STACK October 2016 Issue 144

88 / 125

Across 4,400
kilometres of railway
track and 65 hours, Billy
Bragg and Joe Henry
have recorded the
songs of Hank Williams,
The Carter Family, Lead
Belly, Gordon Lightfoot
and more. Deliberately
thematically selected,
these songs explore the
transformative nature of the railway and how it contributed to the
birth of rock and roll. In sleeping cars and palatial stations, Bragg and
Henry have captured a seriously remarkable experience.
Then is of a gleaming, blossoming moss, and
that impression fits with Jagwar Ma’s writing
approach: Gab says the band are constantly
recording little demos and notes in “primordial
versions” of how the songs will
go, and then studio time is for
knuckling down to sift through them
all. “If you’re an artistic person, I
think you’re never not working, and
you’re sort of not working at the
same time,” he says. “I’ve kept a
journal since I was ten, and I write
almost quite fastidiously and quite
religiously every day. Just stuff.
Sometimes just sh-t.”
visit
06 OCTOBER 2016
MUSIC NEWS
continued
an infuriatingly difficult-to-pin time signature
at the beginning, but soon flays itself into a
shuddering collection of effects which slice and
teeter along with Gab’s voice. Don’t Make It
Right sounds like you’re steeped in The
Lost Forests, then moves seamlessly
into beautiful closer Colours Of
Paradise – which itself fades out to
nothing. “I think it’s sort of like the
closing shots of those old Westerns,
where they ride off into the sunset and
you see them slowly become a little
dot, as if to kind of imply that the story
never really ends,” Winterfield says.
The overall effect of Every Now &
W hen Gabriel Winterfield heard that
Prince had passed away, he thought it
was metaphorical – that it was a retiring of
the name, as Prince had done before, and
that there was a new era of music about to
launch bright and bold from Cape Funk. Then
the penny dropped. “He was a really big
inspiration for me – huge,” the vocalist and
guitarist says. “Probably one of the biggest
since forever. I mean, Give Me A Reason,
that chorus? That was [us] trying to be Prince.
Straight off the bat.”
Give Me A Reason is one of the stand-
outs on Jagwar Ma’s arresting new record
Every Now &Then . It has a swaggy bell-
ride beat, bumpy electronic bass, and the
“amoeba dance”, in which you “shleft” and
you “shright” – which sounds just like a goopy
bacteria party. “It was a by-product of standing
in front of a microphone for 15 hours, not
moving,” Gab chortles – a familiar sound from
the track itself. “I think it was just straight-up
delirium. That whole bit was just one take, and
I started pissing myself.”
His favourite is High Rotations, which has
INTERVIEW
JAGwAR MA
BILLY BRAGG
+ JOE HENRY
Every Now
& Then by
Jagwar Ma is
out October
14 via Future
Classic.
FACTOID: Jagwar Ma's Jono Ma (guitar, synths, samples, producer) founded the revolving-personnelled, experimental musical project FLRL with STACK favourite Kirin J Callinan.
Shine A Light: Field Recordings From The Great
American Railroad by Billy Bragg and Joe Henry is out
now via Cooking Vinyl/Caroline.
JACK WHITE
giveaway
Our brilliant pals at Inertia have secured one
of only four signed copies of Jack White's
brand new release, Jack White Acoustic
Recordings 1998 - 2016, for one supremely
lucky STACK reader. In his review of the release
on page 20, Our Chris calls it a "stunning
testament" to White's creativity: "Simplistic
genius on Forever For Her, tear-jerking poetry
on Ugly As I Seem, or Top Yourself with
an intoxicating
bluegrass immersion
where if you squint
just right, you'll feel
yourself floating
down an Appalachian
voodoo swamp."
Irresistible. Head to
our comps page to
find out how to win.
Jack White
Acoustic
Recordings
1998 - 2016 by
Jack White is
out now via Third
Man Records/
Remote Control.
TOURING
Meredith Music
Festival (10/12)
and Laneway
Festival 2017