LIVE: Lingua Ignota – Oslo, London 30.11.19

Catharsis incarnate: Lingua Ignota‘s sold out show at Hackney’s Oslo on Monday night was a vicious, vulnerable affair. The industrial multi-instrumentalist’s hair-raising vocal range and dramatic performance style held her crowd in captivated silence as she used her pitch perfect voice to sing songs about vengeance and violence.

With a set-list formed primarily of new material from her recent album Caligula, Lingua Ignota aka Kristin Hayter used minimal, effective lighting to help deliver her brutal truths. Sometimes screened by a translucent plastic sheet at the back of the stage, sometimes strung up by her own hand with the wires from her lights – Hayter mastered the art of appearing calm as she intermittently screamed her lungs out. Whilst all of the songs performed were worthy of merit, her rendition of ‘Do You Doubt Me Traitor’ cut the deepest. It’s a powerful, vilifying song designed to unsettle and ignite fury and Hayter used her operatic voice as a weapon to do just that.

Like an Anglerfish that dwells in dark waters attracting its prey with a dazzling light, Hayter used her portable spotlight to lure and illuminate her audience when she broke the fourth wall. The crowd obediently flocked towards her wielding their smart phones (naturally desperate to document the moment), but as with all live music, it’s best appreciated without the shield of a screen. Hayter’s fearless taking up of other people’s space perfectly accompanies her cutting lyrics about taking down those who deny her self-autonomy.

A survivor of abuse and industry misogyny (read her interview with The Guardian here), Hayter has defiantly risen from the ashes in Phoenix-like fashion, and her live performance was proof of this. Her interrogative spotlight is not easy to escape and her powerful voice is impossible to ignore.

Kate Crudgington
@kcbobcut

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Track Of The Day: Sui Zhen – ‘Being A Woman’

Following recent captivating singles ‘Perfect Place’ and ‘Matsudo City Life’, Melbourne experimental pop artist Sui Zhen is back with a poignant new offering.

Propelled by throbbing beats and sparkling hooks, ‘Being A Woman’ showcases Zhen’s majestic, sweeping vocals in a beautifully layered effervescent soundscape that particularly resonates. As Zhen sings “… being a woman you have to hold yourself before you hold someone else”, she speaks to anyone feeling drained by the world; anyone who’s feeling insufficient at not being able to fully support others because they’ve exhausted themselves trying. She speaks to anyone who needs to recognise the importance of self care and making time for yourself before being able to help others. A heartfelt and stirring ode to womanhood, ‘Being A Woman’ is an empowering and impassioned slice of twinkling alt pop that may be just what you need to hear today to pick yourself up and keep going.

Of the track, Sui Zhen explains:

“The sense of duty, obligation and function that comes with living in a female body is both heavy and powerful. It takes so much strength to live a life as a woman.”

Losing, Linda, the new album from Sui Zhen, is out now via Cascine.

Mari Lane
@marimindles

Photo Credit: Agnieszka Chabros

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LISTEN: Soccer Mommy – ‘Lucy’

Soccer Mommy (aka Sophie Allison) is back and dancing with the devil on her new track ‘Lucy’. It’s her first new music offering since the release of debut album Clean in 2018, and it’s flowing with slacker-style guitar riffs and soft, yet seething vocals.

Accompanied by a lyric video, Allinson’s new track centers around the demons that “irk” her. She explains further: “‘Lucy’ is a really fun song for me because it has a dark, evil vibe. It’s a song about struggling with inner demons and your own morality, but I masked it with this scenario of being seduced by the devil. I’m really excited to share this with everyone because I think it shows a different side of my writing.”

Soccer Mommy seamlessly blends the dark with the light, and if ‘Lucy’ is anything to go by, her next album is going to be equally as interesting as her debut record. Listen to the new single below, and follow Soccer Mommy on Facebook for more updates.

Photo Credit: Brian Ziff

Kate Crudgington
@kcbobcut

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LISTEN: Field Music – ‘Only In A Man’s World’

With their upcoming new album, Making A New World, the North East’s finest musical collective offer a nineteen track song cycle about the after-effects of the First World War. However, Field Music‘s new release isn’t about war and it is not, in any traditional sense, an album about remembrance. There are songs here about air traffic control and gender reassignment surgery. There are songs about Tiananmen Square and about ultrasound. There are even songs about Becontree Housing Estate and, as with their latest single, sanitary pads.

Tackling a poignant and relevant subject, ‘Only In A Man’s World’ is filled with whirring synths and funk-fused hooks, as Field Music’s trademark sweeping harmonies and distinctive jangly uplifting energy flows. Addressing how little the marketing of sanitary products has changed in the last hundred years, and the unfair taxation of what is an essential item for half the population, as front man David Brewis implores “Why should a woman feel ashamed…?”, it offers a refreshing and musically rich insight into our unfair society.

Of the track, Brewis explains:

“I found myself researching the development of sanitary pads… and was surprised at how little the advertising material has changed in a hundred years. It’s still, ‘Hey Ladies! Let’s not mention it too loudly but here is the perfect product to keep you feeling normal WHILE THE DISGUSTING, DIRTY THING HAPPENS’. And you realise that it’s a kind of madness that a monthly occurrence for billions of women – something absolutely necessary for the survival of humanity – is seen as shameful or dirty – and is taxed MORE than razor blades?! At every stage of making this song, I had to ask myself, am I allowed to do this? Is it okay to do this? And I cringed in the next room when I first showed it to my wife. But I think confronting my own embarrassment is a pretty fundamental part of what the song is about.”

So, thank you Field Music for putting such an important subject to such marvellous music.

Making A New World, the upcoming album from Field Music, is out 10th January via Memphis Industries. Pre-order here.

Mari Lane
@marimindles

 

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