STACK #124 Feb 2016

MUSIC

NEWS

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BjÖrk for march B jörk has announced that her new album will be out in March. The Icelandic singer posted on her Facebook page that her follow-up to 2011’s Biophilia is called Dylan Sings blue eyes B ob Dylan as Ol’ Blue Eyes? Believe it or not, that’s the theme of Shadows in the Night , the new album from the legendary singer-songwriter out on February 6. The 10-track LP consists mainly of American standards popularised by Sinatra, although Dylan looks to have gone for a much more stripped down approach. “It was all done live, maybe one or two takes,” he said when announcing the album’s release earlier in the year. “No overdubbing. No vocal booths. No headphones. No separate tracking, and, for the most part, mixed as it was recorded.“ Far from the days when Dylan would lose interest in his covers projects halfway through, this one had him in for the long haul.“I don’t see myself as covering these songs in any way. They’ve been covered enough. What me and my band are basically doing is uncovering them. Lifting

Q1/ What’s the core message behind the address in the opening track on The Mindsweep? Enter shikari It feels like there’s this overwhelming anger, no-one really knows where to direct it. It’s very easy to direct anger at a human, but I think what we’ve always been trying to do is to sort of express it that way; it’s the various systems that we have in place, rather than bad apples. It just feels like people are simmering and we’re just hoping, on this album, to bring them to the boil, I suppose. Q2/ You’ve used live brass and strings this time: why was that? It was great fun. We’ve always had strings, but they’ve obviously always been sampled – and sampled sounds great in this day and age. But there really was... I feel a bit cringey saying this, but that day when we brought in the string quartet, it really felt like something magical in the air, it just put a sparkle on the track that you couldn’t really achieve from a sample. Q3/ Where do Enter Shikari fit into the music scene? After three years relentlessly touring, we thought we’d managed to chisel out our little place. But there were people saying – purists – who feel some ownership or identity in various music genres. And when someone comes along, in their eyes, and kind of rapes and pillages their cherished corner of music, then they’re going to feel quite emotional about that. Q4/ So, how does the band evolve, in terms of sound? Because we had the luck and the luxury of growing up around so many different types of music, and having influences from our families and different friendship groups, all those types of music that we do incorporate, it feels natural to us and we always try and do it with a sense of respect of the history and those various strands of music. Q5/ What’s the Latin at the end of The Appeal and the Mindsweep 11? It’s me putting on a silly voice. It basically translates as ‘with the name changed, the story is told of you’, which is an old adage proverb, just rattling home that same sense of unity that we are. When you kind of reduce us all down to biology, we all need and require the same things to live and to flourish as a species, and we’re floating on this one rock together .

them out of the grave and bringing them into the light of day.” As for those famously ravaged vocals carrying Sinatra? The first two tracks

released ( Stay with Me and Full Moon and Empty Arms ) are both exercises in phrasing and control; it’s strange listening to that voice sing American standards, but early indications are that this offbeat idea might, just work.

Vulnicura, and will feature nine new songs including two co-written with hip Venezuelan producer Arca, who also co-produced six of the tracks. The Haxan Cloak – aka British electronica artist Bobby Krilic – has also co-produced a number of tracks. Bjork told the NME last month that the album is largely inspired by the break-up of her relationship with famous visual artist Mathew Barneu. “When I did this album it all just collapsed. I didn’t have anything,” she revealed. “It was the most painful thing I ever experienced in my life. The only way I could deal with that was to start writing for strings.” No word yet when it will be released in this part of the world, but keep an eye out for it in March.

faithfuLl Falls back in love with london

M arianne Faithfull has been in the music business 50 years. Her first single, As Tears Go By, was penned by her then lover Mick Jagger and Rolling Stones’ guitarist Keith Richards. Over the years she’s been controversial (with the album Broken English ) and acclaimed (the ‘00s’ saw great accolades for Kissin’ Time, her PJ Harvey/Nick Cave collaboration Before the Poison ). Now, she’s back with a love letter to her hometown of London, again in collaboration with a range of songwriters and musicians. Cave is back, contributing Late Victorian Holocaust , while Anna Calvi contributes the delightful Falling

The Mindsweep by Enter Shikari is out now via Liberation/Universal.

Back. And in an odd twist, the title track to Give My Love to London isn’t co-written with an Englishman, but

an American – that being Mr. Steve Earle. She also covers songs by Roger Waters and Leonard Cohen.

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FEBRUARY 2015 JB Hi-Fi www.jbhifi.com.au/music