Posts Tagged ‘anniversary’

Tangerine Dream – 50 Years Of Phaedra: At The Barbican

Posted: 30 January 2026 in Albums, Reviews
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Kscope – 30th January 2026

Christopher Nosnibor

My parents weren’t really big on music. They had maybe fifty-odd, maybe seventy-five or so albums, and didn’t really seem to listen to many of them when I was growing up in the 80s. Most of those records were old… at least, that was how I perceived them at the time. There was a bunch of Beatles LPs, some Steeleye Span, and the same shit that occupied pretty much every collection at that time, at least for people of a certain age: Tubular Bells, Queen’s Greatest Hits, and Tangerine Dream’s Phaedra. They probably had Oxygene by Jean-Michelle Jarre, too. The 70s and 80s may well have been a boom time for the alternative breaking into the charts, with punk bands and the likes of Killing Joke making it onto Top of the Pops, and it may equally have been the period of peak postmodernism, but living through it then and reflecting on it now, the mainstream cultural dominance was anything but fragmented, and the comparatively limited choices of the time – can you imagine only four television channels, and no Internet? You had to be there, really – meant that there was a huge cultural homogeneity. Everyone watched the same TV shows – with something of an unspoken class division between BBC and ITV – and there was only really Radio 1 and Radio 2, and everyone listened to the radio.

And like most people their age, my parents thought they were hip buying the first Now That’s What I Call Music albums, and my mum would groove while listening to Phil Collins, The Bee Gees and Tina Turner while ironing, records purchased through Britannia Music. I’m not remotely nostalgic for any of this. If anything, my gentle, middle-class upbringing was marred by these experiences because it wasn’t just bland, it was… Look, imagine car journeys to UK holiday destinations in Devon and The Lake District spent listening to Barbara Dixon and Elkie Brooks and 80s Cliff Richard. I love Devon and The Lake District, but the soundtrack to my life as a child was fucking awful, and I feel a certain trauma tripped my life as a consequence. I don’t know if I ever heard Phaedra at home, I just spotted it while flicking through their collection.

Phaedra seems like something of an outlier in the context of such a collection, but it was a huge breakthrough release, the Hot Fuss of 1974. Or something. It spent fifteen weeks in the UK album charts, and achieved six-figure sales.

In context, it was truly a landmark album, famously the first to showcase their seminal sequencer-driven sound, and launched The Berlin School, the foundation of ‘space music’. The fact that it’s been fifty years since the album’s release is unfathomable, but it’s unquestionably appropriate to mark its anniversary. And while the thirty-fifth anniversary brought us Phaedra Revisited – a live performance of the album in its entirety, but reconfigured, retaining the thirty-eight minute duration of the original studio release, but with an abridged rendition of the title track making space for a new composition in the form of ‘Delfi’ at the end.

There’s no such sense of limitation when it comes to 50 Years Of Phaedra: At The Barbican – a colossal triple-disc of a commemorative live performance by the current incarnation of the band, consisting of Thorsten Quaeschning, Hoshiko Yamane, and Paul Frick – none of whom played on the studio version.

As the accompanying biographical notes acknowledge, ‘Part of Phaedra’s magic lay in its imperfections: the original sequences were never truly quantised, their timing drifting unpredictably through the Moog’s analogue circuitry. That subtle instability became part of its charm – a human pulse within the machine’ – before going on to explain that ‘it long left current bandleader Thorsten Quaeschning intrigued by what a fully realised version might reveal. Now, fifty years later, Tangerine Dream have revisited the work with the precision that technology once denied them. 50 Years of Phaedra: At the Barbican is the first time Phaedra has been performed fully quantised, each motif beautifully aligned with a crystalline precision previously unheard’.

It’s hard to find fault in either the performance or the fidelity here. It does sound great: there is so much detail, the experience is absolute, a sensory immersion, and that ‘crystalline precision’ means it feels more like an alternative soundtrack to something like Avatar.

The track listing also sees the current iteration move some considerable distance away from the sequencing of the original album: after a brief intro, they play ‘Sequent C’, followed by ‘Movements of a Visionary’, and then ‘Mysterious Semblance at the Strand of Nightmares’. Of these, the first two are substantially longer, the third a couple of minutes shorter. Then they transition away from the original compositions to explore ‘The Hippolytus Session’, a work in eight parts, spanning some forty-odd minutes, but returning to fragments of ‘Phaedra’ in the form of ‘Phaedra 2024’ (and much later, there’s a reprise of sorts with ‘Phaedra 2022’. Hippolytus being the stepson of Phaedra in Greek mythology, there’s a clear trajectory in what they’re doing here – pushing the original concept out and exploring the stated intention of discovering what the album may have been had current technology been available in 1974. The concept is interesting, but in some ways feels like it should exist as a satellite or supplementary work, and as is the case with last year’s monster From Virgin To Quantum Years: Coventry Cathedral, it’s very much one for the more devoted fans, and ones who are accommodating of the fact that this is a different lineup and a different time. It’s nice and all, but it’s by no means an improvement on the original.

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BLACK REBEL MOTOR CYCLE CLUB ISSUES CEASE & DESIST TO U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY FOR IMPROPER USE OF BAND’S RECORDING

Posted: 13 July 2025 in Previews and Editorial
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We’re a bit behind with the news, but always knew BRMC were a great band. We applaud them once again.

10th July 2025, it was brought to the band’s attention that Homeland Security were improperly using their version of the song ‘God’s Gonna Cut You Down’ in one of their propaganda videos.

They have ordered a Cease and Desist to DHS for the use of this song, and asked that they immediately pull down the video.

The have issued the following statement via their social media channels, including Instagram, Facebook, and X:

To: U.S. Department of Homeland Security

From: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

It has come to our attention that the Department of Homeland Security is improperly using our recording of “God’s Gonna Cut You Down” in your latest propaganda video. It’s obvious that you don’t respect Copyright Law and Artist Rights any more than you respect Habeas Corpus and Due Process rights, not to mention the separation of Church and State per the US Constitution.

For the record, we hereby order DHS to cease and desist the use of our recording and demand that you immediately pull down your video.

Oh, and go f… yourselves,

-BRMC

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The band recently announced they would be returning to the UK and Europe to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their 2005 seminal album, Howl.
BRMC – Robert Levon Been — Bass, Guitar, Piano, Vocals, Peter Hayes— Guitar, Bass, Harmonica, Vocals and Leah Shapiro — Drums, Backing Vocals, Percussion – will bring their 22-date headline tour to the UK and Europe, their first since 2017, which sees them playing Copenhagen, Denmark on 18 November and London, UK on December 17 as well as 7 other countries, see dates below and on their Website.

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Listen: ‘October’ by Maybeshewill

Posted: 17 April 2024 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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With the release of the 10th anniversary edition of Fair Youth landing next month, UK instrumental rock act Maybeshewill have shared a new stand-alone single ‘October.’ Originally slated for their 2021 album No Feeling is Final the band felt the song didn’t quite sit on the album tonally, feeling more of connection to Fair Youth.

Bassist Jamie Ward comments, “One of the first songs written when the band tentatively began exploring the idea of creating together again, ‘October’ has its roots in a voice memo jotted down in vain hope during the band’s rehearsals for their final tour before they disbanded in 2016. ‘October’ is a song about the creative spark, about rekindling friendships and an ode to keeping trying to explore your artistic passions even when that might seem futile. A rare piece of Maybeshewill history that has its significance despite ultimately not ending up being included as part of a larger body of work.”

Listen to ‘October’ here:

Maybeshewill celebrate a decade of their ‘Fair Youth’ album with a brand new 10th anniversary edition, available on the 3rd May 2024 (Superball).  Released as a special limited edition opaque hot pink & black marbled LP, as well as digitally, this version has been newly remixed & remastered by the bands own Jamie Ward. The band had this to say:

“Looking back on Fair Youth with a decade of hindsight, it holds a particularly special place in Maybeshewill history – not least because it was the first record that, start to finish, was a product of all five of us. It took us very literally around the world to play for so many new audiences, but was also the last record we made before taking an extended break. It was intended as an overwhelmingly positive record, and I think sonically, that remains true. It’s a record we all remain extremely proud of, and are delighted that it’s getting a beautiful new pressing courtesy of our friends at Superball.”

Jamie Ward comments of the new mix & master: “With 10 years more mixing experience under my belt I feel a bit better placed to conquer the wall of sound and get a little more separation between the instruments to really bring out the details of those arrangements. In general I’ve tried to make things hit a little harder and be bit a more vibrant and technicolour.”

Fans can hear the newly remixed version of the track ‘All Things Transient’, as well as pre-order the new edition here: https://maybeshewill.lnk.to/FairYouth-2024Mix

The band will also head out on tour in the UK in May, joining forces with Bossk for a co-headline run, before playing two European festivals this summer. Find the full list of shows below:

15th May – The Fleece, Bristol, UK*

16th May – Rescue Rooms, Nottingham, UK*

17th May – Gorilla, Manchester, UK*

18th May – Brudenell Social Club, Leeds, UK*

19th May – The Garage, London, UK*

26th June – Resurrection Fest, Viveiro, Spain

31st July – Rockstadt Extreme Fest, Brașov, Romania

*with Bossk

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Photo credit: Fraser West

Percy / Speedreaders / No Como Crees – The Fulford Arms, York, 13th January 2024

Posted: 14 January 2024 in Live, Reviews
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Christopher Nosnibor

There tend not to be many good news stories about grassroots venues in circulation, so to be able to present one feels like a big, big deal: tonight’s gig marks ten years since The Fulford Arms, previously a pub that put on some gigs, came under new ownership and became a dedicated grassroots venue.

I’ve lost count of the number of shows I’ve attended, and even the number of times I’ve performed, during those years. I’ve also lost count of the number of times I’ve raved about just how brilliant a venue it is. Over the years, for a small venue, it’s pulled some big names, from Wayne Hussey and The March Violets, to Ginger Wildheart, as well as bands on the cusp, notably, in the past couple of years, Benefits and BDRMM – which perfectly illustrates the need for grassroots venues. The bands on the cusp cut their teeth in venues like this, and without them… well, so much has been said already on the detriment to the industry, the economy, to bands… but also, the community. One thing I’ve oft repeated is that where The Fulford Arms is concerned, much as important as the sound and the bands are, the sense of community is absolutely the thing that makes it. That community centres around disparate groups and individuals, who are all welcomed equally, regardless of commercial draw. The big gigs fund the tiny local events, the noise nights, anti-racism poetry and spoken-word nights. You name it, it happens here.

And sure enough, on arrival, there are people I know – plenty of people – and as always, it feels like coming home. Not quite a gig in your living room, unless you have a massive living room with a bar and friendly bar staff, but certainly a home from home.

Tonight’s lineup is very much a celebration of the diversity of acts they putt on here, and also, significantly, focuses on the local. While many have elected to see John Otway and Wild Willy Barret on the other side of town, it’s significant that we actually have choice of live music to see in smaller venues on any given evening.

It’s a shame that the hefty guitar-wielding noise juggernaut JUKU have had to pull out at short notice due to COVID, but what’s on offer is still diverse and enjoyable.

First up, No Como Crees – a trio reduced to a 2-piece due to their drummer having food poisoning – or ‘food poisoning’ – and so they’re playing acoustic for the first time, with two guitars. It’s a good thing the bassist can actually play guitar. The change in lineup has dictated a change in sound, meaning that instead of roustabout ska-punk we get acoustic Americana, and serves as a reminder of the York scene before The Fulford Arms became a venue proper, when every other pub would host some singer-songwriter solo or duo playing blues / Americana. Some acts were better than others, but ultimately the lack of variety was pretty grim.

Credit to them for the effort they’ve put into the set and how well they pull it off. Their second song reminds me rather of ‘Horse with No Name’ by America. Another song is supposed to be uptempo ska-punk in its usual format, but it too comes out as Springsteenish Americana. Then there’s a song with some rapped verses which really don’t work in an acoustic setting. I do feel sorry for them performing under difficult circumstances and it’s a decent effort but on balance, I probably wouldn’t have dug their standard set any more. Sporting flat caps, custom-printed basketball vests, and beards, and swaying around airily, they’re vaguely irritating, and paired with some repetitive, unfunny banter, I find them hard to take to… and then they chuck in a cover of Jessie J’s ‘Price Tag’. But… they play well and have good voices. and variety is the key to tonight’s lineup.

Act 1

No Como Crees

Speedreaders are certainly a contrast. Although a relatively new act, they feature some longstanding faces from the city’s scene. There’s something quintessentially York about their brand of ponderous indie straddling 80s and 90s, with jangling guitar and tempo changes and buildups galore, and style of jumpers and jeans, open shirts over t-shirts indie. In the main, it’s understated, somewhat slowcore. “We’re not cocky, we’re just awkward” David Mudie (guitars and vocals) says, breaking one of the lengthy silences between songs while tunes up. Plugging away at a handful of chords, pushed along by simple, uncluttered drumming, the songs shine with all three band members’ vocals blending to later the sound. They really cut loose on final song, ‘Down-Round’, which lands in the territory of Pavement and Dinosaur Jr circa You’re Living All Over Me, with some gloriously wistful minor chords, before hitting an epic kraut groove workout that brings the set to a sustained climax.

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Speedreaders

Percy have been going for twenty-eight years now, and while they may have undergone a few lineup changes, through the years, the current one is solid, and they’ve been prolific, both in terms of recorded output and gigs. They’re certainly worthy headliners for tonight’s show – a band who’ve trodden the boards at the Fully Arms countless times, and a band who have spent their career pedalling their wares round the grassroots circuit.

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Percy

Spells of raised profile have come and gone, and they’re still doing what they do. As York’s answer to The Fall, they’ll keep on doing it, too. As such, tonight’s outing is business as usual for Percy, and in typical style as learned from The Fall, they play their forthcoming album, which currently has no release date, in its entirety. Awkward Northern buggers. Then again, like the bands who in many respects define that Northern attitude – I’m thinking not only The Fall, but The Wedding Present,

Fennesz – Hotel Paral.lel (2022 remaster)

Posted: 18 April 2022 in Albums
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Editions Mego – eMego016X

22nd April 2022

Christopher Nosnibor

Context counts for a lot, particularly when evaluating works which represent the time in which they originated. This is no more true than when it comes to evaluating this reissue of Christian Fennesz’ Hotel Paral.lel, originally released in 1997.

For some of us – those of a certain age – 1997 seems recent. But then, there will be great swathes of the population who are actively listening to music -and who are fill-fledged adults, many with children of their own now – who weren’t even born in 1997. Stop and consider that for a moment. 1997 was twenty-five years ago. A quarter of a century.

Cast your mind back twenty-five years, if you can, and try to recall the musical landscape, what you were listening to, what was fresh and exciting, new and emerging. And cast your mind back, if you can, simply to life as it was back in 1997. Pre-millennium tension was beginning to slowly build around the end of days, and the millennium bug that would bring all technology to a halt. Nu-Metal was only just breaking, with the release of Limp Bizkit’s debut, Three Dollar Bill, Y’All. It was the year of The Prodigy’s The Fat of the Land and Portishead’s debut, as well as Radiohead’s OK Computer. It was also the year of Princess Diana’s death and here in the UK, there was a sense of hope as Labour won the election, deposing the Conservatives after eighteen years in power.

But it’s also worth remembering just how far technology has come in twenty-five years. As the liner notes remind us, Hotel Paral.lel was ‘recorded just before mobile computing devices became omnipresent’, and that ‘it was an investigation into the sonic possibilities residing in guitar based digital music. Sz launches the career with a constantly buzzing sound that resembles a fax machine encountering a G3 laptop for the first time, realising the game is up. ‘Nebenraum’ is the first foray into the style for which one would attribute to Fennesz. A glacial drone unexpectedly morphs into a gorgeous melody and microscopic groove. Adding pulse and melody was hearsay in the radical end of experimental music up until this point and with this single gesture, everything changed, for everyone.’

It seems hard to comprehend now, but Christian Fennesz’ debut full-length release really wasn’t so much ground-breaking as earth-shattering – only it wasn’t apparent at the time, and no-one was really paying attention anyway. There was a 2007 remaster to mark the album’s tenth anniversary, but this version isn’t only re-remastered buy boasts a bonus three tracks.

Listening to Hotel Paral.lel with the distance of time and the benefit of hindsight, it’s clear just how out of time it was. It’s a disturbing mess of static fizz, crackles, and hissing, clanks and rumbles, thuds and glitches. It’s an assemblage of dark ambient grating and griding, droning and grumbling., but then ‘Fa’ is more a gritty slab of bouncing heavyweight death disco: it’s got beats, it’s got groove, but it’s got some grainy bite to it.

If ‘industrial’ had become synonymous with Ministry and Nine Inch Nails, Hotel Paral.lel was a reminder – for those paying attention – of the roots of the genre, which lay with Throbbing Gristle and early adopters of emerging Technology like Cabaret Voltaire. And on Hotel Paral.lel, Fennesz exploits the latest emerging technologies to conjure alien soundscapes and strange forms.

There are moments, such as the closing couple of minutes of ‘Nebenraum’ which are surprisingly and incongruously mellow and melodic, in contrast to the warping, circuit-splintering dissonance of ‘Zeug’, one of a number of incredibly short experimental pieces.

Hotel Paral.lel also serves as a reminder that experimental is not a negative trait or a critical dismissal: without experimentation there is no progress, and in ‘97, Fennesz really was flying in the face not only of popular opinion, but, well everything. Now, of course, it doesn’t sound too radical, sonically or in terms of objectives. It does, however sound difficult, gnarly. It sounds dark. And it’s a beast.

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Listen: ‘1970’ by Workin’ Man Noise Unit

Posted: 7 July 2020 in Recommended Streams and Videos
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Workin’ Man Noise Unit mark the 50th anniversary of The Stooges’ second album, Fun House with the release of their take on ‘1970’. It’s a belter, and captures the blistering intensity of the original with a sinverity that’s impossible to fake. What’s more, it’s priced a pay what you feel, with everything you feel being given to Gendered Intelligence.

Good people doing good things via the medium of good music.

The world needs this right now.

Listen to and download  ‘1970’ here:

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Cowgirl / My Wonderful Daze / Percy / REDFYRN / Miles. – The Fulford Arms, York, 10th January 2020

Posted: 12 January 2020 in Live
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Christopher Nosnibor

In what has been a difficult time for small venues – meaning it’s also been a difficult time for bands who aren’t massive to get gigs – The Fulford Arms in York has gone from strength to strength and while other venues have – sadly – come and gone in the city they’re not only still here, but have built an admirable reputation.

The fact it’s independent and well-run (that is to say professional but also wonderfully friendly), has great sound, and decent beer at the more affordable end of pub prices counts for a lot. That they cater to a remarkably broad range of audiences is another key: it’s easy to stick to tried-and-tested crowd-pleasers like tribute acts or be a ‘rock’ venue, but often to diminishing returns. It’s the only venue in the city you’ll find oddball electronic nights, big-name acts, local acoustic artists, and spoken word events in a single week. Their accommodating approach to new and unusual acts has made the place a real hub for the city’s music scene.

Tonight’s show marks the sixth anniversary of the venue being taken over by its current owners, Christopher Sherrington and Chris Tuke, and it’s very much a celebration of everything that makes The Fulford Arms a great venue. The lineup is very much focused on local acts, and celebrates the diversity of bands active in and around York right now.

Early doors, Miles. sees multi-instrumentalist Michael Donnelly follow the trajectory of his previous band, Epilogues, to a more minimal end. Oh stage, he’s a striking figure, with floppy fringe, specs, above-ankle trews: he’s an 80s/90s hybrid visually, but musically, his delicately-crafted songs are of no specific time, and are perhaps even worthy of being described as timeless. Subtle ambient drones and throbs provide depth to his understated picked acoustic guitar and magnificent soaring vocals on introspective, emotion-rich songs.

Miles

Miles.

Kids today! With their shit clothes and shit music, not like in my day… You hear it all the time, and not just from crotchety old bastards who remember when punk broke, or even slightly less old bastards who remember when grunge broke, but from people barely in their 30s. That may be true of the crap that gets played on the radio, but beyond the mainstream, we’re in a time where the guitars are getting louder, heavier, denser than ever. And REDFYRN go all out for loud, heavy, and dense, with a breathtaking juxtaposition of floating ethereal folky vocals and punishing sludgy/grunge riffs, with comparisons to Big | Brave and Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard not being unjustified, although there’s also a more direct grunge-orientated aspect to their sound, which is more than straight stoner / doom / sludge and all the better for it. Apart from the bassist, they look pretty straight, especially the drummer, but looks are deceptive. They’re heavy and mega-riffy from the first chord, and when they announce the third song as being heavier, they’re not wrong: the bass positively barks and snarls its way through a grating grind of guitar before spinning into an extended blues jam by way of a midsection.

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REDFYRN

Percy don’t piss about. They’ve been at it long enough that they can pretty much plug ‘n’ play, and you pretty much know what you’re going to get from one of the most consistent bands on the circuit: workmanlike is by no means an insult in context of their Fall-influenced kitchen sink grouchfests. Does the delivery help or hinder? It’s probably appealing and offputting in equal measure – like they give a fuck. In so many ways, it’s business as usual for them: tight even when loose, scratchy guitars clang over busy rhythms as Andy Wiles, centre stage on bass throws all the Peter Hook poses. And they’ve got some cracking tunes: in fact, the current set is bursting with them, and it’s apparent that something has changed in the Percy camp of late, and they’re producing the best songs of their career right now. They really step up the intensity on the Fall-does-dance Middle Class Revolt style ‘Rubbernecking in the UK’ followed by the fiery politicking ‘Will of the People’, which ends in a squeal of feedback. They seem more energised than at any point in the last 20 years, and this is probably the best I’ve seen them in all the years since I first caught them back in 97 or 98.

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Percy

My Wonderful Daze take the stage with the guys looking doomy in smeared makeup. My notes for the evening peter out rapidly at this point as ‘m lost in the performance: the band have an incredible dynamic. Amalgamating some hefty grunge with a deftly accessible side, with bursts of noise and fury erupting from simmering tension they’re in some respects quintessential alt-rock, but don’t sound quite like any other band around. Raw but melodic, and with a compelling focal point in the form of Flowers who channels a gamut of emotional range, they’re solid and exciting at the same time.

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My Wonderful Daze

Cowgirl are a fitting headliner, and so very representative of the core of the York scene, featuring the ubiquitous local legend Danny Barton (who must be in or have been in at least two dozen acts who’ve garnered some appreciation in their hometown and beyond) and another former Federal Sam Coates. He’s sporting some heinous tassels on a fawn suede coat, and a bootlace tie. Who on earth wears those these days? The look is somewhat at odds with the band’s Pavementy slacker indie rock, but they’ve got the tunes and the knack of delivery. A lot of it’s the confidence of seasoned performers, but equally, a lot of it’s down to tidy songwriting, and these guys can kick ‘em out effortlessly and copiously. The penultimate song of set is an extended psych workout that’s not only a departure but the highlight of the performance because it’s good to see them cut loose.

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Cowgirl

What do you say to round off a night like this? There should probably be a pithy one-liner, but I’m all out: the Titanic Plum Porter is top-notch and I tumble out into the cold January night with its full moon, happy that things are good on the scene in York, and that while there may be infinite shit to wade through in life and in 2020, The Fulford Arms will continue to provide an oasis of musical joy.