STACK #136 Feb 2016

NEWS MUSIC

Ty Segall

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On My Speakers I f you were Ty Segall, you'd wear a livid baby mask in your creepy promo photos too. His new release Emotional Mugger is an Ed's Jam, so you can see the thing for yourself a few pages in. Meanwhile we've our feature interview with the spectacular Hayley Mary of The Jezabels, DMA's have finally released their debut, there's a new Lucinda Williams album out which will make you want to clink your little spurs together, the superb Henry Wagons just delivered another wonderful full-length, and Animal Collective are still extremely weird and innovative and marvellous on new album Painting With . Zo ë Radas (Music Editor)

Fat White Family Songs For Our Mothers The mash of mania and sweat and ennui and sex and drugs that makes up the sluzzy rock that is Fat White Family might be confronting. It's also hypnotic, like steam off a bucket o' chips. Out now via Without Consent/PIAS.

Nevermen Nevermen I played single Mr Mistake to the office without telling them it was Mike Patton's long-gestating project – think joyous, slowly stomping, industrial Gorillaz with added muppet voices. You've got to try it. Out now via Warner.

The Jezabels music cover image by Cybele Malinowski

THE PRETTIOTS

MUSIC

A new line-up, a deliberate new concept, and no loss of determined independence from leader Kele Okereke – Bloc Party are fortified with their own brand of sacramental wine and HYMNS is the reverential outcome. “I was fascinated by the idea of making a record of modern day hymns,” Okereke tells us, of the English four-piece’s fifth studio album. “I’m not a religious person, although I had a religious upbringing… I went back to my parents’ house and I got all of my old hymn books that I used to sing from in primary school. I was kind of fascinated with this idea of working out what the function is – kind of, what religious music was . What is it supposed to elicit in the listener?” HYMNS will elicit something from you whether you like it or not: it’s a careful mix of electronic and analogue, sometimes resolute and often tender, with beautifully filtered guitar, synth and organ sounds (Hammond and reed and cathedral – which is a pipe organ, really, but you can’t help but think of it sitting in some enormous stained- glassed room), but those organs and their allusions don’t overwhelm the feel. The things you remember most are the decisive beats, Okereke’s earnest voice (hello Fortress ), and the message of unity. So if it’s not explicitly religious, nor carrying the card of any organised faith, what is modern spirituality in this music? It seems to involve personal discovery and the natural environment. “I [didn’t] ‘investigate’ – that makes it sound kind of formal," Okereke says, "but what became apparent to me as I started writing was that although I’m not a religious person I have a space in myself that understands spirituality, and for me, I get that connection with nature. There are lots of references to bodies of KELE OKEREKE BLOC PARTY

T his uke-fied folk/punk trio from NewYork deal primarily in winsome hipster pop, although their sugary outer coating hides a nice line in sardonic humour. While they sing mainly about the ups and downs of young love, they also find room to name- check cult film star Klaus Kinski ( Kiss Me Kinski ) and Law & Order: SVU 's Elliot Stabler ( Stabler ), and transformThe Misfits' thrash fave Skulls into a lovely ballad. Utterly adorable. Read Michael Dwyer's full review on page 16. John Ferguson

Fun's Cool by The Prettiots is out February 5 through Rough Trade/ Remote Control

water on the record. Personally, I’ve always found being by water quite calming, being outdoors, being close to the earth. To daylight.”

Hymns by Bloc Party is out now through Create/Control.

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