Live: Robyn (Manchester Club Academy, 8.11.07.)

The first thing I notice on entering Club Academy is that this must be the most diverse crowd I've seen in ages. There are the ever-present hipsters (onboard since Pitchfork gave her album a rave in 2005, obviously), a fair smattering of young girls (newly-converted since 'With Every Heartbeat' broke), a healthy representation from the gay community (male and female, natch) and quite a few incongruous-looking older men (whom I most closely resemble, I fear), all gathered to see everyone's favourite new (not that new at all really) popstar.

The general apprehension when approaching live pop music, especially when it's largely electronic on record, is that the live band tack can sometimes be doomed to fail. Songs fall flat when session musicians are allowed to 'jam', but Robyn has a shrewd, tight backing band in collaborators – and tonight's support act – Kleerup, who strike the right balance between synthetic and organic.

The tempo rarely drops below giving-it-some, meaning that the songs are allowed to burst from the sound system with the vitality they have on record and the brief, punchy set list harbours no filler. 'Konichiwa Bitches', 'Who's That Girl?' (Robyn herself on floor tom duties) and 'Be Mine!' all stand out, but the obscure, Christian Falk-penned 'Dream On' and oldie 'Keep The Fire Burning' split the vote for song of the night.

Those who stick around past the first encore are treated to intimate, semi-acoustic versions of "that number one hit" and 'Be Mine!' and by this point it's clear that Robyn is every inch – all sixty of them - the star. It's just a shame that it's taken this long for us all to catch on.

http://www.highvoltage.org.uk/displaydemoreview.asp?num=3302&band=1646

Single: Liars - Houseclouds (Mute)

Restless reinvention has been Liars' M.O. since day one, but after last year's triumphal nailing of an idiosyncratic style of their own on the Drum's Not Dead album, no-one foresaw Liars returning to the form and structure of their debut. That's exactly what they did though on this year's excellent self-titled effort, from which 'Houseclouds' is taken.

At first, the shock of a catchy new Liars single is what pulls you in. On multiple listens however, subtle complexities jump out at you and it's then that you realise this isn't a million miles removed from their more adventurous previous work. Whereas the Liars of DND sought beauty in disintegration and noise, the Liars of 'Houseclouds' achieve the same effect through the loose medium of the pop song. Put 'Houseclouds' on repeat and it has the same fractious, hypnotic feel of Liars circa 2006. And yes, it does sound a little like Beck.

http://www.highvoltage.org.uk/displaydemoreview.asp?num=3308&band=1898

Album: Eskimo Volume V Mixed By The Glimmers (Eskimo)

Ever in danger of spreading themselves a little thinly, this is The Glimmers' (aka Mo Becha and David 'Benoelie' Fourquaert) twentieth mix compilation. You know what to expect from the boys these days, especially following their more high profile mixes for both the DJ-Kicks and Fabriclive series, and this one holds very few surprises.

Eskimo Volume V is the usual collision of staples given a different twist and reclaimed for the more discerning dancefloor (this time around it's Primal Scream's 'Loaded' and Trio's 'Da Da Da'), generous helpings of obscure new beat and Italo (Venus Gang's O'Jays-cribbing, 'Love To Fly' and Das Etwas' 'Go Ahead') and some genuinely thrilling discoveries (Dissidenten's supremely beguiling, 'Fata Morgana' and Herb Alpert's shockingly contemporary 'Bullish'). Add to this their own tweakings of the likes of Shirley Bassey, Pop Dell'Arte and Music For Dreams' Kenneth Bager.

So while it feels almost too familiar, it never strays into pedestrian territory and if there's one thing that The Glimmers have perfected in their practice, it's how to keep interest levels at a maximum. They might well be able to do this kind of mix in their sleep these days, but it's to their credit that Eskimo Volume V never threatens to have the same soporific effect on the listener.

http://www.highvoltage.org.uk/displaydemoreview.asp?num=3203&band=492

Album: Midnight Mike - Midnight Karaoke (The Republic Of Desire)

When Mike Silver (aka Midnight Mike) burst onto the underground back in 2002 with the mighty fine, off-kilter electro-pop of 'Round & Around', a lot of the right people saw quite a bit of promise in the guy, me included. He followed that up with a succession of fantastic remixes (most notably for Coloursound's 'Fly With Me' and Playgroup's 'Make It Happen') and continued to impress with his own productions for Flesh and Gomma. It's with a heavy heart that I announce his debut album an almost irretrievable failure.

That it's taken five years for him to pull his finger out and release a full-length is bad enough, but that said debut turns out to be a collection of lazy covers, masquerading as a karaoke party album. The only people having any fun here are the singers as, barring a couple notable exceptions, the versions veer between cringeworthy and just plain pointless.

There are irony-soaked trudges through the likes of 'Money For Nothing', 'Boys (Summertime Love)' (yes, the Sabrina europop number) and 'Tip-Toe Through The Tulips' that border on unlistenable, especially the Dire Straits cover as no matter how sardonically Juice Windscreen delivers the words "faggot" and "homo", it still sounds offensive.

Points are gained for the louche, loungey take on Bo Diddley's 'Who Do You Love?' and the genuinely heartfelt rendition of Roxy's 'In Every Dream Home A Heartache' (by Mike himself), but the rest is just dross that anyone who buys would have every right to feel soundly cheated by. Avoid.

http://www.highvoltage.org.uk/displaydemoreview.asp?num=3209&band=2021

Album: Henrik Schwarz - Live (!K7)

You may not have noticed, but Henrik Schwarz, alongside compatriots and kindred spirits, Ame and Dixon, is reinvigorating techno. Injecting the soul back into the genre after years of mathematical minimalism, Schwarz' brand of techno is more human, organic and danceable than anything that's ever come out of Kompakt or Perlon. Therefore, it's good to see this compilation/DJ mix/live album out there so that the Johnny-come-latelys can catch up on one of the most thrilling things to happen to techno since the birth of Underground Resistance.

Utilising his own productions and remixes, this acts as an instant immersion into Schwarz' idiosyncratic, deep style. Mixed in key and beatmatched to precision, to the untrained ear this may all seem like much of a muchness on first listen, but give it a few more spins and the subtle differences and shifts in mood leap out at you.

The three-song movement from Schwarz' 'Kalimba Dance', into 'Where We At' (with the aforementioned Ame and Dixon) and then onwards and upwards with his remix of Kraak & Smaak's 'No Sun In The Sky' is just jaw-dropping and only topped by the near-orgasmic denouement, starting with his do-over of James Brown's 'It's A Man's World' and climaxing with his own 'Jazz Book #2'. As essential for newbies as it is for the initiated, Live is an entertainingly different spin on the greatest hits set.

While others are disappearing down more and more off-putting navel-gazing rabbit holes (stand up at the back, Villalobos!), it's great to hear someone offering an impassioned, inclusive alternative.

http://www.highvoltage.org.uk/displaydemoreview.asp?num=3197&band=1344

Interview: Black Lips

Just four hours later, Atlanta, Georgia’s Black Lips are tearing up The Roadhouse stage, using all manner of baseless shock tactics to throw the audience curveball after curveball, ranging from catching your own spit to sporting bling-bling gold teeth. Right at this moment though, you wouldn’t dream that these four decidedly normal, well-spoken guys would stoop as low as to urinate in their own mouths or French kiss each other on stage just to keep their audience on their toes.

Yet here we are, with Cole (singer/guitarist/spit-catcher), Jared (singer/bassist/handlebar moustache), Ian (guitar/gold fronts) and Joe (drums/screams/flailing arms) waxing lyrical about alcoholic energy drinks and the state of country music. More importantly though, there’s that new album (Good Bad, Not Evil) to cover.

“Our album’s released on September 11th in the States”, Cole informs us, “but we really wanted to compete with Kanye West for a release date. We got some country guy releasing his album on that day though…” “Kenny Chesney”, Jared informatively chips in.

“It’s not even country though. The new (country music) is kinda hilarious. The lyrical content… it’s all (adopts hackneyed Southern accent) ‘Were you theeere when the toweeers feeeelll!’ They’re retarded.”

As one non-sequitur reaches its end, Ian is willing to bring up another so as to not let the conversation take on too linear a manner; “We’re getting into the spirits business”. Jared elaborates, “Ian’s brother invented an alcoholic energy drink… to rival Lil’ Jon’s Crunk Juice”. The band then enthusiastically embellish on the drink’s merits, telling us that it’s “made from exotic Brazilian herbs”, it’s “chemically infused” and that “there’s science involved”. Quite.

The band are just as enthused about the current scene developing out of Atlanta that themselves, Deerhunter and Mastodon seem to be spearheading. “There’s a band called The Selmanaires”, Jared notes, “that are like a Kinks/Talking Heads mash-up. There are bands popping up all over right now. The Coathangers, The Carbonas…” “It’s a really close-knit scene in Atlanta”, Cole explains, “Even, like, Cee-Lo from Gnarls Barkley and Andre 3000 from OutKast, you’ll see on the street.”

What about the future of Black Lips though? What kind of goals do the band have for this new record? “A billion records”, Cole beams. “We want to outsell Kanye and 50 Cent”, Joe quips, an ironic smirk creeping across his face. I guess it’s a mark of the band that they treat the important things trivially and the trivial things with the utmost importance, but something tells me that the manic stage show and borderline-unhinged recordings are all part of some devious world-domination plot. Be warned when you crack open that bottle of D-Tuned.

http://www.highvoltage.org.uk/displaydemoreview.asp?num=3170&band=1728

Interview: Elektrons

It’s a time of transition for Luke Cowdrey and Justin Crawford (aka Manchester’s very own Elektrons), as we meet them after a rapturously-received homecoming gig at The Mint Lounge. They’ve recently announced that the Mancunian clubland institution they built with their own bare hands (figuratively of course), The Electric Chair, where the two DJ under the moniker The Unabombers, will be coming to an end in January, but as one door closes, another opens and with Elektrons’ album, Red Light Don’t Stop garnering glowing notices left, right and centre, it seems like it would be a good time for Luke and Justin to spend more time on this venture.

To the naked eye at least it seems that way, but the decision to end The Chair and the emergence of Elektrons aren’t really as interlinked as they at first seem.

“Every year, for at least the last ten years, we’d sort of check ourselves”, Justin ponders. “Is it time? Are we still enjoying it? It would be wrong to say that we aren’t getting distracted by Elektrons. We are. We’re putting a lot of time and energy into it. It’s just that before we couldn’t imagine a future without The Electric Chair, but now we can.”

It appears that the need in Justin and Luke not to rest on their laurels and a mutual distaste for rose-tinted nostalgia helped their decision. As Luke elaborates, “We think change is a very fundamental thing in music. We’ve always said bomb the past, don’t be complacent, don’t rest on some kind of horrible reputation that ends up being just a Spinal Tap kind of thing anyway… We’re just gonna change guise and shape and format. We’re still gonna do parties and one-offs like Electric Souls (parties that Luke and Justin have put on in the past in various off-the-beaten-track locales)”.

“We’ll get a Saturday night off once a month now, too”, laughs Justin.

One point where the guys are happy to have the night and the band intersect is in the music. “We did sometimes think when we were in the studio”, says Justin, “Would this work (at The Chair)?” Luke interjects, “We think (the album) is – and this might sound like a pompous thing to say – an honest reflection of where we’ve come from and Me and Justin have always talked about the lineage… of our music. Going back to Northern Soul, through to the Wild Bunch and Massive Attack… Soul II Soul. Great British sound systems that started off as parties, then taken into bands and collectives. It’s not like we’ve copied that but we’ve taken inspiration from that British vibe.”

“As DJs, we try to bring the vibe and the atmosphere of the club into our music, just like people like Soul II Soul and Basement Jaxx do”, Justin is eager to clarify. A view that’s mirrored by Luke, “The idea at the heart of The Chair was that some of our favourite records might, potentially, be records that everyone else liked as well. For us, Elektrons is a very natural continuity of what we’ve been doing… for the last thirteen years.”

Again, Luke is adamant that their music not be a backward-looking venture; “We wanted it to be very bold and dynamic… We didn’t just want to be derivative. We love house music, gospel, disco, soul and we wanted to take that and rekindle it and make something new. Whether that works or not I’m sure we’ll find out”

Elektrons aren’t just a duo, with singers like Pete Simpson (“Britain’s own Marvin Gaye”, according to Luke) and Mpho Skeef adding some much-needed flavour and inspiration both live and in the studio. Whereas others may rely on musical stunt casting to catch the eye, Luke and Justin wanted “quintessentially British” vocalists on Red Light Don’t Stop. “All those artists are coming through and they’ve got a real individuality” notes Luke, “There’s a lot of attitude there and a lot of bollocks, really”.

“We wanted to work with them though because, essentially, they’re really talented” says Justin, pragmatically. “When you work with people as talented as they are, it makes it easy”.

Something else that has come easy to Elektrons at this early stage is getting number one singles in far-off places. “We were number one in South Africa!”, beams Justin, referring to ‘Dirty Basement’’s out-of-leftfield success there. “We knocked off Rihanna!” exclaims Luke, “It’s just one of those mad things that happens”. Justin continues, “Somebody in the right place ‘gets’ the track and it just goes from there”.

“We could probably do with a few more South Africas though”, Luke smirks. “Maybe Chile or Australia, somewhere nice and sunny”. Justin and Luke may be dreaming about Elektrons affording them some beach time, but it seems that a change is as good as a rest for these two, so expect them to go from strength to strength as soon as they bomb that past.

Printed in the October/November issue of High Voltage magazine.