MUSIC | Previews & Reviews 72 THE LIST 18 Sep–16 Oct 2014
PREVIEW NOISE ROCK MAGIK MARKERS Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh, Thu 25 Sep; Old Hairdressers, Glasgow, Fri 26 Sep
Since forming in 2001, free-rocking Connecticut trio Magik Markers have made an indelible (ahem) impression. Their white noise assault, stream-of-consciousness lyrics (recitations of the periodic table being an early theme) and chaotic live performances place them in a tradition from the Velvets through Sonic Youth and Yo La Tengo, which finds no contradiction in combining pop melody with experimental freak-out riffola. Sonic Youth frontman Thurston Moore has been a consistent
champion since inviting them on tour in 2004, releasing their debut album I Trust My Guitar, Etc on his Ecstatic Peace label. His bandmate Lee Ranaldo, meanwhile, produced their subsequent album, Boss. The group remains resolutely independent in approach. Singer / guitarist Elisa Ambrogio and drummer Pete Nolan met while travelling in Europe and ended up sharing a house together back in New England, drafting in Ambrogio’s childhood chum Leah Quimby on bass to perform house concerts and record a steady stream of lo-fi CD-R and tape releases.w Side projects and collaborations abound. Nolan also drums with
Jandek and helms another group, Spectre Folk, while Ambrogio has played with Six Organs of Admittance and is poised to release her debut solo album, The Immoralist (see review, next issue). Three became two when Quimby left a few years ago – either to try her hand at a career in ventriloquism or run an apple orchard on Prince Edward Island, according to whichever likely fictitious report you read – but became three again when she returned to the fold just in time for Surrender to the Fantasy. This, their first album in four years, was released late last year and quickly hailed as their most focused effort yet. (Fiona Shepherd) ■ Supported by Shareholder in Edinburgh, and Richard Youngs, Andrew Paine and Chump in Glasgow.
PREVIEW HIGHLIFE EBO TAYLOR The Art School, Glasgow, Fri 10 Oct
Legendary Ghanaian bandleader Ebo Taylor brings his nine-piece band to the Art School for an unmissable night of West African music. A spry and charismatic 79-year-old, Taylor has been touring and recording with Berlin-based Afrobeat Academy for the past few years, releasing two excellent new albums in the process: 2010’s Love and Death, and 2012’s Appia Kwa Bridge, a resurgence fuelled by the rediscovery of his music via reissues and the sampling of his song ‘Heaven’ on Usher’s ‘She Don’t Know’. Performing since the 1950s, Taylor was a member of major highlife bands (a music genre
originating in Ghana), before forming his own group, Black Star Highlife Band. In 1962, Taylor moved to London to study music, where he befriended influential African musicians – including the great Fela Kuti who he credits with giving him the confidence to create his own African music, rather than imitate American jazz. While his music has plenty of American jazz, pop and funk in its DNA, it’s unmistakably African. Characterised by deep rolling grooves and infectious horn riffs, his work is some of the finest to emerge from 1970s Africa.
Support comes from contemporary Ghanaian star King Ayisoba, who reduced Glasgow’s Platform to a sweaty, dancing mass back in April. Ayisoba is an electrifying performer, charging traditional influences with the vitality of modern hiplife. The bill is rounded off with a set from local DJ collective Ghana Soundz. (Stewart Smith)
REVIEW SPARSE POP PERFUME GENIUS CCA, Glasgow, Mon 1 Sep ●●●●●
When the Seattle-based songwriter, real name Mike Hadreas, says ‘welcome to my home’ soon after taking the stage, it can almost be seen as an invitation to make yourself comfortable – despite the fact that a lot of his fragile chamber pop tunes, confessional and intimate, touch on a troubled adolescence. However, at no point is it self-indulgent, and the hour-long set exudes a genuine sense of catharsis and liberation from a mixed-up past.
His excellent new album Too Bright, the follow-up to 2012's Put Your Back N 2 It and his 2010 debut, Learning, is a lot less self-conscious and introverted than previous efforts and this is reflected, to an extent, in the show. ‘Queen’ is a gem of a pop song about existential gay panic, in which he belts out the rhetorical ‘don’t you know your queen?’ over a thudding distorted bass and a menacing synth line.
As a performer, Hadreas is still a bit bashful, and the more emphatic numbers which have been introduced to his set feel a tad restrained. Hard to tell if it’s a by-product of his own fragility, or an affectation, but it’s a minor point which doesn’t detract from the sheer beauty of the tunes themselves. (Colin Robertson) ■ Perfume Genius returns to play the Caves, Edinburgh, Sun 23 Nov. Watch a video for 'Grid', his second single of Too Bright, at po.st/PGGridVideo.