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World (Step Inside My Dream) – Single by Fat Mavis

The first time I saw the film “Trainspotting", I clearly remember its music, with the track Born Slippy, by Underworld, while hearing the deepest emotions of the group, I fell in love with the song. But this single, just released by Fat Mavis takes me back to that era during the 90’s. Fat Mavis sends us tracks now and then, so it was a real treat to hear this one. We have a mix between Pet Shop Boys, elements of classic dance, UK pop and electro. With a collaborative effort of Fat Mavis and friends, vocals from local musicians in the London area. The track takes you to the edge of Techno, lights flashing in the club, under the dark guise of the nightlife, and finishes off with a nice shot of sequined sequences. Spoken and repeated vocals continue with this catchy tune.  We hope to hear more from him in the near future. 

Purchase on Bandcamp
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Listen on Spotify

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Almark#WEATNU Digital Magazine – November 2019

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The Best Artists of the 80’s – Pet Shop Boys

In 1984, the group’s pioneering piece of synth pop, entitled ‘West End Girls’ thought of as their very best.
The Pet Shop Boys’ dark track was influenced by hip hop music and a TS Elliot poem, describing the pressures of inner-city life.

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The Pet Shop Boys’ second UK hit, ‘It’s A Sin’, depicts their time at the Catholic St. Cuthbert’s
High School in Newcastle. The song was written in 15 minutes, and was intended as a camp joke, but people consciously took very serious. I remember hearing the song for the first time, “how powerful” I thought, it moved me, hearing the clarity in his voice and how serious this was to him. The interesting thing about the song was, the local parish priest in Newcastle delivered a sermon on it, reflecting how the Church changed from the promise of a ghastly hell to the message of love.

In 1987. The synth pop duo covered “Always on My Mind”, a TV special marking 10 years since the King passed away. They decided to release it as a single, and it became that year’s Christmas number one.

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Their ‘Actually’ album (What Have I Done to Deserve This?) track was accompanied by Dusty Springfield (60’s soul legend), and it was a number two hit in the UK and US, riding close behind Rick Astley and George Michael’s top spots.

In 1992, Derek Jarman asked them to perform at a charity event in Manchester. ‘Go West’
a disco hit was selected and later, the two decided to record it as a single, and it was a huge hit.

During the duo’s early years, they wrote ‘Opportunities’ describing “two losers” and it is based around the quote “Let’s make lots of money”. Somehow, it is written about himself as being intellectual and educated.

Neil Tennant said he imagined this song “Rent” as being about a kept woman, living in America.
The song also deals with a financially one-sided relationship, kept as a kind of secret..

The song, “Being Boring” came from the accusation after someone said the duo was being boring. The duo described it as “one of the best songs that we’ve written. It’s tells of our teenage years and how we moved to London, and I became successful and my friend became ill.”

‘Release’, the duo’s 2002 album gave them another top hit, despite it bizarre music video, showing mice running across tracks and eating discarded food at a Court Road Underground station, with only minimal shops of the duo. Never accuse them of being boring.

Their 1988 album, ‘Introspective’  produced this song influenced by Latin pop and also by the song ‘Elle est comme les etoiles’ by Desireless.

Jazzykat#WEATNU Digital Magazine
November 2019

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Uncles of Wise – Flyt

By Michael O’Morah

Uncles of Wise have landed with a paradoxically energetic yet relaxing EP entitled Flyt, released by Weatnu Records. Spawned from the Trivia Corporation. Uncles of Wise have been creating an exquisite brand of Electronica, House, Techno, Ambient and Dub since 1994 by direction of solo Sheffield artist, who simply goes by the same name.
Due to the eclectic style and methods by which Uncles of Wise composes music, I found it difficult to put my finger on any direct influences for this EP. However, Uncles of Wise have revealed, Underworld, Orbital, deadmau5, Daniel Avery, Chemical Brothers, The Black Dog and The Orb to be some of his favorite Artists. Now, it would be no surprise where I to learn that The Orb, Deadmau5, Chemical Brothers and the like, led Uncles of Wise to soar into these Techno-spheric Skies, but they are certainly a unique species themselves.
After I listened to the EP, Flyt, I decided to do a little reflecting back through the Uncles of Wise Discography. As indulged in this nostalgia, I could detect faint traces of Panopticon, and Circles evincing that Flyt has kept the line of Heredity strong and cogent. Uncles of Wise stand true to the’ Musical Style the UK artist has developed while ratcheting down the vocals a bit.
This Minimalist approach is most alluring, effectively enveloping the listener in a vortex of swirling, pulsating rhythms that lift you out of Urban drudgery. Flyt is an ambient journey that can whiz one through fast-moving Synthesizer Sequences which ripple by and spiral through scales of irresistible syncopation to the Rhythm of a clap and foot-thumping bass-driven Techno House and Big Beat. Meanwhile beckoning Female Vocals slip in and out with sultry echoes of siren song through the wormholes of your Conscious Mind.
I found the experience of listening to the three tracks of the EP to be an very engrossing experience. It felt warm and comfortable like I was ensconced in a booth near the back of the Mezzanine of a posh nightclub, while enjoying my drink with an old Friend or some new Companion! If you’re into Techno on the mellow side with a hot-house beat, then Flyt by Uncles of Wise will certainly take you where you want to be. Flyt is available on Weatnu Records.

Also on Bandcamp

Follow Uncles of Wise on Twitter.

#WEATNU Digital Magazine

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SlowBurnBlue – Mangabros

By JC Luff

Throughout the composition process of this review, I have been listening to the work I have set out to describe with a pocket recorder (or unplugged electric bass guitar) clenched tightly in my office recliner, putting together scraps of thought that will attempt to provide for an account of my listening experience, one of such fragments being :

A dangerous and opaque celebration of an obligatory departure from communicable reality through the walls of self conception and into the outskirts of mind, on the wings of an electrical socket and some furniture.

I have spent a couple days listening to the Mangabros, and their creations have consumed my intersection of space in time most efficaciously, providing for a change in pace to my weekend that has inspired some useful scribbles . The Mangabros do not produce ambient music to play over a cup of tea and some baked goods with company on a summer afternoon, they produce an architecture of sounds to convey a poetry that will surely inspire one to go forth and create, leaving weird splatters of ectoplasm on the walls of what used to be the daily state of affairs.

“SlowBurnBlue” from the Mangabros (hailing from the UK) is an experience that (in my experience with the album) will leave a different impression after each listening session as the atmospheres are elaborated. I am almost tempted to set up ultra-violet lights and radio equipment to measure the electromagnetic ambiance of the environment where I have been listening to the Mangabros, but it is probably best for my psychiatric health that I leave some things unexplained.

It is not usually my policy to make mention of intoxicants in my compositions, however (as an exception), I feel that I should advise the first time listener to the Mangabros that operating a motor vehicle, or otherwise traveling out and about, through traffic and such is to be avoided…

“A short while Later” :

After a few sessions of listening, I now find myself in the process of calibrating my sound system to reproduce the sounds of “Test one” as best I can, so as to enjoy the full scope of the production work I am about to soak my weekend psyche through. I have never before listened to an album that begins with a sound-check… The game has now changed

The evening activity sets in to brace my silence for a rearrangement of this mortal conception of the local scenery… and all I can scratch down on my notebook is that listening to the Mangabros is one hell of an activity.

As I proofread my final draft of this review for the Mangabros,

I “follow the signal into these late hours through a gripping submersion into a deep pool of sonic flash lights, leaving only brilliantly processed shadows to retrace my steps back to waking mind, keeping a pocket recorder providing more questions than answers beside me, to at some point find myself before a frothy mug of rich and hypnotic bass in the corner of a downtown hotel room, chain-smoking and trying not to allow my mind to cave in on itself”.

I can say with the utmost of certainty, that (outside of jam sessions) it has been over ten years since a work of music has (by a mechanism beyond the grasps of my descriptive ability) has forced me into a recliner, scaling up and down an unplugged instrument while my office takes on the ambiance of what I can only describe as being a jilted gray-scale parallel to Andy Warhol’s notorious “Factory” of the nineteen sixties on a Sunday afternoon in the vinyl siding fields of North-American suburbia.

The synthesized melodies are interwoven into a smoky fabric assembled in multitudinous nerve blurring structures of a trip through a concise poetry that has brought me to the ledge of a day unknown in the life of a future.

The soulful melodies and potent vocal stylings entrance my fleeting attention to the point that I am in fact having difficulty proofreading. I am experiencing something similar to a disassociative effect, but the narratives re-assure me that all is not well in this world, so I have somehow been allowed to continue.

“The eerie siren song of a post apocalyptic rain fall”

Is one of the many descriptions brought into the light of my participation in the work of the Mangabros between listening sessions, and it seems to be that each time I listen to “SlowBurnBlue” , new shapes of poetry sprout up between the floor boards of the listening mind, keeping me on the ledge of the beyond. Harmoniously disintegrating the furniture behind the eyes and between the ears.

I am not going to suggest to people that they go out and seek to be resuscitated, but (speaking for myself), if I were to be artificially resuscitated, I would require a sound track from the Mangabros to do justice to the morning after.

Enjoy the experience.

Also on Bandcamp

Follow Manga Bros on Twitter.

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Catnip and Claws: Halcyon Days EP

Norwich, Experimental artist Catnip and Claws brings to #WEATNU her latest single/EP Halcyon Days. Her music has been heard on BBC and featured in local magazines around the UK. She draws from artists such as Aphex Twin, creating a meld of IDM/DnB, in the tone of experimental electronic. This one is a free download for all.

Follow Catnip and Claws on Twitter.

Almark#WEATNU Digital Magazine

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What is FUNT?

The ‘weird’ has come to #WEATNU. What is FUNT? The David Lynch of Electronic music, Craig Manga, mastermind of Mangabros, Craig & Yikki,  and Vamonos P, is now here with his new project. FUNT.

What is FUNT you say? Take the most fearsome thing you can think of clowns.. Carnivals and put that to electronic do-dads, and you get these teasers. Electronic funk perhaps? Let’s just find out what’s behind the curtain shall we?

Check out the unfolding events of FUNT on Facebook. Let’s get weird.

 

 

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Interview with Awentekr

‘IDM has become a by-word to the experimental scene in the last 20 years. Native to ‘Aphex Twin’ country, Cornwall, UK. Being armed with Renoise and youth, Awentekr could teach a lot of us about what it means to be intelligent and musically gifted. #WEATNU DM was pleased to have a interview with him.’

How are you this evening?

Awentekr: I’m good thank you, busy but good… Yourself?

I’m well, thank you. We’ve been hearing your music for some time on #WEATNU OUR. Could you tell us a little about it?

Awentekr: First of all, thank you for playing my music on WEATNU, all support is appreciated and I firmly stand behind what WEATNU is about. I’d say my music is predominately what people would call IDM but I like to add a bit of ambience and space to it. I also try to mix complex drum patterns with more ambient synth sounds. Of course, I make other music as well but I’d say that’s probably the backbone of most of the material that is released so far and is being released in the near future.

You’re very welcome, glad to have you with us. Since you write IDM/Ambient influenced music, who are your influences? I’m sure I can name one, but I’d rather hear you say it.

Awentekr: I’m influenced by a lot of musicians and producers. I got into electronic music through Kraftwerk and still consider them one of my biggest influences, Nigel Godrich is a big one, John Frusciante is another favourite of mine, both his electronic music and his previous solo work. Artists like Aphex Twin, Autechre & Venetian Snares too. I’m sure there is more I could name but I’d be here all day.

I was going to say, Aphex Twin, but that’s assuming isn’t it? If anything I hear more a touch of Autechre and even some BoC, either way, the quality is superior in design, the way you create these patterns.

Awentekr: Haha, AFX is most likely on 90% of electronic musician’s lists. I have to list him though, got to represent my fellow Cornishman.

He has become the name on most IDM artists lips these days hasn’t he? Mr. James. But let’s get back to you. Are you the analogue or digital type, or both?

Awentekr: At the moment I’m digital. I use Renoise pretty much exclusively. I’ve used Reason 5 in the past but it wasn’t flexible enough for what I wanted to do, I also used Logic Pro for some live band recording projects. However in the future I hope to add analog gear to my setup. I’d much prefer to be using real synths and machines but unfortunately money is an object right now.

Do you create the sequences with computer keyboard or midi controller through Renoise? Because I personally use it also.

Awentekr: It depends, sometimes I like to just program the numbers, chords and notes but being a musician who plays a few instruments I like to play some of the parts in by keyboard. It all depends on how the track feels to me, it goes on a song by song basis and if I can’t get it right by programming I’ll play it in and vice versa.

I have the headphones on now and listening to your new album, when is this one going to be released?

Awentekr: There’s no set date yet but it shouldn’t be too far into the future, I hope. There’s just a few things left to finalize…

You’ve mentioned that you play other instruments?

Awentekr: Yes, I’ve played drums for around 8 years so that’s where my love of programming drum patterns comes from. I also play guitar, bass and piano

Classically trained or have you had music theory?

Awentekr: I’ve had music theory through school and then a year of theory in college but it’s never something I’ve paid much attention to. I rarely ever showed up to my music theory class I learn most songs by ear whether its drums, guitar, piano or even programming. I think listening is an important skill for musicians and is often overlooked, training your ear by playing along to records and figuring out tones, melodies and chord changes by ear is very important and healthy for musicians. I hope more musicians decide to learn by listening in the future. This is not to say theory isn’t important, they are both equally important but I feel there should be a balance and for this reason, music theory is something I will work on in the future.

How do you usually begin a new song?

Awentekr: All it takes is just an idea in my head or something I’ve heard to set me off. I always start with a blank template and there’s not really a set process I go through. No instrument that I choose first, nothing, it’s completely different every single time.

Do you create the music with sampled instruments or mostly VST?

Awentekr: I like to use VST’s a lot and really get into them, again I rarely ever save these sounds or have a template as I try to make it slightly different every time. I’ve really been loving the SH 101 VST I have recently. I do use samples in my music but that’s mainly for percussion. I have used kalimba and bell samples in some of my music recently though so I’m gradually venturing into it. I’m thinking of working with vocal samples a lot more in the future, it’s something I’m going to look into.

Very cool, so you’ve been playing with Lush101? My favourite as well.

Awentekr: Hmm, it’s not that one. I can’t remember the specific VST or who it’s made by but it’s great. Hopefully someday I’ll be using a proper 101 and not a VST.

I’ve heard some remixes as well on your soundcloud.

Awentekr: Ahh yes, I enjoy giving my own interpretation of other peoples work. The first one I did was a remix of a song called ‘Bus Rides Make Me Sleepy’ by a musician called Lwpss. The second was a track I did using an acapella from UK Grime artist Jme’s track ‘If You Don’t Know’. I plan on doing a lot more remixes in my free time in between my own releases.

Great stuff, and I hear some Radiohead on the Bus Rides Make Me Sleepy RMX.

Awentekr: Yeah I used a vocal sample from Radiohead’s ‘Reckoner’ on the Lwpss remix, they made them available for people to download and remix some time ago.

I really dig the open delay on this one with Thom Yorke’s voice.

Awentekr: Thanks! I really like using a lot of effects in my music. It comes from my guitar playing. A lot of the guitarists I’m influenced by use a lot of effects. I really admire guitarists such as John Frusciante, Josh Klinghoffer, Michael Rother, Jonny Greenwood and Robert Smith. I’ve always rejected the notion that using a lot of effects makes someone a bad musician or a bad guitarist, there’s a lot of skill in using them especially knowing how to get good and interesting sounds out of them. It always has to be musical for me.

There are many timbres in using effects, allowing the rawness to come forth, I support them fully.

Awentekr: Exactly, I’ve never understood why musicians who use them are so heavily disregarded as being skilled musicians by a lot of people. It’s ridiculous!

If that were the case then Radiohead wouldn’t be massively popular after 20+ years.

Awentekr: Exactly, there are people out there like you who understand it but unfortunately not everyone does. Each to their own!

What got you started in Electronic music and for how long have you been creating?

Awentekr: I started making electronic music probably in 2012 just little bits in Reason 5 and Logic Pro but never anything serious. I got started after my dad showed me The Man-Machine album by Kraftwerk and I just thought it was one of the greatest things I’d ever heard. Around the same time John Frusciante put out his first solo electronic record PBX Funicular Intaglio Zone and I thought that it was brilliant. Instantly after hearing those I wanted to make electronic music. As I got more and more into electronic music I started to take it more seriously so in around October 2013 I started to record ambient music in Reason, a track from those sessions came out as ‘Kobv’ on my first ep ‘Rane EP‘. I gradually got into weirder electronic music like Venetian Snares, Autechere and AFX. I also really loved the Speed Dealer Moms EP because of how insane it sounded to me with its complex rhythms and sounds I’d never heard before. Around this time I started to put together the songs for Rane EP.

So, you were influenced by the greats later in life?

Awentekr: Yeah! I mean obviously Kraftwerk are THE greats but I didn’t get into AFX, Autechre and such until the past couple years.

Are you working on other projects at this time?

Awentekr: At the moment in time I currently have two EP’s on the shelf, the one mentioned earlier that should be coming out in the near future and a collection of ambient tracks from 2012 until now. I’ve also taken a slight interest into grime and hip hop music. Artists like Jme , Skepta and Black Knights are really interesting to me, particularly the producers behind their music such as Jme himself, Deeco and Trickfingers. I hope to make some grime and hip hop based music in the future however I’m not sure if that’ll ever happen or whether it will come out under ‘Awentekr’. I’m interested in getting into DJ’ing at some point, in various styles of music such as IDM , house, acid, ambient and techno. I’m also in the early stages of collaboration with a really talented singer and musician that I really like called Nadine Carina. I’d like to do more collaborations with singers in time, maybe a whole album or ep of my music with various artists or one artist singing. As for my own work and more electronic music, I’ve been doing some tracks recently but they don’t really fit with each other, so I’m not sure whether they’ll be together on anything. I have some older tracks on hard-drives that I need to go back through and sort, delete, release, work on accordingly. A lot of unfinished acid, ambient, house and techno experiments that I assume will see the light of day at some point.

Great to hear that! Are you going to work with some artists here at #WEATNU?

Awentekr: I would like to but as of right now I have absolutely no idea so I wouldn’t rule it out…

How is your music received in Cornwall?

Awentekr: To be honest with you, I’m not sure. I’d say 99% of people listening to my music are on the internet. Which isn’t a complaint of mine at all; in fact it’s interesting to know that. The Cornish music scene outside of folk and metal is pretty much dead. I’m surprised that there isn’t a bigger electronic scene considering Aphex Twin is from Cornwall. I hope to be part of a change in the future so that electronic music plays a bigger part of the music scene in Cornwall. I guess the true gauge of that will be once I actually release some music in Cornwall and perform it live. I’d also have to go about figuring out a live rig for myself, I don’t want to just stand behind my laptop and press play. Something interesting for me alongside performing my tracks live would be just improvising on synthesizers and instruments. Improvisation is important to me but I don’t know how it’ll be received, the same goes for my music that will be released. But in all honesty, as much as I want to change to music scene in Cornwall, it doesn’t bother me if my music isn’t well received here. If it makes just one person somewhere else in the world feel something, whether it be Manchester or Utrecht then that makes me happy and gives me a sense of satisfaction as an artist.

I was reading the same with Richard D. James, he too finds nothing in his own town… It would be most unusual if you two were to meet by complete chance. And finally how has #WEATNU helped you?

Awentekr: Well it’s a possibility! Someone I know saw him in a cafe down here the other day It has helped me gain the confidence to put my music out there, before finding out about WEATNU I didn’t really think there were many other people interested in this side of electronic music anymore. When in reality there are people who love it and want more people to get into it. It’s also brought me some extra plays and downloads which I appreciate a lot, as I said, if my music makes just one person feel something then I’m happy.

It’s always a plus to hear that! What your favourite thing to do?

Awentekr: Listen to music; nothing will ever beat that in my opinion. The feeling some records can give you is indescribable.

Thank you Awentekr for having an interview this evening with #WEATNU Digital Magazine.

Awentekr: Thank you for having me!

#WEATNU Digital Magazine – Interview by Almark

Follow Awentekr on Twitter. 

Like his page on Facebook.

Buy music on bandcamp

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Album Review: Jeff Appleton: ‘Drawing Trees on Paper’/ ‘Greatest Misses’

The title of Appleton’s previous work ‘Drawing Trees on Paper’ can hint at unfinished work: cursory pre-amble sketches, tentative explorations, charcoal lines, pastel hues, primitive, primal and primary. But it is a fully realized work. A work rewarded by repeat listening. The beautifully rustic hand-crafted design of the physical copies and their artwork adds to the artful personality of these very distinctive instrumental tracks. The title track (favourite of this listener) takes my breath away in its granular, sub-atomic detailed glory. Appleton travels down his own nature trails, very much an original, but if you’re looking for touchstones, maybe the ghosts of William Orbit and Moby are in the wings. This is Warp as cottage industry, homespun and beguiling.

Now we have ‘Greatest Misses’; a compilation of Appleton’s earlier albums (including a couple from ‘Trees’ – title track’s missing though, so you have to buy both). Like a vast tome of pressed flowers, it’s hard to select stand-out individual beauty because the beauty is in the context and the sequencing. Appleton’s work works as a whole, the segue and sequence are important. I’m a fan of the album format, so at first, I’m a bit thrown off by the new order (hmmm – Ed) of this collected works. But, no! I’m as happy as a hippo in mud, wading and wallowing in new found delights. And if I had to be pushed, for a secluded island, I’d grab this in the lifeboats.

Maybe most of these older tunes ARE the sketches for ‘Trees’ but I once again find myself in shimmering translucent soundscapes, hinting at space and even deeper negative space, soft undefined edges and washes of pale soft-focus water colours. The palette is subtler than primary colours. John Cage’s transparent music sheets play in my mind, of viewing things that shouldn’t be seen, although atonality has no part of this. These are pretty electronic tunes indeed, joyous, symphonic. And pastoral. I see summer through heat shimmer and sun-flared dandelion seeds. And glacial wintery landscapes glimpsed through headlong cascading snow.

The word ‘translucent’ keeps resurfacing in my mind, as this is translucent, transcendent pop-musik at its most artful and refined. It’s not always about what’s included but what’s left out. There are no edges or outlines but merely suggestions, by Appleton’s use of textures, pastel smudges and tonal shading. A joy to behold. Drum machines skitter like brittle decaying leaves, his Stratocaster chimes like shards of sunlight. There is immense skill in play here, with fluidity and layering in his synth arrangements, all is pristine and uncluttered. We can hear (and ‘see’ everything), things half-glimpsed beneath other surfaces. This is the purest pristine electronica, born of both Cubase and Acid. But, contradictorily, seeming of nature, and wholly naturalistic. Two beautiful and compulsory pieces of tonal Art (with the biggest possible capital A). Jeff, I doff my cap to your canvas

Craig M #WEATNU Digital Magazine

Follow Jeff Appleton on twitter

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