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BjÖrk for march
Q1/ What’s the core message behind
the address in the opening track on The
Mindsweep?
It feels like there’s this overwhelming anger, no-one
really knows where to direct it. It’s very easy to direct
anger at a human, but I think what we’ve always been
trying to do is to sort of express it that way; it’s the
various systems that we have in place, rather than
bad apples. It just feels like people are simmering and
we’re just hoping, on this album, to bring them to the
boil, I suppose.
Q2/ You’ve used live brass and strings this
time: why was that?
It was great fun. We’ve always had strings, but
they’ve obviously always been sampled – and sampled
sounds great in this day and age. But there really
was... I feel a bit cringey saying this, but that day
when we brought in the string quartet, it really felt
like something magical in the air, it just put a sparkle
on the track that you couldn’t really achieve from a
sample.
Q3/ Where do Enter Shikari fit into the music
scene?
After three years relentlessly touring, we thought
we’d managed to chisel out our little place. But
there were people saying – purists – who feel some
ownership or identity in various music genres. And
when someone comes along, in their eyes, and kind
of rapes and pillages their cherished corner of music,
then they’re going to feel quite emotional about that.
Q4/ So, how does the band evolve, in terms of
sound?
Because we had the luck and the luxury of growing
up around so many different types of music, and
having influences from our families and different
friendship groups, all those types of music that we do
incorporate, it feels natural to us and we always try
and do it with a sense of respect of the history and
those various strands of music.
Q5/ What’s the Latin at the end of The Appeal
and the Mindsweep 11?
It’s me putting on a silly voice. It basically
translates as ‘with the name changed, the story is told
of you’, which is an old adage proverb, just rattling
home that same sense of unity that we are. When
you kind of reduce us all down to biology, we all need
and require the same things to live and to flourish as
a species, and we’re floating on this one rock together.
The Mindsweep
by Enter Shikari is out now
via Liberation/Universal.
NEWS MUSIC
Enter shikari
Marianne Faithfull has been in
the music business 50 years.
Her first single, As Tears Go By, was
penned by her then lover Mick Jagger
and Rolling Stones’ guitarist Keith
Richards. Over the years she’s been
controversial (with the album Broken
English ) and acclaimed (the ‘00s’ saw
great accolades for Kissin’ Time, her
PJ Harvey/Nick Cave collaboration
Before the Poison). Now, she’s back
with a love letter to her hometown
of London, again in collaboration
with a range of songwriters and
musicians. Cave is back, contributing
Late Victorian Holocaust, while Anna
Calvi contributes the delightful Falling
Back. And in an odd twist, the title
track to Give My Love to London isn’t
co-written with an Englishman, but
an American – that being Mr. Steve
Earle. She also covers songs by
Roger Waters and Leonard Cohen.
faithfuLl Falls back in love with london
FEBRUARY 2015 JB Hi-Fi
B jörk has announced that her new album
will be out in March. The Icelandic
singer posted on her Facebook page
that her follow-up to 2011’s Biophilia is called
Dylan Sings blue eyes
B ob Dylan as Ol’ Blue Eyes? Believe it
or not, that’s the theme of Shadows
in the Night, the new album from
the legendary singer-songwriter out on
February 6. The 10-track LP consists mainly of
American standards popularised by Sinatra,
although Dylan looks to have gone for a much
more stripped down approach. “It was all
done live, maybe one or two takes,” he said
when announcing the album’s release earlier
in the year. “No overdubbing. No vocal
booths. No headphones. No separate
tracking, and, for the most part, mixed as it
was recorded.“ Far from the days when
Dylan would lose interest in his covers
projects halfway through, this one had him in
for the long haul.“I don’t see myself as
covering these songs in any way. They’ve
been covered enough. What me and my band
are basically doing is uncovering them. Lifting
them out of the grave and
bringing them into the light of
day.” As for those famously
ravaged vocals carrying
Sinatra? The first two tracks
released (Stay with Me and Full Moon and
Empty Arms) are both exercises in phrasing
and control; it’s strange listening to that voice
sing American standards, but early indications
are that this offbeat idea might, just work.
continued
Vulnicura, and will feature nine new songs
including two co-written with hip Venezuelan
producer Arca, who also co-produced six of the
tracks. The Haxan Cloak – aka British electronica
artist Bobby Krilic – has also co-produced a
number of tracks.
Bjork told the NME last month that the
album is largely inspired by the break-up of her
relationship with famous visual artist Mathew
Barneu. “When I did this album it all just
collapsed. I didn’t have anything,” she revealed.
“It was the most painful thing I ever experienced
in my life. The only way I could deal with that
was to start writing for strings.” No word yet
when it will be released in this part of the world,
but keep an eye out for it in March.