IRL — QUEST MASTER (SUPPORT ARCANE OUBLIETTE, PORTCULLIS) AT KOLA, PORTSMOUTH ⚔️ 5/4/26

BY ALEX GIBSON
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

VENUE: KOLA, PORTSMOUTH, UK
DATE: 5/04/2026
PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALEX GIBSON

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Beneath clinking glasses and moody electric candle-lights, wizard hats and Renaissance dresses sway to the descending Korg staccatos of ARCANE OUBLIETTE. This magician, hunched over his synthesizer in resplendent red robes, transforms this lively Portsmouth dungeon into a glittering, mesmerising tavern.

Attendees chatter in low, excited voices, bobbing and teetering as Arcane Oubliette enchants the room, one wavering sawtooth chord at a time. Mellow arpeggios trickle up and down against ambient blasts of synthesizer organs. It is a curious blending of medieval ruins and twentieth century videogame OSTs, simultaneously comfortingly nostalgic and daringly unfamiliar — the halcyon days of long summers, fantasy RPGs, and make-believe. He beckons us to join him on this adventure.

Scrying with synth: Arcane Oubliette takes to the stage

From time to time, this dungeon master triumphantly raises Easter eggs above his head. The sword in the stone parallel is not lost on this crowd, who cheer in excitement each time an egg is raised. For a lot of attendees, Arcane Oubliette is their introduction to the vast, sprawling world of dungeon synth. And what better introduction than one which hurls Easter chocolates across an ecstatic crowd, their arms up in cheer, their fingers splayed.

PORTCULLIS, a one-man fellowship of keyboards, guitar synthesizers, and drums, usurps Arcane Oubliette to draw us further into the mysticism of fantasy synth. As Ralph Bakshi’s 1978 Lord of the Rings animation projects onto the backdrop, Portcullis leads the audience in chants and cheers, bellowing a ‘HEY!’ into the crowd, who – their voices canyon-deep and their fists tightly clenched – reply with a ‘HO!’. The audience might as well be a brotherhood of dwarves egressing their subterranean domain.

Portcullis weaves magic with a digital guitar and tabor

Between pounding drumbeats and enchanting refrains on his oddly-shaped guitar synthesizer, Portcullis’ call to adventure is a tranquilising contrast to the epic ambience of Arcane Oubliette’s atmospheric electronica. Here, audiences sway to instrumental odes on gentle seaside life, Tolkien’s Shire, and the South Coast’s own Hiorne Tower, projected in fantastical raven’s view behind the master musician. As Portcullis strolls up and down the synth fretboard in gentle, mesmerising licks, we can almost hear the lapping of waves against the shore, or the lackadaisical dancing of grass blades beneath Gothic towers.

Lowering the drawbridge into ruins of ancient magic is Australian dungeon-synth sorcerer QUEST MASTER, a warlock of dark ambience and textual synths. Quest Master ensnares the audience in a swirling cauldron of N64-era Korg keyboards, imitation cathode ray graphics, and dark fantasy-inspired harmonies. Oscillating between the sepulchral and the sylvan, Quest Master’s setlist strides confidently through a nostalgic fantasy land, from ‘Holy Glass Monolith of Rose River Canyon’ to ‘The Radiant Glow of the Submerged Temple’ (both on his 2021 album The Twelve Temples).

Dungeon synth stalwart Quest Master concentrating on his spells

Where many other dungeon synth maestros – including the UK’s own Arcane Oubliette and Portcullis – incorporate robes or crowns or on-stage roleplay into their repertoire, Quest Master enchants the room with his epic instrumentals alone. Like the most pensive wizard, he is silent in this darkened stronghold. One moment, the crowd sways with shut eyes to the crystalline, plinking keyboard drip-drops of a cascading waterfall. The next, they rock out to epic organ drones, led by hand and horse through crumbling cathedrals and cursed towers.

In between these epic juxtapositions of serenity and noise, the crowd chatters. Quest Master is not merely a musical moment but an enveloping experience. The audience themselves, enrobed in wizard hats and medieval dresses, understand dungeon synth as a soundtrack to their own lives. This is their tavern — as Quest Master warps through his blending of PlayStation cyberspace and Nintendo RPGs, they drink, debate, and dance.

In these mellow interims between dark wizards and elven crusades, the audience take each other’s hands and twirl. Others pump their fists to the pounding dungeon drumbeats. No two people dress the same. All dance together. This is dark magic. This is dungeon synth.

✧

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📠
☟ Quest Master Internet Presence ☟
bandcamp ⚘ instagram ⚘ spotify ⚘

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☟ Portcullis Internet Presence ☟
bandcamp ⚘ instagram ⚘

📠
☟ Arcane Oubliette Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ bandcamp ⚘ instagram

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🐣 EUGENE CAM — GRAIN

It's musicmaker extraordinaire Eugene Cam with gis uncompromising, unapologetic fusion of beats and videogame aesthetics. This time around we're at the starting gate, stumbling in a pre-World 1-1 soundscape, a tottering, unstable feel thanks mainly to the producer's ability to put minutely arrhythmic patterns together in an easy-to-catch swaying flow. The kicks thud-thump richly deep, sub-bass bouncing warmly beneath it all, snares crack and hi-hats and other zippy janglings tap-crackle circuitboardly. The beat scuttles along, skittering and pounding, weighted but giving this impression, between each percussive pop, of weightlessness and wall-jumps.

Stars of the show are those synth chords: partially lost to the void and colourful yet abrasive, they provide the perfect scratchy high-end antidote to the lower frequencies in 'Grain'—as does the marimba: gleaming clonking sounds that play mystic melodies, the untitled mystery of what may or may not lie ahead. These arrive whilst the track is calm, there are even people talking in the background; and as the difficulty curve begins to show itself, as the challenge presents itself, the beat grows intense, overdriven, synth wheels over sirenlike.

And the brash boom of the track dies down to its previous intensity, night noises help portray the passing of time, or rather these insectoid whirrings signify just one of a few different areas to a 'hub world' (which is what this track is tagged as). You realise that there is no immediate danger, no actual peril going on here: it's setting the scene for something larger, each differing level of intensity in sound, beat alteration, addition or subtraction of an element, each one could be the basis for a whole tangential level theme. And in that way, 'Grain' sparks imagination, encourages you to fill in the blanks that it itself has created.

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• 🔔 Like this? Well then you literally must check out Eugene Cam's BOOLIN EP from earlier this year. Released on SoundCloud-label Mekaplex it's a pure crossover of trappy beats and videogames with a scrappy spirit and a world-building aesthetic at heart. You gotta check it out. We particularly liked 'The Gate'.
• 🔔 Oh and in case you didn't know: Eugene Cam made this LIVE on Twitch. V impressive!

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📠
☟ Eugene Cam Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ soundcloud ⚘ bandcamp ⚘ twitter ⚘ youtube ⚘ instagram ⚘ spotify

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🐣 NATHAN FAKE — SUNDER

This track begins and continues like a séance: a plaintive hollow synth faltering and calling out, later layered and turned into something spooky organ-like—the beat thumping like the thudding heartbeat of a cynical believer, overdriven with simple fills that remain this constant biological function of the track as different percussion comes in and out of view: sharp hi-hats, sshhing shakers like panting pitchshifted, rattling metallics and eventually this garage-flavoured snare but decayed clacks into earshot.

Contact is eventually made. The dearly departed dismal diction at 3:27 the the synths grow ever more intense, the inexpressible emotiveness of Norfolk native Nathan Fake's live, raw approach to sound getting the better of our consciousnesses—"There are no post-edits - they are left completely as they were recorded - so they're quite messy but I love that energy," he says, explaining the sound.

The hi-hat keeps scathing time and the beat falls away and the synth warm and shaking and screaming out for something, for a connection: still that plaintive sadness, human closeness across the digital void or the vaults of time. It calms, recedes, ends ominous and exhausted and alien with twiddling synths and this one final note of dissatisfaction and regret and joy all at the same time. Intangible ghosts, old friends, ebbing memory.

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• 🔔 This track is taken from Nathan Fake's exactly-the-samely titled Sunder EP which will arrive via Ninja Tune on 23rd February. You may stream and pre-order this track and the EP itself respectively in various ways on this page here.
• 🔔 The artwork for the EP (above) was created by Hubert Solczyńsk. It echoes the sadness, the new-and-old-ness of this track, and presumably the four-track EP itself; the desire to reach out and touch something that is not and never has been really there: both the past, and our ephemeral online worlds.

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📠
☟ Nathan Fake Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ soundcloud ⚘ bandcamp ⚘ official site ⚘ twitter ⚘ instagram ⚘ wikipedia

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🐣 EMMIT FENN — FEATHERS

The cyclical nature of this, the mid-level arpeggio of the left hand, the gentle piano paints a picture of cool melancholy, chilly and lonely, the melody expressing a certain amount of distress in its ascending refrain, its title 'Feathers' suggesting a fragility that is certainly effused from this brief piece of music, allusions to hesitation and hang-ups in its subtle slices of tempo rubato, all of it light, never heavy or strong, a floating atmosphere like feathers fallen from a bird now flitting in the air, the broken beauty of that vague loss visible in the song's delicate nature.

Created by California-located pianist and composer Emmit Fenn, 'Feathers' is very filmic. It conjures images of stark angular buildings on a night sky, no nature but cold clouds and the birds who fly under them from rooftop to rooftop, dropping feathers like snow across the anonymous cityscape. There is the feeling of being alone here, of looking out across a sea of souls and being distant to every single one of them, the baroque changes to minor chords and its fluttering trills reflecting a sense of teetering despair, calm and soft but inwardly harbouring a streaming cycle of doubts and worries.

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• 🔔 Recently Emmit Fenn released his Prologue EP via TH3RD BRAIN. You can listen to it on SoundCloud if you want.

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📠
☟ Emmit Fenn Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ soundcloud ⚘ official site ⚘ twitter ⚘ instagram

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🌱 TUSKS LIVE @ RONNIE SCOTT'S, LONDON

Cocktail-making clonked at the bar and a card machine bleeped as TUSKS launched into her finale, 'Dissolve'. This is her new single. Live, as with the tracks that preceded it, this one is a combination of guitar playing and keyboards and pre-arranged electronic swirling that make it an intense hypnotic experience, the noise surrounding you and gleaming glittering in your ears. Music of this magnitude felt like it didn't belong here, upstairs at Ronnie Scott's, sort of like the end-of-episode live music showcases in the new series of Twin Peaks, post-work suits occupying tables, the last brightness of the day shining through skylights. "It's strange to be playing somewhere you can see it's still light outside," said Emily Underhill between songs—this is real person behind stage presence and music entity TUSKS.

After her set we spoke to Emily briefly, agreeing that her music suited somewhere darker and smaller and more intimate and with less of Soho's oblivious droppers-in. Though imperfect in terms of venue, Ronnie Scott's nevertheless afforded Emily a showcase for her music, an opportunity to do what she does regardless of where that might be. Where-ness, however, ended up somewhat irrelevant. It didn't affect, for instance, the guitar-only rendition of 'Toronto' – usually punctuated by booming drum rolls and veiled in soaring synth fog, this version focused on that sharp far-off melancholic refrain, Emily eyes-closed, swaying as her fingers ran over the strings, pinkie poised on the pickups. The set began with 'For You' – the opener of TUSKS' debut Dissolve LP – a song we've not yet heard, one framed by robust warm dusty piano chords, chunky and heartfelt, the gradual synth tide rising from these notes, the repetition of "for you" made mesmeric by Emily's satin whispering tone overlapping with pitch-shifts low and high for full haunting experience, a sparse beat lusciously textured played on Roland drum pads, her standing and bouncing slow to rhythm. The slow-burning coil of compelling midnight flavours, the elsewhere phantomatic feeling of it, made for an introduction to TUSKS as a live act that instantly compelled and transported.

And though stormy all-encompassing sounds pull you into Emily's musical world, so too does the minimalism she seems to cradle so easily, the love of playing the music, feeling the music, clear on her face—as with 'Toronto' her Foals cover 'London Thunder' is guitar-only, the background fuzz of heavy effects white noise static killing thankfully the ambient hum of the venue, the watery chorus effect lovingly liquidising the sparse plucked notes, moving to grungy strums that filled the room, her voice crooning in this slow-rippling pool of electricity. Immensity in simplicity. The majesty of TUSKS was bigger than this little upstairs room of Ronnie Scott's with its to-and-fro table service waiters and waitresses and discretionary 12.5% service charge; thundering or gently quiet the music captivated, its well constructed melancholic grandeur surging and breaking the windows and turning day into night and rising well above any sense of place.

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• 🔔 TUSKS' debut Dissolve LP is out 13th October via One Little Indian.

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📠
☟ TUSKS Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ soundcloud ⚘ official site ⚘ twitter ⚘ instagram ⚘ songkick

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TOO MANY ZOOZ – TURTLEDACTYL

I don't think that I've ever heard anything quite like this before – I almost (almost) guarantee that you, yeah you, have probably never heard anything quite like it, either. Aside from this rather incredulous sounding opening gambit, I'd like to introduce you to a trio of musicians (or as they say, "harlem born brain-squid-child") from New York City making self-styled "brasshouse" music: Too Many Zooz.

One of them plays like, a trumpet thing, another of them plays a large saxophone (?), and another is a one-man beat-progenitor aka percussionist (I guess). They create dance music that's made up only of brass and beats: all organic, all live/living instruments. With SO MUCH/MANY electronics around right now it's a refreshing take on music made to make you move your feet. It's kind of like swing, but without the big band-type structure, with more housey rhythms and looping melodies. Plus the blare of brass is p much so foreign in this context that it might as well be a new instrument.

They recently released an EP, Fanimals, which is the perfect showcase of their sound. Since I've already spent what seems like loads of time explaining their uniqueness, I'ma focus on just one song, the nicely titled 'Turtledactyl'.

Built on a foundation of booming bass drum and syncopated baritone sax blasts, the trumpet laces frenetic patterns over the top, a glorious four minutes of soulful, heartfelt dance music that is as far away from EDM as is humanly possible because there is no E involved. Not unless you count the mastering / production – little hints of infrabass and an uplifting white-noise-whoosh towards the end – courtesy of Team Supreme member, JNTHN STEIN. Reaching a subtle crescendo of harmonising brass, it's got this chemistry that you can't help but succumb to, a kind of sweaty and cheerful joy.

In comparison to the rest of the stuff on their EP, it's melodically and dynamically more tame, but there is more wildness on their EP in the form of more dubstep-y (brass-step?) numbers, and bursting-cheeks trumpet virtuosity. Good on them I say.

• If you wanna hear more go stream the Fanimals EP on SoundCloud, or mosey on down to the Too Many Zooz Bandcamp and buy it for $5 or more.
• Oh, and if you need to see actual evidence of their greatness irl, then please check out this video of them performing at a subway station in New York.

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☟ Too Many Zooz Social Media Presence ☟
Facebook • SoundCloud • Bandcamp • Twitter •

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MIRROR KISSES – GENIUS [VIDEO]

Is this a photograph of the young George Clanton, aka (or at least the brains behind) Mirror Kisses? I think it might be. Now, with that kinda cleared up we can move forward. Who is this George Clanton? He is a musicmaker from Richmond, Virginia (USA innit) who creates hazy nostalgic vaporwavey tracks under the alias ESPRIT 空想 but with Mirror Kisses – a more real, less dreamy, less idealistic project – there's something quite different going on. Maybe there's a similar sense of nostalgia, but that's where comparisons end: this is truly heartfelt: a live, wriggling entity with 80s aesthetics, punk energy and a romantic sensibility, seemingly miles away from the bedroom lassitude of ESPRIT 空想.

The perfect opportunity to show this off arrives now, in the form of the brand-spanking-new video for 'Genius' – taken from Mirror Kisses' album of last year, Heartbeat, it's a brilliant example of the sights and sounds that go with this exciting project. In the video we see shots of the man himself singing live at a show in Washington DC, alternating with two guys painting a wall black and then erasing what they've done with white paint. "I didn't even know he [Robb Payne] was making it," said George himself. "It was shot at a show in Washington DC and a couple of the guys who were there made a painting for the song." Luckily, or maybe it was something that was just meant to be – either way it worked, and it suited the song: "I think it's really cool how they make it and then erase it," he said, explaining, "I thought it was very fitting to the spirit of the whole song about second-guessing yourself but still doing what you love in the end."

So without further ado…

It's George's favourite song from the album and you can see why. It's a corker of a song, a cracker even, one that bulges with as much drunk shuffle-dance-inducing sway as it does heartfelt emotion. Thin flanging chords keep their sombre time above the slow 80s-style lo-fi drums with syncopated hi-hats, whilst ear-pinching icicles of high-register synth strings pierce the air above the heavy muffle of the jouncing distorted bass squelch. But what makes this so real, not that the music isn't dead nice on its own, is the vocals, the voice of George, an aching rich baritone that simmers with just enough reverb, crooning lines like "I know… I'm no genius / But when you say those things / It makes me feel so dumb" that seem summoned from a deep well of emotion, gently echoing into the atmosphere.

NB. If you ask me, it sounds kinda like a slowed-down version of 'Last Christmas' by Wham (minus any Christmas-theme ofc) which ain't a bad thing at all. It shows that the 80s synthpop influences are there, well and truly, and they're blissfully endearing.

• In honour of this fancy new video, the Heartbeat LP is now available for FREE.
• A little birdie told me there will be new Mirror Kisses stuff soon, so GET ACQUAINTED with pre-existing stuff (see first bullet point).

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BRETON ENVY [VIDEO]

Ooo well this arrived a lot sooner than I thought it would. Yes! It is a new video from Breton for their really really nice song 'Envy'. I wrote about this song almost a month ago... wow, has it really been that long? Well, time most certainly does fly – whether you're having fun or not.

Premiered on Nylon just a while ago, video features what all bands should be pretty good at: playing live (which is, apparently, a first for any Breton video). Although it's not a live recording of the actual song, it's cool to see that Breton seem to be playing their hearts out. Yep, it's a high-energy performance that perfectly reflects the passion that clearly goes into all of their tracks, especially this one – the yelped vocals, the battering of the drums, the joyfully in-sync melodies.

But it's not just a live performance. Being versed in filmmaking themselves, Breton have included a little character study by personifying the often destructive nature of the very feeling of envy itself. Frontman Mr Roman Rappak had this to say about it: "Envy of other people and the desire to have a life you have been promised is sometimes the most destructive thing in the world." I hear that!

PS. Breton have a pre-album EP, Force of Habit, out on 16th December.

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BRETON ENVY

Majorly digging this. It's quite different to the last song I heard by British band Breton, 'Got Well Soon', a dark rumbling number, almost exclusively electronic in its sound. This new track 'Envy' is a beautiful change in direction, compared to the dark basement club feel to 'Got Well Soon' - here we're thrown into a swirling world of addictive, breezy rhythms that touch you in all the right places. It's got a tropico-indie-dance feel to it; pointing out the obvious like a child would be saying "sounds like Foals" but on the other hand, but looking at it with a bit more scrutiny gives more away. However, that's not to say that first impressions should be discarded: these delicious sounds are for real and they're in my ears right now and I love them.

I need to get a grip. I can't very well sit here listening to this song on repeat like a lunatic, can I? How would I ever finish my washing? Or make lunch? So I'm gonna purge myself of what I'm feeling about it. Syncopation plays a massive part, offbeat rhythms crossing over each other keeping your ears busy, giving a sense of the gloriously unexpected to the song. This repeated instrumental refrain, with steel pans, glockenspiel, synth beeps, bass guitar, drums and strings, is really dynamic, always feeling like it's leading into something, rather than remaining the mainstay of the song. The drums are real, played with gusto, and filled with delicate touches of the hi-hat - they keep to a general house or disco beat for longer, more driven parts of the track. Actually, I'm gonna stick with house, cause the rich piano chords that clomp down on the song from early on, and their pattern, really do conjure 90s house music. Just saying. It does.

The piano chords are just one part of the song's thick and richly populated orchestration. Strings and a brass section arise in the two more driven parts of the song, building up in the last section to a genuinely symphonic ending, with virtuoso bass sidewinding with little variations the whole time, the steel pans adding their sharp exotic lilt to the mix. The vocals are simple, raw, understated, yet yelled out in lush layers of natural harmony - perfect for sing-a-longs and by turns perfect for a live setting. They sit superbly comfy in the mix with everything else. Fast-paced indie-dance with an orchestral-yet-90s-house feel - that's what this is. And it's lovely - in composition, dynamic, and sound.

'Envy' is out properly on January 23rd 2014 as a single from upcoming second album War Room Stories, due for release on February 3th 2014 on Breton's own imprint label Cut Tooth, through Believe Recordings.

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LIQUID.SUNSHINE (天照汁御神) LIVE @ 2.5D // LIQUID.SUNSET

I heard liquid.sunshine, aka 天照汁御神 (please what does this mean?) aka Hosh'ki Tsunoda, a few days ago in a live show on 2.5D, an internet channel based in Shibuya, Tokyo, that hosts all sorts of live performances in the name of art and culture. His cosmic and wholly encompassing experimental approach to hip hop pretty much made my day that day - it was a Wednesday. It wasn't actually that long ago at all. But all the same: I loved it.

Luckily Meishi Smile, owner of ZOOM/LENS label/collective and maker of music himself, captured the live sights and sounds of this very interesting set and uploaded it to YouTube. Saying that it begins with a sample of Fred Durst saying "chocolate starfish...!" will give you a small inkling as to the influences (yes, nu-metal) at work on Hosh'ki Tsunoda. In any case, I urge you to stick this on and have a listen to it. You will enjoy it a lot. Well, maybe you won't, but if you like instrumental hip hop with an intergalactic slant that dips its toes into the choppy sea of electronic experimentalism, whilst retaining the brash beats of retro hip hop, you probably will like this.

In other news, Mr Tsunoda released an EP called liquid.sunset - it is a collection of accomplished beats that swim in seas of luscious electro sounds. Here, let me talk you through it from the beginning to the end.

'Seashore Mosaic' captures the sound of literal waves crashing against the sand, but in synth chord form; it also captures the sound of seagulls cawing, but in a much more aesthetically pleasing series of wah-wah synth leads. A very nice break in the drums explodes about 1:20 on this one, leading the way for a bustling second half that has all the cheer of a jolly jaunt by the seaside. Against a crackling backdrop, there are super-high-register clicks to accompany to the beat right to the end.

Those clicks, and more besides, shine out of the beat of 'Visitor at 2am' - there's more of that cheerfulness, too, albeit in a different form: not a fresh day sun-in-your-face cheer, but one of seeing a friendly face at an unexpected point in the night. It's a mildly pulsing and tentative happiness in the slow rhythm here, in the gently bulging bass synth, the lo-fi chords and sparkling leads.

That slowness continues as a blissful hangover in 'Sphere', whose crackles and liquid drips of ambient noise flow underneath a swaggery saw-wave bass, delayed synth blips and 16-bit spears of dramatic gleaming sound. Organic acoustic sounds mark a change in dynamic here, where big taiko drum sounds steal the show from the earlier hip hop shuffle of the beat. Towards the end, all of the sounds of the song layer into a rich, almost overwhelming waterfall of sound.

The hypnotic world of 'Headphones', a mesmerisation of flanging space-age synth that wraps you in the otherworldly isolation that can occur whilst wearing headphones. Not unsurprisingly, it sounds really nice with headphones on. Glitching blips and stabs of digital pads puncture the staccato baseline.

Claps ahoy in next track 'Breathe In', whose beat is a bustling, syncopated foray into a floating world of glitzy swagger - a soft, unintelligible vocal sample hangs like mist in the midst of the clangour of this track. Another expertly woven tapestry of layered sounds that compliment each other like cherry pie and ice cream.

'Lusty Lusty' finishes the journey of liquid.sunset with a gentle track that is sunken in the depths of some smooth sub-bass. Beginning with a sparse, 4/4 rhythm, it mutates by the end through some nice offbeats into something with more attitude, warming up as it goes along, a stuttering sound like a robotic dove cooing spirals in and out of earshot; the end is as charming and cutesy as the start, with popping, muted synth bops to see us out.

See? It sounds nice doesn't it? Keep an eye out for more from this guy, I don't think he's quite finished yet - usually, with such an inquisitive mind as goes with experimenting with sounds, there's a lot more for them to explore in the future. So I look forward to more.

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Like liquid.sunshine on Facebook
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OLDTIMER [オールドタイマー] CANARIA [LIVE]

I've been meaning to write about this for a long time but I just haven't gotten round to it. Why is that? Something you feel like you want to do sometimes turns into something you have to do, and I don't work well under obligations, even if they are self-made. It's weird isn't it. A choir of weird. But that's neither here nor there is it now. We can breathe and move on. Time has ticked and that is that.

I first wrote about OLDTIMER at the beginning-ish of this year, after (and about) the release of their My Girl EP. They actually took the time to send me a package with a cute note and a few copies of the CD - all of which were hand-illustrated. Naturally I have a lot of time for them. I heard them first on a live recording of their stuff, which had plenty of energy and noise to it, and this latest song goes in much the same way: energetic and noisy.

What are they? They're a self-described "indie rock band" from Tokyo, but I'd say they're like a shoegazing indie pop rock band. Not much difference I suppose except my definition is more specific. Now, if you can accept that, let's have a listen shall we?

Straight away you're thrown headlong into a high-energy fast-paced belter of a track. The drums gallop ahead, dragging everything behind it, with singer Lilia Masami's pretty vocals floating in the ocean of noise. The guitar has a fantastic sound - this is what I first noticed. It screeches along bending out of tune and creating a sound that is quite gloriously unsettling. Gives it a bizarre alternate-reality surf-rock vibe. Listen to it though. Great guitar, really. Leaves you reeling in the spaciest of ways.

The bassline is pretty magnificent, too, let's be honest. Against the noisy screams of the guitar, its smooth sound and complex notes give the song a jolly upbeat background. A piece of pop against a noise-art installation or something. The "doo-doo-do-do" vocals do something similar as well, as do the vocals in general, giving the song a pop feeling and contrasting with the un-pop guitar. Lovely. I had a feeling that they'd get even better, and they have.

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Listen to OLDTIMER on Soundcloud
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LAZY INTERVIEW #13: THE ORWELLS

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← #12: CORY JREAMZ #14: CUUSHE →

Currently, recently and of late I have been having a small love affair with The Orwells, a five-membered band which is a rising punk rock star right now. There's a lot of interest in them. That's no surprise. Having released a debut album last year, one EP at the start of summer and another, Who Needs You, at the end of summer, this string of releases is catching the attention of everyone who has a penchant for the young energy of The Orwells' raucously raunchy music.

I went to go see them live last week, which was an experience that showed me their recorded songs - as good as they are - cannot match the furious frenzy of their in-the-flesh renditions. I really do recommend that you go and see them, if you can of course. It's something that injects the soul with the spark of punk spirit that The Orwells' crashing boom bang sound creates. It was fun. And on top of that, they were extremely kind enough to take time to answer the Lazy Interview questions. What gentlemen!

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Who are you? Where are you from? What do you do?
　We're The Orwells, we're from Chicago, Illinois. We play rock n' roll music.

Why did you decide to start creating music?
　It was one of the only things we weren't horrible at. And it gave us something to do on the weekends.

How would you describe your sound? What makes you and your style stand out?
　Youthful. I think it's our energy that makes us different from the rest, when we play live, having a good time comes before performing well.

Is there a perfect time and place for listening to your music?
　When you just got suspended from school.

What inspires you most when writing a song?
　Thinking of being on stage with each other playing it to a crowd of people. Finding the connection between all five of us.

What is your most memorable musical experience?
　Hearing The Stooges' 'I Wanna Be Your Dog' for the first time. That song put the band on the path we're currently still venturing down.

What are your favourite three songs at the moment?
　The Virgins - Travel Express
　Ty Seagall - She Don't Care
　Bob Dylan - She's Your Lover Now

Who do you most admire in the music world?
　The Replacements.

In your opinion, what is the future of music?
　Rock n' roll will take over this planet again. Mark my words.

What's the future of your music - what do you hope to do next?
　Keep making different sounding albums. See how far we can push the walls to our box without breaking them.

What, aside from music, is most important to you?
　Family, cheese fries, and baseball.

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In some ways, the most important thing that's said here is the word "youthful" - it's what they are most known for. But that's only in some ways. However, it is definitely something that makes them stand out. Their songs are bursts of irony, vents of frustrations, slightly morbid explosions - things that, more often than not, come from young minds. Putting that kind of stuff on a record is easy enough, but to play it with even more attitude, energy and aggression onstage - as if your life depended on it almost - is something that isn't easy to replicate every time. In that sense, they're very genuine.

It all seems to be about the live performances with these guys. They would prefer to have a "good time" over "performing well", but often if you don't think about performing at all, and just enjoy yourself, things go more swimmingly than you'd imagine. Simply by trying to have a fun time, trying to connect with each other, and always thinking of that live sound, The Orwells - in their muddle of youth as we all are - become more philosophical than they perhaps expected they'd be perceived: they are about the NOW. People may gloss over a band like The Orwells with a just-another-punk-band cynicism - for me, however, they put noise to all the wordless exclamations of our generation. Plus, cheese fries - or cheesy chips as we know them here in the UK - are very important.

As for their prediction of rock 'n' roll taking over the planet again... I've never really thought about that but, in a time where dance music is dominating popular music, the switch back to guitar-based music could be closer - and more angry - than you think. Watch out world.

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THE ORWELLS LIVE @ MADAME JOJO'S

Well. Last night I went to see The Orwells live at Madame JoJo's, a venue in Soho, London. There were actually three bands playing. I didn't see the last band (whoops/oh well) because, well, The Orwells were quite good and we decided to leave on a high. Which is always a good thing, I think. Judge for yourselves though.

The first band that played were called Polterghost - a London post-punky trio. Each track had a similar vibe, and that was Nirvana-esque riffs that oozed grunge, some shreddy guitar solos dotted here and there, alongside palm-muted guitars with some high-pitched vocals - almost a little like Smashing Pumpkings. The drums pounded out the rhythm. Perhaps a little "teen" sounding for my liking, and not a commanding stage presence, but nice enough. Their track 'Holy Smoke' should give you a good idea of their sound.

But then The Orwells bowled onstage. Not only did they move around as if completely possessed by the music they were playing, but they played the music in a ballsy, aggressive way. Lead-vocalist Mario Cuomo towered over his bandmates, looking almost too big for the stage, in cream skinny jeans, a red Chicago Bulls vest and sporting a luscious mop of wavy blonde hair that he used to his advantage the whole time: playing with it, letting it cover his face, whipping it around. Oddly sexual.

They opened with 'Mallrats', which set the tone for the rest of the show: its maddening yet tongue-in-cheek "lalalalala" screamed out alongside crushing distortion and crashing drums. They went onto smash through their set, going through the addictive 'Other Voices' and stopping by for slow-dance numbers 'Blood Bubbles' and 'Halloween All Year', yet with the wholly crazed vocals from Cuomo still on top form. My friend suggested that he looked like he needed an exorcism, and I said that playing live probably was the exorcism. However, I wholly doubt there's anything like that needed. I mean, in some ways, yeah he was going crazy - falling offstage at one point and generally screaming out the lyrics with a hardcore rockabilly drawl as if his life depended on it. It's just angry stuff - and I loved it.

Of course, they played recent hit 'Who Needs You' from their new EP of the same name - it sounds even better live. They also went through a perhaps extended version of their psychedelic song 'Head', which in its second half repeats the same majorly distorted riff over and over - at this point they were pretty much all in a frenzy onstage. It's good to see that kind of thing. People getting into their music, I mean. What better way to show that your music's likeable by liking playing it so much that it makes you go into a bit of a trance? Mm-hm.

They ended with a cover of The Stooges' 'I Wanna Be Your Dog' - it was a raucous affair. Truly raucous. Raunchy. The lyrics were roared out, the guitars totally abused - huge noise. I suppose you could equate it to their performance of the same song at another place, but the stage was smaller at Madame JoJo's; maybe they felt claustrophobic or something, because they seemed to be even more mental.

Overall, what more can I say? I suppose that it was really good is a start. It WAS damn good. I thought the recordings were good enough, but the energy that they drew from playing live to people in a room is clearly something that can't be captured in essence. Also, to see them like actually playing was amazing.

They had a very punk dynamic, the bassist Grant Brinner grooving modestly to the rhythm and at one point taking the cord out of guitarist Matt O'Keefe's microphone, who later knelt on the floor and pulled the mic stand down to him, relentless drumming from Henry Brinner, frenzied bent-double playing from other guitarist Dominic Corso, and general madness from Mario Cuomo. He stood out, dancing, pulling at his clothes, moonwalking (probably?) at one point, and as I said earlier, falling off the stage, then falling off the stage again trying to pull himself back onto it. They all scream pent-up aggression and youthful frustration - a feeling that's easy to summon up in yourself after seeing these guys freak out so much themselves. Basically really fun to watch. And really nice to have seen them at such a small intimate venue, cause I think they're only gonna get bigger from here on in.

Afterwards we were so punk, threw straws around in McDonald's, got the guy who served us to give us a free cheeseburger each, and I sold two cigarettes for £5. Imagine that. Our slowly diminishing yet endless youth. Go see The Orwells if you get a chance - you won't regret it.

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PARA ONE YOU TOO [FREE DOWNLOAD]

Just saw this on Twitter and had to write about it. Coming from co-founder of Marble records Jean Baptiste de Laubier, aka Para One, it is a wonderful song that incorporates elements of classic dance numbers to create a pretty euphoric vibe. It's called 'You Too' and you too should listen to it most definitely.

It's come just at the right time of year, especially taking into consideration the recent VERY NICE WEATHER that we're seeing in the South of England (yeah, we can say that too y'know, just like South of France... kind of) - that's because it's a pretty much a summer anthem. There's so much in it that just screams "fun in the sun", a Balearic atmosphere that only the most hardy detractors of dance music are immune to - in these instances it's like using Earthquake against a Flying-type Pokémon: not gonna work. But that's them. To each their own.

In essence, 'You Too' is basically a live edit of Para One's 'You' that he has been slipping into his late night DJ sets recently. The original bubbled along with soft watery synth, produced with cutting attention. 'You Too', however, goes a little differently.

Keeping the original chord progression of the original, the song begins with stuttering synth supported by a skipping beat and booming bass that soon give way to house piano chords. What a nostalgic feeling these evoke, even though I am not old enough to remember when this kind of sound was new. These are not the lifeforce of the song, however: warm synth rises up out of the bashing rhythm of the piano. The twisted vocal sample from the original still comes back, having pride of place when the atmosphere in the song plateaus out as well as before its mountainous build-ups.

It continues like this, Para One altering the dynamics of the song throughout to provide a luminary experience for all who hear the song, chilling them out one minute before getting them to jump on their feet - all without telling them to do so. It's the kind of song that a lot of people will say belongs only in clubs and that's it, but I can already imagine hearing this in the sweltering streets, in gardens fogged with barbecue smoke and the glint of the sun through half-frozen beer bottles. It's for summer.

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BEACH FOSSILS CARELESS [LIVE]

Who said guitar music was dead? Anyone...? Probably no-one at the moment, but I guess someone said it at one time. And after that it's likely that someone said "who said guitar music was dead?" What's the point of this contrived extrapolation? I don't know. I'm sorry everyone. But guitar music is alive. "The band" as a concept is alive.

Fulfilling that statement is Brooklyn-based quartet Beach Fossils, a band that is very much alive - the proof being in the breakneck-speed, adrenaline-infused live performance of their song 'Careless'. I found this a few days ago and stuck it on my list but my list is like so damn long, so it's taken me a while to get to it - but I like that; each song I come to on the list is like a rediscovery of something good.

I haven't heard the studio version of this song - soz. It's ok though. Don't need a comparison. This live session for LIVE AT BRAUND SOUND (a series of live recordings, derr) is loud and exciting, just how I like it. Get yer ears round this.

Echoing guitars sweep the verse of cobwebs, jangling beside fretting vocals whose reverberations seem to bounce off the walls. Driving it along, like a pair of well oiled V8 engines, are the bass and drums - the former whose pneumatic pattern judders powerfully forward, the latter whose unceasing beat is brutal and induces severe headbanging.

In other words, it's NICE. It brings 80s jangly guitar pop together with pogo-stickin' city punk to create a nostalgically charged banger; it's strange, mellow yet with not-so-mellow sensibilities, like seeing a leaf floating down a stream but on that leaf is drawn an angry face. That kind of vibe. I like it.]

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SPAZZKID LIVE ON #SPF420

Yeah, if you're reading this thinking, "wtf is #SPF420??" then you are in the same boat as I am. That is, a boat adrift and constantly in wonder at what marvels/marvel at what wonders can be found on the internet. There's a lot to find. Anyway, I should probably explain what exactly #SPF420 is.

It is an online venue, unique in that it exists exclusively online, and it is a veritable hotbed of New Generation artists - I explained a little about New Generation when I wrote about SAINT PEPSI - one of the brains behind it all - a few days ago, but to reiterate basically: it's an artist collective leaning towards a wholly net-based music industry (my assumption). Alongside SAINT PEPSI are many other artists including Spazzkid, whom I wrote about the other day.

Enough of the Pokémon-style digression into the proclivities of this artist collective. More about the music. The reason I'm writing this is that Spazzkid has gone and done a 25-minute set on #SPF420, which aired yesterday. Astoundingly, this only has (at time of writing) 7 views, which is mental considering the sound of the music itself - not so mental if you consider the pitfalls of being a relatively unknown artist. Anyway, without further ado, please enjoy the smooth, wholly chilled vibes of this man's innovative beat-strong glitch-hop electro-pop.

The tracklist is this:
1. Forgiveness
2. Kokeshi Doll
3. Getting To Know You
4. Better Off Alone (Alice DeeJay cover) UNRELEASED
5. Loving Free

Yep, from the clicky otherworldly ambience of 'Forgiveness', to the sombre sunset romance vibes of 'Kokeshi Doll' - both with their fair share of bassy rumblings - we arrive at the wonderfully cute 'Getting To Know You' with its bouncy vocal samples. Then a surprise cover of Dutch Eurodance group Alice DeeJay's massive 1999 hit 'Better Off Alone', done to Spazzkid's trademark swaggering beat and complete with mind-ooze synths and steel drums. The set ends with the ravey 'Loving Free', a sharp cross between lo-fi bedroom pop and the soundtrack to people playing volleyball on a yacht harboured in the Maldives.

The visuals are great, too, and found according to Mark Redito (real name of Spazzkid) "from deep internets". Certainly looks that way. In any case, they're cool and fit the style of his music totally. He also looks like he is having a very nice time playing the music that I can only assume he loves making.

All songs come from his new album Desire, which is totally out now.

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FOALS LIVE @ WEST END CENTRE ALDERSHOT

I never thought I'd be writing a post that even mentioned Aldershot, let alone one that actually featured this fair town's name in its title - yet, here we are. And there we were, in Aldershot, in a spookily empty pub at an acceptable drinking hour waiting to see Foals live at the West End Centre. Measuring the minutes with alcohol (what else?) the time quickly whizzed by and, before we knew it, we were en route to the gig itself; 'exciting' didn't cover it.

This rather intimate gig - the venue is officially 175 capacity, although Wikipedia cites it as something more like like 200 (what's 25 more people, eh?) - is just one in a series of rather intimate gigs, that started in Sheffield and will end in Tunbridge Wells in two days' time, stopping off at Derby, Stoke, Southampton, Bournemouth and Brighton on the way. It's a kind of teaser tour, according to the band themselves:

Thanks to everyone who bought tickets for our mini tour this winter. like we said elsewhere it is only a tease, and for us to get back "into it", so don't stress if you missed out, or if we weren't coming near to your home... because there will be many, many more shows coming up.

So there you have it. A mini-tour. Getting back "into it". Of course. That's what it was.

But it really didn't sound anything like that. It sounded like a polished gig. An actual gig. After the danceable grooves of support Trophy Wife, the main event came down on the crowd like a veritable ton of bricks. With Yannis Philippakis, Foals' frontman, typically animated and fully imbued with the feeling of the very music he's playing, a kind of perpetual motion machine in which he is driven by the music in order to drive the music and so on - a cyclical relationship where energy swaps hands between the band, usually culminating in Yannis getting very excited and jumping from whatever pinnacle the stage happens to offer into a sea of outstretched hands and, seemingly refreshed by crowdsurfing in pure adoration, onto the stage again - the gig was suitably frenzied.

They hopped between big tunes from their back and current catalogue, fever-pitch anthems and let's-have-a-breather tunes that nevertheless had everyone screaming. Starting with muscle-beach-evocative 'Miami' they moved onto 'Blue Blood' and new tune 'My Number', whose unquenchable funk had the whole crowd displaying whatever fancy footwork they could muster. Other songs included the now old-school, sweaty indie disco anthem that is 'Balloons' and the epic builder-upper 'Spanish Sahara', which cooled, calmed, and subsequently set ablaze the room with the band's sheer mastery of dynamics.

After a premature departure from the stage, the band returned to the wild shouts of the crowd to launch into the heaviest-ever-Foals-song 'Inhaler', blowing everybody away, bursting many an eardrum, and getting the whole crowd bouncing around and headbanging - not something you expect from Foals, but something that gives a teaser to their own diverse tastes in music (for instance, I noticed that the drummer, Jack Bevan, was wearing a HEALTH vest - +1 point). Then came the ending: 'Two Steps Twice'. This is Foals' usual gig-closer and, with its addictive beat and that chanting-in-the-stands breakdown and Yannis's brave walk from the stage into the crowd itself, bringing everyone together in shouting out this wordless anthem - a beautiful moment.

Foals are certainly a band that needs to be seen live - not only does their energy onstage lend itself to a better quality of sound (because they really do play for all their worth when onstage), but it leads to an exciting show: they are animated and totally gripped by the energy of their own music, lost in a trance like a whirling Dirvish, none more than Yannis, who steals the show with his daredevil jumps from the speakers and his fearless forays into the crowd itself. Phew. Get tickets to the tour proper next year if you know what's good for you.

The night ended with a maniac running out of his car with a golf club and all the pent up aggression of a 17-year-old with a frigid girlfriend. Not typical Aldershot behaviour, I'm sure.

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FOALS MY NUMBER LIVE ON JOOLS HOLLAND

More new Foals. Last night they had a little slot on Later... with Jools Holland, long a bastion of new and exciting music (famously rocketing the likes of Seasick Steve, amongst others, to fame in the UK), and as well as playing 'Inhaler' - which we, by now, all know and love - they also played a new number from upcoming new album Holy Fire (chalked for release 11th February 2013), 'My Number'. Here they are, the Foals boys, doing what they do best.

This one has a tropical vibe to it, a very danceable groove (reminiscent of 'Owner Of A Lonely Heart' by Yes, which is by no means at all a bad thing) that is, as ever, infectious to the very core. Add to that overall atmosphere a beat that, whilst steady, introduces the quirks that dominated the math-rock-style drumming on the first album Antidotes - and earlier demos - and a guitar so plinky and evocative of water that I think it's made me need the toilet, and you have 'My Number'. It has more of a hook than its much heavier partner at the moment, 'Inhaler', but if this variation is something we can look forward to on Holy Fire, then we're in for a regular buffet, smörgåsbord, sushi platter, tapas table of sounds.

And everyone knows how fun that kind of eating is: very.

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YACHT LIVE @ HOXTON BAR AND GRILL

Hold on to your hats this Tuesday 26th July because YACHT are playing Hoxton Bar and Grill at 8PM in association with Eat Your Own Ears. Yes indeed.

Now, YACHT are a strange one. Established since 2002, it all started off as the solo project of Jona Brechtolt - a young musician who since his high school days has been focused only on making music. Later, in 2008, YACHT welcomed in long-time collaborator Claire L. Evans and since then more band-members have joined the fray - most recently including Rob Kieswetter (aka Bobby Birdman), Jeffrey Brodsky and Katy Davidson as mainly touring members of the band.

Now, according to their official site, YACHT seem to be (much like Pictureplane) much more than just music, evolving to encompass some kind of philosophy in carving the way forward for progress in their music. Or so that's what I understand from it.

YACHT will continue to travel, speak, sing, give ontological birth, and seek to know the importance or insignificance of existence. YACHT and the YACHT Trust will strive to build a larger and larger community. The path will be long and strange.

(excerpt from 'What is YACHT?')

But aside from all of this philosophising, YACHT are essentially a two-piece, Brechtolt and Evans hailing from Oregon and Texas respectively, who create upbeat electronic music with a light smattering of grunge in occasional studio drums and guitar riffs. With their musical output being rather too prolific to begin to go through all sorts of different tracks, here are two - the first being 'Summer Song', for which the odd-humoured video is below.


As you can hear it fits pretty snugly in the ranks of indie/electro/dance that nearly personified the general sound of 2007-8. With its completely disco-entrenched beat and bassline, 'Summer Song' reeks of dancefloors and summer evening barbecues - it's soft with a sharp edge, combining noisy high pitch synths with who-cares group vocals to create one achingly non-sedentary piece of music. There might be a little owing in this one to the likes of LCD Soundsystem and The Rapture.

The second track is much newer, coming from Shangri-La released earlier this year; here is 'Dystopia':



Encompassing the same pop sensibilities as 'Summer Song' with its catchy refrain and razor-edged hi-hat disco beat, 'Dystopia' is a carefree announcement of Earth's demise. The sounds in this song are tinged with an upped production value, bound to come with years of practice and notoriety, yet the charm is still there: the happiness, the life within the music, and the overall earworming nature of it all.

So if you liked these two, that's probably a good enough criterion to get yourself down to Hoxton Bar and Grill this Tuesday 26th July, where YACHT will be gracing London with their presence alongside some special guests.

Tickets are £8.50.
Doors open at 8PM.

• GET TICKETS HERE
• Check out YACHT's beautiful-looking but ultimately weird official site
• Have a listen to some tracks on their Myspace (no longer in use, but still...)
• Or have a look at YACHT on SoundCloud
• And follow YACHT on Twitter

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†‡† RITUALZ LIVE @ CAMP LONDON

I think perhaps my favourite witch house artist, Ritualz (†‡†), is playing live tomorrow (Monday 20th June) at the CAMP Basement, London. I have a ticket already, but I am feeling so ill today that I might not be able to make it tomorrow, which would suck big time. I would miss the first time he's playing in London and that would be a shame. There are still tickets available, so if you'd like to go and see this amazing artist alongside Design A Wave, The Church Of Synth, Story Of Isaac (DJ) and BITE DJ, get on it. If you need an idea of what this fantastically unique gangster-cum-conjurer might be like live, here he is playing his song 'Ghetto Ass Witch' live in Bucharest on 9th June:

I'm sure the colour effects were added post-production, but despite that, it fits the song perfectly. This is the kind of thing you'd be anticipating if you fancied going along tomorrow. As you can hear, Ritualz creates music that is kind of like trance put in a blender, heavily reliant on fat kick drum and sharp claps to make up the beat. Generally, the music is hypnotic in all its distorted synth glory, rent with twisted rave horns and high pitch, screaming synth rocketing up and down - as best demonstrated by the widely-loved song below, 'Goth Bb'.

The lo-fi, brutally intense beat makes this song, whilst ear-splitting synths battle above it, dive-bombing your brain every now and again. There's a distinctly videogame soundtrack vibe around this, mixed of course with the dark, shadowy overtones to create something utterly unique, and borderline anthemic. Listen:


What do you think? Just a lot of noise, or something closer to genius?

Don't forget: CAMP Basement, London - tomorrow, 20th June.
He doesn't use Myspace anymore.
He does use SoundCloud.
And he is on Twitter.

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