VISCO CITY — SIXTH WEEK

⌾ LISTEN TO VISCO CITY, SIXTH WEEK ⌾

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There's more meaning behind the title 'Sixth Week' than an arbitrary measurement of time. It actually refers to when UK producer Visco City actually created it: during the sixth week of the country's nationwide lockdown due to coronavirus.

As such, the track bristles with anxiety — tracts of clattering metallic sounds, gnawing and insectoid, appear crushed and crinkled like the sound of a car crumpling sped up a hundredfold. But there are hints of hope here, optimism (or nostalgia for "old times") spelled out by a melody dancing over it all, thick warm plumes of bass enacting a sonic embrace.

The focus, Visco City tells yes/no via email was "to try and highlight the contrast between something anxious and something beautiful." And though shattered lines of chaos spark through 'Sixth Week', in essence it is a lush soundscape of better days, a slice of blue sky beyond the giant clouds.

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• 🔔 'Sixth Week' is from Visco City's Solstice EP, released via Birmingham (UK) based Brox Records. Download and/or stream it from your favourite among on this list of various streaming services.

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☟ Visco City Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ soundcloud ⚘ bandcamp ⚘ twitter ⚘ instagram ⚘ spotify

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JAWS – THINK TOO MUCH, FEEL TOO LITTLE

Where am I? What? Huh? Oh right. It's 2014. May. Tuesday. It has been sunny but it is not sunny today – major bummer. But it's ok. I found something a month or so ago that was on a little list of 'Things To Definitely Keep An Eye On' so I kept my eye on it and nothing happened so I'm just gonna write about their newest song.

Oh I've done it again haven't I? Just carried on without giving a mention to what I was writing about. They never taught me how to do that in journalism school. Actually I never went to journalism school, can you tell? Ha. Ha. Haaa—. Anyway, I'm writing about JAWS, a band from Birmingham (UK not US), and part of the fabricated/joke scene 'B-Town' (incl. Peace & Swim Deep) – though it's always the way that, without approval from artists purportedly "in" the scene, all scenes, all genres, are just fabrications – but I can see how it's a joke: I live near a place called Kingston and we call it K-town, jokingly. Not that I'm in any sort of band or anything.

But with writing about music you kinda have to dig for clues, make connections & assumptions, and come to conclusions – if they're widely accepted enough, they become gospel. For instance, none of these B-town (I even hate writing it, ok?) bands have a very similar sound, yet NME was able to see that the scene "seemed to roll out of bed, insular and uncontrived, smirking at its own in-jokes." Fine. Yet there is a waft of irony in the use of "uncontrived" – finding these differences, purposefully looking for them, is a journalistic contrivance in itself. How we are endlessly at odds with ourselves.

Now, I would like to forget about that and say hello to 'Think Too Much, Feel Too Little' by the eight-legged JAWS.

First thing that struck me was its vague similarity to something else, and I couldn't quite put my finger on it, till I realised it was 'Every Breath You Take' by The Police. It kinda follows the same chord progression and has that same plinky palm-muted pattern, though in the JAWS song its a twining of two guitar patterns that seem to shimmer-glitter in the lightbulb-heavy flavours of a post-party mood. Indeed, the song's lyrics, sung with a nicely reverbing nonchalant lilt, spin a tale of dimly lit dancing interrupted by the end-of-the-night's awakening; a romance dream with splashes of colour and the syncopated bassline oozing groove with the slow-sway fruity drum crunch and blissful anti-triumph in this half-lament of a track – "We get it, we get it, it's over / I'll go back to being alone…" – full-stopped with a crescendo of reality, drowning out the star-dots of hazy memory and love-in-passing.

Lovely stuff. If I'm late on it then pffffffffft whatever, but I'm glad that I found this song, whose title is quite similar to a line from Charlie Chaplin's speech in his film, The Great Dictator.

• Some comments on the song mentioned an album or EP or something soon, but I don't know anything. Best thing is to follow these guys on the links below – if you like what you hear, of course.

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Like JAWS on Facebook
Listen to JAWS on SoundCloud
Visit JAWS official site
Follow JAWS on Twitter

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LAZY INTERVIEW #20: SUPERFOOD

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← #19: BRETON #21: DCUP →

I didn't find or didn't try to find a suitable image for this particular little piece, so I made one. What it is, as you can see, is the word Superfood, in stylised font of course, repeated six times. It's a good thing that who I'm writing about is actually a band called Superfood, and not a band that has a completely different name. Did my research, you see.

However, in all seriousness, I'm here to talk about a band. It is a band from the Midlands – Birmingham, specifically – called Superfood. I've said that already, but saying it again makes you think of the name a little more. Remember it. Savour it. Let it flash in your mind like a gently alluring neon sign. Because that's what it should be doing. And if it isn't, and you haven't heard their music, then their music should have the same effect on you. Why? Cause it's real good, that's why.

First encountering the band at the start of summer in the form of a self-titled demo, I basically got addicted to their sound there and then. Moving onto another demo called 'TV', whose lyrical content included such things close to my heart as being unable to sleep unless the TV was on quietly in the background, they've since picked up the pace with a video for their latest tune 'Melting'. And just yesterday, they released a 12" of two songs: Bubbles/Melting – get that HERE.

But what they sound like? A kind of revitalisation of Britpop, quirky guitar melodies played slapdash-style in a kind of Anglo-Weezer sound with all the beautifully mundane lyrics and laid-back style that has given and still gives British music its sense of cool. Kind of like that. Or to sum all that up in two words: "college rock"... In other news, the band's frontman – Dom Ganderton – was kind enough to lend his time and brain to this latest edition of the Lazy Interview.

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Who are you? Where are you from? What do you do?
My name is Dom, I am from the beautiful Midlands and I play guitar and sing in Superfood.

Why did you decide to start creating music?
I don't think there was ever a conscious decision to get into music initially, it was just after I had some cello lessons at primary school that I kind of drifted onto guitar and carried on until now. The reason me and Ryan started Superfood however was because we had both had a few years out of playing in bands and only having a computer to jam with became quite stale. We both kind of realised how much writing songs and singing them meant to us and how it kind of emptied a tank in our heads that would otherwise just overflow and send us bonkers. I'm really happy that I'm not completely bonkers yet.

How would you describe your sound? What makes you and your style stand out?
This is always such a tricky question as I feel that we're really not going to know exactly who we are as a band till after we've had a little more time together and got an album down and stuff. It's pretty songwriting with big beats that's a little rough around the edges.

Is there a perfect time and place for listening to your music?
Right now the best place to listen to our songs is in a 200 cap club while we are on stage playing but we want to bring it to the bedroom dancers and pre-lash legends.

What inspires you most when writing a song?
I think what's inspired our songs so far are the two years we took out of being in bands dancing in nightclubs, trying to pay rent and attempting to go to university. But inspiration musically can come from anything. We wrote a song using this old harp my sister made in school years ago.

What is your most memorable musical experience?
So far it has to be this *moment* I had half way through out UK tour with Peace, I can't remember where we were but we were halfway through our set and there was like 5 or 6 seconds where I was like fuck we're actually pulling this off... Kudos.

What are your favourite three songs at the moment?
The Turtles - I'm Chief Kamanawanalea (We're the Royal Macadamia Nuts)
Isley Brothers - Love The One You're With
The Cardigans - Been It

Who do you most admire in the music world?
Jeff Lynne

In your opinion, what is the future of music?
I reckon the future of music is for people to realise that you don't have to be futuristic and use machines to make music evolve. I think people need to get back to the fact that music requires real instruments played by humans. Computers are great tools but people shouldn't rely on them as a main component of their sound.

What's the future of your music - what do you hope to do next?
We're going into record our album in the new year and hopefully we're going tour Scotland a lot fingers crossed.

What, aside from music, is most important to you?
...

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Due to the luxuries of censorship, I'm unable to tell you the answer to that last question. Sorry. But I can tell you that along with sounding like a perfectly down-to-earth chap with honest intentions with regards to music, feeling impulsed to write, sing and play, Dom also has a good sense of humour. A sense of humour is key. Taking oneself too seriously leads to being unable to take a joke, and stuff like going completely crazy on Never Mind The Buzzcocks.

But with that little apologetic and revelatory blip outta the way, to wrap up, it seems that Superfood, at least with Dom involved (cause I don't know what the rest of the band – Carl Griffin (drums), Emily Baker (bass), Ryan Malcolm (guitars) – think), are onto a winner. Songs that spill naturally from people's minds, the work of wordless, intangible inspiration, are often quite good songs; it's been true so far. Gloriously stepping into the future without relying on typical tropes of "futuristic" music, Superfood fill a void in Britain's musical landscape that eschews effects and electronic instruments in favour of "real instruments played by humans". Of course, they haven't been around for long, so what the future holds: who knows?

However, without wanting to sound too dramatic, these guys manage to create music that is not too dominated by throwbacks to past eras, not trusting computers for palatable and zeitgeistical gimmicks – music that sounds like it's from exactly when and where it's from, played honestly and without pretence. GET TO KNOW.

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← #19: BRETON #21: DCUP →

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Like Superfood on Facebook
Visit Superfood official site
Follow Superfood on Twitter
Watch Superfood on YouTube

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SUPERFOOD MELTING [VIDEO]

I always feel a little bit bad to share a video for a song that I wrote about like last week or something, but then again maybe I'm just afraid because of the way the larger music sites do it. You know, a couple of sentences below the video – a veritable cop-out. You understand that right? I hope you understand that. But enough of this and that. Time to talk about Superfood.

I really like Superfood. I'd even go as far to say that I love them. Theirs is one of the freshest sounds I've heard around recently and they do it all without using computers — yep, that's right, it's band music. Remember when everyone was like "omg the band is dead" or when the BBC said bands are unfashionable nowadays? I remember too. In fact, it's still going on. It stands as a testament to the prevalence of electronic music in the charts, and nothing more. Bands are alive and well. Birmingham four-piece Superfood is a very good example of one of those living, breathing bands.

This video above is for their latest song 'Melting'. Taking cues from artfully crafted college rock, à la early-years Blur or an Anglo-Weezer, the song is gloriously English: the vocals, the catchiness, the rough-around-the-edges quasi-punk aesthetic. It's all there and it's wonderful. I wrote about it in more detail the other day, but as far as the video goes, it's a stylistically drab and grainy playground of four different perspectives, following the band as they play through the song: fun stuff. There is a timeless appeal to it; something that has worked before, works now, and will continue to work in the future.

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Like Superfood on Facebook
Visit Superfood official site
Follow Superfood on Twitter
Watch Superfood on YouTube

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SUPERFOOD TV (DEMO)

Really really happy that this song appeared, and I'm really happy that it's good. I'm not so happy that it took me so long to get round to seeing it - oh well. C'est la vie and all that innit.

So anyway this is Superfood, a band from Birmingham (England, UK - not Alabama), and their song 'TV'. It's apparently a demo, but it sounds more than good enough for human consumption. I didn't think demos were supposed to be so nice. But it's ok. It's good. I reckon they could just release this the way it is: sounds great.

What kind of music is this? It's punky-ish indie soft rock... kind of. I wrote about their other song (there's only two, yo) a few months ago - it's called 'Superfood' and it's about getting hungry I guess. There's a similarly humdrum heart in this new song (2 months old but whatevs), namely being concerned with the inability to sleep without the TV on. I remember when I was younger I slept with the TV on like every night. Boom. Instant connection with the song. Plays to the simplicities of life. I like that. Who wouldn't?

Let's listen to it shall we? Can we?

There's a really nice lazy and laid-back feel to this tune, perhaps it's in the slow head-bob that the tempo seems to inspire, or maybe it's in the slapdash guitar stabs in the verse, the aching scratches of the guitar solo. Maybe it's in the lyrics, celebrating the magical mundanity of how the TV can affect your sleeping... stuff, for instance, "How am I to ever dream without the TV on?" and the ever-so-normal, "Who turned off the TV? It wasn't you, it wasn't me". The vocals affect no true 'singing voice' or accent, sticking instead with a half-spoken, half-yelled, half-sung - wait three halves? - vibe that seems to come forth organically.

I said it about the sound of their song 'Superfood', but they have a Weezer-esque quality about them. Which is a really nice thing because Weezer are great. I dunno why - similar sound, perhaps. Distorted guitars, nothing too fast, lazy vibes, irreverant atmosphere - 'TV' even starts and finishes with recordings of television and twinkling guitar twangs, kinda like the start/end of Weezer's own 'Undone – The Sweater Song'. Or maybe it's just me. But that's how I find it, aurally, so that's how I'm saying it, typingly. Someone said something about these guys catching the "butt-end of brit pop" but I don't like brit pop so I won't even.

Is there a release coming up? I don't know. Best just keep checking!

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Like Superfood on Facebook
Listen to Superfood on Soundcloud
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Visit Superfood's site

THE GOLDEN BOY THAT THING [FREE DOWNLOAD]

I really like this kind of music at the moment. It's kinda deep house infused with garage and a real sensibility for tunes of the recent past or present (Cyril Hahn's remixes, for instance, are a perfect example, and Tropics' original songs, too) - very nice atmosphere with a totally danceable soul paraded around on soft beats and skipping hi-hats, all blanketed in a laid-back chill.

And very fortunately, I found a new purveyor of that kind of sound: The Golden Boy. (I think just Golden Boy would sound better, but it ain't my name so). The song in question is like 6 months old, but here at Yes/No Music, I don't care very much about that. It is, I suppose, a kind of remix but more an original song, using samples - mad good samples, lowered in tone - from Lauryn Hill's 'Doo-Wop (That Thing)'. A great original to work from with some great vocals, for sure.

Coming from Birmingham, The Golden Boy (aka real life human Dominic Hammonds) has a very nice, totally UK style that grips onto garagey roots with unwavering and absolute certainty. This knows what it is: a tune.

It's the kind of song that paints a picture both of night and day simultaneously, an empty-road urban evening with the streetlights casting their dingy orange glow over everything, or a sunny day in the city completely bustling with people looking for shade. That's what I get.

The samples are great though, used perfectly especially after the first drop when the synth chords come in, measuring the beat in their punctually off-beat way. The break is great, when the whole of the chorus of Lauryn's original plays above a soothing, low synth strings, a breathing space in the song, and something that allows the listener to get what was teasing them the whole time (the chorus in full). But then again, this song isn't a teaser of something more: it's an original song which has been decorated with a carefully chosen, and skilfully utilised, sample, all to the tune of a very urban, UK-flavoured concoction.

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Like The Golden Boy on Facebook
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SUPERFOOD SUPERFOOD

On SoundCloud you can customise the colour of the widget that you embed. I've used yellow this time around because I'm super happy about finding this brilliant song. So super happy. It's such a great song.

'Superfood' by Birmingham's Superfood is an instant and addictive hit. I once saw a comment on a song saying something like, "Wow I love this song straight away - not a good sign..." What the scheiße? How does that make any sense? Unless you're literally going to play it until your ears can't take it anymore, then it's not a problem at all. A gut reaction to music is what makes music so good. Not what the Snooty von Snootertons of this world would tell you, but let them continue snooting along the snoot - one day they'll look back on their snoots and snootlise that they've snooted too snootily but now snoot is here snoot's too snoot.

On the other hand, I like this song. That's a good sign. Because, like a normal person, when I feel that I like something, I usually remember that I like it. So when someone asks me, "What things do you like?" I can remember liking stuff and say the most memorable things out loud with my mouth. I can even write that kind of stuff down, too.

Get a load of this:

Wowee, what a fun song. The lyrics are brill, talking about how all the colours in the fridge are too bland, "You're always hungry"... something about raisins as well, and the vocals that sing and back up those lyrics are gloriously off and studded with DIY-ethic. The music itself is also tasty, distortion drenched guitarness. There's enough variation in here to have you hooked to this song like a drip. And something that caught my eye, well not my eye but there's no saying for 'caught my ears'... pricked my ears? A little canine, but ok. Something that pricked my ears was when the chorus kicked in first time around, there was a fuzzy heaviness in the guitars that reminded me completely of Weezer. There, I said it. And then a few listens later, I could hear Weezer everywhere. And I love that. They're a fun band, and this is a fun song.

So I'm looking forward to hearing more Superfood, for reals, also quick thing: there's a breakdown in the like the last third of the song that sounds as though it's about to break into the underground theme from Mario Bros. ooooeeeee it's hot hot hot.

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Like Superfood on Facebook
Listen to Superfood on Soundcloud
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