DON'T FORGET TO PURCHASE THEIR NEW ALBUM 'FIELD MUSIC (MEASURE)' ON THE DAY OF THE IN-STORE AT ROUGH TRADE EAST AND COLLECT YOUR WRISTBAND AT THE SAME TIME, ANY REMAINING WRISTBANDS WILL BE GIVEN OUT 1 HOUR PRIOR TO THE STAGE TIME, FIRST-COME-FIRST-SERVED BASIS.........ONE PER PERSON



Pre-order 'field music (measure)' here


Following a self-imposed three year hiatus Sunderland's Field Music are set to return with a new 20 track double album, to be released by Memphis Industries on 15th February 2010. Powered, as ever, by brothers and co-front men Peter and David Brewis, Field Music's line up now includes Kev Dosdale (guitar and keys) and Ian Black (bass).


The new album (self titled but identified as 'Field Music (Measure)' to distinguish it from their debut album) is a gloriously rich LP that entwines the brother's renewed love of the rock music cannon with a rediscovery of some of pop's overlooked adventurers. If you listen closely, you might hear echos of and allusions to the likes of Led Zeppelin, Bela Bartok, Prince, Fleetwood Mac, Miles Davis, The Beatles, Bowie, Richard Thompson, PJ Harvey, Crazy Horse, Erik Satie, Kate Bush, Talk Talk, Lou Reed, Brian Eno, The Blue Nile, Pierre Schaeffer, Roxy Music, Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Todd Rundgren and Discipline-era King Crimson.

Unlike previous Field Music albums, characterised by their precision and conceptual and sonic coherence, this new record makes no attempt to present itself as a unified whole. Themes disappear and reappear. Some songs flow together, others intrude on each other. There are contradictions and ripostes. There appears to be a great deal of defiance and a fair amount of resignation.

Can it make sense? Does it matter if there is no sense? What strands can possibly hold together the dissonant funk of 'Let's Write A Book' (a call to arms for the perpetually apologetic), the mutated blues of 'Each Time Is A New Time' (a riposte to misplaced faith in repetition), the chopping and splashing pop driven through 'Them That Do Nothing' (perhaps about a valiant willingness to make mistakes), the multilayered riffery of 'The Rest Is Noise' or the epic found-sound song cycle that starts with 'See You Later'?

COME & JOIN THE ROUGH TRADE DJ'S FOR A BEER AT THE BIG CHILL BAR LOCATED NEXT DOOR TO OUR ROUGH TRADE EAST STORE. WE'LL BE PLAYING FROM 7PM TIL 12am... ALL THE BEST OF WHAT'S NEW AND WHAT'S OLD... INDIE POP, 60S GIRL GROUPS, GRUNGE, 60S & 70S PSYCH, ROCK, ROLL, AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN.

YES!

NO WRISTBAND NEEDED, JUST COME DOWN ON THE DAY

Order 'dictaphones vol. 1' here


UNCUT Mar. 2010
5/5 Stars *****
Clumsy but often inspired lo-fi demos from an exceptional songwriter. Utah-born, California-raised Emit Bloch writes highly narrative country songs in the style of Hank Williams, but with an absurdist wit and mordant melancholy that recall Gary Larson cartoons (check out 'Lost Dogs Have More Fun"). He's tried recording his songs in studios, with double bass, banjo and drums, but they were never as effective as the scrappy versions that were recorded on a Dictaphone in a London kitchen. Consequently these 13 demos sound like Alan Lomax's ancient field recordings, albeit with bathetic contemporary references - and all are utterly remarkable. John Lewis.


Recorded for 6 on a Sony cassette dictaphone as a demo for his soon-to-be music publishers (MuteSong), Emit Blochs Dictaphones Vol. 1 is truly a credit crunch album. Fueled by Blochs rapid-fire lyricism, unique guitar styling and cosmic/comic imagery, the 16 songs collected here are a tour through a wild west of eloquent grifters, talking rivers, bleeding clouds, interplanetary frontiersmen and neighborly psychopaths. Born on a cattle ranch in Utah and transplanted by his professor father to Berkeley, CA ground zero for all things beatnik - Bloch has a rich history to draw on when creating his distinct American music.

"I'd demoed these new songs at my kitchen table in London - they got me a publishing deal and some money to record with, but as usual, the raw demos sounded better than the studio recordings. Quite miraculously really everyone agreed to put them out instead," says Bloch. Helpful was the fact that when an early edition of the dictaphone recordings was issued to iTunes through Blochs imprint, iDot (One Little Indian), the recordings were chosen by iTunes editors as a front page pick.

With cattlemen, turn-of-the-century train conductors, Mormon polygamists and Jewish slum-lords in his ancestry, Emit Bloch fuses pioneer spirit , Woody Allen wit and California transendentalism to create modern bluegrass and country music that retains the old time values of innovators like Jimmy Rodgers and Hank Williams. People think Im gimmicking but I actually did tune my ear on a porch in Utah watching a cowboy named Dave King pluck Hank Williams songs silhouetted against the kind of burnt russet sky that only the Southwest desert can supply, says Emit, who subsequently studied guitar with Joe Satriani while a teenager in Berkeley. Sonically akin to field-recorded Lomax blues, Dictaphones Vol. 1 is an idiomatic paradigm shift, the nostalgic mixing seamlessly with the modernist and fantastical.

Throughout 2009, Bloch has gleaned critical attention for his solo live show - described by one blogger as 'Avant-folk documentary' - that combines experimental soundscapes with story telling, traditional finger-picking and expert song-craft. Recently, Emit has opened for Seasick Steve, Dan Sartain, Moriarty, Beth Jeans Houghton, Jason Ringenburg and Paloma Faith and is playing dates thoughout the UK and France in March -May of 2010.

DON'T FORGET TO PURCHASE THEIR DEBUT ALBUM 'ROLL YOUR ACTIVATOR VOL. 1' FROM MONDAY 1ST MARCH AT ROUGH TRADE EAST AND COLLECT YOUR WRISTBAND AT THE SAME TIME, ANY REMAINING WRISTBANDS WILL BE GIVEN OUT 1 HOUR PRIOR TO THE STAGE TIME, FIRST-COME-FIRST-SERVED BASIS.........ONE PER PERSON

Pre-order 'roll your activator vol 1' here


The John Moore Rock And Roll Trio featuring The Loose Moorelles are not big or clever. They do not drip cynicism, employ irony, or drag the listener on third class excursions to the centre of their misery. They play pure back to basics rock and roll and blues for the hell of it, for girls and boys to dance to. Lascivious, full throttle, hip swivelling invocations to the horned one delivered with maximum power, magnificent shimmer, and an evil growl...Well that's the plan at least.


A primary school is a strange place to get one's mojo back, but that's exactly what happened to John Moore. Languishing in semi-retirement, mired in despair, and just a trifle bored, he was cajoled into performing at his daughter's summer fete. Having run out of polite excuses as to why this might be rather difficult to achieve, a band of willing accomplices was hurriedly assembled to cure sugar-rushing tinies with some rocking pneumonia and a shot of rhythm and blues. A super group - of sorts came together containing the DNA of The Jesus and Mary Chain, Black Box Recorder, Lush, The Soledad Brothers (Ben Swank - now retired to Nashville) The Guardian Newspaper, and a Lady who'd last trodden the boards with Rod Stewart at Wembley Stadium. The gig was a remarkable success and the band pledged to play a great deal more often.

Fourteen months later The John Moore Rock And Roll Trio featuring The Loose Moorelles were at it again, this time for a slightly taller, differently intoxicated audience, in preparation for their two-day recording blitz the following weekend. Now with Loz Colbert of JAMC and Ride on drums the line up was complete.

Two days to record thirteen songs is not much - although it was twice as long as The Beatles had for their first LP; but it was free. Setting up to play live at what was once Tony Visconti's legendary Good Earth studio was exciting and nerve racking. One vocal mic, one guitar, one for bass, one above the drums, minimal sound separation, masses of spill, one overall sound balance, that's it. Press Record. Go. Stop. The tracks were mostly done in a few takes. Harmonica, whistling, one guitar line, maracas and handclaps were overdubbed.

On day two, The Loose Moorelles arrived to sing their parts. Due to uncertain PA systems, they had been rather drowned out at the gigs, and there were a few worries that not being large ladies from the deep south of America, their harmonies, when committed to tape might not sound quite as good as they themselves looked while delivering them. Being seasoned old campaigners, the Trio had actually practiced, Phil with his bass lines, Loz memorizing most of the stops - even Moore had perfected his rockabilly fingering...but from the moment The Loose Moorelles began to sing, the Trio's jaws dropped. They nailed it, and their voices soared, lifting each track magnificently. They'd worked it all out, practiced in private and sounded as fine as The Sweet Inspirations. The mixing was a simple affair - there wasn't any - there couldn't be. If the vocals came up, the guitar came with it and the drums disappeared - recent obituaries of the late guitar legend Les Paul celebrated his incredible musical achievements, but perhaps one of his inventions, multi-track recording, wasn't quite all it was cracked up to be... Albums generally only take about forty minutes to listen to, so why take six months to record one?

The choice of songs on Roll Your Activator was easy - favourite rock and roll covers - nothing too obscure or academic, songs people might recognize and respond to.

Although this venture is not the result of a judicial community service order, there is a feeling that...hmm...here comes the OBE - certain sections of the music listening community might benefit from a reconnection with the simple, joyous excitement of pure unadulterated rock and roll...especially if they go off and form bands of their own. There are more Bo Diddley songs here than anybody else's for the simple fact that everybody in the band loves him the most - Moore's infatuation beginning at an early age and leading to several meetings with the great man, and a genuine link to the mysterious energy source of rock and roll.

Recording T Rex's I Love To Boogie in the room it was born in, and on a Saturday night, was perhaps tempting fate. That nobody was slaughtered by a spectral Metal Guru or mauled by a ghostly White Swan hopefully means that its creator liked what he heard.

Sadly, there are very few of the original wild rock and rollers left, and the great bluesmen have all but gone. The John Moore Rock And Roll Trio featuring The Loose Moorelles pledge to at least try to stay alive for some time to come, and to record and release at least one volume of rock and roll and blues songs every year. Obviously they will build up into a valuable collection that looks good in any home and will be the envy of friends and relatives, as well as being the perfect gift for a loved one or a spouse.

Finally, the CD is called Roll Your Activator - Moore's misheard line from Elmore James/Hound Dog Taylor's Shake Your Money Maker, because The Loose Moorelles thought it sounded rude.

NO WRSITBAND NEEDED, JUST COME DOWN ON THE DAY







Song East presents three exceptional singers who will tour for the EAST festival - Alasdair Roberts, Anni Rossi and Muntu Valdo will be performing FREE gigs together in a string of intimate venues around the East End. You can't book - just get there early if you want to see anything!







Muntu Valdo's music is rooted in the blues, mixing African traditions (he was brought up in Cameroon and then France) with striking modernity and technical mastery, building up layers of sounds with loops and samples. He toured last autumn with Congolese superstars Staff Benda Bilili - his debut album Gods & Devils was described by NME as "a rapturous record that shudders with joy and passion."

Alasdair Roberts' folky lo-fi weaves together myths and legends with razor-sharp guitar and cryptic word play to create darkly beautiful songs. His new EP Wyrd Meme is a follow up to the acclaimed Spoils EP on Drag City. "Roberts fashions his songs from the stout timber of myth, and creates songs that, for all their haunting morbidity, throb with electricity." (Independent)

Chicago based multi-instrumentalist Anni Rossi delights as she sings her heart out about beekeeping in the Himalayas, her love for freezer units, and the troubles of driving to the west coast with no air conditioning. Intriguing and totally engaging, her debut album Rockwell on 4AD follows extensive touring with the likes of Electrelane and The Ting Tings.