STACK Feb Issue 124

65 / 90

04
visit
carl barat Lets it Reign
Get to Laneway and have your mind
blown this year! Here are three STACK
picks and releases to discover:
Future Islands
Synth-pop has made something of a
triumphant return in the past decade
(more dance, less angst than in the ’80s),
and this Baltimore-based trio are at a
peak right now with their fourth album
Singles ending up in numerous ‘best of
2014’ lists. The lead-off track and single
Seasons (Waiting OnYou) sets the tone
for sweeping synth-pop. They’ll snuggle
in neatly alongside Belle and Sebastian
– and in your record collection alongside
FineYoung Cannibals, if you have a long
memory.
Belle and Sebastian
A decade ago, this band – whose clever
and literate pop songs quietly insinuate
themselves into your brain and music
collection – were voted Scotland’s best band
by their countrymen. And since then, they’ve
just got better.You could start your listening as
far back as The Boy with the Arab Strap (their
third album earned them a Best Newcomer
Award at the Brits in 1998), or come more up
to date with the fine The Life Pursuit (2006).
But they have a new album out – Girls in
PeacetimeWant to Dance – a week before
Laneway, and with its danceable songs, which
nudge into electro-pop, expect quite a number
from it on the day.
FKA Twigs
Debut albums don’t come much more
impressive or consistent than LP1 by
Tahliah Barnett (akaTwigs, and latterly FKA
Twigs), who brings erotica, r’n’b soul and a
choral sound (true) together with smart
beats, electro-soul and some redefining
of the possibilities of studio production.
Music this clever and innovative doesn’t
come along often, but you do wonder how
it can be shaped on the day. That’s why
we have Laneway!
NEWS MUSIC
STACK ’S
Laneway Picks
Abiopic of the legendary guitarist was long overdue:
unfortunately, unlike James Brown biopic Get On Up (out in
March), Jimi: All Is By My Side does not feature any of Hendrix’s
original music, as the makers were unable
to strike a deal with his estate (session
man Waddy Wachtel instead handles
the axe work). However, director John
Ridley turns that into a positive, offering
up instead a dreamy, impressionistic
account of a crucial year in Hendrix’s life which saw him move to London to launch his career.
Outkast’s André Benjamin brilliantly captures the guitarist’s laid back charisma, and there are fine
performances from the two British women in his life at the time: Imogen Poots as Keith Richards’
ex-girlfriend Linda Keith, and Hayley Atwell as Hendrix’s girlfriend Kathy Etchingham.
Jimi: All is by my side
A Quick Look at
New Music,
All Different Kinds,
All Different Places.
FEBRUARY 2015 JB Hi-Fi
C arl Barat remains a Libertine at heart, and a
key member of the now infamous English
band who recently signed a new record deal
and announced a third album to be released in 2015.
But for the moment, he’s concentrating on his other
grand passion: The Jackals, a grandly hard-rocking
ensemble he formed to record a new album, Let It
Reign. “I’ve pent up so much frustration throughout my
previous solo album being so mellow,” he tells STACK
outside a Soho restaurant in the depths of the English
winter, “ I really wanted to get out there and pick up the
guitar again. The album is kind of in your face; I did
want the live sound and I did want that immediacy.”
The mood to which Barat refers comes partially from
one Joby J. Ford of The Bronx and Mariachi El Bronx,
who helped produce the album. “Hardcore is as
hardcore does in these sorts of situations,” laughs
Barat. “I love Mariachi El Bronx as well and I saw them
live. And without knowing all the songs, just what they
did live was... I can totally see why they’d elicit that
reaction.” The album’s lead single, Glory Days, has
certainly garnered some on-line attention, directed by
Barat’s longtime friend Roger Barlow (and featuring a
cameo from Baxter Dury), it depicts executions of
supposed deserters in the British Army in the World
War One trenches. “We read together through a good
deal of cases of desertion in cowardice,” he says. “It
was shell shock; dubious circumstances where people
had been used as an example. And yeah, not one of
them has been justified as actual cowardice, especially
when the whole thing was based on superpowers and
pride – bollocks really, nothing to do with the common
man.” As for The Libertines, Barat has The Jackals, and
bandmate Pete Doherty has Babyshambles. That said,
the legend of The Libertines rumbles on with an album
due by end of year. “We were never KISS. In some
bands, the girls show you their tits. In other bands, they
show you their poetry. We’ve always, absolutely, been
the latter!”
Let It Reign by Carl Barat and the Jackals
is out February 13 via Caroline/Universal