Loud And Quiet

Once a month a couple of us host a radio show on Resonance FM – a community station based in London that broadcasts some of the most interesting and unique shows around. There are no ads, and it’s pretty much the only station that will feature spoken world one minute and avant garde French psych the next.

We use our hour each month to preview some of the new artists we’ve been listening to most in our office, and, in this month’s show, discuss the week’s pie situation.

Next month’s show will be live on air at 8pm on March 29th. Until then, here’s last night’s show.

Samantha Crain – Antiseptic Greeting
KITE BASE – Transition
Wesley Gonzalez – Exhibition Song
Timber Timbre – Sewer Blues
Phobophobes – The Never Never
Earlham Mystics – Stolen Hearts
Rays – Drop Dead
London O’Connor – Nobody Hangs Out Anymore
Kadhja Bonet – Honeycomb

For some artists their approach is to give away very little. Y’know, cultivate some mystery, keep things alluring. With Arca it appears to be the very opposite.

The Venezuelan-born, London-based producer has announced his forthcoming self-titled third album will be out on XL on 7 April.

It’s the first of his material to feature his raw, fragile singing voice. The announcement comes accompanied with the following comment from Arca:

“Here’s my voice and all my guts: feel free to judge it. It’s like a bullfight: you’re watching emotional violence for pleasure. So this is a character who, almost as a mockery of the transaction, goes uncomfortably deep, into self-mutilation. You want gore? Here’s gore.”

This is new track ‘Piel’. He’s also going to play The Roundhouse in London on 28 April.

Once in the bowels of London’s famous Abbey Road Studios, Phobophobes did something that we’d all probably do given the chance/had we had the slightly disgusting thought to do. They took a swab from the studio’s oldest microphone used by all the greats who’ve passed through those iconic doors. The image, of that bacteria, now preserved in a Petri dish, adorns their artwork.

Sums up the south London-based band (who share the same practise space as Fat Whites, Shame, Goat Girl and lots of others). Bit strange, this lot.

Phobophobes feature original Fat White Family drummer, Dan Lyons, and Meatraffle’s organ player, Chris OC.

Sadly, in their 2016, their guitarist George Russell passed away, putting everyone on hold for a while. But now, they’ve come back with this, another new track ‘The Never Never’, which according to the band is a pop at “excessive commercialism”.

It’s out on 24 March on Ra-Ra Rok Records. And that artwork is below.

Everything seems to be going in the right direction for Megan Markwick and Lily Somerville (IDER).

Last year a handful of tracks helped the north London pair notch a few million plays on streaming services.

It’s easy to see, or rather hear, why. They have an indisputable knack for a pop hook. Shura‘s a fan. So much so, she’s produced one the tracks on their forthcoming debut EP. It’s the first time Aleksandra Denton has produced for another artist outside of her own stuff.

The EP, ‘Gut Me Like An Animal’, is coming out via Aesop, the label where Sohn and TALA started out, on 31 March.

The news is accompanied with this new track, ‘Face On’.

It’s lot a slightly dark italo-disco vibe going on, a bit like Chromatics and Glass Candy, before blossoming into a full on Haim chorus. It also reminds a bit of Nilufer Yanya.

IDER will play their debut headline show at London’s Bermondsey Social Club on 6 April. But unfortunately, it’s sold out. They’ll also start work on their debut album this year.

Wesley Gonzalez has named his debut solo album ‘Excellent Musician’. Of course he has! It’ll be release via Moshi Moshi on 30 June.

In Let’s Wrestle, the north London DIY trio he formed in 2005 at the age of 15 (reportedly in a garden shed), Gonzalez combined humour and disscontempt with a work rate and talent beyond his age. Over 10 years and 3 Let’s Wrestle albums he learnt his craft and is now moving on with his love for The Beatles and melodious pop music in tact.

Less Hüsker Dü and more Todd Rundgren, Stax Records and XTC, ‘Excellent Musician’ is the sound of Gonzalez getting back to experimenting with tunes, having taught himself piano for this new record. “Whilst I’m proud of what I did with Let’s Wrestle, I hate bands that regurgitate the same sound over various LPs – I knew something had to change for me to want to try music again.”

Here’s a first listen to new track ‘Exhibition Song’; an ode to the lethargy and laziness felt during the beginnings of a romantic relationship.

You have to see this artwork too, which continues Wesley’s interest in the bizarre, brilliantly shit world of waxworks museums, also tackled on his 2016 single ‘Come Through And See Me’. He’s playing The Waiting Room in London, too, on 4 May.

This past weekend (11 February) we put out the latest issue of the magazine, issue 83 of Loud And Quiet. Here’s a handy map if you want to find your nearest stockist. There’s a digital version, too, if that’s more your thing.

In the meantime, here’s a playlist made up of artists that are either featured, interviewed or reviewed in the issue.

It’s a varied listen. From the theatrical, combative sounds of our cover stars HMLTD, through to the emerging talents of London’s Kelly Lee Owens, Los Angeles’ Kadhja Bonet and Bristol punks Idles.

Just when you think you’ve got music all figured out, Faris Badwan from The Horrors and Cat’s Eyes turns up on Hercules & Love Affair’s comeback track.

It’s called ‘Controller’ and features Faris singing “move me/it’s all I want/use me/it’s all I want/because I love what you’re making me do” in a sexy whisper.

The only thing better than listening to it is to imagine Faris performing in the music video in a club where the dancefloor lights up. In fact, the crowdfunding project starts right here.

Apparently the hook-up came after Hercules & Love Affair’s Andy Butler heard The Horrors’ live reworking of Frankie Knuckles & Jamie Principle’s ‘Your Love’ and got in touch.

Faris’ explanation: “I agreed to work with Andy on the condition that he would take me on a tour of Ghent’s S&M clubs. Latex or no latex he was fun to write with – it’s different to stuff I’ve done before and I really enjoyed his way of working. He has a great ear for melody. It was a good deal.”

Marika Hackman is going to be releasing some new music this year (via the AMF label), starting with ‘Boyfriend’ – “Payback for all those times I’ve been interrupted mid-snog by some seedy wanker asking to join in,” she says.

We’ve been listening to this one a lot. It sums up Hackman’s feelings on being a young woman making the kind of music she does, and how some blokes treated her around the release of her 2015 debut album, ‘We Slept Last Night’.

If you haven’t already, spend a few minutes with Everything Is Terrible‘s! disturbing/compelling videos. The Los Angeles’ collective take old VHS clips and turn them into all sorts of strange, dark and warped things. Like, Yellow Dino, who hunts for paedophiles.

It’s easy to see why Oliver Wilde got obsessed with it. So transfixed in fact he asked the creators of one of their series (Memory Hole) to make his new music video for ‘You’re So Kool-Aid’. Nic Maier is the guy behind it.

From Nic about their creation: “The vide0 for ‘…Kool Aid’ will make you want to take your skin off and put it back where it belongs. Directed by Commodore Gilgamesh, the Creat0r of Everything Is Terrible! and Memory Hole. Gilgamesh is also the father of the largest Jerry Maguire VHS collection on earth. Soon to be your father as well.”

It’s You’ve Been Framed without the accidents and £50 quid cheque but much, much weirder.

If you like what you hear, Wilde’s new album, his third, ‘Post-Frenz Container Buzz’ is out on 17 February on Howling Owl Records.

He’s touring a bunch of record stores (Bristol, Nottingham, Southsea, London and Shrewsbury) the week the album comes out then playing two shows with his live band at London’s Servant Jazz Quaters on 23 February and Bristol Thekla the following night.