www.list.co.uk/music Music
EXPOSURE NALLE Glasgow trio Nalle (Finnish for ‘teddy bear’) are touring a new album of otherworldly psych-folk. The List caught up with Hanna Tuulikki – whose keening soprano has been compared to Joanna Newsom and Björk – to discuss music and myth. How did Nalle begin? Nalle formed in the summer of 2004 when Chris Hladowski, Aby Vulliamy and myself started working on some songs that I had written. As well as playing instruments from the four corners of the globe, from bouzouki and viola to Finnish kantele and mouth harps, we were also listening to a lot of folk music from those different places. I felt that the music we were making was akin to those traditions where the freedom of improvisation plays as important a role as the structure of the song or story. What is the inspiration for the new album? Wilder Shores Of Love is named after the [American artist] Cy Twombly painting, which in turn was inspired by the Greek myth of Hero and Leander. I act out stories that begin by setting a scene where things are difficult for the characters, but by the end they have often found a degree of resolution. Each song fits with a drawing bringing to life the imagery and symbolism in the lyrics. (Stewart Smith) ■ Nalle play CCA, Glasgow, Thu 22 Jul, with support from The One Ensemble and Two Wings. An exhibition of Hanna Tuulikki’s album artwork is at Welcome Home, Keith Street, Glasgow until Sat 31 Jul. www.myspace.com/nallemusic See album review, page 66.
What is this, rap week in Scotland? A few days before Eminem and Jay-Z landed at T in the Park, another superstar of the genre played what must count as an intimate set by his standards here. Even those other icons would have trouble outdoing Snoop Dogg, though, a man with more hip hop hits that you know than just about anyone. True, many of those played here were originally collaborations with artists like Pharrell (‘Beautiful’), Akon (‘I Wanna Love You’) and Justin Timberlake (‘Signs’), but Snoop made them his own.
REVIEW ART PUNK ORCHESTRE TOUT PUISSANT MARCEL DUCHAMP Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh, Wed 14 Jul ●●●●● It’s a homecoming of sorts for Geneva -based Afrodelic surrealist sextet, who now feature Wilf Plum, formerly of Edinburgh’s avant-punk combo Dog Faced Hermans, on drums. With Liz Moscarola’s urgent vocals fronting a reckless junkyard stew of trombone, upright bass, scritchy-scratchy guitar and Anne Cardinaud’s marimba freakouts, the link is plain to hear, both on just released second album, The Thing That Everything Else Is About, and in their explosive live show.
Entering to a video montage of great Things start quietly enough with the
movie gangsters, he got down to the crowd-pleasing early with ‘The Next Episode’, ‘PIMP’ and ‘Gin & Juice’, the latter dedicated to anyone who likes to ‘smoke weed, get drunk and fuck’. We’re not sure if we believe him when he says his songs are about ‘peace, love and soul’, but there were plenty of reasons to smile here: the comedy-sexy ‘Sexual Eruption’, a funk-laden call and response segment from his band, an appropriate cover of House of Pain’s ‘Jump Around’ and the much-anticipated showstoppers ‘Drop It Like It’s Hot’ and ‘What’s My Name?’. (David Pollock) teasing opening guitar of ‘Left Hand’ before erupting into a gloriously messy mélange where Brechtian honk meets Dr Seuss. ‘Elephant’ somewhat appositely shuffles about like Happy Mondays’ ‘Wrote For Luck’ restyled by the breathless freeform scat of Life Without Buildings. Finally, onstage alone, Cardinaud plucks on a Brazilian berimbau while the band stand among the audience to harmonise on a song by French Creole legend Danyel Waro. In an age when ‘world music’ is a by-word for blandness, this is as far from the coffee table as you can get. (Neil Cooper)
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22 Jul–5 Aug 2010 THE LIST 65
REVIEW FESTIVAL WITH CASTLE KELBURN GARDEN PARTY Kelburn Castle, Largs, Sat 3–Sun 4 Jul ●●●●● REVIEW RAP SNOOP DOGG Academy, Glasgow, Mon 5 Jul. ●●●●●
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REVIEW VETERAN CHAMELEON ELVIS COSTELLO AND THE SUGARCANES Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Fri 2 Jul ●●●●●
It’s only after two hours and three encores that you start to appreciate the scale and import of Elvis Costello’s body of work. Despite an extended, Americana- nuanced set that embraces many of his best-loved songs – the dapper vitriol of ‘Oliver’s Army’, the wavering, pared-back ‘Good Year For The Roses’ – what strikes is the number of other Costello favourites you’d have liked to hear.
Perhaps this is inevitable for a
classic pop maverick whose career has spanned four decades – and explored post-punk, music hall, political folk, country, jazz and cabaret – but it’s quite revelatory nonetheless. Flanked by sterling Nashville backing
gang The Sugarcanes (think a bluegrass Bad Seeds), Costello delights as a soulful raconteur: the (unreleased) death-row blues of ‘Condemned Man’ and woozy rock’n’roll of ‘The Delivery Man’ thrive alongside the timeless ‘Red Shoes’ and ‘Alison’. Just a shame he didn’t play ‘Watching the Detectives’. Oh, and ‘(I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea’. And ‘Veronica’. Oh, and . . . you get the point. (Nicola Meighan)
It’s a garden party Jim, but not as we know it. Forget canapés on the lawn, straw hats and refined company – this is all about waterproof trousers, bacon rolls, and neds and hippies coming together in appreciation of a pounding bass beat.
Only in its second year as a proper festival, Kelburn’s a long way from becoming commercialised or jaded, but sometimes the endearingly DIY schtick evident in touches like the hammocks and fairyland stage decorations manifests itself more annoyingly as a lack of organisation: it’s fairly riling to find the band you wanted to see just played on a different stage from the one you were expecting. That said, the bands are great, if low-profile. It’s a diverse mix (hence hippies and neds, y’see) with highlights including Meursault’s epic bleep-folk, Hidden Orchestra’s double drummer-powered funk masterpieces (pictured), Stanley Odd’s surprisingly effective Scots rap and Alex Cornish’s emotive acoustic folk. Topped off with samba bands, a fire show, waterfall, alpacas and a selection of top DJs, you could say Kelburn is trying to be all things to all men – and not doing a bad job at all either. (Laura Ennor)
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