STACK #144 Oct 2016

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MUSIC NEWS

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TOURING Meredith Music Festival (10/12) and Laneway Festival 2017

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

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

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

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 &

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.”

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.

BILLY BRAGG + JOE HENRY

JACK WHITE giveaway O ur 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

Jack White Acoustic Recordings 1998 - 2016 by Jack White is out now via Third Man Records/ Remote Control.

A cross 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

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.

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.

Shine A Light: Field Recordings From The Great American Railroad by Billy Bragg and Joe Henry is out now via Cooking Vinyl/Caroline.

OCTOBER 2016

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