The National Student Magazine - October 08

October 2008

GANG GANG DANCE

WE NEED YOUR VOTE Your games, your voice, your awards your favourite game.

Last year The National Student joined forces with the Golden Joystick Awards to help make it an unprecedented success, with over three quarters of a million votes cast by opinionated gamers.

Celebrating excellence in video gaming across the board, the Golden Joystick Awards are the longest-established video games awards in the world and are the only UK awards voted for by the people.

Once again the world’s most popular gaming awards wants to know what games and consoles have impressed YOU over the last year. Voting for the 2008 Golden Joystick Awards has been flowing since May 19 with the long-lists being announced. In keeping with the Golden Joystick Awards inclusiveness, every single game released between July 31 2007 and August 1 2008 were eligible for the long-lists. On June 19, the hallowed shortlists were announced and a second round of voting kicked off to determine the overall winner of each category. And now as the end of the voting period draws near your vote could be vital in securing an award for

After the phenomenal numbers of people airing their views last year, The National Student has once again signed up to help make 2008 the biggest year yet. The past year has been an exciting one for gamers: the xbox360 brought us the multi-player madness of the third instalment in the Halo series and the Nintendo Wii has added to its cannon of brilliant releases with the likes of Mario Kart and recently the ground-breaking keep-fit gaming of the Wii Fit. Undoubtedly the game on everybody’s lips will be the amazing Grand Theft Auto 4, which is likely to win at least one award if not several. But this is up to you, so get voting!

Last chance to have your say in the most important gaming awards of the year. Great prizes still up for grabs including a 40” Sony Bravia TV and Nokia N96 smart phones.

We need YOU to vote on the year’s best games at:

thenationalstudent.co.uk/goldenjoystick

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Jeffrey Lewis

To those in the know Jeffrey Lewis is considered one of the finest artists of our generation; a purveyor of brilliant lo-fi folk and creator of cult comic-books. Ollie Millington caught up with the anti-folk hero for a little chat..... Describe what you do? Low-fi folk, sci-fi punk and low budget videos! Do you see yourself as a musician or a cartoonist first? Comic book maker first I suppose, songwriter/performer second. Not really a “musician,” I’d say. How important is music in your life? Extremely important, I listen to music all the time! How important is music in general? To the world at large? I guess it’s pretty important or it wouldn’t be part of all human cultures. What inspires you? People that show how amazing you can be when you are just yourself, also people that show how amazing you can be when you push yourself to be better! Musically do you have any heroes or people you would like to collaborate with? Most of my musical heroes are not very musical themselves, which is why they inspire me to create; people like Daniel Johnston, Mark E. Smith, Jonathan Richman, Lou Reed, they all show that you can make incredible art without a lot of the tools and skills that many people assume are needed to make the highest art. Not that they are not highly skilled, but not in conventional senses. What happened to the album you were rumoured to be working on with Grandmaster Gareth of Misty’s Big Adventure? Gareth can take a really long time to get to things, those recordings have been sitting with him for years! Some of that stuff has just surfaced on my new CD of demos and out-takes, “City & Eastern Tapes,” most of the songs recorded with Gareth were re-recorded with Kramer for the City & Eastern Songs album in 2005.

What made you cover [80s anarchopunk legends] Crass - their music seems fairly far removed from what you do? In a certain way it’s not THAT removed because it is very lyric-oriented, I’m always drawn to things with strong lyrical content. As far as the full story of my discovering and eventually covering Crass, it’s all told better in the comic book I did that comes in the CD sleeve.

Burdon. I love the Animals and I love his work with War, but he was lame. Oh, do you mean a particular gig of MINE? Sorry.

What the hell is ‘anti-folk’ - and do you see yourself as being part of it? Antifolk usually refers to performers who have gotten their start at the open mic at the Sidewalk in New York City, especially performers who mix folk and punk in some kind of indefinable way. Because of those things I certainly AM part of it, though I never set out to be, I’d never heard of it before I’d already been performing and recording.

You’ve played a lot of festivals in the UK this year - how did they go and what do you think of British festivals? I’d always much rather play club shows, they’re more intimate, the sound is generally better, I can show my artwork more easily, even when I use my projector at

Which of your albums are you most proud of and why? I like the new one that hasn’t been finished yet... it’s a great mix of all the elements of the previous albums but I’ve gotten better at everything. How does a typical song or comic strip come to fruition, do you have an approach that works for you? Comics come about only when I devote lots and lots of time to them, like 8 hours a day for days and weeks on end. Songs come about more randomly, but certainly more often if I try more. Less predictable though. Are there any particular gigs that stick in your mind, for good or bad reasons? Sure, the Grateful Dead at Shoreline Ampitheater in 1995 in California was a great show, with a surprise appearance by the Gyoto Monks to boot, My first time seeing Yo La Tengo, at Tramps in 1996 in NYC was a life-changing experience, actually Tramps was also the scene of one of the worst shows I ever saw, Eric

Do you have a favourite place to play when your over here in the UK? I do love the Brudenell Social Club in Leeds... the Adelphi in Hull... independent local places like that, great atmospheres.

book is about, etc! In fact the only really preferable thing about the festivals is that they pay so much, compared to most club shows. And sometimes it’s really nice to play on the same day as other bands that we’re friends with, nice to see folks we know. Have you seen any bands this summer that you would recommend? I just saw a band in Portland, Oregon, called Inside Voices that were the best thing I’ve seen in a long time, I’d really like to check out more of their stuff but I don’t think they have an album out yet. Being on tour with Steven Malkmus & the Jicks was great, I loved seeing them play every night.

Most of my musical heroes are not very musical themselves, which is why they inspire me to create; people like Daniel Johnston, Mark E. Smith, Jonathan Richman, Lou Reed larger shows I need the room to be dark which doesn’t happen at outdoor shows, also so many of these festivals are so rainy and muddy and uncomfortable for the audience - AND it’s hard enough to run around on tour and get to clubs at 5 or 6 pm to load in gear and sound check but because a lot of festival slots are in the afternoon it requires arriving at noon or 1 pm, which usually means doing a chunk of the driving the night before. Also most festivals are not okay with artists selling their own merchandise after a set, you usually have to give stuff to an official merch seller who takes a cut of the money and doesn’t know how to explain to customers what each comic

Do you have any plans to release the comics in stores? I have a distributor for the US but no store distribution in the UK at this point. If someone were to pop up and take on the task I’d certainly be into it! Are there any particular differences you have noticed playing here and playing in the USA? I think the fact that people are allowed to go to shows at a younger age (UK usually allows 16 and up, in the US it’s often 21 and up), plus the existence of those great nationally-read magazines like Mojo and Uncut, and the weekly churned-out youthful enthusiasm

of NME, all add up to make a more widespread and knowledgeable and enthusiastic audience in the UK. Also it’s easier to tour the UK because you don’t have to drive 8 or 9 hours each day just to get to the next city. Do you have a favourite character from your comics? I don’t use too many “characters” other than the sometimes-reappearing Babyshoes, who is sort of a well-meaning guy who always gets into trouble and is addicted to shooting up truth serum. He has mysterious legs growing out of his head, with little shoes on them, though for the truth about what’s under the shoes you’ll have to wait till I reprint a shocking 2002 story. Also I often return to the character of the Sitar-Playing Clam, he doesn’t really have a name but he tells rhyming stories with sitar accompaniment, he’s sort of a troubadour. Do you have any advice for young musicians or artists? Perhaps something you would have liked to know early on. Don’t second-guess yourself too much, just keep cranking it out. What’s the best advice you’ve ever received? Sing more clearly so people can hear the words. You can add things to songs to make them more musically colourful but songs should be good enough to be good songs even without any extra instrumentation, or no amount of extra trickery will save them. What’s the best advice you’ve never received? Don’t spend too much time doing email interviews! What next for Jeffery Lewis? I’m about to leave the house to play a show in New Jersey at Maxwell’s, a venerable Hoboken club... one of my favourite bands, Dufus, is playing before me so I don’t want to be late!

GANG GANG

DANCE

As they release one of the albums of the year, Danielle Goldstein probed avant sonicadventurers Gang Gang Dance on the creation of their latest ethereal masterpiece

I

t started with a beheading and ended with one of the most hyped avant-garde records of the year. Saint Dymphna, a 14-year-old Irish girl who was murdered by her disillusioned father, happens to be the title of choice for Gang Gang Dance’s long awaited fourth LP. Although it’s fitting for the chaotic trials the band faced during writing and recording, you may be happy to know that they haven’t taken a turn for the sinister. And come October 20, just over three years after the release of God’s Money, the Brooklyn quartet will be ready to reveal that all their hard work, numerous studio changes and pernickety habits have paid off. In ways that their previous records were more industrial and raw, Saint Dymphna has surpassed, by taking an even more unsystematic and almost anarchic approach to create a more conventional – well, as conventional as arbitrary noise can be - record. There is more disparity between the tracks and Lizzie Bougatsos, the enigmatic drummer and crooner with Kate Bush-esque pitch, shows signs of following a tune as opposed to breathing over the tracks and letting the words fall where they may. Could it really be that it took three years to hone this cosmic sound? After all, it took them a year to record the masterwork that was God’s Money. We tracked down Bougatsos to find out why they’ve left us hanging for so long and how they’re planning to make up for it.

“Well, the gap was filled with an EP, a soundtrack and a DVD. Plus our touring kept interrupting our time in the studio,” she states. But even holding down time for that was becoming difficult. “The Gang was testing out several studios and engineers to figure out what we liked, so that took a lot of throwing out.” Bougatsos goes on to mention that over the three years the band threw out a whole four albums worth of material due to the fact that they couldn’t all settle on a decision. “The constant quest for capturing our live sound in the studio is a feast in itself. There were too many cooks in the kitchen, so to speak. Everybody wanted to sequence, mix, sing, etc. We got confused with the state of the band and what we were trying to do. Then we got back to basics and it all worked out. But overall, I’d say Saint Dymphna actually took like 2 months [to record].” So they were all at each other’s throats for a while, some what fitting for the frenetic tale of Saint Dymphna. “Mentally ill in a good way,” as Bougatsos describes it. “I thought it fit the album for many reasons, like the state of the band and what the music actually sounded like. We were toying with other names [such as Within, Without] and Saint Dymphna felt like a stretch - a really hard path to follow - and I wanted to go for it. It clicked for me.” When they got on to actually recording

the album earlier this year, the disorder died down and the “Gang” started to work together again rather than over each other. They jammed like jazz musicians, following a thin line and making the rest up as they went along. “We improvise and play a lot of live shows to see how we can make it as pleasant for the listener as we can. That’s how we compose music. I apply my lyrics later, or during show sets. But we always leave room for improvisation. It keeps it exciting,” she exclaims.

we get to do our own thing and the band is much more understanding of what we want out of a label.” As well as releasing an EP (RAWWAR), a soundtrack and a DVD (Retina Riddim) in 2007 - that the band have been known to describe as a commemoration to their late singer who was struck by lightning in 2002 - the band spent this summer collaborating with The Boredoms in conducting an 88 minute long concert in Brooklyn with an 88-strong band of drummers.

During recording the band worked with several people, Sean Maffucci – their live sound engineer – and Matt Boynton (Lemonheads, Telepathe) from Vacation Island Studios being key players in the mix. “We also had MC Tinchy Stryder on one of our tracks,” says Bougatsos. This would be ‘Princes’, the grime track on the album that stands out like an extremely attractive sore thumb. “We’ve been a fan for years. We had some friends, Tim and Barry [grime scene documenters], ask him for us and he came in. It was magical.” With Saint Dymphna, GGD have managed to squash pieces from a lot of different fields of music into one huge pulp, resulting in something akin to “outer space.” And to get the word out there, they took hold of Warp’s extended hand…

“The Boredoms asked us to do it in whatever way we saw fit. They left it up to us. We did have some help from Ryan Sawyer [Lone Wolf] and Hisham Bharoocha [of Soft Circle]. They helped with the organisational aspects so we could compose and concentrate on the music. Of course, it was scary to compose an 88 minute piece in a short amount of time and play live with 88 drummers. But we did it.”

“I think Warp approached us at the right time,” Bougatsos explains. “Other offers came at times when we weren’t ready for the plunge. Warp also accepts us the way we are. With other labels it seemed like we had to change more. With Warp

Following that spectacle the band will be heading off on a major US tour at the end of October, but before they do they’ll be playing an exclusive one-off show in London. Can we expect something special? “We did have some serious DJs joining us,” Bougatsos mutters. “But our live shows are what they are, and we just do what we do.” At least you can look forward to acquainting your ears with fresh tracks from Saint Dymphna before the release, but Bougatsos promises they’ll be back very soon, and with “a whole lotta’ honesty.”

This Town Needs Guns This Town Needs Guns are firing their way to success, their rapid pace math rock matches that of Oxford contempories Foals and Youthmovies fusing it with a dynamic pop-edge. Their debut album Animals is one of this year’s must hear albums. Guy Halford grabbed a moment with Stu (Vocals) and Jamie (Bass) about the release of their superb debut, their unusal name and their favourite animals. In a time where the boundaries of popular music are constantly being stretched and blurred, it is only right for This Town Needs Guns to drop their debut long-player. Having made music together since 2004, they describe their formation, “Most of us met at uni, well actually that’s a lie, I actually met Tim our guitarist in uni and Tim’s brother is the drummer and he used to be in another band, but they split up, so he moved down to Oxford to live with us.” After creating a buzz, the band signed to the brilliant indie label Big Scary Monsters. The band see the support from the label as justification for their existence, “It’s weird, it’s like clarification for a band knowing that someone is prepared to put money and time into the band. It’s nice that someone else can see what we’re about, and do the stuff that we’re not really able to.” Like Foals and Youthmovies, This Town Needs Guns are making music that is exciting, furious and extremely interesting, just like the bands that inspire them, “We are heavily inspired by bands that make angular sort of music from Chicago, and mostly American indie. Our main point of call would be Maps & Atlases and American Football.” Despite such brilliant influences, the band seem more inspired by each other than anything else, “We all like similar types of music, and we do it because we enjoy it. We have had jobs which haven’t really given us very much enjoyment. It’s easy

to get stiffled all day in a job and it’s just nice to play together with your friends and make music, and I am constantly amazed by Tim, Chris and Stu and the music that they come together with and it’s really nice for me to join in with that. It’s just kind of inspiring to be with people with that kind of outlook, which is what making music should be about.” The band’s debut album is called Animals, with each track given the moniker of a different creature, “We called the album Animals because we couldn’t think of anything better to call the songs when we were writing them, so it was simply a way of us remembering. It was either that or calling them Song 1, Song 2 or Song 3, so we thought animal names were better. Originally we intended to change the names when it was all completed, but we thought there was no point.” With so many different animals to choose from, it’s hard to decide which should be given the immortal honour of giving a track its name, however Stu and Jamie have their favourites, “(Stu)My favourite is ‘Elk’, which never gets played live, and I also like ‘Pig’. (Jamie) My immediate favourite was ‘Gibbon’, but that’s joined forces with ‘Lemur’, in the last few gigs that’s the one that I’ve been enjoying playing the most.” A lot rides on this debut release, and This Town Needs Guns seem content with the result, “It’s really nice to have it physically to hold. It looks like quite nice, and it’s like

a timestamp of everything we’ve worked on so far.” The band have been on tour with equally brilliant indie-act Jonquil, tonight they played a short set at the Turks Head in Lincoln, it was a furious and energetic set which will no doubt gain the band status as a fantastic live act, and it seems like they enjoyed the gig just as much as the audience did, “I think it went really well

We don’t have a lyric that says I’m going to stick my foot in your eye, not yet anyway, that’s for the next record and I really enjoyed it. Tim’s guitar died the other day, so he’s using Foals’ guitar amp, it costs a lot of money, but it doesn’t sound as good.” On the matter of playing live in general, “It’s probably at its best when people turn up, but we do enjoy going to different places.” The band have received some attention for their unique name, they explain the

story behind it, “A guy who used to be in a band had a brick thrown at him through a window of a bus. So he wrote a letter, and at the end of the letter he wrote ‘This Town Needs Guns’, and so to inflict punishment on someone ridiculous enough to throw a brick at a bus. So I just thought that’s not going to do anyone any favours, violence against violence, I thought it was a strange thing to say. It’s also a bunch of words that fit together nicely. In a way there’s no malicious intent.” So have they been in any trouble for the name as of yet? “Not so long ago we played in Harlow and this woman had written into the local paper and attemped to get the Police involved because she thought we were promoting the use of firearms, and it wasn’t so, it’s just a band name, and if anyone takes offence, it’s more to do with them than with us. If they did a bit of background research they’d realise that this is a band who’s album is named after Animals and is quite happy and nice about things, we don’t have a lyric that says I’m going to stick my foot in your eye, not yet anyway, that’s for the next record.” Whatever the theme of the next record, at this moment in time This Town Needs Guns are one Britain’s best upcoming talents and are a breath of fresh air into the UK and into scene. Animals is released on October 13 through Big Scary Monsters

Reviews Gang Gang Dance Saint Dymphna (Warp) October 20 2008

33333 Gang Gang Dance have done something truly special – in the age of music as a downloadable, disposable commodity, they have birthed a perfect album, a long-player in the classic sense. This is fully-formed aural perfection. The NYC art-collective have taken all their outsider sounds and taken a dancier more inclusive direction that uses the tribal, ritualistic elements of their sound to full affect. The whirring opening to ‘Bebey’ gives way to jungle-rhythms, and eastern-electronica that sounds fresh and as old as time, and moves seamlessly into ‘First Communion’ which sees Gang Gang at their most accessible and is so NOW it’s ahead of it’s time – the afro-beat guitars, snarled punk vocals and echoed 80s synths rides the zeitgeist. Nothing is left untouched: trip-hop, 80s techno, nineties RnB, jazz all pumped from a bloc-party in the nether-world, Saint Dymphna is the spirit-world covering the sounds of the land of the living. The listener never fully grasps where the record is coming from or going next, from ‘Vacuum’ which is My Bloody Valentine’s ‘Soon’ played by a futuristic tribe and ‘Afoot’ is 80s pop re-imagined in the most inventive way possible.

Throwing the biggest spanner in the works is ‘House Jam’ featuring London-based MC Tinchy Stryder. As Stryder toasts “Oh Shit! Gang Gang” you’ll find yourself thinking you’ve switched CDs, but this is Gang Gang’s take on Grime and is the strangest (and possibly most brilliant) example of the genre this year. The albums colossal, cinematic production pushes things forward with the intricacy of Eno’s ambient meanderings, the expansiveness of shoegaze’s best moments and the immediacy of Timbaland’s RnB stompers – if the sounds here don’t excite you then it may be that your soul has withered away. With a load of stand-alone tracks that form the perfect LP experience, Saint Dymphna is outstanding and absolutely essential. by Michael Banks

Pivot

Pivot O Soundtrack My Heart (Warp)

33333 Why is sci-fi always so dark and full of conflict? What if the premise for Terminator wasn’t the rise of machines intent on destroying mankind, but the machines became fascinated by experimental-rock and jazz and set about creating the perfect musical union of man and machine – Pivot are the sound of that eventuality. O Soundtrack My Heart is the pulsing rock soundtrack to an imagined future which opens with the steadily building atmospheric clatter of ‘October’. The Vangelis-alike synths underpinning the electro-prog of the albums title track

perfectly evokes imagery of Bladerunner’s dystopian metropolis. Elsewhere math-rock constructions are lifted into new realms by scattered beats and echoed, whispered vocals on ‘Sing, You Sinner’ which is somehow, relaxing, challenging and danceable. ‘Sweet Memory’ whilst being a great track is a little too derivative of the post-jazz constructs of Tortoise to be truly worthy of inclusion on this release. ‘Didn’t I Furious’ however is a revelation – 3 minutes 30 seconds of incendiary machine-metal that’s startlingly fresh but with a familiar dance-edge that is hard not to groove to. ‘My Heart Like Marching Band’ is a grand composition sound-tracking the end credits to this atmospheric Sci-fi picture of a release. Pivot are the beating heart of danceable experimental rock music in 2008, and have made one of the albums of the year. by Chris Marks

Various Artists Sounds Like Syllabus vol. 1 (Syllabus)

33333 It takes a while to get past the perplexing concept behind Syllabus, what exactly makes a ‘student band’ different from any other band and do we need a ‘student revolution’ in music? I smell a marketing ploy, a blatant attempt to exploit the student market in a field where the student market doesn’t really exist. Or maybe I’m missing the point and no student bands have ever been signed and the whole of popular music is rubbish and just waiting for the ‘revolution’ to mix it up a little! But once I get to grips with (or discard) the concept behind this release it’s not half bad. Not everything is a hit, like the whinny, emoby-numbers mediocrity of Mimi Soya’s ‘Deathwish’, but it does have its moments. Offsetting this are some brilliant tunes; inventive RnB floorfiller ‘Spin That’ by Filly is one of the freshest urban tracks out there, and Let’s Tea Party’s calypso-infused, jangly indie on ’Barcelona’ should be filling indie clubs nationwide. Other tunes provide the nice-enough MOR daytime radio fodder like the Chris Wallbank’s soft rock and the piano-pop of Dead Like

Mimi Soya

Harry, which are both good but nothing to get excited about. Kerry Leatham is an obvious talent, her aching vocals soar above her folk lament ‘Run Dry’ and highlights an artist that obviously has much to offer and, clichéd selfaggrandisement aside, Skilf spits lyrics with the best of them - with some more innovative production and some worthwhile content to his raps he could go far. This agonisingly short compilation (just 11 tracks, is this all student music has to offer?) ends with the limp 80s power ballardry of Spider Bridge Island, that puts a full-stop on a release that whilst having its moments is more filler than killer. by David McGee

Misty’s Big Adventure Television’s People (Grumpy Fun) October 6 2008

33333 The fourth studio outing from the Brum odd-pop mavericks is both brilliant and perplexing in equal measure. Misty’s are undoubtedly one of Britain’s great misunderstood pop treasures, consistently producing tunes that ooze intelligence, experimentation and good old British eccentricity – they have the capability to be a truly enduring mainstream pop act. But they simply don’t like to make life easy for themselves. Their love of strange ideas and musical oddity makes them a musicgeeks pop band of choice, the ultimate cult act, but it also creates a barrier to them gaining the mass-popularity and sales their incredible pop-genius deserves - as a fan, this is an annoying situation. Television’s People is not likely to change this fact. A concept album based on the televisual medium in both sound and lyrical content it simply just won’t compute with the majority of listeners. Based on the panoramic aural delights of classic TV theme tunes it is ironically nostalgic in a way that will be lost on most people. Without an understanding of the albums premise it appears to be simply aping TV themes and not using them as part of a damning, sarcastic indictment of our

Flobots Fight With Tools (Universal)

33333 Man that damn ‘Handlebars’ track is friggin’ everywhere – I’m even starting to hear it in my sleep! Not that it isn’t a great track, but hearing it a million times a day is over-kill. Getting past this annoyance of overfamiliarity, Fight With Tools is actually a damn-fine and culturally important LP. The US is in turmoil – the war on terror has been lost (creating more terrorism), the religious right runs riot and the country is in financial crisis while the corporate fat-cats protect their multi-million pound empires – young America is pissed-off and needs to speak out, that is where Flobots come in. Like Rage Against The Machine before

society’s over-dependence on the gogglebox. Clever concept aside there is musically still much to love on this record as Misty’s partake in their usually mix-and-match pillaging of popular music. It’s huge plus point is that whilst having no discernable singles, it works wonderfully as an LP experience, the whole thing flows effortlessly – something that too few bands are achieving in today’s climate. In many ways this is the best thing Misty’s have yet produced, the sound is fuller and much more accomplished than their scattershot beginnings, and it’s not their fault that most people simply won’t get it, but that’s the card they’ve been dealt. Television’s People is a future masterpiece, an album that will not sit right with the suckit-and-see MP3 music audience today – it is the right album made at the wrong time. by Chris Marks them, Flobots represent the raised fist of disillusioned America, if with a little less venom and a little more soul. The message may not be put across in such a direct and emotive manner, but it is just as right-on and is sent via a soundtrack of live-band hip-hop, funk, rock, punk and jazz fusion that makes the politicising chart-friendly. This style is by no means new, check The Roots, N.E.R.D and Ozomatli, but it is expertly executed and in the lead-up to a crucial election it could be the popular culture weapon that turns young voters to stick to the Republicans. Fans of the aforementioned bands should dig this record, as the mix of sounds have a wide appeal and the lyrical-flow of Brer Rabbit (such a hip-hop name) and Jonny 5 is up there with the best. In a few years time Fight With Tools probably won’t stand the test of time but right now it is a fine, funky slab of timely political rhetoric. by John Marvey

Various Artists Two Thousand and Ace (Brainlove)

Asian Dub Foundation Punkara (Naïve)

33333 Asian Dub Foundation are criminally underrated in the United Kingdom, as one of the most politically aware and incendiary acts out there they should be household names. ADF are truly the sound of multi-cultural Britain, the sound of the clash of cultures we have and their sound represents the unity that we all crave. The group’s eleventh studio album offers more of the same – a punk-influenced dance-music fusion of dub, ragga, bhangra, drum n bass and breakbeat – once again making Asian sounds accessible to western audiences whilst pushing the boundaries of each of the genres they pilfer from. The sound has progressed very little and so Punkara simply isn’t as exciting as back in 1995 when the band’s debut first appeared, at that time ADF were as fresh as a daisy. But with dance music having gone through many genre-melding developments since that point nothing really makes them stand out today. However, ADF are still amazing at what they do and Punkara is an LP worthy of inclusion in their fantastic catalogue.

The album kicks off with the incendiary bhangra-beat blast and punk-guitar fuzz of ‘Target Practice’ and the album never drops in quality throughout its 53 minutes. ‘Ease Up Caesar’ is a wonderful punkska, breakbeat stomper that breaks down into a dub-fused dancehall knees-up, whilst ‘Altered Statesmen’ is an electro-bhangra slice of nu-mental with a huge chorus. Most surprisingly is Iggy Pop’s (he loves ADF, apparently) vocal collaboration on ‘No Fun’ as ADF tear-apart the Stooges classic infusing some Asian sounds that lift it into the stratosphere. What makes this release shine is once again the bands politically-charged lyrics which in the climate right-now seem more poetic than ever, and at times even prophetic. As the world goes into financial meltdown at the hands of US mistakes, lines like ‘Superpower, what you gonna do when the well runs dry’ couldn’t be more relevant. Offering solutions on ‘Burning Fence’ ADF chant, ‘A true universal is the one solution, otherwise you’re gonna sit on a burning fence, no matter what you’re for or what you’re against.’ Many will dismiss the bands obvious socialist values, but it is hard not to be roused by the ideas of equality, fairness and change. ADF are a kick in the face of ignorance and Punkara represents the sound of cultural unity. by Michael Banks

This Town Needs Guns Animals (Big Scary Monsters)

33333

33333 Two Thousand and Ace is the compilation of the year. Not because it collates all the biggest hits in one place and not because it gives you all the tracks you wanted off ‘that programme off the telly’. No this collection complied by Brainlove records represents just how interesting, inventive and down-right exciting new music in 2008 can be. Over its 27-tracks each act oozes creativity and has their own thing going on. Whether it be the catchy prog-pop of Cats In Paris, the off-kilter wrong pop of Bearsuit and The Retro Spankees or blistering electronica of Keyboard Choir the inclusions rarely disappoint.

Asian Dub Foundation

Bearsuit

The LP is like a who’s who of bands you should check out: Napoleon IIIrd, Applicants, The Evenings, Pagan Wanderer Lu, and Gay Against You being just a few. Ending with the beautiful anti-folk of Winston Echo, ‘Never Be The Same Again’ is a classic in the making and is the perfect full-stop to the compilation. Two Thousand and Ace is a must have snap-shot of the British musical underground and is confirmation that 2008 is a great year for new music. by Chris Marks

Firstly, I have to express my thanks to This Town Needs Guns for giving me the perfect opportunity to use the words ‘Chinchilla’, ‘Baboon’, ‘Badger’ and ‘Gibbon’ in an album review. The hotly anticipated debut from the Oxford math-indie merchants is called Animals and in a step away from their previously long-winded and complex album titles have named each track after a different animal. Kicking off with ‘Chinchilla’ it sets the tone for the LP’s 13 tracks with it’s intricate, overlapping guitar constructs and soaring vocal harmonies it shows that This Town Need Guns have much to offer. Taking cues from the Chicago indie scene (Don Caballero, Maps and Atlases et al) their complex and accomplished musicianship will appeal to the hollier-

than-thou indie elite whilst their introspective, angsty lyrics will strike a cord with moping emo-kids everywhere. On ‘Lemur’ singer Stuart Smith muses “You Know from the get go, it’s over”, but with this obvious self-pitying edge to the song it never sounds pointlessly emotive or whiney, just incredibly heart-felt. Experimentation matched with accessible pop-sounds means that Animals is one of the indie albums of the year and proves that TTNG deserve to massive. by Chris Marks