Contents4-5 Introducing Colours Of One

6-7 Questions with...

Caesars Rome

8-9 Kerrang! Tour Review

10-12 BenSem + Lostprophets +

Johnny Foreigner Live Reviews

13 Twin Atlantic at Clwb

14-16 Fightstar Interview + Review

17 Bad For Lazarus at Barfly

18-19Hadouken at MMH

20-21 FOTL at Clwb

22-24 The rKives Interview

25-27Questions with...

Full Scream Ahead

(+CD Review)

28-33Rock Revolt Interview

Accident Music

All The Damn Vampires

Exit International

34-37Cd Reviews

38-41Top Ten Soundtracks

42-47The Five Points Tattoo Studio

Contributors (A-Z)

Nadine Ballantyne, Alex Brady, Paul Esp,

Eifion Jones, Anneka Sillitoe, Ed Townend.

Any questions, thoughts, ideas, email us at -

info@soundscapemagazine.com

Colours of One

InTR

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Words: A

lex Brady

Lately I’ve been a little disil-lusioned with a lot of the brand spanking new bands appearing in the South Wales music scene. Don’t get me wrong there are plenty of incredibly acts out there yet to slap you joyfully in the face and I’ve champi-oned many over the years, but a lot of them seem to be sounding the same,

variations upon a theme that has been cloned innu-merable times. Saying that, I breathe a sigh of relief for Colours of One who might be the much needed resuscitation needed to restart the heart of this great music nation.

Their album “Bad News Makes Big Noise” is guar-

anteed to draw the atten-tion something so immense deserves. It starts off with “Intro”, which came across as a much simpler “Life in Technicolor” by Coldplay. Its gentle guitars and distant chant draw you into a false sense of security, relaxing you prior to the punch in the gut noises that domi-nate this release.

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soundscape 04

If you listen carefully, you can pick up the slight-est hint of Pink Floyd. Not in the lyrics, but in instru-ments. The melodic flow, the effortless jump from highs to lows and a unique mellow edge bring to mind “The Wall” for the 21st Century. A touch of the Foo Fighters cements the fact that this lot share many aspects with some of the most influential acts out there, and they are sure to become one themselves.

I really struggled to find a flaw with the album and found myself drifting to-wards track lengths. The shortest song, “Intro” fails to scrape a minute whilst

“Burning Ants” hits the top end of the spectrum at almost 8 minutes with every other song being some-where in between. The average radio edit of a song is 3 minutes 30 sec-onds, and most al-bum tracks will be somewhere around that mark but Colours seem to have thrown that concept out of the window, but there is one inescapable reason why I can’t state length as a flaw: you just don’t care! It’s true what they say, time flies when you’re hav-ing fun. Each song throws so much at you that your interest never drops, taking

time completely out of the equation and replacing it with genuine musical appreciation.

“Spin” came across as the stand out track. The hard-rock guitars and incessant drumming are matched perfectly by the chocolaty vocals emphasising how well they do everything they send your way. I can guarantee this band will be making some big noise and good news over the next few months.

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‘COO are what the Lostprophets should have been before Ian Wat-

kins mutated into something I shall compare to a fairground clown.’

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New Sections!

In this issue we have some new additions and we’d like your feedback! Any comments email...

info@soundscapemagazine.com

Caesars RomeQuestions with...

How did you get started?

We got started from a mutual love of playing music together. Myself and the drummer Rich have played in previous bands together for a number of years and decided to have another last ditch attempt at getting a record out!

What have you got going on at the moment?

Our debut album ‘The Company We Keep’ came out via Superball Music / Century Media records on February 22nd. We are ex-tremely excited for everyone to hear the album.

Favourite music and why?

I’ve recently become a mas-sive Beatles fan, I never gave them the time of day until recently I came across the White Album, and it blew me away. (cont)

Not that we here at Soundscape Magazine can be accused of being

biased but we fucking love our Welsh bands, especially ones as good

as Caesars Rome. I first saw the band supporting Funeral For A Friend

and thought they were great and have been looking forward to the

bands debut album for some time. We recently managed to catch up

with Jonathan to discuss the band and album.

www.m

yspace.com/caesarsrom

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Words: Paul Esp

Obviously I know the Beatles are no longer in existence and I’m a late bloomer, but they have really opened my mind as of late!

Favourite book and why?

My favourite book of all time is ‘The Catcher In The Rye’ by J.D Sallinger. This book is incredible, it really reached out to me and I was sucked in the first time I read it. And unfortunate-ly the great authors death recently has made me pick it up again! Favourite film and why?

I’m a horror movie buff, and I’ve been very dis-appointed with the lat-est horror offerings. My favourite film of all time would be The Green Mile. Tom Hanks is a fantastic actor and I just loved this film. The way people are portrayed in this film is fantastic. All the charac-ters are brilliant.

Best experience in the business?

Just before the band got a lot more serious for my-

self, I spent a years work experience with the amaz-ing Romesh Dodangoda (Long Wave Studio). I’m majorly into production and engineering and this experience was something I couldn’t put a price on. The guy is a fantastic pro-ducer and it was a privi-lege to learn from him.

Tell our readers an inter-esting fact about yourself/company/band?

I’m an avid sports fan. I would have picked sport over the band a few years a go. A lot of musicians don’t seem to be linked with sport in anyway, and I feel it’s something jour-nalists should ask too! Best thing about coming from/being/playing in Wales?

The camaraderie between other bands and musi-cians in Wales is brilliant, there’s a huge support for each others music, and every band that are out there doing it are put-ting Wales on the map, it’s a proud thing to play with bands to the likes of

Funeral For A Friend and think they’ve toured the whole world, shining a light for upcoming Welsh bands.

Who are your role mod-els/idols?

We are huge Thrice fans, we got to meet them at their recent show in Cardiff. It was an amaz-ing moment, we take huge musical influences from the band.

Hardest thing about the current business?

I think getting people to buy albums is the hard-est thing about being in the music industry. It’s so easy to download records these days, no one goes out to see bands play any more so the newer artists have to hope to get to tour with bigger bands just so they get the exposure they need. Touring is a must for all bands, and getting people to believe in you and you’re music is a huge challenge, but it’s the best reward when they do!

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yspace.com/caesarsrom

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Kerrang! Tour All Time Low, The BlackoutYoung Guns, My Passion

Cardiff Uni29/01/10

Words &

Photos: Ed Townend

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My Passion are a band that thrives on a smaller stage, getting close to the fans and owning the venues they play at. How they transferred to a larger stage is impressive, chang-ing their up close and personal attitude into shat-tering confidence. Zeal-ously energetic and brash, they push everything to the brink whilst still keep-ing the music finely tuned – a great mix of powerful sound and stage presence. Their dirty and dark mu-sic harks of goth, but their modern elements really brings the powerful side to the normally boring side of dark music – it’s upbeat yet sinister. An advantage of playing a bigger venue for My Passion is more noise, and it’s even better louder with teeth-chattering bass and heart-pounding drums. My Passion have an incredible following, and it’s easy to see why with a lot of attendees unexpect-edly turning their heads to listen to a band they’ve never heard of before.

Next up were the ul-timately uninteresting Young Guns. They just seemed like a pre-packaged pop rock band with nothing remotely in-teresting going for them. However, the amount of screaming fans they man-aged to muster despite their support slot must mean something. In com-parison to My Passion, they are as boring as sin. How-ever, they mention being ill, so that might have some-thing to do with it. It still is a shame that with talent and energy you can still produce something lack-lustre, let’s hope they pick this up and change tack to something we haven’t heard before.

Next up were undoubted-ly the reason for the most fans tonight – The Black-out. Hailing not far from Cardiff, they’ve played from the dingiest Welsh clubs to packed out audi-ences on the Warped and Taste of Chaos tours. Their sound is a mix of brutality and bare bones – thrash guitar and keen lyrics. Only a band with incredible energy and skill could pull off the remarks between songs, - lauding them-selves over the other bands on the set as well as trying to be as inappropriate as possible with their parents in the audience (and a few mentions of zombies too). (cont)

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Driven by the audience, they pulled out all the stops whenever the crowd went crazy, and encour-aged them time and time again to fuel them on. The Blackout are another one of those great Welsh bands that works hard and build up the experience to make them worthy of huge tours like this – and then closing with ‘I’m A Riot’ is just the killer blow to make them stand out.

As The Blackout’s fans pile out, All Time Low’s pile in – which shows the massive split in the line-up. Walking on to a dramatic curtain drop, the screams are unbearable. Described as ‘foul-mouthed Jonas Brothers’, these Americans have a set that defines the pop-punk of now with all the right hooks and catchy riffs (with a little bit more humour as well, but not to The Blackout’s level) as well as putting in one or two acoustic songs for good measure. Following a band like The Blackout with something like this is not a good idea, but luckily no one really minds (as pretty much everyone who would

has gone home). They finish with Dear Maria, Count Me In – which is met with double the excitement as their entrance.

BenSem- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Barfly Cardiff , 18/12/09words: Paul Esp

In the second issue of Soundscape we introduced you to the musical force that is BenSem, led by the talented Sem, just as the band were giving away their debut album ‘Western Lights’ for free. A lot has happened in the BenSem camp since then. This gig is something of a big deal for them; it’s the bands first with a completely new line up, in fact the drum-mer has only been a part of the line up for a couple of weeks. The band kick off with ‘She Said’ and my first impression is how great the band sound and look, much harder hitting then on the album ‘Western Lights’, Sem’s voice is superb, hitting the notes with ease and the packed

Barfly singing every word along with him. New bass-ist Gez Alexander is a ball of energy, always in con-stant motion and always getting into the music.Whilst new guitarist Ritchie Beech is definitely showing off some skills, cranking out the riffs and solo’s with pure simplicity.

The sound isn’t a notch from spot on, and the whole band feel really tight tonight, especially during tunes ‘Science Project’ and ‘Sunshine’. Although, Sem takes the spotlight with a solo acoustic rendition of ‘Constant Dream’, this really shows what a great singer and songwriter the guy is. He then, after some encouragement from cer-tain members of the crowd, plays a new song, which even after hearing just once is astonishing!

The band end the show with a huge version of ‘Apathy’, a cracking song, but when played live takes on the form of an anthem which the crowd full of BenSem music Junkies sing right along to with the whole band.

It was such a feel good ending, everyone in the crowd (and the bar staff) singing along was just overwhelming. The band spent some time in Mon-mouth Rockfield Studios in January recording for a single release in March so keep a look out for that! And if you get a chance go see them live, guaranteed you’ll leave smiling! 9/10

Lostprophets- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Plus: Hexes &Kids In Glass Houses, Brixton Academy, 11/2/10words: Anneka Sillitoe

The night kicks off rather suddenly when Hexes abruptly start playing. The sound is awful but despite this, Hexes are rocking. When you get past the technical difficulties they are loud and brash, and a lot of people here tonight don’t understand it. Second to last track they seem a little out of time, but even with that they are a band worthy to look out for around the smaller venues over the next few months.

Kids in Glass Houses are up next. They’re very tight together but to be honest, one song ends, another starts and it’s the same shit, different name. The kids down the front seem to be into them, but where I’m standing, I’m sur-rounded by older people who frankly, just don’t want to know. The highlight of their set was when singer Aled shouted “let’s get this shit opened up” only to be replied with “epic fail” from a obviously fed up crowd member. It was a relief when they went away.

Lostprophets take to the stage but it’s not the big opening I hoped for. Look-ing around and behind I see people just stand-ing there. This isn’t how a ‘Prophets gig starts, is it? The crowd liven up when End of the World kicks in and this is the first two of about eight new songs. We realise they have to play new songs, but really al-most the whole album?

Luckily, this isn’t one of those an album a night tours and they launch into Still Laughing where finallythe older fans can go nuts.

But it’s short lived and back into the new album. It’s not that it’s bad, it’s just it’s so much already. They go through Last Summer and Last Train Home then Rooftops and Where We Belong. They play Shinobi, and as usual the room goes crazy. It would’ve been a perfect end but they come back on for an encore and play another new song. It’s slow and totally the wrong way to end the gig, the people around me are already leaving. It was a little dis-appointing that it had to end that way. 6/10

Johnny Foreigner---- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Plus: BayonetsClwb Ifor Bach, 6/2/10words: Ed Townend

Slightly disappointed that Cardiff didn’t get the joy of hosting Talons after playing before Johnny Foreigner at Swn Festival last year, I still awaited the alterna-tive of Bayonets – fellow Hereford-dwellers of the other support in question.

Impressive sonically, they battered their way through a considerable number of tracks with considerable vigour and energy to make me quite jealous.

From a rock musician’s point of view, their level of rocking out seemed a lot of fun, but the music started to grate. The bat-tering of drums and swell-ing bass was almost too much to bear in its glorious self-indulgence – and the lyrics were savagely jar-ring. At least three songs mentioned a girl sleeping around to almost misogy-nistic obsession.

The fraught structures and disintegrating links between sections rang familiar of experimental jams – but this gave way to chaotic brilliance like in …And I Think I Enjoy Conflict with recurring but smash-ing vocal lines and guitar onslaughts. I forgot to pick up their CD, but I’m sure after a few tenacious listens I’d really get into them.

Johnny Foreigner are one of those bands who could really annoy yet fas-cinate pure music geeks. As Alexei sings in Yes! You Talk Too Fast (which is one example of their awesome song titles, no doubt simi-lar to pals Los Campesi-nos! – who were in quiet attendance) “I’d barely call this singing” frustration would reign in the fusion of incredible guitar playing, beautifully arranged lyrics, gorgeous singing, fantastic drums and then the cha-otic bass, the yelping lead parts and the fuzzy back-ing tracks and keyboards. However, the latter things add to the already awe-some things if you’re open-minded enough.

Rattling off new songs and old classics (or both in the caustic and gorgeous Feels Like Summer), as well as even newer songs like the wonderful Harriet which includes the increasingly humorous repetition of the title. Every Cloakroom Ever evokes beauty and rough-age as well, with the fluent vocals sung by Kelly and the scorching keyboard notes from drummer Junior

– with similar veins in Eyes Wide Terrified. Salt, Pepa and Spinderella is far too awesome to resist espe-cially with the cry of “Bring out the real fun/turn on the real drums” and the follow-ing eardrum barrage.

What really tugged at the heartstrings with Johnny Foreigner was their com-plete ease in the live en-vironment and their total want to talk and engage. Kelly made the crowd clap and Junior asked for help with intro to Cranes and Cranes and Cranes and Cranes (“Bah bah, bah bah bah bah bah!”) whilst Alexei erred - though in good humour- in the dis-cussion of the England vs Wales Six Nations match (“Did we really thrash you or something?”). As they played Criminals (with the rather apt line for Car-diff “Your town’s run by criminals/They sold you out and closed your clubs for what?”) and then descend-ed wildly into The Coast Was Always Clear their thanks felt touching and genuine. 9/10

soundscape 12

There’s a slightly unset-tling atmosphere in the

crowd tonight, maybe it’s a clash of tastes, a gap of ages or a mix of too many drinks, but for happy rockers Canterbury, despite their

enthusiasm and charisma only half the crowd embrace what they’re throwing out, which summed up is pretty boys, catchy beats, the all important synths and sing along choruses.

But evidently not as generic as it seems, just think of them as well produced and thought out than the typi-cal garbage you may find at your local barfly. We say give them a mighty fine chance.

If I recall, I’ve seen Twin Atlantic a few times within last year or so, but if you’d ask me what their shows were like, I couldn’t of re-membered to tell you. But after tonight I quite simply could. An explosive set from one of Scotland’s fin-est bands (but not quite as unique and out there as Flood of Red we feel). After thinking about it, a lot of ‘this type’ of music seems to generate up there. But it’s nothing to push aside. Each track played to key, techni-cal problems shrugged off, a look on each members face that shines out their love for music and a crowd most up coming bands couldn’t wish better of, a crowd showing nothing but love. After an expressive set the crowd, to put simply, are left thriving for more. But due to a late starting set, and a generic club night after it unfortu-nately has to end abruptly. 8/10

Twin Atlantic

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Clwb Ifor Bach, 12/2/10 words & Photo: N.Ballantyne

SSM: We hear you’re to be rereleasing Be Human next month. What can we expect to be included on the new version that wasn’t on the old and was there anything that didn’t make the final version this time round? What really pushed you to re-release it?

Omar: It’s a really special package we put together. Four tracks that didn’t make it onto the album, A DVD of us acoustic at the Picture Drome, northampton and all the videos from the Be Human album campaign.

We have re-arranged the track listing completely as the new songs give the album a slightly different flow to the original release.

SSM: You’ve just finished a UK tour. What were the highlights for this tour? And has anything surprised you about it?

Omar: It was an awesome tour! We went into Europe too and it was a real eye opener to see we actually have fans outside of our little island of fun. It was great to meet all the Eu fans and play some real punk gigs. (cont)

Fightstar---------------------------------------------------------

We caught up with drummer Omar just after their headline tour to answer a few snippets!

“We were almost called Time to Fight. Glad that didn’t stick!”Omar Abidi H

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/2/1

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F ightstar seem to take ages getting to the stage

tonight but it’s well worth the wait. They launch into their set which is filled with mostly new tracks, with a few old singles kicked in there. It’s nice that it’s not too much.

When they do get around to the old stuff, for all we knew they could’ve played Paluhnuik’s Laughter com-pletely wrong, missed all the

notes, messed up the words and god knows what else. But because we’re all too busy jumping our hearts out, no ones worried and just ecstatic Fightstar are playing once again.

They do encore tonight and it’s a Deftones acoustic cover (they do love cover-ing their Deftones). This time round though it’s ‘Be Quiet and Drive’.

It’s good as usual, but then again anything they cover by Deftones is usually spot on. Fightstar end the night with Deathcar and the crowd go truly insane, the mosh pit is so violent for a band ge-nerically seen as light heart-ed rock. It’s a striking end to a striking set where most the crowd leave sweaty but very, very happy.

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soundscape 15

SSM: You’re one of the few British bands that still takes out small unsigned unheard of bands out on the road with you. Is there anyone you haven’t taken out yet that you’d like to? Or any-one you’d recommend for people to check out?

Omar: There is a new band called TesseracT that are unbelievable! Can’t quite ex-press how jazzed I am about that band. Definitely one to watch in 2010!

SSM: Are there any big bands out there that you’d love to get on the road with, either as a support or co-headlin-ers?

Omar: The obvious one would be Deftones. That would be immense! 30 Sec-onds To Mars would be an epic tour too.

SSM: going back to when you were growing up, did you ever plan to be in a band such as Fightstar or did you have a career/uni-versity life planned out?

Omar: I have always wanted to be in music. I did give up the drums before Fight-star and was moving into a

career as a sound engineer, but things never quite go as planned and I was back on the work stool. I did pretty good at school, but was never interested in going to uni, just wasn’t for me.

SSM: So now what’s the plan for Fightstar’s future?

Omar: We are having a little break, but we’ll be back in 2011 with new material and fresh perspectives.

SSM: What would you say is the hardest thing about the current music business?

Omar: Just trying to survive and be able to dedicate yourself full time. You don’t do this if all you want is money, so you gotta love it, as it’s getting harder and harder to make a living out of it.

SSM: Tell our readers an in-teresting fact about yourself/band?

Omar: We were almost called Time to Fight. glad that didn’t stick! (laughs).

SSM: Lastly, one we ask all bands, If you could go back to any era what would it be and why?

Omar: I would be 21 years old during the summer of 1966 and live through the musical golden age that is ‘66 – ‘75. I would do any-thing to make that actually happen. Anything!.

We’ve seen this situation before: the Barfly’s

dead, there’s about eight people who really give a shit about the bands music, none of them however will buy any merch, or stand near the stage for that mat-ter. The inconsiderate left after their mates band and your’re standing there feel-ing on edge whether there’s

actually a point in watch-ing a band perform when you know that there’s some average indie band across the way playing to a packed out room, when actually, it should be the other way around and Bad For Lazarus should be performing to a packed out floor. But as much as the eight people in the room would adore that

idea, BFL just get on with it to their discomfort and disin-terest, and in comparison to local supporting act Exit In-ternational, again, maybe it should have been the other way around, because to be honest, Exit International felt as much like headliners as BFL were. Maybe next time...7/10

Bad For LazarusCardiff Barfly24/02/10

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Words & Photos: N.Ballantyne

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soundscape 17

Remember that band? You know, that band that came along when techno was the

in-thing and produced some quality beats such as ‘Leap of Faith’ for the young ones to enjoy? Well, they’re

back on tour with a new album. But I wouldn’t get too excited unless you’re

a die hard fan and can break down and differentiate their tracks from

one another. Having never witnessed Hadouken before, I expected them to gallop on stage, pace about the

whole night and pump up the crowd at every given moment, but I am just

going by their music. Little did I know that the singer only perks up towards

the end of the set where facing a crowd that averages to an age of 15, does he shout out ‘take your tops off and swing them around, extra points for bra’s’. Mum’s and Dad’s weren’t happy about that. Their sound how-ever, without hesitation is what you

would expect of them, it’s just a shame they lack a bit of character on

stage. unless you’re under the age of 16 I wouldn’t recommend seeing them, it might be easier to just catch

them on the radio and save yourself some dignity.

6/10

HadoukenMillennium Music Hall

25/02/10

Words & Photo: N.Ballantyne

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Future Of The Left Clwb Ifor Bach, 30/01/10

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T o the lucky few who man-aged to witness FOTL last night, we didn’t get that

chance, but to our very own luck they’ve decided last minute to play another night in what feels like their Cardiff home, Clwb Ifor Bach. Tonight com-mences downstairs and one can only wonder how fast tick-ets would have gone to grab another chance to see these local boys. Kelson wonders on and shoves what looks like a homemade, well, bandanna-esque gimp mask

over his face before quickly abandoning the idea. What makes this band so different isn’t just the fact that guitarist Andrew Falkous is only playing with 4 strings, but the fact they get on mind blowingly with any crowd and performing on and off stage, literally. During the end, and as always expected, FOTL go off the wall and cause some chaos to the slightly chirpy but lifeless crowd this evening. One member tears the drum kit apart whilst the other hops onto their fellow friends back and scarpers around the startled crowd. In the many oc-casions I’ve seen this band live, there’s never been an instance where I’ve doubted not being at one of their gigs. 9/10

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The rKives ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You seem to have come out of nowhere within the last few months, generating some hype within your gigs, how did you land yourself a support slot on the Kerrang Tour?

It’s all been done through a promoter over in Bristol who added us on MyS-pace (www.myspace.com/therkivesrock), liked what he heard and initially offered us a couple of dates doing a support slot. The feedback he received was of course all good and asked if we could play a few dates on a Kerrang sponsored tour, which needless to say we were a tad happy about!

What can we expect of the CD you’ll be releasing in March, is this a full album release or just a teaser of tracks? Also, are we expect-ing any themes within the song writing as well?

It’s just going to be a teaser, so four songs in total.

The first is called “Reality TV” and is the title track too. It is of course about reality TV and how it has become mindless and encouraged celebrity through mediocrity. The second is “Room 103” and addresses the issue of faking rape to get attention and to deal with rejection from a guy, so pretty happy upbeat stuff! The third which is “Closed Doors” looks at what goes on behind them. The last song is “Rat Race” and is about being on a Saturday night out witnessing all of the drunken mess from hen parties and tramps to pulling a slap-per! Once again only the most cheery lyrics and topics make our EP.

You feel like the best of friends have to come to-gether to form a band. When you’re writing songs, does it tend to flow together as a group or do you find one member usually takes charge? Basically, is the writ-ing process an easy one?

The majority of the songs start with Kieran coming up with the tune sat in his room strumming away. Then we all tend to get together down Sheps and jam it out until we come up with a struc-ture and flow that we are all happy with. We tend not to really think about it or be-come too technical, we just play what we feel sounds right to us. So to cut a long story short, yes it does come fairly easy especially since Shep, gethin and James a.k.a. Doppy B***ocks have joined and added their own personal touch to proceed-ings.

What influences you as a whole band to make music? What got you guys together as a band in the first place?

We were desperate and want to get rich! Haha! Initially we had a full 5 piece and a tour to germany lined up but due to family com-mitments our bassist and drummer had to leave. (cont)

soundscape 23

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We then brought in gethin and James for the trip, which just after our singer went travelling to Oz and through gethin we brought in Shep and haven’t looked back. Plus I guess we all just love music no matter what genre it is or who has written/played/recorded it. The buzz for us comes when we are on stage and playing our music, it doesn’t matter if there are two or two thou-sand people watching (two thousand would be nice) we still go out there with the same enthusiasm as the first time we played together. The other thing that moti-vates us is when even one person comes up to us after a gig or messages us on MySpace/Facebook and tells us how much they love our music or Room 103 is their favourite song at the mo-ment then that is all we need to continue writing and play-ing together, and we kind of like each others company.

How would you rate the first ever gig you played? Was it a good feeling?

It was a surprisingly good gig. About a 7/10 on the rock scale. As by this time the four of us had been

playing together for about 6 months and become a fairly tight unit, all we needed was for Shep to come in and step-up to the plate which he did after only 4 prac-tice sessions with us. This is what makes us such a tight band. We learn quickly off each other and are all on the same wave length musi-cally, so the feeling to go up on stage after such a limited time together as a 5 piece was pretty pleasing to say the least.

Any memorable moments from your gigs you care to share with us?

One has to be when we played a bikers club. Full of big, hard, bald, bearded men who love metal and chaining people, and Shep rocks up in a bright orange flowery shirt and a cowboy hat. Kind of like Brokeback Mountain on holiday. He then decided to take his top of with Ratty and start roll-ing around the floor as we played – somewhat surreal to be honest. The other two occasions relate to James a.k.a. Doppy Bollocks – who at our very first ever gig be-fore Shep, knocked a speak-er off the stage, and on the second occasion went to

put his foot on a barrier up the DollsHouse in Abertil-lary and proceed to fall flat on his face off the stage. not, sharpest, tool and box spring to mind.

Do you have any plans to hunt for a label or are you just going to see how it pans out for the moment?

Of course it would be great to get signed and hit the industry as hard as pos-sible and if it comes knock-ing then great, if not we will just keep plugging away un-til we get the recognition we all feel the music deserves. We want the music to do the talking for us rather than the music big wigs. unless they pay us of course!

Something we ask all bands, if you could go back to any era, what would you pick and why?

70’s. Music, women, ille-gal substances and beards.

Lastly, describe your band in 3 words?

rKives, Fuck Aye!.

.

Full Scream Ahead

This band have appeared in Rocksound, got a 3K review from Kerrang and are widely tipped

as a band to watch in 2010. We spoke to singer Justin Percival and guitarist Will Slater just before

they headed into the studio to put the finishing touches the bands eagerly awaited debut album.

Here’s what they had to say...

How did you get started?

Justin: Me and my brother Alex (FSA drummer) started a band called I AM THE DOOR about 5 years back that dispersed in 2007 and we wanted to start something new up.

Will: I answered an ad Justin had placed on Bristol Rocks website. He came round mine for a jam the morn-ing after my flatmates party and I was really hungover. But things just felt really comfortable and we ended up writing

what later became ghosts. The rest they say is history.

What have you got going on at the moment?

Will & Justin: We’re pretty excited as we’re about to record 2 more songs and hopefully get an album ready for release in 2010. We’d love to get on a good tour support slot this year too and hopefully find a decent management company to take us on. (cont)

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Favourite music and why? Will: I grew up on rock like guns n Roses, Skid Row, Def Leppard, Thunder and some heavier stuff too which really got me into playing guitar, and those bands will always have a place in my heart. But when I started playing in bands and discov-ering other bands like At The Drive In, Lostprophets and Funeral For A Friend I knew I wanted to do this.

Justin: I tend to relate lots of music to my life and mu-sic has this great power of reminding you of certain times, places and people. A lot of songs I listen to will in-stantly make me smile when I’m upset, or even make me cry when I’m perfectly happy, just because of memories they are associated with. I think guns n’ Roses for-ever changed the way music could and would sound to me. Then it was nirvana, The Beatles and The Clash. Right now I would say I listen to anything with a melody.

Favourite book and why?

Will: Motley Crue’s ‘The Dirt’. It is amazing. I urge you to read it! There is something shocking/dis-gusting/awesome/tragic on every page. And ‘Mind Magic’ by Marc Lemezma is pretty ace - you can never do enough magic tricks to impress the ladies.

Justin: I pretty much like reading about other peo-ple’s lives or I don’t mind a messed up book like Ameri-can Psycho. Favourite film and why?

Will: This is too hard to an-swer! Anything with Arnold Schwarzenegger! Especially Predator. Because it is bad ass. That’s why. Oh and The Sixth Sense is amazing. And Slumdog - I love that film, it’ll make you cry.

Justin: I love films far too much, especially hor-ror films. If I have to pick I would have to go with 28 Days Later or all the Evil Dead films. My brother just got me a great film called Killer Clowns from Outer Space. It’s brilliant!

Best experience in the business?

Will: Playing live when peo-ple get into it as much as us, and when people talk to us after a gig. Justin: I have a few great experiences so far but get-ting to record in some fan-tastic studios like Sawmills is pretty special and being able to hang out with idols I grew up with like Hundred Reasons, FFAF and Hell is for Heroes is also up there, but like Will I really think the best thing about trying to make it in this business is when people come and chat to you after a show and let you know they think what your doing is cool – this makes it all worthwhile.

Tell our readers an inter-esting fact about yourself/company/band?

Will: I’ve got 8 fingers on my left hand which is how I reach the high notes -

this is because I grew up near a power station. Just kidding. I peed in a glass in Justin’s wardrobe the first time I went round his house. I don’t know if that is an interesting fact or a confession.

Best thing about playing in Wales?

Will & Justin: The thing about the Welsh music scene is that it’s just goddamn quality. You have so many great bands coming out of there right now. I can definitely say Full Scream Ahead have been influenced by bands like Kids in glass Hous-es, The Blackout and Straight Lines. Also Welsh people are ace, or should we say tidy.

Who are your role models/idols?

Will: My friends and family I guess.

Justin: My mum. Sadly she’s not here anymore but she was a cool lady.

Hardest thing about the cur-rent business?

Will & Justin: Trying to find people to take a chance in you..

FULL SCrEAM AHEAD

‘we write Our Own Anthems’9/10

I am always amazed at the amount of quality unsigned acts around in the UK at the moment and Full Scream Ahead

are no exception. ‘We Write Our Own Anthems’ is the 4 piece, Bristol based band’s debut mini-album, and

is 6 tracks of enormous sounding, well written rock. ‘To Be You’ kicks off the

EP and gives you a good idea of what FSA are about, a refreshing song with

a bulky chorus. Next up ‘Heart Still Beating’ is a monster of a track, a real

winner, singer Justin Percival deliv-ers killer vocals, which really makes the song. Along with their grand ar-rangements and sound, it’s one you

want to listen to again and again and again and... well, if that wasn’t good enough already, ‘As Good As It Gets’

is another colossal tune to which we fi-nally end with the final blow of a tune

‘Stealing Of A Nation’. The band have a really ambitious sound and it works

very well for them. Memorable cho-ruses and just all round great musi-

cianship combined with a vocalist with a hell of a voice that makes this band

definitely one to watch out for.

QUICK rEvIEw

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words: Anneka Sillitoe

soundscape 28

For as long as I can re-member musicians have

moaned about the industry and major labels and some of bullshit they spin. But lately it seems ridiculous! Musicians both big and small have been speaking about how the industry is changing for the worse and how bad they have been treated by the big guns. One big musician recently told me that they’re having to take matters into their own hands regarding ar-ranging touring and album production.

so we put it to the audi-ence, are the new bands re-ally doing something new, or are record executives selling some dumbed down bullshit that’s the same as the next? are they signing pretty guys to make the 14 year olds buy the record and cutting their losses with one demographic? or am I simply too old to enjoy good music now?

We here at soundscape Magazine have decided to call in the big guns. We’ve brought together some of

Wales finest bands and we’re staging a Rock Re-volt. Accident Music, Exit International and All The Damn Vampires.

These 3 bands are being shunned by the bigger mag-azines in favour of machine made rubbish and haircuts! So we got them all together in one space and let them argue amongst themselves about how they think the industry has started to go so down hill and what they wanna see in the future.

Accident Music (www.myspace.com/listentoaccidentmusic) are everything these maga-

zines say these other bands are but for real! They’re music is different. The guitar riffs are

genuine, the hooks are there. The lyrics are not just bullshit about someone who pissed

you off years ago and that you’re still holding a grudge against. Featuring ex-members

of several bands, including the almighty Lostprophets (Yes you bloody read that right! If

you’re old enough to remember Lostprophets when they had their old drummer. I’m talk-

ing about the man himself, Mike Chiplin) and Midasuno (Another quality welsh band; on

the scene circa 2000-2008). The members of Accident Music have been around on the

music scene collectively longer than I’ve probably been alive, so they know their stuff!

Exit International (www.myspace.com/exitinternationalmusic) are everything the maga-

zines say a band shouldn’t be. They’re missing the ‘one key ingredient to make a band’.

A guitar. But that doesn’t matter because the sound they get from just two bass guitars

and a set of drums could literally piss all over the sound some bands get with 6 musi-

cians. Again, band members were in former bands (namely Midasuno) and have seen

the music industry delivering their blows way below the belt.

And finally, but by no means least All The Damn Vampires (www.myspace.com/allthe-

damnvampiresband). They’ve got a strong driving force and an element of garage rock to

it. There’s no other bands that have the feel of playing in their garage to a group of hard-

core fans. Members of this band have been on the scene as long as the others.

Lately we see the same sounding and looking bands all over the media and is it that they’re good or is it just that they sell?

Scott: There’s not a scene unless you turn something into a scene. It depends on people’s tastes.Everyone that’s standing round here now is in the fringe of be-ing in a scene. And whether you wanna be in that scene or not is not the point. To be honest I am so out of the fucking loop, I only find out about good music because I use ‘My recommenda-tion’ on amazon.co.uk and take the dive! I have an awareness of modern contemporary ‘Rock’ music but as 80% of my musical tastes never escaped the 90s I do not think I am qualified to give a fuck.Matt: A lot of it is that they just sell, it’s what kids want to hear and look like and what is defined as cool and the reason that the kids think it’s cool is because of the industry shoving it down everybody’s throats in magazines, on T.V and on endless tours that seem to be aimed straight for the wallet.Chris: I think its a bit of both re-ally, bands are products, and are marketed in that way. Of course, some bands are good at it, oth-ers are just good at doing what the first band did.Adam: Firstly, you don’t have to be a particularly good musician to make it in a band these days. You need to be marketable and pushed in the right way by the

right people. That’s not taking any credit from any band in the industry at all. They do what they do and fair play to them for it. Music is for fans, not for critics. Some bands are not everyone’s cup of tea, but if enough people like your band then you’ve clearly done something right, so fair play to them.

Is this something that’s oc-curred in the past or is it a new phenomenon?

Fudge: It’s always been there.Gav: It’s just a circle that never ends. You had the 80s where everyone wanted to be Slash. The you had the early 90s where everyone wanted to be grunge. Then you had the late 90s where everyone wanted to be nu-metal. Then the 2000s everyone wants to be Welsh. Scott: They’ve opened the door for us. It’s just we’re in a better position because we’re on the edge of what Welsh bands are capable of. We are not just a dedicated bunch of bands to a scene. We’re all very dedicated to what we want to do and that’s all we need.

Gav: It doesn’t seem that any bands wanna be part of a scene, it just happens. Particularly with the people who started the scene.Scott: What is a scene?Gav: Yeah exactly! People throw people’s names around say-ing “oh they’re part of a scene” and it’s yeah cause they fucking started it.Chip: You have to start your own scene.Gav: Exactly!Scott: It’s such a long-winded idea to discuss - you have factors that stretch back to the boom in popular music becoming an in-tegral in culture in general. More so these days because every fucker is in a band. Sometimes people who have fuck all to do with music seem to have the most profound things to say.Matt: It’s a constant revolving cycle and I don’t think it will ever change. In the 80’s it was hair metal and a million bands look-ing and sounding the same. The 90’s was grunge, then nu metal, now it’s ‘emo’ but during all the fads you always have a select few bands that just kind of mill around on the cusp and do their own thing and 9 times out of 10 these are the bands that last for years and years.

Chris: I think its always hap-pened, its just usually the bands that follow are pretty good too. It was only a few years ago when it looked like Bloc Party were going to kick off huge, then everyone was running around looking for the next Bloc Party, so you had a wave of dogshit indie bands flooding the airwaves until every-one had a gutsful, and started listening to Fall Out Boy, and the whole cycle started again. Supply and demand, rinse and repeat as necessary! (laughs)

Is it annoying being on the outside of all the hyped up bullshit bands and not get-ting the coverage that good music deserves?

Scott: no it’s brilliant. It’s what makes everything exciting about every gig. Because as soon as it doesn’t get exciting, I can imagine you start taking liber-ties with things, realistically and then everything becomes fucking mundane. So it’s nice to be the fact that every gig you play you wonder whether the next thing you do is actually going to be something that’s going to mount to something.Chris: It is annoying, but you sort of live in the hope that when it does finally get put to bed, people will want something dif-ferent, so then its up to bands to stick to their guns and be there for the bored.

Matt: There’s quite a lot of cool bands in South Wales and it kinda feels like we’re starting our own kinda scene.Scott: We are a new band, we are yet to stretch our glorious du-el-bassed wings. We can accept people’s initial head-scratching when they become aware of us, but it is only our job to make their lives a little bit more exciting. If you say ‘I haven’t heard a decent band in ages’ then you need to get your head out of your arse. The internet now allows anyone with a bit of common sense to search and discover new music. This creates an interesting point. If you think most of the music you hear about is shit, then stop buy-ing the magazines, stop listening to the radio and do some dig-ging for your own personal love of what music means to you. Adam: “good music” means dif-ferent things to different people. If you’re willing to write music to get famous then you’re on a slow boat to China. But if enough people happen to like your music then you’ll get coverage. We’re not one of those bands who are gonna slate other bands who “slip through the net”. So in answer to your question. no, it’s not annoying, if your going to complain about not getting coverage then you’re in it for the wrong reasons. Matt: As above it’s a system that’s never gonna change but i don’t find it annoying as for all the wannabe band wagon jump-ers there’s still people out there that see straight through that and

have a passion for music in it’s rawest most passionate form and personally i would rather have 50 people at a show that are there for musics sake than 2000 people out to look for the newest trends and coolest haircuts.Andrew: Its quite gratifying! I’d be more annoyed if we were considered a “hyped up bullshit bands”.

Is rock being aimed at a younger audience these days? Are we simply all too old in the industry’s eyes to enjoy good music?

Chris: not at all. Its all circum-stantial, a lot of bands do appeal to a younger audience, we all have guilty pleasures that we lis-tened to when we were younger and have grown out of (or claim to have grown out of), but that doesn’t mean we don’t appreci-ate slightly better music now. I think the industry are just market-ing certain bands at a younger audience to try and sell more records and milk the cash cow before everyone realises its shit and discovers Springsteens back catalogue. (cont)

soundscape 31

Gav: I think as you get older you just get more fucking picky about what shows you can be bothered to go to.Fudge: Volume and wattage transcends all age. Your missus has had a hard day at work, you can’t go out. You gotta pay the gas bill, you can’t go out. You gotta figure out what you want to go to. I suppose that makes it better in a way because you don’t go see all the shit. You only go see the bands you want to see.Gav: That’s it. When you’re younger, you’re like “oh there’s a band playing down there, I’ll go watch them. I don’t care what they sound like”.Stix: You’re not really there to lis-ten to the music, you’re just there to get pissed.Fudge: So the older listener I think, is the person I’d like to play to because the person is actually there not just for the fucking £1 drinks. They’re the person that’s there to be a proper listener.Stix: Which is few and far be-tween if we’re honest.Fudge: But if you play the right shows. Say there’s a room full of 60/70 people hopefully 20% are there to hear you. Job fuck-ing done. And I think we can all agree, just playing to those 20 people is well worth everything. Every second of rehearsing, every second of writing of the songs.Matt: I think fashion plays a big part in music this days than when we were the age of these kids.

Gav: But at the same time, we were watching bands that didn’t have a fashion. So we didn’t have a fashion.Matt: There are just so many ways to get trends and hypes out to kids these days and the industry are not stupid and know exactly what they are doing. When we were younger there was one or two rock mags to read and you had to stay up ‘til 2 in the morning to watch videos on Superock or Headbangers Ball so live music and gigs then were the greatest because they were few and far between but now kids are spoilt for choice.Andrew: Rock music is there for anyone of any age to enjoy. Throw away rock bands are be-ing marketed to younger audi-ences on the basis that they sell and have a shelf life of around 2 to 3 years, the majority of the younger audience has grown up in a throwaway culture. They consume they move on, its all they know, its not their fault, I blame society.

It seems tours lately keep be-ing supported by bands who are quite capable of doing their own tours really well. Does it annoy you that the industry are making some bands keep taking out well off or even the same bands repeatedly rather than help-ing out anyone new?

Stix: You do take your mates out on tour and that’s the way it goes.

Chip: new bands are only killed by the media because the media follow the same bands and then if bands are taking friends bands out that they’ve maybe had out before, then it’s the media’s fault for following that one band and the supports, just more cover-age because they’re friends. But if they’re gonna bring them out, then that’s fine.Scott: There’s certain bands that the media subscribe to and if you don’t fall into that camp, you’re going to struggle.Gav: If you’re friends with that band then you take them on that tour, regardless. You’d rather take your mates band out, who aren’t particularly great then someone you don’t know who aren’t par-ticularly great. You’re gonna pick your mate all the time. It’s better than having the “next-big-thing” that’s bought onto your tour and you’re stuck with them. You got to do all these dates, so you’ve got to be friends with them. It’s for the best I think.Fudge: This is a financial ques-tion. It has to do with agencies. People at large booking agencies do not give a fuck if the same bands are touring with each other every day of the year, as long as they make the money then they’re happy. Again, if someone takes a chance and it bombs, hello dole office.

soundscape 32

Chris: Depends how you look at it really. Locally, valleys mental-ity is always a a bit “jobs for the boys”, in all industry’s, music, plumbing, rugby, school football team, all based on favours and friendships. On a bigger scale, nationally, similar bands on a bill usually result in happier custom-ers. If someones paid, i don’t know, £18 quid to go see Mast-odon, chances are if they see 3 other bands that sound like, look like, and are on the same label / friends of Mastodon, they’ll have an awesome night, and end up paying £20 to see the same lineup next time. If they turned up and saw support from Scott Mat-thews, gogol Bordello and that crazy fella with a kazoo taped to a banjo effort from youtube, they’ve had a shit night and want a refund. Eventually though, people will want a bit of diversity on a bands line up and get fed up of paying to see the same bands over and over again. If i saw the same support band every time i’d seen the ‘Manics i’d have probably murdered someone by now!

with the music industry changing so much in the last few years with down-loads, how has it affected you guys? Are their ways to remedy the problem of peo-ple not getting to hear or see what they should be?

Chris: Bands on labels don’t make their money from being on labels anymore. They make

their money from playing live. no ones buying records anymore. They’re not paying to download stuff anymore. People have got to start buying stuff again else the music industry is gonna change for life. nobody’s interested in going to gigs anymore. Tonight, everyone who came to see the bands, was with the bands. That’s how most venues are if you get that many people in them. usu-ally you play to a man, his dog and the bar staff and they’re not too particularly keen either.Matt: I think the most impor-tant thing to do is to stick to your guns and your beliefs and hope that there are enough like minded people out there that still think that honest, raw music with integrity is worth checking out and fighting for. Bands like The Bronx, Cancer Bats, even Biffy Clyro have all done things the old fashioned ‘hard’ way and all these bands will be around long after the next big thing hits and I really hope that there’s a place there too for us.Andrew: The industry is the in-dustry, nothing stands in the way of revolution. Downloads should be regulated fairly for both the artist, labels and the consumer.Fudge: Its an exciting time. peo-ple are trying new things, record labels are going to be a thing of the past. Bands are always going to create. The playing field will be levelled, and innovative and talented bands and musicians will have their time in the sun. Its affected us in terms of having to learn and constantly keep up with

changes in how the industry is working. There is no formula any-more, we are in a suck it and see situation. You can pretty much do what you want, hell, it might even work! Forget everything you knew about the industry, its funny to watch the major labels grasp-ing at straws, trying anything to keep control. They are dead in the water.Chris: Downloads are a double edged sword. It has opened up a world of opportunity for unsigned bands, allowing your music to get heard, and become chart eligible, which were ideas far above our stations when we were knocking about in bands 9 or 10 years ago, when the only access we had to downloads were napster downloading half a song in 7 hours, If you were lucky enough to even have the internet. Then the ugly blade on the other side rears its head for bands at a higher level, who are solely relying on gig fees and merch sales for any source of income as their musics being pirated around isohunt and people want something for nothing. There will always be people who like having something they can touch, that they can see, and read the linear notes and check for spelling errors to see if their copies rare etc. But then there will always be people who want something for nothing and wont see the dam-age that illegally downloading an albums discography and copying it for their mates will have on the industry..

Lostprophets ‘The Betrayed’ 8/10

Most bands release a fourth album within probably the first 5 years of their career but Lostprophets have al-ways done things a little differently. It took four years to write and record this album, including an entire scrapping of a whole record in the middle. They prom-ised it’d be darker, heavier and more personal. So does it live up to these sug-gestions? Well, somewhat. Is it darker? Than the last album, yes. There are few tracks where the ever uplift-ing theme Lostprophets tend to lean towards are there but overall there’s a bit of a “please fuck off and leave me alone” theme to it.

Is it heavier? Than the last album, yes. But then again this was never going to be hard. Liberation Transmis-sion was softer than a fuck-ing fairy cake (excluding perhaps 2 songs). There are some gnarly guitar riffs and bass hooks, and the feel of a few tracks is literally a swift kick to ones metaphorical nuts!

Is it more personal? That, I think is a no. To me almost all Lostprophets tracks are somewhat personal and draw on an actual experi-ence. The difference this time is instead of being an optimist with the cup half full, the cup is half empty and it’s maybe a little bit easier to relate to (because let’s face it nobody is happy 24/7). So to the sound at hand, it seems to be some sort of stepping ground between Liberation Trans-mission and whatever beast we can expect to hear next time around. There’s a track or two that seem to have been written more after the finish of LT (Streets of no-where and For He’s a Jolly

good Felon) and then some damned right heavy crea-tures (Dstryr/Dstryr and next Stop Atro City).

It’s a nice mix between what Lostprophets have always been really good at and what they managed to achieve mainstream success with. And it’s not that it’s so drastically different, but they even said themselves that the last album would be more pop and that it was. There are some songs that you definitely find yourself humming days later and it’s songs like that that give this band their staying power. It’s a good album for a first self-produced effort, I look forward to seeing only fur-ther improvements on any other self-produced releases. A.Sillitoe

Story Of The Year‘The Constant’ 8/10

I’m a little embarrassed to say I had never listened to Story Of The Year until I saw a video of theirs on at the Hard Rock Cafe.

CD Reviews

I really liked the song so vowed to check the band out. This is the band’s fourth album and I have to say it’s pretty damn good, the band have a solid rock sound, hard sounding guitars, strong vocals and extensive choruses all used to good effect, especially on open-ers ‘The Children Sing’ and ‘The ghost Of You And I’. The album then cycles from the more melodic tracks to the heavier, almost post-hardcore sounding tunes, with a couple of slower numbers thrown in for good measure too. You only have to check out the piano led ‘Holding Onto You’ for a great example of how the band convincingly slows it down. Right, I’m off to check out the rest of the bands albums as you should too. P. Esp

Go-X ‘Postal EP’ 5/10

Here’s a name i’ve heard around the block before and one i’ve also witnessed be-fore the ‘hype’, back when they consisted of a squeaky voice, a mix of sketchy styles and playing to adults who quite frankly, didn’t care. Bring it forward a few years and an obviously generically produced EP later, go-X are somehow still here. The EP feels stripped down, in a good and bad way, good that they’ve found a sound they can stick with unlike before, bad that it’s noth-ing intriguing. The guitars sound the same, along with the tedious and repetitive vocal melodies on each track. Either the band died creatively or the big man is

telling them what to do and getting it wrong. Although, we have to bear in mind that go-X are still ‘young’ within the music industry, which means they still have a lot to learn and work from, or per-haps they adore and intend to continue playing to kids who have no idea what real music is. N.Ballantyne

Hadouken ‘For The Masses’ 6/10

So, Hadouken are back with a new album, does anybody care? Well the kids do of course, as they’re the only ones left to target with a hit single these days, and with the down tuned, relaxed style of lyrics they spit out. (cont)

soundscape 35

It’s no wonder that the younger generation are the only ones who can tolerate Hadouken. With the obvious exceptions of tracks ‘M.A.D’ and ‘The The Lights Out’ being the stronger and stand out tunes of the album, that will for obvious and generic reasons be shoved down our faces as singles, they still feel like they’re lacking that spark that first threw them out into the world as Hadouken! There’s nothing wrong with those tracks, but they’re no way near what Hadouken could produce. Even to listeners who toler-ate the more diverse and grime/electronica side, it’s still, to put it simply, boring and by the end of the album you’re pretty much sick of hearing the singers voice in the same monotone beat, and glad they ended on long instrumental outro.N.Ballantyne

The rocket Summer‘Of Men And Angels’ 7/10

The Rocket Summer aka Bryce Avery is an insanely talented man. He writes, produces and plays every instrument on his fourth al-bum, as he has done with everything else he’s ever re-leased. An amazing achieve-ment when you consider just how good it actually is. The music is pop/rock in it’s purest form, full of hooks, melodies and soaring cho-ruses and is none the worse for this. The songs are well played, well written and full of uplifting lyrics. Some of the songs can be quite hard hitting, such as ‘You gotta Believe’ and ‘Hey!’ which have some tasty gui-tar riffs and a fairly speedy tempo, but these are nicely balanced with some of the piano led ballads such as ‘Let You go’ and ‘Walls’.

My only complaint is that this is a long album, al-though only 15 tracks long, it gets a little repetitive. It could have been trimmed by a couple of tracks with no loss in the quality of the whole album at all. If you’re a fan of quality pop/rock, power pop, or whatever the hell you kids are calling it these days then you could do no wrong in checking The Rocket Summer out. Just

make sure you have some time to waste before picking up this album. P.Esp

Caesars rome ‘The Company we Keep’7/10

I first saw Caesars Rome in 2008 and described them as “markedly Welsh, clever, energetic and brilliant”. How much has changed since then with the release of their debut album ‘The Company We Keep’? A lot – and in a good way. The album takes the raw power of their early songs and refines them into perfected new tracks. Dis-playing a clearly nautical theme (including a Morse code cover) every one of each song’s elements is an audible sucker punch – from the pure yet blistering voice and the scything then sooth-ing lyrics (“I’ll start living my life/When you stop tell-ing me how to” and “We’re travelling/We’re transient”)

to the complex high-end drums and reverberating guitar strains. newer songs like ‘Let’s Wish’ are emo-tionally epic whilst songs like ‘Oceans’ are reminiscent of the slower songs of bands like Paramore. The down-side of getting that perfected balance is that the melo-dies and rhythms blend into one throughout. Thankfully there are a few deviations to calmer lines in the latter half of the album. There’s the rock ballad ‘Kicking Down Castles’ and the fantastic‘goodbye Country Road’ – which is probably the best track on the album next to ‘Finding Waves’ - a masterpiece that combines metal breakdowns with allu-sions to the endlessness of post-rock. What really stands out is the ability to listen to the whole album without skipping a track – and that’s a rarity in the mp3 age. Bru-tally heart-wrenching music throughout and ‘O’Captain’ (which is yet another sea-faring reference) ends the album in a fittingly beautiful finale. Ed Townend

Buckcherry‘Live & Loud’ 8/10

Hands up who likes live al-bums... nah, me neither, but when the band are as good live and have as much great material as Buckcherry do, you can forgive then. This is a live album, as the name suggests, recorded in Can-ada on the bands latest tour and covers material from all the bands 4 albums, the 2 pre-breakup and the 2 latest ones ‘15’ and ‘Black But-terfly’, the latter two is where the bulk of this albums songs are from and thats ok with me. The album kicks off with 1-2 punch of ‘Tired of You’ and ‘next 2 You’ and the band sound pretty good, singer Josh Todd sounds fan-bloody-tastic and nails the songs perfectly.

What follows is 13 tracks of kick ass rock n’ roll, in-cluding all the band favou-rites like ‘Ridin’ and ‘Talk To Me’ and a smashing version of breakthrough single ‘Lit up’. It’s not all fast and furi-ous though, the band slip in slower number’s like ‘Rose’, ‘Sorry’ and ‘Everything’. The album finishes with an 8 minute version of arguably the band’s best known track ‘Crazy Bitch’, an expletive filled ode to women every-

where. I’m not sure if this would appeal to non-fans as much, but if you are a fan it might be worth the pennies.P.Esp

The Dear and Departed‘Chapters EP’ 10/10

This EP was a grower and not quite what I expected from a band from Cali-fornia. The band, led by singer Dan under (aka Dan Smith, yes tattoo fans, that is Dan Smith from LA Ink). They’ve acquired quite a unique sound, a very Eng-lish sound. Its very dark, gothic, sweeping and utterly compelling. Lead track ‘Mat-ter Of Time’ is stunning, in fact, an almost perfect song. And although I hate to com-pare bands to other bands, ‘Tambourine Love’ is prob-ably the best song The Cure never wrote, a zcompelling track with a impeccable chorus. The band are tour-ing the states at the moment with Alkaline Trio and will be in the uK in April as support to AFI and I, for one, cant wait. P.Esp

Top Ten Soundtracksby Eifion Jones

Often people ask what makes a

good film soundtrack. Some may

argue it’s only good if it’s specifically

chosen for the film e.g John Williams

- Star Wars, Indiana Jones etc. Some

people will say that it’s songs that go

hand in hand with the visual element

of the film e.g Quentin Tarantino using

Stealer’s Wheel during the infamous

torture scene in Reservoir Dogs. And

the last category will find people say-

ing it’s songs that perfectly suit the

atmosphere and era located in the

film e.g anywhere from the loveably

bad eighties soundtrack of the Break-

fast Club to the captivating use of era

specific music movements found in

Human Traffic.

My list of what I believe to be the

top ten soundtracks will hopefully do

two things. One, is that it will encom-

pass all of these beliefs and will mean

the list includes examples of different

kinds of soundtracks. The other is that

people will ultimately disagree, and

tell me i’m wrong. Or stupid. Or both.

Kicking in at last place is Peter Jacksons three piece masterpiece, which gave new Zealand a place on the map. Admittedly a hotspot for nerds like myself, but a place

nonetheless. An example of a composer working specifically for a film, this film has arguably one of the best originally composed scores to a film ever. It moves from dulcet tones to accompany the lush green images of

the Shire, before moving on to the booming horns and percussion which accompany the beautifully shot battle scenes. Howard Shore is no stranger to film as he has worked on nearly all of David Cronenberg’s films, and other big films such as Phila-delphia and Se7en. His ability to manipulate the orchestra to suit the needs of the scenes so delicately but precisely is what I believe makes this soundtrack in particular stand out.

10. Lord Of The Rings

9. Ghost In The ShellAs well as being my favourite Anime’ film, it also has my favourite Anime soundtrack. Katsuhiro Otomo’s stunningly animated

1995 masterpiece, had a soundtrack to go with it that perfectly captured the technological future it portrayed. The introduction in particular captures what i feel to be the very essence of the film.

The use of the slightly eerie choral music ( “Making Of Cyborg” by Kenji Kawai) and the breathtak-ing animation of the birth of a cyborg conveys the films message which is the dangers that go with new

technology, and the philosophical mind fucks that go with it. It would prove to be a massively influential introduction as the Matrix stole it just four years later.

8. AmelieAlbeit being a huge flop

at the prestigious cannes

film festival, this absorbing

existential tale of a french

misfit named Amelie and the

characters she engages with (in

particular the peculiar ) has a

soundtrack that, amazingly, suits

it’d idiosyncratic French vibe.

Just as the film tries to retain

a certain sense of French-ness

to it, whilst also telling the

story of Amelie, and pondering

her curious ideas and habits

(In particular pretending her

bedside furniture are her friends)

the soundtrack (composed by

Yann Tiersen) draws you in with

its curious piano and accordion

driven music. Although previous-

ly considering Michael nyman to

compose the score, the direc-

tor Jean-Pierre Jeunet found

Tiersen’s music by chance, and

after purchasing his back cata-

logue, asked him to compose

original pieces for his film. The

music always makes sure that we

know that this is both a French

film (It’s characters, it’s mont-

martre based setting etc.) and

that it is a unique film about a

very idiosyncratic character, and

Yann Tiersen makes a brilliant

job at retaining this atmosphere

throughout the film.

7. Jackie BrownBy far the best Quentin Tarantino

film, as he eases off the “ I love films” attitude and the “Wow

doesn’t everybody talk like me universe”, this film’s soundtrack was obviously carefully chosen

to resemble those of the fa-mous Blaxploitation films in 70’s America (A famous example be-

ing Shaft.) His story of a powerful,

but troubled black woman in her

40’s, a paranoid gun peddler, a

tired drug abusing ex-convict and

a down and out bondsman is ac-

companied by a soundtrack com-

prising primarily of soul and funk

music featuring the works of artists

like Bobby Womack, The Delfon-

ics and The Brothers Johnson. The

introduction in particular using

specific shots to show a dominant

or authoritative character ac-

companied with Bobby Womack’s

“Across 110th Street” really sets

us up for the character Pam grier

will be portraying, as well as let-

ting us know that this is first, and

foremost a blaxploitation movie.

And remember the famous quote

:- “Ahh the Ak-47, When you have

positively, absolutely got to kill

every mo’fucker in the room”

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6. Blade Runner

So You’ve all heard of Ridley Scott in one way or another, im guessing? Feminsits have got Thelma and Louise, the soul destroying atrocity about two woman blah blah. Men, you have gladiator or Black Hawk Down. What do people like me have? His best films, Blade Runner and Alien. now, while Alien is definitely the better film, Blade Runner undoubtedly has the better soundtrack. A big fan of electronic music anew, Vangelis were asked to compose the score for this sci-fi noir centred round Harrison Ford’s character Rick Deckard and his involvement from the new threat that comes with Repli-cants (Cyborgs) seeking revenge. The eerie electronic music compliments the neo-cityscape setting that Scott creates nicely, and always gives us the vibe of neo-noir atmosphere that he’s trying to create. The film, admittedly, is not for every-one, but I think everyone should at least hear “Rachel’s song” as it’s a brilliant a piece of film music. Vangelis should be heralded to their dying days for this soundtrack.

5. Ghost Dog

I heard of this film when my brother mentioned it a long time ago. It then crept back into my attention when I started taking film seriously. After watching it twice in one night for the first time, i instantly regretted not watching it sooner. Easily being one of my favourite films, and truly an ode to American independent cinema, this tale of a young black urban samurai who gets involved with the mafia and the complications that come with obedience and honour, has

both a beautiful and well chosen soundtrack. Jarmusch is a man who knows his music, as shown by him asking neil Young to deliver the mesmerising and hypnotic soundtrack to Dead Man (Probably number eleven in the list.) He uses a number of genres to help him deliver the message of the film, but he par-ticularly uses the music of the hip-hop group RZA who help create a stunning introduction to the film. But, an equally memorable part is ghost Dog stealing a car and turning on the radio to hear “Armagideon Time” by Willie Wallace, and the nod of surprised approval

that ghost Dog gives to hear-ing it. The soundtrack is chosen

to help remind us that though this may be a timeless tale of revenge and obedi-ence, this is in a modern setting, particularly involving both the ghetto and black culture. Though I have searched youtube endlessly I can’t find the introduction but it is a must see. The swooping camera over an empty waste-land of a city, accompanied by the intercuts of birds circling the city with the calm hip-hop beat that accompanies make for what is my second favourite introduction to a film.

4. Blue VelvetPowerful. Disturbing. Thought Provoking. Beautiful. Words can not describe Lynch’s masterpiece enough. Shocking and drawing in audiences, the tale of sexual repression, human curiosity, and the extreme violence that can be found underneath American culture has both excellent music in it and also superb uses of contrapuntal sound in it. For anyone who doesn’t know what contrapuntal is, it is the use of music that almost contradicts the scene thats being displayed. For example someone using happy, vibrant music in a grim torture or murder scene, or disturbing, eerie music with warm imagery. It is used to create a feeling of madness, or repressed anxieties, depression etc. The use of it i find truly mesmerising in this film, is when the main character ( Jeffrey Beaumont, played by the amazing Kyle Mclachlan) has been brought to the house where Dorothy Vallens’s child is being held captive by the truly

horrible Frank and his thuggish associates. Here, one of his friends begins to sing “In Dreams” by Roy Orbison, and at the same time Kyle Maclachlan is being abused violently and Frank is having a nervous breakdown, and the overall message being conveyed is one of repressed sexual feelings, violence and the lack of love in Franks life. It is an absolutely impeccable film, from my favourite director, and there should be shame on everyone who hasn’t seen it. Also the use of the famous “Blue Velvet” by Bobby Vinton during the introduction of the pleasant, small mid-American town is also superb, and is possibly another use of contrapuntal sound given the way the scene ends (no spoilers here i’m afraid folks, watch the film already!)

3. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Wow. That was the one word that crossed my mind when i watched this film for

the first time. Funny, brutal and memorable the slow camera work, dragging

tracking shots and infamous mexican stand offs make for what is unarguably the

finest western ever made. From brilliant director Sergio Leone came a film that

honestly made me want to be a cowboy. Honestly, not a lame one like you see

half assedly-walking round a ranch whipping the odd horse, i mean full on

rampaging through the deserts not taking shit from any local who gets in

my way. That aside, we’re on to the music, after all this is about the music

not my latent wishes of wearing a poncho and being responsible for mass onslaught.

It is wonderful. Absolutely wonderful, Enrico Morricone is perhaps my second favourite composer who’s

worked in film (the first coming on later in the article.) He uses a variety of vocal techniques, guitars and

other instruments to create a wonderfully south american esque melodic symphony almost, that ties in the

story and the setting perfectly. Whether the camera is sweeping over the lush plains of America, with our

characters speeding through them on horseback, or the itchy trigger fingers dying to be the first to squeeze the

trigger, the music suits all occasions. And to any of you who claim you have nerve whistled the theme tune when

you were playing hide and seek or some other game, you’re lying. You are actually lying. But on a more serious

note, watch this film, buy the soundtrack and then watch the last scene over and over again because Kill Bill may

have stolen it, but by god it hasn’t bested it. Sheer wonderfulness.

2. This Is EnglandThis may become biased as the next two films that follow are

probably my two favourite films, but the fact the soundtracks are

amazing add to my overall love of both films. So here we have

the tale of a young boy, saddened by the death of his father and

annoyed at his being bullied, who gets welcomed in by a group of

skinheads he meets by chance. Events

then turn sour, as the ex-convict Combo

reenters the group with his love for the

far-right and the racism that comes with

it. The young boy, Shaun, then has to

decide whether he follows Combo or

not. Set in 1983 the soundtrack from

the very start brings us music that is so

reminiscent of the eighties you’ll leave

the film thinking you WERE in 1983.

Kicking things off with a top notch

montage of events found in the eighties

media and “54-46 was my number”

by Toots And The Maytals playing, the

entire theme of the film is made clear to

us. The experiences of prison and the

skinhead movement’s culture changing

from one of mixed culture and reggae

to one of hardcore punk and white

supremacy. Throughout the film, there are moments of sheer beauty that are accompanied with music by Ludovcio

Einaudi, particularly when Shaun spends the day buying a slingshot and eating

his favourite sweets (The fried eggs are amazing, they’re frisking huge!) His mu-

sic always makes a powerful statement when Shaun is finally sick of England’s

state as a country and takes the flag he so proudly presented in his bedroom and casts it to the ocean, perhaps displaying a want for the events that have unfolded just to wash away from his memory. This is an important piece of british film-mak-

ing and perhaps one of the best, and Shane Meadows really knew what he was doing, as a man who live through similar

experiences, when he chose the music for the film. Practically faultless, except

for Strawberry Switchblade, who i’m just not a fan of. So that’s a bit of a crap

argument. Still.

1. Mulholland DriveFor people who have seen this, and

like so many haven’t had the patience to watch it again, you will sigh. Then you’ll remember the immense confu-sion and bewilderment you felt when

you watched this. The dark eerie events that seemingly made no sense,

but they did. The character you met that you thought meant nothing, but

they were. The ending which seemed to contradict everything before it, but

it was necessary. And to you I say, isn’t it brilliant? Yes, this is my favou-rite film ever made, no holds barred.

It is two hours of brilliant direction, superb editing, unrivalled acting and

above all else a great soundtrack that fits nicely in with the convoluted

jigsaw that is Mulholland Drive. What is it about? A woman who meets and Amnesiac who meets a lot of strange

characters, dark things happen, good things happen and then Club Silencio

happens… and it all changes. not very interesting? That’s because it

could take hours to fully explain the depth and relevance of the entire plot. But, on to the music. Angelo Badala-menti, who IS my favourite composer working in film, is David Lynch’s right

hand man, making music for all of his films in one way or another, and do-

ing what is his best work besides Twin Peaks on this film (Seriously Twin Peaks is amazing, watch it for the music it is actually sublime.) What Angelo Bada-

lamenti does is as Lynch is weaving the complexity of the multiple narra-

tives, so to is Badalamenti working to weave together a dark tapestry

of dark sounds and haunting music, particularly when the director goes to meet with the cowboy late at night on the mountain. It’s hard to explain just

how well it works unless you watch the film itself, as it does that which a soundtrack above all else should do

- it works side by side with the visuals to give the audience a truly disturbing experience. If there’s one thing i can’t stand it’s the introduction of metal to

horror films. Don’t get me wrong, i am a massive fan of metal and all it’s sub genre’s. It is the music of my life. But it doesn’t go well in horror films. It gives

it this violent sadistic edge that just doesn’t feel right. I want good music

for a horror film, not music i necessar-ily know. not by the way, that this is a horror film. This is above all genre’s

but it does have dark and creepy mo-ments that should scare and haunt the

people watching, given that they are following the film and not idly watch-

ing. You cannot idly watch or listen whilst watching this film. You have to take it all in, every sound, every im-

age, and do what i did. Press re-wind and watch it all over again.

The Five Points studio isn’t like any other, forget the Ikea furniture and minimal look. This place is packed full of inspiration and downright warmth and friendliness. We headed down to Five Points Tattoo Studio in Barry to pick the brains of Chloe Black.

How did you first get into tattooing?

Chloe: My partner was talking about it and he was like “you can draw can’t you?” I was like “yeah, but I haven’t drawn in years and years”. And he requested that I draw up tattoo designs. So I just thought if I can draw the designs and I can learn how to use the equipment, then maybe I could learn how to tattoo as well. It was kinda implanted in my head and just kinda grew ands grew. I thought that’s it.

When and why did you decide to get your own place?

Chloe: We were working for another tattoo-ist and we (gavin Evans) both left at the same time. But we wanted to stick together because we were similar in the way that we started out and so we felt like a stronger front sticking together. So instead of going our separate ways and finding jobs in dif-ferent studios, we thought what the hell?

The Five Points Tattoo Studio

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words: A

nneka Sillitoe

Photos: N.Ballantyne

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We put our heart and soul into it and we just thought if we can really have our own studio and stick together, then it would be better for us. That was back in August, ever since we’ve just been getting stronger and stron-ger. We never thought we’d get stuff like this so soon.

What advice would give to anyone looking to get into the industry?

Chloe: It’s a really difficult industry to get into just by yourself. Me and gav, we both sort of took that road where we had to strive to achieve everything that we had and we were completely on our own. But usually the best

way to do it is to get an ap-prenticeship. I didn’t have one and neither did gav, so we can’t speak for what it would be like to have one. But we know that that’s the easiest route if you can find one then it’s great, as long as the person whose teach-ing you is half decent. It was

a long hard road for the two of us and really difficult. We had to be really dedicated and we came up against a lot of criticism for it. But how much we wanted it just surpassed that.

What makes a good tat-too?

Chloe: I think two main things would be, first of all that it’s exactly what the person wanted in the first place. And then second that it’s done well. So it’s a mixture between the technical side of it and also that when the person walks away that they know it couldn’t have been done any better, that the design couldn’t have been any better and they’re 100% happy with it.

How old were you when you got your first tattoo?

Chloe: I was 18. I was the legal age, so I’m really boring. That was like 8 years ago. It’s been covered up since then. It was a bad choice. It was just one of those typical tribal tattoos. So I’ve had it covered over! I was really late thinking about having tattoos. After I had my first one it was years then before I had my second one. I only ever wanted one but now I’m really covered. When I think back to then I was like “no I’m only having one” and now I’m like “oh my god”.

Left to right: Morgan, Gavin, Nathan, Chloe

Can you tell us about any of your tattoos?

Chloe: Some of them mean something to me but most of them are quite random. Just things I liked. Either I liked the design or it was a spur of the moment thing that I thought “oh it would be really funny, or look re-ally good afterwards”. So I’ve got a lot of tattoos that were just spur of the mo-ment for my friends or my family. Or something that just means something. But they’re always my favourite ones. The ones that you put so much thought into them, or it means so much to me, then sometimes it’s just the little quirky ones that you like the best.

Why should people come to your studio? What makes you different from the other local studios?

Chloe: In Barry there aren’t very many studios and so I think that there’s not as much choice here. The one thing that I would definitely say, is because we’ve only been here a short time, it’s all still fresh for us and our hearts and souls are in to it. So if somebody walks through the door, without a doubt we will do everything we can. no matter how much it inconveniences us to make sure their tattoo is 100% perfect. And I’m not saying that the other studios aren’t like that. I’m just say-ing that without a shadow of a doubt that would definitely be the case here.

The variety of work we can do is huge because all three of us specialise in differ-ent things. And we’ve got almost every area covered. There’s not another studio in Barry that has three tattoo-ists in it. The other studios of Barry have got one tattooist in them, but with the three of us here we can cover a wider area. So we’re the only studio in Barry that has this many tattooists in one studio. usually two of us will be booked and one of us will be doing walk in’s pretty much everyday.

Tattoo by Gavin Evans

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Who is your favourite tat-too artist?

Chloe: Jeff gogue. And he specialises in colour realism. But the reason why I first noticed him was because I was reading an interview about him in a magazine and he taught himself as well and he opened a studio by himself really early on. He’d only done forty or so tattoos before he opened his own studio and he is one of the best tattoo artists in the world! I mean in the entire world! And if somebody can go from having to teach themselves everything to being one of the best tattooists in the world, it just gave me the faith that I could do it. That I could have the push to get into tattooing myself. And I just love his history and how he made it. He’s my favourite without a doubt.

Morgan: Mine is Eli Quinters. He’s from new York. He’s been tattooing nine or ten years I think. Basically he does traditional work, all his tattoos look like tattoos. He says in an interview that “he wants his tattoos to look like a tattoo should”. Just simple and clean. Everything what a tattoo should be I think.

Tattoo’s by Chloe Black

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