list.co.uk/music Previews | MUSIC
POST-ROCK / EXPERIMENTAL THEE SILVER MT ZION MEMORIAL ORCHESTRA Òran Mór, Glasgow, Tue 25 Feb ELECTRO/R&B MØ Broadcast, Glasgow, Sat 8 Mar
A point of etiquette: just how should one refer to a band with a name that seems to expand and contract in relation to its fluid membership? A Silver Mt Zion started out modestly enough in the late 1990s as an offshoot of enigmatic and influential post-rockers Godspeed You! Black Emperor, but within the space of a few albums had expanded to become Thee Silver Mt Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band With Choir. Since three of their members left in 2008, they have dieted back down
to Thee Silver Mt Zion Memorial Orchestra (or SMZ if life is really too short), comprising the founding trio of guitarist Efrim Menuck, violinist Sophie Trudeau and bassist Thierry Amar, plus Jessica Moss and David Payant, who are all given to performing live in a hermetic semi-circle formation. Their latest album, Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light On Everything, continues
a predilection for snappy titles that began with debut He Has Left Us Alone But Shafts Of Light Sometimes Grace The Corner Of Our Rooms. But far from being a nebulous introverted workout, the new material is more punkily cathartic and politically engaged (and enraged) than ever. ‘Take Away These Early Grave Blues’ samples the late, great Poly Styrene, and elsewhere the album is characterised by ragged, massed onslaughts of lusty fury. Menuck has always preferred punk to post-rock. Now you can really hear that distinction in his music. (Fiona Shepherd)
Some important facts about MØ, in no particular order. Her real name is Karen Marie Ørsted and she comes from Odense, Denmark. Her stage name is old Norse for ‘maiden’ or ‘virgin’. Her youth was misspent playing squat parties with an all-girl punk band called MOR. Her influences as a much-touted solo electro-R&B singer with a sombrely soulful touch include Little Dragon, Lykke Li and Grimes (especially Grimes). And Santigold, aesthetically speaking – a bit too much in fact, if you compare the art for Santigold’s debut album to that for MØ’s single ‘Don’t Wanna Dance’.
A debate about the difference between 'homage' and 'plagiarism'
notwithstanding, this Dane looks set to become the next stylish Scandinavian pop singer to sail straight into your affections. All evidence so far – and by that we mean songs like the oh-so-Lykke ‘Never Wanna Know’ and the Diplo- featurin’ ‘XXX 88’ (see the totally tropical Kilter remix of the latter especially) – suggests Ørsted’s debut album No Mythologies To Follow will be thoroughly delicious, not to mention heavily feature the word ‘wanna’. See also: her glitch-tastic cover of ‘Say You’ll Be There’ by the Spice Girls
– Scary, Ginger, Sporty and co being the first band she ever bought an album by. How did that nugget not make the above list of important facts about MØ? (Malcolm Jack)
GLASGOW MUSIC & FILM FESTIVAL GOBLIN & GOLDEN TEACHER Òran Mór, Glasgow, Thu 27 Feb
Ask Glasgow’s majestic Golden Teacher about their cinematic influences and an eclectic bunch comes back. ‘Peter Greenaway’s work with Michael Nyman, Toshio Matsumoto’s video installations, Theo Bafaloukos’ Rockers and Jimmy Cliff’s The Harder They Come, as well as Sublime Frequencies’ documentaries, would all feature in our film festival,’ says the band’s Richard McMaster. ‘There are some tracks we’ve released that could be described as “cinematic”, but we leave it to the listener to come up with the images and colour everything in. We’re a party band; that’s why this performance is a wonderful challenge.’
For this Glasgow Music & Film Festival date, his band are playing support to classic Italian soundtrack dons Goblin, and he describes Golden Teacher as confirmed fans, despite the differences in style between each band. ‘Goblin’s soundtrack work is fantastic in the literal sense – it strikes at something very primeval,’ he says. ‘Without [Goblin’s soundtrack to] Suspiria we wouldn’t have John Carpenter’s score for Halloween – he cited Goblin as the primary influence on that composition. They’ve made so much music that it’s hard to account for everything. Who’s used a bouzouki in such a singularly creepy way after Goblin? A child chorus is a terrible idea for most music, but they made it work.’ There’s one definite point of convergence between both groups, though. ‘You can drop a Goblin track into a DJ mix and it’ll keep a crowd dancing,’ points out McMaster, whose 2014 will see Golden Teacher release another EP through Optimo Music and appear at Glasgow’s Counterflows festival. ‘That’s a good testament to their importance as a band.’ (David Pollock) ■ For more music highlights from the Glasgow Film Festival, see page 14.
20 Feb–20 Mar 2014 THE LIST 67