Talk of the Town: Liverpool Music Week returns

Watch it rise, phoenix-like from the flames. Yes, it’s the long-awaited rebirth of Liverpool Music Week, the largest festival in the UK in terms of indoor winter events, after two fallow years on the trot. Previous years have seen mouthwatering free shows filling the city’s finest venues to the brim, alongside ticketed gigs starring some of the biggest and best acts on the cutting edge of the zeitgeist. With its most impressive array yet of artists strewn between the O2 Academy, the much-beloved Kazimier and the vast Camp & Furnace complex, the 2014 edition promises to be no exception. “I think the lineup is the tastiest we’ve ever booked,” enthuses organiser Mike Deane. “We’ve certainly booked a lineup for the city to be proud of.”

Headliners include Glaswegian post-rock titans Mogwai, now 19 years and eight studio albums into an astounding career, and the glistening electronic pop of their city-mates CHVRCHES. “Another national promoter suggested to me that our headliner lineup was bigger than 95% of UK summer festivals,” says Deane enthusiastically. “An ambitious compliment, but he’s not far wrong.” There's truth in that – Kendalian sophisticates Wild Beasts, Canada’s deliciously psychedelic Caribou and the ever-evolving Liars also stop by for our personal pleasure. Meanwhile, to complete the headlining set, The War on Drugs’ fugged-out wooze-rock serves as a neat counterpoint to the must-see garage schlock of Black Lips. Not too shabby, all told.

The festival’s usual lineup of free shows is also in rude health – those with longer memories might fondly recall performances from the likes of lo-fi legend Daniel Johnston and the sadly departed Jay Reatard, and this year continues that proud tradition. Post-punk noiseniks Eagulls, nu-psych revolutionaries Hookworms and graceful New Yorkers The Antlers are among those set to grace the aforementioned Kazimier stage, before a multi-stage party brings proceedings to a glorious close across the Baltic Triangle’s various venues. Local acts set to perform also include the darkly atmospheric Forest Swords, an ethereally harmonising Bird, and hotly tipped newcomer Låpsley, all of whom lend considerable weight to the argument that the Mersey sound is presently worlds away from chirpy boys with guitars.

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“I’ve not known a more exciting time for Liverpool” – Mike Deane

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If this all sounds rather grand, it’s perfectly in keeping with the bold ambition set forth by Deane and his team – in direct symbiosis with the city’s impressive musical climate. “I’ve not known a more exciting time for Liverpool,” he admits. “The art and music community here is buzzing right now. Hugely ambitious and exceptionally talented, hard-working, risk-taking individuals and collectives are gaining national and international recognition for themselves, and the city as a whole.” As if to illustrate his point, Music Week also plays host to a specially commissioned collaboration between self-described ‘home-listening gabba’ artist Vessel and classical-electronic negotiators Immix Ensemble. Deane is understandably keen: “The piece will have its first outing at Tate Britain earlier in the month. It’s great to be working on events that have a similar clout to some of the big names in the arts world as well as the music world.”

It’s certainly an action-packed affair, and bearing in mind Liverpool’s ongoing fascination with festivals (see also: Psych Fest and Sound City, among others), Deane is always determined to ensure he books the right bands, with fairly self-explanatory criteria: “Who will play a good live show? That's the most important thing, first and foremost. Who will bring the house down and be talked about by our audience.
Also, we look to bring a mixture of artists to the city that either haven't been here before, haven't been here for a long time, or quite simply have a great fanbase here.” And what three things can we expect from Liverpool Music Week? “Quality. Fun. Chaos,” he surmises. Sounds good to us.

Our tips: 

Mogwai
Masters of the densely textured slow build, Mogwai’s (albeit excellent) records have always been outshone by the ferocious intensity of their live shows. Expect archetypal post-rock monoliths such as Mogwai Fear Satan and Like Herod (long-term staples of their live sets) to mesh effortlessly with the lush, melodic expanses of their more mature work, as well as the krautrock pulses of this year’s critically adored Rave Tapes LP. To witness this band in the flesh is to be enveloped in sound in the most all-consuming manner possible – when those low rumbles of crunching bass eventually kick in, you’ll feel like you’ve been socked in the gut by 100kg of pure sugar. If you’ve seen the Young Team before, you’ll already know why this is unmissable, and if you haven’t… well, best to bring your earplugs.

The Black Lips
Piss. Puke. Punch-ups. Penises. Yessir, Black Lips’ shows have got the lot, and if you’re lucky they’ll even throw in some of the sassiest garage-punk chops Atlanta’s got to offer. Their last trip to this fair city saw the Georgian quartet’s wild temperament piqued by some rather heavy-handed crowd control, as they downed instruments to dive into the melee – a huge brawl involving bouncers, punters and the entire band ensued, before their subsequent return to the stage prompted an exhilaratingly furious rendition of I Saw A Ghost (Lean). If they’re even half as good as that, this is gonna be killer. The infectious rush of latest album Underneath the Rainbow suggests that’s the least we can hope for.

Forest Swords
The local boy done good: the Wirral peninsula’s Matthew Barnes has been making considerable waves with his esoteric grooves for several years now, becoming something of a low-key media darling in the process. Having reduced US audiences to quivering wrecks within the last 12 months, it’s safe to say this has been yet another successful year, and you owe it to yourself to check out this murkily captivating haze of punctured hip-hop breaks, dubbed-out bass gloom and washes of head-scrambling electronica. There’s really no excuse for missing out.

Låpsley
Eighteen-year-old Holly Lapsley Fletcher took the GIT Awards’ inaugural One to Watch gong after posting a minimalist electronic track entitled Station on her Soundcloud page, and swiftly becoming a favourite among Radio One DJs and music press alike. Characterised by pitch-shifted vocal manipulations (to give the unsettling illusion of duets with herself), subtly soulful vocal performances and a certain haunting sparseness, these are songs that demand to be heard, and it’s exciting to think that we’ve only seen the vaguest hints of Låpsley’s capabilities thus far. Want our advice? Take this chance to see her now, while you can still afford to do so: her days in small venues are deservedly numbered.

Ex-Easter Island Head
Liverpool experimentalists of no small import. Although the Ex-Easter Island Head collective may fluctuate in terms of size, members and instrumentation, it’s always based around the fizzing brain of one Benjamin D Duvall – the vast soundscapes conjured by his ‘mallet guitars’ compositions are redolent of Rhys Chatham and Glenn Branca, as well as echoing the spirit of minimalist composers such as Terry Riley. Most importantly, they’re utterly absorbing and often stunningly beautiful, with a near-tangible energy generated by the incremental tension of the music; bleeding from the stage and into the audience. Sometimes cerebral, frequently visceral and always intoxicating, this lot offer far more than cheap, easy-on-the-ear thrills.