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Live Review: John Murry - Sneaky Pete's, Edinburgh, 17 September 2018

18/9/2018

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John Murry is a singer-songwriter raised in Tupelo, Mississippi, the land of Elvis, probably best known for his 2012 album The Graceless Age. It received universal acclaim and was, amongst other accolades, included in The Guardian's best of the year.

You might expect this to be a platform from which the American would have gone on to excel and cement his position in the music industry, but John’s path has never followed what you could call a natural course. Early in his life undiagnosed autism led to Murry being prescribed medication, and then being checked into rehab by his adopted parents after, he told The Guardian, "smoking pot about three times and being drunk maybe four or five".

His bio writes that he was "discarded onto the streets of Memphis", where he found music, his saving grace, and together with Tim Mooney put together The Graceless Age. It was after the sudden death of Mooney, subsequent to a world tour, that Murry’s life once again became a chaotic whirlwind. His wife and child left him, though they are now reconciled, and he overdosed and almost died. He does not now drink or take drugs.

It feels important to detail this before getting to his live performance at Sneaky Pete’s intimate little music hub on Cowgate, because it all comes through in the music. John Murry is an exquisite songwriter, but not one for those looking for tunes to brighten up a dark day.

His latest album, being toured, is called A Short History of Decay, which should be your first clue. Songs include ‘One Day (You’ll Die)’ - set to a surprisingly jaunty dub-style melody - an absolutely sublime reimagining of The Afghan Whigs ‘What Jail is Like’ (which we would say puts the lyrics to far better use than the original) stating "if what you're shovelling is company then I would rather be alone" and the song ‘Miss Magdalene’, asking if Jesus “cried for his old man as he bled out” is unlikely to get John booked for a Christian music festival.

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Live Review: Kathryn Joseph  - Summerhall, Nothing Ever Happens Here, Edinburgh 14 September 2018

17/9/2018

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The 2015 SAY-award winning Kathryn Joseph took to the stage at Summerhall to perform an eclectic playthrough of her second studio album From When I Wake The Want Is. The show was as moving and engaging as creatively refreshing and indulgent.

The performance was part of a five-date tour with Glasgow-based art house Cryptic, whose remit is “creating memorable experiences that engage and inspire audiences”. You always know you’re in for something a bit different when you’re handed an  A4 piece of paper on the way into the gig which lists all those involved in the performance who won’t be on the stage.

Marcus Mackay was producing the show, and from Cryptic, Markéta Kratochvílová took the intriguing title of “body architect”, the performance was set by James Johnson, with lighting by Nich Smith and direction by Josh Armstrong. Then at the forefront, and alone on the stage, you’ve got Kathryn Joseph, a famously introverted and at times reserved artist renowned for her contrastingly intimate, revealing and poignant lyrics and stunning vocal talents.

This translated from page to reality on a stage consisting of a semi-circle of rectangular mirrors, looking back in at and crowding in on the piano at their centre, where Joseph would take her seat. The piano itself was fitted with further reflections above, looking back down on the musician, and Joseph was dressed in a pink, flesh-coloured trouser suit with skirt belt, and a sort of rope skeleton on top of it, made from climbing ropes and knots within knots.

Joseph herself was split between two gazes - staring directly into the audience as she played or back into one of the mirrors behind her.

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Live Review: Leftfield - Electric Fields Festival, 1 September 2018

6/9/2018

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It would easy to pretend that I was already well familiar with Leftfield and their weighty influence on the world of electronic dance music long before the line up for Electric Fields was announced; to say that I owned a cupboard of camouflage gear, an army of bucket hats and had various tales to regale about the glory days of electronic dance music, the birth of the house scene and rotating chewing gum for days on end while living in the same warehouse rave for a full week or two in the 90s.   

Alas, this was not the case. Despite a fervent passion for electronic music - yet evidently, not fervent enough - I had never had the pleasure. For those who find themselves in a similar boat, the London duo are one of the biggest electronic bands of the 90’s, and have even been described as "the single most influential production team working in British dance music" by the trusty lot over at MixMag.

As I say, it would have been easy to pretend that I knew all that long before the gig, but then this review would’ve just been another internet site saying good things about a band because, well that’s what you’re meant to do. This way, it’s a bit more interesting. Because the thing about band’s with lasting legacies is that often their actual music has become less and less accessible or relevant as time has gone on. For Leftfield, this is not the case. So this way, we get to say good things about the music because the music deserves it, and because to be able to draw in new customers 16 years after first ending the group (Leftfield initially ran from 1989 - 2002 before reforming in 2010), speaks volumes in itself.

I quickly went from completely ignorant to completely hooked on Leftfield’s hard-hitting electronic sound in the run up to Electric Fields. Perhaps it’s how blatant and apparent the influence of their music is to what followed and the modern day, even on first listen, that makes them so accessible. The term “progressive house”, used as a genre these days, was actually first coined to define Leftfield’s fusion of house with dub and reggae.

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Live Review: Public Service Broadcasting - Electric Fields Festival, 1 September 2018

6/9/2018

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Public Service Broadcasting are an electronic art-rock three-piece whose eclectic tracks are created by combining original instrumentals - guitars, banjos, strings, drums, pianos, keyboards, saxophones and trumpets to name but a few - with vocal samples, largely from (you guessed it) public service broadcasts (!) from old archive footage, propaganda material and public information films and broadcasts.

Having never actually heard the group’s vocal chords in any format before, it was somewhat of a surprise to witness lead man John, as his PSB persona J. Willgoose, Esq, come out on stage in a quirky bow tie and introduce the rest of the band (also in shirt and tie) in a stately English accent. Of course, when we later learned that the frontman of the group was a persona called J. Willgoose, Esq, this became significantly less of a surprise. But anyway!

As far as receptions for posh Englishmen in Scotland go, this was a rather welcome one. Public Service Broadcasting’s music is playful, it’s fun, it’s catchy and it lends itself well to dancing. Particularly live, with accompanying and well fascinating archive footage throughout the setlist, each song is a journey in itself - whether that’s through some of the darker days of political Britain or through the American and Soviet's Space Race, as showcased in their immensely popular and impressive second studio album, The Race for Space.

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Live Review: Stanley Odd - Electric Fields Festival, 1 September 2018

6/9/2018

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A Scottish rapper on the main stage of a three-day festival with the audience singing the words back to the lead man on the stage. Electric Fields was a day to remember for hip-hop sextet Stanley Odd and front man and lyricist Dave Hook.

We had wondered in the lead up to the event whether a Stanley Odd gig might have been better in one of the larger tents rather than on the open air main stage. It’s far from unheard of for a main stage gig to be defined mostly by escaping sound and the dwarfing of the act by the sheer size of the stage, but credit to Electric Fields for their sound system and, even more so to Stanley Odd for working the stage and keeping the energy high throughout. They lost nothing to the stage and made it work for them.

The setlist from the hip hop group blended political word play and biting satire with catchy hooks, female vocals, original synth and bass loops that meant you’d have to have been the most stubborn of festival goer to stand yourself still.

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Live Review: Idlewild - Electric Fields Festival, 1 September 2018

5/9/2018

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After releasing their sixth LP, Post Electric Blues, Idlewild took an indefinite hiatus making me fear I'd missed my chance to see ever them live. I was a huge fan of The Remote Part but didn't really delve into their back catalogue until it was too late.

Luckily, this only lasted three years and, when they came back, they came back with a vengeance, leading to an array of conversations not dissimilar to the below:

"Do you fancy going to Deep Sea World on Saturday? Idlewild are going to play a set."

"Nah, I'm going to my niece's christening in Galashiels."

​"Ah nice. I hear Idlewild are playing that as well."


Despite them playing seemingly everywhere in Scotland, seemingly every day of the year, It didn't take long for me to take Idlewild for granted again. This is mostly due to their big comeback album being a bit of a let down and the subsequent tour inevitably being a little too centred around it.

It was a shame. Idlewild were once one of my favourite bands but my response to seeing that they were paying Electric Fields bill was "Aye, fuck it. That'll be alright."

I did recently try and get tickets to see them play the third and my favourite Idlewild LP, The Remote Part, in full but, once again, I missed the boat. I tried to get a second hand ticket off Gumtree but the prick selling them would only sell both at once. It's not my fault I have no mates.

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Live Review: Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - Electric Fields Festival, 31 August 2018

5/9/2018

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Oasis are such a marmite band. Those who like them, love them. Those who don't like them, despise them. Personally, I think they're quite good but, then again, I am my own man. I could take or leave marmite as well, but now I'm bragging.

Aside from me being such a free-thinker, I think the reason for my relative indifference is I was too young to get fully caught in the wave of Brit Pop world domination. I'd heard a few Oasis songs but hadn't really got all the shit the went with it. Rather than Oasis vs. Blur, I got the much milder The Cribs vs. The Pigeon Detectives.

Had I properly been there at the time, I would have thought that the Gallagher brothers were twats and would probably write them off immediately. However, by the time I came to this realisation I kind of already liked their hits, forcing me to appreciate Noel Gallagher as a songwriter but maybe not as a person.

I didn't anticipate the amount of Oasis songs Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds would play during his headline set at Electric Fields. With three albums of their own, they easily could have thrown in 'Don't Look Back In Anger' and be done with the Oasis stuff, however, Noel knew what the crowd wanted. I never thought I'd compliment a Gallagher brother for not having a big head but it was nice to see Noel Gallagher put his audience before his ego.

That's not to say his High Flying Birds stuff pales in comparison. The pounding rhythm of 'A.K.A. What A Life' was exhilerating, 'Holy Mountain' is a great piece of bombastic fun and 'In The Heat of the Moment''s chorus is just fucking huge. So huge, in fact, that the drummer tried to emphasise it with what would have been a sweet drumstick toss... had he caught it. He recovered very well and almost got away with it but I saw it and I found it very funny.

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