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list.co.uk/music Previews | MUSIC
INSTRUMENTAL POST ROCK 65DAYSOFSTATIC The Liquid Room, Edinburgh, Sun 22 Sep LOCAL MUSIC FAIR INDEPENDENT LABEL MARKET Glasgow Barras Art and Design Centre, Sat 12 Oct
‘The music is a way to explain all the stuff there aren’t any words for,’ says Paul Wolinski who makes up one quarter of post-rock instrumental four piece 65daysofstatic. ‘It’s why we started writing music in the first place. There’s something undeniably powerful about hearing the human voice but it’s by no means essential, just think of the hundreds of years of classical music.’ Their complex rhythms, fractured beats and excursions into the outer reaches of rock often succinctly capture a mood and an atmosphere. ‘If you have a song with lyrics it’s more anchored to a particular meaning whereas when there are no lyrics the same song can mean an infinite number of different things.’ One of their more recent projects was composing a new soundtrack to sci-fi movie Silent Running for the Glasgow Film Festival, while Robert Smith of the Cure provided vocals on ‘Come to Me’ from 2010’s We Were Exploding Anyway.
For those of us who ogled Mute Records’ mini-synths and cupcake records from afar, who cursed the distance from Scotland to London as XL flogged a record label on a market stall in Spitalfields, and who mourned the fact they’d missed being lavished with tea and confectionary by Warp, there is terrific news. The Independent Label Market, a sort of farmers’ market for music lovers. It’s making its first official trip north of the border, and brings with it a celebration of recorded artefacts, labels and artists, along with an excuse to blow every last coin upon white labels, rarities and pop ephemera. The market takes place in Glasgow in association with The List, The Vinyl
Factory, Kiltr, the Association of Independent Music (AIM) and the Scottish Music Industry Association (SMIA). The SMIA have helmed a few nascent (and ace) indie label fairs in Edinburgh and Glasgow over the past few years, but the forthcoming event looks set to be the most comprehensive and eclectic to date.
Their new album Wild Light is a complex mix of guitar lines, drums and The ever-growing list of home-grown labels includes the excellent Chemikal
cut-up electronic sounds; however it’s also surprisingly user-friendly. ‘We don’t want to be avant-garde or experimental – we’ve always tried to make music as accessible as possible,’ explains Wolinski. ‘It might not come across like that, with strange time signatures and being quite noisy, but nevertheless our aim has never been to exclude, but include.’ (Henry Northmore) Underground, Soma, Gerry Loves, LuckyMe, Creeping Bent, Optimo, Lost Map, We Can Still Picnic and Song, By Toad. Quality vinyl emporia Rubadub and Love Music are getting in on the market action, and there’ll be DJ turns from some of our best-loved independent trailblazers, including Edwyn Collins, JD Twitch, Numbers and Belle and Sebastian. (Nicola Meighan) ■ See facebook.com/independentlabelmarket for info. Win a goodie bag, p80.
ELECTRONIC, EXPERIMENTAL SERIES PULSE Tim Hecker plus Pete Swanson, Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow, Fri 20 Sep; Adrian Utley and Drew Mulholland perform Warminster plus Spoken Mirror, Old Fruitmarket, Fri 1 Nov; Tape, Glasgow City Halls, Fri 6 Nov
A two-year programme of electronic music, Pulse has already brought such artists as David Toop, Scanner, Ben Frost and turntablist Philip Jeck to Glasgow’s City Halls and Old Fruitmarket. Following last year’s stunning Scottish church performances, Canadian composer and sound artist Tim Hecker (left) returns to Glasgow, supported by Pete Swanson, formerly of cult noise duo Yellow Swans. Hecker layers minimalist piano pulses, synth melodies, organ drones and electronics into dense, immersive pieces that combine elements of minimalism, post- rock and noise. The show may offer a chance to hear tracks from his new album Virgins, released in October (on Kranky).
On 1 November, Portishead guitarist Adrian Utley and
Glasgow composer Drew Mullholland reunite to perform a new version of their 1999 collaboration, Warminster, a tenebrous slice of British Weird. Mullholland is perhaps best known for his 2001 Mount Vernon Arts Lab album Séance At Hobbs Lane, an uncanny blend of analogue electronics, free jazz, industrial noise and British science-fiction and occult references. Reissued by Ghost Box in 2007, it has become a hauntological classic. Warminster channels these dark energies over a single half-hour piece, incorporating modular synths, percussion and sampled sound.
The season concludes on 6 November with a set from Swedish trio Tape. Comprising brothers Andreas and Johan Berthling with Tomas Hallonsten, Tape combine semi-acoustic textures with subtle electronics, creating a pastoral, yet otherworldly, atmosphere. (Stewart Smith)
19 Sep–17 Oct 2013 THE LIST 73