PLUS ONE MAGAZINE: 2015

Django Django - Leeds University, December 5th (LIVE REVIEW)

Considering it’s blowing a gale and the roads are all over the place, Leeds University is pretty full as we await the arty quartet Django Django to the stage. Down the road those very thoughtful Stereophonics have posted a message on social media advising concert goers to allow plenty of time to travel to their Leeds arena show but we don’t need any hand holding here, this is Rock and Roll!   

In their infancy on paper but by no means lacking in limitless promise, Chastity are a somewhat controversial and intriguing prospect. Hailing from Whitby, Ontario, Chastity is the brainchild of lead singer Brandon Williams. Formed early in 2015, they have wasted no time in stamping their mark on the scene. Tape, released 13 November 2015, serves as an easy to digest yet emotionally destructive tidbit of anthemic angst. Clocking in at less than ten minutes, this debut EP is a signal of intent from the Canadian grunge rockers.

Brighton rockers TIGERCUB may not have total respect for the rules of grammar but the irreverence they bring to that fuzzy roar they call their sound is exactly what makes Repressed Semantics so good. Refined to its rawest elements, but still smartly constructed, this is the sound of garage rock on steroids. But instead of using those big arms to crush your skull to powder, it just wants to put one round your shoulder and drink beer to the impassioned roar of a fuzz pedal until the sun comes up.

‘All Yours’, the latest release from the Big Apple’s Widowspeak proved to be one of the discoveries of 2015, a delicious combination of eerie alt-country mixed with singer Molly Hamilton’s languid femme-fatale vocal. Considering the duo (lead guitarist Robert Earl Thomas is the other original member) are now four albums in with one of their early tracks gaining further exposure, appearing on American Horror Story, they’re still pretty unknown in the UK, their appearance in the games room at Brudenell testament to that with perhaps 50 or so people present here tonight.

Up in the north of England, Newcastle is known for being cold but not caring about it – I refer you to its football fans, who have a penchant for going bare-chested in deepest December. Cinematic indie band Lanterns on the Lake take the chill in their native air and distil it down to a crystalline purity which cuts through the warmth and melancholy of latest album Beings for a magnetic record conducted by Hazel Wilde’s remarkable vocals.

Photo credit - Jem Mitchel

Since fist encountering Braintree’s modern day answer to Bob Dylan a couple of years ago, Beans on Toast, a.k.a Jay McAllister has continued to gig and record incessantly, developing an increasingly devoted yet chilled out following, a sizeable contingent of whom are out in force tonight.

A Taller Us is the star-spangled new release from electro sensation FOXTROTT, otherwise known as Montreal-born Marie-Hélène Delorme. Led by the new single ‘Shaky Hands’, the album is an utter delight to listen to. FOXTROTT exudes a rare confidence in her music, characterised by her rebellious beats, forthright lyrics and playful synth-pop melodies. A self-taught singer, songwriter and producer, Delorme’s sound is packed with eccentricities and oozes style.

‘I nearly shat myself’ confesses Camilla Staveley-Taylor to a slightly startled Leeds audience, explaining her reaction to a gushing Twitter endorsement from David Crosby, legendary CSN/CSNY frontman and one of The Staves’ all-time favourite bands, as he complimented the ladies’ fine harmonies on the social media channel. High praise indeed for the three heavenly voiced sisters whose second album ‘If I Was’ recently dented the UK top 20.

I don't know if the planets have aligned or darker forces have been making mischief, but tonight's Halloween gig inside Leeds' Brudenell has been truly off the hook. Toronto's furiously heavy and uncompromising trio Metz have just given a valuable lesson in how to do punk/hardcore/noise-rock at its very best.

The ever progressive Post War Glamour Girls return with their second full length album Feeling Strange. Anyone who has followed their career to date will not be surprised to learn that the Leeds quartet have refused to rest on their laurels after the success of their debut LP Pink Fur. Feeling Strange is the next step of the bands constant evolution. It feels like they have developed a completely new sound. They have always been a band who cannot be pigeon holed and therefore it was inevitable that this album would differ from the last, just as Pink Fur sounded nothing like all their prior EP's.

We’re chock-a-block at Canal Mills for what is actually my first visit to the (not surprisingly) canalside red-brick venue for a bit of avant-garde post-industrial indie. The Beacons Metro gig fest is now in full swing and tonight the headline act, ‘Everything Everything’ has packed fans in from all over the region. Hopefully the same has been/will be true for the rest of the 40-odd live music events curated by the organisers, making the new era Beacons an unqualified success.

The second album from Then Thickens, the project of former KONG man Jon-Lee Martin, is another spine-chillingly frank collection of songs, shedding some of the excess weight of debut Death Cap at Anglezarke and gaining a slightly more polished veneer. It’s a discernible progression and one which brings the band’s red-raw charm even closer to home, leaving you feeling like you’ve flipped through a recovered addict’s photo album – warts and all, highs and lows.

The curiously named Alex Bleeker and the Freaks are much more mainstream than you might expect. Knocked together in Brooklyn, New York, the merry band of Freaks are joined by Bleeker himself in creating a unique yet universally undemanding LP.

The loss of Beacons left a big void in this summer’s local festival circuit. Having attended the final two incarnations, the organisers had really demonstrated a flair for curating deliciously eclectic of line-ups. Save for better luck weather wise (the 2011 Beacons was totally washed out and the 2014 closing day experienced some disruption thanks to Hurricane Bertha’s denouement), it may have continued into this year and beyond. Such a pity, still it was great while it lasted.

Leeds native Matt Bigland returns with the third full length Dinosaur Pile-Up album Eleven Eleven. Since its conception as a side project during his days in Mother Vulpine they have gone from strength to strength, despite occasional changes in line-up. The debut EP and two subsequent albums received glowing reviews and the great many fans they have accumulated will be delighted to hear that this latest offering is exactly what you would expect from them, but with a few minor tweaks for the better.

Audiences for TheLemonheads are always are strange combination; serious looking men in their forties with stone faces, predatory women not yet over their teenage Dando lust, and beered up blokes bouncing along nostalgically to the hits. Something felt different this time though; a slightly younger demographic, less intense faces; maybe this 90s revival means being a Lemonheads fan is suddenly a little less unfashionable.

As the craft beer revolution gathers a relentless pace and new bars open up in towns and cities seemingly on a weekly basis, how about gaining some all important beer knowledge at one of the UK's Botanist gastro pubs? Take along six friends or more for a fun evening of beer tasting that will guide you through the history of ales in Britain, Europe or worldwide depending on which package you choose to explore. We were invited to attend The Botanist in Leeds and have a beer expert talk us through the world's history of beer, along with some all important sampling of eight very different ales...

I first happened upon this rather splendid outfit when they ably supported Bob Mould in Wolverhampton, barely a month after the release of their breakthrough recording ‘Deserter’s Songs’ many moons ago. By the end of that same year, thanks mainly to good old fashioned word of mouth, a bemused yet delighted band deservedly received the much feted ‘Album of the Year’ gong courtesy of NME, and thus their legend was born.

According to Bob Dylan, Frankie Lee and Judas Priest were the best of friends. But the artist behind American Dreamer has nothing other than a name-check in Dylan’s 1968 number one in common with the seminal heavy metallers from Birmingham. In fact, it’s the decade-spanning troubadour himself who has clearly had the most profound impact on the soulful Mississippian’s sound – you can’t really miss it.

Very rarely do I play an album back to back, on consecutive days, and still have an itching desire to play it again immediately. We'll that's what's happened with Toronto's Dilly Dally and their incredible debut Sore. It's been a long time coming though for best friends Katie Monks and Liz Ball. Years of searching for the complete line up has undoubtedly paid off in spades with the addition of bassist Jimmy Tony and drummer Benjamin Reinhartz.

Barely 4 months since Sleaford Mods' last Leeds gig, (a memorable hoedown at the Brudenell in case you were wondering), the ever increasingly visible pair of Jason Williamson and Andrew Fearn have managed to step up another rung on the live circuit ladder. It seems they’ve absorbed their way into a certain section of the nation’s consciousness, helped in no small part by a clutch of summer TV appearances, the crowd-funded state of the nation documentary ‘Invisible Britain’ not forgetting a couple of key musical collaborations with natural bedfellows Leftfield and The Prodigy. Recent new album ‘Key Markets’ even managed to grace the i-tunes download charts for one heady week in July, as the veritable anti-zeitgeist gathers pace.

It’s almost two decades since Mercury Rev bewitched and beguiled a largely unsuspecting public with the critically acclaimed ‘Deserter’s Songs’. That fine album probably also saved them from impending oblivion, the resulting trio of hit singles putting the similarly surprised band squarely in the limelight as the new millennium dawned. Those heady days have long since passed with fans reduced to waiting patiently for the past seven years, no new material emerging since 2008’s Snowflake Midnight.

Following on from the success of their debut album Ratworld and the subsequent critical acclaim still ringing in their ears, Menace Beach release their latest EP Super Transporterreum. Ratworld was thoroughly impressive and just a few months down the line this 5 track offering carries on in the same rich vein of form.

JacuzziBoys have kicked down the door again with new release Happy Damage, and in doing so set a prime example of what the title of their latest EP (probably) means. And if ‘happy damage’ also involves swinging from the light fitting while splintering the coffee table with your battered Converse-clad feet, scattering the yellowing pages of an NME interview with an introverted electro-indie-singer-songwriter onto a beer-soaked carpet while bawling along to joyful garage-punk thrash then it lives up to its moniker almost too well.

I'm not going to deny it, I absolutely bloody love Blacklisters. I've been battered about the ears by their slabs of inventive noise-rock more times than I recall and still I keep going back for more. They picked up a batton I thought was dropped and gone forever when early nineties alternative music became a distant memory of mine. This low-key little gig in Fulford near York is very much an insight into a new chapter of theirs though. A set entirely consisting of new songs from forthcoming album 'Adult', barring the anthemic 'Trick Fuck' from their debut.

It’s the first Sunday afternoon in September, the sun has been shining all weekend and I’m watching a storming live version of Britain’s all-time favourite twelve-inch 'Blue Monday', (thankfully still technically seven hours away), with one original performer included, at a pretty Yorkshire riverside setting with 15,000 like-minded individuals. If that’s not a sufficiently ringing endorsement of Bingley Music Live then I don’t know what is.

Full disclosure; Maximo Park are one of my favourite bands. Since my first encounter with them in a sweaty north-east club, there are few memories that aren't intertwined with their ear for a melody and deceptively complex lyrics. They've soundtracked heartaches, adventures, falling in love; sometimes all at the same time. I once took off for an ill advised jaunt leaving a note reading only ''I'm going missing for a while (please feed the dog)'' (2005 was an odd year). So, it is with trepidation that I attempt an objective review of this, singer Paul Smith's second solo effort.

I'm sat on the steps of Leeds' stunning Town Hall in some warm September sunshine with a glass of chilled, golden beer in hand, and I'm not alone. Hundreds of people are doing and have done the very same over this amazing 4-day festival of craft beer. Below, I can see where the various tantalising smells of food of the various vendors are coming from, as well as the marquee which is housing some of the UK brewers and there respective drinks. Behind me, a constant conveyor belt of happy, smiling people holding a half or a pint of something, enter and exit the town hall. Lets dip inside...

Now the weather is getting warmer, its time to make the most of the brief patches of northern sun we get… so bring on the BBQ’s and of course, the beers.Canned beer is the perfect choice here, they chill down quickly, they're easy to transport, no need for a glass, and with the recent explosion of canned beer scene, there’s no reason to skimp on quality.

Yorkshire based three-piece FANS have been generating a lot of hype over the last year. The last couple of months have seen them release singles as a teaser to Born Into their debut EP. I first heard of them six months ago when one of their dad's handed me a demo, "this is my son's band they are really good" is a sentence which you never really expect to be true, as it turns out I was thoroughly impressed.

Photos - Robin Chamberlain

A positively autumnal night and the Brudenell was the setting for Autobahn's northern leg of their debut album release celebrations, having launched in London the previous evening.

North Yorkshire – the largest county in this wonderful country of ours and one I have been lucky enough to have been raised in and visit its vast and varied delights on a regular basis. Not only is it home to the unspoiled natural beauty of 'The Yorkshire Dales', heading East we have the spectacular North Yorkshire Moors stretching across to the coast, covering over 500 square miles.

These Big Apple indie rockers specialise in the slow-burning end of bar room downer-addled country pop and, four albums into their career, seem to have really found their mojo song-writing wise on ‘All Yours’, released on the Captured Tracks label.

Dissemble, the first full length release from local Leeds post punkers Autobahn sees them finally start to flesh out those inevitable Joy Division comparisons into something a little more of their own. Opening with Missing In Action, a throbbing drumbeat grabs attention from the off, building to a frenetic cacophony that explodes with vocal intensity.

Like lambs to the slaughter, Leeds' noise lovers have assembled in The Belgrave for a rare and only UK date outside of London by Pennsylvania's finest - Pissed Jeans. Two years ago, our fair city hosted the quartet's mighty racket in The Brudenell, prior to that, well lets just say it had been a while since we'd seen the band on these shores.

The haunting sound of London duo Alma is nothing short of hair-raising. Tranquil by nature but utterly magnetic, the eponymous debut mini album is set for release by the band on 14th August via Fierce Panda. Branded “complex and meditative” by Clash magazine, the EP features a series of seven spell-binding tracks which span an entire cosmos of emotion. ‘The Lighthouse’ is the striking preamble to the upcoming release, and hints at the gentle yet powerfully evocative nature of the album. Featuring gentle guitar twangs and almost whispering vocals, the track is a true masterpiece.

How do you get to play the blues? Some are born with it running through their veins and others discover it in a Louisiana swamp, but it sounds like John J.Presley found it in a dusty box in his garage, and then made an album right there on the spot, while the discovery was raw, fresh and vital and the garage was still echoing from the shambling rock wannabes of years gone by.

South London quintet The Maccabees are back with their fourth studio album, Marks To Prove It. Following a Mercury Prize nomination for their 2012 release Given To The Wild, the new offering follows daunting footprints. There is no doubt that the indie outfit has come up trumps again, yet this time with a slightly unanticipated twist. Picture the authentic Maccabees guitar-filled style, but now with a dream-like makeover.

As side projects go, Ultimate Painting might be one of the better ones. Consisting of Londoners Jack Cooper (Mazes) and James Hoare (Veronica Falls), between them they might just have produced something of a stoner/slacker classic. I bet right this minute, the vinyl version of ‘Green Lanes’ is being used by some clued up hipster to perform an act of medicinal origami, perhaps an ideal accompaniment to this heady mix of deadbeat swamp rock, lo-fi indie and pure pop. Imagine Keith Richards marooned in late 1960s Coney Island and you’re there or there abouts sound wise but that doesn’t really do these expertly crafted little nuggets justice, there is definitely more to ‘Green Lanes’ here than meets the ear.

If someone mentioned the words 'Italian beer' to you, what would immediately spring to mind? An ice cold Birra Moretti in the sun? Or maybe a chilled Peroni to accompany your Napolitana? Well start thinking again beer lovers, because craft beer isn't exclusive to the USA and UK as we all know, and more European countries are fast becoming major players in the hops, hops and more hops world of lovely crafted ales. With that in mind, let me bring to your attention to craft beer from Italy by Gjulia, brewed high up in the hills of Friuli, North East Italy. Brothers Marco and Massimo Zorzettig are also proud producers of fine wines from their Alturis vinyards, handed down from three generations of their family.

This summer marks the 20^th anniversary of ‘Exit Planet Dust’ one of the finest moments from the 1990s rock-dance crossover period, yielding a clutch of club smashes. Having been lucky enough to witness one of their blistering early live shows, one knew immediately that these guys might be around for a while and that has proved to be the case as Tom Rowlands and Ed Simonds, after providing this year’s Glastonbury with an unforgettable send off, have then followed that up with a stonking eighth album ‘Born in the Echoes’.

When you consider the sheer number of UK breweries cranking out high quality beer these days, choosing a beer can be difficult. There are times you want something a little different from the normal pale/IPA/stout fare, and in those difficult times Wild Beer Co are the brewers to turn to.

I first saw The PainsOf Being Pure At Heart twice back in 2009 after latching onto the release of their eponymous album. Lauded over by the alternative press, I saw them twice that year, once at the now defunct Cockpit in the spring and again at Decembers ATP festival where it was interesting to see how their fan base and popularity had grown over course of the year. I remember queuing for the stage they were playing on at ATP, becoming one of many packed sardines in a room bursting to capacity. Six years on and I was intrigued to revisit a band I was heavily into at the time and see if my fond yet vague memories of discovering them in 2009 still lived on.

Former Pipettes frontwoman Gwenno Saunders has struck out in her own direction, and it’s safe to say that the new road she’s chosen isn’t likely to be gridlocked. Concept album ‘Y Dyadd Olaf’ – inspired by and named after the 1976 sci-fi novel by Owain Owain in which invading robots turn humans into clones – was released last year on indie label Peski, and has just been reissued by Heavenly. Sung almost entirely in Welsh, with one song delivered in Cornish, only around one million Brits are likely to be able to understand the lyrics, but that shouldn’t matter; after all, isn’t the human voice the finest instrument, whatever language it uses?

After a whirlwind 12 months, it seems Sleaford Mods are everyone’s Marmite band of the moment, the duo certainly managing to generate polarised media coverage in the run up to their show-stealing gig at Glastonbury………Lionel who?

We can forgive Modest Mouse's slightly later than billed appearance tonight inside Leeds' Academy with one glance at the venue's cluttered stage, prior to their appearance. Eight musicians to cater for (nine on occasion) needs quite the set up and no more so than a band who readily switch instruments at will. Our vantage point from high above the stage on the balcony provides us with the best possible viewing of such an intriguing hour and a half or so ahead of us.

(photo credit: Shaina Hedlund)

If you’ve a penchant for ethereal vocals draped across vast inhospitable soundscapes blending folk, industrial metal and electronica, then LA-based Chelsea Wolfe may be right up your street. Considering Ms Wolfe grew up in southern California, the famed sunshine of that region has so far been largely absent from her material. One may wonder if things are likely to change on album number 5 but considering the title of the new record, released on the Sargent House label, not to mention new single ‘Carrion Flowers’ combining fuzzy, scuzzy and muzzy with road-drill drum effects tactically placed throughout to beat any semblance of listener resistance into submission, perhaps not.

I’ve been to my fair share of stellar gigs in my time but the first and perhaps only occasion I’ve been totally blown away by a live band, it was watching Asian Dub Foundation tear Birmingham’s Irish Centre a new arsehole nearly two decades ago with their uniquely politicised brand of bhangra, fused with the white heat of punk, dub, electronica and hip-hop.

From Monday July 6th, we will be hosting regular broadcasts via Mixlr, sharing our love of music worldwide with anyone who cares to tune in. This is a great way for us to promote bands that we feature here on Plus One Magazine and those tracks we simply have to tell you about. In the main, we will be spreading the love of new bands we have discovered recently with an audience that can tune in with the click of a button. We'll also bring you bands of a more established nature who have new material coming out.


Even though the summer months are finally here, the weather seems to be dragging behind. Some people feel their Beer tastes change with the seasons, but for this article I'm slurping from the Darker ranger of the spectrum rather than light summer ales. From a more traditional Porter, to a Black IPA all three should offer something different...

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