LIVE: Gazelle Twin & NYX present ‘Deep England’ – Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre 20.11.19

An engrossing, ghastly, but intensely beautiful carousel of sound, Gazelle Twin‘s Deep England collaboration with the NYX Drone Choir is unlike anything you have seen or heard before. Inspired by the tracks that formed Gazelle Twin aka Elizabeth Bernholz’s 2018 album Pastoral, the joint performance at Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall continued the artist’s harrowing up of England’s “rotten past” and exploration of its uncertain future.

Through the power of combined operatic voices, St. George-meets-The-Handmaid’s-Tale costumes and creative staging, Bernholz and her team have created a claustrophobic, charged gallop of aural anarchy with this latest endeavour. Informed by British paganism and ritualistic activity, Deep England feels almost supernatural at points, especially during ‘Fire Leap’, which is lifted from the cult 1973 film The Wicker Man. Multiple recorders and kazoos are played – instruments of nostalgic folly turned into present, frightening farce – as the choir slowly moved around the stage, chanting the lyrical motif “Take the flame inside you / Burn and burn below”, like a warped spell.

‘Better In My Day’ abruptly broke this spell, with its nervous, skittish percussion. It stands out in terms of volume and energy, with Bernholz and her chorus performing frenzied, stunted movements whilst snarling their way through the lyrics. A spotlight on a tree at the back of the stage (which has been present throughout the performance) commands Bernholz to sit under it, as the intro synth sequence to ‘Sunny Stories’ begins to play.

Bernholz delivered her dark fable under the fake foliage, gently lulling the choir into following track ‘Golden Dawn’. ‘Throne’ brought Bernholz back to centre stage and down to her knees, singing of “insolvency” and racking up debts. Eponymous track ‘Deep England’ closed the performance in the same un-nerving way it began; dimly lit, with the choir and Bernholz’s voices seething in unison.

Whilst Bernholz’s unique vision was brought vividly to life on her original record Pastoral, with the aid of the NYX drone choir her vitriol is able to take its fullest, most nerve-shredding form. Deep England is a phenomenal artistic accomplishment and a jarring reminder that our dark past is never too far behind us.

Deep England Credits:
Gazelle Twin: Elizabeth Bernholz
NYX vocalists: Adelaide Pratoussy, Cecilia Forssberg, Natalie Sharp, Ruth Corey, Shireen Querishi, Sian O’Gorman
Compositions and Music Direction: Elizabeth Bernholz and Sian O’Gorman
Movement Director: Imogen Knight
Sound Associate: Peter Rice
Production and Costume Design: Chloe Lamford
Stylist: Anna Josephs

Deep England was performed as part of the EFG London Jazz Festival 2019.

Photo Credit: Jamie Cameron

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

Kate Crudgington1 Comment

Get In Her Ears w/ Piney Gir 21.11.19

Kate was back in the studio this week with guest co-host Beth White. They played a plethora of new music; featuring highlights from ARXX, Bitch Falcon, PONY, Polly Money, The Menstrual Cramps, The Baby Seals, Nomke & Fightmilk.

Piney Gir joined them in the studio to perform acoustic versions of her tracks ‘Dream Catcher’ & ‘Great Pretend’ and for a chat about her recent album, You Are Here. We can’t wait to have her headline our FREE GIHE gig at The Finsbury Pub on Fri 14th Feb 2020 (event details here).

Listen back:

Tracklist
TLC – No Scrubs
Grimes – So Heavy I Fell Through The Earth
Bitch Falcon – Damp Breath
ARXX – You Got What You Want
REWS – Birdsong
Jemma Freeman – Hard Times
PONY – Limerence
Honeymoan – Still Here
Fightmilk – Four Star Hotel
Glacier Veins – Not Gonna Stay
Eilis Frawley – Illusions
Phlake – Baby Steps
Dutch Mustard – Get What You Want
Scrounge – Purpose
Pongo – Quem manda No Mic
Ren Harvieu – Teenage Mascara
Polly Money – Twntys
The Menstrual Cramps – Idols
Deux Furieuses – Let Them Burn
Nomke – Ended (by the morning)
Claire Foxx & The Antisocial Justice Warriors – Problem Child
Breakup Haircut – I Don’t Wanna Do Things
The Baby Seals – My Labia’s Lop-sided But I Don’t Mind
Berries – Written In Paint
Nao – In The Morning
Amy Fitz Doyley – Ears
Avril Lavigne – I’m With You

Kate CrudgingtonLeave a comment

Five Favourites: Maija Sofia

Following the success of last single ‘Flowers’, Irish artist Maija Sofia has now announced the release of her debut album, Bath Time – a collection of songs that were written in the run up to the Repeal The 8th Movement, and all addressing the issue of the silencing and misrepresentation of women.

Creating poignant, stirring slices of alt-folk, filled with beautiful melodies, rich luscious vocals and a raw emotion, Maija Sofia is fast becoming a firm favourite and we can’t wait for the album release.

We think one of the best ways to get to know an artist is by asking what music inspires them or influences their writing. We caught up with Maija, who has shared her “Five Favourites” – five tracks that particularly resonate with her. Check out her choices below, and scroll down to listen to latest single ‘The Glitter’ at the end of this post.

Katie Kim – ‘Day is Coming’ 
Katie Kim is one of my absolute favourite songwriters and this song is from her incredible album Salt. I love how dark, foreboding and ominous her work is while managing to be tender and emotive at the same time. She marries heavy, droning, gauzy harmonies with strange, unexpected vocal melodies and it creates an atmosphere in her work that’s like a sliver of sunlight trying to push through heavy black storm clouds. I love how the chanted refrain “day is coming” towards the end of this song sounds like a wild, horrific pagan ritual, but also sounds redemptive and oddly reassuring.

Radie Peat – ‘Katie Cruel’
I first heard Radie perform this song with the above mentioned Katie Kim when they did a really special collaborative performance in the Pepper Canister church in Dublin, and she’s since recorded an amazing version with her band Lankum who I would include in this list as they are probably my favourite band at the moment, but they surely need no introduction. I knew this song first from Karen Dalton’s gorgeous version but I love how Radie’s drawling almost terrifying voice merges with the harmonium and fiddle drones and makes it a totally new song.

Rachael Lavelle – ‘Perpetual Party’
Rachael Lavelle is an up and coming artist also based in Dublin that I’m really excited about. She has one of the hugest most eerily expansive voices I have ever heard and her songs are dark, gothic, evocative but also euphoric and have a strange, off-kilter sense of humour. This song is a perfect example of what makes her work so singular; she blends aspects of influence from Laurie Anderson, Jenny Hval and Julia Holter, but just makes it completely her own. Every time I see her live I’m more blown away.

Lisa O’Neill – ‘Along The North Strand’
For one reason or another I have a deep love of murder ballads in which the roles are reversed and it’s the women doing the murdering; same goes with folklore, the bible – Judith and Holofernes, Salome and John the Baptist, you name it, I love them all. This is a song Lisa O’Neill learned from a little-known traveller singer Kitty Cassidy and it appeared on her last album, the brilliant Heard A Long Gone Song. Lisa is also an one of my favourite songwriters, and that last album is a perfect mix of original songs and traditional songs, blending her wild, jagged mountainside stormy sea of a voice, her plaintive, poetic lyrics with accompaniment from some of the best trad musicians in the country like Cormac Begley and Christophe Capewell.

Rising Damp – ‘Rising Damp’
Rising Damp is the solo performance project of Michelle Doyle who also plays in the great punk band Sissy. I’ve been lucky to share the same bill with Michelle a few times now and every time I’m blown away. I can’t really describe it properly, but a Rising Damp show consists of synths, drum machines, vocal effects and fervently anti-fascist spoken word/shouting, all delivered with Michelle’s wild, hypnotic feral energy. If you ever get the opportunity to go to a Rising Damp show – go!

Huge thanks to Maija for sharing her Five Favourites! Listen to latest single ‘The Glitter’ below:

Bath Time, the upcoming album from Maija Sofia, is out 22nd November via Trapped Animal Records and Cargo Records.

Get In Her EarsLeave a comment

ALBUM: Bishop Briggs – ‘Champion’

“I hope you like it. And if you don’t, please don’t tell me. I’m far too sensitive to hear that” jests Bishop Briggs about her single ‘Jekyl & Hide’, lifted from her sophomore album Champion. Whilst she’s speaking about a specific track, her sentiment is one that can easily be applied to her new record, which explores her strength and vulnerability as an artist, and as a woman, across ten vibrant tracks.

Her 2018 debut album, Church of Scars, was featured in the Top 10 on the Billboard Album Chart in the same year. Following up that success can be tricky, but Briggs has kept things simple on Champion, focusing on emotive lyrics and catchy beats to get her message of self-empowerment across.

The brief, confessional ‘I Still Love You’ acknowledges the fight between the heart and the head. Briggs’ struggle to let it go is explored through gentle piano sounds and slow atmospheric percussion. ‘Can You Hear Me Now?’ follows, with its buoyant beats and Briggs’ defiant vocals breaking through in the chorus. Briggs sets a solitary scene in the opening verse to eponymous track ‘Champion’ – “alone in my car / I’m in a parking lot” – but she offsets this with an empowering chorus of extended vocals and foot-stomping beats.

Disappointment and heartache permeate ‘Tattooed On My Heart’, as Briggs laments about a relationship full of fake promises and lacking in closure. It’s a relatable listen filled with more of her clear vocals, supported by a backing choir which makes the song an unexpectedly uplifting listen. The melancholy ‘Someone Else’ follows, with Briggs expressing a desire for space and solitude over tentative piano.

Co-written with K. Flay and produced by Joel Little, ‘Jekyll & Hide’ (incorrectly spelled for a reason) coins a new dating phrase – “Are you Jekyll & Hide-ing me?” – as a way to describe the chaotic feeling of dating someone who appears to be two-faced. It’s followed by the revealing ‘Lonely’, which flows in the same vulnerable vein as previous track ‘Someone Else’.

On ‘Wild’ Briggs finds solace in running full pelt in to the unknown, her voice races across layers of sharp beats and powerful backing vocals. The funky ‘My Shine’ spotlight’s Briggs’ breakthrough in the aftermath of a relationship that dimmed her light and dulled her confidence. ‘I Tried’ closes the record, a demo that documents the exhaustion and the relief of leaving behind someone who drained you of your energy and efforts.

Acknowledging the many ways in which a woman can be strong, even when tangled up in a bad romantic relationship seems to be Briggs forte. At times times repetitive, but always relatable; Champion is an uplifting record fueled by the desire to overcome the forces that hold us down.

Listen to Champion on Spotify below. Follow Bishop Briggs on Facebook for more updates.

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

Kate CrudgingtonLeave a comment