top photo: I.Anton
“Say no more, use your eyes, the world goes and flutters by”
Jónsi Birgisson has arguably — and it’s hard to put this any other way but lightly — written his most beautiful song since ‘Hoppipolla’. Never likely to be understated, ‘Boy Lilikoi’ contains everything your averagely jaw-dropping Sigur Ros song would, only it’s written in English, it’s formed upon an acoustic guitar pattern, and, that’s about it…It would fit beautifully into ‘Takk’, an equally instant but overwhelming listen overall.
And what’s so significant is Jonsi’s continuing to understand how to use language as a measure of beauty. Nobody knew what he was singing about with Sigur Ros, but it still made you cry. Here, every syllable, sung in English, drips with the same care and swimming ease as any Icelandic (or “hopelandic”) lyric does.
mp3//
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LATITUDE FESTIVAL
words: Abby Jitendra
Latitude Festival was never going to be one of those musical events where avant garde, noisy, punk or hip-hop musicians played and Sparked Debate. One can imagine riots breaking out across Middle England if, say, Jay Z, was announced as a headliner. White, middle-class twentysomethings would sharpen knives and talk of the festival being ‘indie’ and ‘rock’- centric, that Rap had no place at such an event. Sigur Ros – Icelandic, slightly bland, atmospheric post rock – however, were perfect for the heaving masses. Friendly, awe-inspiring and ‘nice’. Just like the festival.
The press has gleefully painted the event as some kind of smaller, nicer Glastonbury. When Glastonbury became big and scary and introduced mainstream pop acts, Latitude regressed somewhat, forgetting hip-hop, pop, grime and electro, and remaining true to the Middle England Indie Fanbase – Antony & The Johnsons and Snow Patrol headlined the festival in its first year of existence, Arcade Fire and Wilco in its second. This year, Sigur Ros and Interpol were at the helm – a trend seems to be emerging. Nice, fairly innovative rock bands for the nice, ‘innovative’ festival. Not exactly ‘eclectic’, as it is marketed, but exclusive enough to be interesting. Festival Republic (big scary corporate promotions) saw a gap in the market and built Latitude Festival neatly within it. However, by creating a niche (albeit one of almost staggering diversity, at least within the ‘indie’ and ‘rock’ genres of music) the festival is musically limited. Almost every band I saw contained elements of post rock. Every singer/songwriter was folky and ‘indie’. Alright for some, but this festival goer longed for something that would punch me in the face with its brilliance.
Consequently, the highlights of the weekend came when bands clawed through this bland indentikit imprint and began to pick apart the inhibitions of an audience lusting for Sigur Ros-like sweeping, climactic highs and crashing lows. When bands maintained the kind of live presence that defines a charismatic and endearing performance and managed to exaggerate it so it translated well onto a tiny festival stage and grabbed the attention of the unwilling audience, the whole festival was propelled into realms of unreal brilliance. When YACHT jumped the barrier at the Sunrise Arena and danced manically, their massive, off-beat electro so loud and infectious that it seemed wasted on the almost immovable crowd. When SoKo screamed down the microphone with lyrics too rude to repeat and a voice too adorable to describe. When Lovvers near-blistered my face with their energy, and when I stumbled upon a midnight screening of David Lynch’s ‘Eraserhead’ with Guillemots providing the soundtrack and had to pinch myself to confirm my consciousness. I could go on.
The headliners did not disappoint – Sigur Ros’ performance on Saturday evening was the stuff of dreams. An inspiring and moving collection of songs from the latest album, ‘”Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust” and previous efforts were accentuated by outlandishly camp touches (Confetti! Outfits! Trumpets!). It seems difficult to describe an experience that was bordering on otherworldy – does anyone know the Icelandic for ‘amazing’? The band surpassed expectations, though one can question whether it was the work of the music or the stunning surroundings. I can assure you there is nothing more magnificent than listening to Hoppipola live during the prettiest sunset of July thus far in a massive field fringed with titanic trees. Brilliant. Franz Ferdinand were probably Just Alright, but this reviewer was crushed at the front, singing along to every song, jumping up and down frantically and trying to dodge the limbs of crowd surfers, so thought it was the Best Thing Ever. The new songs lack the spiky, angular quality of the debut and sophomore efforts, but there was a redeeming beat that was highly danceable. 7/10.
The lineup on the smaller stages was nearly faultless, compensating for the lack of diversity with charming bands that represented The Best Indie Music Around. The Wave Pictures were lovely, taking requests from the crowd and stating that they ‘had always been seen as a sister band to Blondie’ (who was playing on the Uncut Stage simultaneously). Johnny Flynn (6/10 on record, 9/10 live) induced a frenzied bout of fangirling in the crowd, who screamed ‘Johnny! We love you!’ until it began to grate (I am actually not even one to judge, though. “Johnny! Johnny! Can my friend have a picture with you?!” Terrible, I know.) Elsewhere, Joanna Newsom’s midday performance was enchanting; her 10-minute long rendition of ‘Colleen’ stunned the audience into silence to the point where Newsom felt compelled to thank the crowd for listening.
Though the promoters promised that the event was ‘more than just a music festival’, we can wonder if they succeeded in their aim to create a festival that was both mainstream and offbeat. The poetry tent offered some much-needed diversity (props to the exceptional Luke Wright, the curator and headliner of the tent), with beat poets and rappers taking the stage and one could argue that the comedy tent was the most popular individual arena at the festival, consistently unable to contain the crowds who seemed happy to queue for two hours to catch a glimpse of Bill Bailey or Frankie Boyle in action.
Regardless of these attempts to inject some variety into the line-up, musically the festival still left me wanting more – maybe I was in the wrong place for what I felt was necessary to create a more well-rounded view of the current musical climate, but I was expecting a festival that boasted of Musical Diversity to live up to its promises. I settled for post rock and folk and indie, wading my way through crowds of Interpol t-shirt clad indie dads with their Foals t-shirt clad indie sons, looking slightly out of place. Will I be going next year? Of course – you can’t beat Latitude for atmosphere and eccentric extras. But I’ll be praying that the slightly tedious trend of Tepid Headlining Rock Band is broken – fingers crossed for Jay Z headlining. Indie dad won’t be happy, but I’ll be over the moon.
PLAY: YACHT – Your Magic Is Real [Buy 'I Believe In You. Your Magic Is Real.]
June: A Summary
words: Jamie Milton
MFM’s biggest month yet – it goes a little something like this. We uploaded a Coldplay mp3, added our blog to hypemachine, the Coldplay mp3 became the most listened to track in like a zillion years and lots of Coldplay fans clogged up our blog. We then decided to change the blog web addy from jambo234 (slightly unprofessional) to mfmic (slightly sensible). Before we could re-open jambo234 to tell you all about how we’d moved, the blog had been taken over by porn. Not even good porn at that. Adverts. Just plain, infesting adverts.
While all of this has been happening, we’ve still been up to our necks with the most exciting new music. Whilst talking about our favourite things so far this year, we experienced being slightly disappointed (My Morning Jacket, Johnny Flynn) to being casually surprised (Born Ruffians, Ratatat). My Morning Jacket’s ‘Evil Urges’ literally urged to be something different, a swaying movement from ‘Z’ and ‘It Still Moves’ but even though many fell for its newly-dressed charms, we weren’t best pleased. Born Ruffians also arrived to a mixed reception – as we cleverly (ingeniously, infact) described ‘Red, Yellow & Blue‘ as being divided into three colours – one good (red) one alright (yellow) and one shit (blue), that’s how we got famous. That was DEFINITELY a good idea.
In the most impressive things ever corner, we had our two favourites of Fleet Foxes and Johnny Foreigner’s debut records which will no doubt be praised at the end of the year. Personally, I don’t regret for a second giving them sky-high ratings (unlike usual circumstances). To this day, they still warrant it. ‘Fleet Foxes‘ has been dissed by some dissers on dis.com but it still remains a timeless, beautifully-thought-out album, the perfect wake-up call. ‘Waited Up ’til It Was Light‘ hasn’t been dissed so much. That’s fair, then.
But in truth, June wasn’t a patch on the unusually amazing batch of music May gave us (No Age, Cut Copy, Bon Iver) but it was never going to be. Sure, Coldplay and Sigur Ros’ latest records don’t quite live up to previously set standards but we sort of expected that. We still came out of our most hectic, stressful month with two gems in hands.
In a shorter summary-
Best album we heard: Fleet Foxes- Fleet Foxes
Best song we heard: Johnny Foreigner – Yes! You Talk Too Fast
PLAY: Fleet Foxes – He Doesn’t Know Why [Buy 'Fleet Foxes']
PLAY: Johnny Foreigner – Yes! You Talk Too Fast [Buy ' Waited up....']
RELEASE THIS WEEK – 23rd June
words: Jamie Milton
This week MFM takes the environmentally friendly train to London to witness Radiohead play live in front of our very eyes. We’ll be too star-struck to remember any of it but fingers cross the band play host to a performance reminiscent of this, when they were at their very peak.
This time last week I wasn’t looking forward to June 23rd. I was far too obsessed with the book-like layout of the Fleet Foxes LP, and today I’m far too pissed off with Robert Mugabe to let out a few kind words. Having said that, Sigur Ros are back so Monday will be a time to celebrate. After all, we have been waiting for this for quite some time and their latest, most-unpronounceable titled record is far from a disappointment, but it’s also far from being the ground-breaker that they’ve already managed to create at least three times before.
Get crazy:
ALBUM OF THE WEEK - Sigur Ros – Með Suð í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust
This may not be their best effort, despite all the expectation that surrounded it for the short period of time that we knew about its release, but Sigur Ros have earned the royalty to gain respect without breaking the rules of beautiful music. ‘Meo…’ is crammed full of glorious shimmers of overwhelming beauty at times. It never grates either. But it’s simply not as jaw-dropping as their last three efforts. Those records were masterpieces though and this record still warrants your purchase, big time.
7.5
Also out:
Wolf Parade – At Mount Zoomer
Arguably another band that have failed to meet the expectations set by their previous release, Wolf Parade have still managed to produce an album that merits praise. The critical acclaim of ‘Apologies To Queen Mary’ would have pressurised most bands into oblivion when it came to releasing more music but Wolf Parade have taken it in their stride and despite songs like ‘Fine Young Cannibals’ and maybe even the wonderful ‘California Dreamer’ weighing you down because of lasting too long, ‘At Mount Zoomer’ can still call itself a good album.
6.5
Also out that we’re seriously desperate to hear:
White Denim – Workout Holiday
Everybody seems to be chucking their remaining praise in the direction of White Denim. The racey Texas-bred trio were bound to have got some hype resting on their shoulders after unleashing one of our singles of the year, ‘Let’s Talk About It’ – a stunning effort that left us all wondering why we come up with it years back. ‘Workout Holiday’ looks set to try and exceed that single though instead of getting all the less-impressive moments to make way for the centrepiece. This record could be exceptional.
You may or may not also be interested in getting these:
Rascals – Rascalize
Presets – Apocalypso
Cage The Elephant – Cage The Elephant
PLAY: Sigur Ros – Inní Mér Syngur Vitleysingur [Buy 'Með Suð í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust']
PLAY: Wolf Parade – The Grey Estates [Buy 'At Mount Zoomer']
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MFM @ HYPEM
