady Madonna as his
own attempt at a Fats Domino
fats domino
in 1968 with his cover. on American
Bandstand
Domino was never as wild december 13,
onstage as Jerry Lee Lewis, 1959
JANUARY 2018 UNCUT 5
 never as flamboyant as Little
Richard, nor as intense as Bo
Diddley, nor as obviously
marketable as Presley.
Yet, he managed to outsell
almost every one of his
contemporaries, except for
Presley, Perry Como, and Pat
Boone (who had a hit with a
horrifically whitewashed
version of Aint That a
Shame). From 1949 until the
mid 1960s he charted more
than 50 hits on the US R&B
charts and more than 60
on the pop charts, a staggering
number that suggests a
crossover success on par with
Presley. His biggest may have
been Blueberry Hill, an old
tune recorded previously by
white musicians ranging from
swinging bandleader Glenn
Miller to singing cowboy Gene
Autry. But Domino made it his
own by giving it a breezy sway
and slyly underscoring the
sexual undercurrent.
What should have been a
great triumph turned out to be
his downfall. In 1963, he signed
with ABC-Paramount Records,
which moved him from new
Orleans to nashville and
ousted his longtime
bandleader and songwriter
Dave Bartholomew (who had
penned The Fat Man and
many more of Dominos hits).
He eked out only one
successful single, a fairly
maudlin cover of an old Bing
Crosby hit, Red Sails In The
Sunset, before leaving
the label.
Even into his seventies and
eighties Domino continued
making music, occasionally
playing around new Orleans
but mostly leading a very
private life at his home in the
ninth Ward. The last time he
was in the news was in 2005,
when he and his family were
rescued from their flooded
homes following Hurricane
Katrina. But his final testament
may be his 2006 album, Alive
And Kickin, whose proceeds he
donated to the local nonprofit
Tipitinas Foundation. The title
track seemed to sum up his
experience in the flood city,
although he insisted he had
written the song many years
earlier: All over the country
people want to know whatever
happened to Fats Domino,
he sings, still with traces of
youthful bluster in his voice.
nAnCy RhODA
Im alive and kickin, and Im i just have to start
where I want to be.
stEpHEN DEusNER
6 UNCUT JANUARY 2018
I dont even think the drug
people are gonna understand!
chris Gantrys weird Nashville
masterpiece finally emerges against
Johnny Cashs better judgement!
T
HE great thing about the
late 60s and the early
70s, country singer-
songwriter Chris Gantry recalls,
was that nobody co-wrote songs
with each other, everybody was
their own individual master of their
own individual art. Tony Joe White,
Bobbie Gentry, Kris Kristofferson,
Vince Matthews, Eddie Rabbitt, Lee
Clayton, Billie Swan, Donnie
Fritz Everybody made their own
music, and had their own style.
nobody tried to intrude on each
others glory.
Its no surprise to have caught
Gantry in reflective mode, thinking
back to the community of writers
and musicians he was part of, in
nashville, across the late 1960s and
early 1970s. It may have taken over
40 years, and some fortuitous
circumstance, but the album Gantry
recorded in 1973 in Johnny
Cashs studio, Chris Gantry
At The House Of Cash, is
finally being released on
Drag City. Its Gantrys
wildest contribution to the
history of country.
Gantry had moved to
nashville in the 60s from
inner-city new York,
following an inclination
toward country music that
almost ran counter to his
family history: My father
was a classical pianist,
and I had listened to
show music all my life,
so I had a good
background in
melodies, and
a symphonic,
classical feel
for music.
to be who i am:
Chris gantry in
the early 70s
If you do good,
heartfelt work, it
will get found
ChRis gANTRY
But I had to translate that over to
country music and make it fit.
Eventually I did, and I had some big
hits in country music.
Some of those hits included one of
Glen Campbells most moving
performances, 1968s Dreams Of
The Everyday Housewife. Gantry
also recorded a number of albums
the country-folk-pop crossover of the
same years Introspection; 1970s
more tart Motor
Mouth. But At
The House Of
Cash took
Gantrys music way out there. Invited
to record by Cash himself, Gantry
brought all sorts into the studio
besides the usual nashville country
cats, one song, Tear a poetic
reverie has Gantry joined by jazz-
world fusion trio Oregon, who
counted among their membership
legendary guitarist Ralph Towner.
I had successfully fit into the
country music mould for many
years, Gantry remembers, and
then I started to say to myself, look,
I just have to start to be who I am,
and be the Allen Ginsberg or the
Jack Kerouac that I want to be, and
put that into my songs, and recite
poetry. The resultant album is a
surrealist masterpiece that plunges
into the observational flair of
countrys melancholy and hardwires
it with the expansive freedoms of
psychedelia, jazz and electronics.
Cashs response itself was telling:
When John listened to it, a few days
after it was recorded, Gantry says,
laughing, he came up to me and he
said, June and I went into the studio
last night and listened to that record,
and I gotta be honest with you, Chris
I dont even think the drug people
are gonna understand!
The tapes were lost after Cash sold
the studio, but recently Cashs son,
John Carter, contacted Gantry: [He]
calls me and says, Hey Chris, Ive
been rummaging around in the
vault and I see some tapes with your
name on it. I said, Oh my God, that
must be the record!
Those four decades havent
worn away the boldness
and bravery of the album,
which offers yet another
angle on nashville in
one of its most creative
phases. Its also
another lesson in life
for Gantry himself:
Ive learned that if
you do good work
and its heartfelt,
and youre sincere
about what
youre creating,
it will get found. It
will surface, it will
come back, and it will
find you again.
JON DALE
Chris
Gantrys At
The House
Of Cash is
out now on
Drag City

Femme fatale
Nico: The End. A new film reconstructs the
singers strange last years in Manchester
I
n 1980, nico the German singer
born Christa Pffgen relocated
to Manchester. Drawn to the city
by the thriving drug and music
scenes, she assembled a new
band and embarked on a series of
disastrous overseas tours. As it
transpired, these tours assumed a
valedictory quality: nico died in 1988
following an accident in Ibiza.
This curious third act of nicos life
is the subject of Nico, 1988 a new
biopic by Italian filmmaker Susanna
nicchiarelli and starring Danish
actress Trine Dyrholm as the singer.
Accompanied by her unruffled
manager (John Gordon Sinclair) and a
band comprising a bunch of amateur
junkies, it is a film composed of
on-the-road yarns: the problems
scoring heroin overseas; encounters
with fearsome Soviet-bloc authorities;
a precarious rendezvous with a hotel
jazz band. In nicchiarellis film, the
tour snakes through Eastern Europe,
a setting both star and director agree
is puissant.
nico was born in 38, right before
the Second World War started, and
she died in 88, one year before the
Berlin Wall came down, says
Dyrholm, whose credits include
Festen and The Commune for director
Thomas Vinterberg. I think being
German was a big deal for her.
She was from a generation that
experienced guilt about the war.
I was fascinated by nico and I was
fascinated by the idea of telling the
story of a woman, an artist, in her
forties, says nicchiarelli. But I was
also fascinated by the idea of making a
movie about Europe in the 80s in the
year before the fall of the Berlin Wall.
nicchiarellis research began in
Manchester, where she met with
nicos former manager, Alan Wise,
who subsequently introduced her to
Ari her son with French actor Alain
Delon. The relationship between nico
and Ari became a critical part of
nicchiarellis story.
Her son Ari has
no resentment. He
says, I thought she
was indestructible
sUsANNA NiCChiARElli
I found it very moving, he has no
resentment regarding his mother,
she says. His father is a different
story. But even though nico
abandoned Ari at one point, his
grandmother even took custody away
from nico the way he talks about
his mother is incredible. He says,
I thought she was indestructible.
I thought I was going to die before
her. When they got back together
and Ari joined nicos band, they had
a very strong relationship. She knew
she had damaged him somehow, and
she knew that very well.
Part of this story has already been
documented by James Young, a
Trine Dyrholm
(right) in the
lead role in
Nico, 1988
member of nicos band during
the 80s, in his book Nico, Songs
They Never Play On The Radio.
It is a great book, admits
nicchiarelli. But it is basically
the story of James Young and his
experiences as a keyboard player,
while I wanted nico to be my main
character and to foreground her
relationship with Ari.
Meanwhile, flashbacks of nico
during her Warhol years are taken
from Jonas Mekas vrit
documentaries Scenes From The
Life Of Andy Warhol and Walden:
I decided to set this dialogue with
the audience, says nicchiarelli.
I show you the real icon and then
I show you my film.
For Dyrholm a one-time Eurovision
contestant the route to nico was
through her voice. She has all these
blue tunes and she doesnt sing well,
she explains. So in the beginning I
was singing too well and we tried to
trash it a little bit! But she was a very
complex, contradictory character. She
was asked once whether she had any
regrets and she said, Only that I was
born a woman, not a man. That was a
big issue for her. She was a beautiful
woman, part of Warhols world where
everyone had an image, but she
wanted to be much more.
In the film, nico says, Ive been on
the top, Ive been on the bottom. Both
places are empty, says nicchiarelli.
The point is that the life of an artist is
somewhere in the middle. Its not about
success or failure; the point is making
the art. If I learned anything from
making this film, it is how difficult the
life of an artist is. MICHAEL BONNER
Nico, 1988 is released in the UK
in 2018
a quick oNe
A couple of major new
Uncut spin-offs have
just arrived in the shops.
Our latest ultimate
Music Guide is dedicated
to Steely Dan, with
classic interviews and
in-depth new reviews
of every Dan, Becker
and Fagen album. Major
dudes should also be
interested in ultimate
Record collection, our
guide explaining how
to buy over 1,500 of
the greatest albums
of the last 60 years, on
vinyl, right now! Buy
these, and many more
of our specials, from
nme.backstreetmerch.
com/artist/uncut/
magazines.
A new collection
of Leonard cohens
unpublished work is to
be officially released
next October under the
title, The Flame. Cohen
himself chose and
ordered the poems in
the book, of which the
overwhelming majority
is new material, report
The Guardian. The
book was finished only
days before his death,
according to Cohens
manager, Robert Kory,
and will also feature
content drawn from
his notebooks.
A veritable explosion
of activity from kevin
Shields this month,
including his Eno
collaboration (see page
10), analogue vinyl
remasters of the first
two My Bloody Valentine
albums and, best of
all, a corroboration of
rumours theyll release a
new MBV album in 2018.
We 100 per cent will,
Shields told Pitchfork.
The record started off
EMAnuElA SCARPA, VIVO FIlM
as an EP, and I realised
it has to be, like, a mini-
album, as its going to be
at least 40 minutes long.
So its going to be an
album... Itll probably be
seven or eight [tracks],
by the looks of it.
JANUARY 2018 UNCUT 7
 Cosmic
Thing!
The B-52s cindy Wilson makes
her solo debut. i wanted a kind
of Sgt Pepper flow...
C
indy Wilson sees certain
similarities between Change,
her first solo album, and her
work with Americas foremost
purveyors of kitsch, dayGlo post-
punk. i think The B-52s are a
psychedelic band, she says, and
there is definitely psych in the solo
project, too. There are some strange
dada moments. its a rather less
aggressively warped take on pop
than The B-52s, admittedly she
The songs are
really pretty and
great, and I put
my soul into it
CiNdY wilsoN
covers the new Colony Sixs Things
id Like To Say, one of those
gorgeous moments of soft psych
produced when major labels tried to
guess what a blown mind sounded
like, and got it beautifully wrong.
But theres a sense of currency, too.
Wilson was inspired by listening to
Tame impala (id just gone crazy
listening to them), and the album is
being released by the Pacific
northwest underground label Kill
Rock Stars, a recognition perhaps of
This month: Full-on folk fest taken from Melody Maker, November 12, 1966
Sean Dunn ; Lynn GoLDSmith/CorbiS/VCG Via Getty imaGeS
8 UNCUT JANUARY 2018
Cindy today,
and below, in
The B-52s, 1980
Wilsons status as not
just a pioneering female
musician, but also as
someone who helped
inspire so much of
Americas weird music over
nearly 40 years.
yet Change owes its
existence to a childrens
party several years ago.
it was when my son kids reached college age, Wilson talks about her
was about 10, and it and Wilson had the time collaborators on the record
was time for a big to take her desire to make Monahan, producer Suny Lyons,
Beatles bash. My music onto a bigger stage. drummer Lemuel Hayes, as well as
husband decorated the A series of Southern dates scores of Athens players adding
house from top to bottom this year culminated in delicate colour as if shed been in
with Beatles decorations, performances at South By the studio with Lennon and
and he hired Ryan Southwest earlier this year, McCartney. Which isnt surprising,
Monahans cover band. where Kill Rock Stars stepped given the scale of her ambition for
They were all about 23 or in with an offer to put out the Change. i wanted a kind of Sgt
24, and they did all the album. That shocked Pepper flow from one song to
early Beatles stuff. everybody, Wilson another. And i loved playing with
They were so great. says. it came from different sounds, making it weird
So we hired them leftfield. So what and echoey and a little trashy.
over and over again did Kill Rock We live in an age where musicians
to play different Stars see in her of generations past are beginning to
parties. Then, when music? i think get their dues. its time for Cindy
Wilson was asked to we charmed Wilson an inspiration to the
play some local songs people, the songs are thriving Athens scene of the 1980s,
around her hometown really pretty and great, and to subsequent generations of
of Athens, Georgia, and i put my soul into it. musicians who wanted to be
playing old garage They are so informed different, who would never settle for
numbers, she put the on how to do things dull to get hers. MICHAEL HANN
call in to Monahan. they did much more
A couple of EPs than i could have Cindy Wilsons Change is out
followed. Then her done on my own. now on Kill Rock Stars
the classifieds
 FAST FORWARD THROUGH THE HISTORY BOOKS!
THE NEW VICTORS OF THE SPACE TIME CONTINUUM,
THE PRIESTS OF SOUND, HAVE COMMITTED
TO THE ALIEN STADIUM FOR ALL TIMES.
WHAT JOYS, THIS MEDDLING KERFUFFLE!
THIS IS FOR THE HUMANS

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 UNCUT PLAYLIST
On the stereo this month...
BRIAN ENO WITH
KEVIN SHIELDS
Only Once Away My Son
ADULT SWIM

As rumours of new My Bloody

Valentine music intensify,
master collaborator Eno engages
the elusive Shields for nine minutes of
fractious, looming magnificence.

STICK IN THE WHEEL

WERE
NEW Uncovering long-buried
HERE
connections: Joshua Abrams
(third, left) & Natural
Information Society
Follow Them True FROM HERE
Trad arr with Autotune drones? Britains
most exciting new folk band take even
more radical risks on their second LP.
XYLOURIS WHITE Mother BELLA UNION
Third intense album from the undisputed
stars of the Cretan folk/post-hardcore
crossover scene.

Natural Information SPIRITUALIZED

Fucked Up Inside GLASS

Society
Jason Pierces rare 93 LP, live
in Hollywood, gets an essential
reissue, complete with original
shiny, psychedelic cover.

Recommended this month: repetition, the other from playing

something thats never been played
FRAZEY FORD
Joshua Abrams, Chicago master before. But one can constantly
When We Get By ARTS & CRAFTS
The Canadian country-soul singer
of minimalist jazz trance! improvise within a repetitive,
minimalist environment and take it
finally records her fine cover of the
1995 DAngelo song, featherlight funk
into different places. also, people like

B
assist and composer Joshua abrams has
been making music across a wide range of
genres for more than 30 years. in the late
80s, while living in Philadelphia, he played in an
early incarnation of the Roots. since moving to
Chicago, hes been a key figure in the citys
intermingled jazz, experimental and post-rock
scenes, collaborating with jazz luminaries like
Hamid Drake and Matana Roberts as well as
guesting with artists as diverse as tortoise,
Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Will Oldham.
Hes also written numerous film soundtracks,
including several by the Chicago-based Hoop
Dreams filmmaker steve James.
Running parallel to all this activity, IM YOUR FAN
since 2010, has been abrams own
outfit, the Natural information
society. ive explored a lot of different
areas with different people over the
MIKEL AVEry; SNAPSHoT-PHoToGrAPHy/uLLSTEIN BILD VIA GETTy IMAGES
terry Riley, La Monte Young and steve Reich were
heavily influenced by John Coltrane and by
african music. Were trying to make explicit some
of those long-buried connections.
Helping to solidify the african connection is
the guimbri, a stringed instrument used by the
Gnawa people of North africa, and one that
abrams has made the signature sound of the
Natural information society. i first heard it on an
album that Pharoah sanders made with Maleem
Mahmoud Ghania called The Trance Of Seven
Colors, says abrams. as a double bass player,
the guimbri really pulled me in. its a fretless
instrument, like a bass lute, but with a
similar range to a cello. it looks like
half a log covered in goat or camel
skin, and the neck runs through it.
there are three strings, one of them a
drone string. it also has a metallic
imperative magically intact.
WET TUNA
Livin The Die FEEDING TUBE/CHILD OF MICROTONES
This months optimal underground jam,
courtesy of brothers-in-choogle and
psych vets Matt Valentine and PG Six.
PRINS THOMAS
Prins Thomas 5 PRINS THOMAS MUSIKK
Influenced by Teenage Fanclub and Pat
Metheny, reputedly, but the Nordic DJ/
producers latest seems still anchored in
a transporting soundworld of Krautrock,
old Warp 12s and cosmic disco.
LES FILLES DE
ILLIGHADAD
Eghass Malan SAHEL SOUNDS

From the Saharan edges in

years, says abrams. Jazz, improv,
minimalism, rock. the Natural
information society was my way of
bringing all that together.
On two albums, 2015s
Magnetoception and 2017s
Simultonality (one of Uncuts top 20
albums of the year; see page 66),
abrams has developed a hybrid
thats been described as ecstatic
minimalism, combining the trance-
like repetitions of Philip Glass or Can
with the spiritual freakouts of John
and alice Coltrane.
On paper, minimalism and jazz
seem like the opposite of each other,
he says, One gains its energy from
rattle built into it, which creates a
percussive aspect, like a banjo. i loved
the sound that Gnawa musicians from
Morocco made with it, but i wanted to
Joshua is an put that sound in a different, more
old friend futuristic context.
and a really abrams work seems emblematic
great musician, of the Chicago music scenes spirit of
someone who cross-pollination. its a fertile city for
can fit into music, he says. there is the weight
any musical of that jazz tradition from Louis
environment armstrong to the art Ensemble Of
because he Chicago but theres also a sense of
has a great open-mindedness from musicians in
set of ears so many areas. John Lewis
Jeff Parker,
Tortoise Simultonality is out now on Tak:Til
Niger, yet another superb
Tuareg band emerges this
time an all-female collective.
GWENIFER RAYMOND
Sometimes Theres Blood
TOMPKINS SQUARE
A scorching, Fahey-esque acoustic
trip from the latest American Primitive
visionary from Brighton via Cardiff!
ZIMPEL/ZIOEK
Zimpel/Zioek INSTANT CLASSIC
The Polish experimental scene is pretty
unknown territory for us, but this jazz/
folk hybrid is eldritch, bewitching and
surprisingly accessible.

10 UNCUT JANUARY 2018

 SHOWCASING ONE OF DYLANS MOST SURPRISING,
CONTROVERSIAL AND INSPIRED PERIODS.
THE LATEST BOOTLEG CHAPTER COVERS THE ALBUMS
SLOW TRAIN COMING / SAVED / SHOT OF LOVE

LIMITED EDITION 9 DISC SET

100 PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED STUDIO AND LIVE RECORDINGS
PLUS DVD OF TROUBLE NO MORE: A MUSICAL FILM
INCLUDING NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN CONCERT FOOTAGE

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30 TRACK HIGHLIGHTS COLLECTION

SPECIAL DELUXE 4 LP SET

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bobdylan.com OUT NOW

 Outdoors is mystical fog this fucking mist!/These cliffs are just showing off

NEW
WAALBUMS
B
JANUARY 2018
TAke 248
1 hANs chew (p16)
2 DAN michAelsoN (p19)
3 Jim JAmes (p20)
4 Noel gAllAgheR (p27)

the uncut guide to this months key releases

BJRk
Utopia
oNe liTTle iNDiAN

The arch conceptualist ascends into ecstatic realms, but

hints of recent traumas linger. By Stephen Trouss

F
orty years after her
eponymous debut album
was released in Iceland
when she was just 12 years
old, Bjrk remains peerless.
No other contemporary
artist can match her trajectory:
emerging from punk bohemia into indie notoriety
in the 1980s with the Sugarcubes; erupting
magnificently into the pop mainstream in the 1990s;
and charting her own course, via her own star charts,
through strange 21st-century seas, into a fourth
decade with matchless exuberance, ambition and
focus. the hackneyed term pop icon for once seems
appropriate. She is sui generis, exemplary.
Latterly, though, lets admit it, she became
a little exhausting. In her filmed performance of
Biophilia at Alexandra Palace, released in 2013, the
dollying cameras, the repeated
takes, all the stagecraft
paraphernalia involved in
creating the 21st-century
digital gesamtkunstwerk,
utterly distracted from the rare,
evanescent magic of the pop
moment. It was so thoroughly
composed and conceptually
overdetermined, you longed
for some stray moment of
Santiago Felipe
gallery and app store rather than for any
album physically present audience.
OF THE you wouldnt wish the end of a marriage
mONTH on anyone, but though Vulnicura (2015),
8/10 offorensically stitched together in the aftermath
Bjrks break-up with Matthew Barney, was
cataclysmic for her personally, it brought new
urgency and vitality to her art. It feels ghoulish
to consider, but the human mess and tragedy were
the necessary engendering grit that her immaculate
pearlescent productions require.
But at what cost to the person behind the art?
A similar soulstorm, as recorded on The Red Shoes,
silenced Kate Bush and sent her into retreat for over
a decade. Happily, Bjrk seems to have emerged
emboldened by all accounts after Vulnicura was
complete she went straight on recording the material
which has now become Utopia. She herself draws
another comparison: to Joni
Mitchell, who found a marriage
of true artistic minds with
Jaco Pastorius, a partnership
that brought us such wonders
as Hejira and Don Juans
Reckless Daughter.
Bjrks protg, producer
and co-writer is Arca, the
Venezuelan electronic auteur,
whose eponymous third

anarchy or improvisation to album, released last spring,

disrupt the spectacle. It felt forms a kind of companion
like a performance designed piece to Utopia. on his own
for the pale chambers of art album Arca fashioned an

12 UNcUT JANUARY 2018

JANUARY 2018 UNcUT 13
 new albums
ms
opulent catholic cathedral of erotic
misery. From Arisen My Senses, Utopias
opening track, you feel that Bjrk and
he have embarked on something like a
sonic equivalent of the Sistine Chapel
ceiling. It opens with birdsong, squiggles
of digital cherubim and harp glissando
before erupting sensationally into bells,
beats and a multitracked choir of Bjrks,
describing a perfect kiss and some
transcendent sensual rewakening; the
irresistible exuberance of the song feels
strong enough to hold back the night.
Blissing Me is lower key, but similarly
ecstatic, swathed in harps, flutes,
woodwind a whole aerial, aeolian
orchestra that defines the soundworld
of Utopia (apparently Bjrk formed
and conducted a 12-piece female flute
ensemble especially for the album). Bjrk
details a very modern lovers discourse:
Two music nerds obsessing sending each
other MP3s... falling in love to a song. Lead
single The Gate incorporates the kind
of Edenic Buchla synthetics now familiar
from the work of Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, as
Bjrk declares, My healed chest wound,
The road To Utopia
ThE ElgAR SiSTERS
glora
(iNClUdEd oN BJRkS Family Tree BoxSET,
oNE liTTlE iNdiAN, 2002)
Before she was a solo artist,
before she was a Sugarcube,
Bjrk was one half of the Elgar Sisters, a
short-lived offshoot of KUKL. On this track,
recorded in 1986 but only released on the
flip of Big Time Sensuality in 1993, she returns
SANTIAGO FELIPE
to the flute, her first instrument, and conjures
a charming pastoral sketch that hints at a
never-taken career path soundtracking eerie
Nordic animation.
14 UNCUT JANUARY 2018
Bjrk:
extending
her definition
of big time
sensuality
transformed into a gate/Where I receive
a love from/Where I give love from. This Bergur risson,
wound, of course, was literalised on the
cover of Vulnicura. Now apparently fully
healed, after a long season in hell, Bjrk
seems to have ascended into an ecstatic
empyrean realm.
But as anyone who has ever read Dante
will tell you, infernos tend to be a whole
lot more engaging than paradisos, and
damned lovers a lot more entertaining
company than pious saints and devout
angels. After just three tracks Utopia
runs the risk of repetition. The title
track itself, all woodwind, shuffling
percussion, distant bird calls, and the
flute that was Bjrks first instrument back
at music school in Reykjavk, is lovely,
but could easily be incidental music for
an (admittedly fantastic) episode of The
Moomins. When Bjrk sings of purified
toxicity, with the wide-eyed, slightly
New Age evangelism shes sometimes
prone to, youre reminded that, at their
most unambiguously blissy, even
the mighty Cocteau Twins wound up
providing the soundtrack for a soft
how to buy...
from flute-propelled pastorals to erotic grottos
BJRk
Batabid
(fRom ThE Cd SiNglE of PAgAN PoETRY,
oNE liTTlE iNdiAN, 2001)
Producer and collaborator
Arca grew up an obsessive
teenage Bjrk fan in Venezuela, a devotee
of deep cuts like this limpid sketch, produced
in 2001 with Mark Bell from LFO as part of the
Vespertine sessions. Hinting at an Aphexy
ambient direction never fully pursued at
the time, the soundworld it seeded has
come to full fruition on the more blisstastic
moments of Utopia.
drink (Fruitopia: a new fruit drink
experience for your soul).
This being a Bjrk record, there will be
drama. Body Memory, at 10 minutes
long, is the centrepiece of the album. Now
the landscape is harsher, distant crows
SLEEVE NOTES caw and the woodwind shivers into an
asthmatic whisper. Bjrk sets the scene
1. Arisen My with her signature blend of cosmic bathos.
Senses The snow in winter: Im walking hills and
2. Blissing Me valleys/Outdoors is mystical fog this
3. The Gate
fucking mist!/These cliffs are just showing
4. Utopia
5. Body Memory
off. Bjrk seems to have descended back
6. Features into a kind of purgatory, a reckoning, where
Creatures she must fight like a wolverine with her
7. Courtship destiny. Utopia is apparently threaded
8. Loss with bird samples from David Toops 1980
9. Sue Me South Venezuelan field recording, Hekura,
10. Tabula Rasa but its worth remembering that the focus
11. Claimstaker of those original recording were the rites
12. Paradisa
of the regions shamans. Body Memory
13. Saint
14. Future Forever
seems in some way part of Bjrks own
pseudo-shamanic rite: a journey through
Produced by: Bjrk her past into her sensual DNA. Shamans,
and Arca, plus according to Jung and Mircea Eliade,
Rabit (Loss) among others, are wounded healers,
Engineered by: who visit other worlds or dimensions to
bring guidance to misguided souls and
Bart Migal and to ameliorate illnesses of the human soul
Chris Elms
caused by foreign elements which does
Personnel
includes: Bjrk,
feel like a reasonable prcis of the song.
12-piece On Body Memory, as an eerie, ancestral
Icelandic female chorus (actually the Icelandic Hamrahl-
flute orchestra, arkrinn Choir) masses in the gloaming,
Hamrahl- Bjrk struggles to physically extricate
arkrinn choir herself from a Kafka-esque, patriarchal
paralysis, a stagnant state: my myths, my
customs, ridiculed, vacuum packed. She
emerges triumphant, perhaps as depicted
on Jesse Kandas striking cover: a kind of
cross-species cephalopod shaman for what
ecotheorist Donna Haraway has called
the chthulucene, all the heart wounds
transfigured into pearls of wisdom.
This is admittedly portentous stuff
for a project that was trailed a little
facetiously as Bjrks Tinder album,
and your tolerance for it may vary. But
it provides essential spiritual ballast
to a record that was at risk of simply
floating into slightly kitsch Eden. But
the second half of the album is more
dialectical, explores more ambiguous,
ARCA
Arca
xl, 2017
Graduating from teenage
synth-pop prodigy to creator
of post-industrial erotic grottos
for FKA Twigs and Kanye, and then providing
crucial contributions to Vulnicura, Arca came
into his own as a solo artist, thanks in part to
guidance and encouragement from Bjrk, on
his self-titled third album this year. An opulent
S&M work of Catholic devotion, which on its
most tender moments like Coraje, feels
inescapably like a companion piece to Utopia.

quotidian playgrounds and battlefields
of romance.
Features Creatures is a lovely, eerie
sketch of the hearts muscle memory, its
stubborn refusal to forget: how a familiar
accent or beard or chance encounter in a
record shop can stir Pavlovian reflexes of
love and set the minds playlists shuffling
into the same old patterns. Courtship,
meanwhile is an incongruously blithe
and skittering woodwind fantasia
which could actually be an abstract
representation of digital dating, with
downturning standing in for the oblivion
of the swipe left, all lubricated by the
paralysing juice of rejection. Will we stop
seeing what unites us, she wonders, but
only what differs?
Loss produced by Eric Burton, aka
Texan gothic grime enthusiast Rabit, is a
highlight, mixing up the by-now familiar
harpstrings with obscure industrial
scrapes and grinds, bringing some
rhythmic bottom-end to an album that
sometimes suffers from lightheadedness,
with Bjrk concluding some hard-won
wisdom: We have all suffered/How we
make up for it defines who we are.
Cumulatively, Utopia outstays
its welcome by two or three tracks.
Paradisa and Saint feel like those
endless pious cantos of the Paradiso
where Beatrice introduces Dante to yet
more paragons of celestial virtue. By
contrast Sue Me feels too plainly a
quarrel that might have stayed in the
divorce courts, with Bjrk comparing her
tribulations in the legal system with her
ex-husband to the plight of the mothers
in the story of the judgement of Solomon.
There is a sense of a clearing of decks,
a need to finally rid herself of all the
bitterness and toxicity. As she sings to her
daughter, and to her daughters future
daughters, on Tabula Rasa: No more
repeating the fuck-ups of the fathers
Make your own fresh mistakes.
Utopia really delivers on the
transcendent promise of its title with the
closing Future Forever, however, an
invitation to turn off the deadening loops
of history and imagine a better possible
future. Bjrk is at her most ecstatic here.
Throughout the album you sense a desire
to emulate Messiaen, the 20th-century
composer who came through his own
spiritual and artistic crisis by patiently
notating and emulating birdsong, and
here she sounds like shes attempting her
own transfiguration, joining the birds of
paradise that are the albums real chorus,
accompanied by the most heavenly
organ. Its a stunning, suitably radiant
showstopper. But longstanding fans of
this singularly restless artist might already
hear it in the minds ear, remixed for the
infernos, the fleshpits and the dancefloors
of the sensual world, all that agape
harnessed to the eros of a perfectly brutal
beat. Its in that scaffolding between
sleep and awake, day and night, and yes,
heaven and hell, that Bjrk continues to
reign supreme.
Q&a
bjrk on revisiting old
B-sides and birdsong
Y
oUvE spoken about the cross-
generational, cross-Atlantic
musical conversation you had
with Arca. Was there a moment that
felt like a breakthrough, where he
inspired you to go further, try something
new or rediscover something old?
Perhaps it was most surprising when he
brought up old songs, instrumentals that were
his favourite of mine and we kinda used it as
a starting point. Songs like Ambergris March.
I wanted the album to be like air, so there was air
everywhere, in the lyrics, my voice, and flutes,
and where flutes change into synths and synths
into flutes. And I found an old B-side of mine,
Batabid, which I used as reference, too.
At one point I found a loop on an old mixtape
of his and edited it and wrote four harp
arrangements all around it and then sent it to
him. At the time I wasnt aware of it, but I think I
was probably taking one of his most celebratory
moments and magnifying it into a song about
a kiss. So its like fireworks cyclical around the
mouths of someone who are kissing for the first
time. Those sparks that fly off when two mouths
meet. That song is called Arisen My Senses.
Jonis Hejira and Don Juans reckless
Daughter are inspirational for you. They
were also when she began moving out
of the orbit of pop, folk, etc, into larger
musical universes. does Utopia feel like
the start of a similar journey?
Perhaps after the strong narration on Vulnicura,
where my string arrangements and Alejandros
electronics were a bit of a backdrop to this
heartbreak saga, we were looking forward
to this time around it should be about the
music. And there is in Arisen My Senses and
Claimstaker, for example, a refusal of the
singular narrative and many voices all equal.
Some sort of musicians Utopia where no line is
more important than the other.
I feel perhaps my music has always been moving
in and out of the orbit of pop, never settled quite in
it, perhaps not a new thing. I really love listening
to pop there is nothing like a pure, passionate
R&B track on a friday night. Perfection!
new albums
Bjrk onstage at
Tbilisi Concert
Bjork onstage
hall,atgeorgia,
Tbilisi
october 31,
Concert h 2017
hall
all
on october
31, 2017 in
Tbilisi,
georgia
georgi ia
The birdsong and flutes on Utopia
made me think about messiaen he
saw birds as gods musicians. how
does birdsong inspire you?
Thank you. While I am writing my albums, it
is usually like solving a murder mystery trying
to figure out the theme. On this one it became
apparent that the album was a place. Biophilia
was a travelling music school, Vulnicura the
healing of a wound. And the most strong way
sonically to make one feel like one has arrived
at a place is hearing birds singing.
I felt the title also had in it both the dream
but also baggage, and I like that. The baggage
of wanting it too bad, wanting something
unrealistic, when reality happens having to
accommodate it with the fantasy, merge the two
together. But like Ive said in the times we are
living in, there never has been more emergency
to define our utopia, manifesto. Its our only hope
A 12-piece flute
section would
meet at my cabin
in the environmental crisis. We have to insist on
what future we want.
So there are birds on the album I have never
heard and sound like techno, and there are also
Icelandic birds, ravens and himbrimi that live
outside my cabin. So I wanted the birds somehow
to stand for that sometimes its the craving for
the unattainable, sometimes it is affirming that
you do have what you want. Its that polarity, I
guess. The light but also the shadow of utopia.
But Im getting off topic. After hanging out with
the flute girls, I assembled a 12-piece flute section
in Iceland and we would meet at my cabin on
SANTIAGO FELIPE/GETTy IMAGESA
Fridays for a few months and rehearse and record.
And we were cooking and talking between, such
different characters, we were all different ages
and it was just so nourishing. And the weather
was all sorts. Sometimes insane blizzards and
sometimes just gorgeous with the birds singing
all around us. So it just seemed to all belong.
iNTerVieW: STePHeN TrOUSS
JANUARY 2018 UNCUT 15
 neW albums
HANS CHeW Helix. sometimes, though, you need to
fuck with the formula to stay engaged.
In Chews case, hes chosen to return to
open Sea a less-acknowledged area of expertise, the
guitar, to drive the spontaneous visions of
AT THe Helm
Open Sea. Its an album that reaches into
the past for its guiding directive, informed
8/10 by the exploratory zeal of Neil Young &
Crazy Horse, Fairport Convention, early
New York-based Tennessean busts out Fleetwood Mac and late-60s psych-
the guitar jams on levitational fourth. rockers Mighty Baby. The emphasis here
By Rob Hughes is on jamming lots of it as Chew and
regular guitarist Dave Cavallo create
endlessly supple improvisations over
A
s hell happily bare song structures. One of Open Seas
attest, Hans Chews operative texts is
reputation is mainly Live At The Fillmore
built on his abilities as East (1970), marked
a pianist. 2010s terrific by the interplay of
solo debut, Tennessee Danny Whittens
& Other Stories, wove rhythm guitar and
together R&B, blues, gospel, rocknroll Neil Youngs lead,
and ragtime funk into a ravishing tapestry riffing on themes
of American roots music, with piano as and firing off at
its defining texture. successive releases unexpected angles.
2014s Life & Love and last years Unknown I wanted to take a
Sire were further manifestations of the typical Hans Chew
same free-spirited approach, an extension song and really
of his earlier days manning the keys for the expand it, he
late Jack Rose and D Charles speer & The explains. I could
16 UNCUT JANUARY 2018
be Danny and Dave could be Neil.
There is, of course, much more to Open
Sea than jams for jams sake. Chews
new rhythm section of Jimy seiTang and
Rob smith, members of local New York
collective Rhyton, are very much involved
in the creative process too, bringing
nuance and verve to these six songs, only
one of which dips under the six-minute
barrier. And then there are the keen
melodies and pliable grooves, allied to
Chews strapping, oblique vocal lines, all
of which keep things moving along with a
minimum of drag. As does, incidentally,
long-time engineer Jason Meagher, whose
Black Dirt studio specialises in recording
on the hoof.
The vintage Fairport references,
specifically the musical rapport between
Richard Thompson and Dave swarbrick,
are most explicit on Give Up The Ghost
and Freely. The former flits between
Band-ish country-blues, roistering rock
and the kind of intuitive give-and-take
with Cavallo approximating Thompsons
spidery modal guitar that hoisted
Matty Groves and A sailors Life
to fresh heights. similarly, Freely
is nine minutes of gloriously unfettered
folk-blues, its pagan heart enlivened
 neW albums

Brave, bold and

captivating,
SLEEVE NOTES
1. Give Up
The Ghost
2. Cruikshanks
3. Open Sea
4. Who Am
AtoZ
This month
the record Your Love?
5. Freely
6. Extra Mile
P18 billY bRAgg

has many Recorded by:

P19
P20
dAN miCHAelSoN
Jim JAmeS
P22 ANgeliCA RoCkNe
and varied Jason Meagher
Recorded at:
Black Dirt Studio,
P23
P27
JoN lANgfoRd
Noel gAllAgHeR
charms New York
Personnel: Hans
P28
P29
RobeRT fiNleY
ViRgiNiA WiNg
Chew (vocals,
guitar, piano),
theres plenty of New Orleans in its deep, Dave Cavallo AlieN STAdiUm
rolling grooves and boogaloo piano, (guitar), Jimy livin in elizabethan Times
though the more off-kilter passages cast a SeiTang (bass), doUble Six

darker shadow, as if the band are playing a Rob Smith

by a vampy piano figure (wisely,
Chew hasnt dispensed with his usual
instrument altogether).
Cruikshanks is a little knottier, its
funky R&B venturing off into faintly prog
territory, before meandering into the sort
of semi-pastoral glade that was once the
province of Traffic. Just when it seems to
have levelled out, Cavallo lets fly a heroic
solo that coaxes in one final, impassioned
verse from Chew. The same wandering
dynamic underpins the title track. As on
portions of Tennessee & Other Stories,
7/10
party at the end of the world. (drums)
Alien synth-pop voyage from
This sense of disquiet is echoed in Messrs Mason and Duffy
Chews lyrics. Open sea finds him In which steve
adrift, metaphorically, tossing his Mason (from The
fate to the four winds, unsure of what Beta Band) and
the future holds. The relatively concise Martin Duffy (from
Who Am Your Love?, which glides in Primal scream)
on a southern blues motif, addresses presumably get
the issues behind Chew and his wifes baked, listen to Jeff Waynes War
problematic attempts to start a family and Of The Worlds and decide to make
their own orchestral concept album
the impact on their creative lives. The
sung from an aliens point of view. It
mind prepares what the heart ensnares, comprises four lengthy tracks, from
he rasps, Forever after/Out of the black it the woodwind-assisted Led Zep-sized
comes. Then theres what Chew calls the rocker This Ones For The Humans
ubiquitous stuff from the past that I cant (where contemptuous aliens
seem to shake. gleefully watch mankind fall) to
Give Up The Ghost contains veiled the one-chord motorik Krautrock of
references to the drug abuse of his The Visitations (where an Austin
twenties (he finally cleaned up some years Allegro prompts them to wish
humans would die die die). Best of
prior to his debut LP) and strained familial
all is The Moon Is Not Your Friend,
relationships. The ebullient Extra Mile in which a McCartney-style guilty
a meeting of whiskery country-funk and pleasure is bookended by terrifying
speakeasy jam, like something Bobby space-age FX. JoHn LewIs
Charles or Bobby Whitlock may have
cooked up in the early 70s addresses his AlVARiUS b
relationship with his father, who died of With A beaker on The
cancer when Chew was just 14. Its a song burner And An otter
of lasting paternal love and unbroken in The oven
AbdUCTioN
bonds, even in death, his memory a source
of artistic fuel that Chew continues to 8/10
draw from: Ive spent all my life tryin A bishop brother and his poker face
to see his song was sung. Brave, bold As one-third of
and captivating, its a perfect illustration, the late, great
in miniature, of Open Seas many and psychedelic
varied charms. surrealists sun City
Girls, Alan Bishop
(aka Alvarius B)

Q&A knows all about getting real loose

Hans Chew The songs
just started pouring out
What was the catalyst for
Open Sea? I read a couple of biogs
Shakey, about Neil Young, and the Bert
Jansch one, Dazzling Stranger, which
had a ton of stuff about Davy Graham
and they really inspired me to start
playing a lot more guitar. Id also been
hanging out with the guitarist Michael
Chapman, whod shown me an open
C tuning of his, hence the album title.
The songs just started pouring out.
How much of the music was
improvised? My concept for the
album was lets not overcook it, lets
do a raw record where we get in there
and try to catch some magic. None
of those jams are structured at all, its
all just happening on the fly. We had
the verse and chorus worked out,
but after that it was wide open. The
rhythm section of Rob Smith and Jimy
SeiTang really fancied themselves
as Derek & The Dominos. It was an
exercise in allowing our egos to be laid
out there naked. It was really freeing.
What about the lyrical
themes of the record? In 2015,
when I was writing these songs,
my wife and I were trying to start
a family. We went through several
miscarriages, and on some levels, it
felt like we were out there in the
open boat: Where are we going? Is
there something wrong with me?
Am I part of the problem? All those
sorts of emotions. So, in a lot of ways,
it was kind of a dark place I was
coming from.
IntervIew: rob HugHes
unrelenting explorers, they did
more than most anyone to connect
majority-world music, warped
psychedelia and lo-fi scum rock.
so, it might be a surprise to hear
Bishop playing it comparatively
straight on his latest, a double-
disc or three-LP set of devilish
folk hymns, cranky home-blown
rockers and heartbroken acoustic
laments, pierced by his acid tongue.
With members of Master Musicians
Of Bukkake and Invisible Hands
joining in, its no surprise everything
gets wilder as it goes along.
Jon DALe

JANUARY 2018 UNCUT 17

 new albums
NOVO AMOR &
ED TULLETT
Heiress
ALL POINTS
6/10
Welsh and English artists unite
for derivative debut
Had Bon Iver followed
up their 2007
debut, For Emma
Forever Ago, with
more rhythmically
muscular variations
on its high, ethereal beauty, the results
might have sounded not dissimilar to
this debut collaboration between two
emerging British solo artists. Opener
Silvery lays out the albums core
concerns: emotive falsetto vocals,
tastefully pared-down musical
backing, folksy melodies, repetition
and a certain languorous intensity. The
mood varies little thereafter, although
Terraform and the ambitious
Calvary indicate a taste for Sigur
Rs elemental grandiosity, the latter
flirting with rock orthodoxy.
GraEmE Thomson
AUTOBAHN
The Moral Crossing
TOUGH LOVE
7/10
second album by frosty post-punk
five-piece from Leeds
Although their name
infers Krautrock,
Autobahn instead
trade in glacial
northern post-rock
indie. Their sound is
defined by a tangle of guitars and the
powerful work of superb drummer
Liam Hilton, which drives the Leeds
five-piece and brings something of the
windswept concrete aesthetic of Joy
Division to songs like Future and
the title track. But chief songwriter
Craig Johnson is canny enough to
avoid being backed into a corner, and
adds additional colour such as the
electro-punk Execution-Rise and
the intriguing Torrment, which
has a French female vocalist and the
whisper of Arabic guitar. PETEr WaTTs
BED WETTIN BAD BOYS
Rot
AGITATED/RIP SOCIETY
7/10
aussie punks disguise great tunes
with pleasing veneer of chaos
Coming in like a
Clash-inclined,
heroically ramshackle
garage band,
Sydneys Bed Wettin
Bad Boys combine
elements of the more melodic end of
proto-punk pub rock covered with
a veneer of raw 80s US hardcore.
Theyve been around since 2009,
but this is only their second album,
and it fizzes with pent-up power
and singalong choruses. Tracks like
Stunned have a jangly energy,
but there is also a raucous vocal and
carefully controlled sense of chaos
18 UNCUT JANUARY 2018
revelations
AUTOBAHN
Craig Johnson: We want our sound to hit you hard
ORKShIRE five-piece
Y Autobahns second
album, The Moral
Crossing, is as punchy as they
come, mixing electronica with
post-rock but with cavernous
propulsion and intensity. We
always wanted the sound to
hit you hard, says singer Craig
Johnson. It can make the
music feel like one entity.
Following their widely
praised debut, Dissemble,
Autobahn have added
keyboards to their armoury,
bringing a splash of human
League-style Sheffield synth
to their gothy Leeds core.
Johnson says another
important influence was
seeing the Warsaw
Philharmonic Orchestra
performing Beethovens 9th
Symphony at Leeds Town hall.
The use of the Roland Juno-
that recalls The Replacements and
Hsker D, while the charming
Expanding Horizons and the
magnificently ragged Device bring
them closer to Aussie 70s trailblazers
Radio Birdman. PETEr WaTTs
THE BELBURY CIRCLE
Outward Journeys
GHOST BOX
7/10
hauntology stalwarts return
with new album of nocturnal
synth exploration
Perhaps its the mood
of the times, but
Ghost Boxs blurry
vignettes of a Great
Britain mired in
nostalgic disquiet
feel as potent as ever. This brand-new
emission from The Belbury Circle the
joint project of label founder Jim Jupp
60 a previously unfamiliar
instrument forced the band
outside their comfort zone, as
did their decision to use their
own recording studio. With
any music you need to make
the process uncomfortable, so
you can really be challenged,
he says. We probably took
that to a new level with this
record. It gave us freedom to
build the songs, experiment
and work at our own pace. For
a lot of the tracks I brought a
loop or an idea forward, and
we would work that into more
of a fully formed idea. Once
the song was musically
complete Id write the melody
and lyrics. It was a different
way of working for me. Its
amazing how you can change
the dynamic of a song with
a melody.
PETEr WaTTs
and Jon Brooks of The Advisory Circle
strikes a melancholy, late-night
tone, No Cats Eyes and Cloudburst
Five evoking a twilit circuit of the M25
with metronomic synths whooshing
past like street lamps. While largely
instrumental, two tracks Forgotten
Town and Trees feature vocals
from John Foxx, whose wistful tones
and taste for curdled futurism prove
the perfect foil. LoUIs PaTTIson
BIBIO
Phantom Brickworks
WARP
7/10
Discreet music for abandoned spaces
His most atmospheric
album to date,
Stephen Wilkinsons
ninth dispenses
altogether with
folktronica, instead
flaunting an enviably tranquil
poise. Akin to labelmate Brian Enos
early ambient work, its nine, often
lengthy tracks of ghostly yet graceful
desolation are intended to evoke
the forgotten histories of enduring
locations. Fragmented piano melodies,
reminiscent of Harold Budds, pitter-
patter through Branch Line, or echo
alongside seemingly supernatural
voices in Phantom Brickworks III,
while 9:13 boasts a hushed, musty
warmth. Field recordings of distant
industrial sounds haunt Pantglas
and Capel Celyn, as though
confirming radio inventor Guglielmo
Marconis belief that sound waves
never entirely fade.
WYnDham WaLLaCE
BLITZEN TRAPPER
Wild And Reckless
LOJINX
6/10
Cocaine and concepts from
Portland folk-rockers
The majority of the
songs on Blitzen
Trappers ninth album
were written for a
half musical, half
rock-opera stage
production which ran in Portland
earlier this year. Rousing opener
Rebel introduces a dark tale of
drug abuse, desperation, true love
and western power structures,
but thankfully following or,
indeed, identifying the plot isnt
a prerequisite to enjoyment. More
pertinently, Wild & Reckless was
conceived as a cross-eyed stepchild
to their 2008 breakthrough album,
Furr. Its slightly pedestrian take on
amped-up roots rock falls short of that
particular bar, but the rolling funk-
blues of When Im Dying is terrific,
while the harrowing Joanna is a
masterful piece of storytelling.
GraEmE Thomson
BILLY BRAGG
Bridges Not Walls
COOkING VINYL
7/10
mini-album commentary on
contemporary lunacies
Four of the six tracks
on Bridges Not Walls
were released over
the summer of 2017,
as Bragg sought
to keep pace with
events careening faster than one
could compose a protest song. The
perhaps inevitable comparison is
with Braggs seven-track 1983 debut,
Lifes A Riot With Spy Vs Spy. Some of
Bridges Not Walls shares a punkish
musical sensibility with its ancestor,
and while The Sleep Of Reason is
an invigorating polemic, Bridges Not
Walls is at its best dropping a gear
for the country shuffle of Saffiyah
Smiles, inspired by Saffiyah Khan,
whose cheerful, dauntless staring
down of far-right nationalists made
her a faint beacon of hope.
anDrEW mUELLEr

DAN MICHAELSON
First Light
THE STATE51 CONSPIRACY
8/10
Northampton songwriters understated second solo set. By Graeme Thomson
DAN Michaelsons
voice a parched,
papery rasp, the
aural equivalent of a
desert plant endlessly
thirsting for water
has always resembled
the weary croak of a man struggling to
rouse himself into reluctant wakefulness.
Its entirely appropriate, then, that First
Light, his first solo album since 2011s
Sudden Fiction, takes inspiration from the
moment when a new day sparks into life,
that split second of infinite promise before
consciousness gives way to awareness.
With a gift for low-key emotional
intensity, widescreen minimalism and
mordant wit, Michaelson can usefully
be regarded as the British Bill Callahan.
Other touchstones include Townes
Van Zandt, Low, Lee Hazlewood,
Mark Eitzel and Leonard Cohen. Hes a
seasoned operator in the field of ravished
romanticism, and First Light may well be
his most satisfying outing to date.
Last years Memory made with
Michaelsons regular band, The
Coastguards, currently on paternity
leave marked the conclusion of a trilogy
of sorts, detailing the aftermath of a
bruising divorce. Although Michaelsons
overall aesthetic is firmly established by
now, within those parameters First Light
pivots in a new direction. It draws almost
exclusively from an orchestral palette:
eight violins, four violas, two cellos,
two double basses and the occasional
mournful blast of trombone, all at the
service of Michaelsons brambly baritone
new albums
incantation, a stunningly lovely gothic
country drama that finds the singer lost
in reverie and regret, circling around and
around the same bittersweet memories.
The quietly insistent But Ill Never Be
Lost finds Michaelson bitter as hell,
soaked to the bone direction unknown.
The gloom remains, but its one that
ultimately serves to accentuate the light
that spills through the cracks. On several
songs, Michaelson gently hymns the joy
of solitude and stillness. The title track,
which recalls both Richard Hawley at
his most sombre and Callahan at his
most obsessive, greets the sunrise with
something close to optimism. First light
and Im awake, he notes, as if to himself,
moving from weariness to wonder. Dont
Let It Pass, meanwhile, is an understated
ode to carpe diem. Unguarded, the doors
are left open for you, he sings, against
a sharp, urgent string motif, playing
with extremes of tension and release.
On Stone, which rises to the albums
most luxuriant chorus, the sanctity of
the early-morning moment is shared:
I thought I was alone until you woke/A
crumple of the sheets, the silence broke.
Sand makes a ceremony of hand
holding, while Someone Elses Dream,
a gorgeous waltz with muted piano notes
spilling over plucked viola strings, finds
communion with another even in sleep.
For all its willingness to give space to the
and whispered words. There are no drums, idea of happiness, First Light can hardly
SLEEVE NOTES and little in the way of conventional rock be called upbeat. Its dream-like mood is
1. Careless instrumentation. The combined effect is pervasive. The pace rarely alters, its nine
2. Sand one of elegant dishevelment. songs drifting by in barely half an hour.
3. Someone The second shift is the subtle sense of Michaelsonis currently scoringStephanie
Elses Dream
optimism that imbues the lyrics. First Wang-Brealsfeature-length documentary
4. Stone
5. Careless
Light presents the dawning of the day Blowin Up, and the immediate reaction
Reprise as a clean slate. Daybreak, wipe the dirt to the soft, slow drag of these songs is that
6. Old Kisses off my face, Michaelson begs on the film composition may be where his talents
7. But Ill Never opening Careless, a kind of swooning, are most obviously suited. On occasion,
Be Lost slow-motion Western theme that ably the music here becomes so understated
8. First Light establishes the albums recurring moods and unvarying it seems almost to vanish.
9. Dont Let It Pass and motifs. Later in the song comes what But First Light like first light itself is
sounds suspiciously like a manifesto: Love deceptive. It takes time for the senses to
Produced by:
makes you give more than you think you adjust to its illusive quality, to become
Dan Michaelson
Recorded at:
can/The emptiest well, floods til its ready aware of the shape and detail hiding in the
Premise Studios, to spill. Or, as he puts it on the title track: dusk. An album that appears to be all about
London Lets leave the night/Dressed in shadows. mood and texture transforms over time
Personnel Which is not to say that Michaelson into a fully realised collection of beautiful
includes: has ditched his penchant for languorous songs from an artist determined to keep
Dan Michaelson sorrow. Old Kisses is a kind of desperate moving forward, however stealthily.
(guitar,
piano, bass,
vocals), Arnulf
Lindner (string
Q&A
arrangements, Dan Michaelson: Im way. Its like walking through arrangement. Ive been
double bass, never going to make a a muddy field at the end of tampering with orchestral
cello), Guillem happy record the day, you have three kilos sounds a bit with earlier
Calvo Martinez of crap attached to you that records, and I wanted to try
De Albeniz why the idea of wasnt there in the morning. and take that as far as I could.
(viola, violin), capturing the dawn?
Yusuf Narcin It was an unhappy accident. Did working without Its possible to detect a
(trombone) I started waking up at the The Coastguards new sense of optimism
most horrific hours, and change things? Wed here. Im never going to
found a way to use it. I done the trilogy, and make a happy record. The
started to think about those developed a sound that was language of sadness is so
moments, found the idea quite particular. I felt like wed much more developed and
interesting and started to got it right, and it was time poetic, but I wanted to find
develop it. At that time of day, to move on for a while. I see ways to describe the other
you feel theres no-one else them all the time, so I dont side of the coin to a degree.
in the world, but not in a bad feel like its a permanent InTErVIEW: GraEmE Thomson
JANUARY 2018 UNCUT 19
 nEW albuMs
JIM JAMES
Tribute To 2
ATo
7/10
The My Morning Jacket
frontman continues
his experiments with
other peoples songs.
By John Lewis
As rocks catalogue
becomes ever
more expansive
and complicated,
the album of cover
versions is no longer
seen as the last
refuge of the showbiz sellout suffering
from writers block. Instead it has become
an easy way to connect with the rock
canon and a portal into the artists own
influences, as with Bowies Pin Ups or Nick
Caves Kicking Against The Pricks.
Jim James has a long history with the
cover version. With My Morning Jacket,
the Louisville band with whom hes
made his name in the past 20 years, he
performed more than 60 of them. some
ended up on albums and B-sides a
mournful guitar-and-voice version of Elvis
Presleys suspicious Minds, an echo-
laden acoustic reading of Elton Johns
Rocket Man while dozens more were
performed live. As well as large helpings
of Gram Parsons, Bob Dylan and The
Band, James chose a fascinating selection
of soul standards (by Curtis Mayfield,
Lionel Richie, Kool & The Gang and Bobby
Womack), metal anthems (by AC/DC, Blue
NEIL KRUG
yster Cult, Poison and Black sabbath),
country faves (by Willie Nelson, Johnny
20 UNCUT JANUARY 2018
line The world is falling down/Hold my
hand. Lincolns gospel-tinged original,
from a 1990 album, is turned into a ghostly
folk ballad, complete with wobbly digital
manipulations. These spectral effects
are particularly evident on the versions
of standards from the 1920s and 1930s.
As well as a miniature, country-tinged
version of Irving Berlins Blue skies,
there are two songs by the Englishman
Ray Noble: Midnight, The stars, And
You and Love Is The sweetest Thing.
Both were recorded by Noble and his
friend Al Bowlly, who together launched
British pops first invasion of the states
a full three decades before The Beatles.
Pianist Bo Koster stays close to the original
arrangement, but James who first
heard Nobles songs on the soundtrack
to stanley Kubricks The Shining plays
up the spooky connotations, with a vocal
performance full of owlish hoots, ghostly
howls and exaggerated sibilance, as if
deliberately trying to replicate an ancient
78rpm recording.
This distressed quality is also echoed
Cash and Dolly Parton) as well as more with other arrangements. James uses a
SLEEVE NOTES
1. I Just Wasnt
Made For
arcane choices by the likes of Danzig,
The Misfits and Erykah Badu.
double-tracked voice and an echo-laden
acoustic guitar to add a suitably ghoulish
These Times
Hes continued this side-career as a solo
artist, usually recording privately in his
quality to the old Elvis ballad Crying In
The Chapel and to Willie Nelsons Funny
(The Beach Boys)
home studio. In 2009 he released Tribute How Time slips Away.
2. Baby Dont Go
(Sonny & Cher)
To, a six-track EP of primitive, echo-
laden guitar and vocal versions of songs
Bob Dylans Ill Be Your Baby Tonight
gets a full-on Nashville bar-room
3. Wild Honey
(Dianne Izzo)
4. Midnight, The
by George Harrison; three years later
came some tracks for an album of Woody
treatment, complete with a lavish pedal
steel orchestration and a yodelling hillbilly
Stars And You Guthrie covers. Tribute To 2 is a richer and vocal from James, while ELPs Lucky
(Ray Noble & more complete collection than either. Man a song reputed to be about Robert
Al Bowlly)
5. Crying In
The two best songs on the album and Kennedy is performed with spangly
The Chapel
the pair that give the collection a narrative guitars and a beautiful Mellotron solo.
theme are the opener, The Beach Boys But the most interesting revelation
(Elvis Presley)
6. Funny How
I Just Wasnt Made For These Times, here is a spartan, acoustic guitar and
Time Slips Away and the penultimate track, The World Is glockenspiel version of Wild Honey by
(Willie Nelson) Falling Down, by the jazz singer Abbey Diane Izzo, a Chicago songwriter who died
7. Love Is The Lincoln. Both paint a dystopian picture in 2011. The song is something of a gem:
Sweetest Thing of a world slowly slipping into chaos. a poetic meditation on Izzos own death,
(Ray Noble & On the former, James replaces Brian freighted with Buddhist melancholy.
Al Bowlly) Wilsons guileless tone with a demented Someday your chariot of air will vanish
8. Ill Be Your resignation, assisted by an ominous string from this world of wine and bone/And then
Baby Tonight
section and deliciously static pedal chords what remains of you is pure and genuine
(Bob Dylan)
9. Lucky Man
borrowed from the Isaac Hayes version as wild honey. It serves as a poignant but
(Emerson, Lake of By The Time I Get To Phoenix. Ozn oddly optimistic headstone for an album
& Palmer) the latter, redemption comes with the that is wreathed in melancholy.
10. The World
Is Falling Down
(Abbey Lincoln) Q&A
11. Blue Skies
(Irving Berlin) Youve performed well How much is this album This is more developed
over 50 covers of other a commentary on the as a concept than the
Produced by: peoples songs, solo world today? I was George Harrison EP
Jim James and with MMJ. Whats listening to an Abbey Lincoln When George passed I just
Recorded at: the appeal? Music is the song, The World Is Falling sat and played those songs
James home universal language. Were all Down, from 1991, but it felt so by myself. I forgot about them
studio linked through its spirit. Songs relevant to now. So many of us until 10 years later. Once Id
Personnel float through the air like souls feel the world is falling apart found the Abbey Lincoln song
includes: Jim looking for a new vessel to that the powers that be are I realised there were other
James (vocals, inhabit. There are moments trying to divide us and rip us songs Id covered just for
guitar, piano, when a soul is floating through apart, and Mother Nature is myself. So I started digging.
pedal steel, the air and drifts into my heart pretty angry at the way weve I wanted to make a little
bass, keyboards), and I want to give it a different treated her. When I heard that journey and pay tribute to my
Bo Koster (piano) body in which to roam the air song it just resonated deeply favourites, which Id recorded
again in search of new forms. because there is such pain, trying to bring myself peace,
Isnt it beautiful that there can but I feel she is offering hope or just have fun. I hope people
be infinite versions of songs and realisation that we need can relate and enjoy the
and endless versions of us all? each other in times of crisis. journey. IntervIew: John LewIs

ANE BRUN
Leave Me Breathless
BALLooN RANgER
7/10
norwegian singer finds smaller
pleasures in some very big ballads
A recent romance
got the Norwegian
singer thinking about
the many ballads
that were close to
her heart but were
very different to the kind she wrote.
The result of this new interest in
simplifying or interpreting emotional
love songs in my own way, Leave Me
Breathless trumps the usual covers
collection thanks to Bruns ability to
extract moments of grace and beauty
in songs whose hit versions deployed
more bombastic methods. Though
Foreigners I Want to Know What Love
Is is stubbornly irredeemable, stay,
by shakespears sister, and Mariah
Careys Hero benefit greatly from Hukkelberg and Madrugada to
Bruns lighter touch. Treatments of
songs by Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and
Nick Cave are less radical but no less
lovely. JAson AnDerson
CAVALIER SoNg
A Deep Well
goD UNKNoWN
8/10
earthy prog and bluff
psychogeography from
Liverpool trio
It would be easy to
alight on Adams
Apple and dismiss
Cavalier song as Fall
copyists. Frontman
Luke Mawdsleys
gruff sprechgesang, spat out over
angular guitars and a gallop of
drums, certainly shares both spirit
and intonation with Mark E smith.
But A Deep Well proves rather more
idiosyncratic than first appearances
and more rewarding, too. The spindly
guitars and knotty progressions of
Insect Fire Dance and Heathen
explore an unprissy English prog
with soil under its fingernails, and the
trio prove also capable of a desolate
prettiness; Eborakon (Part One) is
a slow trudge through a bleak rural
landscape, set to math-rock picking,
brushed drums and wilted strings.
LoUIs PAttIson
MIChAEL ChAPMAN
& EhUD BANAI
EB=MC
NANA DISC
8/10
east meets west in an enthralling
union of guitar mastery
Israeli singer-
songwriter Banai
has long been a
devotee of his English
counterpart, finally
paying tribute in song
on 2015s Michael Chapman Was
Here. They make an ideal pairing
in the studio, each complementing
the other on a series of guitar-led
compositions that bridge folk, modal
jazz and desert blues. Chapmans
vintage Kodak Ghosts is reimagined
with Banais heartbroken lyrics as
Angel. soulful Lady, another low-ley funky mood sustains the
bulletin from 1970s Fully Qualified
Survivor, grows whiskers and adopts
an Arabic motif. And they truly excel
on the American Primitive duelling of
This Thing Has No Name and Plain Doors-y The Diamond sutra.
Old Bobs dancing drones. rob hUghes
ERLAND DAhLEN
Clocks
hUBRo
6/10
norwegian drummer sets out his
stall to soundtrack major film
Drummer Erland
Dahlen has played
with dozens of
Norwegian artists
across a range of elder Knife sibling
genres, from Hanne
jazz luminaries such as Nils Petter
Molvaer and Eivind Aarset. His third
solo album, however, showcases an
enthusiastic multi-instrumentalist
making music thats pitched
somewhere between Mike Oldfields
Tubular Bells and stewart Copelands
soundtrack to The Equalizer. The title
track is a riot of syn-drums, theremin
wails and tuned percussion; Bear is
a rumbling piece of slow-motion sludge
rock; Lizard sounds like a submarine
voyage, with distorted sonar bleeps
accompanied by aqueous effects,
while ship is a cantering piece of announced that perverts define
orientalism mixing Ryuichi sakamoto
with Peter Gabriel. John LewIs
ELECTRIC EYE
From The Poisonous Tree
JANSEN
6/10
spiralling norwegian prog with
funky underbelly
The second album
from Norways
Electric Eye opens
with the infectious
sometimes You Got
To Jump To Lift Your
Feet, before Invisible Prison
takes things down a notch, introducing
a serious groove speckled with
proggy traces of acid jazz. That
best moments on the rest of the
album, from the epic Rock P Norska
and the panther-like crawl of Turn
Around, Face The sun to the dramatic
the same. With just bass, drums and
There are Goat-like moments, but
serenity and Meditasjonen
interrupt the party to introduce
a more studied and austere note
to proceedings.
Peter wAtts
FEVER RAY
Plunge
RABID
8/10
Perverse, political second from
slipped out
just in time for
Halloween,
Plunge finds
The Knifes Karin
Dreijer jolted back
to life as Fever Ray eight years after
her startling self-titled debut. Where
that record cast her as a kind of
Nordic noir dream-weaver, distant
and unknowable, here she reframes
the character as a libidinous and
politically charged entity Free
abortions! And clean water! Destroy
nuclear! Destroy boring! she
shrieks on This Country, having
seam, though more reflective in tenor:
my fuck history. stranger and
sillier than anything to be found
on Fever Ray, Plunges lurid
psychedelia and crippled calypso
provide the perfect backdrop to
Dreijers acid tongue. A reawakening
to be reckoned with.
PIers MArtIn
FRANCE
occitainia
AgUIRRE
7/10
one album, one track, one note
from French drone-rock trio
Fully qualified
collaborators:
Ehud Banai
(left) and
Michael
Chapman
nEW albuMs
That France are,
quite simply, a band
from France reflects
the complexity of
the trios working
methods. Their latest
album, for instance, was recorded in
March 2009, the same day as another,
Pau, which sounds almost exactly
distorted electric hurdy-gurdy, they
take Krautrock and drone aesthetics
to a hypnotic limit, jamming on a
single chord for almost 50 minutes.
Credits due for their stamina, but
though the volume never relents, the
controlled, sustained use of feedback
and harmonics ensures there are
mesmerising, albeit gradual changes,
with spacemen 3s suicide an
obvious point of reference.
wYnDhAM wALLACe
NICK gARRIE
The Moon & The Village
TAPETE
7/10
Understated loveliness from
orch-pop lifer
Nick Garries legend
rests on the startling
album he released
back in 1968, The
Nightmare Of JB
Stanislas, one of
the high-water marks of psychedelic
orchestral pop of its era. On The Moon
& The Village, only his third in five
decades, Garries working a similar
songs like Boy soldier and Music
From A Broken Violin are hushed
yet overwhelming. Its gorgeous,
and though its 27 minutes may seem
slight at first, thats somehow perfect
for the songs capture of moments in
the life, singing melancholy and joy in
equal measure.
Jon DALe
hoWE gELB &
LoNNA KELLY
Further Standards
FIRE
6/10
ex-giant sand captain continues
his cabaret reinvention
The transformation of
Gelb into a jazz-lounge
singer on 2016s
Future Standards
felt like an enjoyable
one-off experiment.
Yet seemingly not. Like Dylan, hes
warmed to the role of nightclub
crooner and has now re-recorded
many of the would-be standards he
wrote for his last album in concert
with an enhanced role for fellow
singer Kelly, whose sultry voice wraps
itself deliciously around his laconic
baritone. There are new compositions,
too, liveried in the same smoky retro-
ism although whether they will last
through the ages, as Gelb hopes, to
take their place alongside the songs of
his role models Cole Porter and Hoagy
Carmichael is frankly doubtful.
nIgeL wILLIAMson
JANUARY 2018 UNCUT 21
 new albums
americana
Cosmic Cali country
ANGELICA ROCkNE
Queen Of San Antonio
SELf-RELEASED
8/10
Impressive psych-country debut from young Californian
ANGELICA RoCkNE has
prior form as vocalist with
San Franciscos Evil Eyes, a
band that skirted the edges of
shoegaze and psych-rock. on
the evidence of Queen Of San
Antonio, however, her true mtier is country,
specifically the cosmic kind patented down the
coast by the Flying Burrito Brothers and Gram
Parsons in the late 60s, a nebulous territory
where Bakersfield and LA noir collide.
Its an album that serves as an allusive
travelogue, Rocknes songs shifting from dirt
roads to border towns, from old West saloons to
the edge of Canada and on down to Louisiana.
Her characters tend to be caught in restless
states of transition, looking for solutions to
emotional crises in all the wrong places, torn
between wanderlust and settling down. This
may nor may not be linked to Rocknes own
peripatetic life (having frequently shifted
bases across the US, she finally set up home in
Nevada City four or five years ago), but whatever
autobiography she brings is often blurred into
americana round-up
Almost three years on from
Edge Of The Sun, calexico
(right) return in January with
The Thread That Keeps Us, out
on City Slang. Their ninth
album finds them setting up
shop in northern California (as
opposed to Arizona), where
singer/guitarist Joey Burns
and drummer John
Convertino gathered
together a bunch of friends
IAN FuENzALIDA, JAIRo zAvALA
and injected a little more chaos and noise
in the mix than weve done in the past.
Burns is keen to stress that the nature of the
music, a response to troubled social and
political times, is in keeping with Calexicos
idea to always keep on trying new things.
The as-yet unnamed new effort from The
oak ridge boys is due that month too.
22 UNCUT JANUARY 2018
semi-mythic narratives. on the narcotic Dr
John, for instance, shes among voodoo priests
in New orleans French Quarter, where Mac
Rebennacktook me under his wing. And the
title track, a honky-tonk chugger with a little
twang, is an outlaw tale of boozers, gamblers
and tough women on the American frontier.
Theres also an experimental feel to her
work. The abstract lyricism of Glitter Rags
complements the psychedelic lead guitar
of Blake Severn, with distinct echoes of The
Doors and Jefferson Airplane. Across six-
minutes-plus, Rocknes measured tones bloom
into a tour de force, Severns guitar rising to
meet her. The same impulse drives Baby, a
Badlands-like hymn to perilous romance, in
which she occupies a midway point between
Lucinda Williams and Stevie Nicks. Even at her
most forlorn the countrypolitan sadcore of
Smoke When Its Raining; the lonely shuffle in many haphazardly glorious moments
of Married By Elvis Rockne sounds resolute,
rather than broken. Queen Of San Antonio
suggests she has genuine staying power.
rOb HugHeS
Recorded at Nashvilles RCA
Studio A, producer Dave
Cobb has prompted a change
in direction for the country
gospel vets, plugging back
into spiritual hymns and early
rocknroll. Lightning Rod label
head Logan Rogers adds:
Everyone has heard the Boys
sing gospel, but nobody has
heard it quite like this.
Those searching for live gigs
are best directed to rhiannon Giddens
(supported by highly promising newcomer
Kaia Kater), who starts her Freedom
Highway tour at Shepherds Bush Empire on
November 17 and winds up at the Sage in
Gateshead. Also on the road in the latter
half of November are Jim white, chuck
prophet and Tom russell. rOb HugHeS
GOLDEN TEACHER
No Luscious Life
GOLDEN TEACHER
6/10
Sprawling acid house from Scottish
jam band
Already a cult concern
thanks to a string of
lively 12-inches and
club shows, Glasgow
punk-funk sextet
Golden Teacher
theyre named after a strain of magic
mushroom concoct a sinuous disco
racket that nods to no-wave New York and
early-90s warehouse rave; a kind of LSD
Soundsystem. A round-up of new tracks
rather than an official album, No Luscious
Life plunges headfirst into their dubbed-
out cowbell boogie What Fresh Hell
Is This? comes doused in metallic
reverb, while Shatter deploys spooked
dancehall. The likes of Sauchiehall
Withdrawal and Diop add a few
crumbs to the collectives heaving table,
but theres plenty here to chew on.
PierS Martin
CHARLES HAYWARD AND
THURSTON MOORE
Improvisations
CARE IN THE COMMUNITY
6/10
two avant-rock veterans get
together for an afternoon that is
anything but quiet
Recorded over the course
of an afternoon that
the erstwhile This Heat
drummer and Sonic
Youth guitarist spent
together earlier this
year at Londons Lynchmob Studios and
released in a limited vinyl edition of 500
copies, the seven unnamed tracks here
are often surprisingly straightforward in
form given the two musicians penchant
for demolishing conventions. That said,
Charles Haywards gleeful bashing brings
out a more percussive and driving quality
to Thurston Moores shredding, resulting
that evoke the sludgy, post-Funhouse
mayhem of underappreciated American
miscreants like Destroy All Monsters
and Smegma.
JaSOn anDerSOn
JONTI
Tokorats
STONES THROW
7/10
Mutant psych-rock-hip-hop dreams
from Oz-based electronic auteur
In case you were
wondering, a tokorat
is that supernatural
creature in the mirror, a
multi-coloured weirdo
mutant composed of
all the elements of your story and all
the complexities of your character,
according to Jonti Danilewitz. The musical
Frankenstein which emerges abseils
wildly from cosmic hip-hop (Island
Rose) to Earth, Wind & Fire inter-
planetary soul (Animah) via dream-hop
world-beat (Papaya Brothers) and

ethereal psych-harmonies that conjure
Cluster jamming with The Beach Boys
(Misto on The Moon). Five years in
the making seems like a long time for
an hours worth of music, but Jonti
clearly had plenty of fun along the way.
nigeL WiLLiaMSOn
THE JUST JOANS
You Might Be Smiling Now
fIkA
6/10
Melancholy midlife metapop from
glasgow indie lifers
over the past decade
Glasgows Just Joans
have documented the
romantic pratfalls of
a generation of indie
kids with sardonic wit
and a shambling musical style where
Stephin Merritt lies down with The
Vaselines. Now theyre feeling the chill
of middle age, when a night on the sofa
with an M&S ready-meal holds more
appeal than feeling like an auntie at
the church-hall disco (I only Smoke
When I Drink, No Longer Young
Enough), and the wisecracks are
harder to pull off. Theyre at their best
on Big Blue Moon, katie Popes voice
soaring above bathos like the stars
coming out over Sauchiehall Street.
StePHen trOuSS
SILVIA kASTEL
Air Lows
BLACkEST EVER BLACk
7/10
bombed-out beauty from italian
composer
The Berlin-based
Italian experimental
musician Silvia kastel
is a serial collaborator
whose challenging
work has so far
surfaced on obscure imprints and
cassette labels, and though Air Lows,
her debut for Blackest Ever Black,
hardly threatens Ed Sheerans reign,
it does contain some of her most
formal and prettiest pieces. kastel
tends to dwell at the murkier end of
industrial music, which makes the
celestial chime of opener Target
and the alien arias of Heart 2 Tape
sound particularly sweet. But
scouring the dub-scorched craters of
Spiderwebs and Concrete Void for
meaning seems futile best just revel
in her queasiness. PierS Martin
kAUkOLAMPI
1 In An Open field
SVARP
7/10
Solo excursion into kosmische
techno by Finlands K-X-P frontman
The first solo effort
by k-X-Ps Timo
kaukolampi, 1 is
hardly the years only
electronic album
that could pass for a
throbbing and thickly layered synth
score for a dimly remembered 80s
science-fiction movie. But as is the case
with his bands startling fusions of
space rock, doomy metal and motorik
grooves on its four albums, there are
many surprising developments here
too, especially when the surging
momentum of the early tracks
dissipates into the more ominous
abstraction of Public Execution of
The Nodding Lotus Eater, a 10-minute
closer better suited to Twin Peaks: The
Return than Blade Runner 2049.
JaSOn anDerSOn
GREGG kOWALSkY
LOrange LOrange
MEXICAN SUMMER
7/10
Synthesiser sunbathing from
La-based ambient wizard
Much like his music, Gregg kowalsky
moves at a distinctly unhurried pace.
A former student of Fred Frith and
Pauline oliveros at San Franciscos
reputed Mills College, this is his first
solo release since 2009s underrated
Tape Chants, a deep and meditative
piece made with analogue synths
played through carefully positioned
cassette recorders. LOrange LOrange
shows off a similar attention of detail,
while exploring a rather sunnier vibe.
Recorded between Los Angeles and
his home state of Florida, the likes
of Maliblue Dream Sequence
The Just
Joans: not
smiling now
and Tonal Bath For Bubbles
positively glow, layering shimmering
keyboard washes, ringing chimes
and raga-like melodies to create a
sense of blissful stasis.
LOuiS PattiSOn
NICHOLAS kRGOVICH
TIN ANGEL
7/10
Lush introspection from Vancouver
pop master
Nicholas krgovich is
a classy songwriter
whose recent trilogy
of albums inspired
by the allure of
Hollywood, delivered
in creamy R&B and languid 80s pop,
did little to dispel the notion that hes
a man out of time. Nor, happily, will In
An Open Field, which even contains
a blue-eyed shimmer called Do It
Again and flows with casual
elegance through yearning chamber
pop (The World Tonight, Now)
and lighthearted blues (Country Boy,
on The Main Drag). Whereas his
trilogy was written mostly in
character, here krgovich reflects wryly
on his own situation, the perennial
underdog whose day might be just
around the corner.
PierS Martin
JIM kWESkIN
Unjugged
HORNBEAM
6/10
americana godfather and original
Village scenester still going strong
More than half a
century after his
original jug band
recordings were a
seminal influence on
Garcia, The Lovin
Spoonful and Ry Cooder, at 76 kweskin
is in sturdy voice and picking as
meticulously as ever. With his guitar
and banjo backed by fiddle, harmonica
and double bass, theres a timeless feel
to his freewheeling mix of trad folk
staples, Jerome kern showtunes and
rag-time ditties by Blind Blake. These
new albums
are smartly augmented by the sly wit
of Shel Silversteins modern-day sea
shanty The Mermaid Song and a
lovely banjo-led cover of Donovans
Colours, with Bonnie Dobson on
harmony vocals. nigeL WiLLiaMSOn
JON LANGfORD
four Lost Souls
BLOODSHOT
7/10
Prolific Mekon and friends head
South
For a fuller
appreciation of
idiomatic Southern
styles, Jon Langford
migrated to Muscle
Shoals in Alabama,
hooking up his fellow Lost Souls
guitarist John Szymanski, plus
vocalists Bethany Thomas and
Tawny Newsome with Swampers
David Hood and Randy McCormick,
alongside assorted guests. The
resulting confluence of country, soul,
gospel and R&B (produced by Elvis
old bassist, Norbert Putnam) is a
delight, Langfords originals imbued
with a keen sense of time and place.
Weighted equally between twangy
vigour and folkish delicacy, the songs
often cut deep, particularly the hymnal
beauty of I Thought He Was Dead.
rOb HugHeS
LANTERNS ON THE
LAkE WITH THE ROYAL
NORTHERN SINfONIA
Live In Concert
BELLA UNION
7/10
Cinematic folk-rock with strings
attached
In February 2016,
Lanterns on The
Lake played a
one-off hometown
show at the Sage in
Gateshead backed by
the 40-piece Royal Northern Sinfonia.
on this stirring souvenir of that night,
the bands natural gift for widescreen
atmospherics and melodramatic
melancholy is heightened rather
than transformed by the orchestral
backing. Ill Stall Them is thrillingly
ALLAN WHYTE, MIKE KoSINSKI
filmic and Beings takes on a vast,
abrasive beauty, but through it all a
powerful intimacy remains. Green
And Gold, sung by Hazel Wilde with
only piano accompaniment, boasts the
bruised intensity of Mazzy Star at their
most bewitching.
graeMe tHOMSOn
four lost souls:
Jon Langford,
second, left
JANUARY 2018 UNCUT 23
 new
n w albums
Mike Love
Unleash The Love
BMG
3/10
Pickin up bad vibrations
Mike Love has been
perhaps unfairly
cast as a villain in
The Beach Boys
story, but lately
he seems to be
embracing that role. First was the
preening memoir that gave him
too much credit for the bands
accomplishments, and now comes
an unctuous solo album mixing
flaccid new songs with slick retreads
of classics. The harmonies can still
be moving, as on Getcha Back,
but Loves vocals are so heavily
Auto-Tuned that he often sounds like
a cyborg rusting in the surf. Worst
is Ram Raj, a vaguely Eastern
number that ends with an offensive
stereotype inviting us all out for
curry. STEPHEN DEUSNER
JULiN MAeSo
Somewhere, Somehow
SoNY LeGACY
6/10
Atmospheric and varied blues
soul on Spanish organ aces third
solo outing
Perfectly placed to
add his own signature
and outsider
freshness to well-
worn genres, Maeso
is a veteran stalwart
of his nations music scene. Respected
enough to have served time with US
soul queens Irma Thomas and Betty
Harris, he has a canny and engaging
presence whether mastering the
snaky and percolating Tom Waits
in the Crescent City vibe of Watery
Grave, or taking a pleasantly off-piste
reggae accented on I Wonder, I
Wonder. Stellar musical chops from
Maeso and a band blowing a suitable
slamming and textured storm ensures
PAUL HEARTFIELD
any can Spanish men play the blues?
queries are resolutely answered in
the affirmative.
GAVIN MARTIN
24 UNCUT JANUARY 2018
eDWARD PeNFoLD
Denny isle Drive
SToLeN BoDY
6/10
Kooky English folk from Bristol
songwriter
A member of the busy
Bristol scene, Edward
Penfolds second solo
LP has him sounding
old beyond his years
as he croons very
English and eccentric songs with a
Syd Barrett edge. Penfold also plays
in Taos Humm, a great experimental
psych three-piece, but his solo work
is from the weird folk tradition, as he
calls in colleagues to provide support
with a range of instrument while
oozing a strange mix of intimacy
and dislocation. Spring Parade
sounds like Arthur-era Kinks, while
Grasshopper has a genteel sway and
Bullfrog is a gorgeous nest of strings.
Amid the lysergic haze, a fascination
with nature holds things together.
PETER WATTS
MARk PeTeRS
iNNeRLAND
SoNiC CATHeDRAL
7/10
Engineers co-founder revisits his
(musical) youth
Much as James
Brooks Land
Observations
construct
psychogeographic
maps of, for instance,
Roman roads, Mark Peters attempts
the same for childhood haunts with
this dreamy, instrumental mini-
album. Comparisons dont end there:
Brooks work may be sparser, but this
debut shares his fondness for simple
guitar melodies. That said, aside from
the first minutes of opener Twenty
Bridges, Peters are cocooned in
richer arrangements somewhere
between former band Engineers, and
occasional bandmate/collaborator
Ulrich Schnauss, if lighter on
the synths. Despite the subdued
urgency of Windy Arbour,
however, the sweet tones of tracks
edward the guise of Pugwash since the late
Penfold:
ready, 1990s, but his seventh release under
steady, the name is essentially a two-hander.
kook Jason Falkner hasnt embraced
powerpop so enthusiastically since
his days in Jellyfish; its especially
evident on the fluid guitar licks he
brings to Make It Yourself and the
rapid jangle of Easier Said Than
Done. Walshs songs chart a steady
singalong course, if perhaps short
on surprises or curveballs, although
hes more adventurous in the vocal
department, his swooning drawl
on Why Do I reminiscent of Rufus
Wainwright. TERRY STAUNTON
RoCHeMAN
Rocheman
NX
7/10
A muted but sonically rich and finely
like Ashursts Beacon suggest an crafted debt.
idyllic upbringing. Theatre composer
WYNDHAM WALLACE and sound designer
Jordan Mallory-
kARiNe PoLWART Skinner is clearly
A Pocket of Wind not aiming for West
Resistance End melodrama
HUDSoN with his recording-artist side project
Rocheman. This eponymous debut is
7/10
an understated but mostly enchanting
Award-winning folkies theatrical collection of avant-lounge chansons
collaboration tempered with offbeat electronic
A collaboration with textures and musique concrte
sound designer rumbles. Celebrant sounds like a
Pippa Murphy, light dinner-jazz orchestra playing
originally staged underwater, Thrum a lightly
at the Edinburgh mechanised carnival swirl of melting
International voices and lysergic shimmers. There
Festival in 2016, Polwarts half- are hints of Broadcasts woozy drone-
spoken, half-sung reflection on life, pop here, plus supple arrangements
motherhood and migrating geese and a grainy vocal timbre that
establishes her as a trad PJ Harvey. recall vintage solo David Sylvian.
The arrangements are light and Occasional bouts of listless wafting
percussive, and Polwarts singing aside, Rocheman is a charming debut,
is bell-like. The spoken-word parts its watercolour shadings pleasingly
might limit the albums appeal, but counterpointed with wonky sonic
the singer adds new textures to old oddness. STEPHEN DALTON
standards. The Robert Burns song
Now Westlin Winds is incorporated ToM RoGeRSoN
into Tyrannic Mans Dominion, WiTH BRiAN eNo
while the droning ballad Sphagnum Finding Shore
Mass For A Dead Queen is delicate DeAD oCeANS
and ornithologically astute.
6/10
ALASTAIR McKAY
Well-travelled Suffolk pianist goes
PUGWASH solo with help from a famous friend
Silverlake Rogersons CV
LoJiNX includes studying
under Harrison
6/10
Birtwistle at the Royal
More pop classicism, assisted by Academy, being
famous old friend one-third of the jazzy,
Dublin-based noisy Three Trapped Tigers, playing
hookmeister lounge piano in a dilapidated hotel
and melodicist and a chance meeting with Brian Eno
extraordinaire outside the toilets after a gig. That
Thomas Walsh has encounter led to his debut solo album,
been fashioning on which he uses a Moog Piano Bar
impossibly catchy records under to transform his keyboard improvs
into a Midi signal, which Eno then
manipulates with his usual binary
karine mix of navety and sophistication.
Polwart
The result is an impressionistic and
intriguing set of instrumentals that
draw on an eclectic set of influences
from the obvious (Satie and Glass)
to the surprising (gamelan and
Robert Miles). NIGEL WILLIAMSON
 new albums

sCANNER the plaintive Fire see the Kansas

LAWRENCE ROTHMAN
The Book Of Law
DOWNTOWN/INTERsCOPE
8/10
Themes of gender fluidity and
80s-pop fetishism collide on
producers bold debut
A gender-fluid
performer and
producer from LA,
Lawrence Rothman
boldly shifts through
an array of guises and
styles on this wildly ambitious debut.
With Angel olsen, Duff McKagan and
Warpaints Stella Mozgawa among
the players, the cast is as varied as the
contents, which range from the wistful
electro-pop of Wolves Still Cry, to
the piano balladry of Descend, to
several songs that will bridge any
gaps between Depeche Mode and
Prince on your 80s playlists. Add
acutely personal lyrics about coming
to terms with a non-binary identity as
Rothman sings in Jordan, Ive lived
long enough in shame and you have
a work that feels very much of its time
(and several other ones, too).
JASON ANDERSON
THE RURAL ALBERTA
ADVANTAGE
The Wild
sADDLE CREEK
8/10
Super fourth album from rapidly
maturing Canadian three-piece
The Wild showcases
the Rural Alberta
DAvID McCLISTER
shifting
guises:
Lawrence
Rothman
nuggets, sprawling folk-country
melodies funnelled into three-minute
belters that inch towards anthemic
status. Given the general wooliness
of much Americana, its the leanness
of the offering that really impresses.
this is a focused trio who boast a
superb drummer and feature lovely,
unshowy harmonies, able to balance
the melancholy of Nils Edenloffs
lyrics titles like Bad Luck Again,
toughen Up and Selfish Dreams
tell their own stories with a euphoric,
confident delivery that feels like a
brilliant form of catharsis.
PETER WATTS
A sAVAGE
Thawing Dawn
DULL TOOLs
6/10
Uncertain debut solo shot from
Parquet Courts songwriter
Few monocles would
have dropped from
beneath arched
eyebrows had the
songs on Thawing
Dawn comprised a
new Parquet Courts album: Andrew
Savage cleaves reasonably faithfully,
and probably unsurprisingly, to his
familiar palette of downbeat, deadpan
garage rock, with perhaps a larger
dash of Americana influences than
usual, and a more earnestly personal
lyrical approach (Savage has spoken
of a conceptual theme of chronicling
a budding romance as it happens).
the songs are solid enough, especially
the galloping Winter In the South
Fibolae
POMPERIPOssA
7/10
First album in six years from
soundscaper conceptualist mines
loss, finds transcendence
Part meditation on
the death of family
members, part a
marshalling of the
forces of resolve
and determination,
Fibolae is wonderfully strange and
wholly captivating. Minimal but
pointed use of the found sounds in
which Scanner (aka Robin Rimbaud)
specialises is supplanted by dazzling
electronica. the effect is both colossal
and imperious, tender and regretful,
sometimes all in one piece as on
Footpaths. the beautiful Seaven
teares contrives to transmit eerie
rays of hopeful sadness from the great
beyond, like tangerine Dream at their
most exalted. on Eyeout, dizzying
spirals cast a spell of wonder and
displacement before the climactic
canter of tribal iridescence in Savage
Is Savage. A consummate and
compelling achievement. GAVIN MARTIN
sLEIGH BELLs
Kid Kruschev
LUCKY NUMBER/TORN CLEAN
6/10
Brooklyn noise-pop duo locate
their inner Berlin
After spending three
years making 2016s
Jessica Rabbit, the
Brooklyn duo return
to a swifter work rate
for this eight-song
outing. Kid Kruschevs brash opening
salvo, Blue trash Mattress Fire,
re-establishes Sleigh Bells noisy Mo
with its economy-sized beats, hair-
metal guitar and Alexis Krauss belting
out lines about drinking gasoline,
Billie Jean and bloodstains on blue
jeans. But since the impact of their
shtick has diminished from overuse,
the shift toward a less hectic pace
elsewhere is a wise one. And Saints
couldve made the cut for Top Guns
soundtrack had it been recorded by
Berlin, which makes it a triumph of
sorts. JASON ANDERSON
to and Pay No Rent, co-written by
ANNA sT LOUIs
First songs
MARE/WOODsIsT
7/10
Americana singer makes
auspicious debut on Kevin Morbys
new label
As befits the title of
Anna St Louis debut
cassette, First Songs
captures a promising
artist at a somewhat
formative stage.
While her fingerpicking guitar style
City-bred, LA-based singer-songwriter
reach toward a more distinctive
sensibility. Its a beguilingly eerie
one, too, thanks to stark yet smart
arrangements that evoke a previously
plush countrypolitan sound reduced to
base elements. Keep Walking could
be Patsy Cline either filtered through a
prism of hypnagogic pop or just loaded
up on Quaaludes. JASON ANDERSON
CHRIs THILE
Thanks For Listening NONEsUCH
7/10
A Punch Brother compiles his
written-for-radio output
During his first season
as host of the radio
programme Prairie
Home Companion,
ace mandolin player
Chris thile wrote a
song a week to perform on the air, 10
of which comprise his first solo album
in four years. Thanks For Listening has
the same gentle humour and musical
imagination he brings to the airwaves,
although I Made this for You and
the title track are a bit precious in
their meta trappings. Best might be
Falsetto, which imagines the reaction
of a certain leader of the free world
and even better gives him a chance
to show off his own elastic falsetto.
STEPHEN DEUSNER
TURNPIKE
TROUBADOURs
A Long Way From Your Heart
BOssIER CITY/THIRTY TIGERs
8/10
Top-notch pickin and writin from
a flyover state
turnpike troubadours
songwriting frontman
Evan Felker hails
from Woody Guthries
hometown, tiny,
remote okemah,
oklahoma, and his bucolic narratives
on the sextets fourth album are imbued
with plainspoken regional authenticity.
Fiddle, accordion, dobro and pedal
steel underscore the downhome
veracity of songs like the Housefire
and A tornado Warning, while tautly
rocking, harmony-laden songs the
Hard Way, Something to Hold on
okemahs John Fullbright, sound like
just-discovered country-rock artefacts
from the early 70s. And Felker can turn
a phrase, as in Unrung: Theres a
thousand things/That I could say/But
I just bite my tongue/And listen as the
last note fades away/That bell cant be
unrung. BUD SCOPPA

Advantages growing and the Velvets-alike Eyeballs. the and affinity for dirges and drones
talent as they singing is another matter: Savages are suggestive of John Fahey, Karen
deliver 10 seemingly monotonous bark remains a taste not Dalton and other icons of avant-folk, Turnpike
effortless Americana easily acquired. ANDREW MUELLER the loveliest moments here like Troubadours

26 UNCUT JANUARY 2018


NOEL GALLAGHERs
HIGH FLYING BIRDs
Who Built The Moon?
7/10
David Holmes helps birth the ex-Oasis mans third. By John Robinson
Not for the first
time, Liam Gallagher
recently stunned a
fairly large number
of people with
something he said.
At a show in front of
a record-industry crowd, he attempted to
justify his new album being written with
collaborators. It aint all about the music,
he said to an audible intake of breath. Its
also about being a cool cunt like me.
oasis or no oasis, if you needed a precise
articulation of the difference between
Liam and Noel Gallagher, that would
probably do it. one is still justifying
himself, while the other has comfortably
made it. one knows theres more to the
magic of rocknroll than just the music;
theres attitude and charisma. And,
actually, the other knows that too, but
prefers to push his own party line. Namely
that its all about the songs.
Interestingly, for so irreconcilable a pair,
right now, Liam and Noel actually have
quite a lot in common. Not that for a second
Big Brother would see it this way, but he
in his way is also using guest writers,
looking for a way forward. Rather than
present another album of gentle rockers
and midtempo ballads, here he has
enlisted the help of the producer/remixer/
movie soundtracker David Holmes to
reimagine his meat and potatoes as a
rather more exciting plate of food.
Early remarks about the record were
of its purported psychedelic sound.
this might perhaps make long-service
Noelers cast their mind back to the tracks
he cut about three years ago with the
psychotropic Amorphous Androgynous
crew, or further, to 1996s Setting Sun,
which cast him as the monk on the
mountain top in the Chemical Brothers
new albums
like a song. It has yielded some interesting
moments. Lead-off single Holy Mountain
imagines the Sweet covering Diamond
Dogs, or a Phil Spector production of
Ricky Martins She Bangs. It is, as Noel
has said, a lot of fun. If Love Is the Law
continues the mood, this time channelling
the spirit of A Christmas Gift To You From
Philles Records, with some appealing
sleigh bells and a flavour of thats
Entertainment by the Jam.
the Man Who Built the Moon, near
the end of the album, takes the tune and
rhythm of Wonderwall, and puts it in the
epic setting of a Bond theme. Additional
nods to a more widescreen production
come with Interlude: Wednesday Pt 1
and the closing End Credits.
Best by some distance, though, is Black
And White Sunshine. Its not unfamiliar
territory by any means (except for mention
of thanks and praise, which gives it a
flavour of Sunday school we probably
never expected from him), and it is very
sOUR MAsH
good indeed. An entirely unfamiliar guitar
riff opens proceedings with a Johnny
Marr level of freshness and virtuosity. the
chorus, with reference to ships coming in,
is jubilant in the pure Knebworth fashion.
the descent back to the verse is done with
own tomorrow Never Knows. some tastefully basic guitar playing.
SLEEVE NOTES the Amorphous collaboration ended If this excellent rocker were surrounded
1. Fort Knox badly, with Noel apparently junking their by a family bearing some strong genetic
2. Holy Mountain proposed LP and Garry Cobain from AA resemblances to it, Who Built The Moon?
3. Keep On describing Noel as too afraid to be weird. would be a superior album. thats not
Reaching
Nonetheless, two tracks, the Mexican quite the case, sadly. Keep on Reaching
4. Its A Beautiful
World
and the Right Stuff, offered a pleasant finds Holmes pushing some Curtis
5. She Taught space/time slippage and made it onto the Mayfield presets. She taught Me How to
Me How To Fly last Noel album, 2015s Chasing Yesterday. Fly is a fusion of Pulps Common People
6. Be Careful Apart from possibly Its A Beautiful with Blondies Heart of Glass. And even
What You World, which has an agreeably droney if Noel doesnt really like to talk about the
Wish For vibe before mutating into a Coldplay-style Beatles any more, theres no hiding that
7. Black And anthem, this album will not fry your brain, Be Careful What You Wish For sounds
White Sunshine though thats not to say that a substantial rather like the riff from Come together.
8. Interlude
change has not been attempted. Which is the strange thing about the
(Wednesday
Part 1)
Encouraged by Holmes to collaborate, album. As the albums bonus track (a
9. If Love Is The Law Noel has been pushed as far out of his live-in-the-studio version of Dead In the
10. The Man Who comfort zone as a person can while still Water) makes plain, Noel has broadened
Built The Moon having Paul Weller and Johnny Marr guest. his horizons beyond the plaintive acoustic
11. End Credits Rather than presenting completed songs to ballad. But to still be making records that
(Wednesday his producer, the pair working together sound a bit like other records after all this
Part 2) on and off since 2013, apparently have experimentation suggests hes gone an
12 Dead In The jammed, and listened, then revisited the awfully long way round the houses simply
Water (Live
material to turn it into something more to end up exactly where he started.
at RT 2FM
Studios, Dublin)
[Bonus Track]
Q&A
Produced by:
David Holmes David Holmes: much nailed everything that
Recorded at: Vibe and instinct week. He then took the tracks
Drama Studios, away and slowly but surely
Belfast; The Pool what did noel tell you started to write the songs.
he was after?
and Hoxa HQ,
He didnt tell me anything, Did you know noel
London
Personnel really. He asked me to anyway? what were
includes: produce Chasing Yesterday, your expectations?
Noel Gallagher, but I felt it was too far down I met him once after a Primal
Paul Weller, the line to get involved, so I Scream concert somewhere
Johnny Marr suggested making a record in Europe. Hes obviously a
from scratch that didnt I had created about 10 great songwriter, but his
involve him bringing anything loop-based backing tracks skills on the guitar really
to the studio apart from his that were great jumping off surprised me. Hes incredibly
guitars and a bunch of pedals. points. Noel set up a chain of creative when he wants to
guitar pedals and we started be Everything was down to
and the process? experimenting with different a great vibe and instinct.
When Noel arrived in Belfast, sounds/melodies. He pretty INTERVIEW: JOHN ROBINSON
JANUARY 2018 UNCUT 27
 new albums
diScovered
ROBERT FINLEY
Goin Platinum!
EAsY EYE/NONEsUCH
8/10
A Southern resurrection. By Nigel Williamson
For Dan
Auerbach,
growing up in
Akron, ohio,
a touchstone
in his musical
development
was a set of rattlingly great records
on the Fat Possum label, which
captured the vintage sound of
the last of the great undiscovered
Southern bluesmen: Junior
Kimbrough, rL Burnside, T-Model
Ford and robert Belfour, all now
long gone but who were finally
afforded some recognition at the
end of their lives.
Auerbach covered songs by
both Kimbrough and Burnside on
The Black Keys debut, and then
signed to Fat Possum, recording
two albums for the imprint on
the way to Grammy-winning
superstardom. When a video of
the 64-year-old Louisiana blues
singer robert Finley performing
on a street corner reached
Auerbach last year, though, he
ALYSSE GAfKJEn
was immediately struck by the
parallels with the Fat Possum
veterans who had so inspired him
20 years earlier.
28 UNCUT JANUARY 2018
searching
g out the best a
albums new to Uncut
Convinced he had discovered
one of the greatest singers Ive
ever heard, Auerbach invited
Finley to sing on the soundtrack he
was putting together for a graphic
novel by his friend Gabe Soria. That
went so well that he then offered
to write and produce an entire solo
album, Goin Platinum!. He has
that magnetic hugeness about his
voice and just knows where to put it
in the pocket, Auerbach enthused.
Having grown up in a tiny
sawmill outpost on the Louisiana-
Arkansas frontier, Finley began
playing aged 11, when his father
gave him some money to buy new
shoes. He instead spent the dollars
on a second-hand guitar. Although
the devils music was banned your own vision?
in his gospel-only family home,
he learnt to copy the blues and
r&B records he heard in the local
juke joint. At 17 he joined the US
Army and, posted to Germany, he
became the guitarist in the army
band and spent the next three
years playing throughout Europe.
on his return home he played
solo around the Louisiana
boondocks, but unable to make
a living, he took up carpentry
and spent the next four decades
constructing timber-framed
houses, during which time music
was nothing more than a hobby.
It might have stayed that way if
he hadnt lost his eyesight, which
meant he could no longer work.
With time on his hands again, he
was discovered playing on the
sidewalk for tips by the Music
Maker relief Foundation, and
with the organisations assistance,
he recorded his 2016 debut LP, Age
Dont Mean A Thing, at 64.
For the follow-up, Auerbach has
put him in his Easy Eye Sound
studio with Duane Eddy and a
crack team of veteran sessioners
whose credits include backing
Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin and
Bobby Womack. opener Get It
Q&A
Robert Finley I was having
to break new bounds
what was the music that
influenced you and shaped
Everybody from James Brown to BB
King, Bobby Bland, The Temptations
I wasnt allowed to play it at home,
so basically what was playing on the
jukeboxes down the street.
Does it feel strange, getting
this recognition late in life?
Its overwhelming even to be
considered. You go from kicking it
on the sidewalk and singing in the
church choir and the next thing
you know, youre hanging out with
While You Can is a Stax-styled
belter co-written by Auerbach
with John Prine, on which Finleys
soulful bark slices through an
insistent guitar hook and blaring
horns; while Medicine Woman
is a thumping soul-blues that
recalls Bobby Blands Aint No
Love In The Heart of The City.
If You Forget My Love is lighter
fare, with a Motown beat and
cooing female backing vocals.
Three Jumpers is a stonking
blues workout of which Buddy Guy
might have been proud. Then, as
the yearning Honey Let Me Stay
The Night gives way to the jug-
band stomp of You Dont Have
To Do right, Auerbachs master
plan is revealed. No two tracks are
stylistically the same and yet
there is a clear sense of cohesion.
If Marvin Gaye had been a blues
singer, the results might have
sounded something like
Complications; real Love Is
Like Hard Time is a delightfully
hammy, old-fashioned swamp-
rocker co-written by Auerbach and
Nick Lowe on which Finley sounds
like the mature Tom Jones; while
Empty Arms is a classy soul
ballad. The album closes with the
reflective Holy Wine, on which
Finley unleashes an extraordinary,
beseeching falsetto, something
hed apparently never attempted
until Auerbach suggested it in
the studio.
In a year in which weve lost
Charles Bradley and Sharon Jones,
it seems fitting that robert Finley
should emerge to keep vintage
Southern soul, deep-fried r&B
roots and classic blues power
alive and kicking.
rock stars. At this age I feel Im more
sincere and take things more serious.
I feel every shot I shoot needs to be
my best shot because it could be my
last shot.
Has working with Dan changed
your sound and approach?
I was definitely having to break new
bounds, so it was a great challenge,
but I enjoyed it. It was something
that you dont know you can do until
youre put into a situation with the
opportunity to do it. All the songs
that Dan wrote had great meaning
to them, so it wasnt hard. It comes
natural when its something you
always wanted to do.
INTERVIEW: NIGEL WILLIAMSON

U2
songs Of Experience
IsLAND
6/10
Life lessons lack elevation
It may prove not to
be U2s smartest call,
releasing the much-
delayed Songs Of
Experience right after
taking The Joshua
Tree on an acclaimed 30th-birthday
tour. Though their 14th studio album
isnt worthy of direct comparison, it
contains fleeting proof of a band still
capable of making sparks fly. Billed
as a collection of reflective letters
addressed to Bonos loved ones, the
heat-haze pop of Summer of Love,
slap-bass 80s throwback red Flag
Day and How To Be A rock Star stomp
of The Showman are terrific, while
The Landlady positively oozes
loveliness. Most of the rest, alas, is a
soupy mix of reheated riffs, bolted-on
choruses and faux-profound vaguery.
GRAEME ThOMSON
VARIOUs ARTIsTs
Pop Ambient 2018 KOMPAKT
7/10
Reliably relaxing roundup makes
it to adulthood
The demure sibling
among Kompakts
generally rowdy
family, this long-
running series finally
comes of age with
its 18th collection of lush serenity. As
always, muffled beats and swaddling
swathes of synths dominate, the
latter especially evident on Kaitos
Travelled Between Souls, Yui
onoderas Prism and Max Wrden
and Thore Pfeiffers Panorama.
But though surprises are limited,
and subtle when they come, theyre
nonetheless rewarding. Pfeiffers
collaboration with Leandro Fresco,
Splinter, is full of random, secretive
rustling, while strings wax and wane
cautiously on Kenneth James Gibsons
Disinclined To Vacate. The orb also
contribute the playful Skys Falling,
and T raumschmiere the grandiose
Eterna. WYNDhAM WALLACE
VIRGINIA WING/
XAM DUO
Tomorrows Gift FIRE
8/10
UK DIY duos collude in feat of
cosmic transcendence
recorded over a
weekend in a space in
Bradfords industrial
district at the dawn
of 2017, Tomorrows
Gift should by rights
feel a fairly desolate undertaking.
But this collaborative record
between two groups South London
(now Manchester-based) DIY pop
duo Virginia Wing and Yorkshire
kosmische experimentalists XAM
Duo somehow works something
bordering on sublime from its humble
surroundings. A 21-minute opener,
Birch Polygon, sets the tone, flowing
together experimental electronics
and avant-garde jazz, with searching
blasts of sax and Alice Merida richards
reciting spoken word somewhere
within the haze. And theres a gem
in the shape of Yesterdays Guest,
a finely crafted electropop miniature
with shades of Broadcast. LOUIS PATTISON
WARHAUs
Warhaus PIAs
6/10
Croonsome Cohen-ish
confessionals from Belgium
Barely a year after
releasing his Warhaus
debut, Belgian
alt.pop crooner
Maarten Devoldere
returns with a
second collection of jazzy, louche,
revelations
VIRGINIA WING/XAM DUO
Christopher Duffin on two acts playing a bit of tugowar
omorrows Gift,
T the new collaborative
album from south
Londons Virginia Wing and
Leeds XAM Duo, is a deeply
blissed-out improvisation
channelling the astral jazz
of Pharoah Sanders and
the devotional music of
Alice Coltrane. Its also
a demonstration of just
how far great music can
transport you. I would
love to say we created a
tranquil ashram vibe, says
Christopher Duffin of XAM
Duo. But in reality, we were
in my windowless practice
space in Bradford steadily
zoning out from the
oppressive heat of two
portable heaters and one by
one getting ill, surviving on
Asda layered salads and
nicotine-voiced torch songs. once
again his debts to Leonard Cohen
and Lee Hazlewood weigh heavily,
especially when trading sardonic
lines with girlfriend and co-vocalist
Sylvie Kreusch on the post-coital
trip-hop smoocher Dangerous. In
general, Devoldere sounds like he Sunday morning. The more laidback
is playing the role of a world-weary
romantic playboy, not living it. That
said, the angst-ridden confessional
Mad World and the agreeably sloppy
Everybody show flickers of deadpan
humour behind the sharp-suited
dandy pose. Slight and derivative, but
stylish when it works. STEPhEN DALTON
CINDY WILsON
Change
KILL ROCK sTARs
7/10
Wafting mid-tempo nocturnes
from B-52s alumna and her trio
soaked neon folk. Things become
Livity
camomile-and-honey tea.
Two days of recording were
taken away and stitched
together, with a friend, Misha
Hering of Holy Mountain
Studios, doing a final
mixdown. Misha loved the
concept His work on the
record is as much a part of
the record as the four of ours.
The two bands are pretty
similar, adds Duffin, except
that Virginia Wing will take
their influences and hammer,
sculpt and shape them into
a pop-song format, whereas
XAM Duo stretch a lot of the
same influences out over
20-minute-long improvised
jams. We thought it would be
interesting to see what
would happen if we played
a bit of tugowar with those
styles LOUIS PATTISON
new albums
If The B-52s were
the quintessential
Saturday-night party
band, Cindy Wilsons
first-ever solo LP
evokes the wee small
hours between the partys end and
counterpoint to B-52s singers Fred
Schneider and Kate Pierson, Wilson,
now 60, reveals a flair for conjuring
up moods on songs that suggest the
languorous drift from winding down
(Stand Back Time) to sleeping in
(Sunrise). Her breathy alto glides
over synth-driven arrangements that
reference Gary Numans Cars on
Mystic, Daft Punks Get Lucky on
the silky No one Can Tell You and
60s girl groups on a wistful cover of
New Colony Sixs Things Id Like
To Say. BUD SCOPPA
XENOULA
Xenoula
WEIRD WORLD
6/10
Well-connected newcomers
crepuscular cyber-pop
If Xenoulas curdled
synth-pop sounds
familiar, it could be
because her debut
album was produced
by Sam Dust, aka LA
Priest and one half of Soft Hair with
Connan Mockasin, who rolls out the
velvety funk for these songs written
by his better half, romy Xeno. Pitched
as an ethereal, space-age entity in the
vein of The Man Who Fell To Earth,
Xenoula nevertheless addresses
more earthy pursuits on the excellent
Luna Man and Caramello, the
bestexamples of her absinthe-
more perverse with the corroded
exotica of Deer ron and Leyline
ogres, though her weirdness is most
becoming. PIERS MARTIN
ZOMBIE ZOMBIE
VERsATILE
8/10
Seasoned Paris pairs seductively
uptempo giallo disco
True to their name,
Zombie Zombie have
been roaming the
same patch of ancient
musical ground for
a decade, devouring
the mouldy flesh of Krautrock and
70s horror soundtracks with gusto.
Livity, Etienne Jaumet and Cosmic
Nemans third full-length following
two soundtrack commissions, is a
friskier beast than usual, its cinematic
qualities liberally pimped with sturdy
kicks and driving bass by I:Cube,
the DJ and producer who mixed the
album. For an act consumed by the
existential notion of fear, Livity is very
much Zombie Zombies party record,
the likes of Acera, Looose and
Hippocampe hitting that sweet
spot between John Carpenter, James
Chance and Vitalic. PIERS MARTIN
JANUARY 2018 UNCUT 29
 Youll come back again, and Ill still be your friend

JANUARY
NU
N 20
2018
TAke
ke 248
2
1 bob dYlAN (p34)
2 kiNg CRimsoN (p36)
3 gRANdAddY (p39)
4 THe RolliNg sToNes (p40)
5 YeAH YeAH YeAHs (p42)

reissues | comps | boxseTs | losT recordings

WilCo
Am (special edition)
being There (special edition)
RHiNo

When Jeff Tweedy first took the reins. By Alastair McKay

A
few years ago, around the
time of Sky Blue Sky, Uncut
asked Jeff Tweedy for his
thoughts on Americana.
He had a few. Ive never had
the fuckin slightest clue as
to what it means, he replied.
Ive been a reluctant participant at best, and a violent
contrarian more often, to that label. Tweedy said much
more in that vein, before suggesting that: Americana is
just a fundamentalist reactionary stance to the modern
world. Its imagining some pure, altruistic past that does
not exist. Its a desperate grasp for authenticity, that you
either have or you dont have. Ultimately, its either a good Brian Henneman (of The Bottle Rockets) pulled the sound
song or its a bad song. Or: That guy can sing, and when
he sings, it makes me feel great.
AM, wilcos first album, can be seen as an argument
about Americana.
It was recorded
Ken Weingart/Michael Ochs archives/getty iMages
Steinbeck with the splattered urgency of punk.
reissue It had started out as farrars band, but Tweedy
OF THe made a vital contribution. The fact that his
MONTH input was growing in significance may have
7/10 been a factor in the split, just as the group seemed
9/10 poised to make a commercial breakthrough.
what, then, would wilco sound like? There
was some continuity of personnel. Tweedy took
drummer Ken Coomer, bassist John Stirratt and multi-
instrumentalist (dobro, fiddle, mandolin player) Max
Johnston with him, as well as offering a guest slot to steel
guitar player Lloyd Maines, who had played on Uncle
Tupelos swansong, Anodyne. The other guest player,
in another direction, bringing a more straightforward
rocknroll energy. At the time of its release, AM was seen
as a continuation of the work done in Uncle Tupelo, and
that was how it was designed. It is a conservative
record, made in

quickly, in a rush. But it has

Memphis, almost aged well, and
before the dust its clear that the
had settled on Jay process of getting
farrars decision to it done helped to
split Uncle Tupelo set the template
after a hostile for how wilco
final tour in 1994. would function
Uncle Tupelo, of in the future.
course, were a There is, at the
cornerstone of alt. outset, a gap
country, delivering between the plan
the imagery of and the delivery.

30 UNCUT JANUARY 2018

JANUARY 2018 UNCUT 31
 ARCHIVE
Wilco, New York, 1996:
(l-r) John Stirratt, Ken
Coomer, Jeff Tweedy
and Jay Bennett
There was talk in those early days, and
some effort made, to make sure that Wilco
functioned more democratically than
Uncle Tupelo had. Thats not exactly what
happened. John Stirratt supplied three
songs for the record, but only Its Just
That Simple made the cut. Its a gorgeous
song, a pained lament in the style of The
Flying Burrito Brothers; the vulnerability
of Stirratts voice floated over Maines
steel guitar. Is it too alt.country? Too
Americana? Too Uncle Tupelo? Otherwise,
you have to wonder why another fine
Stirratt tune, Myrna Lee, wasnt selected.
The song emerged on an album by Blue
Mountain (featuring Stirratts sister Laurie)
in 1997. Its included here, and is one of the
finest things on the record. The same holds
for When You Find Trouble, said to be
the last studio recording made by Uncle
Tupelo. Its like Keith Richards singing
country: stately, and collapsing.
But AM is about something else. Its
about Tweedy finding a voice, and edging
his songwriting from the generic to the
personal. Some of the generic efforts are
successful. Pick Up The Change is a
beautiful break-up song, with a tune that
never aspires to be more than a busk.
Thats Not The Issue is a love song for
banjo that opens with the writer observing
the moon, before dissolving as Tweedy
complains of being a songwriter who has
run out of metaphors. On I Must Be High,
Tweedy starts to master the air of weary
disdain which will colour so many of his
songs. Box Full Of Letters is a lovely rush,
another break-up song, which some insist
is aimed at Farrar, largely because of the
verse about giving back some borrowed
records. But the song
is more notable for
its sense of writerly
confusion. I just cant
find the time, Tweedy
sings, to write my
mind, the way I want it
to read. And theres
nothing finer than
Dash 7, a poetic,
mysterious paean to
a jet plane landing
(Tweedy has not, after
all, exhausted his stock of metaphors).
The remaining unreleased tracks are the
stodgy Those Ill Provide; Lost Love Suns A Star is an intimate strum, on
and She Dont Have To See You (both
emerged later on Golden Smog albums);
an early pass at Outtasite Outta Mind;
the punk country of Piss It Away, and
Hesitation Rocks, a stolid attempt at a
rock anthem.
Ken Coomer tells a story about the first
time Wilco heard Trace, Jay Farrars first
album with Son Volt. Wilco were in a van
and listened in silence. At the end, the
bands manager, Tony Margherita wound
down the passenger side window and
threw the disc into the street. Trace, says
Coomer lit a fire under somebodys butt,
to be: Hey, we can do better than we did.
On Being There, Wilco did better. The
addition of Jay Bennett allowed the band
to stretch in different directions, and his
skill with overdubbing (a necessity in
his band Titanic Love Affair) brought an
experimental pop sheen to the record.
Ultimately, Bennett would threaten
Tweedys role as the
groups benign dictator,
but here he gives him
wings. There are country
moments the frisky
Forget The Flowers, the
plangent shuffle of Far Far
Away but Being There is
the sound of a band
inventing its own
creativity. The squall
of noise that opens the
album, leading into
Misunderstood, on
which the band swapped
instruments, is the sound of a group of
musicians who have finally begun to
understand their purpose.
The glories of Being There dont need
to be restated. Arguably, it is Wilcos best
record. Certainly it is a joyous, celebratory
thing, the sound of a band in full spate.
Previously it was a tight, 19-track set. Here,
it sprawls (on 4LP and 5CD versions). There
are a number of alternate takes that show
paths not taken. Dynamite My Soul is a
fine Tweedy folk song, Losing Interest
is a comic blues song (about blues songs)
delivered with Lou Reed-ish disdain, SLEEVE NOTES
theres an early run at Capitol City, and AM DELUXE
1-13. Original
which the singer employs cosmic imagery album remastered
14. When You Find
to circle around loneliness.
Trouble (Uncle
Also included is a live set from the
Tupelo)
Troubadour (previously issued as a promo 15. Those Ill
cassette) and four songs performed on Provide
KCRW from the same period. They show 16. Lost Love
that Wilcos creativity didnt stop at the (Take 1 Vocal 2)
studio door. The songs explode with verve. 17. Myrna Lee
Passenger Side is delivered in punk and 18. She Dont Have
regular versions. Kingpin meanders To See You
19. Outtasite
over nine minutes before speeding into
(Outta Mind)
a wall. New Madrid shuffles sweetly
(Early Version)
towards romantic oblivion. The KCRW (Take 6)
session includes a fine Sunken Treasure, 20. Piss It Away
that ebbs and flows over seven minutes 21. Hesitation
of weary resilience as Tweedy details the Rocks
ways in which music saved his life. Its
classic Jeff: self-aware, struggling to create BEING THERE
a new language with old words. Maimed, BOXSET
Disc 1-2: Original
tamed, named by rocknroll, though
album remastered
not necessarily in that order.
Disc 3: Alternate
versions and
outtakes
Disc 4: Live At
The Troubadour
11/16/96
Disc 5: Live At The
D
Troubadour and
KCRW 11/13/96

HOw TO BUy...

The road To AM and Being There

Jeff Tweedys roots in Uncle Tupelo
Still Feel Gone March 16-20, 1992 Anodyne SIRE, 1993
ROCKVILLE, 1991 ROCKVILLE, 1992 The addition of Ken Coomer,
MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIvES/GETTY IMAGES

The opening track of Uncle
Tupelos second album,
Still Feel Gone, is Tweedys
Gun, a ferocious, grungey
kiss-off song that announced him as a
serious writer, rivalling group leader Jay
Farrar for attention. Brian Hennemann and
The Jayhawks Gary Louris guest on a layered
album that also includes the pop thrash of
Nothing and the proto-grunge ballad If
Thats Alright .
Produced by Peter Buck, this
mix of coal-dust standards
and grimy originals has Brian
Hennemann stepping up to
play mandolin, bouzouki, banjo and slide. An
acoustic album in the era of Nevermind
proved a commercial misstep. Tweedys
contributions Wait Up, Black Eye and
Fatal Wound show him expanding his
ambitions, and theres a lovely stab at the
trad I Wish My Baby Was Gone.
John Stirratt and Max Johnston
to the Uncle Tupelo lineup
adds versatility and disturbs
the groups balance of
power, encouraging Tweedy to explore
new fields in his writing. The Long Cut
aired on Conan OBriens talk show, Acuff-
Rose pays tribute to the country songwriters,
and New Madrid with Tweedys romantic
mishaps unfurling over Johnstons playful
banjo is a highlight.

32 UNCUT JANUARY 2018


Q&A
Uncle Tupelo and
Wilco drummer
Ken Coomer
W
hat do you remember
about AM?
I remember a lot. Right at the
demise of Uncle Tupelo, Jeff came to all
of us and said, I want to keep going,
I enjoy this, this is what I do. We all
grouped together at Tony the managers
place in St Louis and started just running
songs and song ideas. Maybe less than
a month later, we went to Memphis to
record at Easley [McCain] studios the
old Bar-Kays place and it was hot as
hell. We were playing basketball outside
all the time in this ghetto basketball
court, and making music. We brought in
Brian Henneman, who we all knew from
The Bottle Rockets, a great guitarist, and
Lloyd Maines. It was like a big pop affair,
that session. I think Lloyd could sense
that we were all uptight. I remember just
looking at him, sitting there with the
pedal steel which was right back with
the drums, and he just looked up at me
and he went, Its OK, relax. He had
such a calming presence anyway man,
hes an amazing player. He settled us all
down and at that point it was all just one
big happy family. My fantasy was always
to be out on the road in a van making
music. And we toured a lot. After AM we
were gone, man. We were getting fat on
the road, marriages were breaking up,
relationships were breaking up, we were
eating at Waffle House at 2am and you
could see the pounds just going on. We
Wilco circa 2000,
with Ken Coomer,
were fat but we were having fun! And
we knew we were a good band. Once Jay
bottom left
Bennett came into the fold, there were
nights where I would say we were the
best rock band in America.
Were Wilco more democratic
than Uncle Tupelo had been?
Yes. There was a gathering there in the
studio, at Easley, like, This is a band,
were all in it, one for all. That changed.
I dont have to go into the details, but I
think someone got in Jeffs ear and said,
Yeah, but youre the one writing all
the songs. I get that. In the AM touring
period wed all wind up in somebodys
hotel room. One of the best days was
when our manager Tony called up or
came out on one of the dates and said,
From here on, boys, youre getting your
own rooms. That was just like wahoo!
But still, because of the whole family
thing, and because it was all against
one, we would all hole up in one room
after wed played, and be getting high.
I didnt really drink, and neither did Jeff,
but wed smoke a lot of weed and wed eat
enough to be dangerous, but on that
Jay [Bennett] brought
more than a lot to that
band. He brought soul
on top of soul. You
cant fake that thing
ARCHIVE
a lot of shitty food and wed watch bad
movies and wed laugh. It was this family
brotherhood thing.
What changed with Being There?
Wilco became a band. Were out, 200
dates, and then when you go on to Being
There, youre a different band. At that
point I thought we could do anything.
I remember Jay Bennett, were in the
studio, and hes this great guitarist and
he starts dinkling on a keyboard and Im
like, You fucking play keyboard too?!
I wanted to break his legs! It was enough
when I met him and he had that baritone
voice. But I love and miss Jay dearly. He
was a sweet, tortured and then you
gotta follow that up with sweet human
being. He brought more than a lot to that
band. He brought soul on top of soul. You
cant fake that thing.
The sound stretches out on
that record.
Yes, it does. We were all listening to Exile
On Main Street. The typical things. This
was before you could get The Beach
Boys Smile at the local record shop. We
were looking for the freaky stuff. We
were listening to Skip Spences Oar, a
disturbing masterpiece. Jeff was reading
everything that he could read. It just
became a deeper band, and when you
become a deeper band you can take
chances, and we did. Making Being
There, wed just move into any studio
and just go. Jay was such a force. Hed
never sleep. Id be passing out at 3am
and hed still be overdubbing something.
If you wanted to be part of the late-night
stuff you had to figure out how to stay up.
Id always pass out.
Is it true you all played the
wrong instruments on
Misunderstood?
Yes Jay always wanted Jeff on the
drums, which was fun. Hes like a bad
drummer in the best way possible.
Some of my favourite drummers are
bad drummers. I can picture him back
there now, looking like a 12-year-old with
the sticks and the cigarettes hanging
out of his mouth, banging away. And
I would just jump on guitar and do
my Sonic Youth impersonation. That
became Misunderstood. I remember
Jay got interviewed for some guitar
magazine: Howd do you get that sound
on Misunderstood? He was like, You
gotta ask our drummer. I can play
one I was just trying to make it wrong,
and it came out right. Thats a band
experimenting. John was on keys. Jeff
was just screaming and singing.
MICK HUTSON/REDFERNS
And Being There starts out with
that chaotic noise!
Im pretty sure that was on purpose Jeff
saying, OK, you think you know who we
are? How about this?
INTERVIEW: ALASTAIR McKAY
JANUARY 2018 UNCUT 33
 ARCHIVE

claims to have been visited by Jesus Christ.
BoB DYlAN Soon Dylan converted to a particularly
evangelical strain of Christianity, even
Trouble No More: engaging in an intense three-month course
at the Association Of Vineyard Churches.
The Bootleg Series Over the next three years he transformed
his concerts into tent revivals and churned
Vol 13 (1979-1981)
ColUMBiA legACY
out three gospel-rock records. He cast
himself as a fire-and-brimstone preacher
cheering the glory of God and warning
7/10 of His almighty wrath. Its not just one of
Gonna change my way of thinking: the weirder chapters of his career, but
Dylans gospel years. By Stephen Deusner
In fact, Dylans fascination with Sinatra
has dwarfed his Christian output in both
duration and output. With each year and
each new album it becomes more and
more difficult to reconstruct this moment,
when fans and critics alike wondered if
Dylan was actually serious and how long it
would last. That makes Dylans Christian
period more fitting not less for an entry
in his remarkable Bootleg series. If theres
any phase that need a hearty defence and
demands explication, its the late 1970s.

O
one of the most unexpected plot twists in One of the most exhaustive instalments
rock history. in the series 100 previously unreleased
nly God knows whos Forty years later live and studio cuts gathered on nine
responsible for Bob its been written CDs, plus a DVD of a feature-length film
Dylans conversion to so deeply into the Trouble No More does a fine job with
Christianity. He had narrative of his the task, arguing with varying degrees
already been touring career that it seems of persuasiveness that the era wasnt
most of the year when like a momentary entirely a washout. It was, though, a low
he rolled into San distraction in point for his songwriting. Gone are the
Diego in november 1978, physically and retrospect, a tangles of metaphor and allusion, the
creatively weary from the road. Toward waystation on a haunted American backdrop, the thickly
the end of the show, an unidentified longer spiritual veiled social and political commentary,
fan lobbed a small silver cross onstage. quest, a new guise and the ambiguity that compelled his
Dylan picked up and kept it, even wearing adopted by a listeners to engage actively with his
it around his neck at later shows. In mercurial artist. songs. Suddenly, Dylan was writing with
December, he debuted two new songs And its such a emphatic, disconcerting certainty. Slow
with overtly Christian lyrics and short era as well. Train Coming, released in 1978, remains his

34 UNCUT JANUARY 2018


Saving Dylans vocal, as he conveys not only the
songs in his hardship, but the joy in belief. His
lost period,
circa 1979 backup singers are a near-constant
Fred Tackett, presence on these songs, almost
left
as prominent as the man himself
and for good reason: Dylan dated
two of them and married the third a
few years later.
What truly saves these songs,
however, is Dylans band, which
includes guitarist Fred Tackett,
keyboard player Spooner Oldham,
drummer Jim Keltner and,
occasionally, Mark Knopfler. They
turn these songs into elastic rock
jams, turning Slow Train Coming
inside out and injecting some
fervour and fury into Dead Man
Dead Man. Dylan cut almost all
of his old material from his set, but
he still cautioned his generation
about letting the counterculture
curdle into complacency, especially
on a fiery When you Gonna Wake
Up. On the rare occasion when he
did revisit older songs, they sound
wholly different in this new context.
Its especially bracing to hear this
band rip through a triumphal
version of Blowin In The Wind tracks source jazz, African and latin rhythms,
that might have more to say
about God than any of his overtly
Christian songs.
SLEEVE NOTES Dylans Christian phase seemed
Disc 1 & 2: Live to end as abruptly as it began. His
Disc 3 & 4: Rare attention turned to the Kabbalah,
and unreleased
and 1983s Infidels addressed that
Disc 5 & 6:
subject, albeit more obliquely. Its
Live in Toronto,
1980 tempting to dismiss this chapter in
Disc 7 & 8: Live Dylans career as something akin
in Earls Court , to a temporary illness, although
London, 1981 it might be more accurate to
Disc 9: DVD think of it as a temporary fix to a
most compelling testament from the era, Trouble No More
with Gotta Serve Somebody generally different illness. Trouble No More
a musical film
considered a greatest hit. But apart from presents a very humane portrait
Every Grain of Sand, 1979s Saved and of a man on a serious spiritual
1980s Shot Of Love remain the province of quest, which makes
it as biographically
only the most committed fan.
Trouble No More is not apologetic about fascinating as it is
or embarrassed by Dylans conversion. musically frustrating.
Rather, these
outtakes and live
cuts show just how
thoroughly he had
committed himself
to his newfound
faith, and just how
fundamental a
change it exerted on
his craft. If his studio
albums suffered, the
songs found new
life and purpose
onstage, and Dylan
sounds like lazarus
on Solid Rock
and Aint Gonna
Go To Hell From
Anybody. The live version of
I Believe In you from 1980
features a surprisingly soulful
ARCHIVE
AtoZ
A CeRTAiN RATio
To each (reissue, 1981)
MUTe
8/10
Cult punk funkateers launch raft of reissues
Even taking Tony Wilsons
quixotic mindset into
account, the fact that Factory
once imagined A Certain Ratio
might match Joy Divisions
success seems optimistic,
to put it mildly. not because of an inability to
deliver the goods, but because those goods
were so determinedly idiosyncratic. Their early
sound was characterised by brittle tension,
neurotic cool and a general air of unsettlement,
wrought in empty spaces. To Each is ACRs
first studio lP proper, recorded in new Jersey
and produced by Martin Hannett, who,
according to guitarist Martin Moscrop, took
a lot of the funkiness out. youd never guess
it, from the likes of (the unexpectedly light)
My Spirit, loss, which throws back to
Bowies Fame, and the tribal Back To The
Start. Heavily percussive and brass-savvy, the
and new york disco, and feature disorienting
cut-ins, echoes and overlaps. Many suggest a
whacked-out Bootsy Collins teaming up with
The Pop Group, but closer Winter Hill is a
monument to the slow-build, clattering groove
and an incantatory wild card. There are also
simultaneous reissues of The Graveyard And
The Ballroom (1979) and the slicker Force (1986).
extras: none. SHARON OCONNELL
PeTeR BRoDeRiCK
All Together Again
eRASeD TAPeS
8/10
Doing it for the quids: commissioned, often
instrumental work
you never know which
Peter Broderick youre going
to get. The prolific multi-
instrumentalists as likely
to sing about his dead cat
(Freyr!, from 2012s These
Walls Of Mine) as his dead friend (Asleep,
from the same years http://www.itstartshear.
com), and as inclined to record an EP of banjo
songs as compose for contemporary dance
performances. This, perhaps, is why his piece,
included here, for a new york Fashion Week
runway show was shelved: 12 languid minutes,
beginning with piano and violin, then only
slowly adding voice, guitar and programmed
rhythms to its dreamy arrangement, probably
werent what the catwalk demanded. If
I Were A Runway Model illustrates the
dominant mood here, with two pieces even
longer: the 17-minute, initially tranquil A Ride
On The Bosphorus becomes increasingly
urgent before returning to calmer waters,
while Unsung Heroes 16 minutes, which
accompanied an art installation, showcase his
violin against shifting backgrounds. Theres
more solo violin on the folksy The Walk, while
his multiple harmonies take centre-stage on the
acoustic Emily. Fans get their moneys worth
with this particular Broderick.
extras: none. WYNDHAM WALLACE
JANUARY 2018 UNCUT 35
 ARCHIV
ARCHIVE
V
KiNg CRimsoN
sailors Tales
PANegYRiC
7/10
The 27-disc, 1970-72 motherlode. By David Cavanagh
WHILE other
pioneers of
progressive rock play
cruise ships, split
into rival factions or
think about retiring,
King Crimson seem
shockingly active these days. Currently
touring North America for the second
time this year, theyve released two recent
live albums (Live In Chicago and the
Japan-only Live In Vienna) as well as an
EP (Heroes Live In Europe) and the
latest instalment in their ongoing tour
box series, The Elements Of King Crimson.
Onstage in cities like Raleigh and Newark,
their eight-piece lineup goes deep into the
back catalogue.
They play, oddly enough, a lot of the
music on Sailors Tales, a lavish-looking
27-disc boxset (21CD/2DVD/4Blu-ray) that
focuses on the years 197072. This was a
troubled period when Crimson lost crucial
personnel, leaving Robert Fripp and
lyricist Pete Sinfield with the name, the
determination and the vision just about
to create three albums with ad hoc
lineups and guest musicians. In The Wake
Of Poseidon, Lizard and Islands rubbed
shoulders with jazz, chamber-rock and
the avant-garde (and appear here in their
200910 Steven Wilson remix versions),
but were soon forgotten when Fripp, in
autumn 72, put together the ferocious,
dGM ARCHIve
free-improvising Wetton-Bruford-Muir-
Cross lineup that made Larks Tongues
In Aspic.
36 UNCUT JANUARY 2018
Although the Poseidon, Lizard and
Islands discs all contain bonus tracks
and outtakes, the boxsets primary
focus is on live material. Over a dozen
concerts from 197172 are included, four
of which are previously unreleased. The
remainder have been available over
the years through the King Crimson
Collectors Club or as downloads via
Fripps website. For the majority of Sailors
Tales, then, were in the ribald, raucous
company of singer-bassist Raymond (Boz)
Burrell, drummer Ian Wallace and sax/
flautist Mel Collins. The stage is set for
powerhouse drumming, uncertain jazz,
thick peasoupers of gothic Mellotron
and gales of nervous laughter. Wed
now like to render In The Court Of The
Crimson King, Burrell tells an audience
in Frankfurt. Render it unconscious with
a severely good kicking, he means.
Like a ballet in hobnail boots, this lineup
of Crimson certainly belched some crude
masculinity into Fripps cultivated, effete,
elaborately English music. Wallace is a
heavy-hitting brute. Burrell, a future co-
founder of Bad Company, applies his gruff
voice to Sinfields flowery poetry imagine
Hawkwind-era Lemmy singing Samuel
Taylor Coleridge while Fripp, playing his
guitar like a demon, doubles on Mellotron
to give the illusion of a fifth member. They
may not be adept at the musics filigree
embroidery, but they know how to make
a right old racket. The seesawing sturm
und drang of Cirkus (from Lizard) is
a nightly highlight, as is Sailors Tale
(Islands), a storm-tossed instrumental
that Collins, clearly a Pharoah Sanders
fan, approaches with all the glee of a free-
jazz open goal. Groon, an old B-side,
becomes a blistering skronk-sax blowout
incorporating a 12-minute drum solo.
Improv, a 27-minute piece that they
play at the Marquee in August 71, sees
Fripp drop a few tantalising hints towards
Larks Tongues In Aspic, Part One,
but is mostly utter pandemonium, if you
SLEEVE NOTES like that sort of thing. As for The Devils
Triangle, an ominous bolero march
Cd1: In The Wake
Of Poseidon
from Poseidon, those random whooshes
expanded and bleeps come from Sinfields VCS3
Cd2: Lizard synthesiser, which he operates from the
expanded mixing desk, and sound like hes aiming
Cd3: Islands gunfire over the audiences heads while
expanded trying to tune a shortwave radio. At the
Cd4: Zoom Club opposite end of the prog-rock spectrum,
April remastered however, Collins puts down his tenor sax,
(RM) 12/4/71
picks up his flute and becomes a man
Cd5: Zoom Club
RM 13/4/71
transformed. His playing on Cadence
Cd6: Zoom Club And Cascade every night is like a fawn
RM 14/4/71 admiring its reflection in a brook.
Cd7: Zoom Club The sound of the 71 gigs is gritty and
RM 15/4/71 realistic, and often mixed in stereo.
Cd8: Marquee But theres a noticeable drop in quality
Club, 10/08/71 when the 72 gigs start (on disc 10) in
Cd9: Marquee
Club, 10/08/71
Wilmington, Delaware. These are
cassette recordings, very rough and
Cd10: wilmington
11/2/72 RM
bootleggy. Its the kind of distorted sound
Cd11: New york that made Crimsons American record
label baulk at releasing Earthbound
12/2/72
1st Show (disc 18), a 72 live album that angered
Cd12: New york and disappointed fans in the UK, even
12/2/72 at a budget price. Its possible to get
2nd Show used to the sonic sludge, of course, and
Cd13: detroit appreciate the gigs for their historical
17/2/72 RM
value; but several tracks on discs 1016
Cd14: Pittsburgh
6/3/72 RM
and 2627 cut out unexpectedly, or begin
Cd15: Milwaukee in mid-performance, depending on
8/3/72 RM whether the bands soundman has
Cd16: Peoria remembered to put a tape in the machine.
10/3/72 By the time of that February March US
Cd17: Summit tour, Crimson had grown in confidence,
Studios 12/3/72 introducing a lewd groove or two into
remixed their repertoire (Ladies Of The Road)
Cd18: Earthbound
and even inserting a boogie shuffle in
extended &
re-mastered
the middle of Cirkus. By April, though,
Cd19: Jams & they were defunct, merely three more
Rehearsals names added by Fripp to the growing
Cd20: Unknown ranks of the Crimson departed. Burrell
show No 1 (1972) became a stadium rocker with Bad Co.
Cd21: Unknown Wallace was hired by Bob Dylan to play
show No 2 (1972) drums on Street-Legal. Collins, after four
Blu-ray 1: king decades as one of rocks most in-demand
Crimson 1970
session men, rejoined Crimson in 2013
Blu-ray 2: king
Crimson 1970/1
and has been reacquainting his tenor
Blu-ray 3: king sax with Cirkus, Sailors Tale and
Crimson 1971 more. For those listeners who intend to
Blu-ray 4: king go the full distance with Sailors Tales,
Crimson 1972 Collins along with Fripp himself will
(contains over surely emerge as the boxsets heroic
120 tracks) figure. The 7172 band is not over-fondly
dVd1: earthbound remembered by aficionados, perhaps,
extended
but it enabled King Crimson to get from
dVd2: earthbound
Reinvented
B to C, and from D to E, and from there to
Plus: bonus wherever they are now.
downloadable extras: 9/10. 12 box, 40-page booklet
concert with liner notes from Sid Smith
and Jakko Jakszyk, audio notes by
David Singleton

From KaintucK to mahwah
Johnny Cash
sings The
Ballads of The
True West
CoLUmBiA, 1965
Cash hatched this
ambitious plan for this concept LP
back while still on Sun. Sam Phillips
rejected it, as did Columbia at
least until hed established himself
as a bankable star. Cash mixes
spoken-word with new and old
story-songs about displaced
Native Americans and murdered
presidents, including a rollicking
version of Mr Garfield. 8/10
JohNNY CAsh
Unearthed (reissue, 2003)
AmeRiCAN ReCoRdiNgs
9/10
A posthumous Cash boxset gets
a vinyl release
Originally released
just two months
after his death
in late 2003, the
massive boxset
Unearthed was
intended to play as a complement
to Johnny Cashs celebrated
American Recordings albums and
as a commemoration of his 10 years
working with producer Rick Rubin.
Featuring outtakes, live tracks,
hymns and a handful of album cuts
comprising a greatest hits of the
series (not to mention extremely
poignant liner notes by Sylvie
Simmons), it has gradually become
a testament to the intense creativity
and productivity that defined the
Man In Blacks final years. While its
no surprise that Cash is a sensitive
interpreter and an impeccable song
collector, its still a thrill to hear him
navigate so gracefully through Merle
Travis Dark As a Dungeon, so
humorously through Chuck Berrys
Down There By The Train, so
vehemently through Steve Earles
anti-gun story-song Devils Right
Hand. He has a blast with Tom Petty
on the Merle Haggard classic The
Running Kind and harmonises
tenderly with Fiona Apple on Cat
How to buy...
Lesser known Johnny Cash
John R Cash
CoLUmBiA, 1975
Cash disowned
his 51st album,
claiming Columbia
coerced him to
record vocals separately from the
instrumental tracks a common
Nashville practice, but one he
avoided. Forty years later, the suits
have been exonerated: John R
Cash is arguably his best album of
the 1970s, showing him in fine form
as both a singer and storyteller,
especially on Lonesome To The
Bone. 8/10
Stevens Father And Son. The set
sounds even more impressive in this
new vinyl edition, which is packaged
in a box as big as a monument to a
man who was bigger than life.
extras: None. STEPHEN DEUSNER
The dooRs
strange days
(50th Anniversary deluxe edition)
RhiNo
9/10
Classic second album gets 50th-
anniversary deluxe treatment
Strange days but
prolific ones. The
Doors first two
albums were released
within eight months
of each other in
1967, making this the second 50th-
anniversary reissue from the band in
2017. Like the reissue of their debut, the
new edition of Strange Days includes
no bonus tracks or extras, although
it is a two-disc set, featuring both the
original stereo and mono mixes the
latter available on CD for the first
time. No problematic second-album
syndrome here: the songs had broadly
been written contemporaneously with
those on the first album, and although
Light My Fire and The End had into a drug-addled world of self-
already been cherrypicked, there
was still a rich stockpile, including
the hit single Love Me Two Times
and Morrisons 11-minute epic When
The Musics Over. Indeed, the
experimentation permitted by a bigger
The doors
reflect in 1967
Johnny 99
CoLUmBiA, 1983
Cash was spent
in the early 80s,
but his 69th LP
is a last triumph
before a decade in the wilderness.
Anchoring this strong set are two
Boss covers, both from Nebraska:
he transforms the title track into a
two-stepping cautionary tale, but
the standout is his beautifully
solemn State Trooper, which
predicts the less-is-much-more
aesthetic of his American
Recordings LPs. 8/10 STEPHEN DEUSNER
budget may mean that, sonically,
Strange Days is even a superior record
to its predecessor, an argument
supported by the eerie genius of the
title track and the brilliant psych
arrangements on My Eyes Have Seen
You and Moonlight Drive, two songs
which had been around in primitive
demo form since 1965.
extras: 6/10. Archive photos and
new liner notes. NIGEL WILLIAMSON
The eAgLes
hotel California (40th
Anniversary expanded edition)
WARNeRs
9/10
40th-anniversary deluxe edition
expanded excessively (natch)
Underneath the
super-smooth
harmonies and
perfectly polished
production of this
Grammy-winning,
32 million-selling behemoth lies a
dark masterpiece that serves as a
requiem for the American dream. On
Hotel California, the Eagles chronicled
a voyage from innocence to decadence
in which the freewheeling utopianism
of the Woodstock generation curdled
every instrument (former American
indulgence, ego and excess. Rolling
Stone dubbed the band the last
tycoons in a lost lotus land and along
with Fleetwood Macs Rumours, the
albums juxtaposition of burnished
Cali soft-rock set against a seething
underbelly of debauchery and
disillusionment defined an era, as
Don Henleys songwriting reached an
apocalyptic peak on Life In The Fast
Lane, The Last Resort and the title
track. The 40th-anniversary edition
which arrives somewhat late as the
album was originally released in late
1976 comes with remastered sound
plus hi-res stereo and 5.1 mixes.
extras: 7/10. A bonus disc featuring
10 live tracks recorded during a three-
night stand at the LA Forum in October
1976 and on which the first concert
performances of Hotel California
ARCHIVE
Cash only:
circa 69
and New Kid In Town sit alongside
earlier Eagles classics including
Already Gone, Take It To the
Limit and One Of These Nights,
played with the bands trademark
meticulous perfectionism.
NIGEL WILLIAMSON
PiNK FLoYd
A Collection of great dance
songs/delicate sound of
Thunder (reissues, 1981, 1988)
PiNK FLoYd ReCoRds
7/10 / 6/10
Curios available again on vinyl
It could be argued
that Dance
Songs was Floyds
ironic response to
their elevation to
mainstream pop
star status, following the massive
worldwide success of the Another
Brick In The Wall single. Certainly,
EMI in the UK, and especially
Columbia in the US, would have
been chomping at the bit for an
easily marketable greatest hits, but
the most ground the band would
concede was this package of five
alternate mixes, plus a new version of
MARk ANd CoLLeeN HAywARd/GeTTy IMAGeS, MICHAeL oCHS ARCHIveS/GeTTy IMAGeS
Money with Dave Gilmour playing
paymasters Capitol blocking the
use of anything in any form from
the cash cow, The Dark Side Of The
Moon). Sequenced chronologically,
it hangs together surprisingly well,
although longstanding Floyd heads
may baulk at Shine On You Crazy
Diamond being pared down and
reassembled to a paltry 10 minutes.
Roger Waters now out of the picture,
Delicate Sound Of Thunder was
recorded over a five-night stint at the
Nassau Coliseum on Long Island, with
Gilmour at the lead vocal mic for every
song. Consequently, material from the
previous years A Momentary Lapse Of
Reason dominates, while Gilmour tries
perhaps a little too hard to add a fresh
lick of paint to the older chestnuts once
sung by his erstwhile bandmate.
extras: None. TERRY STAUNTON
JANUARY 2018 UNCUT 37
 ARCHIVE
rediscovered
Uncovering the underrated and overlooked
VARIOUS ARTISTS
Habibi Funk: An Eclectic Selection Of
Music From The Arab World
HABIBI FUNK
7/10
Cult curios and lost treasures from the Arabic pop vaults
EGYPTS current contender for
the Foreign Language Oscar
shortlist, Amr Salamas Sheikh
Jackson, tells a charmingly
off-the-wall story about
the deep impression that
Michael Jackson left on the Arab world. There
is something of this feverish cross-cultural
love affair in the first compilation album from
the Berlin-based Habibi Funk label, which
specialises in archive gems and genre-blurring
oddities from across the Middle East, most
dating back to the 1970s and 1980s.
Habibi Funk was founded by Berlin-based
DJ and globe-trotting crate-digger Jannis
Stuertz in 2015. Stuertz has a pretty admirable
working model, digging up obscure tunes
with an agreeable lack of purist reverence but
with maximum respect for the artist, offering
musicians or their surviving family members a
50/50 profit share deal.
The Jackson influence is most discernible in
the clipped disco-funk and bejewelled sheen of
Sah by Al Massrieen, an Egyptian supergroup
led by producer Hany Shenoda. But there are
other slick yacht-rock touches too, notably in the
agreeably weedy English-language synthfunk
jam Games by Samir, and Abboud, a Lebanese
studio project featuring Ziad Rahbani, son of
Arabic music legend Fairuz.
But smoothness is not the default setting
here. Habibi Funk also features a cluster
of ragged rock tracks including the late
Moroccan singer Fadouls rowdy take on
12-bar garage blues, Bsslama Hbibti, and
the combustible R&B jabbering of Wang
Dang by Bob Destiny, an African-American
who relocated to the Middle East. These raw
slabs of pastiche jukebox Americana vary in
quality, although Belbaos fantastic Arabic
reworking of Bob & Earls much-covered
Harlem Shuffle, here retitled Casablanca
Shuffle, makes a rough and gloriously
discordant racket.
38 UNCUT JANUARY 2018
Egyptian
supergroup
Al Massrieen
The most interesting tracks here sound not like
some bilateral compromise between western pop
and Arabic elements, but more like kaleidoscopic
mash-ups that borrow from multiple genres,
cultures and time periods. Tracks like Soul
Brother by the splendidly named Dalton, a
Tunisian five-piece active in the late 1960s and
early 1970s, whose English-language lyrics and
spacey soul-rock rhythms invoke Midnight Love-
era Marvin Gaye with a hint of reggae and a dash
of Laurel Canyon soft-rock. Or like Al Asafir
by Kamal Keila, a kind of Sudanese hybrid of
Fela Kuti and James Brown, topped with frenetic
guitar solos worthy of vintage Eddie Van Halen.
The albums stand-out track, however, is the
cryptically titled Unknown by Moroccan
mystery group Attarazat Addahabia, which
couches its male lead vocal in exhilarating
female whoops, funky percussive clatter and
a honking traffic-jam groove with a heady
sub-Saharan feel. And all propelled by a central
melody lifted from Beethovens Fr Elise, a together their various interests in philosophy,
rudimentary piano exercise here repurposed as
a sinuous, sinewy, guitar serenade. Something
gets lost in translation in these inter-cultural
patchworks, sure, but more often than not
something weird and wonderful is born.
STEPhEN DALTON
Tunisian soul
brothers
Dalton in the
early 70s
THE FALL
The Singles 1978-2016
CHERRY RED
9/10
Three or gulp, seven CDs span the life of
Mark E Smiths post-punk hobgoblins
Many collections of The Fall
exist, and most conform to
a type: irregular, semi-
official grab-bags of singles,
live tracks, offcuts and
other ephemera seemingly
designed to spook the casual
listener out of wanting
to get involved at all. The
Singles goes a long way to
solving that problem, being an extensive
remastered collection that cuts a clear line
through the groups tangled catalogue,
pulling together the A-sides (plus, on a deluxe
7CD iteration, a mass of the B-sides) into one
solidly designed box. The first three CDs offer
a whistle-stop tour through The Falls many
modes: famished post-punk (How I Wrote
Elastic Man, Kicker Conspiracy), outsider
pop for football terraces (Free Range, The
Chiselers), and then into the gravel-voiced
psychedelic meltdowns that have sustained
the group in recent years (Susan Vs
Youthclub, a demented cover of The Moves
I Can Hear The Grass Grow). Honestly, if
youre going to take the splash, its probably
worth shelling out for the four CDs of B-sides
too. Despite a few notable omissions no Big
New Prinz? it feels like the most coherent
overview of the bands 40-odd years to date.
Extras: 6/10. Book collecting full singles
discography with original art.
LOUIS PATTISON
HENRY FLYNT
You Are My Everlovin
SUPERIOR VIADUCT
9/10
Avant-Appalachia and country-drone,
recorded in 1981
There were plenty of
fascinating figures in
the 1960s New York
underground, but
Henry Flynt, the scenes
consummate polymath,
was one of the most fascinating of them all.
A Harvard dropout, he was one of a group of
artists (alongside Yoko Ono, John Cale and
others) who managed, somehow, to knit
arcane religion, contemporary music and
experimental art. In the process, they quietly,
yet determinedly, changed what could be
done at the intersection of those practices. For
Flynt, this meant a philosophy of cognitive
nihilism, the invention of the term concept
art, and a small but astounding suite of music
that marries minimalism, drone and hillbilly
country into one long, ever-unspooling
thread. You Are My Everlovin is one of his
most powerful pieces. Its unrelenting,
with a ringing tambura the pre-recorded
bedrock for Flynts amplified violin flights:
scruffy and distorted, he spins out primitivist
country licks, finding the sweet spot between
Appalachia and the avant-garde, the raga
and the reel. For someone so enamoured of
what he called the image of the untrained
folk creature as avant gardiste, something
he copped from Ornette Coleman, his music is
brutally sturdy and sure-footed.
Extras: None. JON DALE

FUJIYA & MIYAgI
Transparent Things
(reissue, 2007)
IMPOSSIBLE OBJECTS OF DESIRE
8/10
Vinyl release of the Brighton
outfits 2007 breakthrough
compilation
We were just
pretending to be
Japanese, hisses
singer David Best
on one particularly
infuriatingly catchy
chorus, as if divulging a state secret.
At the release of this 2007 collection
of early singles, B-sides and new
tracks, Fujiya & Miyagi were just
three guys from Brighton backed by
a drumbox, but the fake Japanese
persona seemed to fit them as snugly
as a Superdry T-shirt. The lyrics
sound like they were generated by
Google Translate by someone who
speaks English as a third language,
whispered with all the emphases
on the wrong syllables rather
like Cans Damo Suzuki. Indeed,
Can are an obvious influence,
as are Kraftwerk (check out the
instrumentals Conductor 71 and
Cassettesingle) and Talking Heads
(the clanging guitars and upside-
down drums on Photocopier, in
particular), while tracks like Sucker
Punch and In One Ear & Out The
Other showed that they could
school any number of post-punk
revivalists in mutant disco. The lyrics
can be amusing (Ankle Injuries
sounds like a voyage through dimly
remembered adolescence, like
pixelated scraps of jazz mags in
your head) but frustratingly opaque,
which is probably why F&M are
still playing small clubs rather than
the arenas they perhaps deserve
to be headlining.
Extras: None.
JOhN LEwIS
grandaddy
transmission
improbable
gRANDADDY
Under The Western Freeway
(20th Anniversary Edition)
FRIENDSHIP FEVER
9/10
wonderfully bittersweet beginnings
for the undervalued Modesto,
California slackers
With Britpop in
decline and so-called
independent rock
assimilated into
the mainstream,
Grandaddys 1997
debut was enthusiastically embraced
by a still vibrant fanzine scene for
sounding exactly like what few
new bands dared to: one emerging
from the underground. Grandaddy
were The Flaming Lips without the
pomp, Pavement without the wilful
weirdness, Guided By Voices without
the self-sabotaging brevity, and Pixies
without the angular aggression. That
they appeared to have recorded out of
financial necessity in a cupboard a
style Dave Fridmann had admittedly
employed for several years with
Mercury Rev and the Lips was as
appealing as their songs ability
to overcome this handicap with
ambitious grandeur. Jason Lytles
tremulous vocal was a perfect
match for grubby guitars and cheap
keyboards, lending a heartrending
vulnerability to the strangely cathartic
Laughing Stock and AM 180,
with its unforgettable Casiotone
hook, while Collective Dreamwish
Of Upperclass Elegance moved in
elegant slow motion, closing with
subdued stabs of Motown guitars.
Even the joy of Summer Here Kids,
which borrowed Nirvanas by-now
overfamiliar dynamics, was undercut
by a tangible melancholy.
Extras: 7/10. Coloured vinyl, with
second disc offering eight unreleased
demos, plus liner notes by Super Furry
Animals Gruff Rhys. wYNDhAM wALLACE
GrANdAddY
The beginning, the middle, and the new beginning
The Broken
Down
Comforter
Collection
BIg CAT, 1999
Compiling 1996s
A Pretty Mess By This One Band
EP (which in turn included tracks
from 1994s Complex Party Come
Along Theories cassette) and
1998s Machines Are Not She EP,
this showcased how Grandaddy
arrived almost fully formed. Kim
You Bore Me To Death leant on
Pixies, and Wretched Songs
on Sonic Youth, but Taster and
For The Dishwashers aching
melancholy was exemplary.
7/10
Voice of
an Angel:
Olsen puts
out her
rarities
ANgEL OLSEN
Phases
JAgJAgUWAR
7/10
Raw rarities and demos from the
Missourian songwriter
On her last album,
2016s celebrated is more. The home demo of Sans is
My Woman, Angel
Olsen was at pains
to transcend her
reputation for
lo-fi introspection and put aside her
own fears of being viewed as a sad
cartoon country singer. In hindsight,
the record didnt smash Olsens
songwriting template so much as clean
it up. Lately, Olsen has been talking
about making a stripped-down record
in the vein of Springsteens Nebraska.
Perhaps this rarities collection can
How to buy...
The Sophtware
Slump
V2, 2000
This loosely
conceptual album
surpassed the
expectations after which it was
knowingly named, with bold
opener Hes Simple, Hes Dumb, bittersweet songs, recorded
Hes The Pilot an epic but precious
eight minutes, and The Crystal never split, even if their keyboards
Lake, with its undulating
keyboards, cracking Britains
Top 40. It was, however, no
sell-out, its disenchanted mood
encapsulated by Jed The
Humanoid, a requiem for a topped them all.
neglected, defective robot.
9/10
ARCHIVE
A
be viewed as a bridge from here to
there, as well as a demonstration of
artistic continuity. The album collects
rarities and demos from 2012-16. There
are outtakes from My Woman, with
the full band: Fly On Your Wall is
a tense spiral of anxiety, Special is
like a heartbroken prayer. Less, often,
powerfully raw. All Right Now (from
2013) is an almost inaudible strum
brought to life by a gorgeous vocal. The
2015 demo of How Many Disasters is
among the loveliest things Olsen has
recorded, and she really lets herself
sing on California(released as a
7-inch in 2013). Well-chosen covers
of Roky Ericksons For You and
Springsteens Tougher Than The Rest
show how powerful Olsen can be when
wedded to a strong melody.
ALASTAIR McKAY
Last Place
30TH CENTURY RECORDS,
2017
Provoked by his
divorce and the
bands brief 2012
reunion, Lytle resurrected the
brand for another dozen
alone, that sounded like theyd
had been upgraded. Way We
Wont and Evermore satisfied
aging indie kids, The Boat Is In The
Barn added a little Lennon, but the
world-weary A Lost Machine
8/10
K COUTTS
wYNDhAM wALLACE
JANUARY 2018 UNCUT 39
 ARCHIVE

THE ROLLING
STONES
On Air
POLYDOR

8/10
The Stones early-60s BBC
radio sessions reveal a band
in motion, says Michael Bonner

By their own admission, the

success of last years album
Blue & Lonesome caught The
Rolling Stones by surprise.
A collection of blues covers,
recorded on the hoof in just
three days, it reached No 1 in
15 countries and gave the reinvigorated Stones the
second-highest opening week sales for any album
in the UK during 2016. Im looking forward to
Volume Two already, remarked Keith Richards
with understandable enthusiasm.
The Rolling Stones On Air is essentially that
sequel. If Blue & Lonesome was the sound of
the Stones, as they are now, paying tribute to
the music they played as young men, On Air
transports us back to those early days. The
first legitimate release for material the Stones
recorded for BBC radio between 1963 and 1965,
it captures the band between their rise to fame
and the full flowering of the Jagger and Richards
songwriting partnership.
Unlike TV, where bands mimed to backing
tracks, radio required a full live recording. All the
same, the sessions for programmes like Saturday
Club, The Joe Loss Pop Show and Top Gear werent
intended to be broadcast more than once or twice.
Their historical significance, though, shouldnt
be understated. Recorded fast often on their way
to or from other engagements the Stones BBC
sessions offer compelling evidence of a young
band making a dramatic entrance onto the early-
60s rock scene.
The first track here is a version of their debut
single Come On, recorded for Saturday Club on
September 26, 1963 six days before the Stones
began their first national tour of Britain. As with
much of what follows, it is a straightforward,
unvarnished performance; but clocking in at
two minutes, its a full 25 seconds longer than the
single version. Whats new? A thrilling, nine-note
guitar riff solos in at the 50-second mark before
getting into a lively tussle with Jaggers harp.
And its not the only difference. The BBCs Maida
Vale studios give the song a warm, spacious
sound absent from the rather perfunctory 7-inch
they cut on May 10 that year at Olympic Studios.
Pictorial Press ltd/alamy stock Photo
fuzztone riff, while the sustained control behind
the thrust and chop of the chords adds a different
but equally impressive texture. One abrupt crash
of a cymbal and the song ends; a more dramatic
exit than the singles fade out.
The same freshness and changed emphasis
reveal themselves through the sessions. A raucous
Its All Over Now, from The Joe Loss Pop Show
of July 17, 1964, finds Richards and Brian Jones
guitars scything across one another, far more
vigorously than on the version they cut at Chess
the previous month. Transmitted live, this is one of
a handful of tracks from On Air to be accompanied
by screaming. Although only Little By Little,
from the April 10, 1964 Joe Loss show, includes any
kind of engagement with the audience: a hasty
Thank you.
As with similar BBC sessions sets by The Beatles
and Led Zeppelin, unfortunately The Rolling
Stones On Air isnt sequenced chronologically.
Instead, it moves like a Best Of, stacking the hits
up top. A major selling point of this set available
as either an 18-track or 32-track edition is the
inclusion of eight songs the Stones never formally
recorded. These are assembled from the bands
core repertoire of blues covers honed during
countless long nights in venues as far flung as the
Red Lion in Sutton or the California Ballroom,
Dunstable. Certainly, the heavy blues of Hi Heel
SLEEVE NOTES
1. Come On Saturday 9. Down The Road Apiece
Club, 26/10/63 Top Gear, 06/03/65
2. (I Cant Get No) 10. The Last Time Top
Satisfaction Saturday Gear, 06/03/65
Club, 18/09/65 11. Cry To Me Saturday
3. Roll Over Beethoven Club, 18/09/65
Saturday Club, 26/10/63 12. Mercy, Mercy Yeah
4. The Spider And The Fly Yeah, 30/08/65
August 23, 1963: the
Stones first TV apearance,
on Ready Steady Go!
performing Come On
Sneakers and Fannie May go some way to
giving an authentic representation of the Stones
live sound during this period; foregrounding tight
musicianship and purposeful swagger. Theres
a breathless Roll Over Beethoven how does
Charlie Watts find time for those fills? while
Cops And Robbers features Mick Jagger doing
his best Americ-ay-un accent over a 4/4 bluesy
strut, interspersed with some expansive harp
soloing. Elsewhere, Aint That Loving you Baby,
Beautiful Delilah and especially Crackin Up
are wonderful, if slight, hits of hopped-up R&B.
For Memphis, Tennessee, Jaggers curiously
reserved delivery is goosed along by some crisp
guitar interplay between Richards and Jones. It
seems the ancient art of weaving was a work in
progress even in these early days.
If its hidden gems youre after, the connoisseurs
choice is a 3:47 version of 2120 South Michigan
Avenue their instrumental tribute to the home
of Chess, recast as a thrilling, protracted blues
jam. The songs breakdown section and the
teasing back-and-forth between Jaggers harp and
Richards guitar sounds like a prototype workout
for Midnight Rambler. you might wish it lasted
at least twice as long. Recorded in October, 1964
for Alexis Korners Rhythm And Blues show, it is a
moment when you can hear the band really start
to become The Rolling Stones.
09/05/64 Somebody To Love Top
18. Mona Blues In Gear, 06/03/65
Rhythm, 09/05/64 8. Little By Little Joe Loss
Pop Show, 10/04/64
Deluxe BONuS TrackS 9. Aint That Loving You
1. I Wanna Be Your Man Baby Rhythm And
Saturday Club, 08/02/64 Blues, 31/10/64
2. Carol Saturday Club, 10. Beautiful Delilah

Bill Wymans bass, too, is a revelation: heavy, Yeah Yeah, 30/08/65 13. Oh! Baby (We Got 18/04/64 Saturday Club, 18/04/64
thudding notes played nonetheless with quick, 5. Cops And Robbers A Good Thing Goin) 3. Im Moving On Joe 11. Crackin Up Top
dextrous precision. Blues In Rhythm, Saturday Club, 18/09/65 Loss Pop Show, 10/04/64 Gear, 23/07/64
What the BBC engineers at Broadcasting House 09/05/64 14. Around And Around 4. If You Need Me Joe 12. I Cant Be Satisfied
6. Its All Over Now Top Gear, 23/07/64 Loss Pop Show, 17/07/64 Top Gear, 23/07/64
made of Keith Richards Gibson Maestro fuzzbox
The Joe Loss Pop Show, 15. Hi Heel Sneakers - 5. Walking The Dog 13. I Just Want To Make
when he plugged in on August 20, 1965 is, sadly, 17/07/64 Saturday Club, 18/04/64 Saturday Club, 08/02/64 Love To You Saturday
lost in the mists of time. As it is, that version of 7. Route 66 Blues In 16. Fannie Mae 6. Confessin The Blues Club, 18/04/64
(I Cant Get No) Satisfaction, broadcast a month Rhythm, 09/05/64 Saturday Club, 18/09/65 Joe Loss Pop Show, 14. 2120 South Michigan
later, proves particularly strong on guitars. There 8. Memphis, Tennessee 17. You Better Move On 17/07/64 Avenue Rhythm And
is an enhanced physicality to Richards demonic Saturday Club, 26/10/63 Blues In Rhythm, 7. Everybody Needs Blues, 31/10/64

40 UNCUT JANUARY 2018

 A ROCKING NIGHT OUT Daily Star

Rock n Roll Productions present

HHHHH HHHH
THIS INCREDIBLE THE MOST
MUSICAL JUST FUN SINCE
TAKES YOUR SUNNY
BREATH AWAY AFTERNOON
Daily Record Daily Mail

Featu
THE SMring the hits of
AL
inc L FACES
LAZY luding
S
TIN SO UNDAY
ITCHYC LDIER
OO PA
ALL ORd of course RK
an
NOTHIN
G!

L I M I T E D S E A S O N 6 F E B R U A RY 1 1 M A R C H
allornothingmusical.com
 ARCHIVE
the
e specialist
sp
pecialist
YEAH YEAH YEAHS
Fever To Tell (Deluxe)
INTERSCOPE
9/10
NYC scenesters grimy, glorious debut, redux
YEAH Yeah Yeahs must have
felt like seasoned veterans by
the time they released their
full-length debut in April 2003.
Karen O(rzolek) had refined an
outrageous and unpredictable
stage presence on stages around the boroughs,
while guitarist Nick Zinner and drummer
Brian Chase teased more sound out of their two
instruments than most bands get out of a full
orchestra. On the strength of word-of-mouth live
shows and a scuzzy-sounding EP, they graced
the covers of major music magazines, signed a
flashy record deal and then suffered a backlash
all before they had a proper album to their name.
Nearly 15 years later, when the dust has settled
and the era has been oral-historyed in Lizzy
Goodmans Meet Me In The Bathroom, Yeah Yeah
Yeahs gritty, grimy, mischievous full-length
debut can be heard without the stigma of scene
politics. These songs arent just about New York
City. They are of New York City: cobbled together
from debris picked out of gutters and vacant lots,
pieced together on street corners and in back
alleys, held togetherr by the ceaseless
ceaselless thrum
of the city, the hot sick smellll of the
th subwa
subway,
a Discs, and 1982s Kakashi, a terrific blend of
the grime that settles o on your
ur skin.n.
Each tune is its own glorious mess, ess
with Zinner riffing like Jimmy Page,P
Chase playing like threee w whole
rhythm sections, and Karen O
contorting her vocalsals into
n wild,
wi d,
weird shapes.
Few acts associated e
with that New York
scene managed
to sound quite so
spontaneous as Yeah ah
Yeah Yeahs, but thiss
massive new reissuee shows
just how much thought ght and
care went into sounding ng
42 UNCUT JANUARY 2018
so off the glittery cuff. These lo-fi demos pull the
curtain back on the trios creative process, and
perhaps the biggest surprise is hearing Karen O
write out her vocals the way she writes out her
lyrics. On rough home recordings of Date With
The Night and Black Tongue, she maps out
every shriek and squeal, every grunt and groan.
Compared to the controlled chaos of those
songs, the albums finale sounds all the more
surprising in its tenderness and candour, as
Karen O sings love songs to the city as though
it were a flesh-and-blood lover. I wish I could
buy back the woman you stole, she declares
on Y Control, yet she remains in thrall to its
not-quite-benign energy: Wait they dont
love you like I love you. That simple declaration
from Maps effectively recontextualises every
riff, every rhythm, and every screech that came
before. In 2017, Fever To Tell remains as visceral,
as exciting, as confounding as ever.
Extras: 8/10. Seventeen demos, B-sides
and outtakes, most never released, plus a
documentary chronicling the bands history, an
iron-on patch and other goodies, all wrapped up
iin red
ed fishnets.
fishn STEPHEN DEUSNER
SNERR
PHAROAH SANDERS
Tauhid/Jewels Of Thought/
Summun Bukmun Umyun
Deaf Dumb Blind
ANTHOLOGY
9/10
Three masterpieces of cosmic jazz
return to vinyl
It seems churlish to find
fault with three such
extraordinary albums being
re-pressed, with such care.
Still, the omission here
makes this compendium
a slightly curious introduction to the great
saxophonists solo career. Anthologys three-
disc vinyl box justifiably skips Sanders rather
straight 64 debut, and opens with 1966s
incantatory Tauhid. Its here that the 26-year-
old Sanders, on leave from John Coltranes
band, first articulates his extravagantly
devotional brand of Afro-futurism and
eclectic faith: Side Ones Upper Egypt
And Lower Egypt, with Sonny Sharrocks
scrabbling guitar to the fore, remains one of
his most transporting pieces. 1969 follow-up
Karma, often highlighted as the strongest
early Sanders album, is oddly missing from
the set, but its absence does deservedly
push the same years undervalued Jewels
Of Thought and 1970s Summun Bukmun
Umyun into the spotlight. The formers first
side is consumed by Hum-Allah-Hum-
Allah-Hum-Allah; a sequel to Karmas
foundational The Creator Has A Master Plan
that again showcases Lonnie Liston Smith
on piano and the yodelling co-writer, Leon
Thomas. Passages of free playing are often
rapturously unhinged, but Sanders always
finds a way of leading his collaborators to a
place of melodic and spiritual serenity, most
heroically on the 28-minute flip of Jewels Of
Thought, Sun In Aquarius.
Extras: 6/10. 16-page zine, hand-assembled
and screenprinted slipcase. Albums all
available separately, too.
JOHN MULVEY
YASUAKI SHIMIZU
Kakashi (reissue, 1982)
PALTO FLATS
8/10
Sublime Japanese new-wave/jazz fusion
from 1982 reissued on vinyl
High times for the
adventurous Japanese
composer Yasuaki Shimizu,
now 63, who this season
finds two gems from his
40-year catalogue reissued:
Music For Commercials, his 1987 album
of b bite-size computer pop for Crammed
D
Talking
l Heads-ish new wave and electronic
ambience tied loosely together with freestyle
saxophone,
ax Shimizus primary instrument.
Kakashi
Kak k is released by the New York label
Palto Flats, which recently reissued another
Pal
Shimizu production, Mariahs 1983 outsider
Shi
disco
dis s touchstone Utakata No Hibi, beyond
its home
h territory for the first time. Like the
Mariaha record, Kakashi (meaning scarecrow)
is ccheerful and unpretentious and captures
Shimizu and pals playing around in the
sstudio, switching effortlessly between
styles.
y The sounds I hear inside me, what
do tthey feel like outside? he asks in the
liner notes and, responds with music that
line
iiss w
warm, sensual and humorous. Opening

number Suiren (waterlilies), for
example, is a hypnotic, easy-going
groove casually stacked with sax and
vocals in the manner of Peter Gordons
contemporaneous Beginning Of The
Heartbreak. During the languid
synth-dub of Yumi Dewa (a dream),
Shimizu speeds up the tape of the
recording to reach its climax. Crickets
chirp throughout Kono Yoni Yomeri
(Sono 2)s raw sax blues, conjuring
a hot summer night. It is, overall,
entirely enchanting.
Extras: None. PiERS MaRTiN
SHARON VAN ETTEN
(It Was) Because I Was
In Love (reissue, 2009)
SECRETLY CANADIAN
8/10
Expanded reissue of Brooklyn
troubadours heartfelt debut
Van Etten seems
to have been
everywhere of late,
making her acting
debut in Netflixs The
OA, singing on the
soundtracks to Strange Weather and
Twin Peaks: The Return and guesting on
recordings by Spoon and Lee Ranaldo.
Yet as she has spread her wings and
her sound has grown more jagged and
muscular, she clearly remains proud of
the simple minimalism of her fledgling
debut, remixing, remastering and
expanding its original 11 songs on the
grounds that it was an innocent and
beautiful record, which some of my
newer fans may not even know about.
Her folkish guitar underpinned by
atmospheric but understated organ
swells, her tender voice either trembles
with vulnerability when shes singing
Free jazz
spirit:
Pharoah
Sanders
in 1968
solo or luxuriates in sumptuous
harmonies when multi-tracked.
There are plenty of albums by singer-
songwriters documenting damaged
relationships, but few have mapped out
the emotional cartography with such
candour and insight as Van Etten.
Extras: 6/10. New artwork and liner
notes and two previously unreleased
songs from the original sessions
produced by Espers Greg Weeks. The
ethereal You Didnt Really Do That
floats on layers of seductive harmony,
while church-like organ lends the
bittersweet Im Giving Up On You
a sepulchral feel.
NiGEL WiLLiaMSON
VARIOUS ARTISTS
Diggin In The Carts: A
Collection Of Pioneering
Videogame Music
HYPERDUB
8/10
Earworms abound on enthralling
set of 8- and 16-bit wonders
Originally created
for long-defunct
game consoles and
computers in Japan
in the 80s and early
90s, the selections
on this earworm-packed compilation
prove that the limitations of 8- and
16-bit technology and the eras primitive
sound chips were no obstacle to the
most determined composers. Consider
the shimmering textures in Kazuo
Hanzawas Oblivious Past or the
sparkling cascade of notes in Konami
Kukeiha Clubs Mazed Music, two
rich examples of the accidental
beauty these circumstances created,
as Hyperdub labelhead Steve Kode9
Goodman puts it in his liner notes.
Like the other aficionados of this
little-known subset of electronic
music, Goodman is right to note the
undimmed novelty of sounds that few
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Solomons Key, Michiharu Hasuyas
Hidden Level has a title that seems
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Extras: 7/10. CD, digital and vinyl
editions feature artwork by Japanese
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 bruce springsteen

A time-travelling trip uptown with BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN.

As The Boss moves in on Broadway, Stephen Deusner follows
the road from the Jersey Shore to the Walter Kerr Theatre,
via Maxs Kansas City and Obamas White House. What does
it mean to be Springsteen in 2017? Is a new album imminent?
Or is his latest show a final bow? We have this illusion that were
going to live forever, says his manager. Bruce is at a point in his
life where hes given that up.
Photo by RobeRt DeMaRtin

44 UNCUT JANUARY 2018

Onstage at the
Walter Kerr
Theatre, October
12, 2017

JANUARY 2018 UNCUT 45

 At the Power
Station during
sessions for
1980s The River,
March 25, 1980
vE never held an honest job in my entire life.Bruce
Springsteen is halfway through Growin Up when he
suddenly steps away from the mic stand and walks to the foot
of the stage, surveying the small crowd gathered at the Walter
Kerr Theatre in New York. its a rockstar move, but this is not a
rock concert. This is Springsteen On Broadway, an intimate
one-man show, an acoustic autobiography in song, arguably
the biggest live show of the year, certainly the hardest ticket to
buy without getting very lucky or mortgaging your home.
Capping an intensely retrospective period for Springsteen
which includes a reissue of The River and subsequent tour as
well as an autobiography and accompanying hits compilation
this residency in one of the citys great theatres provides an
opportunity for him to tell his story in
more vivid detail than ever before.
Springsteens is a story of ambition and
self-determination; traits that take him
from the clubs along the Jersey shore to
legendary residencies at the Bottom
Line and Maxs Kansas City, from the
Newark Draft Board to Madison
Square Garden. And he gets to tell
it all in the quiet, contemplative surrounds of
the Kerr Theatre.
The show is a reflection of whats on his
mind right now, says Jon Landau,
Springsteens friend and manager for more
than 40 years. You could look at it as a review
of the past. The show distills the past and boils
DAViD gAhr/getty iMAges
it down to its fundamentals. The essence of his
lifes work is on that stage.
This Kerr is so intimate, in fact, that
Springsteen can address the audience
unamplified. He continues his mid-song
monologue: ive never done an honest days
46 UNCUT JANUARY 2018
work. ive never worked nine to five. ive never done any hard labour.
He waits a beat before delivering the punchline: And yet its all ive
written about. That subject matter has taken him from the Jersey
Shore to the Great White Way. i thank you very much.
The audience responds with laughter and applause, but everybody
at the Kerr the 960 seated fans, the small crew working the lights
and sound, the guitar tech tuning Springsteens guitars offstage, and
especially his wife patti Scialfa, who will join him later in the evening
for two songs knows that Bruce is being hard on himself. His rep for
perfectionism, for exactitude, for long days in the studio, for endless
weeks on the road earned him the nickname The Boss, which was
only half affectionate. And besides, this right here is a real job. The
Kerr will be his office for the next few months as he plays five shows a
week through the end of February 2018. Hes
had longer runs on the road and more
demanding schedules, but never at the same
time, the same place, and with the same setlist.
its a nice office, of course. With its elaborate
italian renaissance dcor and fresco of pan, the
100-year-old Kerr is one of the most prestigious
venues on Broadway, debuting more pulitzer-
and Tony-winning productions that any other
theatre in town. The Kerr is an unusual setting
for Springsteen, whose native environment has
been the arena or concert hall venues where
thousands of people can shout and scream and
dance along with him and the E Street Band. At
the Kerr, however, one of the greatest rocknroll
showmen shushes the crowd as they try to clap
along; he does not ad lib or go off script; he
doesnt vary his setlist from one night to the
next. He takes Broadway seriously, but its
doubtful the cast of Waitress or Kinky Boots
see the crowd pumping fists when they come
onstage, much less shouting, Bruuuuuuuuce!

As a production, Springsteen On Broadway is minimal,
austere, modest which means that every element becomes
much more prominent and evocative. The stage is bare, with a
brick wall in the background, a few road cases stacked in
corners, and a window that looks out onto nothing as though
Springsteen is playing some small basement club on the Lower
East Side circa 1971. The lighting gives every song its own colour
scheme, but is generally subtle and naturalistic. The careful
sound design allows you to hear the fine grain in Springsteens
voice and the crisp click of fingers against frets. For most of the
two hours there is only one man onstage. Says Landau, Bruce
is the writer and director of this show. Hes also the composer,
librettist, the entire pit orchestra, and of course the lead actor
who has no understudy. Not an easy job.
Springsteen recites passages from his recent memoir Born To
Run and sings strategically chosen songs some nearly 50
years old, others barely 10 that coalesce into something like
the story of his life. He plays a moving version of The Wish for
his mother Adele and eulogises his father Douglas with My
Fathers House. He rhapsodises about Freehold, New Jersey,
where he was born and raised, on My Hometown. He offers a
fond remembrance of Clarence Clemons with Tenth Avenue
Freeze-Out. As the show progresses, his scope widens, until
hes not singing or speaking about his own personal
experiences anymore. instead, hes talking about our collective
experiences on Long Walk Home and Dancing in The Dark
and nearly every other tune in the setlist. Springsteen is the rare artist
who understands his music belongs as much to us as to him.
it belongs to people like Amiel Weisfogel, an artist from New York
City who paints California landscapes and counts himself a lifelong
fan. My brother and i grew up listening to Bruce, so he embodies my
youth. He embodies my childhood. My brother has since passed
away, but i come to shows as a tribute to him.
Another longtime devotee and a nonprofit fund-raiser, Lisa Keogh
tried to convince her son to join her on the train ride
from West Chester, pennsylvania. He was like, No,
i want to go to a real Bruce Springsteen concert! i told
him it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. He plays
The essence
guitar and would enjoy it, but he bagged on me.
instead, she invited her friend Laura ramsey, a
business performance adviser who makes her own of Bruces lifes
work is on
rocknroll-inspired jewellery. (Shes sporting a bracelet
with a Grateful Dead guitar pick for this trip to New
that stage
York.) Of course i wanted to come along! Laura
laughs. im a rocknroller. im a concert girl.
These stories suggest the fine balancing act and high
stakes at play in Springsteen On Broadway on the part JoN lANdAU
of both the artist and his audience. After he pleads
Living newspapers and rock operas
A quick history of the walter kerr theatre
S
pringsteen On Broadway is only the latest
chapter in the long history of the Walter Kerr
theatre, which was built in the 20s and formerly
known as the ritz. After some booms and busts
during the roaring twenties and great Depression, in
the late 1930s the theatre hosted what were known
as living newspapers: multimedia productions that
deployed live actors, film clips, music, and even
puppets to give voice to ordinary people and to
dramatise their responses to contemporary issues.
When springsteen was born in 1949, the ritz was a
radio and television theatre. When he first watched
the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, the
ritz was home to tV game show The Price Is Right.
When he was gigging around Jersey with steel Mill
and the Castiles, it hosted musicals, adult films, and
eventually childrens fare not at the same time,
bruce springsteen
laziness, Springsteen ends Growin Up with a few restrained
spriNgsteeN guitar windmills, which make him seem much younger than
oN Broadway his 68 years. Hes lost little of the enthusiasm he had when he
setlist: first encountered rocknroll via Elvis and The Beatles in the
1 Growin Up early 1960s. Hes still in love with the form and the freedoms it
2 My Hometown provides, 50 years after he started playing music in the first
3 My Fathers place. Nice work if you can get it.
House
S
4 The Wish priNGSTEEN has been planning this show for only nine
5 Thunder Road months, which is a staggeringly short time for Broadway,
6 Promised land
where productions often take years to go from conception
7 Born In The USA
to opening night. And it started not on the Great White Way, but
8 Tenth Avenue
Freeze-out at the White House. in January 2017, just three months after
9 Tougher Than awarding Springsteen the presidential Medal Of Freedom and
The Rest just two days after addressing the nation for the last time,
(ft Patti Scialfa) president Obama hosted the New Jersey singer-songwriter at
10 Brilliant disguise the White House. Setting up in the East room, Springsteen
(ft Patti Scialfa) played for about 250 people, regaling them with acoustic
11 long Walk Home versions of familiar songs and telling stories largely off the cuff.
12 The Rising it was Obamas way of saying thank you and goodbye to his
13 dancing In The key staff, says Landau. i had no idea how he was going to use
dark
this time on behalf of the president, and when patti [Scialfa]
14 land of Hope
And dreams and i saw him give this very intimate performance, we both had
15 Born To Run the same reaction, which was This is his next show. it was
a subtle toast to the outgoing president and his staff, as well as
a call to arms against the regime taking over the White House.
This train, dreams will not be thwarted, Springsteen sang. This
train, faith will be rewarded. The setlist was expanded for Broadway,
but generally matches the arc of the White House show.
Something about that format stuck with Springsteen. perhaps he
felt that the access the crowd had to him gave him deeper access to
the songs. He and Landau began discussing how to turn this one
performance into something bigger. One option was a solo acoustic
tour, which he has done in the 1990s and the 2000s although the
idea extends even further back in Springsteens career.
in the early 1980s, he followed up The River with an
album that pared his songs down to their barest bones.
He made the recordings for Nebraska on a cheap four-
XXXXX
track recorder at home, intending the E Street Band to
flesh them out. But the more he lived with these lo-fi
renditions, the more he and Landau appreciated the
way the mood of the music matched the mood of the
lyrics, how the characters and their tribulations sound
that much louder, that much direr in that darker
musical setting. renowned for the brazen maximalism
of his early albums, Springsteen proved his songs
could stand up on their own, and Nebraska remains
one of his most highly regarded albums.
New york story
of course. When springsteen was struggling to
make it in the city, the ritz hosted a new rock
opera called Soon, about a rock band struggling
to make it in the city. starring a young richard
gere and featuring songs composed by scott
Ken MurrAy/ny DAiLy neWs ViA getty iMAges
Fagan (father of stephin Merritt), it only lasted
three performances before closing permanently.
even in those early performances, springsteen
was already proving much more durable.
Around the time he released Lucky Town and
Human Touch in 1990, it reopened as the Walter
Kerr theatre, named in honor of the New York
Times theatre critic. its first show was August
Wilsons the piano Lesson. since then, it has
hosted productions of tony Kushners Angels in
America, John patrick shanleys Doubt and, most
recently, Arthur Millers the Crucible.
JANUARY 2018 UNCUT 47
 bruce springsteen
Springsteen revisited that concept
repeatedly, first with The Ghost Of Tom Joad
in 1995 and again with Devils & Dust in 2005.
Those albums, along with his 2005 episode
of VH1 Storytellers, jettisoned the demo
sound quality of Nebraska, but not the
intimacy. Springsteen adjusted his vocals so
that he was often singing in a gruff whisper,
and on tour he gave himself space to
expound on them, to explain their origins
as well as their implications. Gone was the
Phil Spector Wall Of Sound, the guitar
aggression of the 60s garage rock he grew
up playing, the slivering E Street grooves.
Theaters, which owns and operates the
Kerr, its a uniquely appropriate setting for
this production. All of its history comes to
bear on every night of Springsteen On
Broadway. [See panel] Bruce talks about
ghosts in his show. The spirits that inhabit
places like Freehold and Asbury Park are so
much a part of the story hes telling, and the
same can be said about this theatre. You can
Being awarded the
presidential Medal feel the spirit and energy of the artists and
Of Freedom by audiences who have been here before. All of
Barack Obama in
the White House, those things are the frame for the canvas he
November 22, 2016 creates for us every night.

I
Instead, Springsteen presented himself not COME from a boardwalk town where
as a bandleader but as a modern-day Dustbowl troubadour: almost everything is tinged with
an heir to Woody Guthrie or Pete Seeger. a bit of fraud, Springsteen tells the
Taking the White House show on the road didnt hold audience at the Kerr, in a voice that might be best
a
much appeal for Springsteen. We could have done described as theatrically colloquial. So am I if you
d
something similar to what had been done in the past with havent figured that out yet. In 1972 I wasnt any
h
the Devils & Dust and Ghost Of Tom Joad acoustic tours, racecar-driving rebel or any street punk. I was a guitar
ra
says Landau, but this needed to be something different. It player on the streets of Asbury Park. That was pretty
p
needed to be Broadway. For one thing, Broadway had much all I knew.
m
smaller venues. When Springsteen played New York, he Forty-five years on, he still keeps the guitar and New
usually played Madison Square Garden (which Jersey at the centre of his story. The fact Springsteen On
Je
seats 19,000) or the Beacon Theatre (3,000). Most Broadway is such a different show for him is refreshing,
B
Broadway theatres seat around 1,000. as it not only puts his music in a new setting, but
a
Another reason is what Landau calls the attempts to puncture some of the legend surrounding him.
customs of Broadway. Once you enter the theatre, Throughout his 50-year career as a professional, he has
theres a level of quiet that exceeds what youre fashioned himself as the consummate rocknroll showman,
going to get form a venue three times the size. Once delivering epic performances that stretch to three or four
the show starts, theres no moving around. People hours. Every show is different from the one before and the one
dont talk. Its an ideal venue to invite concentration after, often hitting some of the same beats, but usually veering
and involvement. They may be rock songs, but off course for a song or two. Often
Springsteen On Broadway is not a rock show. Springsteen plays a song on a whim a
After considering several Broadway venues, habit that has over time reinforced the
Springsteen and Landau finally settled on the Kerr. adaptability and agility of his backing
According to Jordan roth, president of Jujamcyn band. He hams it up, jokes with the
other musicians, joshes the audience,
preaches and testifies, sermonises
please release me extemporaneously about the wonderful

Whats going on with

plan rocknroll has for your life.
Occasionally its canned, scripted,
memorised, but he delivers it most nights

Bruces new album? like hes making it up on the spot.

The performances at the Kerr, however,
are highly scripted. The setlist is set in

S
pringsteen unexpected stone, more or less. I wont say its
On Broadway influences. absolutely locked in, says Landau. Bruce has always been a man
coincides with a When will
who can surprise you. The show, as the playbill says, is written and
fresh batch of rumours springsteen release
about his next solo it? Will he release directed by him. So theres a concept here of the written show, which
album, and Bruce has it? Or will the new is more of a Broadway convention. Gone is the jocularity of his live
fanned the flames album end up like shows; he recites his lines, less a rock star and more an intense actor:
by dropping hints in electric nebraska, less Elvis and more Brando up on that stage.
recent interviews. its the notorious full-band By the end of February, Springsteen will have performed this show
been finished for version of his first solo
nearly 100 times. It takes extreme discipline especially for someone
a while now, and acoustic record? Will it
he describes it as suffer the same fate as like him, who even at 68 thrives on the freedom of a raucous rock
a very different the rumoured hip-hop show to pull that off night after night, to learn your lines, hit your
kind of record that album from the 1990s? marks, tell your story with dynamism and precision. Still muscular
plays to his pop Landau hints that there and bedecked in tight T-shirts and bracelets, he certainly doesnt look
side perhaps a may be even more lost like a man approaching 70. Maybe his hair has receded a bit, turning
change of pace albums out there.
a bit greyer in the years since Wrecking Ball. And maybe there is new
getyt imAges; dAvid redfern/redferns

after the nostalgia Jimmy this happens sometimes

of the River tour, Webb (top) with Bruce. sometimes grain in his voice, a gruffness that lends his songs new gravity.
the memoir, and Burt the record will come out, Springsteen On Broadway is another chapter in a period of intense
Bacharach
and the current and sometimes it will just retrospection for The Boss, which started in late 2015 with an
residency. says Jon sit on the shelf. He had expanded reissue of The River. He spent much of 2016 on the road
Landau, He has alluded to it and i hope touring that boxset and playing the album in its entirety at least
referenced that it and expect it will come out. its a
until the final stops on the tour, when he started messing with the
was influenced by Jimmy Webb fantastic record. An unexpected
and Burt Bacharach and some record. At the moment its in limbo. setlist. (One wonders if hell do the same toward the end of his current
other songwriters from the late its going to become mythic at residency.) Fall 2016 saw the publication of his long-awaited
60s and 70s. there are some some point. autobiography, which could only be titled Born To Run. Does this

48 UNCUT JANUARY 2018

Broadway residency close out this stock-taking period in
his career?
Or does it close out his entire career? Among the many
rumours about Springsteen On Broadway is that its a
way to announce his retirement: a fond farewell to fans,
a final chapter that lets him go out on top. That seems
unlikely, as hes mentioned a new solo album in recent
interviews [see panel]. Also, the sheer discipline that
such a show demands suggests hes ramping up
rather than winding down. Ive seen some articles
that refer to this show as some kind of farewell, says
Chris Phillips, editor and publisher of the long-
running magazine Backstreets, who has covered
multiple nights of the Broadway show. I mean, we all
know that with each day that passes, were closer to
the end than the beginning. But I have to assume that,
as much as the show is a retrospective, its not a
farewell. Its a new challenge. Its summational in a lot
of ways, but only because it comes from a summational
memoir. But I dont see it as the end of anything.
E
vErYBODY has a love-hate relationship with
their hometown, Springsteen says after he
strikes the final chords of Growin Up. Its
just built into the equation. Take me. Im Mr Born To
run, Mr Thunder road. Growing up in Freehold, he
dreamed only of escape, getting out, seeing the world,
changing his fate. I gotta hit the highway. I got white-
line fever. I had to run run run And then, the
punchline: I live 10 minutes from my hometown.
Springsteen evokes his childhood in Freehold
vividly: climbing the tree in his front yard, gathering
the wedding rice on the steps of the church next door,
smelling coffee grounds wafting from the local Nescaf
plant. He talks about the good and the bad, the long
walks to his mothers office and the violent clashes
over civil rights that afflicted his and similar towns in
the 1960s. He struggles not to make it mythical.
Instead, it becomes universal: Freehold is everyones
With patti scialfa,
October 12, 2017
hometown, the place that we define ourselves by
and against. This is my hometown, he sings on My
Hometown, originally recorded for 1984s Born In
The USA. Later in the song he changes it: This is your
hometown, addressing the narrators young son but
also the 960 people in the audience, who are all bound
together by being from somewhere.
His autobiography and now Springsteen On
Broadway offer the most detailed glimpses of Freehold
that he has ever offered. Throughout most of his career,
it has been a place to leave. Theres nothing like being young
and leaving some place, he says, before recounting his own
a
triumphant departure: perched atop an old couch in a flatbed
tr
truck,
trr watching the stars in the night sky and smelling the
ocean breeze off the shore. That freedom that you feel of finally
o
being untethered from everything youve ever known, leaving it
b
all behind, the life youve lived, your past, your parents, a world
a
youve gotten used to and have loved and hated. Your life lay
y
before you like a blank page. Its the one thing I miss about
b
getting older. I miss the beauty of that blank page and of the
g
eendless, endless possibilities. That blank page just laying there
daring
d you to write on it.
Springsteens quest to fill that black page took him out of
Freehold and over to Asbury Park, then out of New
Jersey and up to New York. The city is less than an
hours drive north of the Jersey Shore, but for much of
In 1972, Springsteens youth it must have seemed as far away as
the moon. I dont know why we didnt end up there
I wasnt any more, says David Sancious, the classically trained
keyboardist who played in early iterations of the E
Street Band. Its not that much of a schlep to get from
racecar- the Jersey Shore into the city, so I dont know why we
didnt do more gigs there early on. We definitely did
driving rebel play in the city, but it wasnt a mainstay for us.
After Springsteen had built a reputation as one of the
or street punk
rOBert demArtin
most dynamic performers on the New Jersey circuit,
his manager at the time, Mike Appel, wrangled him an
BRUCe spRiNGsTeeN audition with John Hammond, who had signed Billie
Holiday, Count Basie, Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan to
JANUARY 2018 UNCUT 49
 On the Jersey
Shore in August
1973
Columbia Records. In Hammonds office
Springsteen played Its Hard To Be A Saint In The
City and Growin Up and many more original
compositions, enough to secure a record contract
and, later, a residency at Maxs Kansas City.
The club had only been open for about six years
when Springsteen played his first residency there
in the early 1970s, but it was already a hangout for
artists, musicians and sundry scene misfits. The
Velvet Underground has played there often in the
late 1960s, and their manager/producer Andy
Warhol often held court with a coterie of hangers-
on. It would eventually become a hub of the US glam
scene as it mutated into the punk scene, hosting
formative shows by the New York Dolls, Wayne
County, Alice Cooper and the Patti Smith Group.
Springsteen was only a marginal figure in that scene;
by the time he played Maxs, he was a bit further along
in his career, an actual recording and touring artist
instead of an upstart, yet he must have seemed
provincial to the city-dwelling acts around him. After
shows hed quickly pack up his guitar, race to the Port
Authority, catch the last bus back home to New Jersey.
I remember seeing him at Maxs, which was only 150
people, says Lenny Kaye, who was at the time playing
in Patti Smiths band and writing concert reviews for
a few local outlets. It was crowded. It was not even
a standing-room club. They had tables, like a jazz bar.
It was an intimate setting. He wasnt appearing with
a band, which disappointed me. I had seen him on the
Jersey Shore when he was with Child, and he was an
daVid GahR/GEtty imaGES
incredible performer and player. I remember they did
a 10-minute version of Season Of The Witch. At Maxs,
though, he was playing piano and acoustic guitar, and
he reminded me a little bit of Van Morrison.
What impressed Kaye most of all was Springsteens
dense, evocative songwriting.
50 UNCUT JANUARY 2018
Springsteen shed that singer-songwriter image in the
studio, bringing in what became known as the E Street
Band to play on Greetings From Asbury Park, New Jersey in
early 1973 and The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle
in late 1973. Both were flops, barely registering beyond the
boardwalk circuit in his home state. Columbia still had faith
in him and patience. He worked long days and nights
getting his third album just right, to the extent that he
would fall asleep face first on the soundboard. And he
continued touring, expanding his circuit but returning
to Maxs for additional residencies, this time with the
E Street Band in tow.
We played Maxs a few times, Sancious recalls. We
played there once, and Bob Marley And The Wailers were
on the same bill. It was one of their first shows in the
States. That was a feature of the scene at that time, too.
Music was a lot less compartmentalised. You would have
all kinds of acts on the same bill.
Just before the release of Born To Run, he played a
series of residencies at the Bottom Line, which had
opened recently in Greenwich Village. The place held
fewer than 500 people, mostly at tables and booths
not quite as cozy as Maxs, but still close quarters.
During his 1974 residency Springsteen talked to the
audience at length between early versions of Thunder
Road and Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out as well as
At Maxs he covers of The Crystals Then He Kissed Me and
Chuck Berrys No Money Down. The New York Times
described him as looking like a Sha-Na-Na reject,
reminded me complete with a vaguely 1950s hair-do, shades and a
dark T-shirt, its short sleeves rolled up to the shoulder.
a little bit of
When Springsteen played the Bottom Line a year
later, after presumably updating his wardrobe, the
Van Morrison same paper was much more effusive, stating that his
shows will rank among the great rock experiences of
LeNNY KAYe those lucky enough to get in. Mr Springsteen has it all
he is a great lyricist and songwriter, he is a wonderful
 bruce springsteen
storybook, and together we told a story bigger than any of the ones
that I had written in my songs. That story reaches a climax of sorts
when he gets back into the song, holds a fist in the air a gesture
usually reserved for those attending a Springsteen show lets
a moment of silence pass, and delivering the lines, When the
change was made uptown and the Big Man joined the band

H
times has Roy Orbison been singing for the lonely? It must be
thousands of times, tens of thousands even. On Broadway he
revives it once more, playing it on guitar instead of piano, his
voice sturdy and tender with nostalgia.
With Clarence
Clemons during
a residency at
the Bottom Line,
New York City,
August 1975
singer, guitarist, and piano player, he has one of the
best rock bands anyones ever heard, and he is as
charismatic a stage figure as rock has produced.
Playing the Bottom Line was very exciting,
very electric, says Sancious. The place was
packed every single night. I mean, packed. You
could not even get in the place. Everybody came
down: record industry people, fans. It was five
nights in a row of really amazing stuff. I think it
certainly was good experience. The more you do that
kind of thing, the better you get. Bruce was the master
of connecting with an audience.
These New York residencies were formative for
Springsteen, giving him an opportunity to gauge his
songs in front of new crowds and to spin elaborate
stories about their origins. They became, in other
words, an early template for Springsteen On
Broadway, in both the format of the show and the
intimacy of the setting. Perhaps this new production
is an unconscious attempt to re-create those settings,
which makes it not merely a look back to old songs or
old places, but to old ways of playing that were
effectively eradicated by the success of Born To Run.
Maybe thats why Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
works so well in this context. Sitting at the piano,
OW many times has Springsteen sung Thunder Road?
How many times has he called for Mary to take that long
walk from her front porch to his front seat? How many
Just as the ghosts of every previous production haunt the Kerr,
the ghost of every previous Thunder Road haunts this version,
which becomes an old mans song. The lyrics, once specific to a
young mans quest for escape, become more ruminative as
Springsteen throws aside regret and vows to make good use of
however little time is left: We got one last chance to make it real.
Its a remarkable performance, especially when he sings the
coda and turns that triumphant finale into something gentle
and bittersweet as though there is more weighing on him
now than at any other point in his life.
Born In The USA gets a different type of makeover,
one that strips away all the rousing bombast that made
the album version so misunderstood and reproduces
the scrappy blues of the Nebraska-era demo.
Springsteen recalls reading Ron Kovics memoir Born
On The Fourth Of July and relates his own story of
reporting to the Newark Draft Board in 1969, scared
shitless he would be conscripted and sent to Vietnam to
die. When I go to Washington, Im glad that Mad Dogs or
Little Vinis or my name isnt up on that wall, he confesses to
the audience. But I do sometimes wonder who went in my
place. Because somebody did.
Springsteen calls Born In The USA my soldiers story.
It is a protest song. It is a GI blues. And it sounds rawer
after that introduction, as he riffs on a detuned guitar that
sounds like a zitar. He works a slide up and down the frets,
echoing the frantic intensity of combat and its frazzled
memory. The song is less about the horrors of war than the
horrors of coming home, looking for a job, trying to get
your life back again. Uprooted from the Vietnam War, it
sounds just as prescient and damning now as it did
during the Reagan administration, and its as explicitly
political as Springsteen On Broadway ever gets.
Its not too far removed from the subject and tone of

Springsteen gives a shout-out to the members of the
E Street Band, who are not only his powerhouse, but
his link to this particular time, pre-celebrity, when he was still
chasing his rocknroll dreams, when he could still connect to an
audience on a such an intimate level. Nobody captured my
audiences imagination like Clarence, Springsteen declares, halfway
through the song. Clarence was a figure out of a rocknroll
RiChaRd E. aaRon/REdFERnS
Springsteens new song, Freedom Cadence, which
he recorded for the film Thank You For Your Service. Starring Miles
Teller and Amy Schumer, the drama chronicles the hardships faced
by Iraq War veterans returning to civilian life, so Springsteen based
the song on a cadence soldiers would sing in boot camp. Although it
might initially sound jingoistic (I say freedom is won through the
barrel of a gun), Springsteen transforms the song into a similar

NO MONEY DOWN

Grab your ticket and your suitcase

W
ith Broadway clout
and Broadway intimacy
comes Broadway prices.
Because the Walter Kerr theatre
is small, tickets have been scarce
and, therefore, fairly pricy. But
Springsteen has worked to keep
as many tickets as possible out
of the hands of the secondary
market, hiring Verified Fan to sign
up ticket buyers for a lottery that
excludes most scalpers and bots.
the few tickets that did end up
in the secondary market often
came with a significant mark-up.
Some fans reported tickets priced
in the thousands of dollars
although its unlikely any actually
sold at that price. For many, the
notion of paying so much money
to see a performer billed as a
champion of the working class
was unfathomable. Says Chris
Phillips, editor and publisher
of Backstreets: i dont know
anybody who would rather pay
$800 instead of $100. But there
are fans who are like, Well, this
is the reality of Springsteen on
Broadway in 2017. there were
others who were really angry
about the ticket price.
Lisa Keogh, a lifelong
Springsteen obsessive from
West Chester, Pennsylvania,
saw the prices on Stubhub and
was tempted to sell the tickets
she bought through the lottery.
i saw they were going for $1,500
and for a split second i had
delusions of, im going to go on
a great vacation! i can get a new
backsplash in the kitchen! then i
thought, Screw that! im going to
see Springsteen!

JANUARY 2018 UNCUT 51

 bruce springsteen
Bruce and Patti
after the first
show at the
Walter Kerr
Theatre, NYC,
October 12, 2017
GI blues (I ask why oh why do soldiers gotta die).
The show might be autobiographical, but these
songs become something different in this setting,
something slightly apart from the man singing
them. Its a piece of theatre, says Jordan Roth.
Springsteen is using the vocabulary of theatre
to spin this story and take us along on a very
emotional exploration, to create that unique
transfer of energy between audience and artist
that creates a community in a theatre. That is
what we always hope for on Broadway that we
are telling a story in such a way that galvanises a group of strangers
into a community.
Few places know that more than New York City. Springsteen may be
most closely associated with New Jersey, but he has had perhaps an
even bigger impact on this city, whose clubs provide a measure of his
commercial and creative growth as an artist. After Maxs Kansas City
and the Bottom Line in the 1970s, he graduated to Madison Square
Garden, selling out the citys biggest venue several times in the 1980s
and 1990s. After a short-lived controversy over (American Skin) 41
Shots, about West African immigrant Amadou Diallos death at the
hands of four plainclothes police officers, Springsteen became a local
hero in the early 2000s.
Ten days after the World Trade Center attacks, Springsteen opened a
national telethon with an acoustic performance of My City In Ruins,
which had originally been written as a tribute to Asbury Park. He
worth in the world. At this stage in your life, you give up your
dreams of immortality, says Landau. We all live a great deal of
our lives aware of death in some sense, but we maintain privately
some fantasy that somehow were going to escape the inevitable.
We have this illusion that were going to live forever. What this
show says to me is, Bruce is at a point in his life where hes given
that up. He is confronting life in the past, today, the future in
a more realistic and deeper fashion, which is what hes trying to
communicate on Broadway.
After Bruce sings Land Of Hope And Dreams and finishes up
with the only song that could end this set, Born To Run, he walks
offstage. The lights come up, the audience rise from their seats and
file out. Some stay behind to take selfies with the bare stage in the
background; others grab discarded playbills or, if theyre lucky
enough, plastic cups with the Springsteen On Broadway logo.
Mike Coppola stands in line at the merch counter as the theatre
empties out, musing on the show he has just seen. The
Brooklyn resident has been a Bruce fan since the 1970s
I got eight-tracks! and has seen him about 25 times.
This show, however, was something new. Ive seen him
in stadiums and places like that, but this was a nice setting.
Thats what got us out here. You could really see him. He
really puts himself out there. Maybe he didnt experience
all those things he writes about, but he didnt want to be a
working guy. I think thats what drives artists. Theyre not
regular people. They relate to regular people, but theyre not
regular people.
The Kerr is almost empty by now, left to its ghosts as fans
gather on the sidewalk outside, back in the noise and hubbub
and neon of the city. Those who linger longest are rewarded as
Springsteen and Scialfa leave the theatre, walk through the
crowd, and jump into a waiting car. It feels scripted, like a post-
credits scene in a movie, but no-one outside cares. Theyll have a
story to tell.
eye witness!
The E Street Band wasnt
flying any more
David sancious played keyboards for the E Street Band
throughout the early 1970s. In between sessions for his
upcoming solo album, he recalled touring with the Boss

O
modified a few lines to refer to New York City and included it on 2002s nce we were on a
The Rising, his first album with the E Street Band in more than 15 record label, they
years. Nearly two decades later, it plays like it was commissioned by were sending us out,
getting work for us. Wed still be
the city, although it is not a grim or jingoistic album. Instead, the
playing places in new Jersey,
songs recognise the joy and comfort people might find in each other but they were bigger places. We
an impression strengthened by his performance of The Rising on would play new York and Boston
Broadway. Unlike other songs in the show, he doesnt say much about and connecticut. I liked Boston
The Rising, but trusts the local crowd to understand the reference. a lot. We played a club called
And here is where the show veers away from straight autobiography Joes Place. And then we started
making trips to the Midwest, and
and becomes something different. The second half of Springsteen On
eventually we got out to Texas [in
Broadway is not about Bruce the flesh-and-blood human being. Its 1974]. All our other trips were by
not even about Bruce the rock star. He alludes to the impact his music car, but this time
has had on the people in this theatre and millions more around the we took a train
KevIn MAzur/GeTTY IMAGeS; Jeff KrAvITz/fIlMMAGIc
enthusiastic in Texas, and that
was the beginning of the long
concerts. We would play way
past regular stage time, but the
people would not leave. We came
back out for encore after encore
after encore. Youd have to turn on
all the lights full blast to get people
to finally leave.
We also got out to california.
We did the cBS convention one
year, and they flew us out for that.
It was fun, but when they flew us
back home, it was
really turbulent.

world, and by doing so he argues convincingly for the power of music from new York We were all pretty
to define us individually as well as collectively, in good and bad times. to Houston, then nervous, white-
Dallas and Austin. knuckle-gripping

I
I remember we the seats. After
WANTED to rock your very soul, Springsteen says by way played a place we got back on
of introducing Dancing In The Dark, that it would in Austin called the ground, we
strengthen and help make sense of your life, your story, and Armadillo World made a decision
the story of the times that we shared. I hope Ive done that and I hope Headquarters. that the e Street
Ive been a good traveling companion. As Joe Strummer said, the Bruce wasnt Band wasnt flying
internationally any more. Of
future is not yet written. When things look darkest, lace up your
huge at the course, when you
dancing shoes. Still upbeat and carefree, the song that follows time, but he had With David
got successful,
Sancious
sounds wholly transformed in this setting. Once a lovers seduction, a big fanbase. you have to fly
it becomes an artists explication of his craft and an argument for its They were so everywhere.

52 UNCUT JANUARY 2018

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20 Reviewof
the

17 The definitive word on 2017

all of this years key releases as
chosen by the Uncut team.
As ever, please send us your
own 2017 charts:
uncut_feedback@timeinc.com

IN AssoCIATIoN WITh
THE ESSENTIAL
ALBUMS, FILMS,
DVDS & BOOKS
OF THE YEAR
62 THE TOp 75 ALBUMS
OF THE YEAR
76 THE BEST REISSUES
& COMpS
88 2017S FINEST FILMS
90 THE YEARS BEST BOOKS

JANUARY 2018 UNCUT 55

review father john misty
of 2017

Am I
an asshole?
I dont know At the end of a momentous year, FATHER JOHN MISTY invites Uncut
to confession in his Laurel Canyon hideaway. There, Jaan Uhelszki
hears how 2017s most divisive superstar has come to terms with
fame and infamy, with decadence and abstinence, with LA benders
and New York exile. There is, too, a first listen to his next heartache
album Mr Tillman, Please Exit The Lobby!
Photo by GUY LOWNDES

Temptation was
everywhere: Josh
Tillman, aka Father
John Misty, on life
after the release of
his third solo album,
Pure Comedy,
earlier this year

56 UNCUT JANUARY 2018

JANUARY 2018 UNCUT 57
review father john misty
of 2017
N MARCH this year, Josh Tillman was invited to heavy, and it was making him fucking weird. Reflecting now on
appear on Saturday Night Live. The occasion was the those events, Tillman says, I went to Tony [Kiewel], the A&R guy at
release of Pure Comedy, his new album under the name Father Sub Pop, when I was in a bit of a tailspin about what was happening,
John Misty; it would be a transitional moment in Tillmans and told him this perception of me is really getting out of control and
career, marking the moment he was no longer a cult figure but its really hard to live with. He looked at me and said, Yes, but the
a fully fledged star. Many artists in Tillmans position may vex problem with you, Josh, is that people can sense from a mile away
about wardrobe choices, song selection, how theyll wear that you could take it or leave it. And people dont like that.
their hair. For Tillman, he decided to take LSD. Could you walk away from fame?
Look, lets just say that when I went on Saturday Night Live Well he says, stretching out the word far longer than necessary.
I had no business being on television that night. No business The thing is Ill be writing music through feast and famine. Thats
at all, he explains today. Watching the broadcast, it might not never going to end. I think in the same way a Hindu spends his life
have been immediately apparent that Tillmans senses were preparing for death, Im spending my fame preparing to not be famous.
askew during the first number, Total Entertainment Forever. But really, a 75-minute New Age album about despair is not what
But when Tillman came back to perform the dramatic, five- you would expect from someone whos interested in maintaining
minute-long Pure Comedy, lysergic change was more their success. And bear in mind you could drown my level of success
evident. Initially, his colour seemed a little off. Then, as the in the sink. Im serving a different instinct than staying famous.
song reached a crescendo, Tillman suddenly hurled himself
into the air and started dancing. Waving his arms wildly
above his head, his abrupt, turbocharged moves hopping on
one foot, leaping from side to side curiously resembled
Jethro Tulls Ian Anderson circa 1970. Stopping, he put his
hands on his face, covering his eyes for such a long time that
The trouble is, I want
you notice the keyboardist looking at him askance. This
sudden outburst was even more disconcerting considering he
to live like an artist and
was in the middle of singing a ballad.
It was entertaining, but unusual. Fans were split on the
work like an accountant.
performance, but it was a sign that everything was not cool in
Mistys world. His newfound fame was coming in hot and
Thats really my ideal

Tillmans lysergic
performance on
Saturday Night
Live, March 4, 2017

58 UNCUT JANUARY 2018

A
FEW hairpin turns on Laurel Canyon Blvd
past where Ray Manzareks old rehearsal
place stood on Wonderland Avenue, is a
sweet two-storey hideaway located at the end of a
short overgrown cul-de-sac halfway up Lookout
Mountain. Tucked off the barely paved road,
behind a battered wooden fence and a riot of
unruly vegetation, its not the kind of place that
seems to encourage drop-in visitors. The only
thing that shatters the deep silence on this autumn
afternoon is the sound of a piano. Primitive, loud,
a little jarring, the pounded chords, more emotional
than musical, hang in the air a little too long, before
being replaced by fresh assaults on the instrument.
Its not hard to think the scene has been
deliberately set of the artist at work. But thats the
thing with Father John Misty. One is never quite sure
what is real and what is a clever construct. Inside the
house, Tillman is hunched over a beautiful Steinway,
a lit cigarette in his mouth. He runs a restless hand
through his thick Amadeus hair, scribbling
something on a small pad. Can you believe I couldnt
play a note two years ago? Tillman asks, his
expression impossible to read. He is a strange mix of
brutal confidence and self-deprecation, but there is a
flash of something that feels like almost bashful pride
when he talks about the Steinway. It was given to him
for his 36th birthday last year by Wilson, his wife,
Emma, producer Emile Haynie, a
friend, and a couple of guys from
his UK label.
Pure Comedy was the first song I ever
wrote on piano, and it was the weirdest
thing, he says while demonstrating the
chords. Just finding the right notes. No,
I didnt take lessons. If you hear music
in your head its not that hard to learn.
I play the piano all day, every day, and
its crazy too, as an adult, to see myself
make progress on a musical instrument
that two years ago I didnt play at all. Its
really incredible, isnt it? he enthuses.
The typed pages of a finished novel
are neatly stacked in the corner of a
wooden desk, pushed up against the
panelled window in the small, womb-
like room, painted a warm lipstick red,
where he works. In earlier incarnations
of the 70-year-old house, it mightve
been a childs nursery or maybe a
sewing room, but since May, when the
Tillmans moved in, its functioned as a
think tank, music room and smoking
chamber. Most surfaces are covered
with open books Tillman is reading.
There are several notepads cribbed
from the Chateau Marmont Hotel
scattered around, scribbled with lyrics
and notes to himself. Its mostly all
scratched-out lines, he says. And then
there are these little words that are in
the margins, and those are the lyrics.
The trouble with me is I want to live like
an artist and work like an accountant.
Thats really my ideal.
As Tillman explains, hes been in a
writing frenzy. Its like the words are
tumbling out of me. I think Im going
to make an album a year for the next
Pal and
producer
Jonathan
Wilson
They sang
Happy
Birthday to
me in the rain
Tillman recalls his early
brushes with fame
W
hen I was about six
or so, I remember
my mom saying, like
really kind of sternly, Some of
the mothers at school are always
telling me that their kids want to
be friends with you and you dont
seem interested. I remember not
knowing what she was talking
about. Being so kind of oblivious
to it. But I think Ive always been
well-liked. OK, popular.
In sophomore year, at the
beginning of the school year
when everyone is figuring out
who theyre going to be in class
with, twice in one day I walked
into a class and people cheered
because I was in the class.
Those two-and-a-half years
at the public high school was the
most socially happy I had ever
been. But I remember my ability to
socialise was really limited by how
kind of oppressive my parents
were and how sceptical they
were of anyone I was friends with.
I was really only allowed to do
things outside of school that were
church-related.
I remember on my 15th
birthday, five or six of the My So-
Called Life girls kind of alternative
girls at school came to my house.
They sang happy Birthday to me
in the rain on the front step, and
my mom sent them away. I was
mortified. Beyond mortified.
three years or so. Thats my plan.
After a year of extreme highs and lows, Tillman
seems to enjoy the idea of having a plan. Pure Comedy,
Tillman likes to brag, was written completely sober,
but thats not exactly the way it was recorded.
We were micro-dosing [LSD] in the studio, says
producer and pal Jonathan Wilson. It was like, Wow,
the crazy out-there guys were taking little bits of acid to
be further enlightened in the studio. The micro-dosing
occurred at the sessions to capture something a little
more cathartic. Or special. Or visceral. Which as far as
Im concerned, we did. There were times [on] some of the
performances where Josh is in tears because he was feeling
it. So, whatever it took to get him there was great.
Tillman and Wilson envisioned a great and grandiose
sonic experiment, tapping classical arranger Gavin Bryars
to arrange some songs for the album. What I really
admired was Gavin had never done anything like this, and
he came out to LA sight unseen to work with us, says
Tillman. I was thinking, if youre 74 and youre doing
something that youve never done before, then youre
really doing it right. He was just sitting around with these
long-haired idiots drinking tequila and hanging out.
What Josh wanted was way more substantial than
anything I had ever done with a pop musician, says
Bryars. He was quite clear that he wanted me to make
a string arrangement of Leaving LA without any
input from him. I thought it was incredibly courageous
he didnt even want to hear any MP3 synth versions
from the score.
Following the release of Pure Comedy and an
attendant tour, celebrity came blindingly fast,
transforming Tillman in ways both profound and
superficial. On the surface, he literally became a new
man after returning to Los Angeles from New Orleans.
He cut his signature facial hair and replaced the
Ecocline van with a black 1999 Jaguar XJ8. Essentially,
Tillman became a rakish rou. His jackets were
now fine and cut close to his lean body, silk shirts
unbuttoned down to there, and he sported a new
loutish insouciance onstage in the persona of an outr
lounge-lizard type that felt at times a little forced, yet
strangely believable.
He started making the rounds of talk shows and
going to all the right restaurants. He and Emma were
spotted having late dinners with famous friends at
Caf Stella, poolside at the Chateau Marmont, or
sipping $20 Greyhounds in the lobby bar. Tillman was
photographed on a smoking break with famous-for-
being-famous Alexa Chung, a photo that made the
rounds of the gossip mags, signifying that he had
arrived, geographically if not socially. One female
reporter in Detroit coyly told him that since listening to
the record she has had more sex toPure Comedythan
any other record in my sexually active adulthood.
The story delights Tillman, and he tells it often. He was
invited everywhere, fted and given complete licence
to behave badly.
Maybe fame hasnt affected my temperament, but it
definitely fucked with my expectations of everything
that comes with it. Certain things were offered.
Duffy-MarIe arnOulT/WIreIMage
Flattery. Temptation was everywhere. Suddenly its
like, wow, these people are all so nice, and theyre all so
fun. And you start to believe the things theyre saying.
Until, of course, you dont. Fame doesnt usually
make such a late arrival. Tillman had just turned 36,
but nonetheless he let himself indulge in some of the
spoils, carousing at all hours with Wilson, his partner
in crime, whom he has been close to since he first
JANUARY 2018 UNCUT 59
 review father john misty
of 2017
moved from Seattle to Los Angeles in 2012. The two of Becoming a
them made the rounds of the smart places like a shape-shifter
in LA; (inset)
modern-day Harry Nilsson and John Lennon on what John and
came to be called their Lost Weekend. Yokos Two
Virgins album,
I had 52 Lost Weekends in a row, Tillman says. a leitmotif for
Who is John Lennon and who is Harry Nilsson? the Tillmans
I think were both James Taylor, he says dryly. The
art on Tillmans living room wall says otherwise. Pride
of place is given to a dark rendering of John and Yokos
nude Two Virgins photograph, a leitmotif for the
couple, given that Tillman references the image on
Chateau Lobby #4 (In C for Two Virgins).
Emma proved less than tolerant of her husbands
carousing. A filmmaker and photographer by
profession, she suddenly stopped posting photos of
her husband in her Tumblr feed last summer just
about the time Tillman went off the rails. He was
replaced by images of herself and her beautiful,
sometimes male, companions in exotic, far-flung
locales. Quotes by Bernardo Bertolucci, Charles
Dickens and Jung popped up in Emmas feed, both
poignant and resolute, and the advice from dead
philosophers, filmmakers and artists communicated
her displeasure in a way only Josh Tillman would
understand. Emma and I, we do understand each
other, Tillman says firmly. But nevertheless,
something happened that led to Tillman exiling
himself to the Lafayette House in New York to figure
out what really mattered to him. He wrote an entire
album in that time, which he plans to release as the
follow-up to Pure Comedy, something he calls the real
Ray TamaRRa/GC ImaGes; Guy lowndes

I Love You, Honeybear, but without the cynicism.

The album, due next year, was apparently powerful
enough to resurrect a romance. More effective than red
roses, certainly. Its a document that defines love in a
post-apocalyptic world, even if the apocalypse is of
your own making. But more, it is an act of contrition;
writing the album was the way he put himself back
together. Most of this next album was written in
a six-week period where I was kind of on the

With his wife Emma straits, he explains. I was living in a hotel for two
Elizabeth Tillman, months. Its kind of about yeah misadventure, he
the photographer,
in NYC, April 4, 2017 says haltingly. The words were just pouring out of
me. Its really rooted in something that happened last
year that was well, my life blew up. I think music
essentially serves the purpose of making the painful
and the isolating less painful and less isolating. But in
short, its a heartache album.
But whose? Tillman stubbornly wont say. As for
Emma Tillman, she let Albert Camus do the talking
on her Tumblr: Blessed are the hearts that bend; they
shall never be broken.
I think I instinctually understood that if I blew
everything up, I could put it back together better than

This next it was, Tillman says, but its not clear whom hes
trying to convince. But look, I dont want to talk

album is about what happened. Maybe in 30 years from now

I will. I know that sounds dramatic. But to talk about
what this albums about, Id have to bring other people
rooted in into the picture who dont want to be, he says, tracing
little circles in the hair above his ears.
something The forthcoming album began almost of its own
accord when Tillman played drums on Adam Greens
that happened record last summer. Jonathan Rado was producing it
at this tiny studio. At the end of the day, I asked, What
last year are you doing tomorrow? I didnt have any plans to
start making a new record. Jonathan said to come on

60 UNCUT JANUARY 2018


Fleet Foxes in San
Francisco, 2008: (rear,
lr) Casey Wescott,
Skye Skjelset, Christian
Wargo; (front) Robin
Pecknold, Josh Tillman
by, so I went over there the next day and started putting
down my songs. And I said to myself, I guess this is
happening now. It was clear were not making demos.
Working song titles Ouch, Im Drowning, Dum
Dum Blues, Mr Tillman, Please Exit the Lobby and
Well, Were Only People And Theres Nothing Much
Anyone Can Do About It give a little hint of what was
implosion on Bill Grundys Today show. Well, it certainly
was not that, laughs Tillman. But it was meaningful. To
me. Trouble was, it wasnt coherent. Usually Im pretty good
at that. I couldve gone up there and told some well-
constructed, arch, wink-wink jokes about what was going
on in the news. Were inundated with that every day, and its
entertaining, but it doesnt connect. I wanted it to connect.
Maybe Josh Tillman wanted it to connect, and Father John
Misty couldnt give a toss? What were calling Father John
Misty is me when I feel threatened, admits Tillman, who
seems to be finally coming to grips with his rock-star
persona. Basically, when I feel unsafe or threatened, I get
incredibly defensive, and I start thinking that discourse or
whatever is going to fail me. Then the ego explodes and Im
thinking fast, Im seeing a hundred steps further than you
are, and theres no point in even talking to you, because Im
going to insult you, and its going to be ugly.
Those first few years of this thing, I felt unsafe [with]
people coming out in droves to see this thing me. I was,
what the fuck is going on? Ive been doing this for 10 years
and nothing. I guess I didnt trust myself, I didnt trust the
audience, I didnt trust this whole thing that was going on.
And I was drinking a lot to deal with that. When I feel
anxious I start drinking, and when I get drunk, I feel
like performing. Then we have Father John Misty.
The snare Its not that I dont know Im a shape-shifter. Or even
a narcissist. But what I can say is that I have never been
drum was like more comfortable than I am now doing what Im
contraband doing, he says, taking a quick gulp of chamomile tea.
But am I an asshole? I dont know; can somebody
Tillman takes stock who gets asked that question as often as I do not be an
asshole? Tillman asks rhetorically.
of his relationship with
What did I think when I first met him? That he was
Fleet Foxes
a bit of a soulful douche, says Thomas Bartlett, a

going on in Tillmans psyche. The music is unlike
anything hes ever done. There are dangerous guitars,
an eccentric percussive sound hes playing all the
drums and his voice isnt afraid to skip out of range to
make an emotional point. Dum Dum Blues is part
Randy Newman, part Dylan insinuation, bashing
a generation raised on the internet/You say the
smallest thing and these kids get so upset.
M
uCh has been made in
the press about the feud
between Josh Tillman
and members of his former band,
but the reality is a little different.
when Fear Fun was released
there a review that said that it
was an alliterative reference to
fleet foxes, sighs an exasperated
Tillman. a crackpot conspiracy
collaborator on Pure Comedy. Did it prove to be
accurate? No, not quite. Hes satirising the character
of a soulful douche. Its a bit complicated, because
Josh is a bit of an asshole sometimes, as I think he
would freely admit. There are times that he comes
uncomfortably close to being the thing he is trying to
satirise but I suppose thats all part of the game. But
the way I really see Josh: an open-hearted little boy, a
fragile romantic of precocious intelligence, searching

T
ILLMAN seems to say a lot of things to upset
people. Last year he harangued fans at a radio
show outside Philadelphia, berating them with
an improvised speech in place of a scheduled
50-minute performance at Phillys XPoNential Music
Festival two days after Donald Trump had secured the
Republican nomination for president. Tillman stood at
the edge of the stage and aggressively smoked a
cigarette, telling the audience: Maybe just take a
moment to be really, fucking profoundly sad.
What people remembered after his outburst
concluded was that Tillman never got around to
playing any Father John Misty songs, but instead made
up something on the spot about the festival, following
it up with a cover of Leonard Cohens Bird On A Wire
requested by an audience member. All in all, he was
onstage a total of 20 minutes.
I knew that once Trump got the nomination that the
train had left the station. And it disgusted me the next
day to be at a music festival playing in front of a sea of
white people in lawn chairs drinking white wine,
like the Paul is dead shit. This is
a relationship that I would like to
mend and the music press seems
intent on exacerbating what I see
as being like a very superficial
difference, trying to make
something worse that I would
like to make better. and he did.
when they released their third
album, Crack Up, he tweeted:
Congratulations to my friends
today, an incredible album.
my official statement is just
what I said in that tweet, confirms
Tillman. I love those guys. Theyre
a big part of my life. I have not
cryogenically frozen the problems
that we had when I quit that band.
everyone has moved on. That
being said, I wouldve gladly gone
and played on the record. Im not
the best drummer in the world,
but I think I can translate Robin.
That was part of the fun of being
in that band. There were times
the world for beauty, wanting to be transported, and
being bitterly disappointed again and again by all the
vulgarity and noise.
Karen Elson, whose recent Double Roses LP features
Tillman on drums, has an equally charitable view. He
was very supportive of the record and really gave me
good advice about not being afraid, she says. He also
brought a lot of abstract conversation, a nihilistic
worldview with good humour sprinkled on top for
good measure. The same thing he brings to a party.
I talk to a lot of my fans after the shows, says
Tillman. What I get is Im articulating the things they
wish they were able to say, so they relate to me. Though
its carnivalesque and a little grotesque, its kind of the
perfect combination of a person who is successful and
famous and this is going to look terrible in print, but
quotation marks around all these things yet his
concerns and troubles are the same as mine.
Do you think I dont realise the religious implications
in choosing that name? continues Tillman wearily.
At the time, I just liked how it sounded.
wendy RedfeRn/RedfeRns

listening to folk rock. And I couldnt do it, you know?
he says without apology.
Musician-artist John Lurie texted and told him he
was proud of him, while fans have posted that it was
one of the more meaningful things to occur in rock in
at least 30 years. One fan compared it to the Sex Pistols
when Robins would say, I want it
to sound like youre skiing. It was
fun to try to do. It was fun as a
drummer and as a singer to test
the limits of what a four-piece
drum kit can do; the snare was
like contraband.
Now?
Im into being my own foil. I dont see any conflict in
it. Its not like someone pointed that out to me and
I was like, Ah, got me! If anything, I got myself.
Pure Comedy is available on Bella Union

JANUARY 2018 UNCUT 61

 review
of 2017
new releases
75-51
75 rYan aDaMs Prisoner
BLUE NOTE/PAX-AM
74 FeIsT Pleasure UNIVERSAL
73 alDOUs HarDInG
Party 4AD
72 JasOn IsBell & THe
400 UnIT The Nashville
Sound SOUTHEASTERN
71 DaVID rawlInGs Poor
Davids Almanack ACONY
70 PerFUMe GenIUs No
Shape MATADOR
69 sParKs Hippopotamus
BMG
68 FlOaTInG POInTs
Reflections Mojave Desert
PLUTO
67 THe MaGneTIC FIelDs
50 Song Memoir NONESUCH
66 CresCenT Resin
Pockets GEOGRAPHIC
65 real esTaTe In Mind
DOMINO
64 BlanCK Mass World
Eater SACRED BONES
63 KeVIn MOrBY City
Music DEAD OCEANS
62 MarK eITZel
Hey Mr Ferryman DECOR
61 lana Del reY Lust For
Life INTERSCOPE
60 BITCHIn BaJas Bajas
Fresh DRAG CITY
59 JOHn MaUs Screen
Memories RIBBON MUSIC
58 wanD Plum DRAG CITY
57 rOllInG BlaCKOUTs
COasTal FeVer The
French Press SUB-POP
56 HOUse anD lanD,
Horse And Land THRILL JOCKEY
55 MOOnlanDInGZ -
Interplanetary Class
Classics TRANSGRESSIVE
54 TInarIwen Elwan ANTI-
53 sZa Ctrl TOP DAWG
ENTERTAINMENT
52 CHrIs FOrsYTH & THe
sOlar MOTel BanD
Dreaming In The Non-
John Johnson
Dream NO QUARTER
51 ranDY newMan Dark
Matter NONESUCH
THe UnCUT 2017 enD OF Year reVIew in association with
62 UNCUT JANUARY 2018
50 THe XX
I See You YOUNG TURKS
The xx might have
patented a shy,
minimalist take on
dance music that
became a ubiquitous
British sound over the past decade.
But there was always a chance, not
least as their imitators multiplied,
that it would become a creative cul-
de-sac. Hence this more expansive,
brighter third album, which
expanded the trios remit Hall &
Oates samples! and shook off some
of the goth cobwebs, without losing
any of their understated charm.
49
MICHael HeaD
anD THe reD
elasTIC BanD
Adios Seor Pussycat
VIOLETTE
While the
bandnames The
Pale Fountains,
Shack, The Strands
changed over the
last four decades, much about Mick
Heads music remained heroically
consistent. His first album in 11
years was another beauty, all
hallucinatory social realism and
ringing jangles in the great tradition
of The Byrds and Love. Another
useful piece of evidence, in fact, to
argue that this Liverpool street poet
is one of the eras finest British
singer-songwriters.
48 lInDsTrM
Its All Right
Between Us As It Is
SMALLTOWN SUPERSOUND
Last spotted
collaborating with
Todd Rundgren on
2015s Runddans,
Hans-Peter
Lindstrms fourth solo album
showcased the Norwegian
maestros ability to keep stretching
the parameters of electro-disco.
Amidst the pop bangers and prog
extrapolations of techno, there was
also a creepy extra dimension
manifested on Bungl (Like A
Ghost). Jenny Hval, whose own
Blood Bitch featured prominently
in the 2016 Uncut Albums Of The
Year list, provided the necessarily
uncanny vocals.
47POnD
The Weather
MARATHON ARTISTS
Michael Head:
heroically
consistent
Very much following
the trajectory of their
old friends Tame
Impala (whose Kevin
Parker produced The
Weather), Perths Pond moved away
from heavier jams towards a shinier
kind of pop music for their seventh
and most successful album. The
psychedelic otherness remained,
though, not least on the two-part
epic Edge Of The World, which
tackled Australian colonial privilege
while channelling the apocalyptic
grandeur of Diamond Dogs.
46 BrOKen sOCIal
sCene
Hug Of Thunder CITY SLANG
A good year for the
extended Broken
Social Scene family
also saw Feists
Pleasure charting in
our Top 75. Bigger plaudits, though,
were directed to BSS themselves,
as Kevin Drew, Brendan Canning
and their myriad collaborators
reconvened for a first album in
seven years. As the title suggested,
a rousing communitarian spirit
dominated and one whose
warmth contrasted sharply with
the ironies attempted in 2017 by
the most famous of BSS
descendants, Arcade Fire.
45
MATADOR
sPOOn
Hot Thoughts
Another North
American indie-rock
institution, whose
admirable
singularity and
persistence paid dividends in 2017.
The Austin quartets ninth,
co-produced by Dave Fridmann,
was again remarkable for refining
Spoons long-nurtured USPs:
concision, groove and unwavering
focus. Notable too was a poignant
influence coming more than ever to
the fore. As Britt Daniel told Uncut,
Bowie is, to put it bluntly, the guy
Ive ripped off the most.
44
JaKe XerXes
FUssell
What In The Natural
World PARADISE OF BACHELORS
At once scholarly
and swinging,
Fussells second
album was a
roistering
investigation of the traditions of
the south-eastern States. The son
of folklorists, Fussells song
selections were compelling: the
Child Ballads, Duke Ellington
tunes, an obscure, absurdist
country blues called Have You Ever
Seen Peaches Growing On A Sweet
Potato Vine?. Easygoing virtuosity
co-conspirators included Nathan
Salsburg and Nathan Bowles
and an idiosyncratic character
ensured, too, that everything felt
much more like a party than a
historical re-enactment.
43
TrIO Da
KalI &
KrOnOs QUarTeT
Ladilikan WORLD CIRCUIT
As Africa Express
take on In C and
the chamber recitals
of Toumani Diabat
proved, traditional
Malian music and Western classical

traditions can make serendipitous
bedfellows. The latest evidence
came on Ladilikan, twinning as it
did the ever-adventurous Kronos
strings with a group led by the
extraordinary singer, Hawa
Diabat. Amidst harmonious
culture clashes, Diabat even added
gospel hues to her griot technique
never more so than on the title
track, her radical rewrite of an old
Mahalia Jackson tune.
42THUnDerCaT
Drunk BRAINFEEDER
A formidable jazz
bassist, Stephen
Thundercat Bruner
is also an eclectic
collaborator. One of
his old associates, Kendrick Lamar,
turned up on this slick, freaky and
inventive display of virtuosity, as
did Pharrell Williams, electronica
auteur Flying Lotus and Bruners
actual cat. Surreal pride of place,
though, went to Michael McDonald
and Kenny Loggins, honeyed tones
intact, on the outstanding soft-rock
jam Let Me Show You.
41FleeT FOXes
Crack-Up NONESUCH
Back from hiatus at
Columbia University,
Robin Pecknold
reactivated Fleet
Foxes; now, an
open-hearted corrective to the
antics of their former drummer,
Father John Misty. Time away had
not dimmed Pecknolds ear for a
ravishing harmony. It had, though,
widened his scope and ambition,
as multi-part songs give I Am
Robin Pecknold
(left) and
Fleet Foxes:
widened scope
THe UnCUT 2017 enD OF Year reVIew in association with
All That I Need/Arroyo Seco/
Thumbprint Scar a spin! were
augmented by all manner of filigree
esoterica. Unabashedly earnest, not
a little pretentious and still quite,
quite lovely.
40
At Me
MOUnT eerIe
A Crow Looked
PW ELVERUM & SUN
An introspective and
productive musician,
who worked as
Microphones before
renaming himself
Mount Eerie, Phil Elverums art was
given a tragic new imperative when
his wife Genevive died from
pancreatic cancer in 2016. He
responded with this devastated,
cathartic album, recorded in the
room where she died, mostly using
her instruments. An unflinching
document of love and grief,
comparable in some ways to Sufjan
Stevens Carrie & Lowell.
39arCa
Arca XL
Keen students of
record label small
print would already
have been familiar
with Alejandro Arca
Ghersi, a Venezuelan producer
whos worked with Bjrk, Kanye
West and FKA Twigs. But for his
third solo album, the baroque
digital abstractions were
augmented, for the first time, by
Arcas sensual vocals: raw
incantations, in Spanish, that
navigated a path between the
industrial and the sepulchral, and
at the same time between genders.
new releases
King Gizzard &
The Lizard
Wizard: now
with moments
of melodic calm
38 rOBYn
HITCHCOCK
Robyn Hitchcock YEP ROC
Nashvilles a very
good place to make
a psychedelic
rock album,
the irrepressible
Hitchcock told Uncut this year, and
his current home along with
producer Brendan Benson, from
The Raconteurs inspired him to
make one of his loudest sets in
decades. Recent acoustic
preferences were downplayed,
replaced by a fried sound much
closer in spirit to his classic 70s
band, The Soft Boys. There was
less surrealist whimsy, too save
the odd reference to telepathy, and
an Earth ruled by cats
37rIDe
Weather Diaries
WICHITA RECORDINGS
A clutch of vintage
shoegazers and
buzzpoppers might
have been working
the reunion circuit
for the past few years, but 2017
was the year they reasserted
themselves artistically. Alongside
strong new records by The Jesus
And Mary Chain and Slowdive,
then, came the first album in
20 years from the Oxford quartet
a discreet upgrade of the
bands patented dreampop
sound, seemingly unaffected by
Andy Bells staunch shifts in Oasis
and Beady Eye.
review
of 2017
36FOUr TeT
New Energy TEXT
2017 turned out to be
a strong year for the
brainy, eclectic,
often psychedelic
subset of electronica
spearheaded by Kieran Four Tet
Hebden. While James Holden and
Floating Points stretched out on
full band jams, and Caribou (in
his Daphni guise) focused on
the dancefloor, Hebdens own
ninth album played to his long-
nurtured strengths, stitching
global acoustic samples into the
gorgeous undulating soundscapes.
Folktronica, it seemed, was back on
the agenda.
35 KInG GIZZarD
& THe lIZarD
wIZarD
Flying Microtonal Banana
HEAVENLY
Having promised
five albums in the
year, the sprawling
Aussie garage-psych
collective have only
managed three at time of writing.
Hardly a failure, not least because
this first of them was a match for
Jamie wdziekonski; shawn brackbill
2016s terrific Nonagon Infinity.
Spacerock overdrive, deft Middle
Eastern flavourings and the odd
moment of melodic calm all
suggested that the Gizzards
profligacy was down to a
generosity of creative spirit,
rather than a tendency to spread
themselves too thin.
JANUARY 2018 UNCUT 63
 review
of 2017
NEW RELEASES
34SAINT
HEAVENLY
ETIENNE
Home Counties Robert Plant:
a knack for
heroic posture
Swiftly following up
2016s Heart Like A
Levee, MC Taylors
A pop band with latest was an
a keen eye for urgent testament
emotional of metaphysical defiance in the
geography, the wake of the years myriad global
longstanding firm of anxieties. A strong sense of
Cracknell, Stanley & Wiggs turned community both of musicians
their gaze on the outer suburbs of and of fans fuelled these rousing
London for their ninth LP. In a year folk-soul songs, plus a belief in the
when such dormitory towns became social usefulness of music in dark
synonymous with Brexit sentiment, times. If its up to me, as Taylor
Saint Etienne found a deeper and sang in Harder Rain, A little love
more sympathetic understanding; would go a long way.
one that memorialised their Home
Counties roots, without ever being
nostalgic for a little England that
probably never existed.
26 RHIANNON
GIDDENS
Freedom Highway
NONESUCH

33 OH SEES
Orc CASTLE FACE
Like his similarly
productive acolytes
King Gizzard, John
Dwyer managed
three albums in 2017,
beginning with an electro-punk
solo set as Damaged Bug and ending
with chamber pop under the new
OCS brand name. In between, he
released what he claimed would be
the last Oh Sees LP, one final hit of
hypnotic garage ramalam, laced
with jazzier and quasi-ambient
passages that testified to Dwyers
ever-expanding artistic range.
Enos Reflections were the key
ambient albums of 2017. Wolfgang
Vogts return to his fted Gas
project for the first time in 17 years
was not always an easy listen,
however, its looming clouds of
orchestrated noise often more
unnerving than meditative. One
to file alongside the Tim Hecker
albums reviewed so warmly by
British folks fully
qualified survivor
celebrated an ornery
half-century in the
game with one of his
best albums in decades: a full band
electric set, cooked up with a bunch
of young American fans led by Steve
Gunn. Im constantly amazed that
these Americans bothered to find
Named after the
Staple Singers
anthem, Giddens
second solo album
was designed, she
told Uncut, to show different
aspects of African-American
experience, from a long time ago to
not that long ago. A commanding
singer with folk, theatrical and
gospel chops aplenty, the former
Carolina Chocolate Drop imbued
new songs with the gravity of
traditionals, and highlighted
old injustices that were still,
scandalously, relevant in 2017.

32 SLEAFORD MODS
Uncut in recent years. out about me, Chapman told
Uncut. All my American friends 25ROBERT PLANT
Carry Fire NONESUCH

ROUGH TRADE
English Tapas
2017 saw the
underground
agitators on
unfamiliar new
stages not least
supporting The Stone Roses at
Wembley Stadium. Their music,
though, stayed just as antagonistic
and uncompromising towards the
mainstream. English Tapas (a pub
meal of half a scotch egg, a cup of
chips, a bit of pickle, Jason
Williamson told Uncut) continued
their vital mission: social critique in
which the grimness is accompanied
by rabble-rousing power electronics
and a scabrous wit.
30 SUSANNE
SUNDFR
Music For People In
Trouble BELLA UNION
After having
become a
Scandinavian
dance-pop star
with 2015s Ten
Love Songs, Sundfr took an
unexpected turn for her fifth solo
album. Reconnecting with the
folkier textures of her early career,
Music For People In Trouble also
showcased a mournful sense
of theatre, with stark piano
settings that aligned her to
the work of a notable duetting
partner on the album, John Grant.
A key role in the BBC Proms Scott
came out with great records last
year William Tyler, Hiss Golden
Messenger, Nathan Bowles, Steve
It seems like its my turn now.
28
The Kid
KAITLYN
AURELIA SMITH
WESTERN VINYL
A cosmic New Age
record about the life
cycle, inspired in
part by David
Attenborough? That
was the latest album by Smith, an
LA master of vintage modular synth
the Buchla Music Easel. Like the
work of Bjrk and 2015s Album Of
The Year winner, Julia Holter, The
Kid was at once experimental and
surprisingly accessible; imbued
Powering towards
his 70th birthday, the
eternally questing
Plant and his
Sensational Shape
Shifters continued to map spiritual
affinities between Celtic mysticism,
American roots, North African
trance, West Country trip-hop and
more. The attitude and delivery may
have evolved over the last 50 years,
but Plants knack for a heroic
posture remained potent as did
his sentimental streak, represented
by a duet on Bluebirds Over The
Mountains with Chrissie Hynde.
24MARGO
THIRD MAN
PRICE
All American Made

31 GAS
Narkopop KOMPAKT
A somewhat less
Walker tribute confirmed a new,
critically garlanded phase of an
intriguing career.
with an organic sense of wonder, in
spite of the retro-futuristic tools with
which it was made.
No hanging around
for Margo Price,
insurgent queen of
aggressive take on Nashvilles awkward

29 MICHAEL
27 HISS GOLDEN
mads perch

electronic music squad. On her swift

than Sleaford Mods, CHAPMAN MESSENGER second album, the no-bullshit
Narkopop and Brian 50 PARADISE OF BACHELORS Hallelujah Anyhow MERGE country star shipped out to Sam

THE UNCUT 2017 END OF YEAR REVIEW in association with

64 UNCUT JANUARY 2018

Phillips studio to dabble in
Memphis soul, corralled Willie
Nelson for a duet and even found
time to rage articulately about the
pay gap, the music business
(Cocaine Cowboys!) and the
serial hypocrisies of American
foreign policy, dating back to
her Reagan-era childhood. I
anticipate backlash, she said,
characteristically undaunted.
23CHUCK JOHNSON
Balsams VDSQ
A quieter year for
New American
Primitives, perhaps,
with honourable
mentions to House
And Land, James Elkington, Bill
Mackay and the Gunn-Truscinski
Duo. But Oaklands Chuck Johnson
epitomised and transcended the
adventurous spirit of the scene,
Balsams being a solo pedal steel
record with an ambient bent
that made it as close to Daniel
Lanois work on Enos Apollo
Soundtracks as it did any notional
folk tradition.
22 TY SEGALL
Ty Segall DRAG CITY
If anyone found
Segalls 2016 album,
Emotional Mugger,
something of a Devo-
infatuated misstep,
the garage rock mavens second
self-titled album was a reassuring
retrenchment, of sorts. As with
2012s Slaughterhouse, the vibe
often suggested The Beatles turning
up on Sub Pop in the late 80s,
Margo Price:
outspoken
country act
anticipating
a backlash
THE UNCUT 2017 END OF YEAR REVIEW in association with
though an expanded, virtuosic
band (including Emmett Cairo
Gang Kelly and Ryley Walker/
Mark Kozelek sideman Ben Boye)
also pushed affairs towards the
odd jazz-tinged freakout,
21LAURA MARLING
Semper Femina
MORE ALARMING
Written, as usual, on
the road, Marlings
sixth album was a
typically wise,
elegant discursion
on the theme of what truly liberates
women and what doesnt. Virgil
and Rilke were referenced but, as
ever, the gifted singer-songwriter
carried her erudition lightly.
Meanwhile, a broadening range
and the innovations of producer
Blake Mills (also behind the fine
Perfume Genius album) brought
a stealthy funk to tracks like the
outstanding Soothing.
20GRIZZLY BEAR
Painted Ruins RCA
How can a truly
democratic band
work cohesively
when its four
members disperse
across a nation? That was the
challenge faced by Grizzly Bear,
once quintessentially of New York,
on their fifth and long-awaited
album. Painted Ruins, nevertheless,
turned out to be an object lesson in
creative collaboration: stealthy
chamber-pop, meticulously
pieced together by Messrs Droste,
Rossen, Taylor and Bear, where
NEW RELEASES
Grizzly Bear:
have stealthy
chamber pop
all wrapped up
the songs accumulated emotional
heft with each listen.
19 THE CLIENTELE
Music For The Age 17 JUANA MOLINA
Halo
Of Miracles TAPETE
A late-career high
from one of Londons
most underrated
bands. The stop-start
career of Alasdair
MacLeans Clientele began in the
early 90s, gradually attracting
more acclaim in the States than
in the Britain they captured so
poetically in song. Their eighth
album again revolved around
a delicate beat-group vibe,
augmented this time by an old
friend and his santoor an Indian
hammered dulcimer that brought
yet more chiming resonance to
already jangling affairs.
18LORDE
Melodrama LAVA
If Lordes breakout
hit, Royals (2013),
raised an arch
eyebrow at the
excesses of the pop
world, her second album found the
young New Zealander subverting
the business from within. Grand
Kate Bush-like ballads (check
Writer In The Dark, especially)
manoeuvred alongside vibrant
party crescendos, coalescing into
a conceptual pop masterpiece
very nearly a match for the more
indie-friendly St Vincents
review
of 2017
Masseduction (the two shared
a producer, Jack Antonoff).
CRAMMED DISCS
The uncanny,
looping music of
Argentine Molina
has long been a
discreet pleasure
for the lucky few whove stumbled
upon it. Her seventh album,
however, found her uprooted from
her lush Buenos Aires garden to an
Arizona studio, and in the process
gathering a little more of the acclaim
shes deserved for years. Imagine a
tropiclia take on Animal Collective
at their most electronically adjusted,
and youre close to the distinct and
shimmering effect of Halo.
16JANE
WEAVER
Modern Kosmology
FIRE
Weavers two-decade
career on the
margins of British
indie gained new
momentum in 2014
with the release of The Silver Globe,
an entrancing patchwork of retro-
electronica, psych and folk. The
follow-up, Modern Kosmology,
built on that, locating a kind of
pagan, Anglicised Krautrock state,
angelina castillo
where fine tunes were never lost
amidst all the retro fittings. It
confirmed Weaver as the natural
successor to the tragically lost
Trish Keenan and Broadcast.
JANUARY 2018 UNCUT 65
 REVIEW
of 2017
new releases
15 JosHua aBrams St Vincent:
who drew on the citys rich tradition announcing
& natural of free and inventive music to create a fantasia of
InFormatIon socIety trancey, ecstatic pieces anchored high-concept
sound
Simultonality TAK:TIL by Abrams work on the guimbri
A new label a three-stringed lute used in gnawa
dedicated to music rituals in lieu of a bass.
on the jazz/post-
rock/global
interface, Tak:til
this year gave a belated UK release
14JulIe Byrne
Not Even Happiness
BASIN ROCK
to one of Uncuts favourite 2016 An exceptional year
albums, by 75 Dollar Bill. They were for female singer-
joined by this Chicago ensemble, songwriters began
in January with the
PREVIOUS release of Byrnes
WINNERS second album, a document of solo
travel years when she crossed the
1997 BoB dylan country and carried no key that
Time Out Of Mind COLUMBIA eventually brought this unadorned
1998 mercury reV talent back to her childhood home
Deserters Songs V2 in Buffalo, Upstate new York. Like
many of her contemporaries in this
1999 tHe FlamIng lIPs
The Soft Bulletin WARNER BROS
2000 lamBcHoP
list, Byrne specialised in a kind of
spectral folk music untethered from
tradition; comparisons with Angel
epic love story, a tribute to his wife
and partner of 48 years. 9 stMasseduction
VIncent
VISTA/CAROLINE
LOMA

11slowdIVe
Nixon CITY SLANg Olsen, even Joni Mitchell, were Its testimony to her
2001 ryan adams keen, and apt. Slowdive DEAD OCEANS singleminded vision
gold LOST HIgHWAY Shoegazing had that Annie Clarks
2002 tHe FlamIng lIPs
Yoshimi Battles The Pink
Robots WARNER BROS
13 FatHer JoHn mIsty
Pure Comedy
BELLA UNION
become a ridiculed
genre at the time of
Slowdives split in
journey, from indie
guitar shredder on
the Polyphonic Spree/Sufjan scene
2003 warren ZeVon The title, perhaps, 1995, but two to international artpop superstar,
The Wind ARTEMIS/RYKO was a joke. But as subsequent decades have given this has seemed so logical. her fifth LP
with so much of Josh most ethereal of indie subsets a was a full-force sensory assault,
2004 BrIan wIlson Tillmans work, the deserved cultural cachet. Like My a seemingly arch fantasia of high-
Smile NONESUCH
lines between satire Bloody Valentines mbv in 2013, the concept sound that positioned her
2005 arcade FIre and heartfelt confession were Reading bands reunion album was as this decades most plausible new
Funeral ROUgH TRADE constantly shifting on this third the perfect articulation of that gauzy Bowie. Just beneath the brilliant
2006 BoB dylan album in his FJM guise. no other aesthetic; so much so, that the surface, though, was Clarks most
Modern Times COLUMBIA 2017 artist proved so divisive, as effects-laden washes of sound came personal work; a reflection on lost
2007 lcd soundsystem Tillmans determined perversities together into what might well have love that gave an already multi-
Sound Of Silver DFA/EMI flourished in the mainstream. been the best work of their career. dimensional work even greater
Still, even the detractors had to layers of import and meaning.

2008 PortIsHead admire his craftsmanship, and
Third ISLAND
how his epic barbed narratives
2009 anImal could be accommodated as
collectIVe Merriweather gorgeous piano ballads that
Post Pavilion DOMINO recalled peak elton and nilsson.
2010 Joanna newsom
Have One On Me DRAg CITY
2011 PJ HarVey
Let England Shake ISLAND
12
Won
Peter Perrett
How The West Was
DOMINO
I feel full of life,
2012 leonard coHen
Old Ideas COLUMBIA Perrett told Uncut on
the eve of the years
2013 my Bloody most heartening
ValentIne comeback. At 65,
m b v MY BLOODY VALENTINE
the former Only One finally put a
2014 tHe war on drugs messy life and sporadic career in
Lost In The Dream SECRETLY CANADIAN order. he recruited his children as
2015 JulIa Holter backing band, and wrote a batch
Have You In My Wilderness of spindly new songs that were as
DOMINO rueful and unsparing about his
Nedda afsari
10
Hurray For tHe
8
rIFF raFF courtney Barnett
The Navigator & Kurt VIle
ATO
Lotta Sea Lice
If Alynda Segarra
had spent much of
her adult life on the
run, first as a train-
hopping hobo and
then as a righteous folk singer in
new Orleans, her sixth hFTRR
album represented a return to her
roots; amidst the Puerto Rican
community in new York. Traces
of Dylan and The Band still
remained, joined now by echoes
of Latin music, Patti Smith and
(on the showstopping Palante)
nina Simone, but the identity
behind The Navigators politically
charged, vividly realised song
MATADOR
A season or two of
bumping into each
other at festivals
resulted in 2017s
most serendipitous
hook-up, as two deceptively
lackadaisical talents colluded on
new songs, old ones and a few
artfully chosen covers (Bellys
Untogether; the superb Fear
Is Like A Forest by Jen Cloher,
Barnetts partner). As with much
of their individual work, Viles
especially, a project that seemed
slight was actually warm,
innovative and immensely

2016 daVId BowIe own former addictions as they cycle was proudly that of Segarra satisfying; as if a friendly
H ISO/RCA/COLUMBIA/SONY were about contemporary celebrity a singular talent, finally being woodshedding session accidentally
culture. At heart, though, was an given a platform. turned out a modern classic.

tHe uncut 2017 end oF year reVIew iN associatioN with

66 UNCUT JANUARY 2018

7 tHe natIonal
Sleep Well Beast 4AD
encroaching middle
age suited Matt
Berninger and his
national cohorts,
as their lugubrious
elegance reached a new high point
on this seventh album. Myriad side-
projects and a general move from
new York did not, as with Grizzly
Bear, diminish the intuitive crafting
of these songs. But it was Berningers
narrative of a marriage in quiet crisis
that caught the attention; not least
because the lyrics were co-written
with his wife, Carin Besser.
6 rIcHard
Peasant
dawson
WEIRD WORLD/
DOMINO
newcastles Dawson
is a true maverick; an
avant-garde denizen,
schooled in Captain
Beefheart and
nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, who now
makes highly individual but
communally rousing folk music, of a
kind. Peasant was his best and most
accessible album yet remarkable,
perhaps, given it being a study of
various medieval archetypes and
myths herald, Prostitute, etc.
A magic-realist bard essaying his
own, surreal Canterbury Tales.
5 Joan
Joan sHelley
Shelley NO QUARTER
Jeff Tweedy released
his own spare,
acoustic set in 2017
(Together At Last),
but it was another
one that he produced in Wilcos
Chicago Loft that became one of the
years best. Shelley, from Louisville,
was blessed with a voice of clarity
and emotional maturity (think
Linda Thompson), fine guitar skills,
an adept sparring partner (nathan
Salsburg, also on acoustic) and a
songwriting style that was graceful,
unfussy and profoundly moving.
her fourth, and best, album.
4 tHe weatHer
statIon
The Weather Station
PARADISE OF BACHELORS
not unlike Joan
Shelley, Torontos
Tamara Lindeman
deftly moved her
career as The
Weather Station into a new phase
tHe uncut 2017 end oF year reVIew iN associatioN with
new releases REVIEW
of 2017
this year, with an emphatically self-
titled fourth album. She artfully
transcended her folk background,
James Murphy:
back with a
heavier, denser
dance/rock
rocking out a little without ever masterpiece
losing intimacy and focus, or
detracting from the precision and
valence of the exceptional poetry
with which she stocked her songs.
3 KendrIcK
DAMN
lamar
TOP DAWg
After the jazz-
inflected sprawl that
was 2015s To Pimp A
Butterfly, Lamars
follow-up enlisted a
raft of mainstream heavy-hitters
(producer Mike WiLL Made-It,
Rihanna, even U2) for a more pop-
friendly, streamlined set. As ever,
ALBUM OF THE YEAR
though, Lamars complexity defied
easy narratives, so that DAMNs
1
meditations on fame, faith and all
lcd soundsystem
points in between were more often
introverted and dappled with
amniotic FX than obvious anthems.
(hUMBLe a rousing exception). A
American Dream
DFA/COLUMBIA
rapper blessed with a flow, nuance
and unostentatious authority that
currently feels unparalleled. W hen LCD Soundsystems
second album, Sound Of
Silver, was anointed as Uncut
Album Of The Year a decade ago,
the accompanying citation
concluded, An essential record
for anyone with a great record
collection, a faintly messy past,
and a desire to grow old, if not
quite gracefully, then at least with
the strength to laugh at their own
flaws. Ten years on, and 10 years
Lamar: older, much of this still seems salient to James Murphy and his remarkable
streamlined band. But in the interim, LCD Soundsystem became mainstream stars,
ostentatiously retired at Madison Square Garden, and then reformed
many thought cynically for a lucrative summer or two on the festival
2 tHe war on drugs
A Deeper
Understanding ATLANTIC
circuit. Another masterpiece was not widely assumed to be on the cards.
American Dream, though, turned out to be precisely that. It found
Murphy fully invested with the business of being middle-aged, even
An agonisingly close witness to the deaths of heroes who became associates; Bowie, who
call for Adam tapped Murphy to produce Blackstar, was memorialised on the closing
Granduciel, who just Black Screen. Were hitting a very difficult age for the people that
missed becoming the invented the music that means the most to me, Murphy told Uncut. And
third artist (after theyre not being replaced.
Dylan and The Flaming Lips) to There was still humour on American Dream, and a reluctance to give up
score two Uncut Albums Of The the partying and the snarking (cf Tonite, emotional haircut, Other
Year. Granduciel and cos sequel to Voices). But it was also a denser, heavier album: haunted by mortality;
Lost In The Dream further refined augmenting the usual shameless nods to Bowie and Talking heads with
their formula, meticulously layering
the motorik rhythms, antique
synths and imperishable signifiers
gothic allusions to The Cure and Joy Division. There was, too, retribution,
in the shape of a staggering and vicious exorcism of an old friendship,
how Do You Sleep?
of heartland rock into a hugely And above it all, it felt as if LCD Soundsystem were asserting themselves
rewarding whole. Granduciel gave self-confidently as an authentically great band, one whose mastery of the
the impression that he had almost rock and dance canon meant that they werent just studying their heroes,
worried his major label to death; A they were also learning from their own early albums. The old guys are
Deeper Understanding made explicit frightened and frightening to behold, Murphy declaimed in Call The
how all the effort was, in the end, Police. In 2017, in many ways, it seemed as if they had the last laugh.
entirely worthwhile.
JANUARY 2018 UNCUT 67
 best of 2017
kendrick
lamar
album of the year damn.
lcd
soundsystem
american dream

the xx
i see you

courtney
barnett &
kurt vile thundercat
lotta sea lice drunk

st. vincent
masseduction sampha
process

grizzly bear
painted ruins

bonobo
migration
alt-j
relaxer
arcade fire
everything now

wolf alice
visions of
a life

the the fopp list

fopp
100 see our complete top 100 albums of the year in this
months edition of the fopp list or online at fopp.com
while stocks last
 the war public service
on drugs broadcasting
a deeper every valley
understanding

s
fleet foxe
crack-up

goldfrapp
silver eye

jane weaver
modern
kosmology

father john
misty
pure comedy

the nationa
l
sleep well
beast
run the jewels
run the jewels 3

idles
brutalism

london
grammar
truth is a
beautiful thing
fopp stores
stormzy oh sees
gang signs orc
bristol college green
& prayer cambridge sidney st
edinburgh rose st
glasgow union st & byres rd
london covent garden
manchester brown st
nottingham broadmarsh
shopping centre
oxford gloucester green
70 UNCUT JANUARY 2018

I wouldnt come
back unless I knew
we were better
AN AUDiENCE WiTh JAMES MURPhY
J
AMES Murphy is giving Uncut
a tour of his dressing room in
Atlanta, Georgia, via a video
conferencing call. Heres a
wardrobe, he says, waving his
iPad in the direction of a large trunk.
People sometimes like different sneakers
to play in, like show shoes. Then theres
a bunch of food back there, and theres
a little couch. Oh, and some wine.
Murphys band, LCD Soundsystem,
have just begun the US leg of their tour
supporting American Dream Uncuts
Album Of The Year that is
also the bands first new
material since their reunion.
It has, admits Murphy, been
an unexpectedly protracted
comeback. This hasnt gone
to plan, not at all, he admits.
I was supposed to be done
with the record before we
played Coachella in 2016. I was
slower making the record than I
wanted. But Im happy. We tour
well. As you saw theres lots of
wine, and theres a guy down
the hall who makes espresso.
The band like being with each
other, the crew has been with us
since the olden days. But its tough
four of us have kids.
And with that, Murphy piles
into your questions on a range of
subjects ranging from real-estate
tips to soft play recommendations
and working with Britney Spears.
Im happy right now, he says
chewing on a handful of peanuts.
Im super lucky.
What makes a good
comeback? And a bad one?
Colin Yorke, Reading
Being good at it. Being a shadow
of your former self with less
Currently touring this years
triumphant reunion album,
the LCD Soundsystem
frontman covers everything
from Bowies guitar tips to
sharing a rider with his son
interview by michael bonner
expensive gear, and not really
being into it, I think makes a bad
comeback. For me, I wouldnt
come back unless I knew we
were better. I realise I might not
write another Losing My Edge
or All My Friends, songs that
captured some sort of zeitgeist
and therefore have a place in the
culture. But Im not Lou Reed,
Im not going to get a headless
Steinberger and do a Honda
scooter ad. I think Lou Reed
was quite fearless:
Above: debut I dont give a shit.
LCD SS single I didnt give a shit
Losing My Edge; then, I dont give a
Bowie playing
one of his Supro shit now, I just think
Dual Tone work. He almost
guitars in 2003
wilfully ignored
thezeitgeistness of
some of his songs.
I just watched a Yes
documentary, and
though I love Yes, there
comes a time when you
have to think, Dude, to
thine own self be true.
Youve got to know
what is not a good
record and what
is a good record.
lcd soundsystem review
of 2017
Whats the best piece of advice
David Bowie gave you?
Emma Berry, Southampton
You should get a Supro Dual Tone, its
what Link Wray played. He had two Supro
Dual Tone guitars and he was very proud
of them. He had an amazing ability to be
childishly excited by things. When we
were doing Blackstar, hed played sax
on the demo. Were working with Donny
McCaslin, who is arguably one of the
best young living sax players, and David
said, Are we leaving my sax in? Tony
Visconti said, Yeah, totally. And David
was like, I played sax on a record with
Donny McCaslin! It was very genuine.
But, yes, he was very excited by the Dual
Tones. So I bought and one and played it
on Emotional Haircut on the new album
and love it. So I took his advice and bought
two 1950s Link Wray-style Dual Tones.
Do you mind people still banging
on about Losing My Edge?
Jon McCrea, Dublin
No, Im super proud of it. Theres great
footage of Pulp playing Glastonbury and
Jarvis says, The next song were going
to play might be the only song were
remembered for but I dont care, because
its a fucking good song. And they play
Common People. I feel that way, too.
I saw some interviews with John Lydon
where hes complaining about how hes
been in PiL for 30 years but people just
bang on about the Pistols. I love PiL, I
think PiL are a superior band, but you
cant complain about how important
your teenage punk band was. If people
TabaTha Fireman/redFerns
really care until they die about your
ramblings as a 19-year-old, thats a lucky
break, because most people dont fucking
care about anything anybody does.
Whats the rarest/coolest record
you own? Luke Spencer, London
JANUARY 2018 UNCUT 71
 review lcd soundsystem
of 2017
Glitter band: LCD
Soundsystem at
Coachella, 2016
My 80s dark-wave tapes. I put out a goth
album in 1987. I have cassettes, four-track
stuff, from before we went into the studio
that I vastly preferred at the time to the
finished album. I found the tapes in a
storage locker I didnt know I had. I tried
to cancel a credit card and the company
said, What do you want us to do with
the monthly bill for the storage facility?
I had a locker that Id stored stuff in during
the 90s and then forgot about. There
was an $8 IKEA table in there, my ex-
girlfriend-from-high-schools painting, my
childhood Dungeons & Dragons manual
and two shoeboxes full of cassettes.
They date from 198387. I also have some
amazing photos of myself with some really
exclusive 80s haircuts. Im tempted to get
one of those pictures and make a limited-
edition My Dark Wave comp.
Can you tell us a bit about doing
demos with Britney Spears?
Ivy Roger, Blackheath
Id never met a Mouseketeer before. You
know, a professional entertainer. Ive
never met Justin Timberlake, but Justin
Timberlake seems to be beyond fear. All of
my friends are ready to stay home, ready to
second guess it, theyre all tied up inside
like punk-rock Woody Allens. So we went
in, Hey, do you wanna sing something?
Kevin Mazur/Getty iMaGes for CoaChella; roGer Kisby/Getty iMaGes
Britney said, Yeah! And just went for it
in front of us. I thought, I dont know how
to fucking deal with a person like this.
We tried to write lyrics. I thought we could
play her some music and see how she
responded. So we were playing Suicide:
Does any of this surprise or excite you?
She was very professional and, I felt,
she was immune to a certain degree to
manythings we played. So it was a day
of fucking around. Then she went away
tolunch and never came back.
Tell us a funny Steve Albini story.
Charlie Gershowitz, Chicago
Hes not a funny story guy. But Im very
close to Bob Weston. Steve and I know
each other and were polite to each other
72 UNCUT JANUARY 2018
but I dont have Steves email
or phone number. I was
aligning the tape machine
hey, ladies! doing some
mixes for the new LP. I was
talking to Bob on FaceTime
during Shellac rehearsals
about problems I was having
with the over-biasing. Were
trying to remember how many
volts kilohertz is at zero dp
referencing +4. Bob said,
I think its 1.34 volts
Were both scratching our
heads then Bob shouts,
Hey, Steve! How many
volts is one kilohertz at +4?
Steve just walks through the
background, not even
looking at him, and
yells, CMON, BOB.
ITS POINT FOUR
EIGHT SEVEN. I was
like, Oh, shit. Yeah,
yeah. Its that.
Youre a 47-year
old man with a
young child. Whats
your worst/most
memorable soft-
play experience?
Mick Goodwin,
Cheam
Ive never been to a soft-play place. When
my child was not yet crawling,my wife
and I had a play mat on our floor. I realised
that on one side of this mat, if he were
able to crawl, the first object he wouldve
encountered was one of those giant paper
My wife was living in
London when we met. She
has a little council estate flat
she bought I deeply love it
guillotines thats basically a machete on
a hinge. So we took away the baby arm
remover and got rid of the electrical cables
and that is my version of soft play. Is he a
fan of the band? My son loves everybody
in the band and crew. He thinks concerts
are when you basically go backstage, eat
the rider and get on the bus. Some well-
meaning guy is going to take his kid and
a bunch of his friends, including my son,
to a concert as a birthday party one day.
My sons gonna be super excited until they
get to the show then hell be like, What
the living fuck are we doing out here?
Wheres the catering?
I have plans for a residential
property empire, in the manner
of Donald Trump. What/where is
the new Brooklyn going to be?
Dave Richardson, New York
Something inside me has just
died. Cos every time I search
inside myself for the answer, the
fact that I can probably come
up with it, creates a death. I
wont say because I dont want
anybody moving to these places.
It would just ruin a bunch of
other peoples lives. But, hey, Ill
say Rockaway. If you could have
all the benefits of gentrification
the only one Id want, without
all the other shit, would be really
high-level coffee shops.
Of your early DJ gigs, whats
the most memorable?
Martha Anderson, Edinburgh
The first one. It was at the DFA
office, I think it was New Years
Eve, 1999. We set up a DJ booth
on a balcony. There were these
Ecstasy tablets called Mitsubishi
going around at the time. I had
two, broke them into quarters, put them
on the four corners of the turntables,
and just worked my way through
them during my set. Apparently, this
involved me playing Mother Sky
by Can [left], so I could run out on the
dancefloor and dance, cos its so long.
Then Id play it again, so I could keep
running back onto the dancefloor.
East London or East Village?
Sheena Roberts, Oxford
Top: Murphy DJing I dont spend much time in the East Village
with his rare records right now, but I do spend a lot of time in
in 2008 (dark-wave
tapes not pictured) East London. My wife was living in London
when we met. She has a little council
estate flat she bought and we kept it. Its a
tiny, tiny place, but I deeply love it. I dont
have fucking tens of thousands of records
there, so I can just be a guy in a little place.
I also partly worked on American Dream
in London. We did some work at Paul
Epworths church in Crouch End and in
one of the rooms at the Strongrooms in
Shoreditch. We spent most of the time in a
place Al and Felix from Hot Chip have.
American Dream is on DfA/Columbia
 best of 2017
laura marling tinariwen
semper femina elwan

ll &
rhiannon jason isbe
giddens 400 un it
the
freedom the nashville
highway sound

nadine shah
holiday
richard destination
dawson
peasant

aimee mann
mental illness

broken social
scene
hug of thunder

lorde
melodrama
t
ghostpoe
dark days gorillaz
+ canapes humanz
the
horrors
v
bicep
bicep

fopp stores
bristol college green
the fopp list cambridge sidney st
edinburgh rose st
the see our complete top 100 albums of the year in this
glasgow union st & byres rd
fopp months edition of the fopp list or online at fopp.com
london covent garden
manchester brown st
100 while stocks last
nottingham broadmarsh
shopping centre
oxford gloucester green
review album by album
of 2017

Hurray For
Alynda
Segara
looking
thoughtful
in 2013

The Rff Raff

Alynda Segarra takes us deep into her
tunnel of songwriting...

I
FEEL like I woke up one day and it was like, Where did the past
17 years of my life go? Im in the middle of Nebraska, walking
because we cant get a ride
After leaving New York and escaping her roots in the mid-
2000s, Alynda Segarra left the hobo lifestyle to settle in New
Orleans, where she learnt to write songs as leader and lynchpin of Hurray For
The Riff Raff. As she takes Uncut through her six albums to date, it becomes
clear that the story of the group is also the story of Segarras personal
evolution, growing in confidence and ambition, and embracing her identity
as a politicised Puerto Rican woman.
This is my role, she explains, Im supposed to travel the world and teach
people about what Puerto Rico is Were not talking about subservient
maids, were talking about radical, revolutionary people who are not dealing
with this shit anymore.
Along the way, shes also been deeply inspired by her many heroes, from
Patti Smith and Rodriguez to John Lennon and Bob Dylan. I wanna write
songs where people are like, Oh my God, she didnt hide anything Each
step is getting deeper into the tunnel of songwriting. TOM PiNNOck

IT DONT MEAN I DONT
LOVE YOU
SELF-RELEASED, 2008
Segarras overdub-heavy debut,
inspired by her early time in the
Big Easy
This was the
start of me really
putting down
roots in New
Orleans. I
decided, OK,
Im gonna focus
on writing songs before that, I was
with a hobo band, Dead Mans Street
Orchestra, travelling, playing banjo
and washboard on the street,
making money with Dixieland jazz
bands. But my life was moving away
from the hobo lifestyle, and that was
when I met [multi-instrumentalist]
Walt McClements. This was recorded
at a home studio, that Aubrey
[Freeman], the bass player on the LP,
and his wife Shae, who played the
saw and loads of other instruments,
had in the Bywater in New Orleans,
during the summer. We did it in a
week I lived down the block, so it
was a walk or bike ride away. It was a
year or two after [Katrina], things
were cheap and everything was in
flux. In the Bywater, there were still
these huge signs people had painted
during the storm that said, HELP or
food and water need now, SOS. I
was still very much learning about
what it meant to live in New Orleans.
YOUNG BLOOD BLUES
SELF-RELEASED, 2010
With fiddle player Yosi Perlstein
on-board, Segarra attempts to
create her own On The Beach
Aubrey and
Shae left the
group, and I
needed to really
refocus. I had
first met Yosi
[Perlstein]
years before when I was travelling.
We rode trains together from
Minneapolis to Seattle, but Id
always heard about him he was
like this mythic person, a tough,
cool, trans fiddle player who was
always riding trains all over the
country. Young Blood Blues was a lot
about me trying to convince myself I
could do this, trying to believe in
myself. It was really ambitious at
the time I was so obsessed by Neil
Young, and that was my first dive
into a songwriter like that. I d read
Shakey, I listened to all of his albums.
I wanted to make Young Blood Blues
my On The Beach! I Know You is
such a perfect example of why I
started writing songs, this very
confessional, healing, feminist
songwriting that I was focused on
doing. I wanted to be vulnerable,
and to make songs that were like
affirmations that was my whole
mission as a songwriter, to write
music for women and for queer
people and people who have
suffered from trauma. We recorded
at the Living Room Studios, which
was my first time in a real studio. It
used to be a church, and its on the
west bank of New Orleans, so we got
to ride the ferry over every day. I had
just met Sam Doores, so that was a
really big change in my life.
LOOK OUT MAMA
LOOSE/BORN TO WIN, 2012
Hooking up with Alabama Shakes
producer Andrija Tokic, the band
make this strong, Beatles-inspired LP
After Young
Blood Blues we
went on this
huge two-
month tour. I
bought a van
and Sam got a
band together, which is now The
Deslondes, and we hit the road for
two months, doing the entire
country. We all almost died, it was so
heavy, but on that tour was where we
met Andrija [Tokic], because we
played at the Five Spot in Nashville
and he was our sound guy. After that
crazy tour I was trying to write a ton
of songs I got into Townes Van
Zandt and got really obsessed with
The Beatles. I was trying to write
songs that felt a bit more energetic. I
think at that time I wanted to be
someone else for a while, too, I felt
tired of being myself, I wanted to try
on a persona, and experience a little
bit more joy in life. So a lot of that
influenced Look Out Mama, as well
as hanging out with Sam, obviously.
With Look Out Mama there was a lot
more focus on arranging things into
a production, especially with things
like Ode To John And Yoko. But it
was very collaborative in the studio,
that was the first time I had fun
recording I felt a bit more secure,
and I was having ideas and not being
afraid to say them.
MY DEAREST DARKEST
NEIGHBOR
MOD MOBILIAN RECORDS/THIS IS AMERICAN MUSIC,
2013
For this low-key covers set, Segarra
delved into the work of her favourite
writers, including Gillian Welch and
Joni Mitchell
It was so fun
getting into The
Beatles at this
time, and Dylan
and Townes Van
Zandt. And that
was all thanks
to Sam [Doores], because growing up
I was into punk, and I was listening
to Bikini Kill, the Dead Kennedys
and also Ani DiFranco when no-one
was around! And then as I got older I
got focused on trying to listen to
female musicians, the blues women,
like Bessie Smith. And this was my
first time letting in some guys OK,

74 UNCUT JANUARY 2018


and proudly
confident in 2016
what do you have to
say? And it turned out,
it was a lot. This album
was also made with
Andrija, and it was
really nice to dive into
these classic songs,
and try and figure out
what makes a great,
long-lasting song. I
wanted to have the
physical experience of
playing the chords and
feel what it felt like to
play these songs. It
was research,
definitely. UNCUT
CLASSIC
SMALL TOWN
HEROES
ATO, 2014
With Segarra fully taking over
production duties, the Riff Raffs
excellent fifth album brought old-
time styles into the present day
This was when I really decided to
take control of my life. I felt like Id
grown so much as a person and as a
songwriter. I always had a vision,
thats what I realised throughout my
songwriting I always heard the
whole band in my head when I was
writing, but whether I felt like it was
OK to say my idea I think I was just
too shy. So on Small Town Heroes,
especially after working with
Andrija for two records, I was very
comfortable saying, I have a vision
for this. The album cover
says it all. I just wanted to
create this universe, at the
crossroads of all these genres,
all these travels that wed done as
a band, but also the crossroads of
being in New Orleans, where youre
like What country am I in? What
time period am I in? So that was
really the focus of this album, to
take you on a journey. I always felt
that I had been writing political
songs from a feminist perspective
that idea that the personal is
political but writing St Roch
Blues and The Body Electric
was a big step in me saying, This
is my take on the current political
environment in the United States.
There havent been enough voices
like mine celebrated, I dont think,
so I feel very free in that I can rip
people like The Beatles off and itll
sound different!
THE NAVIGATOR
ATO, 2017
For her acclaimed, punchier sixth
record, Segarra returned to New
York for a bildungsroman-esque
concept album
The common
thread between
all the previous
albums is that
Im in New
Orleans with
this world of
people Ive known since I was 19,
and feeling very supported or
claustrophobic. But I call The
Navigator my Saturn returns record:
in astrology they talk about the ages
of 27 to 30 as this very serious time,
where you enter a new phase in your
life. I was living in Nashville, and I
hadnt felt that alone since I was in
7th grade, but it forced me to once
again really take charge of what I
was doing. Paul Butler was the
This is my role. Im supposed to travel
the world and teach people about what
Puerto Rico is
ALYNDA SEGARRA
review
of 2017
producer I was like, How is this
British man from the Isle Of Wight
gonna understand this concept
album about a Puerto Rican girl
travelling through time-saving
people from gentrification? But
thats Paul Butler, he transcends all
of those ideas of -isms and identities.
When The Beatles saw Elvis and
they were like, Thats what I wanna
do, for me, it was when I saw Patti
Smith perform live at Electric Lady
for the 40th anniversary of Horses,
and then I heard Rodriguez, and
those two together, I was like,
Thats it, I can do that. Thats who I
am. It felt like a return to me, like I
went on this journey. Small Town
Heroes was like this really long
roadtrip, and then I went back
home to the city kid, street poet,
underground world. It felt like I was
finally stepping into my role fully.
The Navigator was this very
important journey of me getting in
touch with my ancestors, and
getting in touch with this very
ancient power of where my people
come from.
sarrah danziger
JANUARY 2018 UNCUT 75
 review
of 2017
archive releases
30 sUPer FUrrY
aNiMals
Radiator BMG
If SFAs first album
showed their breezy
way with classic
indie-rock tropes, its
follow-up, Radiator,
revealed the real extent of their
ambitions. The 20th-anniversary
deluxe edition covered the whole
gamut prog, powerpop, techno
and beyond chucking in the
outstanding Ice Hockey Hair EP
and a daft rave cover of The Boy
With The Thorn In His Side.
29 The
rePlaceMeNTs
For Sale: Live at Maxwells
1986 RHINO
A characteristically
messy phase in
the Mats career
just after the
breakthrough of Tim,
just before Bob Stinson was fired
was revisited on this evocative live
set. Westerberg and cos attempt to
play Sweets Fox On The Run Eno cemented his reputation; this
a song they clearly did not know
captured the unruly spirit of
proceedings; a masterclass in
turning rocknroll sloppiness into
something romantic and even noble.
28 raMONes
Leave Home: 40th
Anniversary Deluxe
Edition RHINO
Rhinos ongoing,
exhaustive Ramones
project again
rendered one of their
brisk classics into an
unlikely epic hence a remastered
version and a thunderous new mix
of the whole album, plus extra discs
featuring outtakes and a 77 CBGBs
show. Glue, mental illness, horror
movies were par for the course, but
here was where Joeys cute, romantic
streak came to the fore, too.
27 JON hassell
Fourth World
Volume Two: Dream
Theory In Malaya TAK:TIL
Hassells heavily
processed trumpet
tone became a signal
of the exotic and
unearthly through
the late 70s and 80s, as he took on
lawrence watson
a role as the art/ambient scenes
Miles Davis. Two albums with Brian
The UNcUT 2017 eND OF Year revieW in association with
76 UNCUT JANUARY 2018
Be Televised) with deep cuts from
Phil Cohran, Horace Tapscott and
Phil Ranelin. A soundtrack to the
superb Tate Modern exhibition of
the same name.
22 TONY cONraD
Ten Years Alive
On The Infinite Plain
SUPERIOR VIADUCT
To rock fans, Conrad
was mostly known
as a pre-Velvets
cohort of John Cale.
In other circles,
however, the musician and
filmmaker (who died in 2016) was
revered as an avant-garde superstar,
and this previously unreleased
soundtrack performance was
greeted as a holy grail of
minimalism: an unyielding
90-minute violin drone, reminiscent
The Smiths: of Conrads collaboration with
some indie Faust, Outside The Dream Syndicate.
bands were
21
bigger than
others MiDOri TaKaDa
Through The
Looking Glass PALTO FLATS/
all of them. Here was reliably WRWTFWW
second, from 1981, also featuring encyclopaedic evidence, the Another minimalist
kindred spirits Daniel Lanois and original prog-disco marvels gem unearthed in
Michael Brook. Reissue the pre-Eno augmented by a deluxe boxload 2017, the Japanese
albums next, please! of remixes. composers Through
The Looking Glass
26 liFT TO
eXPerieNce
The Texas-Jerusalem
24The
The sMiThs
Queen Is Dead
WARNER BROS
was a more approachable work than
that of Conrad: a polyrhythmic
Asian response to Steve Reich and
Crossroads MUTE With Morrisseys Terry Riley, on which Takada
Reuniting just in time latest comeback a overdubbed herself playing
for the apocalypse familiar combination everything from a marimba to
they predicted back of average music and a Coke bottle. The missing link
in 2001, perhaps, problematic politics, between Olivier Messiaen and
Texas Lift To it was a comfort to return to the third Boards Of Canada?
Experience restaged their sole Smiths album, now complemented
album at shows in 2016, prefacing
this deluxe reissue. Critically, the
whole Biblical space-rock
by a hearty 1986 concert (Craig
Gannon on second guitar), B-sides
and demos, plus the unedited
20 variOUs arTisTs
Running The
Voodoo Down:
masterpiece was remixed to the version of the still-thrilling title Explorations In
greater satisfaction of Josh Pearson track. All those people, all those Psychrockfunksouljazz
and his bandmates. A debut album lives/Where are they now? 1967-80 FESTIVAL
and fiery Peel session completed Named after a Miles
the tale of a band whose time,
finally, was now. 23 variOUs arTisTs
Soul Of A Nation
Davis track, this
mind-expanding
25 UNDerWOrlD
Beaucoup Fish UMC
SOUL JAZZ
As usual with Soul
Jazz comps, the
compilation
examined how a
generation of African-American
Overshadowed subtitle told the musicians reclaimed rock
a little by its whole story: imperatives as the 60s rolled into
predecessors Afro-Centric the 70s. An adventurous cast
Second Toughest Visions In The Age Of Black Power: crystallised around a core quartet
In The Infants and Underground Jazz, Street Funk & of Miles, George Clinton, Sly Stone
Dubnobasswithmyheadman on The Roots of Rap 1964-79. And as and Jimi Hendrix. My soul, as
release in 1999, the third album ever, their superb curatorial skills The Chambers Brothers pertinently
of Underworlds techno phase mixed canonical picks (Gil Scott- observed in 1968, has been
may well have aged the best of Herons The Revolution Will Not psychedelicized!

19
Box
BUZZcOcKs
Buzzcocks (Mk 1)
DOMINO
Among the releases
to celebrate the
40th anniversary
of punk, Domino
provided a definitive
compendium of the formative,
Howard Devoto era of the
Manchester legends. Included in the
box was the vital Spiral Scratch EP,
plus Times Up, a set of October 1976
demos that had originally surfaced
as bootlegs. The first stirrings of
nervy youths whose singer Im
already a has-been! appeared
artfully jaded from the very start.
18 Beach BOYs
1967 Sunshine
Tomorrow CAPITOL
Brian Wilsons
endless tour of Pet
Sounds returned
to Britain in the
summer, but this
time a few rarities had entered the
setlist, reprogrammed to coincide
with this useful package. Sunshine
Tomorrow catalogued the busy
aftermath of Smile, featuring
outtakes from Smiley Smile, a new
stereo mix of the undervalued and
soulful Wild Honey, plus Leid In
Hawaii a strange, Brian-less live
album that fell off the release
schedules half a century ago.
17 aceTONe
1992-2001
LIGHT IN THE ATTIC
Fans of Spiritualized,
The Verve and
Oasis might have
encountered an
understated support
act in the mid-90s; a Californian
trio whose dreamy, fractured
recalibration of rock was one of
the decades secret pleasures.
Light In The Attic endowed them
with a deserved retrospective, a
testament to an act that kindred
spirit Hope Sandoval called one
of my all-time favourite bands.
16The Necessaries
Event Horizon BE WITH
Obscure in his
lifetime, the past 15
years or so have seen
the work of late New
York composer and
producer Arthur Russell elevated to
the status of godhead. Among all the
The UNcUT 2017 eND OF Year revieW in association with
mutant disco, avant-garde song and
more rediscovered, though, who
knew he played cello and keys in
an early-80s new wave band? Quite
a find, not least because The
Necessaries turned out to be strong
contemporaries of The Feelies.
15caN
The Singles MUTE
There were many
ways to remember
the late Holger
Czukay after his
death in 2017, and
this handy collection of Can gobbets
showcased plenty of them: not just
as Stockhausen-affiliated bassist of
the fearless Krautrock era, but a
prankster who would note, They
dont wear pants in the hoolah-
hoolah dance, in the midst of one
late single. The whole singles story
exposed an even wilder and dafter
band than many realised.
14 JOhNNY cash
The Original Sun
Albums 1957-64 CHARLY
A heroic effort at
sorting out The Man
In Blacks messy
early discography,
Charlys lavish box
brought all seven original Sun
albums together for the first time.
Twenty-three outtakes, rarities and
alternative versions including
1955s My Two Timin Woman,
forgotten until Cash re-recorded
the song 48 years later with Rick
Rubin completed a foundational
slab of 20th-century culture, finally
restored to order.
Radiohead:
giving fans
a Lift, 20
years on
archive releases
13BarK
Hex
PsYchOsis
FIRE
The solitary album
by Graham Sutton
and John Lings
band in their
original form, Hex
re-emerged as the key missing
link between the spare meditations
of late Talk Talk and the airy
possibilities of post-rock. Twenty-
three years after its first release,
it was happily recontextualised:
out of an indie milieu, towards
a wan, elusive East London
correlative to Future Days-era
Can, or early-70s Miles Davis.
12hsKer D
Savage Young D
NUMERO GROUP
When this
incendiary round-up
of the Minneapolis
trios early work was
streamed online a
few days before Grant Harts death,
one hopes he was able to appreciate
the ensuing love directed towards
his old band. Savage Young D
catalogued a band moving from
post-punk to hardcore, and beyond.
Forty-seven out of 69 songs were
previously unissued, including
a complete alternative take on
Land Speed Record.
11raDiOheaD
OKNOTOK XL
If a 20th-anniversary
revamp of OK
Computer werent
enough, Radiohead
also chose to unveil
review
of 2017
three long-discussed lost songs
previously only found on live
bootlegs on a second disc also
full of valuable B-sides. Lift,
especially, was extraordinary:
an anthem that couldve made
Radiohead even bigger, had they
not shelved it in the interests of
their own sanity.
10 elliOTT sMiTh
Either/Or:
Expanded Edition
KILL ROCK STARS
Another classic
from 1997 received
the two-CD
treatment. A gently
sparkling remaster
pointed up the craftsmanship of
Smiths work on the original LP,
while CD2 showcased his discreet
live virtuosity, and uncovered a
clutch of demos and unreleased
songs, notably the gorgeous I
Figured You Out, subsequently
gifted to Mary Lou Lord.
9 The GraTeFUl DeaD
Cornell 5/8/77 RHINO
A critical moment
in official Dead
releases, as the
show most frequently
cited as their best
ever finally went legit. Exploratory
but not intimidatory, reverberant
with good times, you could
understand the Cornell hype,
especially on an ecstatic Scarlet
Begonias/Fire On The Mountain.
Other May 77 shows were just as
good, though (see: the night after,
in Buffalo), as evinced by vast
boxset Get Shown The Light,
released simultaneously.
8 Purple
PriNce
RHINO
Rain Deluxe
The Prince
motherlode did not
quite materialise in
2017 Deliverance,
an EP of tracks from
2006-2008, was quickly suppressed
by his estate in April. An official
campaign began, though, with
a deluxe Purple Rain, featuring
a remaster overseen by Prince
himself, a live show, and a bonus
disc of previously unreleased
material. Fantastic in itself, but
almost unbearably exciting when
one imagined what still remained
in The Vault.
danny clinch
JANUARY 2018 UNCUT 77
review
of 2017
archive releases
7 BriaN eNO
Before And After
Science UMC/VIRGIN EMI
in the studio into an essential six-
disc set. Among the marvels curated
so lovingly by Giles Martin: a new
Neil Young in
March 1976:
Pretty stony
Enos early catalogue unrushed! stereo mix; and a
hadnt enjoyed a wealth of alternate takes through
vinyl remaster in which the genesis of a masterpiece
decades, so the was painstakingly revealed.
return of his first Guaranteed to raise a smile in even
four vocal albums was a minor the most obsessive Beatlemaniac.
godsend. Another Green World
benefited most from the upgrade,
but Uncuts writers privileged the
last, 77s Before And After Science,
4 DaviD BOWie
A New Career In A
New Town EMI/UNIVERSAL
anticipating as it did both his ethno- EMIs comprehensive
funk excursions with Talking Heads boxset reorganisation
and his storied ambient work. of Bowies career
arrived in Berlin, and

6 NicK cave aND The

BaD seeDs
Lovely Creatures: The
the late 70s. Beyond
the more obvious pair of Low and
Heroes, a long-planned, dramatic

ReiSSUe OF THe YeAr

Best Of Nick Cave And remix of Lodger proved the main
The Bad Seeds 1984- attraction. I started remixing it on

1
2014 MUTE my own time [when there was a

As Cave, improbably,
turned 2016s
Skeleton Tree into an
arena-rock spectacle,
a delayed survey of
his post-Birthday Party career
arrived as back-up. Typical of 2017s
marquee reissues, Lovely Creatures
told the Cave saga in a variety of
iterations; most satisfactory was the
3CD/DVD version, with an intimate
256-page hardcover book thrown in
for good measure.
Neil YOuNG
break in Blackstar], without Davids
knowledge, Tony Visconti told
Uncut. When I had five mixes done,
Hitchhiker
I played it to him. He absolutely
REPRISE
loved it and gave it the green light.
3 alice cOlTraNe
The Ecstatic Music
O N August 5, the image of a
filing cabinet drawer appeared
on the website neilyoungarchives.
Of Alice Coltrane com. A typewritten page from the
Turiyasangitananda proprietor promised, Every single,
LUAKA BOP recorded track or album I have
When John produced is represented. Taped to
Coltranes widow the front of the drawer, a note read,
retreated from her OPENING SOON.

5 The BeaTles
Sgt Peppers Lonely
Hearts Club Band
own exceptional jazz
career to an ashram
in LA, her music making did not
2017 saw relatively little new Neil
Young activity in the public eye.
Live shows were scarce, and only
Super Deluxe Edition stop. Instead, she and a choir of one new song (Children Of Destiny) had surfaced at time of writing. A
APPLE CORPS LTD/UNIVERSAL fellow Hindu devotees recorded Bridge School benefit show was not staged for the first time in 30 years,
The first deep devotional chants over swooshing and the Pono streaming service quietly slipped out of business. Could
archaeological primitive synths, releasing them Young have spent the year engaged with the momentous project that had
survey of the Fabs on cassettes via New Age shops. been sidelined since 2009 the second volume of Archives, scheduled to
archives since the Praise, then, to Luaka Bop for finally cover the profusion of unreleased albums Young recorded in the 70s ?
Anthology series 22 introducing a broader world to some Initial signs were promising, as Hitchhiker arrived in the early autumn.
years ago, Sgt Pepper Super Deluxe of the most uplifting spiritual music A focused solo acoustic session from August 11, 1976, Hitchhikers
condensed 300 revolutionary hours of the last 40 years. existence was unknown until Young mentioned it in his second memoir,
Special Deluxe. There, he alluded to pausing only for weed, beer, or coke

2 lal & MiKe

WaTersON
Bright Phoebus DOMINO
as he ran through the songs, critiquing his performance as pretty stony.
That seemed harsh, as the intimacies of David Briggs production and
the strength of the songs suggested an album which, with a bit more
Notoriously polish, could have worked as that desperately anticipated commercial
unavailable for follow-up to Harvest. Eight of the 10 tracks had surfaced on subsequent
decades, the Young albums, sometimes as with Powderfinger and Hitchhiker
Koh hasebe/shinKo Music/Getty iMaGes

Waterson siblings
1972 magnum opus
see-sawed between blackened folk
ballads and a carnivalesque take
on post-Beatles pop. The original
album with the uncanny tones of
Lal and Mike backed by a cadre of
Fabs redux:
being for the folk-rock all-stars now came
benefit of all accompanied, too, by a cluster of
powerfully starker demos.
itself in radically different forms. Pride of place, though, went to the
two brilliant unreleased songs: Give Me Strength, intermittently
revived at live shows, and the completely unknown Hawaii.
As a trailer for Archives Volume Two, it could not have been more
tantalising. But on release, Young already appeared to have moved on,
with Lukas Nelson confirming that Promise Of The Real had completed
another record with him and planned to tour through 2018. Just when he
seemed to be fully engaged with the past, Neil Young had once again, it
seemed, been heroically distracted by the future.

The uNcuT 2017 eND Of Year revieW in association with

78 UNCUT JANUARY 2018
 best of 2017
mogwai ride
every weather
countrys diaries
sun

depeche
mode slowdive
spirit slowdive

neil young
the jesus & hitchhiker
mary chain
damage & joy

ray davies
americana

roger waters
is this the life
we really want?

paul weller
a kind
revolution
ass
blanck m
r
world eate steven
wilson
omd
to the bone
the
punishment
of luxury
badbadnotgood
late night
tales

fopp stores
bristol college green
the fopp list cambridge sidney st
edinburgh rose st
the glasgow union st & byres rd
see our complete top 100 albums of the year in this
fopp months edition of the fopp list or online at fopp.com
london covent garden
manchester brown st
100 while stocks last
nottingham broadmarsh
shopping centre
oxford gloucester green
review the WeAtheR StAtION
of 2017

The
quiet storm
Alongside LCD Soundsystem,
The War On Drugs and Kendrick
Lamar, THE WEATHER STATION
are the surprise package at the
top of Uncuts Albums Of The Year
list. But who is Tamara Lindeman,
the brilliant and poetic singer-
songwriter at the eye of a gentle
hurricane? Jason Anderson combs
the clubs of Toronto to file the
essential Weather report.
Photo by PERRY SHIMON

I
ts a cool time for weird
women, says tamara
Lindeman, the creative force
behind the Weather station.
there are a lot of hostile
feelings to express and were in a
place now where the catharsis is
happening. thats different than
it was five or 10 years ago, where
it didnt feel like there was a critical mass or safe place
it was better to just be pretty and make pretty music.
Were standing in the hall outside the southern
Cross, a small, stage-less room in a venue called the
tranzac in Lindemans hometown of toronto. Its a
homey, familiar place that suits the intimacy of her
performances. But she knows theyre not all like that.
Unless youre doing good and people are coming to
a show to see you, she says, youre walking into a
situation where anything can happen.Ive done a lot
of shows as support. On many occasions youre just
stepping out to a cold room and you have to try to turn it
around and Ive just never been that good at that. A lot
of people know how to pull in the crowd and get them
singing along and stomping their feet well, I dont
have any songs that are like that, so I cant! Youre
walking into what can feel like a hostile situation and
somehow find a way to sing very vulnerable songs in
front of people who might wish you werent there.
Yet that situation is changing as more listeners
discover the subtle wonders at hand. Lindemans
fourth album under the moniker she chose for herself
back in 2006, The Weather Station is an arresting
showcase for her gifts. After several albums of
thoughtful, crystalline chamber folk, Lindemans
latest is a bolder demonstration of her talent and of the
Home on the range:
turbulence thats always threatening to overwhelm Tamara Lindeman aka
the more placid kind of beauty in her songs. The Weather Station

80 UNCUT JANUARY 2018

JANUARY 2018 UNCUT 81
 review the WeAtheR StAtION
of 2017
Feeling at
home: She
has a quiet
intensity
Lindeman mostly plays with a band these days as
she must to capture the force of the new album. But
even with her own players alongside her, she still
exudes the air of stillness and conviction she cultivated
My child-
during the earlier, rather lonelier sets she mentioned
like a formative spate for her friend Afie Jurvanens hood was
band Bahamas. I did a couple tours when they were
just starting to take off, she says. It would seem like about being
this crazy thing to walk out there to their fans like a
lamb to slaughter with my little guitar. But it wound up alone outside
being cool to do I had to just figure out how to rely on
myself and make the situation work no matter what. tamara lindeman
She has a quiet intensity thats pretty evident in
everything she does, Jurvanen tells Uncut.
Shes not a bombastic, overdramatic performer,
says Basia Bulat, another friend and sometime tour-
mate. But theres something so powerful that draws people
in when Tamara starts to play and sing these songs of steel.
Since The Weather Station has ventured further from the
tiny Toronto rooms where the project began, more people
have discovered the power of these carefully wrought and
sometimes unnervingly intimate songs. Says Haley Fohr of
Circuit Des Yeux, Her voice is special in that it lifts you up,
paul sargeant; united archives gmbh/alamy stock photo
but is also so thin and clear, you can still see through to the
other side of her ideas. Dave Hartley of The War
On Drugs was similarly struck when he first heard
her. I thought, Oh wow, this is a cut above. This
is an original voice, this is poise and confidence.
And musical confidence has nothing to do with
bravado its an inward thing, a comfort with the
self. Tamara has that and its obvious.
Standing at the side of the stage with his wife
when The Weather Station opened for his band in
a theatre in Pennsylvania, he was startled by her With Susan
Sarandon in
ability to quiet a room. The real sorcery, he says, Shall We
is bringing them into your world instead of trying Dance?, 2008
to meet them in theirs.
82 UnCUt JanUarY 2018
O
veR the course of a few days, Lindeman
meets Uncut in several favoured local spots.
At present, were in an ethiopian restaurant
just around the corner from her rehearsal space, a
converted garage in Torontos west end. Tearing into
a piece of injera bread from a vegetarian platter, she
notes how this part of the city has changed. This
restaurant is a cheery vestige of one of the many
overlapping immigrant communities that thrived in
here despite the sketchier conditions than youll find
now. Lindeman recalls coming to a friends place
near her many years before and finding the bloody
aftermath of a stabbing in the nearest subway station.
Though she feels a deep connection to Toronto, it
transpires that she grew up on a farm two hours north.
My childhood was about being outside, and being
alone outside, she says. Yet Lindeman also discovered an
affinity for performing at an early age. When she was 11, her choir
at a community theatre in Orangeville landed a regular gig during
a Toronto production of Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor
Dreamcoat starring Donny Osmond. By her teens, she was
working regularly as an actor in film and Tv under the stage name
of Tamara Hope. She played Tilda Swintons daughter in one
movie, Susan Sarandons in another. It all seems oddly showbizzy
for a self-professed introvert, but she believes
being on camera was actually very conducive
to my personality a lot of my success as an
actor was just because I was so serious.
Though she decided she didnt want to be an
actor by the time when she was 20, it made sense
to keep up the gig. Instead of coming home from
a tour and working at a bar, she says, I would do
a few auditions and get a weird part in a Tv drama
for a week and get paid enough to last me six
months. Shes happy to be done with it now.
Music became Lindemans focus in the wake of
a tragedy. At 19, she fell in love with a promising
young actor and musician, Andre Noble. When he
died after accidentally eating a poisonous plant,
Lindeman was devastated. It was a radicalising
experience as I knew I had to find a place to put this
grief, she says. Shed obsessively listen to the
microcassettes Noble left behind, and the songs she
discovered by new Canadian bands like Arcade
Fire and The Constantines provided further solace
and inspiration. I figured out through music that
lots of people had been through huge things, she
says. I could make music based on that, too.
She had the good fortune to enter the Toronto
music scene at a transformative time. Local
heroes such as Broken Social Scene strived to
remove barriers between performers and
audiences it was suddenly normal for
everyone to have three bands on the go, none of
them with less than 10 members. A former A&R
man who founded and runs the Polaris Prize
the Canadian award for which Lindeman was
shortlisted in 2015 Steve Jordan believes The
Weather Station is one of many local acts now
reaping the benefits of the sense of inclusiveness
and community born in this period. People who
may have been younger or shyer would go and
see these artists, he says. Though it wasnt punk
in terms of musical style, the DIY aspects of going
out there and grabbing people by the throat and
doing stuff on their own terms, it was empowering.
One local musician Lindeman cites as a major
influence is Ryan Driver, a pianist and singer she first
met 12 years ago as a newcomer to the Tranzac. The
space was being used for mainly traditional folk
music and theatre, Driver tells Uncut. But then it
became a place where free jazzers and improvisers
and a younger generation of songwriters could also
get together in a casual setting. It became (and
continues to be) a hub for creative music it
felt like a whole new thing was unfolding.
Its clear how much Lindeman regards its
tatty but comfortable rooms as hallowed
ground. Its not about commerce, she says.
You can just book a show here and theyre not
gonna be like, How many people are you gonna
bring in? What are you gonna charge at the
door? They dont care. People just play to each
other and for themselves.
Having learned how to play banjo, Lindeman
discovered she was in high demand among her
new friends at the Tranzac. Shed be in and out of
buyers guide
The Weather Station and friends
tHe WeatHer StatiOn both the unfettered grace of Joni
the line mitchells Blue and the eerier
(mOUntain Bed, 2009) soundworld of linda Perhacs
tamara lindeman inaugurates Parallelograms.
her project with a haunting
album of gothic folk and BrUCe
americana. Her multi-tracked PeninSUla
harmony vocals provide shards Open Flames
of light in the darkness. (Hand draWn draCUla,
2011)
tHe WeatHer lindemans voice
StatiOn is a big reason
all Of it Was mine for the gale-force strength of the
(mOUntain Bed, 2011) choir that fuels this idiosyncratic
the second album is a gentler fusion of gospel, folk, rock, prog
affair, with songs that evoke and country.
other peoples bands for years. They included Bruce
Peninsula, the citys most exciting new act for a spell. In
2006, she started her own project. Lindeman floated the
idea on The Weather Stations MySpace page that the songs
were the handiwork of the sole occupant of an Arctic
outpost. That lonely notion was reflected in the desolate
mix of folk, rock and Americana that fills The Line, her first
LP under the moniker in 2009. But the bands she formed to
play her songs kept falling apart, so she started performing
alone, an idea she initially found unfathomable. The barer
settings brought her gifts into starker relief. A second album,
2011s All Of It Was Mine, showcased her growing dexterity
as a guitarist and as a writer of songs that threatened to seem
overstuffed yet somehow never lost their elegance.
One fellow musician who took notice was Alfie Jurvanen.
Her songs tend not to follow any sort of traditional verse-
chorus structure, which is what makes them that much more
interesting. Its like theres something exciting waiting around
every melodic corner. Basia Bulat loved All Of It Was Mine so
much, she asked Lindeman to tour with her just so she could
see her play every night. Yet Lindeman didnt get the folk gigs
she expected; surprising given the comparisons with Joni
Mitchell. She believes their soprano voices made the
references inevitable. I have a high voice and I use my full
range in a song, which is what Joni does, she notes.
But her melodies are really different.
Further comparisons with Linda Perhacs and Bill
Callahan arrived in the wake of The Weather Stations
first album for US label Paradise Of Bachelors in 2015.
Recorded with Jurvanen and Feist engineer Robbie
Lackritz in a studio in France, Loyalty offered more
nuanced settings for Lindemans songs while keeping her
voice and guitar to the fore. The lyrics also demonstrated
her ability to portray a wider range of relationships and
experiences than singer-songwriters often scrutinise, like
the dynamics between female friends in Shy Women or
the emotional chasm between lovers on the road in Way It
Is, Way It Could Be. I couldnt believe it was modern,
says Dave Hartley of the first time he heard the latter. I felt
it had to be a classic by an artist I wasnt familiar with.
Lindemans songwriting favours details that are rich and
specific, like the same songs line about the two brown dogs that
came out running cross the highway, panting and low to the
ground. She applies a novelists skill and rigour to phrases and
images that initially emerge from her subconscious and her
memories. I do feel, without perfect consistency, that I try to
avoid fantasy and tell it like it is, she says. There are times
where in order to write a song, all I do is explain what happened
exactly. I used to call it court recording. If I was just like, I did
this, you said this, I did this, sometimes theres a lot in that.
tHe WeatHer lindemans idea of a rock
StatiOn album may not be the same
loyalty as everyones, but theres no
(ParadiSe OF BaCHelOrS, 2015) lack of force on thirty and
returning to her main Kept it all to myself.
endeavour with a clarity
of purpose, lindeman rYan driVer
delivers a work of great Careless thoughts
power and economy, cut in the same (tin angel, 2017)
French studio where Feist made like his fellow tranzac vets eric
The Reminder, a similarly beguiling Chenaux and Sandro Perri,
breakthrough by another Canuck. lindemans pal is a master at
creating unconventional song forms
tHe WeatHer StatiOn that are still acutely emotional. She
the Weather Station guests on the spellbinding it must
(ParadiSe OF BaCHelOrS, 2017) Be dark tonight.
JanUarY 2018 UnCUt 83
 review the WeAtheR StAtION
of 2017
S
ometimes, Lindeman wonders if her songs
contain too much, too many details shed rather
keep to herself. shes been anxious about the new
albums reception though she admits to feeling more
relaxed today. shes been busying herself with
preparations for her tour with her band: Ben Whiteley,
the bassist she shares with Bulat, her drummer and
boyfriend ian Kehoe, and second guitarist Will
Kidman, a former member of Lindemans beloved
Constantines. shes not expecting things to be too
wild, joking that her band will be happier about the
riders request for kombucha than the one for beer.
tamara was like our tour mom, says Bulat of their
time on the road last year, when the Weather station
would open shows before joining Bulat for her sets, too.
she was the one drivingwith a straw hat on and
making sure everyones needs were met. she gave
me a lot of tough love when i was late for things!
Bulat also got the chance to hear Lindeman develop
the songs for The Weather Station. one was thirty,
an astonishing, newly aggressive song with a torrent of
lyrics that sharply convey feelings of exhilaration and
bewilderment, of her anxiousness as she and her
friends leave their twenties, and of being so alive to the
world around her I fucking noticed everything.
i got to hear thirty as she was working on it night
after night, says Bulat. i was so blown away so was
everyone in the band. she had that air of not being sure
about it yet, but we were like, oh holy shit, the song is
good. the content was so much about what a lot of
people around me are experiencing now.
the songs one of many on the new album that refer
to something equally personal: a serious spell of
depression that Lindeman experienced four years ago.
once you realise you have that tendency and that
youve always had it, it feels like it explains a lot of
aspects of your life, says Lindeman. its the monster
in the closet. But if you can open the closet door every
morning and be like, Hey, youre still there nothing
has really changed, but im going to accept you. that
was the way through it for me as that fear of being
shervvin lainez
afraid is such a big element.
As we walk the block between the restaurant and
the rehearsal space, the too-warm weather reminds
Lindeman of the anxieties about climate change that
84 UNCUT JANUARY 2018
colour several new songs, too. its deep into
autumn and Lindemans weirded out to see
ripe tomatoes and monarch butterflies in
the still-lush garden between the garage
studio and the house that belongs to Ben
Whiteleys parents. i think about all that
for sure, she says. im called the Weather
station after all, totally a mistake!
in another song, Power, which shed
later dress with a string arrangement that
unsettles rather than sweetens its mood
she considers her struggle to assert herself,
something she recognises in many women
in her life. i just look at all the ways in
which i walk into an interaction with
someone and i immediately give away my
power, she says. Like ill say, oh im sorry
to bother you but i was wondering if blah,
blah And i still do that. But going into this
record i was like, What would happen if i
just acted like everyone else i know? i could
be like, We should do this, end of story.
the sessions in montreal last year
Sound of reflected that shift in thinking. Having
initially planned for Jurvanen to take on
muses the same production role he had on Loyalty,
Lindeman gradually took the reins herself. We did
somepre-production and i went to the initial tracking
Tamara Lindeman on sessions, Jurvanen explains. i was just sitting on the
The Weather Stations couch and listening. she and the band would come
inspirations into the control room after a take and look at me and id
DION say, that was great! Cos it was! shedoesnt need a
DiMUCCI producer as all the raw materials come from her and
I was really stoked they were all just bubbling, waiting to come to life. All
on Dion & The she needed was to be reminded of that.
Wanderers. Ive it was really a positive thing and kind of him to
tried to get into his know when to walk away, says Lindeman.
stuff with the Belmonts, but theres
something about the way hes others noted Lindemans confidence as she deployed
singing that I connect to so strongly friends and players like Ryan Driver on new songs that
on this one record that he made expanded the soft, sombre mode of Loyalty to include
but never came out [Norton finally edgier elements. Haley Fohr recalls meeting the singer
issued the 1965 record this year]. after she rolled up on her bicycle to a show Fohr played
with Ryley Walker, whose keyboardist Ben Boye also
WEYES plays on The Weather Station. she was coming from
BLOOD
Front Row Seat the studio, having finished the basic tracks, she says.
To Earth just i remember her saying, its a rock album. And its
destroyed me. feeling really good. she was poised in a vibrant way
I was telling i rarely find in musicians when so deep into a record.
everyone, This is the best record she was so sure of herself and what was about to
of the past five years!
happen that i couldnt help but believe her, too.
JENNIFER Nevertheless, Lindeman admits the content of some
CASTLE songs leave her feeling too exposed. theres lots of
Shes so important things here that make me go, Why did i have to say
to me. She has a that?! But theres a remarkable amount of courage
new album next in that vulnerability, further evidence of the quiet
year, but I just
wish someone in the States would intensity and boldness she shares with other artists
put out Pink City. Thats one of the exploring similar terrain, like Haley Fohr with Circuit
best records that ever came out Des Yeux, Weyes Bloods Natalie mering or Us Girls, the
of Toronto I feel like Im a pale moniker for Lindemans friend and fellow torontonian
shadow of that. meghan Remy. As she sits at the piano in her rehearsal
space, it strikes her that her musics may be another
KURT VILE element of what she calls the Joni connection.
I was totally
influenced by i cant even handle that aspect when i listen to her,
blieve Im goin she admits.ill be like, Why are you putting yourself
down. He talks out there, falling in love with all these shitty dudes?
about being crazy Just find a nice guy whos going to take care of you!
a lot and I thought that was actually she laughs at her rather sensible reaction.
empowering. When I heard Pretty
Pimpin, it felt really good to hear
someone singing about that in this The Weather Station is available now on Paradise
fun, badass song. His phrasing had Of Batchelors; you can find January and February
a big influence, too. UK tour dates at www.theweatherstation.net
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review
of 2017
films
20the Death of
stalin
DIRECTOR: ARmANDO IANNUCCI
Although this black
comedy about
backstairs Kremlin
intrigue took place
in 1953, its plot about
a circle of coddled,
petty yes-men assembled under a
mercurial tyrant felt chilling current.
A strong cast Steve Buscemi, Simon
Russell Beale, Jeffrey Tambor and
Michael Palin among them artfully
navigated Iannuccis sulphurous
farce, where the price of failure was
death. Im exhausted! Declared
one character. I cant remember
whos dead and whos alive!
19the Big sick
DIR: mICHAEL SHOWALTER
An autobiographical
meta-comedy, no less,
about the bumpy
courtship between
stand-up comedian
Kumail Nanjiana and
writer Emily V Gordon. Rolled out
under the aegis of producer Judd
Apatow as a charming, irony-free
romcom, The Big Sick deftly
addressed subjects ranging from
profound illness to the unhappy lot
of the Uber driver. As Emilys
parents, Holly Hunter and Ray
Romano brought dramatic heft to
what could otherwise have been
generic supporting roles.
18 the BeguileD
DIR: SOFIA COPPOLA
A genre exercise from
Sofia Coppola, adapting
Thomas Cullinans Civil
War-set novel about a
wounded Yankee given
sanctuary at a girls
boarding school in rural Virginia.
Less of a Gothic horror than Don
Siegels 1971 version, Coppolas
interests lay in the destabilising
influence of an intrusive male
presence among a tight-knit group
of women. Colin Farrell and Nicole
Kidman co-starred.
17 toni erDmann
DIR: mAREN ADE
The news that
Hollywood was
remaking Maren Ades
German Oscar
contender with Jack
Nicholson in the lead
came as no surprise. As with About
the uncut 2017 enD of year revieW in association with
88 UNCUT JANUARY 2018
Will they, wont
they?: Ryan
Gosling and
Emma Stone in
La La Land
Schmidt, Toni Edrmann was a film
about the awkward relationship
between difficult senior citizens and
their frustrated progeny. Here, Peter
Simonischek played Winifred, a
divorced schoolteacher with a
fondness for practical jokes many
of them executed via his grotesque
alter ego, Tony Erdmann. A visit to
his daughters workplace led to
predictably embarrassing events.
16mother!
DIR: DARREN ARONOFSKY
Three years after his Old
Testament epic Noah,
Darren Aronofskys
latest was equally rich in
allegory. At its simplest,
the film was about the
relationship between blocked poet
Javier Bardem and his devoted wife,
Jennifer Lawrence. As it transpired,
the film escalated into a darkly comic
blend of home-invasion nightmare
and eco-parable. It felt like the
culmination of Aronofskys major
obsessions executed with the kind of
stomach-churning quantum leaps
into madness familiar from Pi,
Requiem For A Dream, The Fountain
and Black Swan.
15call
name
me By your
DIR: LUCA GUADAGNINO
At 89, James Ivory was
the oldest filmmaker
to appear in our
countdown. In his guise
as sympathetic adaptor
of other writers
material, he took on Andr Acimans
2007 novel a romantic, coming-of-
age drama about a 17-year-old
Italian-American and his fathers
assistant during a summer in
Lombardy. Director Guadagnino
had covered similar territory before
with the lush, luxuriant sensuality
of 2009s I Am Love.
14of
the other siDe
hope
DIR: AKI KAURISmKI
A companion piece to
Le Havre, Kaurismkis
2011 film that brought
together an ageing local
with a much younger
refugee. Here, the
filmmaker followed the plight of
a Khaled (Sherwan Haji), a Syrian
asylum seeker in Helsinki.
Kaurismkis torn-from-the-
headlines immediacy soon gave
way to some typically droll antics,
as Khaled befriended Wikstrm
(Sakari Kuosmanen), a Finn who
won a dilapidated restaurant called
The Golden Pint in a game of poker.
1320th
Women
century
DIR: mIKE mILLS
After his Oscar-winner,
Beginners, Mike Mills
drama was ostensibly
the study of a parent
and child bond enacted
against a late-70s
cultural backdrop. Besides jokes
about Black Flag, the main attraction
was a fine role for Annette Bening as
a single mother who recruited Greta
Gerwig and Elle Fanning to help
wise up her adolescent son. How do
you be a good man? was the central
question; there was much humour
and warmth finding the answer.
12elle DIR: PAUL VERHOEVEN
Paul Verhoevens latest
was partly a comedy of
bourgeois manners,
partly a lurid thriller
about the ramifications
of assault and also a
sophisticated portrait of a
multifaceted central character.
Isabelle Huppert nominated for a
Best Actress Oscar successfully
navigated these tonal shifts, fusing
Verhoevens contradictory trails into
a consistent, complex performance.
11manchester
the sea
By
DIR: KENNETH LONERGAN
Kenneth Lonergans
film had the same
qualities as an early
Springsteen song a
blue-collar narrative
filled with a haunting,
pervasive sadness. Events circled
around Casey Affleck, returning
to his hometown after a family
upheaval, where he was forced to
confront a horrible mistake in
the past. Affleck offered a strong,
committed performance see
also his other key work this year,
in A Ghost Story as did Michelle
Williams, as his fiery ex-wife.
10laDy macBeth
DIR: WILLIAm OLDROYD
Set in rural England,
1865, Oldroyds film
found 17-year-old
Katherine (Florence
Pugh) trapped in a
loveless marriage to
a much older man and who began

an affair with a lowly groom.
Drawing out themes of abuse,
violence, race and class, William
Oldroyds film evoked fleeting
comparisons to Lady Chatterleys
Lover, but as the film twisted into
a dark northern noir, The Postman
Always Rings Twice seemed a more
apt point of reference.
9 Detroit
DIR: KATHRYN BIGELOW
As a filmmaker, Bigelow
has long excelled at
creating tension in close
quarters a biker bar in
Near Dark or a Pakistan
compound in Zero Dark
Thirty. Detroit confined its dramas
to the hallway of the citys Algiers
Motel during the July, 1967 riots,
where protracted scenes of captivity,
terror, torture and murder endured.
Bigelows film had relevance and
power but by finding the storys
heart in the music of one of the citys
many soul bands, she created
humanity among the anguish.
8 moonlight
DIR: BARRY JENKINS
A coming-of-age story
about Chiron, a young,
gay black man from an
impoverished Miami
neighbourhood,
Moonlight tackled, on
an intimate level, universal themes
such as families and the ties that
bind. Focusing on three key stages
of Chirons life, Jenkins found love
and friendship from a tale of conflict
and hardship, with former athlete
Trevante Rhodes carrying much of
the films emotional weight in his
third-act appearance.
7 la la lanD
DIR: DAmIEN CHAZELLE
A blissful love letter
to a golden age of
Hollywood, Damien
Chazelles follow-up
to Whiplash was full
of big emotions and
unselfconsciously joyous romantic
ideals. The film pivoted around a
will-they-wont-they? love story
between Ryan Gosling and Emma
Stone, who fizzed like a Hawks
double act. For all its bounce,
Chazelle took a shrewd view of
nostalgia: quoting Rebel Without
A Cause, Casablanca, Notorious and
Bringing Up Baby, this was gutsy
and purposeful filmmaking, full of
dynamic thrills.
the uncut 2017 enD of year revieW in association with
6 Dunkirk
DIR: CHRISTOPHER NOLAN
Among a handful of
WWII films released
this year from Brian
Coxs Churchill biopic to
the fine Danish drama
Land Of Mine Nolans
Dunkirk was certainly the loudest.
Bringing to bear his gifts for parallel
plotlines and tricksy temporal
progression, Nolans harrowing,
immersive experience depicted the
British retreat from northern France
from the perspective of Tom Hardys
staunch Spitfire pilot, Harry Styles
lowly Tommy and others.
5 the floriDa
project
DIR: SEAN BAKER
Bakers film showed us
life on welfare in a
housing block through
the eyes of Moonee,
(Brooklynn Prince),
a six-year-old living
on the edges of Walt Disney World
in a rundown motel called the Magic
Castle. At times evocative of Andrea
Arnolds American Honey, The
Florida Project subverted the
American trailer-park stereotype
without drifting into poverty porn.
4 the meyeroWitz
stories
DIR: NOAH BAUmBACH
A welcome return to his
old stomping ground for
Baumbach the travails
of a once-storied
intellectual family in
decline recalled his
debut The Squid And The Whale
this was also the filmmakers first for
Netflix. Benefiting from a typically
strong cast Dustin Hoffman, Adam
Sandler, Ben Stiller it provided
much humour as well as a heartfelt
solidity while exploring the
difficulties inherent in family life.
3 BlaDe runner 2049
DIR: DENIS VILLENEUVE
Two long-awaited
sequels appeared this
year, Trainspotting 2
and Blade Runner 2049,
both of which worked
hard to expand on
themes seeded in their predecessors.
Here, Villeneuve fresh from his
sci-fi encounter movie Arrival
revisited the core question of Ridley
Scotts 1982 original: what makes us
human? There was plenty of
films review
of 2017
philosophical musing along the way,
while Ryan Gosling and a returning
Harrison Ford provided ballast as
from the 70s
such as Midnight Cowboy, Panic
In Needle Park or Mean Streets.
brooding, existential leading men. Robert Pattinson, meanwhile,
moved further away from his
2 gooD time
DIR: JOSH AND BENNIE SAFDIE
A breakthrough movie
Twilight persona, playing a
resourceful petty crook on a
nocturnal odyssey to break his
for lo-fi filmmaking brother out of custody. An extended
siblings Joshua and cameo from Jennifer Jason Leigh
Ben Safdie, Good Time
harked back to murky
afterhours NYC movies
drew the film back to Last Exit To
Brooklyn and Rush other works
about lost souls on the fringes.
Hypnotising:
Daniel
Kaluuya in
Get Out
film Of THe YeAr
1 get out
DIRECTOR: JORDAN PEELE
A LTHOUGH 2017 was bookended by two
returning masters Martin Scorsese with
Silence in January and Paul Thomas Anderson
with Phantom Thread in December much of
what happened in between focused on a
younger generation of filmmakers asserting
their creative vision. Breakthrough films from
the Safdie brothers, Sean Baker and Jordan
Peele proved as distinctive as the work done
elsewhere this year by more established indie-
spirited directors like Noah Baumbach or Mike
Mills. Along with It Comes At Night, A Ghost
Story and Personal Shopper, Peeles Get Out signalled a new type of horror
film one predicated less around conventional shocks and instead
following a more extraordinary, exploratory path.
Part of the appeal of this clutch of post-horror movies was the way they
moved fluidly between genres Get Out began as a race satire like Guess
Whos Coming To Dinner? and ended up as something like The Wicker
Man spliced with the postmodern body horror of Nicolas Winding Refns
The Neon Demon. It was a formula that proved particularly successful for
Peele Get Out took $253 million globally from a budget of $4.5 million.
Peele, a comedian turned filmmaker, looked at the experience of Chris,
a young black man played by Daniel Kaluuya, who is introduced to the
parents of his white girlfriend, Rose, played by Allison Williams. It would
be indiscreet to disclose what followed suffice to say, it revealed an
extraordinary relationship between Roses family and their all-black staff.
For all its jolts, Peeles film had yet another strength that elevates it
beyond a straightforward genre picture. In the era of Donald Trump and
Black Lives Matter, it tapped into Americas racial tensions with quiet,
discomforting exactitude.
JANUARY 2018 UNCUT 89
review
of 2017
books
10 CANT sTAND
UP FoR
FALLING DoWN
Rogans first
volume on The
Byrds was the
into the music and used his access
wisely, humanising a much-
mythologised man.
2 YoU kNoW WHAT
YoU CoULD bE:
TUNING INTo THE 1960s
Allan Jones definitive account Mike Heron & Andrew
BLOOMSBURY
Uncuts founding
editor collated his
of the band.
Volume Two
all 1,200 pages
3 MEET ME IN THE
bATHRooM
Lizzy Goldman
Greig
QUERCUS
Psychedlic-folk
war stories, many ventured into the FABER progenitors The
of which first shadowlands, exploring the lives An exhaustive, Incredible String
appeared in his of six deceased members Gene contradictory and Band were
column for this Clark, Michael Clarke, Kevin Kelley, gossipy oral history no conventional
magazine. Punchy, Gram Parsons, Clarence White and of the NYC scene group, and this was
often inebriated Skip Battin with compassion, that coalesced no conventional
encounters with Bowie, Reed, insight and forensic detail. around The Strokes biography. Written
Costello, Cohen, Morrison et al millennial notoriety. in sequence by Mike Heron and the
ranged from the tragicomic to
the comically tragic, with Jones
combative style extracting
6 sTICkY FINGERs:
THE LIFE AND TIMEs
oF JANN WENNER &
Interviewing
everyone who mattered, and plenty
who didnt, Goodman captured the
poet/novelist Andrew Greig, their
complementary stories of bohemian
rebirth captured not just the ISBs
maximum yield from each bout. ROLLING STONE youthful excitement of it all exotic allure, but those free-spirited
MAGAZINE exploding as well as hanging few years before the 1960s became

9 FoLk soNG IN
ENGLAND
Steve Roud
Joe Hagan
CANONGATE
Anointed by
Ryan Adams out to dry. The Sixties.

FABER Wenner to write

Authoritative the story of his
and immensely eventful life,
readable, at 800 Joe Hagan was
pages, Rouds subsequently cast
four-part study into outer darkness
of the provenance, by his subject
evolution and a sign he probably got something
significance of right. Featuring a Whos Who
the English folk-song tradition of rock giants, it was both an
spanned the 1500s to the 1950s, entertaining portrait of a flawed,
taking in everything from drunken mercurial figure and a history of
Dickensian choirs to Edwardian rocks glorious, grotesque pomp.
song collectors. The result was

5
A complex friendship:
a colourfully evocative work of ART sEX MUsIC Robert Forster (left) and
Grant McLennan with
social history. Cosey Fanni Tutti The Go-Betweens, 1987
FABER

8 MUTE: A VIsUAL
DoCUMENT FRoM
1978 -> ToMoRRoW
Performance artist,
pornographic actor
and founding BOOK OF THe YeAr
Terry Burrows with

1
member of

GRANT & I:
Daniel Miller Throbbing Gristle,
THAMES & HUDSON Christine Newbys
A beautifully
crafted
uncompromising
career straddled INsIDE AND
celebration of
the accidental
strip joints, auspicious rock venues
and elite art galleries, not without oUTsIDE THE
label that
brought us Nick
pain and struggle. Art Sex Music
was her fearless and frequently Go-bETWEENs
Cave And The eye-popping account of it all.
Bad Seeds
Robert Forster OMNIBUS
and Depeche Mode, among other
notables. Mute embraced both
the margins and the mainstream
4 LoU REED: A LIFE
Anthony De Curtis
JOHN MURRAY
T HE Go-Betweens were a band to treasure, and Robert Forster
wrote a memoir worthy not just of their music, but of the complex
friendship between the author and his partner, Grant McLennan,
while maintaining a genuinely An even-handed, which underpinned it. Grant & I was a poignant, thoughtful and
adventurous identity. It was all scholarly study of elegantly written account of Forsters staid upbringing; his search for
tony MottraM/Getty iMaGes

here, in words and pictures. Reeds life and art, identity within a band clinging to the coat-tails of the music business;
assembled with and above all, his efforts to fathom McLennans mercurial nature. As

7 THE bYRDs:
REQUIEM FoR THE
TIMELEss, VoLUME 2
insight by a writer
who knew him well.
Drawing on an
Forster settled into something approaching midlife stability, he watched
in sadness and exasperation as his friend took the wrong road, ending
in his premature death in 2006. A brave and beautiful attempt to
Johnny Rogan impressive cast of comprehend the incomprehensible. graeme thomson
ROGAN HOUSE contributors, De Curtis went deep

THE UNCUT 2017 END oF YEAR REVIEW in association with

90 UNCUT JANUARY 2018
 MOJO

UNCUT

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 Ill Take You
There
Forty-five years ago, the singing family produced an uplifting hit in just
one hour in the studio: It still raises the roof today, says Mavis Staples
Michael Ochs archives/Getty iMaGes; chris strOnG; erika GOldrinG/Getty
iMaGes fOr PilGriMaGe Music & cultural festival lucky seven recOrds
W
e didnt spend
more than
an hour,
remembers
bassist David
Hood, and I bet we did eight or nine
songs that day Yet, in that hour, the
Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section and the
Staple Singers produced a US No 1 single:
a vibrant, loose and grooving song that
simultaneously tipped its hat to God, to the
Civil Rights movement and to Jamaicas
new sounds.
Ill Take You There was almost 50 Manning, recalling the original Muscle
years ago, says Mavis Staples today. Its
amazing that it still sounds so good! I dont
know music, I dont even know what key I
by Staple Singers
sing in, but God just blessed me. I can hear
what a band are doing and I know where to
place my voice.
Written and produced by Al Bell
but heavily inspired by a Jamaican
instrumental the Stax honcho had brought
back from the Caribbean the track was
recorded in Alabamas Muscle Shoals
Sound Studio, then taken back to Ardent
in Memphis to be sweetened by engineer
and multi-instrumentalist Terry Manning.
Mavis especially is just so outgoing and
loving and there for a good time, says
Shoals sessions. I call those parties
instead of recording sessions, because the
Staples would bring in buckets of chicken
The Staple Singers
in their heyday: It
was really big fun
back then
key players or pies for dessert, and everybody would
eat, laugh, tell jokes and have fun.
But it was all very clean, of course
they were a religious group to begin with,
and therefore wanted to spread good
feeling and good news to the world.
I dont get offstage now without singing
Ill Take You There, says Mavis Staples.
Mavis staples People still wanna hear it, its just like the
lead vocals song is new. We havent been to Muscle
Shoals since the 70s, but it was big fun. It
was really big fun back then!
TOM PINNOCK
MAVIS STAPLES: I was right there with
the musicians at Muscle Shoals when
they put the track down. Me, Pops and
David Hood my sisters. At one period of our time, we
Bass
would just sing to tracks we wouldnt
even see the musicians. But I like it better
when the band are there together, its not
so mechanical.
DAVID HOOD: We would be hearing these
songs for the first time, and a lot of the time
the Staples would be hearing them for the
Terry Manning first time, too.
Guitar, TERRY MANNING: I went down with Al
harmonica, Bell to Muscle Shoals when they were
engineering tracking [1972s] Be Altitude: Respect
Yourself, but I completely stayed out of it
because they do their thing their way, and
they were fantastic at it. Al was a brilliant
producer. Oh, gosh, the Staples were the
most fun of any artist to ever work with
just beautiful people, inside and out, just
lovely souls and of happy demeanour.
STAPLES: Yes, its true we would bring
pies! It was a family affair, because all
of those guys were family men, and we
would go to their houses for dinner and
meet their wives and their parents. And
we would really have fun, because all you
could do in Muscle Shoals was record, it
was just a bunch of studios there. But we
would have a wonderful time.
HOOD: Wed struck up a good rapport with
the Staple Singers, Pops and Mavis and
everybody, and we really enjoyed working
with them, so it was a very comfortable
situation. They really just let us get on with
whatever we wanted to do.
STAPLES: Al Bell was good to work with
but hes not a music man like Jeff Tweedy
or Curtis Mayfield or Prince. Those guys
are big-time producers, but Al more or
less left it up to us. He wasnt a producer
who was like do this or do that, he just
pushed you on, to give you moral support.
No producer Ive ever been with has
told me how to sing a song, because my
family and I would always rehearse our
songs at home.
MANNING: Al wrote Ill Take You There,
and partly because of that he had a huge
interest in it, and felt it would be the
single but we all had an interest in it,
because it was different. It didnt sound
like R&B at the time. Al had just made
a trip partly a vacation, partly music
research to the Caribbean. In Jamaica
he heard reggae and just loved that. He
brought back a couple records, with that
sort of skip-jump early Jamaican feel,
No producer has told me
how to sing a song we
always rehearsed our
songs at home MAVIS STAPLES
and he was saying, Weve got to get
something that has this feel to it.
HOOD: I remember Al brought back a dub
of Harry J All Stars Liquidator, and if
you listen to that youll hear that its very,
very similar to Ill Take You There. Its sound system they would play Bob Marley
just an instrumental, but Al told us he
wanted something similar to that song.
Many years later I read an article about
that song and they said its a direct copy
of the Harry J All Stars recording and I
said, What? I dont remember that!
And then I started thinking about it and I
did remember him bringing in that little
recording. So it is in fact a copy, more or
less, of the instrumental, Liquidator. But
we thought it was a demo [at the time], as
we were often recording from songwriters
demos we didnt know it was somebodys
actual commercial recording.
STAPLES: Al wrote the lyrics to Ill Take
You There, and I wrote the rest of the
song, so we wrote that together. Al knew
what he wanted to hear, but he didnt have
to tell us what to do. When you know how
you feel a song, you just sing it your way.
HOOD: We had recorded with Jimmy
Cliff Chris Blackwell brought him to
Muscle Shoals this was before reggae
was very popular in the United States, and
he wanted us to take his songs and make
them more like American R&B soul songs.
So we would try to take the Jamaica
out of some of the songs, and I hated to
do that. But the real reggae influence [for
the Swampers] came from touring with
Traffic [in 1972] every night over the
& The Wailers Catch A Fire. So that idea
just got drilled into our brains.
STAPLES: It didnt take us long to record.
We had rehearsed it at home, before we
went to Muscle Shoals. My father taught
us you dont go to the recording studio to
rehearse, you know what youre gonna do
when you get there. Most of the time Id do
one take and Im satisfied, because I know
I have studied my song.
HOOD: This was probably a first or second
take, we did things pretty quickly. We
would work out our parts in advance prior
to turning on the red light, so it was all
pretty quick. With Ill Take You There,
theres not much song there, really. If
JANUARY 2018 UNCUT 93

Live with Pops on
The Johnny Cash
Show, February
24, 1971
Im just singing stuff that
comes to me that I feel. Thats
what makes it so good
MAvIS STAPLES
you were to write out the lyrics you would
see that theres really not a lot of song!
STAPLES: I was more or less ad-libbing,
because theres only one verse in Ill Take
You There: I know a place/Aint nobody
cryin/Aint nobody worried/Aint no smilin
faces/Mmm, no no/Lyin to the races
And thats all of it. In the rest of the song,
Im just singing stuff that comes to me that
I feel. Thats what makes it so good.
HOOD: We knew where the solos were
gonna happen, it was kind of a contrived
thing between me and the other guys. Of
course, its just two chords over and over,
and I think we might have tried a couple
of different things, just very simple lines.
Breakdowns were a little thing we would
do so it wouldnt be monotonous and the
same thing over and over again.
STAPLES: I sing, Play it, Barry, play your
piano, that was Barry Beckett. Then
Help me, daddy, and that was my
father playing the guitar. My dad plays
that solo, none of that stuff was rehearsed.
ABC PHoTo ARCHIvES/ABC vIA GETTY IMAGES
The only thing that was rehearsed was
the verse, but all of that other stuff that
Im doing just came to me in the studio.
It wasnt written down, it all comes from
1968 The Staple Singers Swingers, produced by
sign to Al Bells Stax Bell himself, becomes
Records their first commercial
1971 Their LP The Staple success at Stax
94 UNCUT JANUARY 2018
came in and did several retakes of lead
vocals at Ardent I had her on a Neumann
U87 microphone. Then I took all of those
takes, and I made a composite of what
was the final lead vocal from all of the
takes and used a couple of things from
the original tracking vocal because she
had those play your piano, Barry bits in
there. Because its not her father playing
guitar on it, she said, Oh gosh, Daddys
always been the guitar player So she
overdubbed the Help me, Daddy or
whatever, to have him feel good
about it and have him get the symbolic
credit for it. I came up with the da da daa
da da on my new Gibson Les Paul, and
I thought, Thats a cool line, that could
be done by other things, so I had the
harmonica double the guitar. At the
very end I thought, Thats such a good
line, why dont we have the horns do it?
So I suggested to Al the next day, Hear
that part, why dont the horns play that?
So we brought the horn section in and
they tripled what the two instruments
what you feel. And God blessed me to be were already doing. This was to make it
able to do that. It comes from inside me. interesting and build it and have little
HOOD: As I recall, when we did it [at
Muscle Shoals], instead of saying Daddy
waves of motion going up and down.
HOOD: Its one of my favourite things
she said Eddie, because Eddie Hinton weve recorded. It was usually pretty easy
was playing guitar on that, but on the
record you hear her say Daddy, so she
working with the Staples, I dont recall
working too hard on anything, it was
may have changed that. Al Bell had a always a joy to get to work with them.
really good ear for what was commercial, MANNING: It was just a very different
fact file and also he knew that the Staples were a piece of music than anything else out
gospel group and they didnt want to do there, and fortunately it seemed to catch
Written by: Al Bell
Recorded at: any songs that were considered off-colour the publics ear as well, and very quickly
Muscle Shoals or too sexy he wanted to have a good shot up the charts. It was up in the Top 10,
Sound Studio, Christian message to the songs. Theres no not just the R&B chart or whatever, but in
Muscle Shoals, I wanna love you in the backseat of my the pop Billboard Top 10 in just weeks.
Alabama; Ardent car, baby, theres no Staples songs like STAPLES: I always close the show with Ill
Studio, Memphis that. But at black churches they really get Take You There. It still raises the roof, it
Personnel: Mavis
Staples (lead down not in a sexual way, its more with brings people to their feet! You really can
vocals), Cleotha the rapture of the Lord, I guess. do anything with it I have everyone in
Staples, Yvonne STAPLES: Thats whats so good about the audience singing it with me.
Staples (vocals), music, if you are in tune, if you have the MANNING: Years later I was working with
Pops Staples music in you. Thats the magic of music, Sly & Robbie at Compass Point in Nassau,
(guitar, vocals), music is so powerful and I just love it. which I ran for many years. I was telling
David Hood
(bass), Terry MANNING: Then we took the recordings them, Your early sound, thats what we
Manning (guitar, back to Ardent in Memphis, the original were sort of paying tribute to or stealing
harmonica), Barry Ardent on National Street. from on Ill Take You There. Sly looked
Beckett (keys), HOOD: Terry was a musician himself and over and just laughed, and said, Oh, after
Roger Hawkins so he would add little things, harmonica we heard Ill Take You There, we started
(drums), Eddie parts, little lines, guitar licks or something copying that! We thought we were copying
Hinton (lead
guitar), Memphis to help complete the record sometimes. It you! Its funny how music goes around.
Horns was a good system. STAPLES: Those were the good old days
Released: 1972 MANNING: I would do several songs I tell you, I miss those days. And dont
Highest chart in a night, if I had a guitar setup I liked. you forget, if you wanna go Ill take you
position: UK 20; I would say the overdubs on Ill Take there!
US 1 You There probably took two or three
nights of experimentation, if you added Mavis Staples If All I Was Was Black is
together the increments of time. Mavis out now on Anti-
time line
1972 Recording takes There, at Alabamas Hood and Roger Hawkins;
place for Be Altitude: Muscle Shoals Sound the album goes on to be
Respect Yourself, Studio, owned by the Staples most
including Ill Take You Swampers such as David successful ever
 The return of one of the most original
bands of this centuryThe Times
AstonishingUncut

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 STEELY DAN
Donald Fagen
at the O2 with
drummer Keith
Carlock and bassist
Freddie Washington
O2 Arena, London, October 29, 2017 (and Duke Ellington
and band!)

Life after Walter. Donald Fagen prepares

to meet the challenge of a new frontier

T
He deceased, one
suspects, would not
have appreciated
sentimentality, and
Donald Fagen is not
about to dishonour an old
friend. Were the Steely
Dan organisation, he says. Were a little into the creation of records like Aja, and
different from what we were a few months
ago, but I gotta live with that. As if to
emphasise the change, Fagen launches
into New Frontier, a song that marked
his original liberation from the company
of Walter Becker in the early 80s. Becker
himself, dead eight weeks, is never
mentioned. Allusion, irony and a fragile
air of emotional detachment remain Steely
Dans key coping strategies, even as they
enter the final phase of their suitably
complex career.
Their career is something of a
misnomer, of course. This is notionally
Fagens career now, a place where the
distinct legacies of Steely Dan and his solo
At the heart
road, the Steely Dan touring project these
past 20 years has been dedicated in large
part to playing songs on stage that were
explicitly designed for the studio. But
fixating on an idea of perfection tends
to detract from the process of trial, error,
error, error, error and chance that went
makes these songs into such swinging
live entities. At the heart of Steely Dan is a
trust in malleable virtuosity, in a matrix of
groove and possibilities. It doesnt matter a
huge deal whos playing tenor saxophone,
for instance, as long as they can improvise
their way through the rhythmic peaks and
troughs of Aja itself as Walt Weiskopf
does brilliantly tonight. He may not have
quite the measure of Wayne Shorter, but he
clearly has a similar understanding of how
Steely Dan demand a fiendish balance of
discipline and creativity.
While Wilson and his band have worked
assiduously at recreating the exact sound
of Pet Sounds, Smile et al, Steely Dan
effectively work back from the pristine
finished songs to something more open-
ended. Theres a jazz imperative being
reclaimed at these gigs, so that Herington
doesnt try to reconstruct, note for note,

of Steely Dan the work of Denny Dias, or Skunk Baxter,

is a trust in
malleable
virtuosity
work may begin to elide a little. Many of
these exceptional musicians notably
guitarist Jon Herington, drummer Keith
Carlock and the trumpeter/arranger
Michael Leonhart have been part of the
organisation for over 15 years, belying
the idea that a Steely Dan player is only
as useful as their last solo. Nevertheless,
with Becker gone, Fagen is the only
visceral link to the 1970s. Swaying away
from his keyboard, head thrown back
with an ecstatic note of Ray Charles, hes a
surprisingly dishevelled figure; a slightly
Brian rasic/Getty imaGes
or Larry Carlton, or Dean Parks, or Hugh
McCracken, or Rick Derringer, or even
Walter Becker himself. (He does stick
pretty close to elliott Randalls original
path on Reelin In The Years, but the solo
is more or less the riff in that instance.)
SETLIST
When Becker and Fagen auditioned one
guitarist after another to play the solo on 1 Bodhisattva
Peg in 1977, they didnt tell them what 2 Black cow
to do, exactly. They just left each of them 3 Hey nineteen as Bodhisattva climaxes with a series
4 new Frontier
a space to be filled and a musical problem of frenzied breakdowns, the four-man
5 aja
to be solved in the most harmonious way 6 Black Friday
horn section stepping out of their discreet
possible; a musical problem, it should be 7 Babylon sisters formation. Its a hint of how this music
stressed, that Becker and Fagen had no 8 time Out Of will survive the loss of Becker and,
idea how to solve themselves. Herington mind perhaps eventually, Fagen himself just
doesnt copy Jay Graydons successful 9 Dirty Work as the Deads music lives on, in myriad
solution to the Peg dilemma, he resolves 10 Peg valuable configurations, 22 years after the
that dancing, elusive conundrum in his 11 i Want to (Do death of Jerry Garcia.
everything
own, highly satisfactory, way. For you) In the meantime, Fagen remains a
A better comparison than Brian Wilson 12 Josie heroically reluctant frontman, who still
might be with The Grateful Dead, weirdly 13 my Old school manages to avoid singing Dirty Work
another band whose sympathies were 14 Kid himself. (In the predictable absence
charlemagne

goofy cartoon hipster, mooching about
the stage with shades and a melodica.
The idea of Fagen as rocks alpha droll
technocrat might work in theory, but the
reality is pleasingly more human.
As, to a degree, is the music. Like the
parallel return of Brian Wilson to the
often closer to jazz than to rock, and who
knew that a spirit of improvisation would
allow their canon of songs to be endlessly
reinvented. Steely Dan never go anywhere
as free and chaotic as the Dead, but there
are glimpses of how their songs can be
stretched and reshaped right from the off,
of David Palmer, that job goes to the
EncorE Danettes, three female backing singers
15 reelin in the
years
who smartly reclaim it as a country-soul
16 the slow-burner.) His voice is a little strained
Untouchables and pinched on Time Out Of Mind
and My Old School, but his apparent
joy and engagement seems at odds with

96 UNCUT JANUARY 2018


the touring curmudgeon he portrayed
himself as in his memoir, Eminent
Hipsters. There is even an apology for
the relative shortness of the set limited
to 90 minutes, it seems, by the fact that
Bluesfest have allowed support act The
Doobie Brothers to play for nearly as long
as Steely Dan themselves.
The relative brevity means that some
opportunities are passed up on. Babylon
Sisters, for a start, could have rolled
on in its blithely funky way for another
couple of minutes at least, while the
intense consistency of Steely Dans back
catalogue ensures everyone in the crowd
will have left thinking of half a dozen or so
personal favourites King Of The World,
Through With Buzz, Sign In Stranger,
Two Against Nature, virtually all the hit
singles that didnt make the setlist.
The full 2017 Steely
Dan lineup (right),
with an unused mic
stand serving as
a touching tribute
to the absent
Walter Becker
It also means that Fagen doesnt pay
explicit tribute to his old partner by
singing Beckers Book Of Liars (from his
1994 solo album, 11 Tracks Of Whack), as
he has done at recent US shows
and in Dublin the previous
night. Instead, the poignancy
comes from an absence:
a neglected mic stand centre
stage; the lack of a sardonic foil
who always brought
out the best, funniest and
cruellest of Fagen, in both
music and conversation.
L i VE
You can find poignancy, too, in the
details of all the Steely Dan songs about
men of a certain age trying to deal, very
awkwardly, with the past and with
youth. Does Fagen really sing,
Its hard times befallen the sole
survivor, tonight instead of sole
survivors, in Hey Nineteen?
She thinks Im crazy, for sure,
But Im just growing old
JOHN MULVEY
The Ultimate Music Guide to
Steely Dan is in shops now
JANUARY 2018 UNCUT 97

Dressing down:
Annie Clark,
Brixton Academy,
October 2017
ST VINCENT
Brixton Academy, London,
October 17, 2017
Massreduction! Annie Clarks tantalising,
frustrating solo turn
A
S introductions go,
its an A-grade tease.
Before the house lights
are fully down, the
curtain draws back just
a few feet, revealing
St Vincent stage right,
stood still in a fuchsia-pink bodysuit.
Grasping the mic with both hands, she
launches into Marry Me, the title track
from her debut album a touchingly soft
rendition that has something of Marilyn
Monroe about it. Then, shes handed a
pink guitar and the curtain is nudged
aside by increments, first for the slo-mo,
to-and-fro motion of Now, Now, and
again for the Bjrk-meets-Broadway-
musical pizzazz of The Strangers, with
strobes. So far, so intriguing.
Anticipation runs high for the Fear
The Future tour after all, thanks to the
brilliance of new LP Masseduction, Annie
Clark is now the patron saint of supra-
Brian rasic/Wireimage
emotional, wittily postmodern pop and
so the crowd cranes its neck as one, keen
to see what lies behind that curtain. Her
crack band, is the obvious assumption.
Or, if theyre stationed discreetly in the
wings, then maybe some extravagant
98 UNCUT JANUARY 2018
SETLIST
1
2
3
4
5
6 cheerleader
7 strange mercy
8 Digital Witness
9 rattlesnake
10
props, to match the thrilling dynamics and 11
saturated colour of her new songs? 12
But when Clark finally edges her way to 13
14
the centre of an empty stage and launches
15
into Actor Out Of Work, with its mix 16
of detailed prog picking and Fripp-ish
shredding, the penny drops. This will be a 17
solo show just Clark and guitar, playing 18
a set of earlier material in chronological 19
order, followed by Masseduction in full, all 20
with pre-recorded backing. 21
The lack of a dramatic reveal seems to 22
suck the energy out of the packed room 23
in an instant, allowing disappointment
to rush in. A swift adjustment of
expectation settles the air, but the feeling
that a dazzling spectacle has failed to
manifest lingers, and the rest of Clarks
performance does little to dispel it. Its
not that theres nothing to see: her prone
figure in a spotlight, singing Strange
Mercy from the foetal position, is the
disquieting centrepiece of the first set. And
in the second, video backdrops, some with
Godley & Creme overtones, screen garish
vignettes of a mostly deadpan existential
nature starring Clark herself feeding
sheets of orange paper printed with NO
into a shredder, for instance.
Clarks voice
is on great
form, but the
songs seem
anaesthetised
The problem is that the smart, flesh-
marry me
now, now
and-blood maximalism of the new
album is bafflingly at odds with this flat,
theatrically brittle and disengaged live
The stranger
actor Out Of
staging. Clarks richly expressive voice
is on great form, but the songs seem
Work
cruel anaesthetised somehow, and theres no
evidence of her wicked sense of humour.
Despite its gesturing toward flashiness
and fun, the show is low on energy and
oddly joyless.
Birth in reverse There are tantalising glimpses of
Hang On me what might have been: Hang On Me,
Pills
which opens the second set after a brief
masseduction
costume-change break, sees Clark on a
sugarboy
dais in a silver micro-dress, unspooling
Los ageless
Happy Birthday the lustrous, wounded beauty of her
Johnny voice while moody electronic hisses,
savior rattles and drones swirl around the room.
new York Sugarboy moves with a strong, EBM
Fear The Future strut. And despite the fact that a backside
Young Lover wrapped in bright pink and leopard
slow Disco
interlude
print, as on the albums sleeve hoves
slow Disco into magnified view onscreen during
smoking New York, the song hits its yearning
section and regret-filled target.
These, though, are compensatory
moments. Clarks heroes, Bowie and
Prince, never flew entirely solo at their
peaks, and neither have Minnelli,
Madonna or Lady Gaga, whose
appreciation of high-end razzmatazz
Clark shares, even if her interpretation is
different. Theres an argument to be made
that no performer is responsible for their
audiences expectations or obliged to
satisfy them. But whatever anyone
might have presumed this St Vincent
show would be, lacklustre was almost
certainly not it.
SHARON OCONNELL
 VICTORIA PARK
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40th Anniversary
ANNIVERSArY DELUXE EDITION

Includes:
The Original Album
Ten Previously-Unreleased Live Recordings
From The Los Angeles Forum in 1976
Blu Ray Audio Disc With HD,
PCM Stereo and 5.1 Surround Mixes
44-Page Book With Rare Photos
And Memorabilia
20-Page Hotel California Tour Book
Three Posters

Out 24th November

Also Available: 2 CD Expanded Edition 1 CD HI DEF / Standard Digital / Streaming Eagles.com

E
veryone is sick of
the old way, Johnny
rotten told Caroline
Coon in 1976. Were
just one alternative.
There should be several. In Matthew
Worleys No Future, punk is unshackled
from historys innate desire to order and
anthologise, and presented as nothing
but a series of alternatives, its fluid
oppositional stances as attractive to
far-right hoodlums as left-wing idealists,
to retro-rockers and conceptual futurists,
to straight and queer. The one thing they
all had in common, claims Worley, was
a youthful urge to confront orthodoxies.
Worley a professor of Modern History
at the University of reading laments
that punk has been reduced to but
another touchstone in pops rich tapestry.
He seeks here to re-establish its broader
culture, its inherent contradictions, its
vagrant energy and its protean, complex
legacy. His aim is not to write a narrative
history of punk as remembered, but to
understand the various ways by which
punk was constructed, understood and
utilised as a cultural medium.
He does a decent job. only occasionally
lapsing into the pitfalls of dry academia
there are over 100 pages of notes in a book
of 400 pages he strips events down to
contemporary accounts of myriad grass-
roots movements, ordered thematically
rather than chronologically. He shows
how punks explosion of sound and style
was deeply interconnected with shifts in
party politics, personal politics, the music
press, attitudes to class, race and sexual
identity, social dissent and provincial
uprisings. rather than attempt to package
it all in a neat bundle, Worley emphasises
the inherent factionalism of the time.
Punk was not a unified cultural wrecking
ball, but a series of shots across the
REvIEWED barricades. He recognises, too, that the
THIS mONTH really important stuff came in its wake.
Musical criticism often takes a back
seat to ideological discussion, but the
author knows his All Mod Cons from his 20
Jazz Funk Greats, and debunks the myth
that punk enacted cultural patricide;
The Clash may have declared, No Elvis,
Beatles or Rolling Stones, but although
punk appeared to reject what rock had
become, it did not thereby reject its past.
Shunning hindsight also illuminates
NO FUTURE: PUNK, some choice facts: before the music press
POLITICS AND eventually settled on punk as their
BRITISH YOUTH branding of choice, various alternatives
CULTURE 1976-
1984 were posited, among them Kids rock;
MATTHEW WORLEY S rock and ? rock. 40 years. At a German festival he urinates
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY
PRESS, 17.99
The title of Bruce Dickinsons What
7/10
Does This Button Do? acknowledges
the endearing-cum-irritating tendency
of the Iron Maiden singer to act first and
ask questions later. His evident need to
write himself into a series of Boys own
adventures appears rooted in an unhappy
childhood. raised by his formidable
six-foot grandmother while his wasted
parents were travelling the country in a
performing-dog act, Dickinson is bullied
at boarding school and finally expelled
WHAT DOES for pissing in a pot of par-boiled runner
THIS BUTTON
DO? BRUCE beans intended for the prefects.
DICKINSON AN He emerges from the chaos as a high-
AUTOBIOGRAPHY achiever determined to do pretty much
HARPER COLLINS, 20
everything. Apart from shrieking like
6/10
an air-raid siren in Maiden for almost
Dickinsons endless
high jinks begin to feel
like diversion tactics
Failing to skewer
the full story:
Bruce Dickinson
in the US, 1980
40 years, Dickinson has turned his hand
to competitive fencing, commercial
piloting, writing bawdy farces and
brewing his own beer. He spends two
decades developing a film about Aleister
Crowley starring Simon Callow, and
plays a concert in Sarajevo at the height
of the early-90s hostilities. Diagnosed
with cancer in 2015 a grim interlude
recounted here with admirable candour
he makes a swift and full recovery.
Little wonder that when he joins Iron
Maiden, having served his dues in
Samson (two years of madness), he
swiftly transforms them into the biggest
Brit metal band and brand of the past
on the mixing desk and inserted my dick
in the singer [of Quiet Riots] ear, but in
general Dickinson prefers a handy Swiss
Army Knife to the Hammer of The Gods.
He eschews drugs and is coy about sex.
In the absence of rocknroll misbehaviour
and much musical insight, theres lots
of tech talk about Fokkers and 747s,
alongside some knowing Spinal Tap-
isms. on one tour the great clawed
hand of eddie, their mascot, ends up
malfunctioning, managing only to give
the finger to the audience.
Dickinson writes with a blokey
breeziness: jovial but emotionally distant.
His executive decision not to mention
births, marriages and divorces leaves
a hole at the heart of the book. Significant
Daddy issues are hinted at but left
unexplored, and without the balancing
context of a personal life, his endless high
RichaRd E. aaRon/REdfERns
jinks begin to feel like hollow diversion
tactics. Likewise, his bandmates remain
mere shadows, barely given the courtesy
of a character sketch. The effect is of an
interesting life lived in a vacuum, where
experiences are more important than the
people who shaped them. Graeme Thomson
JANUARY 2018 UNCUT 109
 Colin Farrells world
collapses, Willem
Dafoe suffers the little
children and Michael
Haneke manipulates

T
he KiLLinG oF A sACred
deer Yorgos Lanthimos
has earned his reputation
as a purveyor of deadpan,
absurdist stories. His
earliest films, Dogtooth and
Alps, were scalp-prickling
black comedies where dark mysteries lay
behind glossy middle-class veneers of
respectability. But his previous film, The
Lobster, took a swerve into more eccentric
territory: single adults were obliged to find a
marriage partner before a specified deadline
or else be turned into animals and packed
off to the wild. How do you follow that?
Unlike the fanciful dystopias of Alps or The
Lobster, The Killing Of A Sacred Deer is set in
what we initially recognise as the present
day. Colin Farrell plays a successful heart
surgeon, Steven Murphy, Nicole Kidman his
decorous wife, Anna. They exist in a world of
high-end professionalism: black tie events,
expensive watches, big house. Tangential to
all that, Steven has an unusual friendship
with a 16-year-old boy, Martin (Barry
Keoghan). As the nature of this relationship
becomes apparent, the film shifts tone, as
if somehow Murphy and his family have
unwittingly strayed into a mysterious
space beyond everyday reality. Camera
angles become dizzyingly acute. Dissonant
bursts of noise erupt on the soundtrack. A
supernatural curse is invoked.
As with Michael Haneke, Lanthimos
carefully deconstructs his protagonists
comfortable middle-class existence. These
are people who are in control of their
lives what will it take to disturb them?
Pinteresque conversations loop back on
themselves, characters speak in a detached,
robotic fashion. Everything seems freighted
with inexplicable unease. Working again
with Lanthimos after The Lobster, Farrell is
terrific as the shifty Murphy, unable to admit
his own faults even as his world collapses
around him. Kidmans Anna, meanwhile,
brings some desperately needed sanity as
Willem Lanthimos macabre tragedy unfolds. They
Dafoe takes are both comprehensively trumped, though,
a forgiving
stance in by Keoghans Martin an intense, wicked
The Florida augur of doom.
Project
the FLoridA ProJeCt Somewhere near
to Disneys The Magic Kingdom in Orlando,
Florida, just off Seven Dwarfs Lane, there
lies a less auspicious palace of enchantment.
This is The Magic Castle a rundown social
housing block painted a lurid shade of
purple. It is where, during the holidays, six
year-old Moonee (Brooklynn Prince) and
her friends run wild. Its only the second
week of summer and theres already been a
dead fish in the swimming pool, grumbles
the blocks exasperated manager, Bobby
(Willem Dafoe). But to Moonee, The Magic
Castle and its environs a sea of car parks,
fast food outlets, scrubland and dumpsters
are a playground of the imagination. There
are raucous adventures to be had, even if it
involves turning off the power to the motel
or accidentally setting fire to a row of derelict
condos. Theyre good kids, most of the
time, sighs Bobby.
Bobby is one of the few adults who feature
substantially in Sean Bakers film. The other
is Halley (Bria Vinaite) Moonees mother,
a woman with a short temper and many
tattoos who sees Moonees curiosity and
energy as something to be cherished. After
all, the reality of life at The Magic Castle
is hard: Halley and her daughter take free
handouts from a nearby diner or bread from a
charity food van. To further make ends meet,
Halley sells on cheap perfume to tourists at
a nearby golf club. While the lengths Halley
will go to in order to pay the rent are initially
enterprising, her predicament only worsens
as the film progresses.
Bakers previous film, Tangerine, was shot
entirely on iPhones. The Florida Project has
the same fire and energy, though evidently
hes stepped up to a whole new level here.
This is a compassionate film about the
conditions of working-class America, where
the next knock on the door might well be
from a child welfare agency.
hAPPY end Followers of Michael Haneke
will be delighted to learn that his latest opens
with mobile phone footage, taken secretly,
of a woman as she goes about her nighttime
ablutions. The sequence feels like a
contemporary update on Hanekes 2005 film
Cach, about a Parisian family who receive
videotapes of the outside of their house.
We learn that this phone footage was shot
by Eve (Fantine Harduin), shortly before she

reviewed this month

the KiLLinG the FLoridA hAPPY end JoAn BLAde oF the
oF A sACred ProJeCt Directed by: didion: the immortAL
deer Directed by: Michael Center wiLL Directed by:
Directed by: Sean Baker haneke not hoLd takashi Miike
Yorgos Starring: Starring: Directed by: Starring:
Lanthimos Brooklynn isabelle Griffin dunne takuya
Starring: Prince, Willem huppert, Starring: Kimura, hana
colin Farrell, dafoe Jean-Louis Joan didion Sugisaki
Nicole Kidman Opens: trintignant Opens: Opens:
Marc SchMidt

Opens: November 10 Opens: streaming November 24

November 3 Cert: 15 december 1 now Cert: 18
Cert: 15 9/10 Cert: 15 Cert: 12 7/10
8/10 9/10 8/10

110 UNCUT JANUARY 2018


is shipped off to stay with her father Thomas
(Mathieu Kassovitz) and his family on their
splendid estate in Calais. The Laurents are
a classic Haneke clan. Eighty-four-year-old
patriarch Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant) is
an advocate of euthanasia. Eves aunt Anne
(Isabelle Huppert) is struggling to control
both the family construction business and
her erratic son Pierre (Franz Rogowski).
The pleasure of watching Trintignant and
Huppert, both previously seen in Hanekes
devastating Amour, is matched by the arrival
of Toby Jones, playing Annes fianc, a British
lawyer handling a deal for the family firm.
Happy End the title is ironic, like Funny
Games replays almost all Hanekes themes:
family grievances, revenge, guilt, repression.
Early on, we see part of a wall collapse on a
building site belonging to the Laurents firm.
It is an ill omen, of course, which provides
some kind of narrative motor for the film;
though essentially Haneke is more interested
in the sociopathic behaviour of almost all
the characters here. In that respect, Georges
and Eve become the films most interesting
characters their transgressions are the
most severe. One scene late on in the film,
where they swap secrets, manages to be both
terrifying and weirdly moving.
JoAn didion: the Center wiLL not
hoLd Frequently, this splendid documentary
about the great American writer resembles
a love letter to its subject. Filmed by Didions
nephew, the actor Griffin Dunne, it has
a warm, candid intimacy, where Aunt
Joan now in her eighties reflects on her
remarkable career. Drawing on home movies,
archival footage and interviews with friends
and ex-colleagues, Dunne reconstructs
a remarkable life. After graduating from
Berkeley in the late 50s, Didion glided
into a job at Vogue, though its not until
Like his previous
film, Sean Bakers
The Florida Project
has fire and energy
the late 1960s that she came into her own
chronicling the hippie scene in Haight-
Ashbury in Slouching Towards Bethlehem.
Visiting a squat, she encountered a five-year-
old child tripping on acid. Let me tell you, it
was gold, Didion reveals to her nephew. The
long and the short of it is you live for moments
like that if you are doing a piece. Good or bad.
Such journalistic acuity became Didions
stock in trade. One of the pleasures of this
Netflix documentary is hearing Didion
reading passages from own essays, her voice
firm and strong, as coolly dispassionate
as the work itself. Didion wrote about the
cultural disintegration of the 60s and 70s
everything from the Manson family to Ronald
Reagans empty gubernatorial mansion and
the California water system. Latterly, her
writing became focused around the deaths of
her husband, the writer John Gregory Dunne,
who died in 2003, and their adopted daughter
Quintana, who died two years later. These
tragedies occupy the final third of Dunnes
film and here perhaps understandably the
filmmaker treads lightly. You suspect Didion
herself would have pushed harder.
BLAde oF the immortAL Ten minutes
into Takashi Miikes new film, and his
protagonist, a samurai called Majni
(Takuya Kimura), has decimated an army
of neer-do-wells but at a price. His sister
has been killed and he, too, is dying his
arm gruesomely severed, blood pouring
everywhere. But wait! Who is this mysterious
crone in white hooded cloak? And what
exactly is she doing with those sacred
bloodworms born of the Holy Lama?
Fifty years after being made immortal by
those sacred bloodworms, Manji is employed
by Rin (Hana Sugisaki), to avenge the murder
of her parents. This, then, is a useful excuse
for Miike to indulge his creative gifts for
impressive, high-octane violence. Manji
finds himself facing an array of fancifully
coiffed and costumed opponents, many of
them armed with appropriately outlandish
weaponry. Anyone looking for pathos in
these one-on-one duels would be wise to
check out a face-off with a fellow immortal
whos been alive for 200 years and is now
ready to die. Kimura a former member
of Japans successful boy band, SMAP is
suitably resolute and honourable as he
eviscerates another bad guy. But at close to
two-and-a-half hours, the killing becomes
repetitive no matter how many fancy ways
its presented. Some viewers may find it hard
to restrain themselves from shouting, Its
only a flesh wound! as yet another limb goes
flying off into the distance. michael bonner
ALso oUt...
in A LoneLY PLACe
OPENS NOVEMBER 24
Nic rays masterly noir finds
humphrey Bogarts screenwriter
caught up in murder.
the disAster Artist
OPENS DECEMBER 1
Biog of the team behind hollywood
disaster/cult favourite The Room. Stars
James Franco and Seth rogen.
A mAtter oF LiFe And deAth
OPENS DECEMBER 8
david Niven stars as an raF pilot
caught between heaven and Earth in
Powell and Pressburgers classic.
the mUPPet ChristmAs CAroL
OPENS DECEMBER 8
Michael caine joins Kermit and felt
friends for dickens-lite festive frolics.
brigsby
bear
BriGsBY BeAr
OPENS DECEMBER 8
dark ode to the weird obsessions of
childhood, with SNLs Kyle Mooney as
a man in thrall to his favourite tV show.
stronGer
OPENS DECEMBER 8
From director david Gordon Green,
with Jake Gyllenhaal recovering in the
aftermath of the Boston bombing.
the dinner
OPENS DECEMBER 8
two couples muse on first-world
problems over posh nosh. richard
Gere, Laura Linney, Steve coogan and
rebecca hall star.
stAr wArs: the LAst Jedi
OPENS DECEMBER 14
Vrummmummmmm FVISH! More
shenanigans in a galaxy far, far away.
Plus: farewell, then, carrie Fisher.
moLLYs GAme
OPENS DECEMBER 25
aaron Sorkins latest stars Jessica
chastain and idris Elba in a true story
about the titular poker princess.
hostiLes
OPENS DECEMBER 29
christian Bales US cavalry officer
accompanies a cheyenne war chief
back to their tribal lands.
JANUARY 2018 UNCUT 111

MoNTEREY PoP:
SPECiAl EdiTioN
The CriTerion ColleCTion
9/10
Trailblazing documentary about a
trailblazing festival. By Mark Bentley
RuN over the weekend
of June 16-18, 1967,
the first (and only)
Monterey International
Pop Music Festival is
the ur-text for the music
festival. Its influence
on Woodstock,
Glastonbury (and therefore every major
festival since) is incalculable, and the
chief instrument of this influence was this
technically beautiful, totally unmissable
accompanying film documentary.
Released in 1968, Monterey Pop
disseminated the new generation/new
explanation message. It is, of course,
home to the 60s greatest visual hits:
Janis Joplins orgasmic rip-cord Ball And
Chain; The Whos call-to-action blast of
My Generation; Ravi Shankars intense,
112 UNCUT JANUARY 2018
spiritual virtuosity and most
iconic of all, Jimi Hendrix and
his flaming guitar.
This three-disc 50th-
anniversary issue takes director
DA Pennebakers concept of
an immersive, experiential
package and gorges on all
extant content, and the
potential of new technology.
The original 16mm film has
been scanned to 16bit 4k
resolution, and the soundtrack
as per previous releases
Burning of remastered by engineer (and Hendrix
the daylight
Strat: Mr Fixit) Eddie Kramer. There are audio
the iconic commentaries, new interviews with director
climax of DA Pennebaker and festival organiser Lou
Jimi Hendrix
Monterey set Adler, archive slots with David Crosby, John
Phillips, Mama Cass and vaunted Beatles
publicist Derek Taylor, who PRed the festival
with gravitas, and whose presence prompted
rumours The Beatles would appear. You also
get photo galleries, a scrapbook, in-depth
critical essays and 1968 short film Chiefs!,
shot by photographer Richard Leacock, one
of Pennebakers trusted lieutenants, which
aired alongside Monterey Pop on its original
theatrical release.
And more: theres a remastered version
of two classic shorts Jimi Plays Monterey
and Otis Reddings astonishing set, Shake!:
Otis At Monterey. The excellent outtakes
disc features every available complete
performance. Thats two hours of
film that missed the cut, and the
names here reflect the ridiculously
diverse range of acts on offer that
weekend from factory pop (The
Association) to megastars (The
Byrds why did they ditch them?).
There are spellbinding, lesser-
seen moments the myth that the
brilliant Laura Nyro was booed
offstage is busted somewhat by a
rapt audience response. And there
are forgettable bits from acts since
sidelined by rocks revisionism: step
forward, Tiny Tim.
Pennebakers original film remains
the central draw. Its no exaggeration
to say the 79 minutes of Monterey
Pop defined a new language for
music filmmaking. Fresh from Dylan
documentaries Dont Look Back and
the (unreleased) Eat The Document,
Pennebaker unloaded his suitcase
of technical innovations. Today the
backlit profiles, the camera-in-the-
wings, the lingering crowd shots and
the blinding lens flare may seem like
rock-flick clichs. Buts that because
this films style has been so wildly
influential, and widely copied.
Flanked by a crew that included
Nick Proferes, Dylan mainstay Bob
Neuwirth and Albert Maysles who
later used this direct cinema style for
the hellish Stones-at-Altamont doc
Gimme Shelter Pennebaker mixed
shaky on the-ground reportage
with stunning cinematography and an
artfully arranged rise-and-fall pace. The
acts are not presented in chronological
order, but intercut for context, as if to create
a holistic, hovering overview of all three
days. Monterey Pop is as a soundchecking
Crosby whispers near the beginning
Groovy, man.
There are highlights throughout, and they
are all defined by detail. The aghast faces
during Jimis fire-starting. The stoned-sheen
of the vox pops (I flew in this morning I
love all the bands, says a girl taking her seat
in an empty auditorium). The fear on the face
of the local police chief (bricking it about
Hells Angels Black Panthers). There
are obsessively kinetic close-ups of Janis
Joplins feet, moving almost involuntarily,
as if her body cant contain the emotion
of her performance. There is exceptional,
thoughtful editing, as if to emphasise the
come-one, come-all messaging, and the
tipping point of summer 67. Beautiful
turned-on types mill around next to punters
in suits, button-cardigans, unironic nine-to-
five haircuts. On stage, the rampant Who are
followed by a drifting, cosmic Country Joe &
The Fish, who in turn segue into the power,
presence and sheer soul of Redding: the
weekends most professional performer, just
six months away from his death.
Extras: 8/10. Expanded Blu-ray-only release.
Three-disc director-approved special edition
features all content mentioned above.
BlACK SABBATH
The End
eAGle roCK

7/10
Fireworks! Swearing! Tears! The Sabs
farewell gig in full
Birmingham, February
4, 2017: the show that
closed the unholy book
on this most durable of
bands. This is essentially
asouvenir: a last hurrah
for all the big numbers
from 50 years of doom-
laden, lumbering riffage.
It looks good, it sounds good, and Ozzy is
game but the dextrous, dangerously
cool Tony Iommi is the star, as perhaps he
always was.
Extras: 7/10. Blu-ray/DVD and CD double
BoTTlE RoCKET:
package, bundled with The Angelic
Sessionson CD; Deluxe box includes books,
pin, plectrums and tour laminate.
Heist jinks:
(lr) Robert
Musgrave,
SPECiAl EdiTioN
luke and The CriTerion ColleCTion
MARK BENTLEY owen Wilson
in Bottle 8/10
lAMF Rocket
live At The Bowery Electric Wes Andersons likeable crime-
JUnGle
caper debut. By Damon Wise
6/10 CEliNE ANd JUliE
New York supergroup salutes the Go BoATiNG THE popular image of Wes Anderson is that
ragged spirit of 77 BFi BlU-rAy of the perfectionist, taking a tape measure
Forty years after The to check the width of his fashionably
7/10
Heartbreakers only unfashionable beige cord lapels or
album, sole survivor Complex, unsettling fantasy from 1974 holding up a colour swatch to make sure
Walter Lure gathered Jacques Rivettes his morning coffee has been made just so.
a bunch of names sprawling (194-minute) The cool, animated menu for this Criterion
The Replacements theatrical indulgence reissue-slash-restoration of his directing
Tommy Stinson, Blondie inspired Desperately debut raises high hopes, then, but sadly
drummer Clem Burke, Seeking Susan, but the film itself looking better than it ever did is the best part
MC5 guitar hero Wayne is considerably more of this package. The Making Of, for example, by sometime
Kramer to perform LAMF in New York. complex. The plot Anderson associate Barry Braverman (whose 1978 short
Cue a packed house and suitably pungent throws a Nouvelle Murita Cycles is also puzzlingly included), is scrappy and even,
versions of Born To Lose, Chinese Rocks Vague murder-mystery gasp, amateurish, with low-quality sound and cast and crew
et al. And while none of them can claim to be weekend down a Parisian rabbit hole. It reminiscences interrupted by dogs barking and traffic noise.
natural frontmen, theyre too busy enjoying follows librarian Julie (Dominique Labourier) This tantalising, fragmented narrative how three kids from
themselves to care. and magician Cline (Juliet Berto) as they Texas (Anderson, plus Owen and Luke Wilson) made a cult
Extras: 5/10. Interviews with all four conspire to inhabit a murder mystery in the movie against the odds, including a test audience that scrawled
protagonists, plus guest vocalist Jesse Malin. haunted house of their imaginations, though THIS IS SHIT on a reaction card comes out a little more clearly
ROB HUGHES Rivettes focus is more on the outer limits of in the relaxed commentary by Owen Wilson and Anderson,
dramatic invention. which adds in some interesting detail about the chaotic nature of
lYdiA loVElESS Extras: 8/10. Commentary, shorts, booklet. the shoot, which developed over two years and had to be hacked
Who is lydia loveless? ALASTAIR McKAY down to 90 minutes. The excess footage, 11 scenes of which are
MVC included, suggests that producer Polly Platt was right to wield the
7/10
YEllo scissors after the director initially refused to budge.
live in Berlin The main feature itself, however, has actually improved with
In-depth doc captures endearing UniVerSAl age, and what seems surprising on reflection is how much of a
country girl on the come-up piece it is with Andersons later films, even though the premise
7/10
The rock documentary is a clearly comic derivation of Reservoir Dogs is like nothing he
typically reserved for acts Long-overdue live debut captured has made since. Now 21 years old, Bottle Rocket seems initially
grappling with the onset Making your official startling if only because its cast seem so impossibly young.
of success. Who Is Lydia live debut at 71 is an Similarly, its odd to be reminded that Luke Wilson is actually the
Loveless? is a little different. unorthodox career move, lead, playing the depressive Anthony, sprung from hospital by
Director Gorman Bechards but Swiss techno-pop his excitable friend Dignan (Owen Wilson with a Dolph Lundgren
study of Loveless a former surrealists Yello have buzz-cut, having yet to settle on his default stoner shtick).
farm girl and alternative always written their own Though the story is one of Andersons most generic, the
country musician signed rules. Launching their seeds of his now-familiar style are there, in the colours, the
to Bloodshot Records takes a different excellent 13th album framing and deadpan sincerity of the comedy, which reaches
route, homing in on the travails that face Toy late last year with its heights when the wannabe criminal Dignan gets himself
independent musicians in that hinterland four full-band mega-shows at a disused and his friends entangled with local crime kingpin Mr Henry
between stardom and obscurity. Loveless Berlin power station, Dieter Meier and Boris (a hilarious turn by James Caan, who didnt really know what
straight-talking style is endearing, and Blank combine arena-sized performance kind of movie was making). For comparison, the disc includes
Bechards roving lens captures a few with deluxe cinematic visuals, although the the 13-minute, black-and-white short of the same name, made
universal truths about camaraderie, lengthy stretches of polished electro-lounge by the same team in 1994. Scrappy and talky, anticipating the
hardship and the music business. latin-jazz become tedious in places. Meiers slacker wave unleashed by Kevin Smiths Clerks the same year,
Extras: 7/10. Directors commentary, old-school playboy charisma, half Bryan it shows just how far Anderson has come in the years since.
acoustic performances, music videos. Ferry, half Salvador Dal, still shines. Extras: 7/10. Commentaries, Making Of, deleted scenes,
LOUIS PATTISON Extras: None. STEPHEN DALTON restored hi-def, short films.

JANUARY 2018 UNCUT 113

 Not Fade Away
Fondly remembered this month

george young
Easybeats songwriter and AC/DC producer
(1946-2017)

A
C/DC have been quick to acknowledge the debt owed to George
Young. Without his help and guidance, there would not
have been an AC/DC, the band said in a statement. Together
with songwriting partner Harry Vanda, Young produced the
first five AC/DC albums, from 1975s High Voltage through to
Powerage (1978), as well as live effort, If You Want Blood Youve Got It. The
older brother of AC/DC stalwarts Angus and Malcolm, Young returned in
2000 to oversee Stiff Upper Lip. Hed first made his name as rhythm guitarist
for The Easybeats, the quintet he co-founded in Sydney in 1964. Sparking
the kind of fan hysteria that drew comparisons to Beatlemania (Easyfever,
as the Australian press called it), the band enjoyed a succession of national
hits as Young and vocalist Stevie Wright emerged as chief songwriters. But
it was Youngs creative partnership with lead guitarist Vanda that broke
them internationally, co-writing Friday On My Mind later covered by
Bowie, Springsteen and others in 1966. He and Vanda continued their
George Young association after The Easybeats split, producing Rose Tattoo and The Angels,
(right) with The
Easybeats in co-authoring John Paul Youngs global hit Love Is In The Air, and forming
Germany, 1968 studio-only project Flash And The Pan, whose Waiting For A Train was a
UK Top 10 hit in 1982.

PHIL MILLER
Canterbury scene guitarist
(1949-2017)
Robert Wyatt once declared that
Phil Miller would rather play
a wrong note than a note that
somebody else had ever played.
Millers singular talents as a
guitarist, fusing elements of blues,
jazz and prog, made him a mainstay
of the Canterbury scene, beginning
with Delivery in 1966 and, in the
early 70s, DC & The MBs (with
Judy Dyble and Lol Coxhill) and
Wyatts Matching Mole. His two-
year tenure with Hatfield And The
North resulted in a couple of free-
ranging albums, containing key
Miller compositions like Calyx,
before he moved onto National
gunter Zint/k & k uLF kruger oHg/redFernS, Brian SHueL/redFernS
with the formers management
team and a deal with Columbia,
who released debut Songs For
Swingin Survivors in 1965. Softleys
bold mix of protest songs and
love-torn ballads failed to find a
commercial audience, however,
and his subsequent output either
solo or with Mac MacLeod as Soft
Cloud was sporadic.
MIKE CARR
Jazz keys player
(1937-2017)
Jazz organist Mike Carr founded the
EmCee Five, whose ranks included
older brother and trumpeter Ian,
in Newcastle at the turn of the
60s. Relocating to London led to
a residency at the Marimba Club,
Nighthawk, ending a decade-
long association in 1963, before
beginning a late-career resurgence
in the 90s with Feel Like Doin
Something Wrong.
TOM PALEY
String-band musician
(1928-2017)
In his 2004 memoir, Chronicles:
Volume One, Bob Dylan cited the
New Lost City Ramblers as a key
influence, writing that all their
songs vibrated with some dizzy,
portentous truth. The string
band was founded in 1958 by
Mike Seeger, John Cohen and
banjoist/guitar player Tom Paley,
whod already made his mark five
years earlier with Folk Songs Of
The Southern Appalachian
Mountains, on Jac Holzmans newly
minted Elektra label. Aside from
playing on nine Ramblers albums
up to 1962, Paley also performed
with Jean Ritchie, Eric Weissberg
and Peggy Seeger, as well as
teaching guitar to Jerry Garcia
and the young Ry Cooder.
EAMONN CAMPBELL
Dubliners guitarist
(1946-2017)
Guitarist Eamonn Campbell had
already enjoyed chart-topping
success in Ireland with Dermot
OBrien & The Clubmen when he
first met The Dubliners in 1967.
He eventually joined them 20
years later, after years of session

Health. In 1982, he formed his after which Carr collaborated with

own outfit, In Cahoots.
MICK SOFTLEY
Folk songwriter
(1939-2017)
Mick Softley had busked around
Europe with Ramblin Jack Elliott
and Wizz Jones prior to setting
up his own folk club in Hemel
Hempstead, The Spinning Wheel,
in the early 60s. But it was his
introduction to Donovan Leitch
that kickstarted his recording
career. Donovans cover of Softleys
Goldwatch Blues led to a hook-up
the likes of Coleman Hawkins,
Dizzy Gillespie and Art Farmer. He Influential:
Tom Paley
later spent four years with Ronnie with Peggy
Scotts trio, before forming Cargo. Seeger
CEDELL DAVIS
Blues guitarist and singer
(1926-2017)
Contracting polio as a child,
resulting in limited control of his
left hand, led blues guitarist CeDell
Davis to develop his own unique
style, using a butter knife as a
slide. The Arkansas native went
on to play with the great Robert

114 UNCUT JANUARY 2018

Harold Pendleton
Marquee Club and Reading Festival founder
(1924-2017)

T
HE development of the live British music scene owes so much
to Harold Pendleton. In April 1958, the former chartered
accountant from Southport launched Jazz At The Marquee, a
regular series of themed nights in the basement of the Academy
Cinema on Londons Oxford Street. As secretary of the National
Jazz Federation, in collaboration with Chris Barber, Pendleton had already
begun to promote gigs around the capital, but the Marquee provided a
base for homegrown and visiting musicians alike. He and Barber brought
Howlin Wolf and Muddy Waters to London for the first time, expanding the
venues reach by offering a residency to Alexis Korners Blues Incorporated
in 1962 and thereby signalling the R&B boom. The next few years saw the
Marquee host a slew of young British talent, from The Yardbirds and The
Who to The Rolling Stones and David Jones, who performed there for the Live-music
first time as David Bowie in October 65. Pendleton also inaugurated the pioneer
annual National Jazz Festival, which debuted in 1961 in the grounds of the Harold
Pendleton
Richmond Athletic Association. He oversaw its transition to Windsor five in 2004
years later, when Cream played their first major live show, and the festivals
final switch to Reading in 1971.

work, upon which he also became
their regular producer. It was at
Campbells suggestion that The
Dubliners hooked up with The
Pogues for their biggest hit, The
Irish Rover.
JERRY ROSS
Hit songwriter/producer
(1933-2017)
After a stint as booth announcer
on American Bandstand, Jerry
Ross started up Ross Associates
in Philadelphia and signed the
teenage Kenny Gamble, with
whom he co-wrote Im Gonna
Make You Love Me, a huge hit
for Diana Ross & The Supremes
with The Temptations. Ross also
produced Bobby Hebbs Sunny
(1966) and, alongside Robbie Van
Leeuwen, Shocking Blues 1969
classic, Venus.
GORD DOWNIE
The Tragically Hip singer
(1964-2017)
Such was The Tragically Hips
popularity in their native Canada
that they became cultural
touchstones, receiving the Order
Of Canada in 2013 and appearing
on their own set of postage stamps.
some ways that reminded me of
reading and listening to Leonard
Cohen or Robertson Davies. In
addition to 13 big-selling studio
albums with The Tragically
Hip, Downie, who has died from
brain cancer, collaborated with
The Sadies, Buck 65 and City
And Colour, and released half a
dozen solo works, the latest being
Introduce Yerself.
LOU GARE
Free-jazz saxophonist
(1939-2017)
Alongside guitarist Keith Rowe
and drummer Eddie Prvost,
tenor sax player Lou Gare was
co-founder of free improv trio
AMM, who emerged from
workshop sessions at Londons
Royal College Of Art in 1965.
Cornelius Cardew and Lawrence
Sheaff had joined by the following
years Elektra debut AMMMusic,
with Gare remaining through
several lineup variations until 1976.
He later joined Synchronicity.
Gord
Downie
live in
Ottawa,
July 2015
ALVIN DEGUZMAN
The Icarus Line guitarist
(1978-2017)
Lead singer Joe Cardamone
credited guitarist Alvin
DeGuzman as the agent of The
Icarus Lines success, a selfless
dynamo who drove the post-
hardcore band forward from
their inception in 1998. The
confrontational Los Angeles
outfit released eight studio
albums, the last 2015s All
Things Under Heaven coinciding
with the news that DeGuzman
had been diagnosed with cancer.
They split soon afterwards.
BUNNY SIGLER
Philly Sound pioneer Charles Mingus, Jimmy Smith,
(1941-2017)
Together with Kenny Gamble and
Leon Huff, Bunny Sigler helped
shape the Philly Sound. His first
major hit, Let the Good Times Roll
& Feel So Good, landed in 1967,
followed by a number of successes
through the 70s. In his
role as writer/producer,
he worked with Billy
Paul, Harold Melvin &
The Blue Notes, Patti
LaBelle, Curtis Mayfield
Modal Rounders), as banjoist with
MacGrundys Old-Timey Wool
Thumpers. He went on to play
bagpipes and fiddle with string-
band collective Golden Toad,
before finally recording a solo
album in 1971. Initially released as
a private pressing, Fiddle found a
wider audience when Tompkins
Square reissued it three years ago.
GRADY TATE
Jazz drummer/singer
(1932-2017)
Revered for his crisp timing and
subtle inflections, jazz drummer
Grady Tate was an in-demand
sideman from the 60s onwards,
playing with high-calibre artists
Nat Adderley, Wes Montgomery,
Bill Evans, Quincy Jones and many
more. He was also a fine baritone
singer, issuing a number of albums
as leader in a career that spanned
five decades.
AUGUSTIN
MAWANGU MINGIEDI
Konono No 1 bandleader
(1961-2017)
Mingiedi Mawangus death in 2015
ceded control of Konono No 1, the
Mark Horton/WireiMage, geoFF SWaine/LFi

Much of their reputation was and more. Congolese band he founded in 1966,
founded on the thematic concerns to his son and lead likemb player,
of lead singer and lyricist Gord SMOKE Augustin. The latter, who has died
Downie, a social activist who DAWSON aged 56, continued his fathers
loaded the bands songs with Fiddle player work, leading the group further
references to national identity and (1935-2017) from their traditional roots. Last
history. Bruce Dickinson, who years Konono No 1 Meets Batida,
signed them to MCA in 1987, placed George Smoke for instance, was an effects-laden
Downie in the tradition of great Dawson started out in dance collaboration with the famed
Canadian poets. There can be a 1960, alongside Pete Portuguese producer.
certain darkness in the lyrics, in Stampfel (pre-The Holy ROB HUGHES

JANUARY 2018 UNCUT 115

 feedBack
Email uncut_feedback@timeinc.com or write to: Uncut Feedback, basement 2, blue Fin building,
110 Southwark Street, london SE1 0SU. Or tweet us at twitter.com/uncutmagazine
led Zep at Knebworth
in 79: poor shows, in
percys estimation
lED ZEppElIN AT
KNEbWORTH 1979:
REFUNDS AVAIlAblE?
The December issue just arrived,
and I was immediately drawn to the
Robert Plant article. Back in January
2016 I was at the Bert Jansch tribute
night in the Old Fruitmarket in
Glasgow. I was there with Ryley
Walker, who was thrilled to learn
from Robert that he had a copy of his
current album (Primrose Green).
I had no expectations of meeting
Robert, but after the gig he walked
into the hospitality room, opened a
bottle of Asahi lager, and then stood
right next to me. What do you say to
Robert Plant without sounding
ingratiating or stupid? The only
thing I could think of was to suggest
that we were probably the only
people in the room who were at
Knebworth in 1979. He laughed and
Peter Still/redfernS; lex van roSSen/Mai/redfernS
said, Thats because were the only bill, but he seemed as remote as the
ones old enough. He then went on
to recall how bad the band had been
at both Knebworth gigs, and why
they should never have happened.
So I asked him, If you were so bad
can I get my money back? His
reply, What would that be then,
like, two and six?
Anyway, the tickets for Knebworth
were actually 7.50, but regardless,
no refund is likely to be forthcoming.
The word that stood out in the article
116 UNCUT JANUARY 2018
was modesty, and having had the
pleasure of his company I doubt
that theres many musicians of his
stature that the word could
genuinely be associated with
apart from Ryley Walker, that is!
Im delighted to have tickets for
one of his November shows. The cost
was slightly more than two and six,
though! Love your magazine and
CDs, a fantastic read as always.
Grant Lennie, via email
FROm THE DEpARTmENT
OF FIlTHY DREAmS
It was interesting to see your reviews
of the new albums by Filthy Friends
and The Dream Syndicate [Uncut
October 2017]. I recently saw a
merging of both bands at a small club
in Kyoto. It was a benefit to support
Greenlandic activist band Nanook.
Peter Buck was the big name on the
country he was there to help.
The real star was Kurt Bloch,
someone I didnt know about and
researched at once, checking out
The Minus 5 and The Yes Masters.
He put on a dynamic show, leaping
around as if at Madison Square
Garden, and jumped over to bellow
Rocknroll! in my face.
The other star was Steve Wynn,
who bashfully told me how proud he
was of the new Dream Syndicate
album quite rightly as it turns out!
Two charming guys still full of
passion for music.
I was reminded of the Danny
& Dusty albums, which mostly
seem unavailable, sadly. That
made me check out Dan Stuart,
back from the wilderness with his
rather fine new project with young
Mexican band Twin Tones. It
appears he has also published an
autobiography, which demands
a read. It gets a recommendation
from the great Willy Vlautin.
Oh! Now its time to jump into the
much-missed Richmond Fontaines
back catalogue!
No Uncut cover
for mark E Smith:
totally weird?
This musical leapfrogging can
lead you into new interesting realms
as much as the purchasing of the
latest Uncut, which introduced me
to lots of bands I was unfamiliar
with and gave me quite a revelation.
For years on my travels around
the world I have had to endure the
mockery about my home county,
and now I have something to be
proud of the amazing Essex boys,
Bark Psychosis. That, of course,
leads to more leapfrogging into
the career of bandleader Graham
Sutton, and the groups connected
to him in various ways Talk Talk,
Flying Saucer Attack, Bardo Pond
and Rodan.
Mark Weisner, Kyoto,Japan
THE FAll ON THE HIll
I didnt buy the November issue of
Uncut, because it had yet another
Beatles cover story. This pointless
archaeology on the Drab Four is
getting to epidemic standards.
This is a serious issue. Whos on the
cover next? Bowie? Led Zep? Floyd?
People like Ian McNabb and Luke
Haines, who are still producing the
goods, never seem to get a look-in,
even an in-depth interview.
Saying that, it was great to see
the interview with The Fall a few
months ago. Still didnt have the
courage to put them on the cover,
though, considering they are one
of the most influential bands of
the past 40 years: weird.
So come on, Uncut take a few
risks and stop relying on the safe
options all the time.
Trevor White, via email
AND JUSTICE FOR All
Your picture of Metallica on page 40
of Decembers edition claimed to

show a picture of the late Cliff Burton,
when in fact it was taken sometime
after the great bassist had died in
a coach crash and was Cliffs
replacement Jason Newsted. I believe
Jason is still with us, although no
longer a member of Metallica.
Paul Howarth, Huddersfield
Sorry to moan about the Ultimate
Music Guide: Prince, but it has
Prince production jobs and so on,
while excluding the New Power
Generation LPs, which are more
worthy of inclusion. They were a
means by which Prince could get
more product released. So next time,
please include Goldnigga, Exodus
and Newpower Soul.
Colin Adkins, via email
THIS lAND IS
EVERYONES lAND
How beautiful to read a rich piece on
Woody Guthries life and legacy
[Uncut, November 2017], particularly
on the heels of catching in El Paso
one of the last dates of the refugee-
fundraising Lampedusa tour,
helmed by folk legends from Joan
Baez to Steve Earle. While Lila Downs
offered an interesting mestizo twist
on This Land Is Your Land, Baez
sang a haunting version of Guthries
Refugees that would kill a fascist
Trump of any generation.
Stephen Conn, Las Cruces,
New Mexico
CAN WE plEASE
bRINg THIS
CORRESpONDENCE
CHAIN TO A HAlT?
I suspect that I am not the only Uncut
reader who is starting to get a little
ped off with regard to the ongoing
debate as to whether Roger Waters et
al have the right to produce music
which is critical of the likes of Donald
Trump and his British equivalents.
Uncut is a music magazine, and
usually a very good one, and Im
not convinced that its readers really
want to read instalments (the recent
duel between Liz Tray and Marlon
Aransibia in the November/
December issues being the latest
example) of a debate which, surely,
belongs within the pages of the
Daily Mail, Daily Express, or some
other, equally banal, journal for the
educationally challenged. Can we
please bring this correspondence
chain to a halt?
At this point, I would (if I was that
way inclined) attempt to have the
last word on the subject by recording
my absolute support for the
Musicians: Good, Donald Trump/
Brexit: Bad camp. However, Ive
never been a triumphalist, so I wont.
John Barlass, Warwick
CROSSWORD
Win one of three copies of bjrks Utopia on CD
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JANUARY 2018 UNCUT 117
 Richard Dawson
The radical folk warrior on the records that can change
his brain chemistry over the lentil soup
IRON MAIDEN
Iron Maiden 1980
When I was about 12, I used to creep into my
sisters room and try out her records. One
of the first ones I tried was this, because of
the amazing artwork. It was so exciting. I
loved the raw sound of it, but theres also
stuff in there thats as complex as classical
music. Id only heard pop up to that point, so
it really blew my mind. I think when people think about Iron Maiden they
think about the cod-rock fantasy thing, which is all well and good, but the
first couple of albums are really urban, and feel quite dangerous.
SUN RA
Atlantis 1969
I could have picked any number of Sun Ra
albums, but recently weve been listening to
this one on tour. To me, it teaches something
about how to play free music: you dont have
to be wild, you can just be very spacious
and loose. It almost sounds like an odd little
wooden puzzle Its helped us in many
a rainy traffic jam, it just keeps your momentum up. Im totally into the
myths, too he wasnt human, he didnt identify as such, and he has good
reasons not to do so. To me, hes the cornerstone of all music.
DIANA ROSS &
THE SUPREMES
Reflections 1968
Its a beautiful record, just faultless. But
its so strange the bass on it is turned up
so loud, its fabulous. What I really like
about Diana is that she has this glassiness
about her delivery, which I think makes
everything much more moving. I got into
this when I worked in a record shop I didnt love it at first, but then I started
to see it less as a Motown record and more as a slightly odd space band.
ORCHESTRA BAOBAB
Mansa 1999
This was recorded in 1978, I think, so you
can hear the tape hiss, you can hear all
these imperfections on the tape. Also the
bass is tuned flat, and it gives the record this
PHOTO: NIGEL JOHN. INTERVIEW: TOM PINNOCK
full feeling, its really amazing. If that bass
was perfectly in tune and on the nose, the
record wouldnt sound half as good. When
everything isnt quite fitting together, then things have to bleed over the
edges of everything else, and it makes for a really interesting sound. Its also
got one of my favourite guitar solos its almost like a little tweeting bird.
Richard Dawsons Peasant is out now on Domino. He tours the UK in December
118 UNCUT JANUARY 2018
HERMANN NITSCH
Harmoniumwerks Vol 112 2000
When I was about 21, a customer at the
record shop ordered a batch of CDs of
these rituals that Nitsch had performed,
these really crazy, four-day long, blood-
soaked ritualistic plays. Hes more from
the art world, and his crazier music is just
cacophonous, but these Harmoniumwerks
are him sitting at his pump organ in his castle just recording these drone
improvisations. Theyre lovely, because they keep surprising you, and they
can change your brain chemistry a bit. Its good music to work to, or read to.
SOPHIE
BIPP (B-side to Nothing More To Say) 2013
As you get older, it becomes harder and
harder to get that feeling of total excitement
and bewilderment from music. But I was so
confounded by this record, and continue to
be its a really amazing approach to sound.
It always threatens to kick in, but it never
does Its so wonderful, I love it. It gives
me the illusion that Im maintaining some kind of handle on what young
people are listening to, which Im not! Just to hear dance music or pop
music that is also really an amazing painting in its own right is great.
ELIANE RADIGUE
Songs Of Milarepa 1998
I saw this at the record shop I worked at,
and I thought the cover was so ghastly. I
played a little bit of it, and nobody knew
what was going on. But I was fascinated,
so my colleague did a very naughty thing
and marked it down to 2.99. I bought it, lay
down on my bed and played the album, and
I went somewhere else. When it came to a close, I returned very gently to my
body, and I feel like this was the real beginning There was some lesson
I was given in the other place but it takes a while to learn your lessons.
AWANTO 3
Gargamel 2017
This has been the album weve played most
in the house this year. We put it on at dinner,
when friends are over its groundbreaking,
but its subtle in how it goes about it. Its all
about the production. It covers house and
techno, but its quite fluid and melodious in
places. It has this spacey, circus-ish feeling
to it, a garishness, thats slightly deranged. In our living room, were pretty
far away from the speakers, but there would be times when a sound would
just emerge from the air in front of us, over our lentil soup.
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For more wonderful Rough Trade releases Next year watch out for; Starcrawler,
from this year see; Sun Kil Moon, Anohni, Goat Girl and The Honey Hahs.
Pantha Du Prince, Elastica, Josienne
Clarke & Ben Walker, PicaPica and Mark
Kozelek with Ben Boye and Jim White.