1234 Shoreditch Festival - 26th July 2009

Last summer was a fairly good one, but what it lacked was a whole day in a park in Hoxton experiencing the sound and vision of the foremost pioneers of the London music scene. Luckily, the 1234 Shoreditch Festival returns to Shoreditch Park on 26th July this year to set this right. This year the numbers will be down (about 20,000 people are reported to have turned up in 2007) and the price will be up, but the £15 ticket price is well worth it for the extensive range of music across three stages between noon and 9pm, as well as access to ten aftershow parties in the area.

So, to cut a long story short, the artists already announced include Ulterior, Ipso Facto, KASMs, An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump, Hatcham Social, Factory Floor, S.C.U.M, Wild Palms, Project:KOMAKINO, Advert, O Children, V.E.G.A.S Whores, Relics, Silhouette, Sunderbans, and CC-SB, as well as New York noise titans A Place To Bury Strangers - and more to be announced. Rumours are rife about the headline slots, but we've heard only good things... all details here. This is one to get excited about.

Full lineup so far...
BANDS STAGE:
ADVERT // A GRAVE WITH NO NAME // AN EXPERIMENT ON A BIRD IN THE AIR PUMP // A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS // BANJO OR FREAKOUT // CC-SB // CHROME HOOF // FACTORY FLOOR // FLASHGUNS // HATCHAM SOCIAL // IPSO FACTO // KASMS // LION CLUB // O CHILDREN // POLLY SCATTERGOOD // PROJECT:KOMAKINO // RELICS // S.C.U.M // SILHOUETTE // SLOPPY SECONDS // SUNDERBANS // TELEVISED CRIMEWAVE // VEGAS WHORES // THE WARLOCKS // WILD PALMS // ULTERIOR // VIDEO NASTIES
ELECTRONIC STAGE:
**K // AUTOKRATZ // BOY CRISIS // DEATH TO THE KING // JOE & WILL ASK // KOOL KIDS KLUB // KRAZY BALDHEAD (ED BANGER) // LUNG ROTTER & SEVEN // MODEL FOR MEMORY // MICRON 63 // THE LOVELY JONJO

Today's releases.

A reminder for those who haven't to go out and buy the new albums from KASMS (Spayed) and Neils Children (X.Enc.), both of which are out today. Support independent retailers.

KASMs also play a free all-ages instore show at Rough Trade East this Wednesday to launch their album - arrive early to get a wristband.

KASMs album & free download.

The KASMs debut album will be out on May 11th and it's called Spayed. So we hear. One track off it is called 'Male Bonding' and is downloadable here - it's a sort of demonic chant which, in off-the-wall journalese, sounds a bit like the villagers from 'The Wicker Man' attacking the Slayer tourbus. (But good.)

KASMs: BONE YOU video

The video for KASMs' upcoming single 'Bone You', directed by Roman Rappak, has been set loose on an unsuspecting world in a fury of strobelit stop-motion. Download it from here.

'Bone You'/'Ode To Millers' is out as an iTunes download on 9th February, and on 7" on 23rd.

REVIEW. Hatcham Social, 8.1.09

The first London outing for Hatcham Social since October 2008 saw the indie pop trio take to the underground stage of the Borderline, off the Charing Cross Road, to perform their forthcoming album You Dig The Tunnel, I’ll Hide The Soil as part of the Fierce Panda ‘Pandamonium’ series. Proceedings began with some formidable support slots from Sunderbans – scuffling uplifting indie, vigorously delivered – and KASMs – showcasing some new material, updating the old, and finishing with a hauntingly subdued bass and vocal coda – but for the waiting crowd, a dose of Hatcham’s unique style was what was necessary, and what was duly delivered.

With an extra pair of hands by the name of Jerome Watson assisting on keyboards and guitar (but not at the same time), the band played their first chord fifteen minutes late and then immersed us totally in their world for just over half an hour. I don’t know if the whole album did get played, but if what was heard is what’s released, it’s certainly, to understate it, an achievement. Veering track by track from dreamily melodic to purposeful and aggressive, and reaching everywhere in between on the way, the melancholy keyboards offset Toby Kidd’s spiky guitar to bring in a hint of shoegazing texture, and Dave Fineberg keeps the whole thing grounded in post-punk roots with a series of intricate but solid bass parts.

No tracks are introduced, but details stand out to mark the new ones: here’s a chorus of ‘I’ll hide under the pillow’; here’s a perfect marriage of New Order keys with Orange Juice vocals; here’s Toby (replete with moustache and kiss-curl) muttering ‘tick tock’ to introduce a return to a sharper sound. Last year’s single ‘So So Happy Making’ gets thrown into the mixture mid-set. If it’s an albatross – there’s a certain sense that Hatcham would rather be playing newer material, and Toby abandons the microphone halfway through the second chorus – it’s a golden one, which any band would kill to have hanging around their necks: the chord changes, the harmonies, and the instrumentation (listen to the keys chime around the guitar!) are still sheer pop genius, and the title is as relevant as ever.

As if to prove that the band have got more, though, Finn Kidd launches into a breakneck rhythm as soon as the last chords have died, and a shredding guitar weaves in and out of a breathless ‘what’s mine is mine’ chorus – a confrontational follow-up to the obligatory hit single. The set takes a turn for the darker from there on in: ‘Jabberwocky’ broods and threatens, and Lewis Carroll’s nonsense rhymes and a maniacal laugh get wrapped rhythmically around the instrumental to make the recitation more nightmare than dream. ‘In My Opinion’ adopts a similar intensity, with Toby Kidd staring menacingly across the audience while Dave Fineberg wrestles the bassline into submission, and, at the conclusion of ‘Give Me The Gift’ - already a standout track with its intimately epic builds and peaks – there’s a muttered thanks and the indie pop crusaders disappear, leaving the audience bewitched, bothered, and bewildered, but certainly not begrudging the entrance fee – a paltry six pounds for the first truly great concert of the year.

* * *

You Dig The Tunnel, I'll Hide The Soil is out on 9th March on Fierce Panda.

KASMs album & new single.

KASMs have finished recording their debut album at Abbey Road studios, and are to release it some time in the next few months (although as yet it has no name and no artwork). Before that, though, comes their next single, 'Bone You'. It can be heard on their MySpace page and brings an ultra-distorted industrial edge to their sound, while preserving the band's gift for combining melody and structure with bone-crunching vicious noise.

KASMs album.;

Another small piece of news: KASMs have reportedly recorded their debut album. More details to follow as they surface.

KASMs 'Taxidermy' - further details //

You should probably know that KASMs' first 7" single 'Taxidermy' will now be released on 21st July, and that, further to our previous news on the topic, the b-side will feature not only 'Siren Sister' but also 'Elevator': a bumper package for all shriekbeat connoisseurs.

KASMs:: new 7"

The details for KASMs' new 7" single have been unveiled, and we're pleased. Side A will feature 'Taxidermy', a live favourite and a standout track on their debut EP. The flipside has new guitar-storm 'Siren Sister', a sinister warped blues now audible at their MySpace page. The whole package is due in July 8 on Trouble Records, as well as a special edition yet to be revealed. And it has a free poster. An essential release: get it as soon as it hits the shelves.

KASMs to release 7";;

Following the sell-out of their debut EP, KASMs have announced the release of their first vinyl release: a 7" single on Trouble Records in the near future. Details are scant but will be visible here as soon as they appear.

KASMs;; debut EP out now

We knew that KASMs had a release in the pipeline for this month, but we've still been surprised by the sudden release of their debut EP, available now from Rough Trade, Puregroove, or their MySpace page. It's a six-track minidisc in a hand-printed tin, and it's only £5. We're sure it's great, but we'll review it properly for you as soon as we get our hands on a copy... watch this space.

Band spotlight//KASMS

The 'gothic' tag has been applied to some great music, but nowadays 98% of the general population will stick it on Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails, and scratch their heads at the mention of the Virgin Prunes. So it's good to see some healthy cynicism on the part of KASMs, a London four-piece who describe their music as 'chaotic quasi-gothick shriekbeat'. They sound as fresh as a band who formed only four months ago should, and their demos (recorded live) echo Siouxsie Sioux and Poly Styrene through the tormented screeching vocals of Rachel-Mary Callaghan, and acts like These New Puritans or early Joy Division with their sparse, spontaneous drum and bass guitar noises. They're supporting Neils Children alongside S.C.U.M on the 13th February in Hoxton - those based in London should definitely pop along, since they sound like a fantastic live act. New Yorkers can also catch them in various venues from 16th-20th February.

KASMs MySpace