Having previously been tipped as the band that Rock & Roll was absolutely crying out for, it would be understandable if Palma Violets felt a great deal of pressure every time they went on stage to perform. However, within around two and a half seconds of the London indie-rockers frenzied set, it is evident that this couldn’t be further from the truth.
Image Credit: pr.wikipedia.org
The scene had already been set for a wild night by a vibrant and exciting support sets from psychedelic rockers ‘Childhood’ and Welsh newbie’s ‘Telegram.’ However, when the dynamic duo of Alexander ‘Chilli’ Jesson and Sam Fryer swagger onto the stage, its apparent things are about to step up a notch. Launching straight into ‘Rattlesnake Highway,’ a no holds-barred belter of a record that is low on lyrical depth but high on energy, it is plain to see that this is a band that craves attention. They were made to be in the spotlight.
Jesson and Fryers clatter around the stage and leave mayhem in their wake. The chemistry between the two frontmen has not been seen since the days when Doherty and Barat caused havoc as The Libertines. With their spiky aggressive vocals and gritty guitar lines, Libertines comparisons are inevitable. However, as is clear from their debut album ‘180,’ Palma Violet’s influences are far more diverse and varied. Fans of the Ramones will purr at the vibrancy and angst of ‘Johnny Bagga’ Dohnuts,’ whilst ‘Tom The Drum’ carries echoes of The Clash and sends the audience into a sweaty orgy of delirium.
There are, of course, some limitations to the brand of narrow garage-indie rock that Jesson & co. exude in such large quantities. The second half of the band’s set is a mixture of obscure covers and underwhelming new tracks ‘Gout! Gang! Go!’ and ‘Scandal’ that merge together somewhat and consequently fail to impress. Perhaps this lack of depth will come back to haunt the band when they release further material. For now, however, it appears to be the least of their concerns, as they round of their set with a traditional rousing rendition of ‘Invasion of the Tribbles’ by little-known Canadian punk band The Hot Nasties, prompting a mass stage invasion from groupies and support bands alike.
Palma Violets are confident, unpredictable and above all they just don’t give a damn what anyone else thinks. Whisper it quietly, but they could just be about to hit the big time.
James Smurthwaite,Online Screen Editor, was blown away by the European Outdoor Film Tour
The European Outdoor Film Tour has just left our shores to carry on its journey through Germany, France and beyond. Thankfully before it left we got the chance to see what it was all about in Bristol.
The Bristol leg of the tour was pitched at the St Georgre’s centre, an unusual location for an action sports film tour, given that it traditionally hosts classical concerts, but the sell out crowd were determined to prove they weren’t out of place.
Here’s a few film highlights from the selection on offer
Wide Boyz
Off width climbing is climbing at its most attritional. To climb off width is to climb a crack that is wider than a hand width but not wide enough to fit a limb in. It is regarded as the hardest form of crack climbing. In Wide Boyz, two lads from Yorkshire wanted to tackle the Century Crack, an unconquered climb, dubbed the hardest off width in the world.
Pete Whittaker and Tom Randall trained for two years, their training regime was so rigorous it included constructing a replica of the crack in Tom’s basement.
Shots largely circulated around thrusting fists, fingers, feet, simply anything that would grip to the rock, into the crack in an effort to inch their way up the route. However, despite the relatively repetitious nature of the film, the athletes showed the suffering and perseverance needed to tackle off width climbing and provided a fantastic opening for the tour.
Supervention
Whilst Norway may strike the casual observer as a wintry wonderland, it’s surprisingly overlooked by the world of ski films.
Supervention aims to change all that.
Starring an all Norwegian cast, and mainly situated in Norway the film has a very concentrated feel, but does not suffer because of it. crazily technical lines through gorgeously sublime landscapes (including some never before ridden) interspersed with inventive urban shoots create an aesthetically beautiful film with the power to amaze. Well worth a watch!
Petit Bus Rouge
The craziest thing you’ll see all year. Just watch the trailer to get an idea of what this barmy, eclectic bunch of Frenchies are all about…
Not Bad
In a similar vein to Petit Bus Rouge, Not Bad focuses less on groundbreaking exploration and achievements, and more on the action sports lifestyle. Te idea behind the project was simple, take some of the world’s best mountain bikers to Queenstown and simply film the results.
What the Anthill Films returned with was entertaining if not, at times, unfathomably random. Some of the world’s finest riding is interspersed with chainsawing melons, hovercrafts and eel fights, but somehow it works, appearing more as the best Summer you never had more than just another film to promote sponsors.
After the tour left Bristol we managed to get a chat with World Champion Freeride Mountain Biker, Brandon Semenuk, and Producer/Director/ Writer of Anthill Films (makers of Not Bad), Darcy Wittenberg.
From the first viewing of the trailer, we knew that Not Bad would be something a bit different from most mountain biking films, really bringing out the personalities of the riders and focusing on narratives. Was this a stylistic choice from the start, or just something that happened with the riders at the time?
Darcy: We definitely wanted NotBad to be different from other mountain biking films. Portraying the riders having a good time and not taking themselves too seriously was something we wanted to achieve from the beginning, and we knew the Trek C3 Team would be the team to make this work. We didn’t want this to be a soul-searching mountain bike film, we just wanted it to be about having a good time riding your bike. If you want to go ride your bike after watching this film, I think we’ve done our job!
Brandon: I think Anthill had hoped to give the film that Skate/BMX team vibe, but it definitely wasn’t planned. If you put a handful of action sports athletes in their environment you’re bound to get personality and character because that where everyone feels most comfortable. It’s just like another day hanging out and riding with friends… Anthill had just captured all of that.
What do you look for in a landscape when you try to find shoot locations, what was it about Queenstown in particular that influenced you to shoot exclusively there?
Darcy: Versatility is key. We shot this film in February, so we had to travel somewhere that was warm (or at least that didn’t have snow on the ground). Since we were in the middle of winter in Canada, we thought New Zealand would be the perfect choice. We had access to a huge diversity of locations, from epic alpine singletrack, to the dirt jump heaven at the Gorge Road jumps, to building mind-bending stunts on the famous Frew Farm.
Brandon: It’s definitely a team effort. The location needs to be ideal for both rider and filmer. As a rider you are usually trying to figure out where you can fit and what values you can add inside of the film crew’s creative. Even down to getting each shot, there is a constant communication on direction and look. As a rider, feeling like everything is 100% ready with the filmers is when I commit 100% to getting my tricks or lines.
Darcy, your work is so original for the mountain biking world, do you get inspiration from other action sports films? If so which ones in particular?
Definitely. With NotBad we really wanted to capture the vibe of early skate and snowboard films—having a good time but still throwing down and progressing the sport. Living in BC, we are exposed to so many different kinds of action sports, so it’s natural to pull inspiration from each to keep our films fresh.
Brandon, you’re focusing less and less on competition riding and more on filming. Is there a particular reason for this? Are you disenchanted with competition riding? Do you see filming as the future for Freeride mountain biking?
I’ve done so much competing in my career that it doesn’t give me the same accomplishment as it did when I first started. Now it all seems to blend together and get repetitive. With filming, I can be as creative as I want, do the tricks I want, and repeat it as many times as I need until my style is something I’m happy with. You can literally put as much into a film project as you want, you’re not limited to 2 attempts.
The E.O.F.T will return in 2014, no doubt with another stellar line up of films to enjoy.
Did you go? Will you be going next year? Let us know on Facebook, Twitter or by commenting below.
Sophie Messem prepares to serve. Photo: Niklas Rahmel
The women’s 1sts team earned a comfortable 10-2 win over Bristol on Wednesday, pulling away from a level doubles round to win all their singles matches. Despite a lengthy afternoon of tennis, only one set was lost in the singles matches as Exeter asserted their dominance.
Captain Kate Lucy partnered Emily Wicks in their doubles match, and their result was never in doubt as they quickly secured the first set and saw out the second after an early break. The Exeter pair had softer hands at the net than their Bristol counterparts, although the visitors did manage some heroic defence in one point, eventually finished off with a Lucy smash to wide relief in the courts.
Adelina Lipan and Sophie Messem’s match was a more complicated affair and was eventually lost in a championship tiebreak. The first set swung back and forth, with Exeter twice failing to serve it out. They found themselves 3-6 down in the tiebreak, but some big serving from both Lipan and Messem saw them win five straight points and take the set. Bristol were unfazed in the second set, and played some brilliant shots including one around-the-net backhand dink. They clinched it 6-4 and refused to let Exeter repeat their previous tiebreak heroics, taking the match on an ace.
Lucy was eager to continue her good form in the singles and was a model of calm and control against her more volatile opponent, who was crying out in frustration as early as the second game. Lucy’s backhand, built on a long drawback and explosive leg work, was particularly impressive as she found several winners off the back of long rallies. Her superior power often allowed her to get the first strike in off her opponent’s second serve, and a mid-match run of six straight games allowed her to cruise home 6-3 6-1.
“It was quite tough, she’s higher rated than I am,” an upbeat Lucy said after the match. “My backhand is my favourite shot and I also served well today. I’ve been playing a lot of matches recently and I’m just playing well overall.”
Just like the doubles, Lipan’s singles match was far from straightforward. Despite the apparent equality in their games, Lipan ran away with the first set and won it to love. She consistently wrong-footed her opponent and found a lot of success with the inside-out backhand.
Kate Lucy shares a laugh with Emily Wicks. Photo: Niklas Rahmel.
The Bristol player got off the mark in the first game of the second set, and from thereon applied serious pressure to the Exeter girl. They were both happy to trade backhands, and the rallies became increasingly long as they settled into patterns from the back of the court. Lipan was growing frustrated at her inability to break serve, and lost her own serve and the set at 4-5 after disastrously leaving a lob that landed a foot inside the line.
Lipan regrouped at the start of the decider in front of a small but rousing crowd. Both players were at their peak as they ended most points with winners, although it was Lipan who played the more attacking tennis and managed to sneak ahead. Despite her lead she looked thoroughly unhappy with life, dropping her racket in frustration several times. Her first “c’mon” of the match came at a crucial point as she went to deuce with Bristol serving at 3-5. The match was sealed on an appropriate note; a backhand after a final gruelling rally, to take the overall win for Exeter.
Emily Wicks had time to finish her match while this was going on, quietly getting on with things to take a straight sets win. Her deceptive power and consistency allowed her to maintain a serving advantage and take a late break to win the first set. Wicks’ strong return game saw her break twice more in the second and she finished in style on a delicate half-volley.
Carina Stephan wrapped up the day’s proceedings to win 7-5 7-5. Her athletic, slight frame was in stark contrast to the broad and muscular Bristol player, who possessed raw power on the forehand side but was also capable of some truly wild shots. Despite her big, flat forehand, her serve was largely uninspiring and Stephan managed to hang in during the first set and see off a late comeback in the second to end the day on a positive note. A good day for Exeter as the team continues to improve this season.
Outdoor films may be an aspect of cinema you’ve thus far neglected, James Smurthwaite gives a quick preview of a way to dip your toes in.
Base jumping clowns, Eel fights and surfing in the Arctic circle, whilst this may not sound like normal fare for a film festival, it is what the European Outdoor Film Tour (EOFT) will be bringing to Bristol on Monday.
The tour aims to display the best in adventure film making from around the world (locations for shooting are as far reaching as New Zealand and Kyrgyzstan) condensed into a two hour screening.
The tour started in October in Germany and is currently visiting British cities.
The films that made the final cut can be found here and feature sports including: rock climbing, mountain biking, skiing and freeride kayaking. There will also be a supporting program of presentations, competitions and events.
The event will be at St George’s in Bristol and tickets can be bought through the EOFT website here.
Doors open at 7:30.
Keep your eyes peeled for James’ full review of the event next week.
Despite the evident rivalry between Exeter and Bristol, Exeter women’s 1sts managed to hold their nerve this Wednesday and secure a vital 1-0 win against a belligerent Bristol side.
With their position at the top of the league at stake, Exeter were more than determined to continue with their recent fantastic form and within the first 20 minutes of the match it was clear that they were very much in control, maintaining possession and consistently pressurising the Bristol defence.
Predominantly due to the exceptionally strong Bristol defensive line, Exeter were denied multiple goal scoring opportunities in the early stages, with a promising ball across the D combined with some great stick skills from Kathryn Lane stopped in its tracks by Bristol 21 minutes in. The one real goal scoring opportunity for Bristol came in the late stages of the first half but with a fantastic save from goalkeeper Lottie Winnett they were denied the lead.
The 0-0 score at half time did not reflect Exeter’s utter domination of possession throughout, and the disappointment at the lack of goals was clear in the faces of the players as the half time whistle went. Regardless of the frustrating score line, the 1sts picked themselves up and quickly achieved the deserved 1-0 lead, with a fantastic ball into the D from Nat Capel picked up by Hannah Griffiths and slotted into the bottom right corner.
Photo: George Keleney
This goal gave Exeter a much needed boost, with constant pressure around the attacking D, almost resulting in another goal when a brilliant strike by Jen Burry was blocked by the Bristol keeper. Yet another goal scoring opportunity for Exeter was subsequently denied due to a seeming miscommunication as the ball was floated in across the goal face and narrowly missed by two of their players.
The Bristol defence seemed to be finally breaking, and after multiple altercations in Exeter’s attacking D, their penultimate shot of the game from Jess Denniff was hit just wide of the left post after a pressurised one-on-one with the opposition keeper.
This seemed to be somewhat of a wakeup call for Bristol, as the possession changed and after a brilliant run down the wing by their left midfield, a stick tackle in the D resulted in a short corner to Bristol. The strength of Exeter’s back four meant that the short corner resulted in no goal.
The last shot of the game came thanks to a fantastic run down the wing from player of the match Hannah Griffiths, resulting in a diving save from the Bristol keeper. The intensity of the fast pace game certainly took no energy out of the delighted celebration as the final whistle blew.
The win was a fantastic result yet the 1-0 score line does not reflect the fact that Exeter maintained the majority of the possession and controlled the game, which is exactly what Captain Annabel Driver felt after the match, stating that: ‘we dominated the entire game and our lead should have been more than the one goal’. Having said this, as Annabel admitted, it was ‘a strong performance from the whole team to secure this crucial win’.
After that intense clash, Exeter are for the time being safe in the knowledge that they have maintained the position at the top of the league after an excellent performance from the entire team.
Read the extended interview of what happened when CallumMcLean, Music Editor, caught up with Tommy Grace and Jimmy Dixon of Django Django before the Bristol leg of the NME Awards Tour to talk about about the tour, their new material and spaghetti Western aesthetics. You can also listen to a radio edit of the interview on the Xmedia Music Show here.
You guys have had a pretty intense year since the debut came out early 2012. What have been your highlights?
J: We did loads of festivals over the summer which were amazing – we went over to Australia and Japan. We had a bit of time off in Sicily, did this tiny little festival over there. There have been so many highlights. Just going on tour over the last year has been great. I think we had like a kind of show a few days before Christmas at Shepherd’s Bush Empire which was pretty special – it’s rounded off the year nicely. Everybody was up for it, it was really good.
This NME Awards Tour itself – what’s it been like sharing the roster with the other bands on the bill. Do you fit in?
J: It’s a bit weird but it keeps you on your toes. They’re all really, really good. They’re great bands, but we do sit a bit oddly in amongst them but that’s fine! Like I said it’s just so different from doing headliner shows because people are really expecting you to be like, you know, worthy of the slot – because we’ve got the headline slot. So it really pushes you. We’ve been hammering the soundchecks just trying to get everything as tight as possible and stuff. Just to sort of really like prove that we’re worthy of the slot, basically.
The NME Awards themselves, do you feel like you guys fit into that legacy of previous Best New Band winners?
J: From what I remember the NME being when I was a kid, I think it has changed quite a lot, it does seem quite a lot younger. But I think, we got good reviews from the NME when it came out, so it’s kind of- it’s something we’ve grown up reading, you know? And it’s great to be involved in something like this and get the chance to kind of, you know, do interviews in the NME and hopefully people reading the NME will listen to the album, doing this tour. Hopefully people will go away and people who normally wouldn’t listen to the record or come to see us will come and see us again or buy the record. I don’t know, I’ve never really thought about whether we fit in with the NME kind of angle. We just got offered this and we couldn’t say no, it was such a good opportunity.
You guys seem to have been caught on a supposed new wave of ‘intelligent guitar bands’, alongside acts like Alt-J and Everything Everything. How do you see that kind of mythology of a return to guitar music, and how do you fit into that? Do you think it’s a patronising term?
T: The intelligence bit is a bit of a fallacy for us…
J: For me, the more I kind of delve into music, the less I actually listen to guitar bands and guitar music. Growing up with music, you kind of – particularly with all of us four – we’re really keen to kind of explore music, and the more you do that the more you realise there’s a whole kind of other world of music beyond guitars. It’s one of those things, it kind of ebbs and flows, doesn’t it? As soon as there’s one band- I remember when The Strokes came through and it was just like, they reinvented guitar music and kids wanted to be in bands again. But for me personally I hardly ever listen to guitar bands or guitar music. I’ve grown up listening to a lot of guitar bands and stuff so for me now I kind of just listen to anything but, to be honest.
Well you can definitely hear that variety on the record, obviously. Everyone seems to praise you for, paradoxically, your originality and the diversity of your influences. That eclecticism that you’ve become known for – do you think you could exist in a musical vacuum or is that central to how you approach songwriting – all those different bands and sounds coming through?
T: Well I think it’s just something that happens subconsciously, I think you’ve got- we all just listen to a variety of stuff and when it actually comes to songwriting, it’s not like we go about making a track that sounds like The Ventures or something that Giorgio Moroder might do or anything like that, it’s just. Stuff just sort of seeps through I guess. I dunno – what am I getting at?
J: I think it’s another thing. Dave’s got such a huge record collection just in the studio and it’s the same with me and Tommy – we’ve all got different things that we listen to, it all kind of gets collected together and- you hear a song that you’ve never heard before and that’ll kind of end up seeping into a song you’re working on. I think being able to produce the album ourselves meant that we could be just as free as we wanted to be and allow things to just go- follow things even if it seemed mad to be able to do a rockabilly song and then a kind of electro, dancey song – we just went with it and it kind of locked together.
I assume you guys, I figure from the first album that you kind of made it in the bedroom and then gradually got it to the stage – is that what you’re doing with the new material as well at the moment, is it just coming together in its own terms before you’re ready to play it out?
T: It’s just drips and drabs right now, we’ve got little pockets and ideas. I think just with our touring schedule we’ve not had the time to properly sit down and start just messing things around with the sequencer and try and make proper structures to the songs. It’s gonna come later, that’ll happen after this tour has finished and after we’ve done the US. I just can’t wait to have this settled period of time in the studio to really just muck about, I guess, and just do something creative.
Do you think that you will go back to trying to do it as you’ve done before, or is a studio becoming a necessary thing now?
J: I think we’ll try and stick as much as we can to having as much creative control and not being limited to being in a studio for eight hours or whatever and knowing that you’re paying for that slot. I think we’ll just try and let it flow as much as we can, but there are always certain technical things that we’ll go to a studio for and get people to help us record certain things. We had problems with recording guitars and stuff.
T: We just didn’t really know what we were doing, it was just one massive learning curve, we didn’t know about microphones or compressors or anything like that, we just sort of, learned as we went along, as we recorded. Now that we’re much more savvy with the recording process it’ll be much quicker now. But it will also be, like we were just thinking it would be a really good idea to, you know, instead of just trying to get a really good guitar sound out of that amp, let’s just go to the studio and just get that down and stuff. Because we know that’ll just save so much time.
So still coconuts and cardboard boxes but with better microphones?
Yeah, exactly!
Also, people have often mentioned stuff like – there seem to be kind of aesthetics of spaghetti Westerns and things, fitting into your songs, especially on Vinny’s guitar parts. Do you think you’ll set about trying to write songs like that, in their own aesthetic, or are you just gonna jam and see what comes about?
T: I think when we were writing those, you think of a couple of things – one is like, you think about trying to tell a story, and you sort of sketch out this idea of a sort of bare bones story about someone walking through a dustbowl or something, you know. So you have that in your mind and you also have this idea of a sort of palette of colour that you’re thinking of – and that can be a sort of, like a sort of guide to what everyone else can then contribute to it, because you have a sort of idea about this sort of, thing. And I think that’s a really nice way of working. That’s something Dave and Vinny have been doing from the start. Yeah, I think we’ll carry on that way.
Resident Advisor hosts a night of crossover dance futurism for In:Motion in Bristol, with typically monstrous names including SBTRKT, Rustie and Koreless.
In:Motion, Bristol’s answer to Manchester Warehouse Project, takes over the cavernous complex of Motion (a skate park by day) during winter for a series of huge club nights spanning names from Fatboy Slim to Public Enemy. Occupying three rooms, including the disparately claustrophobic ‘Tunnel and vast main room, the venue is perfect for the consistent variety of dynamics found at one of their nights, whose rosters cover all demographic bases.
SBTRKT. Photo credit to residentadvisor.net
The world-leading online electronic music magazine Resident Advisor present a surprisingly accessible lineup for their habitually esoteric high-brow tastes:
Rustie. Photo credit to warp.net
Mercury-nominated SBTRKT, masked dance-crossover crusader, sets to headline proceedings on the decks. His set will likely span the vast generic palate audible in his productions, no doubt including many similarly bass-informed chart-botherers sharing the roster with him (most names feature in his Radio 1 Essential Mix of last year).
Joining him is conjoint golden boy of 2011 UK dance Rustie, whose Glass Swords somehow escaped nomination for this year’s mercuries, despite winning debut of the year at The Guardian. His maximalist mash of genres has proved ubiquitously popular in dance music scenes and beyond, and has proved pivotal within the current ‘trap’ scene spearheaded by fellow Glaswegian and LuckyMe veteran Hudson Mohawke.
Also bolstering the line-up include gruesome Techno-head Blawan as well as live shows from Koreless, Shed and Shackleton.
Masked dance-crossover crusader SBTRKT poises to grace o2 Academy Bristol with his presence alongside new Garage-heads on the block Disclosure tomorrow.
With the release of last year’s self-titled album, Aaron Jerome proved himself an unbeatable ambassador for the UK’s then (and now) genre-fusion-mad dance music scene. Already having remixed artists as far removed as Goldie, Radiohead and Modeselektor, as well as collaborated with now R&B golden girl Jessie Ware, SBTRKT came onto the scene proper having already earned his crossover stripes. What resulted was a diverse, rich set of tracks spanning dubstep, UK funky, 2-Step, R&B and house – each with a resplendent sheen and palatable dynamics befitting the dance floor as well as the bedroom.
Just as much is his live show geared for o2, which includes live drums from SBTRKT himself and vocals from frequent collaborator Sampha, whose smoky strains run as slick as a preset, resounding synth-like over the lavish bed of arrangements. Their melodic patterns, set to rouse the mixed crowd, are just as indebted to pop music as underground dance, and the resulting atmosphere will be one of harmonious indulgence.
Support from Disclosure will see their fresh take on turn-of-the-millenium UK Garage get feet skipping as rapidly as those shuffling hi-hats.
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