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Hookworms Microshift

Franz Ferdinand Always Ascending

Kyle Craft Full Circle Nightmare

out now on CD & vinyl

out now on CD & vinyl

out now on CD & vinyl

The Glaswegian indie-pop greats return with 15 new tracks taken from their three recent EPs.

One of the UK’s most revered young bands make a welcome return with their euphoric third album.

This album shows the band broadening their palate, a sound that Alex Kapranos refers to as “futuristic and naturalistic”.

Sonically, thematically and lyrically, this autobiographical album marks a huge leap forward from his 2016 release.

Superchunk What A Time To Be Alive

The Breeders All Nerve

Tracey Thorn Record

Titus Andronicus A Productive Cough

out now on CD & vinyl

out 2 March on CD & vinyl

out 2 March on CD & vinyl

out 2 March on CD & vinyl

Features appearances by Katie Crutchfield of Waxahatchee and Stephin Merritt of The Magnetic Fields.

The return of The Breeders with the classic line-up of Kim and Kelley Deal, Josephine Wiggs and Jim Macpherson.

First solo album of entirely original material for seven years. Includes the singles Queen and Sister.

The New Jersey punk band are back with album #5. Includes Number One (In New York).

Soccer Mommy Clean

Charlie Barnes Oceanography

Whyte Horses Empty Words

out 2 March on CD & vinyl

out 9 March on CD & vinyl

Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats Tearing At The Seams

Soccer Mommy’s impressive debut album was produced by Gabe Wax (The War On Drugs) and mixed by Ali Chant (PJ Harvey).

Bastille touring member Charlie now drops his new album which features Bastille’s Dan on Will & Testament.

out 9 March on CD & vinyl

New album from the Mancunian psych-pop band - 16 tracks about love and fear and all that lives between.

Belle & Sebastian How To Solve Our Human Problems, Parts 1-3 out now on CD & vinyl

Released on Stax Records, the band’s second album includes the upbeat anthem You Worry Me.

home of entertainment

out 9 March on CD & vinyl

APRIL 2018

Issue 293

FEATURES

36

DAVE VANIAN

42

MARK E SMITH

50

JONATHAN

The Damned man’s journey from gravedigger to goth-punk doyen, through the soap-opera scraps of his bandmates. “No one was blameless,” he assures Pat Gilbert. The artist behind the controversialist, hymned and mourned by bandmates from every era of the mighty Fall. Plus: MOJO’s mixtape of classic and deep Fall cuts.

WILSON The go-to guy for guitar and neo-classic rock productions survived setbacks and drive-bys before coming into his own on a thrilling third solo album.

54

DAVID BYRNE

62

ROXY MUSIC

70

COVER STORY NEIL YOUNG

The ex-Talking Heads honcho is in revealing mood as he unveils his American Utopia. His shyness, the reformation offers, The Big Suit: it’s all fair game. The full story of their groundbreaking 1972 debut album, the cornerstone of Art Rock. The outfits, the outrage, the mad feedback, the space jazz and all.

“He had a way of hearing music that was different to other people.” STEVE HANLEY ON MARK E SMITH, PAGE 42

Steve Double/Camera Press

Rock’s ultimate rebel – his biggest battles, and his latest, as he squares up against Trump, the record industry and MP3. Plus: Graham Nash, Frank Sampedro, Pegi Young, Nils Lofgren and more attest to his ongoing insurgency.

MOJO 3

L.A. Witch: making magic in MOJO Rising, p22.

REGULARS 9

ALL BACK TO MY PLACE

10

THEORIES, RANTS, ETC

34

REAL GONE Au revoir Hugh Masekela,

Al Jourgensen, Joan As Police Woman, Kathleen Turner – who sings Mahalia Jackson in the shower? Nick Drake, Unloved Albums, and a bit of maths.

‘Fast’Eddie Clarke, Moody Blue Ray Thomas, Denise LaSalle, Edwin Hawkins and more.

126 ASK FRED From Prince to Mae West. 130 HELLO GOODBYE David J reflects on the undead lifespan of Bauhaus.

WHAT GOES ON! 12

16

St. Vincent in Seattle, Lives, p118.

LED ZEPPELIN There’s a remastered

version of Led Zep’s boffo live set How The West Was Won coming – including its first-ever vinyl edition! Jimmy Page tells MOJO about the revamping, and hints at what more to expect from the group’s 50th anniversary year.

MAD PROFESSOR & U-ROY

Find out what a renowned boss of dub and a legendary innovator of the toaster’s art have been up to in the studio together.

19

LAURIE ANDERSON The futurefacing artist, musician and proud amateur paints her Self-Portrait and talks about her life.

21

MARTIN FREEMAN He’s been Arthur Dent, Bilbo Baggins and Dr Watson – but what sounds blow the unrepentant Mod’s mind?

24

XTC In ’79, Making Plans For Nigel took Wilts’

Jack White is in the (Boarding) House, Lead Album, p84.

pop individualists into the Top 20. But how did they get there? What came next? Members Colin Moulding and Terry Chambers look back.

MOJO FILTER 84 NEW ALBUMS Jack White’s new style, Anna Von Hausswolff, The Breeders, Buffalo Tom, Graham Coxon, Imarhan, Tracey Thorn, and more.

100 REISSUES Keeping the Hendrix legacy

alive, Stax rarities, Herbie Hancock, Tom Waits on Asylum, the real space music on Voyager, and more.

114 SCREEN The magic of Berlin’s studio by the Wall: Hansa from Bowie to R.E.M.

115 BOOKS Wu-Tang’s U-God opens up, plus 116 LIVES Will Bobsessives dig the Dylan

musical in London? Plus St. Vincent in Seattle.

THIS MONTH’S CONTRIBUTORS INCLUDE vid Fricke ricke wrote his first story ing Stone in 1977, the ear he first saw David ve with Talking Heads. comes up in their revealunter in this month’s MOJO ). When he’s not writing, ke is on the air, hosting he Writer’s Block every week on Sirius XM radio.

4 MOJO

Keith Cameron

Andrew Cotterill

MOJO’s Contributing Editor first interviewed Neil Young in 2000. For this month’s cover story (see p70), Keith spoke to Young, plus Graham Nash, Frank ‘Poncho’ Sampedro, and Lukas Nelson. “I told Poncho I would pray to the deity of his choice to see Crazy Horse play with Neil again,” he says. “Poncho replied: ‘You can pray, but don’t give money to any of ’em!’”

“It’s hard to go wrong when you have someone who makes the effort in a great venue,” photographer Cotterill said after shooting The Damned’s Dave Vanian at the King’s Head club in Hackney for this month’s MOJO Interview (see p36). To view more of Andrew’s work go to www.andrewcotterill photography.com/

Levente Szabo, Marco Hernandez, Nate Watters, Steve Gullick

Kerouac, Alpha Boys’ School of ska, Yacht Rock.

HOOKWORMS

MICROSHIFT DLX LP LP CD OUT NOW

DL

1 Billy Bragg The World Turned Upside Down From 1985’s Between The Wars EP – an urgent broadside in the teeth of Britain’s Miners’ Strike – the Bard Of Barking’s doomy, slashing version of Leon Rosselson’s song about The Diggers, a 17th century sect of ultrademocrats, still speaks to current issues of ownership and inequality.

Alamy, ©Edwige Hamben, Jason Williamson, Library Of Congress, Murdo Macleod, Tiago Angelino

(Leon Rosselson) 2005 Billy Bragg from the LPs Brewing Up With Billy Bragg; Back To Basics, Billy Bragg Vol. 1; Must I Paint You A Picture?: The Essential Billy Bragg Licensed by Cooking Vinyl www.billybragg.co.uk

2 McCarthy The Home Secretary Briefs The Forces of law and order Proving dissent needn’t be expressed in the vocab of volume or aggression, Tim Gane and Malcolm Eden’s typically sardonic 1989 dig at British police and army violence in Northern Ireland comes in raiments of gently mantric psych-pop. Seeds of Stereolab – Gane’s next step – can be heard. (Williamson/Gane/Baker/Eden) Published by Domino Publishing Co Ltd. 1989 Midnight Music (Records) Ltd. Licenced courtesy of Cherry Red Records.

9 Atamina No One Wants To Die

10 the last Poets Black Is

The appellation “the Ghanaian Sleaford Mods” would doubtless baffle David Atamina, but his supercontemporary, bracingly abrasive style of DIY Afro-rap has a similarly gnarly-yet-hypnotic charge. Likewise, the subject matter: including much none-too-impressed scrutiny of his local bourgeoisie, sycophantic pals and other creeps. He plays a mean two-string kolongo, too, just like his musical hero King Ayisoba.

Umar Bin Hassan’s eloquent jazz-rap declaration of African-American beauty, uniqueness and heritage is a statement of defiance and coming conflict that isn’t blind to the horrors and obstacles of AD 1971: “Black is marching in Alabama/And getting nothing but rifle butts on the brain.” The radical riffs drew the unwelcome attentions of Nixon’s COINTELPRO.

(David Atamina), 2017 Makkum Records, from the album Sycophantic Friends (Makkum)

6 MOJO

(Hassan) Published by Fairwood Music Ltd. 1971 Douglas, an Original Douglas Recording, Courtesy of Charly Acquisitions Ltd./Adageo BV, Licensed from LicenseMusic.com ApS. Taken from the Charly CD and digital download: This Is Madness

3 Sleater-Kinney Entertain

4 Yoko Ono Woman Power

The Olympia, WA-forged punk-pop axis of Carrie Brownstein, Corinne Tucker and Janet Weiss have rarely sounded more thrilling as on this angry 2005 bird-flip in the grill of showbiz – the bread and circuses de nos jours. “Where’s the ‘fuck you’?” sing-demands Brownstein, as if she didn’t know that it’s right here.

Ono’s 1973 album, Feeling The Space, didn’t mince its mix of feminism and personal defiance (Woman Of Salem, She Hits Back, Angry Young Woman, Men, Men, Men) but Woman Power’s titanium stomp groove make it Ono’s go-to anthem, even 45 years on. John O’Cean, AKA Lennon, unleashes Yer Blues-style guitar while Yoko predicts the dawn of “woman nation”. Less killing, more knitting – yeah!

(Sleater-Kinney) Published by BMG Gold Songs/ Songs Of Big Deal/Code Word NEMESIS (ASCAP).All Rights Administered By BMG Rights Management (US) LLC. & 2005 Sub Pop Records. Taken from the album The Woods. www.sleater-kinney.com

(Yoko Ono) published by Downtown DMP songs (BMI); & 2017 Secretly Canadian, from the album Feeling The Space (Secretly Canadian).

11 Misty In Roots Ghetto of the City (Live)

12 Fela Kuti and afrika 70 Sorrow Tears and Blood

From their powerful opening salvo – Live At The Counter Eurovision 79 – Southall’s finest inveigh against the iniquities they’d witnessed at April 1979’s Southall Riots (where police fought anti-NF demonstrators), a Greek chorus of accusatory voices floating above ghostly skeins of funereal organ. Greed and injustice would continue to fuel their fire.

Nigeria’s unofficial Leader of the Opposition, Kuti felt the iron fist of his country’s junta. The singer/ saxist’s defiant and visceral Afrobeat reported from the frontline, literally so on this urgent 1977 recounting of what happened when police and soldiers raided his compound, throwing his mother from a window.

(Tyson) Published by One People Ltd. From the album Roots Controller and Live At The Counter Eurovision www.mistyinroots.ws

(Kuti) published by BMG and Sony/ATV. & 1977, 2014 FAK under exclusive license to Knitting Factory Records Inc. Available on Sorrow Tears And Blood by Fela Kuti And Afrika 70 www.fela.net

D

ISSENT. DISAGREEMENT. DEFIANCE. POPULAR MUSIC’S ability to challenge the status quo is its not-so-secret weapon. Songs enter the public arena more readily, more virally, than any other art form, and deliver their messages – sometimes loudly and proudly; sometimes stealthily, with meanings that dawn slowly but surely (you don’t have to agree to be affected, changed even). It can say “free Nelson Mandela” and get the world to sing along, even help make it happen. It can say “four dead in Ohio” and make more noise than any newspaper editorial. The writers, and performers of such songs stick their heads above the parapet and carry heavy burdens – think of the pressures that built on Dylan, Lennon and Marley, Fela Kuti and Victor Jara, and the dangers they faced, some fatally. MOJO’s selection of some of our favourite songs of dissent cover many themes. Some protest economic injustice or political oppression, others a cultural status quo; some are angry and some sad. But all are stirring and imply what the best music often implies – that there can be a better world; but first we have to imagine it.

5 MC5 Motor City Is Burning The Wild One’s “What are you rebelling against?” “Whaddaya got?” one-two could have been coined for Rob Tyner, Wayne Kramer and co. Their greaser rock/heavy soul/free jazz meld ran on pure aggro, never more so than on this 1972 mashing of John Lee Hooker’s memorial to 1967’s Detroit riots. Had the revolution come, it would have sounded like this. (Smith) Published by EMI United Partnership Ltd. 1992 Skydog Records. Licensed courtesy of Skydog International / Jungle Records. Taken from the album Thunder Express www.skydog.fr

13 Boscoe We Ain’t Free From the opening, ironical brass comment on The Star-Spangled Banner, this jazz-funk locomotive – a rarity disinterred by Numero Group in 2007 – makes its point forcefully. It’s Chicago, 1973, nearly a decade since the Civil Rights Act, and what’s changed for African-Americans? Yet there’s a glimpse of liberation, at least, in Ron Harris’s daring bass glissandos and Reg Holden’s Joe Bowie-ish trombone blurts. (Cobb) Published by Cobborator Music Publishing (ASCAP) & 2007 Numero Group; with courtesy of The Numero Group. www.numerogroup.com

6 Gil Scott-Heron Home Is Where The Hatred Is From 1971’s immortal Pieces Of A Man LP, Scott-Heron’s junkie plea feels like a sad indictment of a society the narrator needs to escape inside his “white powder dreams”, sonically spun by Brian Jackson’s soft-focus Fender Rhodes fantasia. The stagnant ghetto flipside of The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’s raised rebel fist. (Scott-Heron) Published by Carlin. From the BGP box set The Revolution Begins: The Flying Dutchman Masters www.acerecords.com

14 Mike Ladd Feb. 4 ’99 (for All Those Killed By Cops) Black Lives Matter prefigured and transcended by the soaring poetry and impressionistic post-Axelrod soundscaping of alt-rapper Ladd’s epic 1999 track, where, out of the everyday, “wrathful idiots” and “offduty demons” are the agents of an awful apocalypse that might, just might, contain the seeds of renewal. (Ladd) published by Just Isn’t Music (PRS) 2000 Mike Ladd, from the album Welcome To The Afterfuture; http://www.mikeladd.net/

7 Curtis Mayfield Hard Times

8 Ali Farka Touré Yenna

“There’s no love to be found” in the country described by Mayfield on this topnotch 1975 cut, even before factoring in the violence and corruption those with “cold, cold eyes” have in store. Sad-eyed protest off There’s No Place Like America Today.

“We didn’t vote for them, and they owe us nothing,” is how the key phrase in the Mali singersongwriter’s 1993 song translates. In a country where religious and cultural divisions, worsened by political corruption, have raged for decades, the musicians have traditionally spoken out, as Farka Touré’s inheritors – Oumou Sangaré and Songhoy Blues – continue to do.

(Mayfield) Published by Warner Chappell (North America) 1975 Curtom an Original Curtom Recording, Courtesy of Charly Acquisitions Ltd., Licensed from LicenseMusic.com Aps. Taken from the Charly/Curtom LP: There’s No Place Like America Today (Charly L 166) originally released in 1975 and available now on remastered 180-gram vinyl.

15 Woody Guthrie Better World A-Comin’ Dylan’s hero could easily be termed the father of modern protest music, channelling a tradition of folk commentary, blues complaint and gospel’s elevation of the divine ideal above the earthly real. But the key to Guthrie’s lasting appeal is the optimism – the Quixotic vision, as on this 1944 recording, of the communitarian future, when we’re all union, fascism is crushed, and the bosses’ spoils are shared by all. (Guthrie) Copyright Control. Originally released 1956

(Farka Toure) Published by World Circuit 1992 World Circuit From the album The Source. www.worldcircuit.co.uk

Out April 13th on Yep Roc Records 17/4 Kantine am Berghain - Berlin, DE 20/4 N9 - Eeklo, BE 21/4 Petit Bain - Paris, FR 22/4 Tolhuistuin - Amsterdam, NL 24/4 The Lantern - Bristol, UK 25/4 The Garage - London, UK 26/4 Academy 3 - Manchester, UK 27/4 Whelan’s - Dublin, IE 28/4 Leaf - Liverpool, UK 29/4 The Mash House - Edinburgh, UK 30/4 The Plug - Sheffield, UK

joshrouse.com

17/4 Bush Hall - London, UK 18/4 Hare & Hounds - Birmingham, UK 19/4 Philharmonic Music Room - Liverpool, UK 20/4 Deaf Institute - Manchester, UK 21/4 King Tut’s - Glasgow, UK 22/4 Brudenell Social Club - Leeds, UK 24/4 Portland Arms - Cambridge, UK 25/4 The Lantern - Bristol, UK

Out February 23rd on Yep Roc Records

grantleephillips.com

Al Jourgensen

MINISTRY’S TRANSGRESSOR-IN-CHIEF What music are you currently grooving to? The last good thing I heard was Chelsea Wolfe. I love her ambience, and self-assuredness, and her killingan-ant-with-a-sledgehammer thing, and the fact it’s a woman doing it, instead of the male-pattern rock genius that we seem to perpetuate. What, if push comes to shove, is your all-time favourite album? Wire’s Pink Flag. Again, it’s their confidence that spoke to me – like, even though we’re in a garage, and we play like dorks, we have something important. What was the first record you ever bought? And where did you buy it? December’s Children by The Rolling Stones. But I didn’t buy it, I stole it from a Sears in Arlington Heights, Chicago. I was seven or eight, and I managed to slip it under my jacket. Why the Stones? They were on the radio in the car ride over, and my parents said, “This stuff sucks, they’re ruining our society.”

Which musician, other than yourself, have you ever wanted to be? Tom Waits. He’s more rock’n’roll than any of these bands that frostytip their hair and prance about with their Gibson guitars. What do you sing in the shower? (Laughs and splutters) I’m too busy jerking off to sing, man! But if I did sing, it would be early Buck Owens. What is your favourite Saturday night record? Assuming you’re conjuring the mood? Ready to go? Anything by Motörhead. Then I’d move on to the first three ZZ Top records. And your Sunday morning record? Like when you’re hungover from Saturday night? Neil Young, Dylan Leonard Cohen. Sunday morning used to be finding out where you were the night before, and how you got home. Is there a soundtrack for that? Maybe Ministry! AmeriKKKant will be released on March 9 via Nuclear Blast.

IN WHICH THE STARS REVEAL THE SONIC DELIGHTS GUARANTEED TO GET THEM GOING...

Joan As Police Woman

Allison Michael Orenstein

SHE’S ARRESTING! What music are you currently grooving to? Let’s see. I really love the Moses Sumney record, and Nick Hakim’s EPs are beautiful, and Bridget Kearney’s Won’t Let You Down has almost ELO-kind of great melodic pop songs. What, if push comes to shove, is your all-time favourite album? That’s an evil question! I’ll say Parade by Prince. It has everything – all of his genius. It has Kiss, but it also has dancey weird no-wavey jams like Anotherloverholenyohead… and Girls & Boys, and real tearjerker like Sometime It Snows In Ap What was the first record y ever bought? And where d you buy it? I bought Axis: Bold As Love, f the cover, whe I was like may nine, for 25 cents from the Salvation Arm Goodwill. I did even know wh

Kathleen Turner

Hendrix was. When I put it on, I do feel like my life was changed. Which musician, other than yourself, have you ever wanted to be? Heh! A lot of people – Kim Deal, David Bowie, Glenn Gould, Chaka Khan, Prince, James Brown, Al Green, Roberta Flack… Can we have a mixture of those?!

JEWEL-HUNTING MEMOIRISTA What music are you currently grooving to? I like Margot MacDonald, she’s got an extraordinary voice. Also, the Punch Brothers’ Rye Whiskey – I like the humour and the intricacy.

What do you sing in the shower? I’m not sure I do, but if I did, probably Mahalia Jackson – only if no one was listening!

What, if push comes to shove, is your all-time favourite album? Paul Simon, Graceland. I love every song. It’s on my warm-up music in my dressing room.

What is your favourite Saturday night record? New York City is less exciting at the weekend, so I tend to stay in and make music. I might play Kendrick Lamar’s new one, or Sly & The Family Stone. Saturday night will week. unday record? rit Of Eden by Money Jungle ton or Donuts , depending od. I do a lot g – it makes break from usic. I make hocolate kie. I do ! Devotion is out on PIAS. Joan rs the UK in April.

NOW PLAYING G

Al Jourgensen can’t live without Wire’s Pink Flag. Artdork punk a go-go! G Joan As Police Woman plugs doublebass-playing Bridget Kearney’s Won’t Let You Down. G In her one-woman show, Kathleen Turner revives Nobody’s Heart, the song Rodgers & Hart wrote for offbeat, antiquitybased 1942 musical, By Jupiter.

What was the first record you ever bought? And where did you buy it? I think it was The Beatles’ I Want To Hold Your Hand when I was living in Venezuela. My father was a diplomat in Caracas in the early ’60s. What musician, other than yourself, have you ever wanted to be? Am I a musician now? I may be singing but I’m not sure I qualify. But I’ll say Amy Winehouse. I love her. What do you sing in the shower? I find the shower is a great place to warm up my voice. Sometimes I sing songs from the show. I take very quick showers and Nobody’s Heart

[by Rodgers & Hart] is the shortest song in the set. The songs come out of stories from my life and experiences in the work. That one comes right after I’ve asked my husband to leave. I start singing: “Nobody’s heart belongs to me/Hey ho/Who cares…” What is your favourite Saturday night record? Maybe something from my work-out list? Funky stuff. Scissor Sisters, I Don’t Feel Like Dancing. That’s great to warm up to. Del Amitri, Roll To Me. Flearoy – they’re really wonderful. And your Sunday morning record? Dar Williams, As Cool As I Am. I love that one. And Lyle Lovett. Isn’t he delightful? We did a play together called The Exonerated in Fort Worth and at the end he sang Amazing Grace a cappella every night. It was beautiful. He is Texas. Kathleen Turner’s Finding My Voice will run at The Other Palace, London, from April 17 to May 6.

MOJO 9

Academic House, 24-28 Oval Road London NW1 7DT Tel: 020 7437 9011 Reader queries: mojoreaders@ bauermedia.co.uk Subscriber queries: bauer@ subscription.co.uk General e-mail: mojo@ bauermedia.co.uk Website: mojo4music.com

Editor John Mulvey Senior Editor Danny Eccleston Art Editor Mark Wagstaff Associate Editor (Production) Geoff Brown Reviews Editor Jenny Bulley Associate Editor (News) Ian Harrison Picture Editor Matt Turner Senior Associate Editor Andrew Male Associate Deputy Art Editor Russell Moorcroft Contributing Editors Phil Alexander, Keith Cameron, Sylvie Simmons For mojo4music.com contact Danny Eccleston

THEORIES, RANTS, ETC. MOJO welcomes letters for publication. Write to: MOJO Mail, Academic House, 24-28 Oval Road, London NW1 7DT. NEW E-mail: [email protected]

THE REBEL HAS ALWAYS BEEN A VITAL FIGURE

in rock mythology; the tearaway iconoclast with a burning desire to leave the straight life behind and stick it to The Man. Embodying transgressive cliché can be demanding work, though, so that even the most vigorous insurrectionists have their moments of compromise, especially when their careers stretch out for 40 or 50 years. That said, it’s hard to think of many occasions when Mark E Smith, whose passing floored the MOJO team this month, or Neil Young were diverted from their outsiders’ paths. Their astonishing music has frequently felt revolutionary in all sorts of ways, their contempt for music biz norms a kind of radical political act intrinsic to their art. “I feel I’m out of step with what’s going on,” Young tells us in a fiery interview for this, my first issue of MOJO, and one suspects he’s always found critical distance from the mainstream to be empowering. Young has long made sport out of subverting expectation, but his endgame has always seemed to be one of creative integrity rather than wilful perversion. “I love music. I don’t like to see music mistreated,” he says. As a defiant mission statement, that’ll do for us.

Thanks for their help with this issue:

Keith Cameron, Fred Dellar, Steve Fawcett, Del Gentleman Among this month’s contributors: Matt Allen,Martin Aston,Joe Banks,Mike Barnes,Mark Blake, Glyn Brown,David Buckley,Stevie Chick,Andy Cowan,Fred Dellar, Tom Doyle,David Fricke,Andy Fyfe,George Garner,Pat Gilbert, John Harris,David Hutcheon, Jim Irvin,Colin Irwin,David Katz, James McMahon,James McNair, Ben Myers,Chris Nelson,Mark Paytress,Andrew Perry,Jon Savage, Victoria Segal,David Sheppard, Laura Snapes,Michael Simmons, Sylvie Simmons,Jeff Tamarkin,Ben Thompson,Kieron Tyler,Charles Waring,Lois Wilson,Stephen Worthy,Rob Young.

Among this month’s photographers: Cover: Gijsbert Hanekroot/Getty Inset: Kevin Cummins/Getty Jay Blakesberg, Chuck Boyd, Dean Chalkley, Andrew Cotterill, Kevin Cummins, Henry Diltz, Alysse Grafkjen, Anne Greenaway, Steve Gullick, Ian Hargreaves, Manuel Harlan, Shin Katan, Chiala Meatelli, Barry Plummer, Paul Rider, Jody Rogac, Tom Sheehan, Paul Slattery, David James Swanson, Nate Watters, Val Wilmer.

MOJO Subscription Hotline

01858 438884

For subscription or back issue queries contact CDS Global on [email protected] To access from outside the UK Dial: +44 (0)1858 438884

10 MOJO

JOHN MULVEY, EDITOR Now there’s a real human being! I was very pleased to see Nick Drake take pride of place in the new issue [MOJO 292]. Like many, I imagine, I first came across Nick on the Nice Enough To Eat compilation from November 1969. The track Time Has Told Me was the third track on side two of an album never officially reissued on CD for some strange reason. It was a staple in the Sixth Form Common Room along with Fill Your Head With Rock and Picnic (the Harvest label compilation). He is my most loved and admired male singer-songwriter. I didn’t buy Five Leaves Left until the second pressing had been issued and, of course, first pressings on the solid pink Island label will sell for more than £800; a second pressing can also be valuable, as are first pressings of Bryter Layter and Pink Moon (I have a first pressing of this). The original Hannibal label box set, Fruit Tree, 1986, on vinyl, is also very collectable. Not that the monetary value is the important issue. His music has helped me through tough times. One of my children says she remembers going to sleep with his music drifting upstairs. I am so pleased that over the years his music has gained more attention, resulting in the superb Fruit Tree box from 2007, which includes the Skin Too Few DVD, plus the other compilations you mention. It was

great reading the commentaries on his songs. You’ve made my day/weekend. Thank you.

Terry Maunder, Leeds

I think it’s great! The first copy of the magazine I ever bought had Nick Drake on the cover. It was (I think) 1997 and I was living and working in New York. I’ve never missed an edition since. You are, along with Wax Poetics, the greatest music journalism in the world. Every month you lift my heart. Please can you do Curtis Mayfield? Donny Hathaway? Salford Jets?

Christopher Eccleston (no relation), via e-mail Is he, or isn’t he? We think he is.

Who made up these rules anyway? Further to What Goes On’s piece about Independent charts in the February MOJO [291]. A Top 30 Indie album chart and a Top 20 Indie single chart is still run weekly in the music trade magazine Music Week. New eligibility rules were introduced in the early 2000s which changed the rules and meant that independent distribution was no longer the criteria. Eligibility was brought in to match the conditions needed for labels to join the UK independent trade organisation AIM (Association of Independent Music). To be considered in the Independent charts

now releases must be on a label which is not more than 50 per cent owned by one of the major record companies: ie. Sony, Warners and Universal.

Iain McNay, via e-mail

I can give you anything but love MOJO’s excellent 20 Unloved Albums feature was thought-provoking. It certainly had me mulling over titles in my collection that had been dismissed by critics and unloved by fans but which continue to have a special place in my heart and head. When Kevin Rowland’s 1999 solo work, My Beauty, was released, few bothered to get beyond the album’s controversial sleeve, which saw the former Dexys frontman dressed/undressed in drag. It flopped, labelled as bonkers, and even found itself on a list of the 50 Worst Albums Of All Time. But it was judged by its cover rather than its music, which is inventive, emotional, brave, theatrical and often breathtakingly beautiful. This is Rowland opening his soul. Unfairly thought of as just another covers album, My Beauty is so much more. It is a collection of popular songs that obviously mean a lot to the singer, being given adventurous and unique interpretations. To my mind there is not a dud on the disc. Highlights include an epic (eight minutes-plus) wallof-sound-style make-over of The 4 Seasons’ close harmony classic Rag Doll, an understated version of Bacharach & David’s evergreen This Guy’s In Love With You and a reimagining of Cass Elliot’s bouncy summertime hit It’s Getting Better, complete with church bells! Then there’s his most incredibly personal version of The Greatest Love Of All. Masterpiece is an over-used word, but it’s a term that can be applied to this under-rated and neglected album. As we approach the 20th anniversary of the release of My Beauty, it is surely time for some reassessment.

John Millar, Irvine, Ayrshire Re: Unloved Albums. It’s Hard (Polydor, 1982) was The Who’s second album of the post-Moon, Kenney Jones era and second in consecutive years. Rolling Stone gave it a favourable review on release: five stars. Nevertheless looked upon as the band’s worst album, it contains some great Pete Townshend originals: Eminence Front, Cry If You Want and I’ve Known No War the standouts. Maybe first single Athena wasn’t the right choice. It limped into the lower reaches of the charts, doing little to boost the album and resulting in second single, the stronger Eminence Front, being cancelled, its failure maybe contributing to Townshend’s belief in his inability to generate new strong material for the group, leading to the 24-year gap until the band’s next studio effort, Endless Wire.

Darren Williams, via e-mail Thanks for all the Unloved Albums… That You Love. Keep them coming in and we’ll make more of them in a future magazine.

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The big numbers, you multiply by two In issue 292 (excellent as ever!) the review of Mogwai’s concert at the 13,000-capacity SSE Hydro states that the band’s two young members “lower the average age of the building’s inhabitants by roughly 10 years”. By my reckoning, even if the youngsters were 20 years old, the other 12,998 people present would have to be on average 65,020 years old for that to be true. Mogwai may not have the youngest fanbase, but we’re not quite that ancient… PS. My maths is a bit rusty so, just n case, I attach my working (x being the average age of attendees without the two youngsters).

Stephen Theaker, Birmingham

What’s on? Your mind? As ever, great CD with the Satanic Majesties cover feature [MOJO 291] – but having devoted so much space to the Stones’ psychedelic folly (“unadulterated drivel”: Glyn Johns) – I trust you will soon be giving equal prominence to what is now widely regarded as the era’s masterpiece of vision, creativity and invention: The Pretty Things’ S.F. Sorrow (released December 1968)!

Dave Ward, via e-mail

I think he’s got a conclusion Congratulations! Issue 291 and you print the Greatest MOJO Interview Ever. Bob Mehr managed to make Jeff Tweedy talk on issues people (or artists?) find awkward. A sensible masterpiece. And I am not even a fan of Wilco. Maybe I should be one.

Luca Nesi, an Italian from Stockholm

Where did everyone go? The subtitles on this month’s letters page [MOJO 292] are from the 1984 film Repo Man. The relevance to the issue escaped me – there was no Circle Jerks feature, worse luck, or even Jimmy Buffett! Then I checked the credits on IMDB and there it was. Executive Producer: Mike Nesmith. I’d claim my five pounds, were it on offer.

Jim McCambridge, Hull ERRATUM In MOJO 291, we mistakenly attributed the curation of the Piero Umiliani compilation Grazie! to UK DJ Marcellus Wallace (aka Dave Silcox). In fact it is the work of Mike Wallace, a US DJ also trading under Marcellus Wallace. We apologise unreservedly for any confusion caused.

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Group Managing Director, Advertising Abby Carvosso Head of Magazine Media Clare Chamberlain Group Commercial Director Simon Kilby Head Of Magazine Brands Rachel Flower Music Director Joel Stephan Mediaplanner Mollie Smee Regional Advertising Katherine Brown Classified Sales Executive Philip Nessfield Classified Sales Manager Karen Gardiner Inserts Manager Simon Buckenham Production Manager Carl Lawrence Ad Production Controller Helen Mear Creative Solutions Senior Producer Jenna Herman Creative Solutions Art Director Jon Cresswell Chief Executive Paul Keenan Group Managing Director Rob Munro-Hall Publisher Patrick Horton Commercial Marketing Director Liz Martin Managing Editor Danielle O’Connell MOJO CD and Honours Creative Director Dave Henderson Senior Events Producer Marguerite Peck Business Analyst Clare Wadsworth Head of Marketing Fergus Carroll Senior Marketing Executive Hope Noel Direct Marketing Manager Julie Spires Direct Marketing Executive Rebecca Lambert Head of Communications Jess Blake

Printing: William Gibbons MOJO (ISSN 1351-0193) is published 12 times a year by Bauer Consumer Media Ltd. Bauer Consumer Media Ltd is a company registered in England and Wales with company number 01176085, registered address Media House, Peterborough Business Park, Lynch Wood, Peterborough PE2 6EA Airfreight and mailing in the USA by agent named Air Business Ltd, c/o Worldnet Shipping Inc., 156-15, 146th Avenue, 2nd Floor, Jamaica, NY 11434, USA. Periodicals postage paid at Jamaica, NY 11431. US Postmaster: Send address changes to MOJO, Air Business Ltd, c/o Worldnet Shipping Inc., 156-15, 146th Avenue, 2nd Floor, Jamaica, NY 11434, USA To ensure that you don’t miss an issue, visit www.greatmagazines.co.uk for the best subscriptions offers. For subscription or back issue queries, please contact CDS Global on [email protected] Phone from the UK on 01858 43 8884. Phone from overseas on +44 (0)1858 43 8884 For enquires on overseas newsstand sales e-mail [email protected] © All material published is copyright of Bauer Consumer Media Ltd. No part of this magazine may be reproduced without the prior permission of the publisher. MOJO accepts no responsibility for any unsolicited material. To find out more about where to buy MOJO, contact Frontline Ltd, at Midgate House, Midgate, Peterborough PE1 1TN. Tel: 01733 555161. COMPLAINTS: Bauer Consumer Media Limited is a member of the Independent Press Standards Organisation (www.ipso.co.uk) and endeavours to respond to and resolve your concerns quickly. Our Editorial Complaints Policy (including full details of how to contact us about editorial complaints and IPSO’s contact details) can be found at www.bauermediacomplaints.co.uk. Our e mail address for editorial complaints covered by the Editorial Complaints Policy is [email protected].

MOJO 11

FESTIVE50

PARTY MONSTERS Led Zeppelin’s 50th birthday bonanza kicks off with a taste of them live, at their peak. And there’s more to come, promises Jimmy Page.

“A

t that time everybody in the band was playing unbelievably well,” says Jimmy Page, reflecting gleefully on Led Zeppelin’s 1972 US tour. “Even as band members there were moments where you could sense that fantastic things were happening on-stage every night. It felt really special.” Recently, Page has had occasion to return to that landmark American tour, preparing the reissue of How The West Was Won, the live album originally released in 2003, for a March 23 release. Back then, this monumental 18-track set was somewhat overshadowed by the simultaneous release of the Led Zeppelin DVD, itself a revelatory piece of archaeology. “Maybe the album did get a bit overlooked but, to be honest, they were very different projects,” agrees Page. “The Led Zeppelin DVD provided a historical view, but it’s not a full concert. That’s why How The West Was Won came out: to show the band as we really were during a full set.” Recorded over the course of two shows, the album captures guitarist Page, frontman Robert Plant, bass player John Paul Jones and drummer John Bonham on-stage at the LA Forum on June 25, 1972, and the Long Beach Arena two nights later. The band chose to record these Californian shows, says Page, due to the reaction afforded the band the previous year. “Audiences in LA were always superenthusiastic,” he says. “When we played Stairway To Heaven there in 1971 – it hadn’t even come out – we got a standing

Going for gold: Led Zeppelin (from left) John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page, John Bonham, Robert Plant, November 1971.

“YOU COULD SENSE THAT FANTASTIC THINGS WERE HAPPENING ON-STAGE EVERY NIGHT.” Jimmy Page on Zeppelin in ’72

ovation. It was quite magical.” Led Zeppelin’s 1972 visit was their eighth Stateside trek since their first set of US shows in late December ’68. In the intervening years their audience had grown and so too had their set – they now dispensed with support acts altogether. “We just wanted to reflect all the different aspects of the band,” nods Page. “You can hear those dynamics and different elements on the album.” There’s still no room, however, for widely bootlegged offcuts including Louie Louie and Tangerine. “I’m not entirely sure why Tangerine was left off because it was really good,” admits Page. “But I didn’t want to mess with the album so we haven’t added it or any other tracks. What’s important, though, is that you can get the album on vinyl for the first time. It’s a jolly good 5.1 mix too.” The revamped How The West Was Won kicks off Led Zeppelin’s 50th birthday year in style. As Page alludes, there are further releases planned which will most likely begin around the anniversary of the band’s first live gigs which took place in Denmark back in September 1968. “It’s a bit early to talk about that,” says Page, although he admits he’s pleased that the band’s fellow surviving members, Plant and Jones, are all contributing to the official pictorial book published by the Reel Art Press, ostensibly in October. “I’m really happy we’re all doing it, and I am really very happy to be working with the Reel Art Press. They produce fine books,” he says. “But there will be other projects too that we’re working on and that are being discussed right now.” Watch this space… Phil Alexander Read Jimmy Page at length in MOJO’s sister magazine, Planet Rock, in UK stores from February 16.

MOJO 13

Heilemann/Camera Press

MOJO DIARY

MARCH 9 & 10

John Cale (2018-1964): A Futurespective takes place at the Barbican Hall. Joined by the London Contemporary Orchestra, the veteran creative force presents songs from a new album to be released on the Domino label and gems from the back catalogue stretching back to 1964, “that he has rarely, if ever performed live.” Expect Velvet Underground material and songs from Island albums including Fear and Helen Of Troy.

COLOGNERANGERS

Damo Suzuki makes peace with his group’s legacy. Can biographer Rob Young on this and other surprises.

W

hen I began writing the official biography of Krautrock legends Can in 2014, three of its founding members were still alive. As the book reached its final stages, it became something of an epitaph: first drummer Jaki Liebezeit died of a sudden illness in January 2017, and nine months later bassist and sound wizard Holger Czukay passed away of natural causes. Yet 2018 is the 50th anniversary of Can’s first full year of existence, and will be marked with a positive riot of activity. My own book All Gates Open (published together with Can Kiosk, an oral history and collage of reflections by keyboardist Irmin Schmidt) was an opportunity to tell the group’s story in unprecedented detail. It includes testimony from all founder members and associates, and draws on vintage interviews. I explored how Germany’s Nazi past affected the members, pursued their disparate musical backgrounds, watched all the films and TV they soundtracked, and tried to get to the nub of why they split in 1978. Crowdfunding permitting, there will also be a book on Jaki Liebezeit by Jono Podmore, which

All those years Tago Mago: (above) Damo Suzuki salutes Jaki Liebezeit, Cologne Philharmonie, January 22; (bottom left, from left) Can’s Holger Czukay, Irwin Schmidt and Jaki; (below) the All Gates Open book.

“AN OFFICIAL SERIES OF CAN LIVE ALBUMS IS ROMISED IN THE NEAR FUTURE.”

All Gates Open: The Story Of Can is published on May 5 (Faber & Faber). Pledge at unbound.com/books/jaki-liebezeit/ 14 MOJ

MARCH 13

Rickie Lee Jones publishes her autobiography Rickie Lee (Grove Press). It will trace her life from nomadic childhood and adolescence, first steps at the Troubadour in Los Angeles, her relationship with Tom Waits, drug use and more. Unseen photographs from her personal archives are promised, as are “never-before-told stories and accounts of the music business as she’s lived it.”

MARCH 29-APRIL 1

The London International Ska Festival begins at the O2 Academy in Islington. Attractions include original voices Ken Boothe, Horace Andy (above), Derrick Morgan, Johnny Clarke, Clive Chin, The Clarendonians and more, plus African Head Charge, Pama International and Phoenix City All-stars, who present ‘The Clash In Dub’, playing songs by Strummer-Jones in a JA style.

Meyer Originals, Getty Images, Alamy (2), Rex

CAN REOPENS!

will investigate the complex rhythmic philosophy of this “scrupulously ego-less man”. Meanwhile, I Am Damo Suzuki, Paul Woods’ long mooted biography of Can’s vocalist in the years 1970-73, is tentatively scheduled to appear later this summer on Omnibus. Damo has been critical of his treatment by the group, but on January 22 he took part in a tribute to Liebezeit at a sell-out event at the Cologne Philharmonic. The night also featured Jaki’s Drums Off Chaos ensemble, Jah Wobble, jazz trumpeter Manfred Schoof, Kumo, Michael Rother from Neu! and Can’s Rosko Gee and Irmin Schmidt. Before his death, Czukay had been planning public appearances in support of a solo box set to be released in March by Grönland Records. The 5-CD Cinema contains album highlights, plus rarely heard material from his collaborations with Brian Eno, Jah Wobble, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and his late wife U-She. There’s also a DVD of his TV film Krieg Der Tone (The War Of Sounds). Meanwhile Irmin Schmidt has just finished a new piano album. He is also wading through hundreds of hours of live tapes along with novelist/ aficionado Alan Warner – an official series of Can live albums is promised in the near future. His 2016 interview with the late Mark E Smith in the Can Kiosk volume adds yet another epitaph. “When we met,” says Schmidt, “I was utterly surprised to meet not the quirky rock diva I expected, but this incredibly warm and lovely guy. We liked each other instantly. He kept holding my hand to make sure I wasn’t going to run off. Later on we made plans to play together at Glastonbury, but then had to cancel it all for other reasons. I am deeply saddened that this new friendship came to an end so quickly.” The pages of Can Kiosk also include Schmidt’s conversations with artistic friends and Can fans such as Bobby Gillespie, Daniel Miller, art curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, director Wim Wenders and actor John Malkovich.

discover the best new releases

Joan As Police Woman Damned Devotion

Miracle - The Strife Of Love In A Dream

The Plot In You Dispose

Ezra Furman Transangelic Exodus

out now on CD & vinyl

out now on CD & vinyl

out now on CD & vinyl

out now on CD & vinyl

This brand new album sees a return to the darker, sensual sound of Joan’s celebrated early releases.

An amazing display of dark synthpop that evokes Depeche Mode at their most dramatic heights.

10 tracks transcending genres from metal to modern rock. A collective step forward, showcasing the band’s eclectic style and creative flair.

Intense, dramatic and hook-laden, the new album from this unique talent includes the single Love You So Bad.

Paul Draper Spooky Action / Live At Scala

The James Hunter Six Whatever It Takes

Lo Moon Lo Moon

The Rezillos Flying Saucer Attack

out now on CD

out now on CD & vinyl

out 23 February on CD & vinyl

out 23 February on CD

The debut solo album from the former frontman of Mansun now comes with a bonus disc recorded on his sell-out tour.

Recorded at Daptone’s Penrose Studios, Bosco Mann’s production elevates Hunter’s arrangements to the altitude they deserve.

Self-titled debut album from the LA trio and it’s a gorgeous collection of synthpop. Includes Real Love.

This classic album now comes with their famous live recording from the Glasgow Apollo in 1978 plus B-sides and rarities.

Moby - Everything Was Beautiful, And Nothing Hurt

Joan Baez Whistle Down The Wind

Tax The Heat Change Your Position

Kim Wilde Here Come The Aliens

out 2 March on CD & double vinyl

out 2 March on CD & vinyl

out 9 March on CD & vinyl

out 16 March on CD

This album explores spirituality and individuality and finds Moby returning to his orchestral, trip-hop and gospel roots.

Joan’s first studio album in a decade, gathers material by some of Baez’s favourite composers including Tom Waits & Anohni amongst others.

Change Your Position pushes the band’s sound to the next level, adding a razor-sharp modern edge to their rock ‘n’ roll approach.

The first studio album in seven years from the legendary Kim includes the single Pop Don’t Stop, a duet with her brother Ricky.

home of entertainment

MOJOWORKING

FACT SHEET

MAD PROFESSOR & U-ROY The Originator of toasting and the dub specialist unite to revitalise the art of the reggae DJ!

Bass value: U-Roy and Mad Professor (right) man the desk at Ariwa Sound, south London.

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s a tape rewinds on the Ariwa reel-to-reel, the British-Guyanese dub maestro Mad Professor summarises the ethos behind Talking Roots, his fifth album with the pioneering Jamaican DJ, U-Roy. “I thought hard about the concept and thought it needed to go back to what the DJ genre really is, which is toasting and talking. People forget the evolution and with some modern artists, it isn’t clear whether they’re talkers or singers. But us who saw the thing evolve know that there used to be a clear distinction, so we really want to re-establish the genre.” The album was voiced at Anchor and Small World studios in Kingston in late 2016, as well as at Professor’s Ariwa south-east London headquarters in the summer of 2017, re-using rhythms the producer crafted earlier with Jamaican legends such as drummer Sly Dunbar, bassist Lloyd Parks and saxophonist Dean Fraser, plus Ariwa stalwarts including multi-instrumentalist Black Steel and Leroy Mafia on keyboards. The record’s title refers to the glory days of DJ artistry, paying homage to the Treasure Isle productions that gave rise to U-Roy’s fame in the early 1970s. “Like all the U-Roy albums I’ve done,

“SOME GANGSTERS HAD KIDNAPPED HIM AND PUT A GUN TO HIS HEAD!”

Title: Talking Roots it’s a balance between the Date: May Treasure Isle influence and the Production: Mad Professor Ariwa thing,” says Professor. “I Songs: Repatriation / heard Treasure Isle from when Teacher Morris / Minutes Of I was a kid in Guyana – a hornTalk! / Bitter Nut / Zion Gates The Buzz: “I always have a driven label with a Caribbean good vibes with Professor.” sound that was not just Jamaican. U-Royy So we always try to pay a lot of respect to Treasure Isle.” Professor reveals that U-Roy was one of his long-standing idols because of the way he revolutionised the role of the toaster, but notes that their first collaboration, 1991’s True Born African, was fraught with difficulty. “I went to LA with a bag full of money and recorded him on a lot of hits from the Ariwa stable at the Beastie Boys’ studio, but then we couldn’t get a hold of him for a few days; it turns out some gangsters had kidnapped him and put a gun to his head! So it was a little nerve-wracking, but the album had a nice vibe.” “I didn’t know how serious he was,” says U-Roy of their initial connection, speaking on a crackling WhatsApp call that soon cuts out. “He called my manager and set the business up and everything was just so good.” Prof emphasises that their mutual familiarity helps keep the partnership fresh; he brings initial concepts to the table, which U-Roy turns into fluid toasts. “On Repatriation, he talks about Trump’s immigration policy,” says Professor. “Bitter Nut is about an African seed you use as a gift when people are getting married, a form of aphrodisiac in Africa. As a producer, I always like to be tongue-in-cheek and controversial, so I directed him and encouraged him into that. I didn’t really want to have him just talk about dancing and feeling good.” David Katz

Joe Ariwa, Alamy (2)

ALSOWORKING

16 MOJO

…GAZ COOMBES (below) has a new LP, World’s Stronge t M ti May. Recorded at hom Oxford’s Courtyard Stu songs include Oxygen Weird Dreams and Shit (I’ve Done It Again) …T MAGIC NUMBER working on their fifth a “As you get older you realise your strength in not giving a fuck,” they declared in a statemen “You realise what you’v

been trying to do your whole life. Create something that’s yours, your your own views, make g special” …DAVY T, late of The Attack and e, has a new album out in Entitled The Future’s Wild, Genesis co-founder ony Phillips on guitar mastering by Alan Duffy, engineer to Paul cCartney and The inks. “It’s definitely Mod with new freak beat songs

with progressive overtones,” says Davy …MADONNA has confirmed she is working on her fourteenth album …also at work are SLEAFORD MODS, who w in a studio with g and the legend, the shit bank” … SMASHING P James Iha, Billy Jimmy Chamb an unidentified recording studio materialised last

month, adding to speculation that the original line-up will reunite … SLEATER-KINNEY ’s Carrie Brownstein (below) confirmed to ave been working on But there’s ate as yet, ained: “Just ow, we’re do this wly… it’s going versation…”

CARGO COLLECTIVE

AN AMALGAMATION OF RECORD SHOPS AND LABELS DEDICATED TO BRINGING YOU NEW MUSIC

BARDO POND

SUSANNA

VOLUME 8

FIRE RECORDS LP / CD

CLONE OF THE UNIVERSE

MONTERO

RED RIVER DIALECT

CHAPTER MUSIC LP / CD

PARADISE OF BACHELORS LP / CD

SUSANNASONATA LP / CD

H.C. MCENTIRE LIONHEART

MERGE RECORDS LP / CD

FU MANCHU

GO DIG MY GRAVE

PERFORMER

AT THE DOJO LP / CD

THE BELLRAYS

PUNK FUNK ROCK SOUL, VOL 2

BROKEN STAY OPEN SKY

U&MEDIA LP / CD

SUPERCHUNK

WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE MERGE RECORDS LP / CD

BERT JANSCH

HOLLIE COOK

EARTH RECORDS 4LP / 4CD

MERGE RECORDS LP / CD

A MAN I’D RATHER BE (PART 1)

OUGHT

ROOM INSIDE THE WORLD MERGE RECORDS LP / CD

VESSEL OF LOVE

RYAN O’REILLY

I CAN’T STAND THE SOUND DNA RECORDS LP / CD

IRELAND: BANGOR - BENDING SOUND SCOTLAND: GLASGOW - LOVE MUSIC / GLASGOW - MONORAIL WALES: ABERYSTWYTH - ANDY’S RECORDS / CARDIFF - SPILLERS / NEWPORT - DIVERSE / SWANSEA - DERRICKS NORTH- WEST: LIVERPOOL - PROBE / MANCHESTER - PICCADILLY RECORDS / PRESTON - ACTION RECORDS NORTH-EAST: HARROGATE - P & C MUSIC / HUDDERSFIELD - VINYL TAP / LEEDS - CRASH / LEEDS - JUMBO RECORDS / NEWCASTLE - J G WINDOWS / NEWCASTLE - BEATDOWN / NEWCASTLE - REFLEX / SHEFFIELD - BEAR TREE / SHEFFIELD - RECORD COLLECTOR / STOCKTON ON TEES - SOUND IT OUT MIDLANDS: BEDFORD - SLIDE RECORDS / CAMBRIDGE - LOST IN VINYL / LEAMINGTON SPA - SEISMIC RECORDS / LEIGHTON BUZZARD - BLACK CIRCLE RECORDS / LETCHWORTH - DAVID’S MUSIC / LOUTH - OFF THE BEATEN TRACK / NOTTINGHAM ROUGH TRADE / OXFORD - TRUCK STORE / STOKE ON TRENT - MUSIC MANIA - STOKE ON TRENT - STRAND RECORDS / WITNEY - RAPTURE SOUTH: BEXHILL ON SEA - MUSIC’S NOT DEAD / BOURNEMOUTH - THE VAULT / BRIGHTON - RESIDENT / DEAL - SMUGGLERS / EASTBOURNE - PEBBLE / GODALMING - RECORD CORNER / LEIGH-ON-SEA - FIVES / LONDON - CASBAH / LONDON - FLASHBACK / LONDON - LION COFFEE + RECORDS / LONDON - ROUGH TRADE EAST / LONDON - ROUGH TRADE TALBOT RD / LONDON - SISTER RAY / ROMSEY - HUNDRED / SOUTHSEA - PIE & VINYL / SOUTHEND ON SEA - SOUTH RECORDS / ST ALBANS - EMPIRE RECORDS / WATFORD - LP CAFE / WIMBORNE - SQUARE RECORDS / WHITSTABLE - GATEFIELD SOUNDS / WINCHESTER - ELEPHANT RECORDS SOUTH WEST: BRISTOL - RADIO ON / BRISTOL - ROUGH TRADE / BUDE - AIRCULTURE LIMITED / BURY ST.EDMUNDS - VINYL HUNTER / CHELTENHAM - BADLANDS / FALMOUTH - JAM / TOTNES - DRIFT MAILORDER AND INTERNET ONLY STORES: BOOMKAT.COM / FIVERISERECORDS.CO.UK / NORMANRECORDS.COM / RECORDSTORE.CO.UK / SPINCDS.COM / BLEEP.COM

ELEMENTAL MUSIC, together with Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment, presents a great selection of ‘70s R&B, Soul and Funk. Out of print titles in CD (Gatefold LP replicas).

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88515

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88503

FOUR TOPS NATURE PLANNED IT

LOU RAWLS SOULIN’

THE UNDISPUTED TRUTH FACE TO FACE WITH THE TRUTH

SMOKEY ROBINSON SMOKEY

Their last Motown album. Motown.

397307

GLADYS KNIGHT & THE PIPS 2nd ANNIVERSARY

featuring “Love Is a Hurtin’ Thing”and had finally found a successful formula. Capitol Records.

Featuring the hit “Fire”. Mercury Records.

Featuring “Money” and “Part Time Love”. Buddah Records.

88502

FOUR TOPS STILL WATERS RUN DEEP featuring “Still Water (Love)” (#11), and their cover of “It’s All in the Game” (#24). Motown.

88506

OHIO PLAYERS FIRE

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LOU RAWLS ALL THINGS IN TIME 810541

GLADYS KNIGHT & THE PIPS IMAGINATION Includes their only Billboard Hot 100 No.1 hit, “Midnight Train to Georgia”, and: “I’ve Got to Use My Imagination” and “Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me”. Buddah Records

Rawl’s debut with the Philadephia International label. Feat “You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine”, his biggest hit. Philadelphia International Records.

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OHIO PLAYERS SKIN TIGHT + 1 BONUS TRACK The fifth studio album by the Dayton band (and the first for the Mercury label). Mercury Records.

Featuring “You Make Your Own Heaven and Hell Right Here on Earth”, and “What It Is”. Gordy Records.

88507

BARRY WHITE TOGETHER BROTHERS

Feat “Sweet Harmony” and “Baby Come Close”. Motown.

Barry White’s entry into the Blaxploitation soundtrack genre. 20TH Century Records.

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TYRONE DAVIES I JUST CAN’T KEEP ON GOING

SOLOMON BURKE MUSIC TO MAKE LOVE BY

Featuring his amazing version of “How Seet It Is (To Be Loved By You). Columbia.

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RAMSEY LEWIS THEM CHANGES Feat his versions of “Something” and “Oh Happy Day”. Cadet

Available at all good record shops and online. More information at: www.elemental-music.com

Solomon Burke said soul music is “life itself, the very blood r unning through your veins, and it’s your heartbeat”. Chess Records.

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PATTI SMITH ABOUT A BOY In a month scarred by loss, this Gone Again (1996) song for Kurt Cobain was never more potent or wise. Find it: streaming services

8

KENNETH JAMES GIBSON FAR FROM HOME

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JOHNNY MARR AND MAXINE PEAKE THE PRIEST

A psychic-vegan, ex-Furry Thing’s sublime, eight-minute pianoin-space bliss-out from his second LP on Kompakt. Set the controls! Find it: In The Fields Of Nothing (KOMPAKT ALBUM) & YouTube

A song and a short film about a young homeless girl’s night on the street. Peake narrates while Marr’s instrumental backdrop flutters and soars. Funnier and groovier than the subject suggests. Find it: YouTube

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Beatific piano instrumental on an acid electric warm-wash by Holroyd, who’s also worked with Coldcut and Four Tet. The lead-off from an LP entitled The Cage (minimal composition gag ahoy?!) Find it: streaming services

MOJOPLAYLIST

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MODERN EON CHOREOGRAPHY From the Mersey group’s 1981 Fiction Tales, elevating, stately enigma with vaporous ambiences from keyboardist – and renowned computer game cover illustrator – Bob Wakelin, who sadly died in January. Find it: YouTube

1

BARNETT NAMELESS, FACELESS

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AMEN DUNES MIKI DORA

A millennial rethink of surf-pop, after a fashion, as New York psychedelicist Damon McMahon recounts the tale of one of the 20th century’s more menacing wave riders. Oddly reminiscent of Richard Ashcroft at his grooviest, too. Find it: YouTube

3

HUGH MASEKELA THE BOY’S DOIN’ IT

Super-funky title track from the late trumpet legend’s 1975 album, on Casablanca. Rocky Dzidzornu on congas; Hugh sounding floaty, spacious. Whatever the boy’s doin’, he’s doin’ it in Alabama and Acapulco. Find it: streaming services

4

CAVERN OF ANTI-MATTER MAKE OUT FADE OUT

Cold and bouncy Autobahn action from Tim Gane, his current accomplices and a couple of overdriven home-made drum machines. The antic motorik spirit of Stereolab lives on! Find it: SoundCloud

5

PARLIAMENT FT. SCARFACE I’M GON MAKE U SICK O’ME

Where George revives the legendary funk coloss and invites the Geto Boys MC to rhyme over his s electroid funk slop. “I’m going to make you sick then I’m gonna give you the antidote!” Beware, ever, it may cause high butt pleasures. Find it: YouTube

6

THE DAMNED STANDING

ON THE EDGE OF TOMORROW PUU-NKS IN SPACE!! Future-facing new video features Dave Vanian bound for intergalactic realms while the band play in an airlock (or possibly back at mission control? Hard to know) Find it: TheDamnedVEVO MOJO listens to all its music on Roksan equipm

18 MOJO

Courtney in the act: (above) Barnett, on-stage; (below) George Clinton channels Dr Funkenstein.

“I’M GONNA GIVE YOU THE ANTIDOTE!” George Clinton

NAKHANE PRESBYTERIA Johannesburg-based musician-actor’s second album, You Will Not Die, processes his torment at coming out against a backdrop of social oppression. This reflects on rejecting Christianity in a pure, Anohni-ish soul voice with wintry electronic backing. Find it: streaming services

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JOSIENNE CLARKE & BEN WALKER

CHICAGO “It’s not Chicago’s fault that no one came to see my show,” sings Clarke, in a voice that conveys poignancy by the bucketful, over a swell of chamber strings and a swirl of red velvet curtains. Find it: YouTube

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THE TEMPTATIONS LAW OF THE LAND

From 1973’s Masterpiece, reissued on 180gm vinyl. Norman Whitfield writes and produces the LP; Paul Riser’s widescreen charts star; the group sing a bit, mostly on this pounding groove. Find it: Masterpiece (GORDY)

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EARTHLESS BLACK HEAVEN The title track to the San Diego power-trio’s latest LP of heavily Sabbath-ized cosmic riffola; a near nine-minute bongload of finest psychedelic prog, propelled by Hot Snakes drummer Mario Rubalcaba. Find it: SoundCloud

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CHRIS CORNELL YOU NEVER KNEW MY MIND All kinds of poignant as the Soundgarden howler channels Johnny Cash – part of a project (Forever Words, due April 6), which marries poems and letters by The Man In Black to brand new music. Find it: YouTube

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UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA

AMERICAN GUILT Ruban Nielson’s dreamy psych-pop adventurers bulk up for a crunchy excursion into stoner-funk. A neat, ultra-fuzzy complement to the new Jack White LP. Find it: streaming services

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LOST GIRLS DRIVING From the Feeling EP, Norwegian artists Jenny Hval and Håvard Volden smudge the boundaries between improv, sound art and pop music. By turns free-floating, romantic, bit scary. Find it: streaming services

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ROLLING BLACKOUTS COASTAL FEVER

MAINLAND More elevated jangles from Melbourne’s answer to The Feelies. Beyond the sun-dappled guitars, though, lies a tale of migrants on the Med, risking everything “while winds of fortune shove us.” Find it: YouTube

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NEVILLE CLAY ALL FOR THE LOVE OF A MUSIC JOURNALIST “She’s heard of MX-80 Sound…”, begins Clay’s gorgeous acoustic picker for a jaded scribe. From the Newcastle songwriter/ psychiatric nurse’s 2011 album Pearshaped. Find it: tinyurl.com/y825lu6f

Getty, Alamy

Barnett sounds in familiar picaresque form on the first track from her new album. But indie’s wry narrator of the small details that matter turns out to be in a more sombre mood. A deceptively lilting chorus conceals the song’s more serious intent: “I wanna walk through the park in the dark,” she sings, nailing the imbalance of power and intimidation online and in life with characteristic directness: “Men are scared that women will laugh at them… Women are scared that men will kill them.” Then daring the predictable response: “Go on/Tell me you’re just kidding.” Find it: streaming from the end of Feb

2

BOB HOLROYD INNER MIND SIGH

SELFPORTRAIT

LAURIE ANDERSON The music/art polymath in her own words and hand.

Photoshot/Avalon (2), Canal Street Communications

I’d describe myself as… I am so uninterested in doing that! I’m a spy, an observer, I like to look at people. What kind of spy would say that, though? Only an idiot, it’s not undercover at all. Music changed me because… it opened a very romantic door. And I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have danced without music. That question means remembering what I was like before I heard music and I can’t picture that. When I started to play music, though, I felt a great sense of exhilaration. When I’m not making music… I’m writing. I stupidly agreed to write four books – I’m finished with the first one, All The Things I Lost In The Flood. I’m also putting together a book called The Art Of The Straight Line, a collection of things that Lou Reed wrote about Tai Chi. We’re putting it together really as his book. Another is a book of stories, and the last one is a secret. I’m also doing these big orange crazy-looking paintings of scenes of disasters – there’s one of people who are opioid addicts, that’s a really colourful and sad one.

A great sense of exhilaration: Laurie Anderson by Laurie Anderson; (below) the artist photographed.

“I DECIDED NOT TO DECIDE.”

My biggest vice is… I’m trying to not be that judgmental really. If you mean things that I regret doing, they mostly consist of being mean to people. The last time I was embarrassed was… just four seconds ago when I was trying to say what vice was. My formal qualifications are… absolutely none. Being completely unqualified to do anything is part of my dedication to being an amateur and being on the edge of everything I do. I had a lot of brothers and sisters, and nobody said, “What are you going to be when you grow up?” We were on our own, it was a free-fly zone. So I decided not to decide, and that gave me a lot of freedom. The last time I cried was… yesterday. A friend sent me a story. She found her dog on the street with a beautiful little note around her neck. When her dog died, she was Xeroxing the note and when she left the Xerox place she realised she’d left the original note behind. Losing that was so traumatic, she almost cared more about that than the death of her dog. I found that heartbreaking. But I cry very easily. Vinyl, CD or MP3? … I love the vinyl. My most treasured possession is… my stability.

The best book I’ve read is… Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne. It made me laugh and was the first big shaggy dog story I’d read. It was so digressive, with so much freedom. I said, hey, that’s the way the mind works, and I fell in love with that way of telling stories. Is the glass half-full or half-empty? …always completely full, to the brim. My greatest regret is… I can’t really tell you the truth about this. But I wish I’d seen my parents with more empathy, and understood them better. When we die… we don’t die. There’s no such thing. The Tibetan Book Of The Dead is a pretty interesting book and that’s the first thing it starts with. My experience is, energy is really mysterious and it takes a lot of forms. I know this probably sounds ridiculous, but really, in many ways, I don’t think we’re having this conversation. I would like to be remembered… as someone who made an effort to make things better. I learned that from my husband [Lou Reed]. I think of him as someone who made a tremendous effort to make things better, no matter what it was. I guess that’s how I’d like to be remembered as well. As told to Ian Harrison Laurie Anderson and Kronos Quartet’s Landfall (Nonesuch) and her book All The Things I Lost In The Flood (Rizzoli Electa) are both out now.

MONDOMOJO … first promised in 2013, BEASTIE BOYS’ autobiography will finally be published this year. Speaking to Apple’s Beats 1 station,Mike D (below left with Ad-Rock) adde normal band m kinda surreal wh lives, so you kin dimensions to tell the story” …an historical injustice was put right in

January, when the ‘F’ mark BRIAN WILSON got for writing 1961’s Surfin’ was upgraded by his alma mater Hawthorne High School to an ‘A’. Brian ed his Student Grade m from principal andesfeind, proving he’s still true to his hool …there was less holesomeness from ichael Davenport, -bassist of Indiana op-punks THE

ATARIS. He’s been indicted for allegedly running a telemarketing real estate scam which netted $27 million between 2009 and 2016. We know the life of a worki is hard, but really …Tex outlet Taco Bell was be country singer CHAR DANIELS last month their humorous, consp theory-lampooning ‘Belluminati’ campaign “Hey Taco Bell,” he

tweeted, “The Illuminati is not a frivolous subject.” Imagine the extent of the Deep State’s connivance? … and April brings the release of Smalls nge, Meditations On Ageing, he long-awaited solo debut rom SPINAL TAP ’s Derek Smalls (left). With songs like Butt Call, Gimme Some (More) Money and Hell Toupee, guests include Donald Fagen, Richard Thompson and Peter Frampton…

MOJO 19

BRIGID MAE POWER

Pass the uilleann pipe: Brigid Mae Power attunes to invisible energies.

London/Irish voice gives in to the drone for dream-folk transports of delight.

E

ver since she was small, Brigid Mae Power has been drawn to the drone. Growing up in London with her second-generation Irish mother, who listened to Planxty, The Bothy Band, and Christy Moore, alongside Nirvana and Jeff Buckley, Power’s world was heavily defined by that simple, sustained monophonic hum that ran through so much traditional Irish folk music. “Whenever I heard uilleann pipes I was gone to another place,” says Power. “That drone, I love it. Sometimes I can sing from that same place. Someone once asked me, ‘Where did you learn to sing in those kinds of keys?’ Well, it’s much easier for me to sing like that than a normal three-chord song.” Those who’ve heard Brigid Mae Power’s extraordinary voice, especially on her self-titled 2016 LP, can confirm that it has a similar effect on the listener as those uilleann pipes. It exists in a place between the dream-like and the everyday, with the ability to transport the listener to somewhere free-floating and otherworldly. It’s a voice she struggled to find in her earliest recordings. “When I was a teenager,” she explains, “I was trying to sing in a bluesy style, or how I thought I was meant to sing. I didn’t know my actual voice until I heard Tim Buckley, and I let go of any idea of how I should actually sound.” Her big break came when she supported the American singer, arranger and multi-instrumentalist Peter Broderick

20 MOJO

“I LET GO OF ANY IDEA OF HOW I SHOULD ACTUALLY SOUND.”

in Cork in 2014. “At the time I was living there, a single mum,” says Power, “and he invited me on a UK tour. It wasn’t the right audience for me but just the lifestyle… I FACT SHEET G Power’s debut LP, I Told realised this was what I wanted You The Truth, was recorded to keep doing.” live “on quiet mornings” in Broderick also invited Power St Nicholas’ Church, Galway. out to Portland, Oregon, with the G Power regularly posts works-in-progress and idea of re-recording her selffolk covers on her YouTube released debut album, I Told You channel, recorded in fields, The Truth. Instead, spurred on by bedrooms and kitchens. Broderick’s encouragement, KEY TRACKS Power arrived with a set of new G Don’t Shut Me Up songs, songs of imprisonment (Politely) and escape, pain and release, G I’m Grateful G So You’ve Seen My Limit borne along by droning guitars, swirling strings, piano decay and Power’s own drifting, monastic voice. For their second collaboration, The Two Worlds, Power and Broderick (who married in 2016), recorded in Analogue Catalogue studio in County Down: within are songs about Ireland past and present, memories of Power’s grandmother and meditations on “being settled and also being up in the clouds”, caught between routine and escape, claustrophobia and euphoria. The album’s first single, Don’t Shut Me Up (Politely) took on a heavier meaning when its release coincided with a #MeToo Tumblr post by Power about an abusive relationship she was subjected to as a young woman living in New York. “I recorded that song in March 2017, way before the Tumblr thing,” explains Power. “The song is more about a specific, invisible emotional energy in places like Ireland, but that song, like my Tumblr post, I feel like it’s the time for it to be heard. It can do its work now, if it has any work to do.” Andrew Male

Laura Sheeran

MOJORISING

MINDBLOWERS!

MARTIN FREEMAN MORGAN 4 LEE THE SIDEWINDER (Blue Note album title track, 1964)

DAVID AXELROD 1YOUR GET UP OFF KNEES

Dean Chalkley/Camera Press

(from Heavy Axe, Fantasy, 1974) “I got into David Axelrod after hearing his beautiful string arrangement on The Electric Prunes’ Holy Are You. He made this space age, jazzy electronic album which had this on it; it’s got a droning bagpipe thing, which you don’t always associate with jazz, majestic bass, it swings along fantastically, but it’s got this total gospel thing as well – a perfect marriage of modern and traditional. Music’s always been a transporting thing for me and this sends me

approved of our version, which tickled me!”

SPECIALS 2 THE DO NOTHING (2-Tone 45, 1980)

“I had an epiphany and was absolutely crazy about 2-Tone. It changed my life, even though I was only about nine or 10, so I didn’t have a lot of life to change. It just set up my taste and aesthetic, and had such a message for a pop song – ‘I’m just living in a life without meaning’ – but I could still get into it, and I ended up knowing every second of it. It’s one of those early ’80s social-political songs that were successful in ways that would never happen now. Even now it’s not particularly safe it was

3THEKAMASI WASHINGTON RHYTHM CHANGES

(from The Epic, Brainfeeder, 2015) “He’s a fantastic sax player and this album is proper old school. This track is about seven minutes long, with a wonderful band just going for it. It reminds me of one of those ’70s cosmic, spiritual jazz things about life, the universe and everything. It’s beautifully sung and has a lovely, lilting melody. But they’re not messing around, some of the playing is quite angular, and the soloing is muscly. I like a slight tone of dread

“I heard it when I was a little Mod, about 16, on a Gilles Peterson Blue Note compilation. It was outrageous and perfect, perfect Mod jazz – the riff is still unbeatable, it’s a bit punchy and a bit pissy, with real attitude and a big upfront bass you can feel, and it really moves. You go into a cool world when you play it; it has a mood and a look in my head, a look of going down into a basement club and people wearing mohair suits and pork pie hats. Its colour? It’s reddish, actually. And Lee Morgan was one of the coolest people ever, he was only about 25 when he made this. That documentary I Called Him

THE STYLE 5HEADSTART COUNCIL

FOR HAPPINESS

(from Café Bleu, Polydor, 1984) The Café Bleu bigger band version, not the B-side! People who aren’t obsessed with music don’t know this song, which is wrong. I just love it. It endlessly fills me with joy. It’s the sound of a band experimenting and doing whatever the hell they want, because one of them had got out of the straitjacket of being in another – brilliant – band [ie, Paul Weller and The Jam]. I don’t why they’re so ignored. I see this song as orange, yellow, greens, blues, multicoloured and kicking up a storm. The album was a great cipher too. I heard soul, jazz and funk, all things that are really important to me. It’s

Martin Freeman digs jazz, Mod and 2-Tone tunes.

Martin Freeman And Eddie Piller Present Jazz On The Corner is out on Acid Jazz on March 2

From Tim in The Office to Dr Watson and Bilbo Baggins, the actor’s transported by socio-politics and Mod-porn. In colour.

FACT SHEET

G For fans of: Mazzy Star, The Gun Club, Black Lips G “We never really think of ourselves as ‘women in music’,” notes Sanchez, “but if that strikes a chord, and helps girls to wanna start a band, then that’s definitely special for us.”

MOJORISING

L.A. WITCH Noir reverb rockers proffer brooding garage blues through the desert dust.

Crazy coven: L.A. Witch rail on (from left) Irita Pai, Ellie English, Sade Sanchez.

“W

e had a lot of cool women in rock music, growing up in the ’90s,” says L.A. Witch’s singer/ guitarist Sade Sanchez, “like Kim Gordon, P.J. Harvey and Courtney Love. I guess we got lucky.” The influence of these artistically savvy females has been more spiritual than directly musical on the trio that Sanchez formed in Los Angeles in 2012. On last September’s self-titled debut album, Sanchez summons the frostily enigmatic allure of Hope Sandoval singing Mazzy Star’s Ghost Highway, amid the reverb-heavy garage-blues twang of primetime Gun Club. Her songs, mostly written about a long-term relationship which derailed during her band’s formative months, go by no-nonsense titles such as Kill My Baby Tonight and You Love Nothing. Another track, Get Lost, features the glowering couplet, “Save me from myself/I don’t need nobody else.” Drive Your Car, meanwhile, is “a song about power and control. In LA we spend a lot of time in our cars, and in that song, I get to drive his car.” Initially learning to play as a pre-teen on her classicrock-loving dad’s guitar, Sade (pronounced Shar-day) soon formed a punk-garage duo called Pow Wow with drummer Ellie English. Their later regrouping as L.A. Witch with bassist Irita Pai had a dramatic effect on the band’s sound.

“IN THAT SONG, I GET TO DRIVE HIS CAR.”

KEY TRACKS

G Kill My Baby Tonight “Loving reverb partly comes G Drive Your Car from hearing it in a lot of bands G Get Lost I like, like The Cramps and The Jesus And Mary Chain,” she states, “but another huge part of it comes from being the guitarist in a three-piece, and having to fill out the sound. On my first amp, there were just two effects dials, for gain and reverb, and I quickly discovered that one way to hide being self-conscious about my playing, and to make us feel bigger, was to just wash it out with a shit-ton of reverb, and that just sort of stuck.” Suitably emboldened, L.A. Witch took a similarly self-defining, DIY approach to every aspect of their work, designing flyers and handcrafting their early CD EPs themselves. Sanchez adds the band only properly “felt real” once they’d cemented it onto vinyl, with their album on Seattle’s Suicide Squeeze label, where the EP’s more introspective tracks were axed in favour of “uppity songs” – that is, the brooding, twangsome, deserty rock’n’roll which has now become L.A. Witch’s irresistible calling card. As for their first photo session, Sanchez turned down offers of digital trickery, instead teaching a friend how to use her own 35mm camera, thus enabling her to shoot and ‘direct’ it her way, onto film. She further indulges her love of 35mm photography in an ongoing tour diary. “I love the way you have to wait to get your prints – something tangible – developed,” she says. “It’s like everyone these days has ADD. They need instant stimulation, all the time!” Andrew Perry

Boris Barthes, Steve Gullick, Marco Hernandez

ALSORISING

22 MOJO

“I

wanted to observe every little dark corner of the hurt, and give voice to the less obvious parts,” says New Zealand crooner MARLON WILLIAMS of his second album, Make Way For Love, which chronicles the end of the 27-year-old’s relationship with singer/songwriter Aldous Harding. A former chorister switched-on to country via honky tonk and Hank Williams, his 2015 debut announced a star-inthe-making. But Williams’ heartbroken follow-up is the real deal, a swoonsome, dreamy, blacklyhumorous set cycling between regret, desolation and revenge, and even featuring Harding on its penultimate track. “It was absolutely therapeutic,” he reflects. “A voice wants a bended ear.” Stevie Chick

W

ith subject matter including warrior women, reincarnation and the apocalypse, Triomphe Agnès Gayraud’s second album as LA FÉLINE is an alluringly bold collection of post-Radiohead, progressive pop songs. Taking her nom de plume from Cat People, Jacques Tourneur’s uncanny 1942 horror movie, Gayraud’s music is melodically modern, but has an ancient, Dionysian undercurrent. Inspired, she says, by the “balance between lyricism and innovation” of the last two Talk Talk albums, another level of mystery is created (to Anglo-American ears at least) by her allusive use of the French language itself: “To not understand can be a beginning for enchantment.” Joe Banks

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