Robyn Writes

The Darlington Sessions


(click to be taken to Cats Aye Records’ bandcamp)

The Darlington Sessions is truly a lovely little surprise. Recorded at the tail end of last year at Darlington Road Studios, it’s nine tracks of pure acoustic bliss from some of the UK’s greatest punk rock performers at the moment; Roo Pescod (Bangers), Giles Bidder (Great Cynics) and Kelly Kemp (Livers and Lungs). Each performer contributed a couple of their own tracks and the rest were worked on collaboratively; at least, that’s what it says on the tin. Everyone lends a hand and makes appearances on the tracks throughout. Although each of the ‘solo’ tracks have their own distinct style, you can definitely feel the presence of the others and the rest of the musicians who have helped them out in the studio and along the way. It’s precisely that feeling of community that makes The Darlington Sessions so wonderful. Take Bidder’s ‘My Babylonian Wheelie Board’ – an ode to the simple joys of skateboarding. Without Pescod’s gruff rasp and Kemp’s soft tones, it’d feel as empty as the landscape it describes. Instead, it takes on the warmth of a summer evening on the South Coast. Great stuff.

Much like in their main projects, each one of these little gems has a story to tell. Most tracks are short – all less than three minutes – but that’s ample time for a brief snapshot into a troubled relationship, a confession of hometown blues or a rousing affirmation of punk rock camaraderie. There’s plenty of lyrics that resonate deep within your core and put a smile on your face at the same time, like Kemp’s charming line about becoming a scratchcard millionaire in ‘Homes and Castles’, and Pescod’s fantasies of smashing up H&M in ‘Hammerwhammer’. There’s a certain honesty to the whole affair; not one that’s missing in their full-time bands, but one that’s amplified through the really beautiful simplicity of the tracks at hand. There’s a distinctly British voice throughout too, one that’s often lacking but sorely needed in our alternative music scene today, but it wouldn’t be alienating to an international audience at all – these are songs about the kinds of things we all go through at some point.

Although each track is as well constructed as you’d expect, there’s a huge sense of play that runs abound throughout the sessions. Tracks like ‘Under The Table’ utilise dark and discordant rhythms and violins and pianos add extra, understated layers to really bring out the potential in songs such as ‘Bedtimes’ and ‘Earth Abides’. The Darlington Sessions are fun, born out of good times and good hangs, and it just so happens that good musicianship comes into to mix as well. If that’s not worth four of your English pounds, then I don’t know what is.

4.5 out of 5 high fives!

Big Dick – s/t

The funny thing is, seeing a band with a name like Big Dick instantly conjured pre-conceived sounds and notions in my head – that they were raw, hard-drinking and hard-partying; eschewing a sleazy amped-up sexuality and that for whatever reason they were most probably Australian. Okay, I was wrong about them being Australian; in fact Big Dick operate out of Ontario, Canada, but the rest of my pre-conceptions fit rather well with the dancey, sweat-drenched noise rock that this bass and drums duo specialize in. Obviously, any bass and drums duo will have to try very hard in order to distance themselves from the dirty, funked-up sex-punk of the emphatically brilliant Death From Above 1979, a hard feat to achieve when the only tools at your disposal are the same four-strings and drum kit. But Big Dick remain heavily indebted to them, hanging around amidst the no mans land between pastiche and homage with many tracks such as ‘Witchcraft’ containing hugely funky bass riffs that could easily have been pinched from a Death From Above B-side or any cut from You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine for that matter. But Big Dick are not simply second-rate copyists, although at times they certainly lean heavily in that direction. Running parallel to their furious funk is a strain of scuzzy and uncompromising noise, taking cues from 90’s underground acts who focused on creating the ugliest and most deprived music their instruments could handle. The lo-fi production leaves the whole record engulfed in an inviting layer of warm fuzz that is omnipresent on the record’s sonic peripherals. Tracks such as ‘Colours’, where the sludge is laid on thick, the riffs resolutely Neanderthal and the vocals shriek in such disregard for the throat that vocal chords are left in tatters, remain the standout excursions of the album. Other tracks such as ‘Mayday’ are driven by a relentless punk urgency, with the duo emanating all the hyperactive ferocity of ravenous coke-fiends, intent on hammering through the song as quick as their limbs can carry them so they can gain their next well deserved fix. The album is also far from a one-dimensional shriekathon or straight-up freak-out of relentless bass bashing and drum destroying. Whereas the band flirts tentatively with melody on some tracks, they drop their aggression totally on ‘Anti-social’ and allow a softer touch over every part of their sound. But they veer from the warpath only briefly, and the return to aurally destructive territory is swift and doesn’t let up again until the album is over.

Despite penning some genuinely thrilling, visceral and groove-laden songs, the similarity to Death From Above may be too overwhelming for many. On the other hand, the sonic territory that Death From Above exploded into has left a void and an underground clamouring for sweaty, exhilarating and dirty punk suitable for house parties and for providing the soundtrack to alcohol-induced vomiting. They may be brash and derivative of a number of easily pinpointed influences, but Big Dick are the perfect band to have playing in your front room as bodies fly and the police are knocking on the front door and shouting threats of arrest through the letterbox.

3.5 out of 5 high fives!

J-Pop Sunday – Yellow Magic Orchestra

I feel like I’ve bitten off more than I can chew this week. I underestimated how varied the music styles of Yellow Magic Orchestra are or how influential the band is. They were mentioned on BBC Radio 2’s PopMaster quiz for goodness sake! You would have thought that would have set off an alarm bell or two. Something along the lines of “Kaito! What are you doing? You won’t be able to give these guys the literary justice they deserve! This is the kind of band that The Guardian writes about, not you! Just write about someone like Gackt or something!” But no, I got cocky and thought I could fob them off with some silly line like “They’re like a super happy Japanese Kraftwerk” and for that, I apologise to the band, and to you, the reads. Never the less; I’m contractually obliged to write something that will embarrass both YMO and myself. So, let’s get started.

Form a queue, ladies.

Quick Guide
Act Name: Yellow Magic Orchestra
Line-up: Haruomi Hosono (細野 晴臣) – Bass, Keyboard & Vocals
Yukihiro Takahashi (高橋 幸宏) – Drums & Lead Vocals
Ryuichi Sakamoto (坂本 龍一) – Keyboard & Vocals
Years Active: 1978 – Present.
Genre: Electronica, Experimental, Synthpop, New Wave.
Notable Tracks: “Firecracker” (1978), “Tong Poo” (1978), “Behind the Mask” (1979) “Rydeen” (1980), “Tighten Up” (1980) – Oh, hell, most of their stuff’s pretty good! There’s also “Tokyo Town Pages” (2008)

Before we get to the band’s history, I’m going try and give an idea of how big these guys are. A list of musicians that either have Yellow Magic Orchestra as a creative influence or has sampled or covered one of YMO’s songs might demonstrate my point: Greg Phillinganes, Senor Coconut, The Human League, Gary Newman, POLYSICS, Japan, Eric Clapton, Duran Duran, Afrika Bambaataa, Depeche Mode and Michael Jackson would all feature. That’s right; the King of Pop sang an English vocal cover of YMO’s 1979 hit “Behind the Mask”.


YMO performing “Behind the Mask” live in 2010.

The trio met in the 70’s. Each had been experimenting with electronic instruments and sounds. In the mid 70’s keyboardist Sakamoto discovered Kraftwerk and introduced the Germans to his colleagues. They were impressed, but wished to avoid Kraftwerk’s stern Germanic style and sound. Contrary to their contemporaries in Japan at the time – who were becoming increasingly focused on emulating Western acts – the three wanted to create something with a more Japanese feel: Fusing many different styles of music like the mix of foods in a bento box. The three also wished to avoid the heavier, somewhat dystopian sounds that were common in electronic of the time. Yellow Magic Orchestra’s self-titled first album – originally a one-off side project for bassist Hosono, with Takahashi and Sakamoto involved as hired session musicians – was released in 1978 and sold 250,000 copies in Japan alone. The album later saw a slightly edited mix release in the US and UK. After the success of their first album, the three decided to stick together and keep performing as “Yellow Magic Orchestra”.


A live performance of “Firecracker”. The song was Yellow Magic Orchestra’s 1st single and featured on their 1978 “Yellow Magic Orchestra” album.

I could turn this week’s piece into a long winded article about how Yellow Magic Orchestra are keystones in the histories of electronic, pop and even hip-hop music in general, but, I’m there are better people to hear that from, rather than me. We’re here to discover new music and as such I think it’d best that we let the music do the talking. I’ll leave you all with a few more choice tracks from Yellow Magic Orchestra and I encourage anyone who has enjoyed what they’ve heard today to explore YMO a little more. It’s worth it.


“Rydeen” (1980) is a personal favourite of mine; partially because of the trippy 80’s graphics in the video. (Strobe effect warning, people!)


“Tighten Up” is a cover of a song originally performed by 60s/70s American R&B group Archie Bell & The Drells, but with a YMO style twist.


Finally, we’ll close on a fantastic ambient track. In this video we see the band performing “Tokyo Town Pages” in Gijon, Spain.

Until next time!

Mallory Knox – Cathouse, Glasgow, 23/4/13

Taken by Lisa Matthews

My preparation for this gig was less than adequate. I’d been up all night several nights beforehand frantically typing uni coursework and had completely forgotten that my cousin invited me to it, and had to drive 50 miles from Edinburgh to Glasgow running on energy juice to make it! But we made it in time, and commencing proceedings were Evarose (4/5), a four-piece all-female rock/pop outfit from Oxfordshire. Now I know the cliché with any band with a female member in it these days is to instantly compare them with Paramore, but these girls definitely have a similar vibe. Punchy, anthemic pop-punk is the score, and they don’t hold back at all on stage – at one point bassist Connie Raitt was so into it that she nearly clobbered singer Danikka Webber in the face. A special mention as well for the steely-eyed determination not to acknowledge the drunken heckle from a punter at the back of the room which had something to do with an ‘embarrassing boner’ – make of that what you will, but I wouldn’t mess with this quartet. BASS TO THE FACE OOOOOH – keep an eye oot.

Next up, Natives (3/5), whose set positively flew by. Four lads from Hampshire who clearly eat their porridge each morning dealt out a further foray into pop-punk but seemed to focus more on crowd participation – in a 35 minute set they only managed to fit in 4 songs, though this may have been somewhat due to the dance-off which broke out halfway through where anyone with moves slick enough to impress lead singer Jim Thomas cab win a photograph of the crowd doing the band’s apparent signature symbol ‘The Point’. A decent set but nothing terribly exciting.

Natives certainly got the crowd whipped into a frenzy for Mallory Knox (4/5) whose gig this is after all. Currently promoting full-length release Signals and buzzing from being announced as one of the main stage acts for Reading and Leeds this year, the quintet makes the tiny Cathouse stage seem more crowded than the room they’re playing to. This audience is as captivated by the bands newer, more radio-oriented tunes as by their older stuff; the room positively erupts at the mere mention of mellow ballad ‘1949’ from Signals, proving this is a group who can do heavy, moshable pop-punk alongside less pacey works, all the while pushing their audience’s buttons. A cracking display, and many happy returns to guitarist Joe Savins who celebrated his birthday onstage!

Pushmen – The Sun Will Rise Soon On The False And The Fair

Oh sweet, sweet heavy metal, look at what Pushmen have done to you. Stripped you of much of your steadfast clichés and injected you with a fervent animosity and immediacy that belies your old age; even as your arthritic hands remain bent out of shape after years of speed-metal and aborted attempts at two-handed tapping. Now metal is rejuvenated once again, still sticking to the same diet of whiskey and cocaine but aware of the power that fresh perspective and open mindedness can bring to a genre as senile and cumbersome as heavy metal. All this means the catchily titled The Sun Will Rise Soon On The False And The Fair is far from resembling a by-numbers record of recycled riffs headed straight for the ever growing pool of stagnation. It is by all accounts a thrilling listen that is made vital because of a mutating form of punk’s abhorrence that runs through the protruding, strained veins of these angry Pushmen fellows.

Occupying a left-field metal sound which resides in very similar territory to Mastodon’s crossover appeal but without any of the sprawling classic rock pretensions, The Sun Will Rise Soon… is a continuation of modern metal’s unholy matrimony of cerebral, dexterous passages with outright aggression and pulverising, sweat-inducing riffs. Pushmen already have some serious metal pedigree amongst their ranks, comprising of ex-members of The Sword and Heartless Bastard to name but a few of their previous metal muses with which the members have already clocked up thousands of hours touring, excreting thousands of bucket loads worth of sweat in the process. On top of their impressive CV’s, Pushmen boast some of the finest ink-on-flesh in the business and an abundance of facial hair of Nordic proportions. So far, so metal.

The guitars are far from the standard metal fare of solid, distortion ridden bludgeons. Whilst they are well versed in straight up power chords, Pushmen prefer to whip their instruments into a frenzy, as guitar lines dart back and forth, prodding at your ears and teasing with dissonant fretboard workouts before delivering the payload in a furious outburst of attack. Riffs are unorthodox, cutting jagged edges through the songs and sitting somewhere between Slayer’s aural brutality and The Jesus Lizards raucous re-appropriation of jazz scales.

Thundering opening track ‘Child From Chaos’ features a surprisingly melodic chorus, touching upon the subversive attitudes of pop-savvy modern metal bands of the calibre of Torche and Baroness. ‘Vortex Philosophy Blues’ is a swirling, well…vortex of virtuosic riffs that descend into the bowls of hell before emerging with a pretty catchy central hook and a bought of chanted vocals. Don’t get deterred by un-metal phrases such as ‘swirling’, this album is still as macho-metal as a Hells Angels pre-show barbeque before a Metallica concert. Opening in a foreboding barrage of feedback and atmospheric dissonance, ‘Amass’ is left to simmer for some time before the huge riffs are brought out to play. ‘Blaze Some More Hate’ and ‘The Year of Hands and Neck’ are two sublime showcases of outrageous musicianship as drums nail some truly furious fills whilst never falling into over-indulgence whilst guitars wail in a selection of high fretboard moments that proves Pushmen are unafraid to use more minimalist tendencies instead of the usual one-hundred-notes-per-second heavy metal fare. As the album progresses the guttural screams and bellows of the throaty terror unleashed from bloody vocal chords may prove to be difficult for some listeners to endure, as the vocalists mid-range screams tear at the ears like rabid claws and leave you pleading for even the slightest variation. ‘Crime Again’ begins in a distinctly un-metal fashion, its main guitar part sounding resolutely odd but not out of place amongst the stomping riff which brings the track to a punishing close. ‘Western Medicine’ signs the band off on a six minute expedition through a selection of riffs that veer towards the weird end of the metal spectrum and the vocalist on a quest to see if he can scream so violently that his lungs come flying out of his mouth.

A solid record, commendable for keeping its gaze forward rather than behind into the over-mined metal back catalogue. Its fault are few, but the hardcore bellow that persists throughout all nine tracks will surely deter and/or intimidate some would-be fans. Their loss.

4 out of five high fives!