The Saturday Surf #20

Did you notice it - the most important and momentous piece of news across the internet this week?

No, not that in the UK nearly 1 million young people aged under 24 are now unemployed, nor worldwide that President Obama has promised the 'toughest sanctions' on Iran over the alleged bomb plot, nor even the celebrity news that Beyonce was accused of faking her pregnancy with a false bump. There was something that surpassed all of this.

The Breaking More Waves twitter account reached tweet number 10,000.

That’s a lot of useless babble on the internet.

To mark the occasion we originally had big plans to create a flash mob event where hundreds of music bloggers ran naked into the cold UK south coast sea holding signs reading ‘STILL BREAKING MORE WAVES’, but eventually settled for something a little easier and wrote a blog post about it instead.

However when we weren’t tweeting our life away proclaiming our love for Nicola Roberts we were discovering the goodness of new music and as usual on a Saturday have brought together a few of the finds that nearly got washed away in the tide as we surfed .

Rizzle Kicks – When I Was A Youngster (Mr B The Gentleman Rhymer Remix)

If you’ve spent any time at UK festivals away from the main stage the chances are you’ll have come across the fine English gentleman that is Mr B The Gentleman Rhymer and his banjolele. On a one man mission to introduce hip-hop to the Queen’s English this Chap-Hop superstar has turned his attention to Breaking More Waves favourites, regulars and now bona-fide UK chart stars Rizzle Kicks. As Mr B says himself let’s rock, ideally with some cucumber sandwiches and a cup of tea, or maybe a sneaky sherry. Splendid.

Rizzle Kicks - When I Was A Youngster (Mr B "The Gentlemen Rhymer" Remix)

Dan Mangan – Post-War Blues

A Breaking More Waves blog post regular in 2009, Canada’s Dan Mangan returns with a new album Oh Fortune which sees Mangan stretching his sound and working with the likes of free-jazz experimentalists and a near orchestra. Not that this means that the results are unlistenable. In fact Post-War Blues positively bristles with both commercial and creative energy, taking Mangan’s highly recognisable gravel soaked voice to a chest-thumping, rabble-rousing, mightily-muscled piece of indie folk rock glory. Did we say it's free to download? It is you know.

Dan Mangan - Post-War Blues

My Tiger My Timing – Written In Red

From blues to red and the danceable indie flavours of My Tiger My Timing. Lead singer Anna’s soft and delectable purr keeps all the chiming guitars and the boogie groovy beats together nicely with something that sashays its way onto the indie dance floor without resorting to throwing in a dubstep wobble or power chord. Written In Red is released on November 14 through Snakes & Ladders.

My Tiger My Timing - Written In Red

Paper Crows – When Friend Survive (Discopolis Remix)

When Friends Survive is the new single from Paper Crows – it’s their third but the first to be released on Pete ‘Weekend Starts Here’ Tong's resurrected label ffrr. When Friends Survive sounds like an opening statement, it’s more experimental and less song based than their previous work, revolving around repetitive beats and some bigger dagger like synth sounds. Earlier references to Kate Bush and Bat For Lashes can be thrown out the window.

You can hear the original here but we’re particularly fond of a remix put together by Edinburgh’s Discopolis which goes from smooth sorcery to rave fist-puncher to dirty-disco floor-banger in just over three minutes. It’s free to download below.

Paper Crows | When Friends Survive (Discopolis Remix)

Torches – Little Ice Age

Finally if you’re anywhere near The Old Blue Last in London this weekend the chances are you’ll probably be able to spot a new music blogger hanging around somewhere. The clues? The iPhone, the constant tweeting, the surprisingly unfashionable clothing (“because it’s all about the music man”) and the ability to nod appreciatively at a bored looking man pressing one button on a laptop whilst two singular notes come out of it and melt into each other on stage. The reason the hype of bloggers will be loitering around Shoreditch drinking expensive dodgy pints? Because of Binnacle.

Binnacle is a ‘micro-festival’. In the olden days it would be called ‘an all-dayer ’ but micro-festival sounds so much cooler doesn’t it? And let’s face it this is East London, so it has to sound cool otherwise it’s worthless and to be sneered at. It also bills itself a festival of ‘future-sounds’ which could almost be seen as ironic when you listen to some of the very old fashioned reference points some of the artists playing appear to be influenced by. As is fashionable in the blog-base world these days there’s lots of ambient / electronic acts playing and a fair few underground bands as well. Torches (who are appearing at Binnacle) sound a little bit like Wild Beasts covering Hurts whilst looking for the anti-depressants , or any cold faced band that wore a long grey overcoat in the 80’s. As terrible or amazing that sounds depending on your perspective, it’s actually pretty good.

Torches - Little Ice Age

Mr B The Gentleman Rhymer - World Cup Song

We said we weren’t going to post or tweet about the World Cup. We did it once and think we got away with it.

So let’s get this over and done with then we can get back to the cricket.

Cucumber sandwich anyone ? This is the best world cup song of 2010 thanks to Mr B The Gentleman Rhymer. Spiffing.

Wychwood Festival 2010 - Review

Wychwood Festival is a very civilised, very adult affair. Casting your eye over the sun kissed crowds under the Prestbury Hills by Cheltenham it’s easy to identify the significant number of families, the happy relaxed vibe, the lack of trouble, the lack of litter on the campsites, the picnic blankets and queues for the smoothie stall that are often longer than those for the bar.

“Welcome to the summer,” shout The Levellers during their unpretentious punk-folk headlining slot on the Friday night, and certainly Wychwood feels like the curtain being drawn back on a season of UK summer festivals. Of course with this country’s unpredictable climate patterns there is always a danger of rain, and for twenty minutes of madness on the Sunday a storm dropped huge droplets over the site, but other than this it was a case of blissed-out summer glory.

The core base of the Wychwood Festival musical programming is based around traditional instrumentation - be it folk, rock or world music, but searching through the site there are pockets of other genres from the rave-on indie-dance of Happy Mondays to the comedy ‘chap-hop’ of Mr B the Gentleman Rhymer. Mr B (pictured) draws a good sized crowd in the Big Top early on a Saturday afternoon to watch his comical take on hip hop where he overlays the beats with what he describes as “The most important instrument in the history of hip hop – the banjolele.” Dressed in a linen suit, fine moustache and glasses he rolls out rhymes in the accent of an upper class gent. There are tracks about Tim Westwood “dropping his r’s and talking about dropping bombs,” sexual disease “I thought you were rather hot, but you had a rotten bot,” and porn “why can’t there be more kissing in porn.” His schoolboy humour, comic mannerisms and dancing give bellyaches of laughing, and his timely rap about the forthcoming world-cup football “let’s get this over and done with, then we can get back to the cricket,” is a hilariously brilliant anthem of the dejected Englishman. Main stage next year perhaps ?

And on the subject of cricket the gritty, bluesy vocal of John Smith bats the small crowd who venture away from the sun and the Lightning Seeds into the Big Top on Saturday evening for six. Like a folk version of Gomez, his rasping vocal sounds like he has been knocking back the whisky since the day he was born. It’s powerful stuff.

Other highlights of the weekend were many. Early on Friday evening Wychwood hosted The Leisure Society. “It’s a glorious evening for music,” they announce and then deliver just that. With the crowds chilling on the grass or grabbing a cocktail from the Waitrose sponsored cocktail bar -maybe next year Reading Festival will be sponsored by Lidl perhaps - their Ivor Novello nominated Last of the Melting Snow is inappropriately titled for the season but is still exquisitely beautiful whatever the weather. Mixing violin, cello, keys, guitar, drums, flute, ukulele and xylophone, even the groups more maudlin tunes are a delight to the ears, perfect for a summer festival. The Leisure Society also highlights one small deficiency of the event – they ask if there is a Pieminister stall on site, and are greeted with a number of shakes of the head. A note to the Wychwood team next year maybe? No festival is complete without Pieminister and their mash surely?

For something of a more challenging nature Welsh indie band Islet provide the most physical and confrontational performance of the weekend. Playing to an audience that you suspect is not their typical crowd - with ages from six to sixty plus present - their blend of blood curdling off-mic shouting, instrument swapping and jumping from the stage to lay, sit and run amongst punters is met at first with a reaction of laughter and bemusement, but by the end they have won virtually everyone over and get terrific applause. If anyone thought that being an ‘adult / family friendly’ festival meant that the music would all be ‘safe’ then Islet is the counter argument. (Although admittedly the Beautiful South - now known as The South played as well) What the band lack in songs they make up for in high-dosage energy and noisy-diy-art values. If they manage to write a few decent tunes as well they could be very dangerous.

In terms of the headliners, The Levellers, Happy Mondays and Seth Lakeman (Dreadzone play after Seth Lakeman but Lakeman is listed on much of the advertising as the headliner) all produce good sets.

The Levellers may now be middle aged but they are still crusty idealists, who evidently believe and enjoy what they do – there are bags of energy in their music. One Way is a jubilant arms aloft anthem and The Devil Went Down To Georgia a Deep South moment of fury. No wonder they still maintain such a strong fan base, even though they are ignored by the critics.

Happy Mondays re-evoke the spirit of the Madchester scene complete with joyful ramshackle vibe and baggy grooves - with Shaun Ryder dressed in a white tracksuit top and shades. He is the ultimate ‘non-frontman-legend’ - his hand almost permanently in his pocket, not moving from the spot. With his wailing, mumbling vocals more coherent than they have been in the past he even manages to bark out the odd quip in between songs. “Andy Warhol the abstract artist? I’m an abstract artist.” The biggest irony here is that on the night when Simon Cowell graces the nations TV sets for the final of Britain’s Got Talent, one of his former X Factor protégés Rowena is the real star of the Happy Mondays freakshow, prowling the stage, wiggling her hips, commanding the audience and belting out her co-vocals as if her life depends on it. Many of their defining songs - W.F.L, Loose Fit, Step On are played. It’s pure hazy nostalgia for an audience of whom a significant number would have had these rhythmic jams soundtracking their formative years.

Mercury nominated, Seth Lakeman on Sunday is probably what you would call a ‘typical’ Wychwood artist. His fiddle laden songs are full of character and bring the hoe-down for a fantastic finale that gets the crowd jigging and bobbing, as the sun fades.

And as the light disappears, many of those present leave with memories of a feast of musical delights. Wychwood Festival 2010 was the perfect start to the UK Festival season. And it wasn’t all just about the music either. There was so much more going on site, which isn't covered in this (music blogs) review - one example of which can be seen below.

Wychwood Festival 2010 - Preview

Now that the UK summer is finally on its way, we turn our attention away from urban multi-gig festivals to outdoor festivals; the fantasy towns built of canvas where we leave our troubles at the gates and indulge in three or four days of musical and non-musical madness. It’s fair to say that summer festivals are some of the absolute highlights of the Breaking More Waves calendar. Despite the evolution of festivals from being something on the periphery of society to mass media publicised events that embrace the mainstream, the best festivals still conjure and embrace an ideology that is based not just around the music but the very fabric of the temporary society they create for a weekend, where a true sense of community exists; people have a great time but look after each other.

Wychwood Festival (main stage pictured above) is one such festival. It may not have the big name headliners, the latest fashionable cool bands or Kate Moss in her wellies, but it has a real sense of community, a relaxed atmosphere, compact site and embraces all ages from 6 to 60 year olds. It also features some fine quality music and hidden gems. Last year for instance we caught the then little known Stornoway playing in the festivals 3rd stage to a small but rapt audience and a love affair was confirmed. Wychwood has been described by The Independent as “Like a bijou Glastonbury, the perfect way to ease into the festival season,” and we couldn’t agree more.

Wychwood was created in 2005 by a group of festival enthusiasts who wanted to run their own event. It has been nominated every year it has been running for the ‘Best Family Festival’ in the UK Festival Awards and has seen the likes of Super Furry Animals, Billy Bragg, Badly Drawn Boy, Duffy, Camera Obscura, The Unthanks, Supergrass, Little Boots, The Divine Comedy and Guillemots take to the stage. This years headline acts include The Levellers, Happy Mondays and Seth Lakeman. The festival is set beneath the beautiful Prestbury Hills in the grounds of Cheltenham race course, with the campsite being located in the middle of the track itself, leading to the odd sight of campers being surrounded by national hunt fences. This location provides a couple of distinct advantages for less hardy festival goers. First, providing the weather is reasonably dry, ticket holders are allowed to drive onto site and pitch their tents - no lugging of heavy rucksacks and equipment across hills. Secondly the festival is able to use the permanent toilet facilities of the racecourse, so no squeamish festival toilet experiences and the bonus of hot running water.

Besides the three main music stages Wychwood is very proud of its large range of workshops and other entertainment, which include film, a children’s literature festival, Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre, English National Ballet, circus and street theatre and a huge amount of workshops of which there are so many to list you are better just clicking here. You could have so much fun (child or adult) that you never even see any music.

But if you can drag yourself away and sample some music, here are 5 acts that Breaking More Waves recommends for this years Wychwood 2010.

The Leisure Society

With 2 Ivor Novello nominations under their belt you can rest assured that The Leisure Society know how to pen a good song. The group are currently readying their second album, the follow up to their debut Sleeper and will no doubt be playing some of these new songs. Beautifully restrained, this band make orchestrated folk pop with just a hint of American influence. Soft harmonies, wonderful melodies and beautifully tender, they are the perfect band for the main stage on Friday night.

Beth Jeans Houghton

At the end of 2009 we named Beth as One to Watch for 2010. A strange mix of warped folk, glam stylings, pop and soul, Beth is hardly the demure sweet singer songwriter - often taking to the stage wearing big wigs and hotpants. Backed by her band The Hooves of Destiny her song I Will Return, I Promise has a jaunty, stomping rhythmic Celtic sound that will probably make you jig madly in a little circle.

The School

Cardiff’s The School are a band whose sound is obsessed with sixties pop. They are the full take on girl-group bubblegum cuteness - think Camera Obscura and The Pipettes and you won’t be far off the mark. One of their songs - Valentine was chosen for a fridge advert in Japan. We bet that’s something other welsh compatriots The Stereophonics have never achieved. Playing the BBC Introducing Stage on Saturday, they are a must see for fans of all things sugary, twee and ever so slightly flat in the vocal classroom.

Kill It Kid

Bath five piece Kill It Kid may look like a typical indie band, but they have one very secret weapon - just wait till the lead singer opens his mouth and starts to sing. A bluesy bellow of some distinction, their brand of delta-blues rock earns them the dreaded cliché “mature beyond their years,” but in this case it is a massive compliment.

Mr B The Gentleman Rhymer

Back by popular demand Mr B The Gentleman Rhymer was one of the highlights of last years Wychwood. Straight out of Surrey Mr B brings “Chap-hop” to entertain the masses. One of the funniest musical acts we have ever seen, if watching a posh man with a banjo reinterpreting hip hop classics and dissing Tim Westwood doesn’t have you in stitches, as well as singing along, then frankly you are probably dead. Let him smoke his pipe !

Finally, rather like our Great Escape coverage a few weeks back Breaking More Waves will be (mobile phone reception permitting) tweeting our way round the festival, so if you are on Twitter and want to join the fun, follow us by clicking here.

Wychwood 2009

What makes a good music festival? Not an easy question to answer, but for Breaking More Waves some of the essential ingredients include great weather, well structured organisation, good infrastructure and a relaxed and happy vibe where a true sense of community comes through. Add in some good music, other enjoyable non music related activities and a spot of uniqueness and the event can be verging on greatness. With the best weather in the UK for the year so far, Wychwood 2009 achieved all of our requirements.

This is a festival for those who like convenience. How many music festivals do you know where you can pull up in your car, choose your spot to pitch your tent, off-load your equipment and set up and only then return your car to the car park ? It certainly beats those long sweaty journeys lugging camping gear miles across a site. Toilets are nearly always an issue at festivals, but not at Wychwood. The festival portaloos are kept remarkably clean and fragrant, and if you don’t fancy them, as the event is set in the grounds of Cheltenham racecourse you can use the venues permanent toilets. And as you wander towards the music, tarmac pathways meander through the site, giving a civilised, very un-dirty feel to the occasion.

Wychwood is also a culturally enriched and diverse festival, with a laid back feel, where children and adults combine in an area known simply as ‘The Green’. Here you will find workshops, performances, poetry, cinema, demonstrations and other events taking place, giving a true sense of community. From the new Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy reading and performing a selection of her work with musician John Sampson to a mixed crowd of all ages, to a magical fire show late at night where choreographed performers battle with flaming torches and thrill with burning skipping ropes, whilst green fingered lasers dance in the darkness. Wychwood provides excitement for all ages. During the day we enjoy a huge number of activities taking place, from circus skills (where Breaking More Waves shows significant talent in hula hooping) to the Roald Dahl Museum giving a fascinating and insightful audio visual presentation on the life of the author.

And then of course there is the music. We were having such a good time elsewhere, we almost forgot.

Headliners Super Furry Animals play to a crowd showered with bubbles, encouraging the audience by holding up signs saying Woah, Applause, and Danke. After wading through material from their new album Dark Days / Light Years they finally deliver some crowd pleasers such as The Man Don’t Give A F*@k. The bands longevity is a testament to their creative nuance, however for Breaking More Waves even when they add a bassy groove and clattering percussion to the wonderfully named The Very Best Of Neil Diamond, they fail to really move or engage, rather to be admired from afar.

On Saturday the Breaking More Waves approved Bjork goes fairytale orchestrated pop of The Mummers is just right for a crowd basking in the sun. Wonderland is well, wonderful, the bands cover version of Passion Pits Sleepyhead is dizzying and mystical. Then there is closing song This Is Heaven which is a string laden piece of godliness. The Mummers are another one of those bands who could be in contention for a Mercury nomination.

Goldheart Assembly are slightly ramshackle and beardy in a musical sense. With autoharp and acoustic guitar combining with organic harmonies one can hear hints of something American, breezy and melodious in their tunes which please the small relaxed crowd in the darkness of the Big Top.

Later in the day Little Boots (pictured) brings her blend of synth pop to the masses. With all the attention that she has received over the last few months following her No.1 slot in the BBC Sound of 2009, it is easy to be cynical about her. However the facts are that Victoria Hesketh is a confident, sassy and ever so slightly sexy performer, a UK Kylie with keyboards if you want. Stuck On Repeat, Mathematics and the stylophone strangeness of Meddle mark the point where pop, disco and electronica merge to great effect, quirky enough to be cool, danceable enough to make you want to work up a sweat. However those tunes were the first that brought our attention to Little Boots last winter, and some of the newer tracks played today such as current Top 20 single New In Town and future single Remedy lack the pulsing uniqueness to be anything more than just another tune rolled out by the pop machine.

In the evening a host of bands play in the Old Hooky Bar as part of Tom Robinsons 6 Music Fresh on the Net sessions, a chance for new and unsigned talents to display their wares. The highlight is the comedy chap hop of Mr B The Gentleman Rhymer. Armed with a banjo and a beatbox Mr B The Gentleman Rhymer is “Straight out of Surrey,” wearing a pin striped suit and delivering raps in an upper class accent. “Tim Westwood it’s time to own up, and say how do you do, rather than yo what’s up,” he raps before asking the audience to join in and to conjugate a chorus in Latin. Wiping his sweating face on a toilet tissue he announces “There goes my last chance of having a poo.” Comedy, dare we say it, genius moment of the weekend.

We wrote about Stornoway very recently here and on Sunday it’s their chance to play in the Old Hooky Bar. Despite a few technical hitches and the wide eyed and intense staring singer Brian Briggs looking as nervous as a small boy on his first day of school, Stornoway produce a set of beautifully judged folk pop. Tightly focussed on producing clear and concise melodies, their set is short and sweet as a sugar cube. Stornoway are probably the only band that you will ever hear say “Some good news, beavers have returned to Scotland for the first time in four hundred years,” and genuinely mean the good news, before adding “Did you know that beavers have internal testicles?” Later the zoological references continue when the band state that the banjo led We Are The Battery Humans is about “Acknowledging your inner monkey.” This is no ape like tom foolery though, each tune that Stornoway play is ecologically haunting and uplifting. Stornoways songs are warm and gentle, and the moment when the trumpet kicks in on Zorbing takes the song to a whole new level. It’s the best trumpet middle section since Belle And Sebastians Judy And The Dream Of Horses, which it shares a certain musical marriage with. It’s official, Stornoway are our new favourite pastoral indie folk pop band.

With all of the attributes that we look for in such an event, Wychwood 2009 marked a magical start for Breaking More Waves festival season. Let’s hope it continues.