Northwest Music News

Our first fortnightly missive on musical goings on in the Northwest, featuring Samarbeta, Paul Wolinski, Ex-Easter Island Head and more...

Feature by Simon Jay Catling | 14 Jan 2015

Samarbeta second phase under way

Following the success of former This Heat drummer Charles Hayward’s month-long residency at Salford’s Islington Mill last Spring – culminating in the release of Anonymous Bash, featuring members of noise enthusiasts Gnod, minimalist duo Part Horses Wild Mane On Both Sides and in-house Mill repeato-rockers Horrid, among others – it's no surprise that Samarbeta, the duo of Riv Burns and Emma Thompson, are opening the Mill doors again.

A collaborative project between already Mill-based Sacred Tapes founder Callum Higgins and graphic artist and improv. analogue sound maestro John-Paul Jones, Swaggerjack have had sole custody of the Islington Mill’s venue space since Jan 11. Following up their early 2015 release of Big Church OST on the aforementioned Sacred Tapes, the pair are seeking to explore the effects of isolation on their creative process. Unable to interact with anyone else other than each other during the week-long residency, the results will be cut to a single record, before being hand-delivered to the British Library Sound Archive in London.

December’s lost releases

What with the usual lists and abundant hand wringing think-pieces about the previous 12 months dominating proceedings (plus the few minutes everyone has to take out of their schedule to stick their old calendar in the recycling bin), it’s a bold soul indeed who chooses to proffer their music to the world through December and early January. Lost in the festive binge were a number of fine tapes, albums and tracks however, all deserving of a re-visit while you set about bringing that post-Turkey belt notch down again.

• Paul Wolinski – Full Bleed (Sacred Tapes)

A marked departure from his work with 65daysofstatic or his Polinski moniker, Wolinski’s Full Bleed is a seething 25 minutes of distorted aural cinematics. Each idea has the initial feeling of being bold and bright, a grand visage that’s then pulled down amidst tape hiss and analogue feedback, creating a kind of cracked beauty.

• Ed Black – Won’t Go Back/Mistakes

Initially the chief vocalist and co-songwriter of nocturnal pop quartet Ninetails (read our interview with them here), Ed Black’s departure was evidently a harmonious one, as he subsequently enlisted the Liverpool-based troupe’s Jacob King on production duties for these two dynamically restless tracks. Black’s vocals stand at the front on both, chiming synths and samples drifting past him in a woozily orchestrated choreography.

• Negra Branca – Touched (Zam Zam)

Negra Branca is the moniker of Marlene Ribeiro, more often seen as part of Gnod’s ever shifting line-up, but also an increasingly fascinating solo artist in her own right. Her debut on Tesla Tapes in early 2014 offered the sort of hazy electronic mirages more associated with labels such as Not Not Fun or 100% Silk; however Touched is made of altogether darker stuff. Ribeiro’s looped vocal and guitar are more centralised across four vaguely uneasy works – the fragile bliss fully cut through on In The Night with shudders of saxophone.

• Ex-Easter Island Head – Two Commissions For Cassette Tape (Tombed Visions)

Holed up in a stone tower in Antrim, Northern Ireland, Liverpool’s Ex-Easter Island Head refined and tweaked their prepared guitar techniques amidst the cavernous natural reverb of their surroundings to beguiling effect on this recently sold-out release for Manchester tape label Tombed Visions. The heightened atmosphere of their makeshift studio adds a wider dimension to the group’s usually compact intricacies that's been hitherto unseen in their frequently minimalist musings.

Video of the Week: Levelz – LVL 07

Blowing up just as we were all hunkering down for Christmas were Levelz, a super group of Manchester’s brightest emcees including T-Man, Sparkz, Skittles and Chimpo. It's Biome who provides the beats here for their debut single LVL 07, a sharp, incisive cut that offsets a breathless energy with a fair dose of playful humour.

Got any gig news or upcoming releases from the northwest you'd like us to chew on? E-mail simon@theskinny.co.uk and dave@theskinny.co.uk