blind atlas. debut album out today.

one of manchester's finest bands, blind atlas, finally released their debut album today. kodiak bear was released on fallen swine records and is out now. it is available physically and digitally to buy here. (album review to follow later.)

 album tracklisting: 

1.  for carol

2.  4^th street

3.  mary anne

4.  time plays its part

5.  these days

6.  iron wall

7.  the ballad of uncertainty in the key of f

8.  easy way out

9.  damned words

10. brother moon

11. any old song

12. kodiak bear

 kodiak bear album cover

 

last week also saw the release of a new video. the lead radio track from the album, called brother moon, is another absolutely beautiful song. and a brilliant song needs a great video, so blind atlas teamed up with volkerfirma once more and created another stunning animation. both, the song as well as the animation, are a little different to the last single (title track kodiak bear - review here) but turned out equally amazing. more than worth listening to. check out the animation below.

if you happen to live in the manchester area (or are willing to travel a bit), i urge you to make your way down to salford next wednesday, 20th june. the kodiak bear album launch takes place at the kings arms (11 bloom street, salford m3 6an) and doors open at 7.30pm. tickets are £6.50 in advance and available from piccadilly records or via wegottickets. blind atlas will play the entire album. they will also welcome special guests jo dudderigde and adam p. gorman (both members of fellow manchester band the travelling band), as well as a string quartet and african drummers. this sounds like it's going to be a very special evening, so definitely a gig you don't want to miss!

7 gigs in 7 days. part two. the apple cart festival.

day 2 basically meant we had to get from west london to east london for the apple cart festival. it was already raining when we left the hotel in shepherd’s bush and as we soon realised, it wouldn’t stop raining that day at all. we were all more or less wishing we would’ve brought our wellies but somehow we still managed to brave the mud and rain, especially since the stages were in tents after all. i already knew before we went to london that the apple cart would definitely be one of my highlights of the week… but more about that further down.

where: victoria park, london

when: 3 june 2012

who: noah and the whale, josh t pearson, billy bragg, gaz coombes, stornoway, marques toliver, beth jeans houghton & the hooves of destiny, adam ant and many more

highlight(s): stornoway

jamie n commons @the spinning wheel stage

due to many different reasons, involving an early (but not early enough) check-in at the hotel, having absolutely no idea which part of the victoria park would be the best to get to the entrance to the festival asap and obviously the rain, we weren’t quite in time for jamie n commons. since he definitely impressed all of us the day before, we wanted to catch his set again which we somehow did – at least the last two (or three?!) songs. nevertheless, his voice is absolutely amazing and again, you’d never expect such a voice when you see him. he probably already surprised many many people before and not just me.

francois & the atlas mountains @the apple cart stage

these guys were only the second band to play the apple cart stage but they already started half an hour late. no idea who’s fault that actually was and i’m not complaining since this gave us a few minutes to check out the entire festival area. once we got back to the stage though francois & the atlas mountains had started but i can’t say i liked them very much. although their drummer seemed to be quite interesting (those were no ordinary drums for sure), nothing else really struck me as interesting at all. but as i soon learned, it could get much worse.

bill wells & aidan moffat @the spinning wheel stage

after we decided that it wasn’t worth staying to see the rest of the francois & the atlas mountains set, we headed back to the spinning wheel stage to catch marcus foster. i think by that time, they were already running a bit late on that stage as well which basically meant that we had to sit through the bill wells & aidan moffat set first. besides the fact that there was one lady at the barrier who was clearly a massive fan, i was dreading proper earplugs. as i found out later, the gentleman "singing" (for me it was more talking to a melody) was aidan moffat and the one on keyboard was bill wells. this didn’t change anything though and the constant swearing on stage just annoyed me even more.

marcus foster @the spinning wheel stage

knowing that i’d be able to see marcus foster at the apple cart festival anyway was probably the best reason not to see him the day before at the hot and sweaty ginglik. i’ve seen him solo before but this time he had his band with him and it clearly added even more to his great sound. even though marcus broke one of his guitar strings right after the first song, him and his band delivered a brilliant (though fairly short) set. he’s got a voice like no one else and is definitely worth checking out.

lianne la havas @the apple cart stage

once marcus foster was done, the only band left on my list was stornoway, so we headed back to the apple cart stage to try and get a good spot in time for their set. of course this meant that we had to see three other acts before though which was not as bad as expected. when we returned to the main stage, lianne la havas was already a few songs into her set. her voice would be great for soul songs but her music was more pop than soul. it was still quite alright though since she had no problem winning the audience over with her charm and big smile. she was clearly very happy to be there and also probably a bit surprised so many people turned up to see her. not sure if her music convinced many people but her stage presence sure did.

billy bragg @the apple cart stage

now billy bragg was actually someone i was not looking forward to very much. having seen him support frank turner earlier this year, i expected another quite boring set. his lyrics might be quite alright (he’s dealing with many political issues in his lyrics) but just him and an electric guitar on stage just didn’t do it for me the first time… and it didn’t really do it for me this time either. i gotta admit though that it was a tiny bit better at the apple cart festival. i just don’t know why. perhaps because the people were really into him, perhaps because the apple cart people released a lot of massive balloons into the audience during his set which clearly everyone enjoyed… i don’t know. i guess billy bragg is one of those musicians who will always try to educate people. does it work? who knows.

kid creole & the coconuts @the apple cart stage

this was the most disturbing set i saw at the apple cart festival (yes, even more disturbing than adam ant). we expected some jamaican reggae-like music and instead got some mafia boss look-a-like in a purple suit with a hat coming from brooklyn. add a couple of half-naked and braless ladies to the mix and you got kid creole & the coconuts. everything else we saw that day was better than that! and the apple cart festival was supposed to be the "family friendly alternative to field day" – yeah, don’t think so.

stornoway @the apple cart stage

moving along to stornoway – the reason why i agreed to go to the apple cart festival in the first place and clearly an highlight before even seeing their set. when my friend recommended the festival, i think she basically just said "stornoway are playing, so i guess you’re in?" and yes, i was. the last stornoway gig i went to was 11 months ago, so i was eager to see them again. they kept saying that they’d debut their brand new songs that day but as it turned out, i knew every song on the setlist, so the songs weren’t BRAND new (at least not to me). i could not have cared less though. i’ve only seen videos of two of the new songs (waiting on the clock and the sixth wave), only heard farewell, appalachia with the north sea radio orchestra and additional female vocals and lead-singer brian briggs normally performed the bigger picture on his own up until apple cart. so all new songs weren’t actually new to me but they were different and i absolutely loved it. but what else is new, right? and of course brian’s little anecdotes about nature and some rather strange incidents that happened all over the world, are always quite fascinating (and make you wonder where on earth he gets this information from). their indie folk sound just grabs me every single time and apparently i wasn’t even the only one who basically only came to see stornoway…

top photo: jon quin, bottom photo: rob steadman

left: brian briggs; right: oli steadman

adam ant & the good, the mad & the lovely posse @the apple cart stage

another one of those acts that i haven’t heard before but judging by what people told me, adam ant has been around for quite a while now. so seeing a 6-year old on his dad’s shoulders in the audience singing along to his songs really surprised me. the best thing about adam ant’s set though? clearly the fact that he had two drummers! absolutely amazing, i definitely approved. i still can’t quite figure out what that lady was supposed to do on stage – she didn’t really sing or dance. but yeah, i guess she was nice to look at. it seemed like every person on stage had some sort of purpose, even though not many of them actually had something to do with the music.

noah and the whale @the apple cart stage

i honestly would’ve left after stornoway (at least moved to a spot further away from the stage) but my friends wanted to see the headliners – noah and the whale.  i’ve never been too fond of them but at the same time i thought it wouldn’t hurt to actually check them out live, so we stayed. i do have a problem with them describing their sound as rock’n’roll, however their live set was quite alright. lead-singer charlie fink seemed to be a bit bored on stage though (but judging by everyone else that was probably only my impression). the audience was almost begging for an encore but i guess due to a curfew, they weren’t allowed back on stage. in the end i actually enjoyed their live set. however, once i got back home and checked out their albums, i was sitting here just as bored as charlie appeared to be on stage. looks like it’s gonna take me a while to really get into these guys but they were still pretty good headliners – although i would’ve preferred stornoway.

7 gigs in 7 days. part one. bushstock festival.

considering the fact that i still don’t really like london, i’m definitely spending way too much time down there. this time though, i had not only one or two but quite a few really good reasons to make my way to london. when we booked our tickets (last year in october!) for bushstock festival, no one really thought that this one-day festival would lead to an entire week of gigs. but there we were, arriving in london on friday, june 1st, ready for seven incredibly busy days and nights ahead of us. here’s a little recap of the first day at bushstock festival.

what: bushstock festival (presented by communion)

where: various venues around shepherd’s bush, london

when: 2 june 2012

who: marcus foster, mystery jets, matthew and the atlas, daughter, fionn regan, paul thomas saunders and many more

highlight(s): juan zelelada, bear’s den, jamie n commons

dog is dead @defectors weld

having seen dog is dead only once before (when they supported bombay bicycle club last year), i was quite intrigued to see how their live performance developed. lead-singer rob milton still delivers such unique vocals that it’s very hard not to like their music. beautiful harmonies make their indie sound even more special. overall, dog is dead are definitely one of those up and coming new and fresh bands that are not to be missed. bushstock couldn’t have started off in a better way!

jp cooper @shepherds bar

rae morris was about to follow dog is dead at defectors weld and i would’ve loved to see her again, but i felt it was sort of my responsibility to support my local artist instead. so instead of seeing rae again, i went to the shepherds bar to catch jp cooper's set and of course he didn’t disappoint me at all. i absolutely love his voice. his sound is even richer when he’s accompanied by his band, which thankfully was the case this time. the double bass and the subtle drums add so much to his songs that seeing him live simply makes you want to drift off into another world. it’s always a pleasure to see jp cooper live.

juan zelada @shepherds bar

every time someone recommends a band to me and i don’t bother to check them out and then, after seeing them live, suddenly realise i love their sound, makes me want to kick myself. juan zelada belongs in this category. a friend of mine suggested him to me a while ago and i didn’t take the time to have a proper listen. big mistake! juan zelada and band probably delivered the most fun and entertaining set of all the acts we saw at bushstock. originally from spain, now based in london, he sings in english and basically gets everyone to dance the second he starts playing. he reminded me a bit of jamie cullum, especially the keys in don’t you hold me down, and basically showed everyone in the audience a good time. if someone in the shepherds bar was still sitting during his set, they definitely missed out on something great.

ellen & the escapades @shepherds bar

i’ve heard many many things about ellen & the escapades before, so i was quite looking forward to their set. nevertheless we had to leave after two songs, so i can’t really say too much about them. from what we did actually hear, the only thing i can say for sure is that i preferred the female to the male vocals (which rarely happens). the two songs we actually caught didn’t impress me much but i will keep an open mind, especially since they’re supporting the travelling band on their uk tour later this year. i’m looking forward to seeing a proper set then.

bear’s den @st. stephen’s church

bear’s den… the first major surprise of the day. we basically had absolutely no idea what to expect, they totally blew our minds (well, mine at least). once those three blokes came on stage, i thought this might get a bit loud but no, that was not the case whatsoever. mellow folk melodies, beautiful harmonies and soothing lead vocals sure made their set very special. unfortunately they don’t have anything officially released at this point but their lead singer told me that they expect their first ep to come out in september. so mark your calendars people, bear’s den will no doubt be big soon!

lanterns on the lake @st. stephen’s church

another one of those bands that i’ve already heard so much about but never got around to actually checking out, and to be perfectly honest, i’m glad i didn’t. even though my friends liked them very much, they bored me. i really don’t get what the big deal is with lanterns on the lake. the female lead vocals were nothing special, there was no range in her voice and the fact that her microphone was too high for her, so she always had to stand on her toes to actually reach the mic, simply annoyed me after a while. i guess their sound sort of fitted the atmosphere in the church but other than that, i wasn't impressed at all.

pale seas @shepherds bar

my opinion about pale seas is probably somewhat similar to the one about lanterns on the lake but not quite as drastic. the fact that they had a female drummer added immensely to that little bit of stage presence that they actually had. ordinary voices, ordinary sound… nothing that would be stuck in my head for days. i’m gonna spare you the lame band name jokes now.

 

jamie n commons @shepherds bar

this gentleman might as well join the same category as juan zelada. recommended to me a wee while ago, i didn’t care to check him out. another big mistake! we saw jamie in the audience when we walked back into the shepherds bar and by his looks, i expected something completely different. once he started singing the preacher, i was in a bit of a shock – considering the fact that he is only 22 years old, you’d think he was singing playback cos his voice sounds way older than he actually is. you’d imagine some grey haired dude up on stage and certainly not someone with long brown hair and a hat. knowing now how amazing his folk-rock sound is, i regret it even more that i wasn’t able to go to the dry the river gig at scala last year when jamie n commons was supporting – lesson learned. thank god he’s coming to the haldern pop festival in august… very much looking forward to that!

bastille @defectors weld

after jamie n commons, we rushed through the rain to ginglik to catch marcus foster. it’s fair to say that i stayed for about two minutes (it was beyond hot in there!) before i decided to leave and see bastille instead and as it turned out, that was a pretty good move. my friends stayed at ginglik and braved the tropical temperatures in there while i had a brilliant time at defectors weld. i came across bastille only once before (they were supporting keane in paris a couple weeks ago), so again, i had no idea what to expect. when i arrived at the venue, they were already a few songs into their set and the atmosphere was great. people obviously enjoyed themselves and bastille very much. besides one drunk chick, everyone else seriously seemed to be more into the music than the alcohol which was nice, especially since it was already quite late. on their facebook page, bastille state “other” as the genre they belong to – quite right i think. i’m not sure how i’d describe their sound. just have a listen yourself or even better, catch them live if you can and bring your dancing shows. you’re in for a treat. bastille were an absolutely awesome end to a fantastic day at bushstock!

featuring: natalie mccool.

she’s signed to a grammy award winning producer, released multiple eps by now, her songs got played on bbc radio, she played a session for songs from the shed and many other “proper” shows – so it’s safe to say that natalie mccool isn’t necessarily a new artist in the business but it still seems like not enough people have recognised her incredible talent yet. what makes her so different?! many things. it’s not just her voice that sets her apart from other female artists. it’s the way her vocals, her lyrics and her sound work together. dark and mysterious, yet so fragile and innocent. it’s this great mix that makes her music so interesting. thankfully i’ve known and been in touch with her for a while now, so she didn’t hesitate for a second when i asked her if she’d answer a few questions for me.

question: you’re signed to grammy award winner steve levine and his label hubris records. how did that come about?
 

natelie: i won yamaha’s national songwriting competition 'make it break it' when I was in my second year of study at LIPA (the liverpool institute for performing arts). steve levine was one of the judges on the panel which included coldplay’s chris martin, promoter harvey goldsmith, and bbc radio 2’s mark radcliffe. after i performed at the MIBI awards ceremony, steve signed me to his label hubris records.

the double a-side single ‘fortune/on fire’ is your most recent release. how come you went for a double a-side this time and not for a new ep?
 

after the release of my 'black sun ep', i went into the studio to record some of my new songs with steve my producer, the new songs included both 'on fire' and 'fortune'. after recording the songs we began the process of choosing which track should be the single or 'lead track' on the next ep, but after listening to all the tracks we just couldn't decide whether it should be 'fortune' or 'on fire', because we felt that they were both so strong - so we decided we would release them both as singles - using the old vinyl terminology of 'double a side', obviously meaning two tracks both released as singles on the same record.

a couple of weeks ago you posted a video for your song ‘america’ which was partly written by sir paul mccartney. can you tell us how this happened?

sir paul mccartney is the lead patron of my old university LIPA in liverpool. the LIPA building is actually his old grammar school! every year sir paul visits LIPA and holds a masterclass for all the music students who have taken the songwriting module in their final year. as i had chosen songwriting, i was given a one to one masterclass with him - can you imagine how surreal that was! i decided that i was going to play him a song that i hadn't yet finished - 'america' - just to see what advice he could give me - i had a couple of ideas about the bridge section, but i couldn’t decide exactly where to go with the chord progression. so i played it to sir paul, and to my surprise he picked up his own guitar and began to play along! he jammed out some chords to the bridge section, and that same chord progression has remained part of the song ever since!

what would you say is your personal highlight of your career so far?
 

it has got to be meeting and jamming with sir paul mccartney! but another great highlight was when my support slot for joan armatrading was confirmed. joan is on a uk tour this year and i’m supporting her at the bridgewater hall in manchester, 4th november. by coincidence i met her just recently at a uk music event held at the houses of parliament, she is so cool.

you’ve released three eps and a double a-side so far. what’s next on your agenda in terms of new material and live shows?
 

i'm about to release my latest ep which is planned for release this summer. i’m also in the process of making a couple of videos, and i've got a show supporting jesca hoop at LEAF in liverpool on the 28th june (also my birthday!). i have a number of other shows booked too, the live dates and latest news are on my website at http://www.nataliemccool.co.uk !

massive thanks again to natalie for taking the time to do this short interview. keep an eye on her website for future live and release dates. natalie is also on facebook and twitter, so make sure to check her out and say hi!

ahab. live. deaf institute.

who: ahab

where: deaf institute, manchester, uk

when: 8 may 2012

support: charlotte carpenter; hawker reunion

everyone probably has at least one band that they never get tired of seeing live. i have quite a few bands on that list and ahab are definitely one of them. full band set, acoustic, unplugged – it doesn’t matter. it always feels like they can pull of anything without even trying. so once they announced a gig at the wonderful deaf institute, the date got marked in my calendar.

compared to the last time ahab played in manchester at band on the wall, a lot of things were different this time, not counting the venue change. but having a support act, two in fact, was one of those things for example. charlotte carpenter from kettering was up first. her tender voice accompanied by an acoustic guitar seemed to be a good start to the night. some of her songs were more folk, others more pop. in general it felt like she didn’t quite show what she can actually do, so she might be worth keeping an eye on in the future. hawker reunion were up next. the two piece from manchester claims their sound to be alt folk and yes, i’d sign that statement. electric and acoustic guitars and two voices that complemented one another in a wonderful way proved to be just the right support for ahab. no matter how good they were though, a more or less happy tune surely wouldn’t hurt anyone once in a while.

the bad news came last friday when ahab’s callum adamson “announced” he was in the hospital. (almost) no harm done though, the appendix is out and he’s back home recovering from his operation, so no one had to feel guilty for enjoying themselves on tuesday night. having no lead guitarist and no drummer present meant for the rest of the band to at least try to live up to their usual show. at the risk of repeating myself, they obviously didn’t even need to try because whatever they do normally works very well.

the night started with folk-pop and alt folk and ended with alt country. ahab are often described as one of the best americana bands in the uk. judging by their live shows, i guess they can live up to that reputation. they played an impressive set of a whopping 17 songs, including a couple of new tunes. their songs are normally short (or maybe it just seems like that) and spot on. this show was the second time i’ve seen them as a 3-piece playing an acoustic set. of course the 12-string guitar was clearly missing when you’re familiar with their music but somehow the remaining band members made it work nevertheless. kicking off their set with the wonderful lucy and then slowly playing their way through a selection of their best tunes including all-time favourite lightning bug, the catchy call a waiter, the as always beautiful million reasons and a brilliant cover of wagon wheel. clearly the new songs were the highlight of the night though. neighbours, wild mouth, why are you so sad and it hurts were all different but equally beautiful each in their own way. a powerful performance of rosebud with seebs llewellyn on lead vocals then was the perfect end to their main set. but what makes ahab’s music actually so amazing? besides the obvious like gorgeous lyrics, it’s their stunning harmonies which were particularly great during why are you so sad (luke price on lead vocals) and my father’s eyes (dave burn on lead vocals), which they performed unplugged and in the middle of the audience as an encore. and i gotta say, it’s actually pretty brave to get people clapping along when you’re off mic but their voices are all so strong that the audience probably could’ve made a lot more noise and it wouldn’t have mattered at all. all in all, a night out seeing ahab live is always a guarantee for a great time – regardless of how many band members are actually on stage. 

setlist:

lucy

lightning bug

wish you

docker's hands

wagon wheel

run me down

call a waiter

neighbours

wild mouth

why are you so sad

it hurts

to the light

joanna

million reasons

womans arms

rosebud

encore:

my father's eyes (unplugged)

from left to right: seebs llewellyn, luke price and dave burn