Table of contents for February 2019 in MOJO (2024)

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MOJO|February 2019THIS MONTH'S CONTRIBUTORS INCLUDE...Jay GlennieFilm writer Jay’s last few years have been spent orbiting the wonderful world of the late great Nic Roeg, with books on The Man Who Fell To Earth and Performance. An extract from the latter features on page 56. The new year brings a new orbit for Jay – around Robert De Niro and The Deer Hunter.Andy Cotterill“What a great experience shooting these guys [Khruangbin, p46],” enthused Andy, seen with two of the band (that’s him on the right). “They looked incredible and were so much fun… the perfect combination for a great shoot… and what a great gig, they had the Roundhouse rocking. I hope to work with them again soon.”Dave Di MartinoDave witnessed The Doors’ historic 1969 performance in Miami (see p62) and, for better or worse,…1 min

MOJO|February 2019Swoons 15 ALTERNATIVE POP GEMS FROM THE 1980s“ IT WAS A VERY 1984 THING, TO BE AGAINST THE ROCKY STUFF that had come before,” Prefab Sprout’s Paddy McAloon reasons in this month’s MOJO Interview. “I knew there was a way to write about relationships and women that wasn’t that tired old sh*t.” From Camden to Cork, and from Durham in north-east England to Perth in Western Australia, McAloon was the unlikely leader of a musical generation who came of age in the early 1980s. Sensitive to a fault, mostly too awkward and idiosyncratic to organise themselves into a scene, they nevertheless mapped out a literate and compelling new pop music. Many jangled, as an imperative that dovetailed with the looming forces of indiedom. But as the 15 tracks collected on Swoons show, the prevailing aesthetic of romance…6 min

MOJO|February 2019After 10 years away, The Raconteurs fuse Nashville and Detroit rock’n’roll!NEVER ONE to do things in a conventional way, Jack White excelled himself this past October. One of the most exciting music stories for 2019 – that his beloved band, The Raconteurs, had reunited after a decade apart – was smuggled out in the small print on his Third Man Records website. White announced that The Raconteurs’ second album, Consolers Of The Lonely, was being upgraded for a tenth anniversary vinyl reissue as part of the Third Man Record Vault Collection.While working on the old master tapes, however, White and his bandmates – co-frontman Brendan Benson, bassist Jack Lawrence (who also serves in The Dead Weather) and drummer Patrick Keeler – were inspired to record two new songs. Those tracks, pressed onto a 7-inch single, are being mailed out to…2 min

MOJO|February 2019After 10 years away, The Raconteurs fuse Nashville and Detroit rock’n’roll!NEVER ONE to do things in a conventional way, Jack White excelled himself this past October. One of the most exciting music stories for 2019 – that his beloved band, The Raconteurs, had reunited after a decade apart – was smuggled out in the small print on his Third Man Records website. White announced that The Raconteurs’ second album, Consolers Of The Lonely, was being upgraded for a tenth anniversary vinyl reissue as part of the Third Man Record Vault Collection. While working on the old master tapes, however, White and his bandmates – co-frontman Brendan Benson, bassist Jack Lawrence (who also serves in The Dead Weather) and drummer Patrick Keeler – were inspired to record two new songs. Those tracks, pressed onto a 7-inch single, are being mailed out…2 min

MOJO|February 2019After-dark folk voice Nadia Reid meets Matthew E White uptown, for album threeNADIA REID’S outstanding first two albums, 2015’s Listen To Formation, Look For The Signs and 2017’s Preservation, were both recorded in Sitting Room Studios in Christchurch, New Zealand, with producer Ben Edwards, regular guitarist Sam Taylor and a familiar team of collaborators. For her third, she travelled nearly 9,000 miles to Richmond, Virginia’s Spacebomb Studios, founded by cosmic soulman Matthew E White, who co-produced Reid’s latest with Trey Pollard. “It sounds kind of truthful and right.” NADIA REID “It was really interesting to fly and meet strangers,” Reid says. “Challenging as well. I just hoped it was gonna work – all I could do was write the songs and get in the studio with the right people and let the magic happen. You can’t plan for that.” Having…3 min

MOJO|February 2019Joy Division: The Oral History remembers everything…“You are hearing the voices of the people who are the subject of the book.” JON SAVAGE THE FORTIETH anniversary of Joy Division’s debut album Unknown Pleasures , 2019 will involve one book admirers will have to read. Out in April, JD authority Jon Savage’s The Searing Light, The Sun And Everything Else: Joy Division: The Oral History brings deep commentary from participants Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, Stephen Morris, Tony Wilson, Peter Saville, Annik Honoré and more, plus contemporary testimony from late singer Ian Curtis. “It gives immediacy and directness,” says Savage of the format. “You’re hearing the voices of the people who are the subject of the book. I was inspired by Jean Stein’s Edie, the break out Oral History. Also Andrew Loog Oldham’s Stoned and Stoned 2.” Detail…2 min

MOJO|February 2019THE OTHER DOCUMENTARIES, DRAMAS AND DISPUTATIONS HITTING A SCREEN NEAR YOU1 MILES DAVIS: BIRTH OF THE COOLDirector: Stanley NelsonThe director’s previous credits include The Black Panthers: Vanguard Of The Revolution and Freedom Riders. This long-form documentary, he says, aims to see past the myth-making and present the definitive biography of the Picasso of jazz. It will air on BBC2 and PBS’s American Masters.They Say: “By unpacking his upbringing, his methodology, his relationships, and his demons, we begin to understand the man who would redefine the original American musical genre, jazz, and has influenced generations of musicians in rock, funk and hip hop.” (Stanley Nelson)2 COUNTRY MUSICDirector: Ken BurnsIn 2001, he made the remarkable series Jazz.Now the multi-part Country Music looks to one of America’s other central musical forms, examining it in all its variety, from Appalachian laments to good-time Western…2 min

MOJO|February 2019BOB MOULD“I’m trying to stay away from club drugs.” BOB MOULD“IT’S RAINING today,” says Bob Mould, gleefully, down the line from his San Francisco abode. Since 2016 he’s split his time between SF and Berlin, but it’s not the novelty of Berlin weather arriving on the West Coast that explains his sunny demeanour. “We’ve had several weeks of major wildfires and some pretty toxic air,” he explains, “so this rain is a great relief on both fronts.”Mould’s new album Sunshine Rock, however, is a consciously cloudless affair, from its title to its sleeve’s homage to the iconic Capitol swirl found on classic Beach Boys vinyl.“I was trying to write to the sunshine, to the bits of optimism I could hold,” he nods, referencing its big melodies, its unabashedly ‘pop’ bite.The approach…4 min

MOJO|February 2019THE OTHER DOCUMENTARIES, DRAMAS AND DISPUTATIONS HITTING A SCREEN NEAR YOU1 MILES DAVIS: BIRTH OF THE COOL Director: Stanley Nelson The director’s previous credits include The Black Panthers: Vanguard Of The Revolution and Freedom Riders. This long-form documentary, he says, aims to see past the myth-making and present the definitive biography of the Picasso of jazz. It will air on BBC2 and PBS’s American Masters. They Say: “By unpacking his upbringing, his methodology, his relationships, and his demons, we begin to understand the man who would redefine the original American musical genre, jazz, and has influenced generations of musicians in rock, funk and hip hop.” (Stanley Nelson) 2 COUNTRY MUSIC Director: Ken Burns In 2001, he made the remarkable series Jazz. Now the multi-part Country Music looks to one of America’s other central musical forms, examining it in all its…2 min

MOJO|February 2019BOB MOULD“I’m trying to stay away from club drugs.” BOB MOULD “IT’S RAINING today,” says Bob Mould, gleefully, down the line from his San Francisco abode. Since 2016 he’s split his time between SF and Berlin, but it’s not the novelty of Berlin weather arriving on the West Coast that explains his sunny demeanour. “We’ve had several weeks of major wildfires and some pretty toxic air,” he explains, “so this rain is a great relief on both fronts.” Mould’s new album Sunshine Rock, however, is a consciously cloudless affair, from its title to its sleeve’s homage to the iconic Capitol swirl found on classic Beach Boys vinyl. “I was trying to write to the sunshine, to the bits of optimism I could hold,” he nods, referencing its big melodies, its unabashedly…4 min

MOJO|February 2019SINATRA’S GRANDDAUGHTER AJ LAMBERT CLASHES ALT-ROCK WITH SMOKY CABARET“It’s not as if we were all singing My Way at the piano.” AJ LAMBERT WHEN AJ Lambert was bassist in New York indie band Looker in 2008, a London listings magazine previewed their show. “Come and see Frank Sinatra’s granddaughter!” it read unhelpfully. “I felt mortified,” recalls Lambert, eldest daughter of Nancy Sinatra and her second husband Hugh Lambert. “I’d promised my band it wouldn’t be part of our story.” Now 44, Lambert has reached a happier understanding with that inescapable narrative thrust. In October, the singer and multi-instrumentalist released her Lonely Songs EP, a collaboration with Protomartyr’s Greg Ahee featuring songs from Frank Sinatra Sings For Only The Lonely. After her uncle Frank Sinatra Jr’s death in 2016, she declined to take over a tribute show designed…2 min

MOJO|February 2019THEY ALSO SERVEDPRESTWICH-BORN keyboardist VIC EMERSON (b.c.1949) had played in cinemas and on the club circuit before joining spiritual prog band Mandalaband. In 1976 he co-founded Manchester soft rockers Sad Café, remaining with them for five long-players and co-writing 1979’s commercial zenith, the Number 3 hit Every Day Hurts, before he departed in 1984. He also played on 10cc’s Ten Out Of 10 (1981) and Windows In The Jungle (1983) albums. A long-time resident of France, in 2000 he took part in a Sad Café reunion after the sudden death of their vocalist Paul Young.BASSIST AL JAMES(b.1946) was, alongside vocalist Dave Bartram and drummer Romeo Challenger, a member of Choise, who joined forces with the Golden Hammers group to co-found long-running Leicester rock’n’roll revivalists Showaddywaddy in 1973. Coming to national attention on…4 min

MOJO|February 2019THE PREFAB THREETHE BENCHMARKPrefab SproutSteve McQueen KITCHENWARE/CBS, 1985McAloon pushes pop’s envelope with wise-beyond-his-years love psychology (Moving The River, Appetite, Desire As), and bravura whimsy (When The Angels), while producer Thomas Dolby’s genius as an arranger and drummer Neil Conti’s groove-sense keep it all on track. Yet McAloon still wishes they’d added the now-legendary Snowy Rents A Dog, nixed by Dolby. All the promise of debut Swoon realised, in spades.THE SPRAWLING oPuSPrefab SproutJordan: The Comeback KITCHENWARE, 1990After the glitzy Langley Park and dowdy Protest Songs, this deep and rewarding buffet of musical delights. Wild Horses is Scritti-sharp, Machine Gun Ibiza Steely Dan-esque, while the album’s gospel moves sound even better now ’80s soul productions are hip again. Mercy has recently appeared in Spike Lee’s Netflix serial, She’s Gotta Have It; Doo-Wop In Harlem…1 min

MOJO|February 2019THEY ALSO SERVEDPRESTWICH-BORN keyboardist VIC EMERSON (b.c.1949) had played in cinemas and on the club circuit before joining spiritual prog band Mandalaband. In 1976 he co-founded Manchester soft rockers Sad Café, remaining with them for five long-players and co-writing 1979’s commercial zenith, the Number 3 hit Every Day Hurts, before he departed in 1984. He also played on 10cc’s Ten Out Of 10 (1981) and Windows In The Jungle (1983) albums. A long-time resident of France, in 2000 he took part in a Sad Café reunion after the sudden death of their vocalist Paul Young. BASSIST AL JAMES (b.1946) was, alongside vocalist Dave Bartram and drummer Romeo Challenger, a member of Choise, who joined forces with the Golden Hammers group to co-found long-running Leicester rock’n’roll revivalists Showaddywaddy in 1973. Coming to national…4 min

MOJO|February 2019MOJO PRESENTSTHREE YEARS AGO, JUST AFTER SHE TURNED 29, LIFE took a strange turn for Laura Lee. “I felt lost,” she recalls of twenties she’d spent drifting from an academic art background into museum and gallery curatorship to actually creating art but, so far, to only patchy recognition.Love had made her take a detour, from her native Texas to the crammed and narrow streets of south London’s Streatham Hill, struggling at the wheel of her employer’s Range Rover in the course of her duties as maths tutor to the four children of property makeover television star Sarah Beeny. It was a long way from the broad highways of Houston where she had left behind her band. Though she continued to communicate via Skype, it was an odd hiatus.Then, almost immediately after…8 min

MOJO|February 2019TORTURED SOULDONNY HATHAWAY SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN IN the studio that rain-lashed January afternoon. But, buoyed by a recent Grammy nomination for The Closer I Get To You, his 1978 hit duet with Roberta Flack, he had been discharged from the New York hospital where he was being treated for symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia to begin sessions on a follow-up album with Flack. Initially, all was going to plan. Hathaway and Flack had put down the finishing touches to You Are My Heaven, an uplifting sophistifunk piece composed by their friend Stevie Wonder and producer Eric Mercury. Their performance was intense, powerful and brimmed with possibility, recapturing the sense of rapture and devotion the pair had conjured on their exquisite 1972 smash, Where Is The Love.However, as they prepared for their…16 min

MOJO|February 2019JAGGER PAINTS IT BLACK IN PERFORMANCEMick Jagger: “I hadn’t really given any serious thought of being in films. Donald was so enthusiastic and so convinced that the role of Turner was something that I could do, I wanted to give it a go. We were young and when you’re young you have no fear… There has been a lot of rubbish written about all the pseudo side of things, but it was no more than Donald had written a part of a rock star and I was a mate. The difference was I knew Donald really well. He wasn’t someone who I met in a meeting in LA pitching me a part in his movie. We had a trust and friendship.”Donald Cammell, screenwriter/co-director: “I was interested in the idea of an artist at the end…13 min

MOJO|February 2019SHAMAN’S BLUESIT WAS A HOT AND STEAMY SUNDAY NIGHT IN MIAMI on March 1, 1969 – and it was even hotter and steamier inside Dinner Key Auditorium, a former aircraft hangar off Biscayne Bay in Coconut Grove. Twelve thousand concert fans sat crammed into the auditorium’s confines, sweating, drinking, smoking, and watching, eyes wide open, as the man on-stage politely shared his thoughts.“You’re all a bunch of f*ckin’ idiots! ” the man declared.Some members of the audience applauded. Some cheered. Some whooped in appreciation. And some had climbed the outside walls, come in through the windows, and were hanging from the rafters, watching. It was nuts; I was there.“Lettin’ people tell you what you’re gonna do!” the man scolded. “Lettin’ people push you around!”A pause. “How long do you think it’s…20 min

MOJO|February 2019“WHAT BALLS!”(from Waiting For The Sun, 1968)The fragment of Celebration Of The Lizard that made it onto Waiting For The Sun is bracingly spooky-ooky. The full shmeer, as heard in a melodramatic July 1969 performance on 1970’s Absolutely Live is the dictionary definition of too much, but the band sound great on The Hill Dwellers.(from Waiting For The Sun, 1968) A perfect example of The Doors pushing at the edge of pretentious and pulling it off. The hushed intro, the military march/firing squad segment from 0.57 that so tortured Densmore, and the bell-ringing coda are bravura pieces of musical theatre. The bit with the actual tune shows how tough they rocked.(from Waiting For The Sun, 1968) Robby Krieger goes Rodrigo on this Iberian journey, proof of how much further and variedly…2 min

MOJO|February 2019(It’s Good) To Be FREEEVERY MORNING FOR TWO WEEKS LAST summer, Noel Gallagher would take the 15-minute stroll from his house in Maida Vale to Abbey Road studios in nearby St John’s Wood. It was there, he says, rounding the corner into the tree-lined avenue on which The Beatles weaved their sonic magic, that his own sizeable musical legacy was put into perspective – perhaps too much perspective.“The Beatles…” he marvels. “That interest, still . Every day I had to fight my way through Spanish tourists. The zebra crossing on Abbey Road is the only square metre in any part of England I wouldn’t get recognised. I could stand there, naked, playing Wonderwall, and they’d still say, ‘Get out of the f*cking way.’”He pauses, eyes and mouth crinkling into a huge grin. “I did…25 min

MOJO|February 2019“Welcome To Myyy World...”(bonus track with Shakermaker single, 1994) The path a more ‘indie’ Noel might have taken if the ultimately more pronounced ’60s-’70s ‘rock’n’roll pop’ aesthetic had not struck him as having broader appeal. Despite the reverbdrenched Dinosaur Jr riff and stirring outro, it just wasn’t Oasis. “I think I’ll go and be something now,” goes the lyric, presciently.(from Definitely Maybe, 1994) Its demo, circulated as a single-sided promo 12-inch in late 1993, was the world’s first taste of a Noel Gallagher recording (a sticker asked “Anyone for anymore?”). The Definitely Maybe version – 6.17, half of which is outro – is the super-distilled Oasis-era Noel moment, a mess of cold-sweat drug abandon, hyper-saturated guitars and stomping Sladebeat. Phew!(from Definitely Maybe, 1994) Revolver on 11 – a taste of what Noel would…5 min

MOJO|February 2019“Bowie’s In Hysterics, So God Knows What I’d Said.”“I’ve been getting into the later Bowie stuff. Some of it’s mental, some of it is quite good. Heathen’s a good album, and Reality. We did Jools Holland with him around the time of Earthling, and he was wearing high-heels. I only met him once, though. It was the tour that Morrissey supported him at Wembley Arena. We went down there to see Morrissey and someone said to me, ‘Do you want to meet David?’ Yeah, he likes me, great! He was putting make-up on in the mirror and someone took a photograph. It only came to light when he died. He’s in hysterics, so God knows what I’d said, I have no idea.The last time I had any contact with him was when Kate Moss and I presented him…1 min

MOJO|February 2019Behind the maskBruce Springsteen★★★★Springsteen On BroadwayCOLUMBIA. CD/DL/LP “He knows better than anyone else in his business there’s nothing spontaneous about magic.”IN HIS most famous song, the one so emblematic of his public self that he took its title for his 2016 autobiography, Bruce Springsteen demands: “I want to know if love is real”. During every performance of Born To Run, that lyric in particular seems to cut to the heart of the matter. Prove love to be nothing but an imaginative construct, and everything else crumbles. Springsteen’s moral stature as an artist has been founded on his sincerity – to such an extent that, when allied to his faith in the power of dreams, it has made him the most durably heroic rock’n’roll figure of his time. In the era of fake…38 min

MOJO|February 2019“Welcome To Myyy World...”(bonus track with Shakermaker single, 1994) The path a more ‘indie’ Noel might have taken if the ultimately more pronounced ’60s-’70s ‘rock’n’roll pop’ aesthetic had not struck him as having broader appeal. Despite the reverbdrenched Dinosaur Jr riff and stirring outro, it just wasn’t Oasis. “I think I’ll go and be something now,” goes the lyric, presciently. (from Definitely Maybe, 1994) Its demo, circulated as a single-sided promo 12-inch in late 1993, was the world’s first taste of a Noel Gallagher recording (a sticker asked “Anyone for anymore?”). The Definitely Maybe version – 6.17, half of which is outro – is the super-distilled Oasis-era Noel moment, a mess of cold-sweat drug abandon, hyper-saturated guitars and stomping Sladebeat. Phew! (from Definitely Maybe, 1994) Revolver on 11 – a taste of what…4 min

MOJO|February 2019String theorySteve Gunn★★★★The Unseen In BetweenMATADOR. CD/DL/LPIT’S ONE OF those odd quirks of musical history that a bunch of leftfield artists with roots in Philadelphia currently form a new, understated kind of rock establishment. They’re adventurous classicists who disdain the grandstanding of some of their predecessors, forging an evolved idea of tradition. Chief among them, of course, are Adam Granduciel and Kurt Vile, going from strength to strength as dazed millennial Bruce Springsteens and Tom Pettys respectively.Steve Gunn, briefly a member of Vile’s band The Violators, is, if anything, an even more unlikely mainstream artist. His background is in the tangled world of underground folk, a fellow traveller of Jack Rose, stretching the parameters of solo guitar music into exploratory, often psychedelic spaces. In recent years, though, Gunn has found ways…3 min

MOJO|February 2019ALSO RELEASEDMark Lockheart★★★★Days On EarthEDITION. CD/DL/LPLockheart’s second orchestral album, a decade after 2009’s Days Like These, is his boldest yet, the Polar Bear soprano writing for jazz sextet and 30-piece orchestra. The dynamics unfurl slowly, as he holds back his most eloquent improvisations for This Much I Know Is True’s lithesome funk and Party Animal’s jaunty spy theatrics. Lush and ambitious, it’s cinematically compelling from the off.Twin Talk★★★WeaverPEOPLE. CD/DL/LPOver two previous outings, this Bon Iver-endorsed Chicago trio have evolved an intimate group dynamic at least two steps removed from bass-drums-reeds convention. While Dustin Laurenzi’s tenor sax and bass clarinet supply a sinuous foil to Andrew Green’s sharp, snappy percussive theatrics, muscular bassist Katie Ernst’s vocals add a vital fourth voice, wordlessly enlivening The Sky Never Ends’ taut theatrics or imbuing Solace…1 min

MOJO|February 2019New day risingSharon Van Etten ★★★★ Remind Me Tomorrow JAGJAGUWAR. CD/DL/LP “NOTHING WILL change,” Sharon Van Etten sang forlornly – and, as it turned out, incorrectly – on her last album, 2014’s Are We There. This was also where the singer-songwriter attempted a tribute to Bruce Springsteen’s hardscrabble romanticism on Every Time The Sun Comes Up. “I washed your dishes”, she sang, “but I sh*t in your bathroom” – lines that came across as less a statement of domestic bliss and more as an unruly threat. On Remind Me Tomorrow, however, she relates another household vignette to very different effect: “I walked in the door/The Black Crowes playing as he cleaned the floor,” she sings over Malibu’s tidal piano. “I thought I couldn’t love him any more.” The sun is up, but…2 min

MOJO|February 2019ALSO RELEASEDDavid Attenborough★★★★My Field Recordings From Across The PlanetWRASSE. CDFrom 1954-63, the future TV titan was travelling the globe for the BBC (from Sierra Leone to the South Pacific), and when not filming Komodo dragons he recorded the people’s music for the corporation’s sound archive. Sixty tracks from a pre-media world prove the naturalist should be celebrated for more than cavorting with gorillas.Afro Celt Sound System★★★FlightECC. CD/DLThoughts on migration and refugees through the eyes of the birdwatchers on the Sound System team (hence the album title), plus their customary blending of African percussion, Celtic pipes and fiddles, prove they can still provide a tingle after 22 years together (Lament For MacLean, Manako). Point off for some boilerplate club-anthem lyrics when they switch to English, though.Mercedes Peón★★★DeixaasALTAFONTE. CD/DLFeels like the best yet…1 min

MOJO|February 2019THIS MONTH'S CONTRIBUTORS INCLUDE...Jay Glennie Film writer Jay’s last few years have been spent orbiting the wonderful world of the late great Nic Roeg, with books on The Man Who Fell To Earth and Performance. An extract from the latter features on page 56. The new year brings a new orbit for Jay – around Robert De Niro and The Deer Hunter. Andy Cotterill “What a great experience shooting these guys [Khruangbin, p46],” enthused Andy, seen with two of the band (that’s him on the right). “They looked incredible and were so much fun… the perfect combination for a great shoot… and what a great gig, they had the Roundhouse rocking. I hope to work with them again soon.” Dave Di Martino Dave witnessed The Doors’ historic 1969 performance in Miami (see p62)…1 min

MOJO|February 2019Theories, rants, etc.IN 1968, JIM MORRISON WROTE A FAN letter to Wallace Fowlie, professor of French Literature at Duke University. Morrison had become enamoured with Fowlie’s translation of the poems of Arthur Rimbaud. “I don’t read French that easily,” he confessed. “I am a rock singer and your book travels around with me.”Morrison wouldn’t be the last rock star to find inspiration from the bad boy of 19th century symbolism. Still, it’s quite a shock this month to learn that Noel Gallagher is also a poetry-loving disciple; one of many unexpected insights we discover from a striking new interview with this most quotable and MOJOfriendly of contemporary British rock stars.Our latest issue is full of surprises. You’ll hear about the musical riches of 2019. About the unlikely bond between Prefab Sprout and…7 min

MOJO|February 2019Theories, rants, etc.IN 1968, JIM MORRISON WROTE A FAN letter to Wallace Fowlie, professor of French Literature at Duke University. Morrison had become enamoured with Fowlie’s translation of the poems of Arthur Rimbaud. “I don’t read French that easily,” he confessed. “I am a rock singer and your book travels around with me.” Morrison wouldn’t be the last rock star to find inspiration from the bad boy of 19th century symbolism. Still, it’s quite a shock this month to learn that Noel Gallagher is also a poetry-loving disciple; one of many unexpected insights we discover from a striking new interview with this most quotable and MOJOfriendly of contemporary British rock stars. Our latest issue is full of surprises. You’ll hear about the musical riches of 2019. About the unlikely bond between Prefab…7 min

MOJO|February 2019ALSO WORKING…work continues on the new album by NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS , which began in September in Los Angeles. Nick outlined his creative approach: “As a songwriter, most of my waking life is spent in a kind of dream time… we are professional dreamers” … ALDOUS HARDING’s album Designer arrives on April 26. “[2017 LP] Party was a jump, and we’ve jumped again,” she says …a new album from THE WHO is expected in 2019: Pete Townshend (left) wants it to have an equal number of songs from Roger Daltrey … LIAM GALLAGHER releases his second solo album in September, having recorded it in Los Angeles. … ROBERT FORSTER’s Inferno arrives on March 1. Recorded in Berlin this summer, with his wife Karin Bãumler among the players and…2 min

MOJO|February 2019Joy Division: The Oral History remembers everything…“You are hearing the voices of the people who are the subject of the book.” JON SAVAGETHE FORTIETH anniversary of Joy Division’s debut album Unknown Pleasures , 2019 will involve one book admirers will have to read. Out in April, JD authority Jon Savage’s The Searing Light, The Sun And Everything Else: Joy Division: The Oral History brings deep commentary from participants Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, Stephen Morris, Tony Wilson, Peter Saville, Annik Honoré and more, plus contemporary testimony from late singer Ian Curtis.“It gives immediacy and directness,” says Savage of the format. “You’re hearing the voices of the people who are the subject of the book. I was inspired by Jean Stein’s Edie, the break out Oral History. Also Andrew Loog Oldham’s Stoned and Stoned 2.”Detail includes Ian Curtis’s…2 min

MOJO|February 2019Ex-Talk Talk enigma Rustin Man transmits new codes for driftingbuild your environment and then you play into it…” RUSTIN MAN SEVENTEEN YEARS ago, back in MOJO 108, Jim Irvin wrote of Beth Gibbons and Rustin Man’s Out Of Season LP that it was, “among the best albums ever made”. Now ex-Talk Talk bassist Paul Webb, AKA Rustin Man, is to follow up that blessed debut in 2019, with Drift Code. But what’s he “Youbeen doing all this time? “I had a young family,” says Webb from his converted barn near Stansted, where he both lives and records. “Plus, I downed tools when I was asked to do production. I’m quite obsessive about music, so to keep the standard up I had to kind of, slow down…” Slowing down into a different way of regarding time and expectations is a…3 min

MOJO|February 2019Bowie: The First Five Years completes BBC film trilogy – at the beginningTHIS SPRING, one of the BBC’s highest-profile documentary series, on the life of David Bowie, comes home. The First Five Years concludes Francis Whately’s acclaimed film cycle, and tackles his early years, promising a new take on a man who was not only supremely creative, but extraordinarily tough; tough enough to turn his own death into an art event.At the time of writing, Whately hasn’t started an edit or completed clearances, although he’s convinced there’s unseen footage in Europe, and is likewise chasing new audio. But there will be genuinely riveting new insights. Among these will be Hermione Farthingale, David’s girlfriend from 1968, who in the last 50 years has never been filmed talking about her ex-lover. Hermione is insightful, exceptionally lucid, and one of the few collaborators in Bowie’s…3 min

MOJO|February 2019ALSO FILMING…director David Boni has spent six years piecing together an official STRANGLERS (right) documentary, telling the story from their early ’70s beginnings to the present day, via vintage and new film and interviews. It premieres in cinemas in April, though it doesn’t look like Hugh Cornwell will be involved… Steve McQueen is continuing work on an as-yet untitled doc on late rap meteor TUPAC SHAKUR , with the co-operation of his estate. Tupac collaborator DJ King Assassin has spoken of plans for Makaveli, described as “the life of Tupac Shakur told by his real close friends” …coming in late March, Steve Sullivan’s BEING FRANK: THE CHRISSIEVEY STORY is a portrait of the man better known as papier mâchéheaded comic Frank Sidebottom. As Frank (right) becomes a star, the story runs,…1 min

MOJO|February 2019Bowie: The First Five Years completes BBC film trilogy – at the beginningTHIS SPRING, one of the BBC’s highest-profile documentary series, on the life of David Bowie, comes home. The First Five Years concludes Francis Whately’s acclaimed film cycle, and tackles his early years, promising a new take on a man who was not only supremely creative, but extraordinarily tough; tough enough to turn his own death into an art event. At the time of writing, Whately hasn’t started an edit or completed clearances, although he’s convinced there’s unseen footage in Europe, and is likewise chasing new audio. But there will be genuinely riveting new insights. Among these will be Hermione Farthingale, David’s girlfriend from 1968, who in the last 50 years has never been filmed talking about her ex-lover. Hermione is insightful, exceptionally lucid, and one of the few collaborators in…3 min

MOJO|February 2019ALSO FILMING…director David Boni has spent six years piecing together an official STRANGLERS (right) documentary, telling the story from their early ’70s beginnings to the present day, via vintage and new film and interviews. It premieres in cinemas in April, though it doesn’t look like Hugh Cornwell will be involved… Steve McQueen is continuing work on an as-yet untitled doc on late rap meteor TUPAC SHAKUR , with the co-operation of his estate. Tupac collaborator DJ King Assassin has spoken of plans for Makaveli, described as “the life of Tupac Shakur told by his real close friends” …coming in late March, Steve Sullivan’s BEING FRANK: THE CHRIS SIEVEY STORY is a portrait of the man better known as papier mâchéheaded comic Frank Sidebottom. As Frank (right) becomes a star, the story…1 min

MOJO|February 2019SYDNEY ALT FOLK VOICE JULIA JACKLIN FINDS HER SPACE, TRANSMITS ESSENTIAL EMOTIONS“IT’S REALLY interesting being interviewed about this record,” notes indie-Americana talent Julia Jacklin. “It’s been five per cent talking about music, and 95 per cent therapy session.”She’s laid herself open on her new album, Crushing, tapping the end of a long-term relationship and two years touring LP debut Don’t Let The Kids Win, which joined Angel Olsen and Aldous Harding at the top table of transformative alt folk. Some ride, she says, but it’s not just journalists who’ve compromised her personal space.“I was exhausted and woozy… then all self-consciousness melts away.” JULIA JACKLIN“A lot of Crushing is about asking for space, physical and mental,” she explains. “The world I’m in, it’s crazy-busy, I’m always with people, everyone’s working hard and stressed, and behaviour can slip under the carpet. You constantly…2 min

MOJO|February 2019FACT SHEET• For Fans Of: John Grant, Meow Meow, Tracey Thorn • ‘AJ’ stands for Angela Jennifer. • Lambert has played with Murph of Dinosaur Jr, with Here We Go Magic and in a reunion line-up of The hom*osexuals. • She co-produced her mother’s 2004 album Nancy Sinatra, featuring covers of Morrissey, Jarvis co*cker and Jon Spencer. “We’ve clashed about how much emotion I show when I perform. I’ll end up on the floor or on my knees and she’s, like, ‘That’s a bit over the top.’”…1 min

MOJO|February 2019SYDNEY ALT FOLK VOICE JULIA JACKLIN FINDS HER SPACE, TRANSMITS ESSENTIAL EMOTIONS“IT’S REALLY interesting being interviewed about this record,” notes indie-Americana talent Julia Jacklin. “It’s been five per cent talking about music, and 95 per cent therapy session.” She’s laid herself open on her new album, Crushing, tapping the end of a long-term relationship and two years touring LP debut Don’t Let The Kids Win, which joined Angel Olsen and Aldous Harding at the top table of transformative alt folk. Some ride, she says, but it’s not just journalists who’ve compromised her personal space. “I was exhausted and woozy… then all self-consciousness melts away.” JULIA JACKLIN “A lot of Crushing is about asking for space, physical and mental,” she explains. “The world I’m in, it’s crazy-busy, I’m always with people, everyone’s working hard and stressed, and behaviour can slip under…2 min

MOJO|February 2019A LIFE IN PICTURES1 Fresh Sprouts: (from left) brother Martin and Paddy McAloon, Prefab rehearsal, ’77.2 Great escapology: McAloon on wheels, circa 1985’s Steve McQueen.3 Cigar club: the Prefabs celebrate finishing Jordan: The Comeback, 1990 (from left) Paddy, remix engineer Eric Calvi, Martin, Wendy Smith, Keith Armstrong. “I did like my cigars in those days,” he admits.4 The King Of Rock ’N’ Roll: promotional shot of McAloon on tour. “I wasn’t convinced it was the life for me,” he says now.5 El toro negro rides again: guest Stevie Wonder adds harmonica to Nightingales off 1988’s From Langley Park To Memphis.6 Not a prisoner of the past: McAloon on-stage at the London Fleadh Festival, 2000.7 Meet the fans: signing From Langley Park albums in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1988.8 He’s gotta have it: Paddy meets film director…1 min

MOJO|February 2019Electric Ladle LandBORN IN Bridgwater in 1942, Martin Ash was studying Industrial Design at the Royal College Of Art when, having come to notice for his party piece of superfast spoons-playing, he was asked to join The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, the music hall/surrealist troupe led by Vivian Stanshall and Neil Innes, in 1963. As well as securing the group their first regular gig at the Kensington pub in Notting Hill, the newly re-christened “rhythm pole, string bass, spoons, percussion” player would appear on 1967’s laudably screwy album Gorilla, enjoy the Bonzos’ foray into northern clubland, be seen fleetingly on The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour playing their Elvis pastiche Death Cab For Cutie, and feature on the proto-Monty Python ITV kids show Do Not Adjust Your Set. “We create situations where things…4 min

MOJO|February 2019What's The Big Idea?Days Of Future Passed (Deram, 1967)Concept: A day in the lifeThe group lose themselves in psychedelic reverence of sunrise, sunset, and the lunch break, aided by Decca’s new “Deramic” stereo sound and lush orchestrations of the London Festival Orchestra. David Anstey’s cover art shows blue images of past times (goblets, knights) rent asunder by a psychedelic spectrum.In Search Of The Lost Chord (Deram, 1968)Concept: The quest for enlightenmentJourney of discovery to breach the confines of the every day and reach nirvana. The cover art depicts the Buddhist samsara, the endless cycle of birth and death.On The Threshold Of A Dream (Deram, 1969)Concept: Man versus the establishmentAn hallucinatory, multilayered exploration of dream, reality and self, on the brink of a new consciousness. The cover art shows an establishment robot crushing the…2 min

MOJO|February 2019PLANE FUEL!Yodrak Salakchai Born Niphon Plaiwan (1956-2008), perhaps Thailand’s most popular singer recorded over 4,000 songs, mostly in the Luk Thung style, country themes set to a blend of indigenous and Western instrumentation. Mark Speer: “People call us Thai funk, but we’re not playing Luk Thung or Mor Lam. We piece together music into this big synergistic thing.” The SpecialS From Coventry in the British Midlands, Jerry Dammers’ multiracial band were inspired by ’60s ska star Prince Buster to create an increasingly eclectic songbook blending social realism and dancefloor catchiness. Speer: “I loved 2 Tone and ska. For a long time Ghost Town [1981] was my favourite song. From there I got into reggae.”NazaN S¸oraY Turkish film actress Nazan Soray (born 1954) had a hit with Barıs Manço’s composition Hal Hal,…1 min

MOJO|February 2019HAT’S LIFE★★★★(Atco, 1970)An audacious debut signalling a major talent, Everything… boasted Hathaway’s first masterpiece, his jazz-funk-gospel-Latin-soul landscape co-written with Leroy Hutson, The Ghetto, their other strong collaboration, Tryin’ Times, plus inventive covers of Nina Simone’s To Be Young, Gifted And Black and Ray Charles’s I Believe To My Soul. ★★★★(Atco, 1971)Only one original as Hathaway‘s second album emphasises his skills of vocal interpretation and piano-led arrangement. Ballad-heavy side one takes He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother to church; side two is more uptempo, originals of Mac Davis and Dorsey Burnette are given rousing muscle. He gets so deep inside a song you fear he’ll never find a way out… but he does.★★★ (Atlantic, 1972) Donny’s biggest hits came via duets that arguably did more for Roberta Flack’s career than his. That…2 min

MOJO|February 2019A BRUM TRIPSUNDAY JUNE 25, 1967. IN EMI’S ABBEY Road studios, The Beatles perform their idealistic Summer of Love anthem All You Need Is Love in front of four hundred million TV viewers. Present in the studio alongside the group, orchestra, and the band’s manager, Brian Epstein, are Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Keith Moon, Graham Nash and Marianne Faithfull. Noticeably not present are the band’s recording neighbours from down the road at Decca’s Broadhurst Gardens studios, for The Moody Blues are currently engaged on a fortnight’s cabaret tour of the north of England. “That was soul-destroying,” remembers the band’s drummer, Graeme Edge. “I must have had a giant pair of balls to carry on and not sling in the towel.” No one was happy. In the three years since the…15 min

MOJO|February 2019MOJO PRESENTSTHREE YEARS AGO, JUST AFTER SHE TURNED 29, LIFE took a strange turn for Laura Lee. “I felt lost,” she recalls of twenties she’d spent drifting from an academic art background into museum and gallery curatorship to actually creating art but, so far, to only patchy recognition. Love had made her take a detour, from her native Texas to the crammed and narrow streets of south London’s Streatham Hill, struggling at the wheel of her employer’s Range Rover in the course of her duties as maths tutor to the four children of property makeover television star Sarah Beeny. It was a long way from the broad highways of Houston where she had left behind her band. Though she continued to communicate via Skype, it was an odd hiatus. Then, almost…8 min

MOJO|February 2019YOU CAN’T DO THAT ON STAGEThe beat comedian’s countercultural routines regularly attracted the forces of correction, culminating in two April ’64 arrests after performances at the Café Au Go Go in New York for use of various obscenities. He died, in August 1966, while still appealing the conviction. He was belatedly pardoned in 2003 by New York governor George Pataki. The biker-taunting, chest-lacerating, comestible-abusing Stooges singer took performance art seriously. His penis – not so much. In August 1968, in Romeo, Michigan, the Jim Morrison admirer took to the stage wearing low-slung trousers designed by MC5 singer Rob Tyner’s wife Becky. Perhaps inevitably, the Pop package escaped and he was arrested. On May 29, 1990, the singer was visited by police officers at Toronto’s SkyDome during her Blond Ambition tour, warning her not to simulate…1 min

MOJO|February 2019HAT’S LIFE★★★★ (Atco, 1970) An audacious debut signalling a major talent, Everything… boasted Hathaway’s first masterpiece, his jazz-funk-gospel-Latin-soul landscape co-written with Leroy Hutson, The Ghetto, their other strong collaboration, Tryin’ Times, plus inventive covers of Nina Simone’s To Be Young, Gifted And Black and Ray Charles’s I Believe To My Soul. ★★★★ (Atco, 1971) Only one original as Hathaway‘s second album emphasises his skills of vocal interpretation and piano-led arrangement. Ballad-heavy side one takes He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother to church; side two is more uptempo, originals of Mac Davis and Dorsey Burnette are given rousing muscle. He gets so deep inside a song you fear he’ll never find a way out… but he does. ★★★ (Atlantic, 1972) Donny’s biggest hits came via duets that arguably did more for Roberta…2 min

MOJO|February 2019“The Exciting Years Are Still Ahead Of Him”“As a songwriter, Noel just has this natural uncanny knack of writing anthemic songs. But as a musician I think he’s underrated. ’Cos I’ve heard him play all sorts of things. He’s a great bass player, for a start, a great drummer, he’s a bit of an all-rounder. People don’t realise how good he is. He has the vision.He’s less rigid than he was in Oasis. He seems much free-er, maybe because he has less people to please, if you know what I mean. He’s not hemmed in by his heritage, reputation or legend. He’s definitely the happiest I’ve seen him, comfortable on stage, and his band’s f*ckin’ kickin’ it. We played with them in the summer – we joined them on A Town Called Malice and All You Need…5 min

MOJO|February 2019“WHAT BALLS!”(from Waiting For The Sun, 1968) The fragment of Celebration Of The Lizard that made it onto Waiting For The Sun is bracingly spooky-ooky. The full shmeer, as heard in a melodramatic July 1969 performance on 1970’s Absolutely Live is the dictionary definition of too much, but the band sound great on The Hill Dwellers. (from Waiting For The Sun, 1968) A perfect example of The Doors pushing at the edge of pretentious and pulling it off. The hushed intro, the military march/firing squad segment from 0.57 that so tortured Densmore, and the bell-ringing coda are bravura pieces of musical theatre. The bit with the actual tune shows how tough they rocked. (from Waiting For The Sun, 1968) Robby Krieger goes Rodrigo on this Iberian journey, proof of how much…2 min

MOJO|February 2019(It’s Good) To Be FREEEVERY MORNING FOR TWO WEEKS LAST summer, Noel Gallagher would take the 15-minute stroll from his house in Maida Vale to Abbey Road studios in nearby St John’s Wood. It was there, he says, rounding the corner into the tree-lined avenue on which The Beatles weaved their sonic magic, that his own sizeable musical legacy was put into perspective – perhaps too much perspective. “The Beatles…” he marvels. “That interest, still . Every day I had to fight my way through Spanish tourists. The zebra crossing on Abbey Road is the only square metre in any part of England I wouldn’t get recognised. I could stand there, naked, playing Wonderwall, and they’d still say, ‘Get out of the f*cking way.’” He pauses, eyes and mouth crinkling into a huge grin.…24 min

MOJO|February 2019“Feeling broken-hearted is a really hard lifestyle.”It’s been four years since Are We There : how did Remind Me Tomorrow come together in that time?“It was definitely gradual and unintentional; it was October last year when I realised I had over 40 demos. It crept up on me without noticing, exactly. I feel like I end up demoing more than I write in a journal now because it’s so much more cathartic for me to sing than it is to write. When my son was born [in 2017] I started working on lyrics because I listened to demos on headphones while he was napping. That was my time. Then the subject matter kind of morphed into something else; they started as love songs to my partner, and then all of a sudden, I was writing to…2 min

MOJO|February 2019JAZZMaurice Louca★★★★ElephantineNORTHERN SPY/SUB ROSA. CD/DL/LPEgyptian experimentalist ushers Middle Eastern jazz into fresh territories.MAURICE LOUCA has come a long way since 2011’s bruising, intense debut Garraya fused jazz, chaabi and traditional Arabic music with western loops and samples. Now influential enough to corral a dozen seasoned musicians into his grand vision, he walks them over blazing coals here, lulling floating voters with The Leper’s repetitive acoustic figure before it builds into a colossal slab of hypnotic cosmic jazz. Its brassy off-kilter climax meets its match in Laika’s ever evolving modal explosion, One More For The Gutter’s controlled cacophony or Al Khawaga’s mammoth jerky ensemble riff. Elsewhere, flickers of old Egypt lurk in the oud and violin-driven The Palm Of A Ghost, sensuously voiced by Nadah El Shazly, and the title track’s…1 min

MOJO|February 2019Behind the maskBruce Springsteen ★★★★ Springsteen On Broadway COLUMBIA. CD/DL/LP “He knows better than anyone else in his business there’s nothing spontaneous about magic.” IN HIS most famous song, the one so emblematic of his public self that he took its title for his 2016 autobiography, Bruce Springsteen demands: “I want to know if love is real”. During every performance of Born To Run, that lyric in particular seems to cut to the heart of the matter. Prove love to be nothing but an imaginative construct, and everything else crumbles. Springsteen’s moral stature as an artist has been founded on his sincerity – to such an extent that, when allied to his faith in the power of dreams, it has made him the most durably heroic rock’n’roll figure of his time. In…37 min

MOJO|February 2019ELECTRONICASubjective★★★★Act One – Music For Inanimate ObjectsSONY MUSIC MASTERWORKS. CD/DL/LPDrum’n’bass spearhead’s new project dials down the tempo.GOLDIE IS one of life’s ‘doers’, his CV sparkling like his molars. Graffiti artist; drum’n’bass pioneer; soap star; symphonic composer; MBE. All achieved with a degree of single-mindedness. Yet he’s always leant on collaborators. Like his longterm Metalheadz cohort Rob Playford, Goldie’s partner in Subjective, James Davidson, is an engineer and drum’n’bass producer. Together, they’ve made an album rich in melancholia, softened with orchestral arrangements and enriched by female voices, at turns wistful, at others paranoid. Released on Sony’s classical label, there’s not an Amen break in earshot. Instead, tempos are pitched down, allowing space into which female vocals seep, most notably on Find Your Light, where grand Rhodes piano chords meld with volleys…1 min

MOJO|February 2019“Feeling broken-hearted is a really hard lifestyle.”It’s been four years since Are We There : how did Remind Me Tomorrow come together in that time? “It was definitely gradual and unintentional; it was October last year when I realised I had over 40 demos. It crept up on me without noticing, exactly. I feel like I end up demoing more than I write in a journal now because it’s so much more cathartic for me to sing than it is to write. When my son was born [in 2017] I started working on lyrics because I listened to demos on headphones while he was napping. That was my time. Then the subject matter kind of morphed into something else; they started as love songs to my partner, and then all of a sudden, I was writing…2 min

MOJO|February 2019Swoons 15 ALTERNATIVE POP GEMS FROM THE 1980s“ IT WAS A VERY 1984 THING, TO BE AGAINST THE ROCKY STUFF that had come before,” Prefab Sprout’s Paddy McAloon reasons in this month’s MOJO Interview. “I knew there was a way to write about relationships and women that wasn’t that tired old sh*t.”From Camden to Cork, and from Durham in north-east England to Perth in Western Australia, McAloon was the unlikely leader of a musical generation who came of age in the early 1980s. Sensitive to a fault, mostly too awkward and idiosyncratic to organise themselves into a scene, they nevertheless mapped out a literate and compelling new pop music. Many jangled, as an imperative that dovetailed with the looming forces of indiedom. But as the 15 tracks collected on Swoons show, the prevailing aesthetic of romance and…7 min

MOJO|February 2019THE ESSENTIAL BRAZILIAN REISSUES OF 2018LP 700138JORGE BENBig BenHis fourth album, originally released in 1965 by Philips and considered one of the best from the first stage of the Brazilian L@DRSQNìR›B@QDDQÅLP 700125JORGE BENBenThis 1972 samba soul masterpiece marks his consecration as the international star he was destined SN›ADBNLDÅ›››››HR›@››Q@YHKH@M› funksoul monument that features a mix between older samba and American soul, providing a sublime A@BJCQNO›ENQ››NQFD››DMìR›@L@YHMF› UNB@KRÅ›LP 700144CHICO BUARQUENo 4Features a number of immortal classics, including splendid samba renditions of ìEssa MoÁa T· Diferente,î ìAgora Falando SÈrio,î ìGente Humilde,î ìRosa dos Ventos,î and ìSamba e Amor,î along with other lesser known but DPT@KKX›VNMCDQETK›RNMFRÅLP 700143CHICO BUARQUESinal FechadoA tribute to a host of other Brazilian composers, such as Tom Jobim, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, VinÌcius de Moraes, and ›DA@RSH^N››TMDR~›@LNMF›NSGDQRÅ› Includes the landmark song î›BNQC@~››LNQïÅLP 700134GAL COSTALegalThe stunning third solo…2 min

MOJO|February 2019THE ESSENTIAL BRAZILIAN REISSUES OF 2018LP 700138 JORGE BEN Big Ben His fourth album, originally released in 1965 by Philips and considered one of the best from the first stage of the Brazilian L@DRSQNìR›B@QDDQÅ LP 700125 JORGE BEN Ben This 1972 samba soul masterpiece marks his consecration as the international star he was destined SN›ADBNLDÅ›››››HR›@››Q@YHKH@M› funksoul monument that features a mix between older samba and American soul, providing a sublime A@BJCQNO›ENQ››NQFD››DMìR›@L@YHMF› UNB@KRÅ› LP 700144 CHICO BUARQUE No 4 Features a number of immortal classics, including splendid samba renditions of ìEssa MoÁa T· Diferente,î ìAgora Falando SÈrio,î ìGente Humilde,î ìRosa dos Ventos,î and ìSamba e Amor,î along with other lesser known but DPT@KKX›VNMCDQETK›RNMFRÅ LP 700143 CHICO BUARQUE Sinal Fechado A tribute to a host of other Brazilian composers, such as Tom Jobim, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil,…2 min

MOJO|February 2019After-dark folk voice Nadia Reid meets Matthew E White uptown, for album threeNADIA REID’S outstanding first two albums, 2015’s Listen To Formation, Look For The Signs and 2017’s Preservation, were both recorded in Sitting Room Studios in Christchurch, New Zealand, with producer Ben Edwards, regular guitarist Sam Taylor and a familiar team of collaborators. For her third, she travelled nearly 9,000 miles to Richmond, Virginia’s Spacebomb Studios, founded by cosmic soulman Matthew E White, who co-produced Reid’s latest with Trey Pollard.“It sounds kind of truthful and right.” NADIA REID“It was really interesting to fly and meet strangers,” Reid says. “Challenging as well. I just hoped it was gonna work – all I could do was write the songs and get in the studio with the right people and let the magic happen. You can’t plan for that.”Having spent the previous six months…3 min

MOJO|February 2019Ex-Talk Talk enigma Rustin Man transmits new codes for driftingbuild your environment and then you play into it…” RUSTIN MANSEVENTEEN YEARS ago, back in MOJO 108, Jim Irvin wrote of Beth Gibbons and Rustin Man’s Out Of Season LP that it was, “among the best albums ever made”. Now ex-Talk Talk bassist Paul Webb, AKA Rustin Man, is to follow up that blessed debut in 2019, with Drift Code. But what’s he “You been doing all this time?“I had a young family,” says Webb from his converted barn near Stansted, where he both lives and records. “Plus, I downed tools when I was asked to do production. I’m quite obsessive about music, so to keep the standard up I had to kind of, slow down…”Slowing down into a different way of regarding time and expectations is a useful way…3 min

MOJO|February 2019SELF PORTRAIT TREVOR HORN“I’d like to go and live in a C Major seventh chord.” TREVOR HORNI’d describe myself… as a muso. What was it Nasher [Frankie Goes To Hollywood guitarist] used to say? “A red muso”?! I dunno, an old record producer who still likes playing? I think I’m reasonably straightforward. I always try to be a good team player. I like to do things.Music changed me… are you kidding? Well, from when I was about 12, it seemed to me to be such an exciting thing. I’d spend all my evenings playing the guitar or the bass, learning Beatles songs. I was fascinated with records – they’re like a document, you can learn about people’s moods and what was going on when they were made. I spent so much time messing…4 min

MOJO|February 2019SINATRA’S GRANDDAUGHTER AJ LAMBERT CLASHES ALT-ROCK WITH SMOKY CABARET“It’s not as if we were all singing My Way at the piano.” AJ LAMBERTWHEN AJ Lambert was bassist in New York indie band Looker in 2008, a London listings magazine previewed their show. “Come and see Frank Sinatra’s granddaughter!” it read unhelpfully. “I felt mortified,” recalls Lambert, eldest daughter of Nancy Sinatra and her second husband Hugh Lambert. “I’d promised my band it wouldn’t be part of our story.”Now 44, Lambert has reached a happier understanding with that inescapable narrative thrust. In October, the singer and multi-instrumentalist released her Lonely Songs EP, a collaboration with Protomartyr’s Greg Ahee featuring songs from Frank Sinatra Sings For Only The Lonely. After her uncle Frank Sinatra Jr’s death in 2016, she declined to take over a tribute show designed for him; instead,…3 min

MOJO|February 2019SELF PORTRAIT TREVOR HORN“I’d like to go and live in a C Major seventh chord.” TREVOR HORN I’d describe myself… as a muso. What was it Nasher [Frankie Goes To Hollywood guitarist] used to say? “A red muso”?! I dunno, an old record producer who still likes playing? I think I’m reasonably straightforward. I always try to be a good team player. I like to do things. Music changed me… are you kidding? Well, from when I was about 12, it seemed to me to be such an exciting thing. I’d spend all my evenings playing the guitar or the bass, learning Beatles songs. I was fascinated with records – they’re like a document, you can learn about people’s moods and what was going on when they were made. I spent so…4 min

MOJO|February 2019MOJO PLAYLIST1 LCD SOUNDSYSTEM (WE DON’T THIS) FASCIST GROOVE THANGWhere next for the makers of MOJO’s best album of 2017? Into Electric Lady Studios for a raw, punk-funk take on Heaven 17’s 1981 synth-protest banger. Note Nancy Whang changing the lyric from “Reagan’s president-elect” to “The orange one is president”.Find it: YouTube2 DJ PIERRE ACID (PIERRE’S ACID FACE MIX)It’s MOJO 303 – so let the Phuture house don stick his electrode in the brain’s Roland-zone and give it some serious poke as voices groan “ACID!” org*smically over a strict 4/4 lash.Find it: YouTube3 JESSICA PRATT THIS TIME AROUNDA folk singer based in LA, Pratt’s music is hushed, spare, intimate, almost unnerving.Find it: YouTube4 IBIBIO SOUND MACHINE BASQUIATWritten as part of a ‘video jam’, this is as bold a statement of Afrobeat-meets-’80s…2 min

MOJO|February 2019THE MOJO INTERVIEWRECENTLY, FILM-MAKER SPIKE LEE invited songwriter Paddy McAloon to lunch in a posh London restaurant. It prompted a rare excursion into the semi-public sphere by the otherwise reticent Prefab Sprout mainman, and some initial bemusem*nt.“One of the first things I said to Spike was, I know! You’re looking for a Santa Claus for a Christmas movie,” says McAloon.“Morgan Freeman’s turned you down.”The reality was perhaps even more unlikely. Lee’s younger brother Cinqué had written a film, a musical based on the songs of Prefab Sprout. “Spike went through the script with me,” explains McAloon.“On every page there’s a lyric from one of the songs. Surreal.”Sat in a hotel room in his native Durham, clad in crimson velvet and carrying a silver-topped cane, his long beard and snowy locks enhancing an…21 min

MOJO|February 2019MOJO PLAYLIST1 LCD SOUNDSYSTEM (WE DON’T THIS) FASCIST GROOVE THANG Where next for the makers of MOJO’s best album of 2017? Into Electric Lady Studios for a raw, punk-funk take on Heaven 17’s 1981 synth-protest banger. Note Nancy Whang changing the lyric from “Reagan’s president-elect” to “The orange one is president”. Find it: YouTube 2 DJ PIERRE ACID (PIERRE’S ACID FACE MIX) It’s MOJO 303 – so let the Phuture house don stick his electrode in the brain’s Roland-zone and give it some serious poke as voices groan “ACID!” org*smically over a strict 4/4 lash. Find it: YouTube 3 JESSICA PRATT THIS TIME AROUND A folk singer based in LA, Pratt’s music is hushed, spare, intimate, almost unnerving. Find it: YouTube 4 IBIBIO SOUND MACHINE BASQUIAT Written as part of a…2 min

MOJO|February 2019A BRUM TRIPSUNDAY JUNE 25, 1967. IN EMI’S ABBEY Road studios, The Beatles perform their idealistic Summer of Love anthem All You Need Is Love in front of four hundred million TV viewers. Present in the studio alongside the group, orchestra, and the band’s manager, Brian Epstein, are Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Keith Moon, Graham Nash and Marianne Faithfull.Noticeably not present are the band’s recording neighbours from down the road at Decca’s Broadhurst Gardens studios, for The Moody Blues are currently engaged on a fortnight’s cabaret tour of the north of England.“That was soul-destroying,” remembers the band’s drummer, Graeme Edge. “I must have had a giant pair of balls to carry on and not sling in the towel.”No one was happy. In the three years since the band had formed…15 min

MOJO|February 2019THE MOJO INTERVIEWRECENTLY, FILM-MAKER SPIKE LEE invited songwriter Paddy McAloon to lunch in a posh London restaurant. It prompted a rare excursion into the semi-public sphere by the otherwise reticent Prefab Sprout mainman, and some initial bemusem*nt. “One of the first things I said to Spike was, I know! You’re looking for a Santa Claus for a Christmas movie,” says McAloon. “Morgan Freeman’s turned you down.” The reality was perhaps even more unlikely. Lee’s younger brother Cinqué had written a film, a musical based on the songs of Prefab Sprout. “Spike went through the script with me,” explains McAloon. “On every page there’s a lyric from one of the songs. Surreal.” Sat in a hotel room in his native Durham, clad in crimson velvet and carrying a silver-topped cane, his long beard…20 min

MOJO|February 2019A LIFE IN PICTURES1 Fresh Sprouts: (from left) brother Martin and Paddy McAloon, Prefab rehearsal, ’77. 2 Great escapology: McAloon on wheels, circa 1985’s Steve McQueen. 3 Cigar club: the Prefabs celebrate finishing Jordan: The Comeback, 1990 (from left) Paddy, remix engineer Eric Calvi, Martin, Wendy Smith, Keith Armstrong. “I did like my cigars in those days,” he admits. 4 The King Of Rock ’N’ Roll: promotional shot of McAloon on tour. “I wasn’t convinced it was the life for me,” he says now. 5 El toro negro rides again: guest Stevie Wonder adds harmonica to Nightingales off 1988’s From Langley Park To Memphis. 6 Not a prisoner of the past: McAloon on-stage at the London Fleadh Festival, 2000. 7 Meet the fans: signing From Langley Park albums in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1988. 8 He’s…1 min

MOJO|February 2019THE PREFAB THREETHE BENCHMARK Prefab Sprout Steve McQueen KITCHENWARE/CBS, 1985 McAloon pushes pop’s envelope with wise-beyond-his-years love psychology (Moving The River, Appetite, Desire As), and bravura whimsy (When The Angels), while producer Thomas Dolby’s genius as an arranger and drummer Neil Conti’s groove-sense keep it all on track. Yet McAloon still wishes they’d added the now-legendary Snowy Rents A Dog, nixed by Dolby. All the promise of debut Swoon realised, in spades. THE SPRAWLING oPuS Prefab Sprout Jordan: The Comeback KITCHENWARE, 1990 After the glitzy Langley Park and dowdy Protest Songs, this deep and rewarding buffet of musical delights. Wild Horses is Scritti-sharp, Machine Gun Ibiza Steely Dan-esque, while the album’s gospel moves sound even better now ’80s soul productions are hip again. Mercy has recently appeared in Spike Lee’s Netflix serial,…1 min

MOJO|February 2019What's The Big Idea?Days Of Future Passed (Deram, 1967) Concept: A day in the life The group lose themselves in psychedelic reverence of sunrise, sunset, and the lunch break, aided by Decca’s new “Deramic” stereo sound and lush orchestrations of the London Festival Orchestra. David Anstey’s cover art shows blue images of past times (goblets, knights) rent asunder by a psychedelic spectrum. In Search Of The Lost Chord (Deram, 1968) Concept: The quest for enlightenment Journey of discovery to breach the confines of the every day and reach nirvana. The cover art depicts the Buddhist samsara, the endless cycle of birth and death. On The Threshold Of A Dream (Deram, 1969) Concept: Man versus the establishment An hallucinatory, multilayered exploration of dream, reality and self, on the brink of a…2 min

MOJO|February 2019PLANE FUEL!Yodrak Salakchai Born Niphon Plaiwan (1956-2008), perhaps Thailand’s most popular singer recorded over 4,000 songs, mostly in the Luk Thung style, country themes set to a blend of indigenous and Western instrumentation. Mark Speer: “People call us Thai funk, but we’re not playing Luk Thung or Mor Lam. We piece together music into this big synergistic thing.” The SpecialS From Coventry in the British Midlands, Jerry Dammers’ multiracial band were inspired by ’60s ska star Prince Buster to create an increasingly eclectic songbook blending social realism and dancefloor catchiness. Speer: “I loved 2 Tone and ska. For a long time Ghost Town [1981] was my favourite song. From there I got into reggae.” NazaN S¸oraY Turkish film actress Nazan Soray (born 1954) had a hit with Barıs Manço’s composition Hal…1 min

MOJO|February 2019JAGGER PAINTS IT BLACK IN PERFORMANCEMick Jagger: “I hadn’t really given any serious thought of being in films. Donald was so enthusiastic and so convinced that the role of Turner was something that I could do, I wanted to give it a go. We were young and when you’re young you have no fear… There has been a lot of rubbish written about all the pseudo side of things, but it was no more than Donald had written a part of a rock star and I was a mate. The difference was I knew Donald really well. He wasn’t someone who I met in a meeting in LA pitching me a part in his movie. We had a trust and friendship.” Donald Cammell, screenwriter/co-director: “I was interested in the idea of an artist at the…13 min

MOJO|February 2019SHAMAN’S BLUESIT WAS A HOT AND STEAMY SUNDAY NIGHT IN MIAMI on March 1, 1969 – and it was even hotter and steamier inside Dinner Key Auditorium, a former aircraft hangar off Biscayne Bay in Coconut Grove. Twelve thousand concert fans sat crammed into the auditorium’s confines, sweating, drinking, smoking, and watching, eyes wide open, as the man on-stage politely shared his thoughts. “You’re all a bunch of f*ckin’ idiots! ” the man declared. Some members of the audience applauded. Some cheered. Some whooped in appreciation. And some had climbed the outside walls, come in through the windows, and were hanging from the rafters, watching. It was nuts; I was there. “Lettin’ people tell you what you’re gonna do!” the man scolded. “Lettin’ people push you around!” A pause. “How long…20 min

MOJO|February 2019YOU CAN’T DO THAT ON STAGEThe beat comedian’s countercultural routines regularly attracted the forces of correction, culminating in two April ’64 arrests after performances at the Café Au Go Go in New York for use of various obscenities. He died, in August 1966, while still appealing the conviction. He was belatedly pardoned in 2003 by New York governor George Pataki.The biker-taunting, chest-lacerating, comestible-abusing Stooges singer took performance art seriously. His penis – not so much. In August 1968, in Romeo, Michigan, the Jim Morrison admirer took to the stage wearing low-slung trousers designed by MC5 singer Rob Tyner’s wife Becky. Perhaps inevitably, the Pop package escaped and he was arrested. On May 29, 1990, the singer was visited by police officers at Toronto’s SkyDome during her Blond Ambition tour, warning her not to simulate masturbation…1 min

MOJO|February 2019New day risingSharon Van Etten★★★★Remind Me TomorrowJAGJAGUWAR. CD/DL/LP“NOTHING WILL change,” Sharon Van Etten sang forlornly – and, as it turned out, incorrectly – on her last album, 2014’s Are We There. This was also where the singer-songwriter attempted a tribute to Bruce Springsteen’s hardscrabble romanticism on Every Time The Sun Comes Up. “I washed your dishes”, she sang, “but I sh*t in your bathroom” – lines that came across as less a statement of domestic bliss and more as an unruly threat. On Remind Me Tomorrow, however, she relates another household vignette to very different effect: “I walked in the door/The Black Crowes playing as he cleaned the floor,” she sings over Malibu’s tidal piano. “I thought I couldn’t love him any more.” The sun is up, but she’s no longer in…2 min

MOJO|February 2019“The Exciting Years Are Still Ahead Of Him”“As a songwriter, Noel just has this natural uncanny knack of writing anthemic songs. But as a musician I think he’s underrated. ’Cos I’ve heard him play all sorts of things. He’s a great bass player, for a start, a great drummer, he’s a bit of an all-rounder. People don’t realise how good he is. He has the vision. He’s less rigid than he was in Oasis. He seems much free-er, maybe because he has less people to please, if you know what I mean. He’s not hemmed in by his heritage, reputation or legend. He’s definitely the happiest I’ve seen him, comfortable on stage, and his band’s f*ckin’ kickin’ it. We played with them in the summer – we joined them on A Town Called Malice and All You…5 min

MOJO|February 2019“Bowie’s In Hysterics, So God Knows What I’d Said.”“I’ve been getting into the later Bowie stuff. Some of it’s mental, some of it is quite good. Heathen’s a good album, and Reality. We did Jools Holland with him around the time of Earthling, and he was wearing high-heels. I only met him once, though. It was the tour that Morrissey supported him at Wembley Arena. We went down there to see Morrissey and someone said to me, ‘Do you want to meet David?’ Yeah, he likes me, great! He was putting make-up on in the mirror and someone took a photograph. It only came to light when he died. He’s in hysterics, so God knows what I’d said, I have no idea. The last time I had any contact with him was when Kate Moss and I presented…1 min

MOJO|February 2019The Living EndDeerhunter★★★★Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared?4AD. CD/DL/LP“I AM a terrorist. My job is to sodomise mediocrity”. Strong words once attributed to the now-36-year-old Bradford Cox – the Atlanta-based singer and primary songwriter in Deerhunter. The statement typifies an artist who has seemed to encompass ecstatic transcendence and all-out revenge-seeking, between the poles of shimmery dream-pop and noise-punk, an approach that reached its apotheosis with the gnarly and dyspeptic 2013 album, Monomania, and its seeming quietus with a 2014 road accident that laid up the frontman for a period of months.Cox’s subsequent attempts to make sense of the world found gentler shape with Deerhunter’s 2015 album, Fading Frontier – and now this, their most resonant yet. Despite the implied semi-optimism of its title, Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared? is haunted by sickness,…2 min

MOJO|February 2019ALSO RELEASEDAnthony Naples★★★★Take Me With YouGOOD MORNING TAPES. CD/DL/LPAnthony Naples usually trades in raw, deep house, but here the Brooklynite bypasses 4/4’s strictures in favour of a beatless electronic wash, acidic ambient and gauzy dub house. Originally conceived as an after-hours gift for friends and inspired by, among others, Suzanne Ciani and John Barry, its soothing, sonic balm deserves wider application.Ricardo Donoso★★★CalibrateDENOVALI. CD/DL/LPThere’s dark, there’s disturbing and there’s Ricardo Donoso. The Brazilian composer and sound designer throws industrial, sci-fi soundtrack and techno tropes into a brazier and sets them ablaze. The resulting pyre of counter-rhythms, grinding loops and abrasive sub-melody is nightmarish and discomforting, but makes for compulsive listening, nevertheless.Héctor Oaks★★★As We Were SayingBASSIANI. CD/DL/LPAnger, energy and counterculture’s enduring role as a catalyst for change underpin the rousing, often brutal, dark…1 min

MOJO|February 2019WORLDBassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba★★★★MiriOUT HERE. CD/DL/LPBack to basics for Mali’s ngoni master.AFTER TWO albums of scuzzed-up distortion befitting any Sub Pop alumnus, Bassekou Kouyate dispenses with trickery and returns to his studio in Mali to think about (the title track translates as ‘contemplation’) the state of his nation. With his wife, Ami Sacko, on vocals and his son, Madou, on bass ngoni, he laments the problems currently tearing the country apart (war, money, jealousy) and cherishes what is worth holding on to; on Yakare, he pays tribute to his recently deceased mother; Habib Koite and Afel Bocoum guest, as if to remind the star about his roots, while others (Michael League, Dom Flemons) hint at how far he has travelled since he first played Europe, 30 years ago. In…1 min

MOJO|February 2019String theorySteve Gunn ★★★★ The Unseen In Between MATADOR. CD/DL/LP IT’S ONE OF those odd quirks of musical history that a bunch of leftfield artists with roots in Philadelphia currently form a new, understated kind of rock establishment. They’re adventurous classicists who disdain the grandstanding of some of their predecessors, forging an evolved idea of tradition. Chief among them, of course, are Adam Granduciel and Kurt Vile, going from strength to strength as dazed millennial Bruce Springsteens and Tom Pettys respectively. Steve Gunn, briefly a member of Vile’s band The Violators, is, if anything, an even more unlikely mainstream artist. His background is in the tangled world of underground folk, a fellow traveller of Jack Rose, stretching the parameters of solo guitar music into exploratory, often psychedelic spaces. In recent years,…3 min