Following the release of Sinkane’s debut album at the end of last year, Ahmed Gallab has now returned to the UK for a headline show, Rough Trade East performance and a DJ set.
Ahmed Gallab has made a mini-documentary to tell his fans what to expect from these shows. The video can be viewed below.
The shows come in the wake of a fantastic trip to SXSW this year when Gallab was invited by the Afghan Whigs to join them and Usher on stage to perform SINKANE single Runnin. You can watch the clip from SXSW below.
Gallab is known in musician circles for having been the touring multi-instrumentalist for Of Montreal, Caribou, Born Ruffians and Eleanor Friedberger but he didn’t start there. Gallab’s family left Sudan when he was a boy, immigrated to the US and moved all over the country. He went to high school in Kent, Ohio. There, he found his first musical community in the town’s unsung but thriving post-hardcore scene.
You can see Sinkane live on the following dates:
April 2 FR Paris Point Ephémère
April 3 GB London Hoxton Bar & Kitchen
April 4 GB London Rough Trade Shop (East)
April 4 GB London Birthdays (DJ SET)
April 6 NL Rotterdam Motel Mozaique Festival
April 7 NL Antwerp Trix
April 9 DE Frankfurt Zoom
April 10 DE Hamburg Kampnagel
April 11 DE Berlin Festsaal Kreuzberg
April 12 DE Cologne King Georg
April 13 FR Dijon Kill Your Pop Festival
April 14 FR Lille La Peniche
April 17 NL Amsterdam Paradiso
April 18 LUX Luxemburg Exit07
April 19 CH Aarau Kiff
April 20 IT Milan Circolo Arci Biko
April 21 FR Lyon Le Transbordeur
Junip have announced the release of their new single Your Life, Your Call. The single is taken from their self-titled second album set for release on April 22 through City Slang. The launch of this new track comes as the band add a new London date at Shepherd’s Bush Empire after swiftly selling out Village Underground.
Artwork for Junip’s Your Life Your Call
Your Life Your Call sees Junip take the listener through harmonic melodies and smooth synth beats which eventually navigates you to the dance floor. The single is different from Junip’s previous release Line of Fire which was more solemn. The chorus “It’s your life, it’s your call/Stand up or enjoy the fall” shines brightly through displaying Junip’s ever-loved ability to produce songs and lyrics that can be applied to everyone’s life situations. González explains their new sound best: “It felt like trying on new clothes when we first listened to it – it took a while to get comfortable with it but now I like it a lot.”
See Junip live:
April 30 HU Budapest A38
May 1 AT Vienna Szene
May 2 CH Zürich Plaza
May 3 DE Heidelberg Karlstorbahnhof
May 4 DE Munich Kammerspiele Theatre
May 5 DE Berlin Astra Kulturhaus
May 6 DE Hamburg Uebel & Gefaehrlich
May 7 NL Amsterdam Melkweg
May 8 BE Brussels Orangerie
May 9 LUX Luxembourg EXIT07
May 10 D Cologne Stollwerck
May 11 UK Brighton The Haunt
May 12 UK Manchester Band On The Wall
May 13 UK London Village Underground *SOLD OUT*
May 14 FR Paris Trabendo
September 18 UK London O2 Shepherds Bush Empire
Lumerians announce the news that they will release their new album titled The High Frontier on June 10 through Partisan Records. The name for the album comes from a term coined by Gerard K. O’Neil in his illustrated 1976 book depicting human colonisation of space. The High Frontier contains Krautrock inspired exploration, Afrobeat’s ritualistic rhythms, post-punk guitar noise and cracked-glacé synth lines culled from perverse 1970’s sci-fi soundtracks.
It’s a cacophony of sound in which Lumerians acknowledge the role noise and rhythm has always played in transcendent and ecstatic rituals the world over, from the repetitious drums of tribal animists to the penetrating electronic pulses of neon dance clubs.
The High Frontier artwork
As the first video to make its way online, The Bloomreveals a band who, not content with the intensity of the space rock sounds, also believe that sound and vision are parts of a greater whole. Since forming in 2006, Lumerians have gained notoriety for their intense performances, stunning live visuals and thematic otherworldly releases.
The six tracks and 33 minutes that make up The High Frontier were recorded and produced in Lumerians’ self-built studio/brewery: a room housed in a converted store-front church in a neighbourhood affectionately referred to as the “Murder Dubbs”.
Lumerians is Tyler Green, Chris Musgrave, Jason Miller and Marc Melzer. Formed in early 2006 while most of the members were working at an experimental music label in San Francisco, their shared affinity for Krautrock and esoteric occult mythologies resulted in after-work jam sessions and recording.
After self-releasing their debut EP in 2008, they signed to Knitting Factory Records in 2011 for their debut LP release Transmalinnia – a record which, during the two years it took to record, was almost entirely scrapped and re-recorded several times. In 2012 supplementary small-pressing instrumental records Transmissions from Telos Vol. IV and The Weaning and the Dreaming quickly sold out in the hands of collectors.
Now in 2013, with a wealth of live experience with the likes of Wire, Killing Joke, Butthole Surfers, BEAK> and more under their belt, it’s time for Lumerians’ first proper UK release.
Lumerians will be playing some UK shows starting next month. The dates are as follows:
Apr 30 – Sheffield, UK – The Harley
May 1 – London, UK – Corsica Studios
Sunderland alternative rock trio Rayne announce the release of their free download single. Fallen is taken from the bands debut album, The New Enlightenment and was released on March 3. It’s available to download from Noise Trade.
Alternative rock trio, Rayne
The Sunderland trio are Ben Potts (bass/vocals), Adam Dagg (guitar/keys) and Steven Naisbet (drums/samples). Having formed whilst at school 16 years ago, Rayne have raised over £20,000 for charities, won four Battle of the Bands (at a national level) and were also runners-up at the 02 Live & Unsigned final out of 10,000 bands. The band also won an Outstanding Contribution to Music award at Red Dreams Music Awards in 2010. So, as you can see, this band could be set for big things.
Fallen is your typical alternative rock/indie song. It has a catchy chorus, explosive guitar riffs and a great atmospheric sound. Potts’ vocals are soft, emotional yet strong. Rayne have a solid sound that will stick with you. You can hear Fallen here. The single was released on March 3.
Rayne are currently writing and recording new material for their forthcoming album release planned for late 2013.
It’s a brave artist who seeks to take as their inspiration one of the most complex and controversial aspects of recent international history, but this is what Cheri MacNeil (aka DEAR READER) has chosen to do with her third album, Rivonia.
As a child, South African born Cheri MacNeil spent 11 years studying at a small primary school in the north of Johannesburg, not far from what was once an isolated farm called Lilliesleaf. Growing up, she knew nothing of the nearby settlement but it was within these grounds that, on July 11 1963, a dry-cleaning and flower van parked beside a thatched cottage and disgorged a squad of armed policemen. They’d received a tip off from a neighbour‘s son about unusual comings and goings, their suspicions further aroused by the fact that these involved both black and white individuals. It had taken them a while to locate the place: initial reports spoke of a place called Ivon and it was only after searching the area that they found an old, weather-beaten sign from which three letters were missing. It had once said ‘Rivonia’, the name of the suburb in which they stood.
DEAR READER
That day, police arrested 19 members of the African National Congress, the underground organisation run by Nelson Mandela – who had already been imprisoned – which sought to overthrow the ruling apartheid government. It was a pivotal moment in South Africa’s history. Cheri MacNeil later learned that these events had taken place around the corner from the building where she had for so long been educated.
This is the story that gives the latest DEAR READER album its name. Rivonia is a moving and complex album that discusses issues surrounding the apartheid. The songs illustrate the personal implications it had on those that were unwillingly surrounded by the events. Rivonia highlights through the lyrics how people were directly affected by the segregation and slavery that happened.
Track two Took Them Away starts with a solemn piano piece and beautiful lyrics that build a narrative. It tells the story of a girl who is confused by everything that is happening around her, she can’t make sense of it all. She visits her friends house to find white and black men sitting together in a barn, “Nicholas invited me to visit at the farm/We were playing in the yard I saw them in the barn/White and black together sat/I just stood and stared”. She then has tea served to her at this family’s home by one of the men she saw in the barn, “David in his overalls came in to serve the tea/I had seem him in the barn something wasn’t right/As I told my father late that night.” You can assume that this family is anti-apartheid and people are using their barn to be able to fight against the segregation and be as one. The song tells the story of the apartheid through a little girl’s eyes which makes it an emotional and touching song.
27.04.1994 is a fantastic track that indicates how significant this day was in South African history. This was the day the first democratic election was held in South Africa where all races were allowed to vote. The simple music accompanied by the story telling lyrics make this song a must hear. There is nothing over complicated about the music in this song, it is the lyrics that make it what it is.
Man of the Book is quite different musically from the other songs, it has a much more folk feel to it. This song tells the story of the Great-grandfather of a baker who was a man of the book. The lyrics tell the listener that the Great-grandfather follows the apartheid rules believing God wants it all to happen but then he begins to feel guilt for his actions and decides he needs to save his soul. The narrator analyse’s his behaviour and believes he should have used his own morals and not those written in a religious text. Being good doesn’t come from following what a religion says, it comes from the heart, from gut instinct. The Great-grandfather tries to right his wrongs so when Mahatma shows up at his house needing somewhere to rest his head, he lets him in, “There was no room at the Inn for men with darker skin/Great-grandfather of a baker shared his bed with a stranger/As the Lord has instructed/He was a man of the…” He believes this is actually what God would have wanted, not the segregation.
Victory is the last track on the album and it ends Rivonia spectacularly. This is an acapella song which uses a choir to create a haunting yet strong sound. The song speaks of two armies (presumably black and white) going into battle against each other where they believe they will either win or die trying to change things, “You pray to your God and I’ll pray to mine/And we’ll see whose God is listening this time…Saddle up the horses/Give us the victory/Give us the victory/Give us the victory/Saddle up the horses/Give us the victory/And if he does not we will join him…”
Rivonia is the first album this year that has made me stop and think. The lyrics are beautiful, passionate and thought-provoking. There is real meaning behind every song which pulls at the heart strings. The album covers a devastating time in history. This is a huge task to undertake and get right. MacNeil has managed to produce an album that highlights just how unfair and disgusting the apartheid was. She doesn’t simplify it or dramatise it in anyway, she has taken what’s there in history and has turned it into a wonderful form of art. This is the best album of the year so far.
Rivonia is released on April 8 2013 through City Slang.
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