WONDER WOMAN THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF ALIEN MOVIES
J T AL TABOO director
ANDERS ENGSTROM
ADVENTURE TIME
JEREMY SHADA
DAILY UPDATES: VULTUREHOUND.COM
JUNE 2017 ISSUE 17
VULTUREHOUND
Director
MARK COUSINS
OUR 2017 ALBUMS OF THE YEAR SO FAR | CAMDEN ROCKS
CARL BARAT AT CAMDEN ROCKS
WELCOME FROM EDITOR
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CAMDEN ROCKS - PHOTO: LINDSAY MELBOURNE
e’re half way through the year, and festival season is in full swing. We’ve already been to some, and guess what? It didn’t rain and I’m writing this in the middle of a heatwave. Something isn’t right... This issue we have a great chat with our cover star, Gus from Alt-J, who spoke to us before heading out on a sold out arena tour. Film, TV and Cartoon are also covered as we talk to directors Mark Cousins and Anders Engstrom, as well as Jeremy Shada, the voice of Adventure Time’s Finn Six months into 2017 we share some of our favourite albums of the year so far. As always, there’s more features, columns, photos and reviews. I hope you enjoy.
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JUNE 2017 VULTUREHOUND 03
EDGAR WRIGHT
A LOOK AT THE CAREER OF EDGAR WRIGHT
THE ONCE AND FUTURE WRIGHT WORDS: KATIE HOGAN
ack in 1994, Edgar Wright appeared on The Film and Video Showcase talking about his first feature film ‘A Fistful of Fingers’, a spoof of Hollywood Westerns but filmed in the English countryside and on a micro budget. Over 20 years later, Wright is gearing up for the release of his 6th film, Baby Driver, which is a far cry from his early work. In fact, unlike most director/writers, Edgar Wright’s work doesn’t have a clear development or progression path but rather depends where the film is set or filmed in.
B
Before the days being considered a ‘spoof’ was a bad thing, Edgar Wright was making films, namely, Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, the latter of which celebrated its 10th Anniversary recently, both
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celebrated British comedies that spoof genre films and Hollywood set ups. Now they are just called comedies that homage other films. The reasons for the two films’ success were partly due to the fact that nostalgia and references are loved by all, but also due to Wright testing out his styles on TV. From directing the much loved cult sitcom, Spaced, Wright, along with Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes, created a homage loving show that was also quintessentially British. Wright created a style that was recognisable, with his quick cuts, clever storytelling and visual comedy techniques. His style carries throughout his films (so far) and it’s easy to see why his films are successful and liked by critics (mostly) and audiences alike.
Both Shaun of the Dead, labeled a ‘rom-zom-com’, and Hot Fuzz, a buddy cop movie set in Gloucestershire, fondly considered part of the ‘Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy’ aka the Cornetto trilogy, are now known around the world. They stand the test of time and can be admired as perfect examples of brilliant comedy direction, but at times it feels like this type of Wright film won’t be seen again. After the success of his second and third films, Wright naturally gravitated towards bigger budgets and films out of the UK. Scott Pilgrim vs the World was a perfect fit for Wright’s style. In keeping with the spirit and tone of the comics, bringing Bryan Lee O’Malley’s characters to life, but no matter how artful the film is,
there is something missing. Set in Canada, the films centres on Scott Pilgrim, a slacker who falls in love with Ramona Flowers, a mysterious Amazon delivery girl. In order to be with her, he must fight her seven evil exes in wonderfully exaggerated battles. Wright’s style and exciting visuals do shine through, but the fact there are no familiar faces really distances Wright from his roots, which feels odd. Other directors who break away from their indie or low budget films of their careers still carry a few torches when they move away. But Edgar doesn’t and it seems to be going that way with the arrival of Baby Driver.
fact that it is in keeping with the theme that there is an other worldly-ness, something alien about the film. This is the feeling that Wright is slipping away. Despite this worry, having one of the best comedy directors getting involved with one of Marvel’s lesser-known heroes seemed like a chance for Wright to show the world, mainly Hollywood, what he can do. But his dramatic exit from the film showed that Wright was serious and wouldn’t just give in to studio demands. There was the Wright that we loved. The Marvel dream wasn’t meant to be and Wright escaped the clutches of the Hollywood machine. But with his latest film, which was inspired by a music video for Mint Royale he made back in 2003, Baby Driver, a film about a guy who listens to music while driving getaway cars, there is a slight sting with each trailer release behind the anticipation. From the footage in the trailers it seems the wit is still there but it also comes across as more action than comedy and with a brand new cast and no regular collaborators in sight. There is comfort in the fact that Wright wrote as well as directed the film and this is first fully solo film since A Fistful of Fingers so you never know, he might be going right back to the beginning and we’ll get to experience that signature Wright feel again.
HIS DRAMATIC EXIT FROM THE FILM SHOWED THAT WRIGHT WAS SERIOUS AND WOULDN’T JUST GIVE IN TO STUDIO DEMANDS
With the fans clamouring for the final film in the unofficially named ‘Cornetto Trilogy’, Wright and Pegg acted like they were forced to make The World’s End. The story is about a group of friends who are tricked into returning to their hometown to finish a pub crawl they started 20 years previously, but something strange has happened in their absence. With Wright making waves and plans for Ant Man, Pegg, now a major British export in Hollywood, came back to the UK to write and make the film. Still in keeping with the style and visual comedy techniques of the his previous films, The World’s End has a shiny quality about it (most likely the bigger budget) and it’s not just because of the actors, once all little known outside the UK but now all BIG names in the industry, but the
TOP FILMS THIS MONTH
MY LIFE AS A COURGETTE
STOCKHOLM MY LOVE
THE KING
WONDER WOMAN
MINUTE BODIES
DON’T THINK TWICE
FULL REVIEWS AT VULTUREHOUND.COM JUNE 2017 VULTUREHOUND 05
MARK COUSINS
WORDS: ROBERT WHITEHEAD
MARK
COUSINS
INTERVIEW
M
ark Cousins is an ubiquitous figure of modern cinema. His latest film Stockholm My Love, sees him turn his camera to the titular city. What follows is a story of one woman’s journey through trauma. Mark sat down with me to chat about his new film.
Where does the inspiration for such a unique film come from? I love cities in general, I like films about solitary people and Neneh Cherry; she’s a star in my mind.
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I’ve been going to Stockholm for a while and really enjoy it. So for those reasons I guess it was perfect for me: wandering person, solitude, Neneh Cherry and a degree of sadness that recovers into something more optimistic. These were all grist to my mill.
Tell me a bit about city symphony films and how they relate to Stockholm My Love. Let’s forget about cinema and think about a symphony for a minute. It’s not something that has a lot of story, but it has a lot of structure. I like a bit of story in films but sometimes I feel there’s too much. I like the idea of a symphonic film that’s structurally powerful but narratively loose. In Stockholm My
Love you can see a clear three act structure of three different people, voices and styles of music. It’s almost like a symphony. In films like Man with a Movie Camera, cities are like visual thinking. In the city I am in now (Edinburgh) I can see local ideas, national ideas, international ideas. I can see ideas in the buildings, in the streets – the way they’re laid out. I can see class, power, enlightenment. I love training my camera on that stuff.
What are you drawn to when in a new city? I have a tattoo on my arm that says ‘Eisenstein’. Do you know what he did? When he went to London, he thought ‘fuck all this monumental centre stuff’, and took a bus to the outskirts. He thought he could find out as much about a great city like
“WANDERING PERSON, SOLITUDE, NENEH CHERRY AND A DEGREE OF SADNESS THAT RECOVERS INTO SOMETHING MORE OPTIMISTIC
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London at the END of a bus route as in the centre. There’s wisdom in that. I like the non-famous bits of town. The places that aren’t swarmed by people. I like urban desolation! David Lynch would say there’s a kind of unconscious life to a city and you can see it in bus stations much more than in the ‘show-off’ parts of the city. It’s the bit of the city that’s trying to hide itself that I really like.
The film uses inventive camerawork that feels playful but also assured and meaningful. How was it working with Christopher Doyle?
This is the second film I’ve done with Chris. I shoot for a year or two and then he comes along and does a number of days. On Stockholm My Love he did six days. On the previous film I think he did two ½ days. It’s a visual collaboration. By the time he arrives about two thirds of the imagery is in place. Then we do the magic moments. In Stockholm My Love it’s the central sequence. That was all Chris’ big fancy camera! But a lot of the rest is shot with my little camera. I really like working with him because he’s like my older brother. He and I look quite alike. A number of times I’ve been walking around Hong Kong and people will say to me “Mr. Doyle, I love your work” and I’ll say “Thanks very much, I’m particularly proud of In The Mood For Love!”
We speak a similar language. We’re both better at imagery than words, so we exchange visual ideas with some rapidity and economy, which is useful as we both work really fast.
It certainly has a sense of presence and vitality, was any of it captured using a smartphone? No, but I’m always trying to use the most extreme micro technology. Everything has to fit into my rucksack. Chris is really into that as well.
How do you envision cinema will be embraced by a generation with smartphone cameras? JUNE 2017 VULTUREHOUND 07
MARK COUSINS
FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HISTORY ANYBODY CAN MAKE A FILM It’s the first wholly democratic time for filmmaking; for the first time in history anybody can make a film. Walter Murch said that, until recently, cinema was the art of the fresco. You needed loads of people and money. Throughout history some of the most talented people haven’t made it to the screen because they were not well connected, came from the wrong social class or didn’t have enough money or access to the equipment. Now that is, in principle, dead.
Do you feel smartphones tether us to a social world too much? Do long periods of self-reflection, such as what’s portrayed in the film, become more difficult? Very good question. Today, desires are different. I remember swimming in the sea in Santa Monica naked with dolphins and I and thought ‘My God, I wish there was some way
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I could communicate this’. It was a big thing for me; a boy from Belfast in this kind of paradise. So because I couldn’t communicate it visually or message somebody I had to make the effort to store the poetics of it in my brain. So it has changed. You no longer have the hunger to communicate something because everything is communicable. That sounds pessimistic, but it’s not. I think it’s mostly an optimistic thing. I would rather everything was communicable than the era I came from where almost nothing was communicable. Each has its downsides. In the modern era you can miss the awe and enchantment of a moment, either because you’re beaming it out to your friends or it’s simply too easy. I think kids today still have to ask the question about enchantment and self-loss. While a smartphone can help it can also be a hindrance. It’s an extremely ambiguous piece of technology.
Talk me through the process of casting and directing Neneh Cherry.
I remember seeing her on Top of the Pops. Young and pregnant but still dancing and singing. The way she stood; her confidence, her ‘buffalo stance’. Her being Swedish meant she was naturally one of the first people I thought of when beginning this project. When I came to work with her she had this great combination of total calm and a kind of alertness. When someone puts a camera on me I get very shy; Neneh doesn’t. Think of Greta Garbo and Marilyn Monroe. They can just stand there. It sounds simple but it’s not. And on top of that she’s just the nicest person.
Neneh’s character goes though trauma in three distinct stages. Do films help people work through trauma, or perhaps discover their trauma? Absolutely. Pasolini said ‘cinema is recovery’. Watching a film you experience a surrogate sadness, and I think that’s extremely useful. You’re safe, but it allows you to play with those raw emotions. Before I was in love, I saw Bad Timing. Before going to New York, I saw films about it. Cinema is good at laying the groundwork for real experience.
But I think cinema is bad at the worst experiences. I don’t think it captures war very well. War is too all enveloping. But the relatively medium sized problems of trauma like those in Stockholm My Love can be handled well.
Is there an art form that can capture war, and the worst of human experience? No. By definition, representational art is a proxy experience. I was in Sarajevo during the siege where ten thousand people were killed. No art form I know can capture that fear. Art is a reduction of life. That’s not to decry the value of these things. Art and cinema are pathfinder experiences. A good filmmaker will say ‘give me ninety minutes of your time’ and only grab you by the hand when you’re really lost. It’s almost parental.
I really love your articles in Sight and Sound. You mentioned in one that there’s great joy in bunking off to watch films. Does there come a point when you just HAVE to see a film, almost for your own sanity? Totally! Being a director means I’m in charge, and when you’re the boss all the time you want to do the opposite. It’s dominance vs submission. Going to the cinema is a quintessentially submissive experience. I always sit in the front row to be truly enveloped. I say ‘here are my
emotions, do something great with them’.
You wrote a brilliant article, ‘50 weeks to Learn Film’, where you lay out an anti-film school syllabus. What might a week on Mark Cousins involve? It’s funny you mention that, a couple of organisations have asked if I could actually do it! I gave a talk in LA about it. With the article I wanted to write something that was bigger than film school and more about rejuvenation and placing yourself in the world. I wanted to capture the wired excitement of leaning visual culture. My advice is to not only use your mind but switch it off and use your body. Go volunteer. Take acid! Encountering the world is a physical thing as well as an intellectual thing. In a lot of film schools where you sit in seminar rooms week after week, you feel learning is happening everywhere
but here. You have a week entitled ‘Be Someone else’. My idea was to cross dress for a week. It would teach you so much about yourself and others. That’s exactly what I was after. As a white male you have to constantly try and understand what it’s like NOT to be white and male. The reason I do all this shit is to help others catch up. I grew up in a conservative background without access to ideas about creatively and identity. I’m extremely omnivorous, I can ingest lots of information quite quickly. I felt it took my culture too long to provide me with interesting ideas. I wanted ’50 Weeks to Learn Film’ to be a kind of acceleration of one’s own mental, physical and spiritual life. I do what I do to try and push, with some passion, the love of cinema. Stockholm My Love is in cinemas now and released on DVD/Blu-ray by the BFI on 26th June.
JUNE 2017 VULTUREHOUND 09
PHOTO: MATT EACHUS
download
WORDS: KATIA FILIPOVIC
DOWNLOAD 2017
I
t’s 666% official: Download 2017 was a resounding, headbanging success as more than 80m000 people joined the yearly gathering of hardrock/heavy metal music aficionados on the grounds of Donington Park. The festival is now in its 15th edition and feels more and more like a family reunion, albeit one that you are absolutely looking forward to attending. System Of A Down, Biffy Clyro and Aerosmith, who performed their last ever gig in the U.K, were the incredible headliners spread over 3 epic days.
BIFFY CLYRO
SYSTEM OF A DOWN My personal highlights were Devilskin, Opeth and prog metallers Brutai whilst the feel good factor of the festival must go to Devin Townsend who managed to make the whole crowd perform a gigantic group hug. Magic!
Highlights of the 15th Download Festival will be broadcast on SKY ARTS on 23 and 24 June from 9pm – midnight.
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PHOTO: CAITLIN MOGRIDGE
Truth be told, I loved this edition so much that I’ve already purchased my special advent Download festival and I’m ticking off the days impatiently in anticipation of its 16th edition.
PHOTO: ROSS SILCOCKS
The weather Gods had been summoned and even though it did look like a mini storm was brewing at some point, the sun shone gloriously during the whole weekend. The security measures were extremely well implemented and in light of recent tragic events, very much appreciated.
AIRBOURNE
jimguitarman.com/koam facebook.com/KOAMPodcast twitter.com/KOAMPodcast
PHOTOS: FX NETWORKS
WORDS: TIM BIRKBECK
taboo
ith a number of short films and a TV series already under his belt, Anders Engström came to Taboo with a wealth of knowledge in the world of television directing.
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However, this project was a little bit different, and for the Scandinavian director there was a combined sense of familiarity and stepping into the unknown.
We speak to the Director of bbc's taboo
anders
engstrom
With plans for Taboo – the story of adventurer James Keziah Delaney (Tom Hardy) who returns to London during the War of 1812 to rebuild his late father’s shipping empire – to air a second series already well underway, Engström took the time to talk to VultureHound and reflect on the success of series one.
Firstly, just wanted to say congratulations on the success of Taboo. Why thank you very much, we worked really hard on the project and it is great to see that people reacted to it in such a great way.
When news of Taboo started coming out in the press there was a huge buzz surrounding it and it ended up being this massive success. When you were filming it could you feel that there was this buzz surrounding the project?
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taboo
me it was that “For collaboration with the actors. The actor is a co-creator of any scene.
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When you are inside an artistic enterprise you live inside it and you don’t really relate to the outside world while you are involved in it. So we very much enjoyed being in the world of Taboo; it was very much alive and creative all the time, and it was nourishing the imagination. Based on that we always thought we were onto something very honest and real and we could see that what we were filming had some gravitas to it. So I think we always felt we were on to something good, just maybe not the scale it came out at!
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The whole project was a very collaborative effort, was that feeling present on set? Indeed it was and I think the word “family” would describe it very well. Tom (Hardy) would know every single person’s name on set, I mean that is just the type of man he is. From that sort of energy the family is built. Chips (Hardy, Tom’s dad) became a very good friend and he was an invaluable supporter of information about the time, about the project, where it came from and what their
intentions were, so we collaborated very well. And that also gave me a head start to really get into the project, understand what their intentions were and serve it to the best of my ability, adding my enthusiasm and vision to it.
You had the task of doing the latter episodes in the series. How did it feel bringing the show to its current conclusion? Well, first of all I studied Kristoffer’s (Nyholm) script very well, so I would know where the characters came from. I probably read his scripts more than I initially read mine to know exactly the who, the why and the how. I also really studied the material in the edit to see the tone and the atmosphere and how the characters were interpreted. So I came in very well prepared. And then you need to know a few things. You need to know who the characters are, what are their relationships and what are their secrets. Then you need to know
an artistic “inside enterprise you
live inside it and you don’t really relate to the outside world
“
what is the story and what is the genre. So you just need to keep these things very well at hand and know absolutely everything surrounding them.
So a large part was making sure yours and Kristoffer’s work seamlessly flowed into each another? Yes it was. Also because sometimes when you are doing a series you revisit parts when you are going through the edit. But because Kristoffer was still filming some bits whilst I was filming, we could add things of additional value to each others’ episodes when we were at certain locations. I could add a scene or two to block one and visa versa. There was no sense of competition in this project – it was all about collaboration and for the greater good of the show.
What was it like doing a project to the scale of Taboo? In terms of visual scope it is the biggest. But when you have Ridley
Scott’s hand-picked people to create the production line and the background atmosphere, you also get a depth in the picture that the producer gives you, which is big and gives certain scenes that extra bit of gravitas. So in a way, my work is to collaborate with the actors, to create a blocking which is organic for the scene with the excellent cinematographer Mark Patton. Having people like that involved made sure that this show had that grand feel to it.
Do you think because of Taboo people might seek out more of your work and look forward to any projects you have in the future? It seems so! There have been a lot of enquires for me lately, which is great! I have been recognised and I am very happy for that. I love British cinematography and British film knowledge in general. I went to film school here in 1986, which means I have my cinematic roots in this country. So it was very easy for me to step in. I have just
finished the final season of The Tunnel, which I started, and it was a true joy to work with a lot of my old buddies again in Taboo. So yes, there are more opportunities here than there are in Scandinavia and after a while people get to know who you are and what you are about.
We know that series two of Taboo is on the horizon, but for you, once the dust had settled on series one, what was the most rewarding thing for yourself? For me it was that collaboration with the actors. The actor is a co-creator of any scene, and this is very much the directorial style of Scandinavia. It seems that the intelligent British actors who I had the privilege of working with seemed to enjoy the idea of collaboration within the Scandinavian tradition. Taboo is out now on Blu-ray, DVD and digital platforms, courtesy of StudioCanal
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WONDER WOMAN
FEMALE SUPERHEROES: BEING BRAVE AND BOLD WORDS: CHARLIE HARRIS
omic books are in my blood. They have been in my life longer than I can remember, both consciously and subconsciously. My dad used to work in a comic book shop before I was born and had been an avid collector/ original fanboy. He sold off most of his collection when/because I was born (side note: dad this will never sound complimentary, no matter how you try to phrase it!) and, aside from a small Thor figure that took pride of place in his office, that was it. There were no attempts at indoctrination, no forcing us to read his favourite issues or pop quizzes over breakfast (which in retrospect sounds kind of fun actually…)
C
As the years went by, and a brother four years my junior joined the pack, we fell into a pre and postschool routine of watching cartoons together. From Spider-Man to Johnny Bravo, Batman: The Animated Series to Earthworm Jim, X-Men to Pokemon – we watched them all. Yet, aside from The Powerpuff Girls (and maybe The Wild Thornberrys at a push…) these shows didn’t really feature female characters. And even when they did, well they didn’t tend to play a leading
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role. They were supporting cast, supporting the men who were saving the day. Gradually my brother and I fell in love with comic books – he sided with Marvel whereas I was a self-proclaimed DC chick. Childhood became adolescence and I had started to abandon cartoons – whether the quality of my personality had gone downhill is still up for debate. This is a time pre-MCU movies, where liking comic books was a sign of being a geek and being a geek was not okay. I’d found comic books by this point and was trying to absorb as much as possible. I was obsessed with Kevin Smith’s Green Arrow arc, then followed it through Brad Meltzer and Judd Winick. Black Canary was pretty cool and could definitely hold her own, put was never as fully fleshed out as the eponymous emerald hero. I adored Neal Adams and Dennis O’Neil’s run and was, of course, consuming the pre-request Batman arcs along with The Watchmen. All of them truly extraordinary reads which I’ve read countless times since. I’d also been recommended The Runaways by my favourite teacher at school (maybe I wasn’t hiding the
geek as well as I thought I was!). The Runaways series was a huge turning point (and it’s great to see much admired YA author Rainbow Rowell has just been announced as helming a reboot) introducing me to some truly kick-ass women - but still, not enough. It was early one Saturday morning during a heady mix of insomnia and creeping nostalgia (To quote High Fidelity, ‘What came first the music or the misery?) that I found myself watching an episode of Batman: The Brave and The Bold. Entitled ‘Scorn of the Star Sapphire’ it featured Wonder Woman rescuing both Batman (*gasp*) and her love interest Steve Trevor. The series was wonderfully kitsch and camp – which it embraced fully – no more so than when it showed Wonder Woman post-rescue holding Steve in her arms and flying them both away. It seems somewhat ludicrous to have that as one of the most impactful moments of my pop culture life but it is. It’s also immensely sad that it seemingly took that long in my life to see an image featuring that role reversal or that such an image appeared so infrequently that it has not been usurped. That moment of tv watching will stay with me forever. Not because it was earth-shattering (although it was earth-shifting at the very least) it was because it altered my perspective of the comic book world. I’d seen storyline after storyline where, more often than not, the man would be rescuing the woman. He was stronger than her, more powerful, so she must hang back whilst he saved the day. That sequence in Wonder Woman was a metaphorical flipping of the bird to that concept, showing a woman
who could do the rescuing and a man who respected her strength, appreciated being rescued and was not emasculated in the slightest at the power dynamic in their relationship. That’s the kind of image that hasn’t been replicated in comic book movies until now. If at this point
WE NEED TO SHOW OUR YOUNG WOMEN THAT THEY CAN BE JUST AS SUPER AS THE MENFOLK you’re conjuring up examples where such an image has been shown in the movies think about it this way – you can probably still count them on one hand. Spend exactly the same amount of time thinking of this image from the more traditional positioning – man saving woman- I’d bet you’ve thought of ten times as many. This is why this year’s release of Wonder Woman is so bloomin’ important. We need to show our young women that they can be just as Super as the menfolk – that they don’t have to wait to be saved, they too can save themselves and others. In the film Gal Gadot and Chris Pine have excellent chemistry as Diana and Steve. Diana saving him happens more than once – the
same knowingness and admiration that was present in that scene from Batman: The Brave and The Bold is there. We get to see her fellow Amazonians fight too in a truly kick-ass sequence which felt empowering to me, and I can’t imagine how much of an impact it might have had on an 8, 12, or 16 year old Charlotteit. I love superheroes – both male and female. I shamelessly love what they represent. I believe wholeheartedly they represent change and can truly inspire. Yes, I know they are about escapism and I will openly admit I’ve had the occasional daydream about being a superhero. Sometimes I’m Lois Lane but sometimes I’m Batwoman. Heck, sometimes I abandon the good guys in favour of being Poison Ivy. As we consume our pop culture we hope to see ourselves reflected in it. When we read these books we’re not stuck on the tube in rainy London, we’re kicking it back in The Watchtower or kicking The Joker’s arse – again. The problem is not enough people are getting to see themselves when these characters are being transported to the big screen. Or, as was with Black Widow and Disney last year, not able to buy the merchandise to declare their love to the world. Black Widow, Gamora and now Wonder Woman: three women who are just as smart and badass as their male counterparts. May future generations of young women be shown they don’t have to play the damsel-in-distress if they don’t want to. They can still be princesses - but we need them to know that they can just as easily be heroes, too.
JUNE 2017 VULTUREHOUND 17
alt-j
WORDS: DAN WITHEY
ALT-J
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Alt-J's GUS UNGERHAMILTON discusses new album, their growing confidence and evolution
F
ive years on from the tsunami of attention, recognition and press coverage caused by their debut album, An Awesome Wave, Alt-J are only just starting to realise what happened. “I feel like it’s only now that we’re starting to realise quite how crazy those first few years were”, keyboardist Gus UngerHamilton tells me. “At the time we were constantly being told, “oh my god! Things are crazy for you guys! You’ve had this astronomic rise! What’s that like?!” and we almost couldn’t quite understand what people were talking about – we didn’t realise how unique our story was.” That story saw Alt-J - made up of Joe Newman, Thom Green, Gus UngerHamilton and Gwil Sainsbury - go from an unknown foursome from Leeds to suddenly getting their hands on the 2012 Mercury Music Prize. “That was quite an amazing two years - to go from on the dole to playing Brixton within 18 months.”
JUNE 2017 VULTUREHOUND 19 05
alt-j It
“MAYBE ON THIS ALBUM WE WERE MORE CONSCIOUSLY TRYING NOT TO FALL INTO PREDICTABLE ALT-J PITFALLS
“
It could have been so different after the departure of guitarist Sainsbury early on in 2014. Instead the band carried on, releasing sophomore effort This Is All Yours – seeing it go straight to number 1 in the UK album charts in September 2014. Now, five years on from their initial surprise emergence, they’ve just released album number three, Relaxer – an album that Gus is eager to tell VultureHound all about…
SO HOW WAS THE LEAD UP TO RELAXER VS. THE SECOND ALBUM IN TERMS OF PRESSURE AND EXPECTATION? I don’t think either time (on both albums after An Awesome Wave) we felt much pressure exactly, but I feel like on this one it’s a bit harder. With This Is All Yours we were launching off the back of a very successful first album. And whilst the second album was successful and people liked it, I think it’s like you have more to prove with a third album. People gravitated towards
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This Is All Yours because of the success of the first album, where as this one – it has to stand on its own two feet.
it wasn’t an album that was written in one place or at one time, it was written all over the place and over a pretty wide time period.
DID THAT INITIAL SUCCESS CHANGE THE WAY YOU APPROACHED SUBSEQUENT ALBUMS?
SO, YOU TAKE A TRACK LIKE ‘DEADCRUSH’, WRITTEN A FEW YEARS BACK – HOW MUCH OF A METAMORPHOSIS HAS IT GONE THROUGH BY THE TIME IT APPEARS AS IT DOES ON THE NEW ALBUM?
I feel maybe on this album we were more consciously trying not to fall into predictable Alt-J pitfalls, and I think initially there was a worry, for example on the track ‘Adeline’, that it was starting to sound like a bit of a pastiche of an Alt-J song – we just wanted to make sure we veered away from that.
ONE THING THAT YOU CAN’T GET AWAY FROM WHILE LISTENING TO ANY OF THE 3 ALBUMS IS THE ATTENTION TO DETAIL AND ALMOST CLINICAL PRECISION THAT GOES INTO EACH AND EVERY TRACK. HOW LONG DID RELAXER TAKE TO COME TOGETHER? WAS IT A LINIER PROCESS OR HAD YOU HAD SOME OF THESE IDEAS FOR A WHILE? It depends. I mean, a song like ‘In Cold Blood’ was one we started working on while we we’re living in Leeds, six/seven years ago. Then again, ‘Deadcrush’ began as a sort of jam that happened right at the end of the sessions for This Is All Yours. ‘Pleader’ was written during some time we had off last year. ‘Adeline’ was written on tour in Tasmania. ‘Last Year’ was written right at the end of recording this album, almost like it snuck in right at the end before the door shut. So
Essentially what we had of ‘Deadcrush’ at first was just a nine minute jam of Joe playing this quite repetitive and stabby guitar hook, me writing a bass line and some keyboard and string parts and Tom just doing a beat – to which Joe then improvised some vocal lines over the top without specific lyrics, just made up words but with a very definite tune and style. We knew it was really good but had no structure, so after cutting it down we made it much more punchier, moved to electronic drums… it was a rough diamond that we cut and polished over quite a tough period really. But we always knew it would be a great song.
SO DESPITE PERCEPTIONS OF THIS SCIENTIFIC AND ULTRA-PRECISE APPROACH, SPONTANEITY IS VERY MUCH PART OF THE ALT-J WRITING PROCESS. I think you’re right. People do perceive us as a band that is very cerebral and nothing happens spontaneously but I do think that actually quite a few of our songs do come down to this process of jamming – which we never really
used to do, but I think we’re doing it increasingly because we know each other better, we know our instruments better, and we’re a lot more confident than we ever had been before. So we now realize that songs can come about as a result of us getting in a room and seeing what happens.
THERE’S SOME GREAT GUEST APPEARANCES ON THE NEW ALBUM - A RETURN FROM MARIKA HACKMAN (ON ‘LAST YEAR’) AND ALSO WOLF ALICE’S ELLIE ROWSELL (ON ALBUM OPENER ‘3WW’). HOW DID THEY COME ABOUT? AND DO YOU EVER WRITE WITH COLLABORATIONS
OR GUESTS IN MIND? I think we see both those two tracks as short films, so it was really good to get good actors playing those roles. So we were very happy to get both Ellie and Marika. We know Ellie through touring with Wolf Alice, and we know Marika through Charlie Andrew who produces her albums as well as ours. There are always certain lines where we think we want a certain voice to sing it. It’s just a case of finding the right person and approaching it like that.
YOU MENTIONED CONFIDENCE BEFORE - HOW IMPORTANT IS THAT FOR YOU GUYS? ESPECIALLY AS THE ALT-J STORY
COULD HAVE TURNED OUT VERY DIFFERENTLY. IT COULD HAVE BEEN A CLASSIC TRAGEDY - A TALE OF EARLY, UNEXPECTED SUCCESS, FOLLOWED BY LOSING A MEMBER OF THE BAND – IT COULD HAVE ALL FALLEN APART, BUT IT DIDN’T… Confidence comes from success but also comes from just maturing, I think. We now know what we’re capable of, and I think that would be the case even if we made the last two albums and they only managed limited success. We know it doesn’t need material or public success to give us that confidence. But you’re right in that we could
JUNE 2017 VULTUREHOUND 21
alt-j have easily fucked up after that first album. It could have been that classic story after Gwil left. But I think that the fact we’ve made two albums as a three piece now makes us feel that we’re not just a band who is trying to emulate that initial success.
WHAT PROMPTED THE MOVE AWAY FROM THE INITIAL IDEA OF MAKING YOUR IDENTITIES ANONYMOUS? HOW DO YOU THINK THAT’S CHANGED THE PRESS’ VIEW AND APPROACH TO WRITING ABOUT ALT-J? I think that people have a hard time understanding that we’re no interested in the ‘cult of personality’ when it comes to being a band. When we started out we had a strict policy of not showing our faces in photographs and trying to keep any biographical information about ourselves completely a secret. Then we started getting quite big and we were told “okay guys, you need to start playing the game now”, which was fair enough. I mean we never wanted this kind of idea to become more important that the music, so we said “fair enough. We’ll play the game. We’ll do the interviews. We’ll do the press shots and we’ll let the music do the most important thing.” But ultimately people – by people I mean the press – always wanted more than just the music.
IT’S BIZARRE THAT NONMUSICAL AND SEEMINGLY NON-CONSEQUENTIAL ELEMENTS CAN DRAW SUCH 22 VULTUREHOUND JUNE 2017
ALT-J LIVE ATTENTION AND INFLUENCE HOW A PIECE OF MUSIC IS RECEIVED. I KNOW YOU’RE A FAN OF PHILIP GLASS – AND THIS WHOLE THING REMINDS ME OF A PERFORMANCE OF HIS I SAW A FEW YEARS BACK ON THE SOUTHBANK. THE PHILIP GLASS ENSEMBLE WAS PERFORMING ‘MUSIC IN 21 PARTS’, IN FULL. IT WAS AN AWE-INSPIRING EXPERIENCE SEEING SUCH AN ICONIC AND EPIC FEAT OF PRECISION MUSICIANSHIP IN A LIVE SETTING. HOWEVER, TWO DAYS LATER A REVIEW APPEARED IN THE TELEGRAPH CRITICISING THE PERFORMANCE FOR “LACKING HUMOUR”… Yes, exactly, exactly. It’s frustrating but ultimately critics are usually the worst people to actually judge stuff. They want to have a story, and they want to have the personality behind it. So we’ve just been like, “okay, fine, but you’re not going to get much!” Because we’re not particularly interesting or outrageous people, we’re quite nice middle class guys who just happen to make really interesting music – I suppose! But we chose to be honest about it by saying, “okay, you want to see what we look like? Well, this is what we look like. Pretty standard!” We are who we are but we hope people will just think about the music first and foremost. Relaxer is out now on Infectious / Atlantic
The O2 Arena, London Friday 16th June
H
aving last seen alt-J on their An Awesome Wave tour over four years ago, it’s clear that the now arena-filling band have come a long way both musically and technically since their first national tour. Opening with lead single ‘3WW’ off of their latest album Relaxer it was clear that we were in for an incredibly polished performance. Ever the enigma, the men of few words let the music do the talking, with a solid setlist heavily comprised of songs from their debut album. Despite the large venue, they still managed to create an intimate atmosphere with the intensity of each song building on the last. ‘The Gospel of John Hurt’ marked a particular highlight, with a sound quality almost indistinguishable from the studio album. Huge props have to go to the staging team, as the lighting and general production value was incredible, elevating the gig to new levels that they could only have dreamed o but a few years ago. While it would have been great to have had a few more songs from the later albums as well to extend the setlist, this was a refined and captivating performance from start to finish.
WORDS: WILL WELSBY
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CARL BARAT
camden rocks
CAMDEN ROCKS LIVE
V
ultureHound photographer, Lindsay Melbourne shares some of her best moments from this years Camden Rocks…
We’re back at the annual rock fest that is Camden Rocks, an all dayer, 20+ venue festival with over 100 acts of up-and-coming, unsigned talent with a few bigger names topping the bill. It’s a largely rock orientated festival but all the headliners seem to be some of our indie faves. More photos at VultureHound.com
YUNGBLOOD
REVEREND AND THE MAKERS
PRETTY PISTOLS JUNE 2017 VULTUREHOUND 25
adventure time
PHOTOS: CARTOON NETWORK/TURNER
A D A H S Y M E R E J FINN E VOICE OF H T H IT W : W IE V R E T IN
ADVENTURE TIME ATE WORDS: GRAE WESTG
W
alking into the Excel this weekend for the first of MCM’s Comic Con events of the year, VultureHound were once again greeted by the usual swarms of superfans, each dressed as their oft obscure fantasy heroes.
Amongst them, however, one fandom shone like no other. A fandom so fierce in their love for their show that they flock in their multicoloured glory, overshadowing even the most day-glo of anime otaku. This is the cult of Adventure Time. The innocent adventures of Finn the human and Jake the dog have enchanted a generation like few other shows, and we were lucky enough to grab a rare five minutes with star Jeremy Shada as he flitted between
26 VULTUREHOUND JUNE 2017
mobs of adoring fans and rocking out on stage with his band, Make Out Monday…
LOOKING AROUND TODAY, IT’S CLEAR TO SEE WHAT A MASSIVE PHENOMENON ADVENTURE TIME HAS BECOME. WHAT DO YOU THINK THE APPEAL OF THE SHOW IS TO SUCH A BROAD AUDIENCE? With Adventure Time, I think there are so many things that go into why it has such a broad appeal, but for me, I think the art style… It’s very colourful, very vibrant… You just get drawn into the world and you wanna go see every little bit of this amazing, magical world. And then the characters, even though they’re all kinda crazy and they do crazy things, ultimately, they’re all very relatable in a very real way, and they’re going through real things in the way that anybody would. Even though they’re fighting dragons or going through
these mystical lands, they’re still very real people. I think that’s what people like about it the most; they can really see themselves in a lot of these characters. Finn is the little boy in all of us. A boy and his dog going on a lot of adventures… It’s kinda like an idealised version of what we all wanna be in a lot of ways!
SPEAKING OF “THE BOY AND HIS DOG”, HOW DO YOU FEEL THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FINN AND JAKE HAS CHANGED OVER THE YEARS? I think the fun thing about Finn and Jake is that they do hit on a lot of different levels. Straight up, they are brothers; they grew up together so they are brothers. There’s the whole “boy and his dog” type thing, but then there’s also the almost uncle/nephew type relationship ‘cause Jake is older than Finn, so he almost directs him sometimes when Finn doesn’t know how to deal with a certain situation. But at the same time, Finn is there to bring Jake back to reality sometimes when Jake is being all doggish and selfish. So, they balance each other out really well. That’s why I think their relationship works. They love each other very much and they’re great friends, but the weaknesses they both have, the other one has the opposite strengths.
HOW HAS IT FELT RECORDING THE FINAL SEASON OF THE SHOW? Going into the last episodes of anything is always a surreal thing, especially with Adventure Time, because
I recorded it for eight years, from when I was twelve to twenty. So I really grew up on the show. It’s bittersweet. You grow to love the cast members that you see every week… But it’s also exciting! We got to end it on a good note, and wrap everything up. I think people are really gonna love the ending of it! Then, you also have the opportunity to do new projects and new things, and try out different stuff. I do think in some way, shape or form, they’ll probably continue Adventure Time one way or another. I dunno what form that’ll take, but I do think a movie is very possible. (laughs) Eventually…
WHAT CAN WE LOOK FORWARD TO DURING THE LAST CHAPTERS OF FINN’S QUEST? A lot of laughs! That’s what we generally try and hope for with Adventure Time! Definitely some emotional beats as we say goodbye to some of these characters… Not deaths or anything, but you’re seeing them wrap up their stoylines, so that’s always gonna be emotional. Just expect what you always expect from Adventure Time; lighthearted humour that brings levity to these situations, but also that emotional depth that they balance, somehow, extremely well!
NOW YOU’RE WRAPPING UP, WHAT’S BEEN YOUR FAVOURITE PART OF THE ADVENTURE TIME EXPERIENCE? Man, there’s been a lot of favourite parts. That’s hard… I mean, getting to do it was obviously the best part! (laughs) Having a job is nice! But, no, seriously, I think it’s probably the people that I work with. I get to work with the coolest voice actors in the business, and I’ve grown up listening to them before I even got into acting, so getting to learn from those people and call them my peers, just hanging out with them and getting to know them, that’s just the coolest thing in the world. Whenever you have a show that just blows up and becomes so widespread across the entire world… that’s just insane. You never expect that going in. You hope that the shows you work on are successful, but when people really take to it and make it their own like they have with Adventure Time, that’s always super special. You can catch the final adventures of Finn and Jake on Cartoon Network UK right now.
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ALGIERS the post-colonial project is still a massive force that needs to be pushed up against. I think a lot of what this band is trying to do is combat traditional narrative arcs prescribed to us by popular culture – where everything has all its loose ends neatly tied up, so to speak.
INTERVIEW: ALGIERS
When did you realise that your strong beliefs in these socio-political issues could be carried forward in a musical project like this?
WORDS: DANIEL WITHEY
lgiers’ 2015 debut album mixed powerful and rousing soul and gospel influences with dark and experimental post-punk. Tracks like ‘Black Eunuch’ and ‘Blood’ were full of the light and dark of their respective influences. It was a genre-meshing stroke of genius that seemed to understand the history behind the (often assumed to be disparate) genres they were fusing. Two years on, the Atlanta born Franklin Fisher, Ryan Mahan and Lee Tesche, along with exBloc Party drummer/now full time Algiers man, Matt Tong, are ready to release album number two - The Underside of Power. And it might just be the most important album you’ll hear all year. VultureHound spoke to vocalist Franklin James Fisher and Matt Tong to find out about the world from which The Underside of Power was born…
A
Since your debut album Algiers in 2015 the unrest both sides of the Atlantic has been palpable - how much of 28 VULTUREHOUND JUNE 2017
that unrest is has been fed into The Underside of Power? Frank: In a very abstract sense it fed into some undertones of the record, but when we approach any sort of socio-political situation we look at things that are more systemic, things that have been persisting for a much longer time… I think Trump was the logical conclusion of late capitalist America and the erosion of a bankrupt electoral system.
Is it important to you to remind people, or make people aware of the history behind the message? Especially with a name like Algiers… Matt: We’re very aware of history. Obviously we’re directly referring to the Algerian war of independence – and I think it is very important for us to highlight the colonial struggle and actually connect that to the present and show how
Frank: We were never meant to be a political band, and I don’t think we are a political band with a capital ‘P’ – that’s too restrictive. The people I look up to, they speak to the whole gamut of the human experience, and much of that is politics, and much of it is existential, too. I think that’s just as important, if not more so, and I try to address all of those things in my writing. But also I try to write beyond the spectrum of what’s dictated to people as what is acceptable within popular music, particularly nowadays. It didn’t used to be as restrictive but now it seems that people just really want escapism, so when you listen to Top 40 radio there’s only a few topics – sex, money, and… Matt: Asses. Frank: (Laughs) yeah, asses. I work in a nightclub so I hear a lot of really vacuous music on a regular basis, and there’s one song that’s quite popular right now in the United States and the lyrics are literally just “Ass, ass, ass, ass…” – so yeah, there are a lot of issues the contribute to the absurdity of the human condition and that to me is what is exciting and so rich with material to address.
Frank: Well that’s a great compliment to us, but I know what you mean. Often times I’ve seen us compared to TV on the Radio, because we’re a multi-racial band! But that’s where to comparisons stop – I mean they’re a great band but we don’t have any conscious connection to them at all.
So how did these influences come together? Frank: I think things really materialised with the song ‘Black Eunuch’ (From 2015’s Algiers) that’s when we realised we were onto something unique. Those energies – if you want to use gospel as a short hand – between gospel and punk are very similar, as different as they may seem on the surface. They’re both about group participation, a driving beat, and they’re often songs about dispossession and trying to gain a sort of hope. I think just because we have this mutual admiration and respect for different types of music that’s where our advantage lies. But oftentimes, and this is somewhat controversial, especially in the United States, it’s very rare that you have white people who understand the energies and the visceral contours of traditional black music, and vice versa – a lot of people don’t quite understand the complexities of guitar music in rock or punk.
But it shouldn’t be a surprise when something that’s ‘historically black’ and something that’s ‘historically white’, music wise, does work well together…
“
I MEAN - BLOC PARTY WAS WORKING PERFECTLY FINE FOR ME AND THEN AT A CERTAIN POINT IT WASN’T.
“
As far as the music goes it’s incredibly hard to know where to put Algiers – this combination of musical styles and lyrical themes are unlike anything I’ve heard before…
Frank: No it shouldn’t. But increasingly people forget that you can’t really divorce the aesthetic package from its historical roots. And that’s the key to understanding how cross pollination works – you can’t just use it from a completely aesthetic basis, and a lot of that has to do with the history and the understanding of that history. I mean rock ‘n’ roll was born from these cultural intersections, and a lot of the pioneers, white or black, they couldn’t really ignore the differences in the historical origins of these things - it was such a hotbed of political unrest. But now it’s just easier for people to push that aside and approach it from a completely aesthetic point of view – and I don’t think you can do that very well.
You’ve got different members living either side of the Atlantic - has there been the thought that you should all be in the same place? Would that make it easier? Matt: No, I’d rather we all lived in separate countries! Frank: (Laughs) Matt: I mean, it would be nice but I think this is showing us that there isn’t a true path through all of this. It would make life easier, for sure, but one of the benefits of not always being around each other is that there’s no pressure to make things happen there and then. So having a bit of physical distance gives you time to pause and reflect. Particularly when we’re trying to pull all of these different influences.
Is this born out of your experiences with your previous band? Matt: I don’t know… Within the Algiers camp I refer to it as “my prior experiences”. Frank: (Laughs) Matt: Just to illuminate potential pitfalls of being in a long-term band. I mean - Bloc Party was working perfectly fine for me and then at a certain point it wasn’t. I don’t think it had anything to do with proximity or any of that… that’s all I’m going to say on the subject! (Laughs) But it was a huge part of my life. Read the full interview at VultureHound.com The Underside of Power is out on June 23rd via Matador Records.
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ALIEN
WORDS: RICHARD HART
THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
FOR A GOOD
ALIENS MOVIE
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S
ome people feel the Aliens franchise has had it’s day. Between the muddled, insipid Alien Resurrection or the shockingly poor Alien V Predator to the beautiful but bewildering Prometheus, the saga hasn’t had a good day for a few years.
Covenant has neither unified critics nor audiences like any of the other movies in the saga. It featured many elements that worked very well and others that landed very poorly. There had been talk from Ridley Scott of two more movies but the muted reaction to Covenant may nix that. So if there are to be any future movies as part of the franchise, it’d be good if they honoured what made the original saga so timeless. I present below my Ten Comandments for making a great Alien movie:
1. THOU SHALL NOT MAKE A PG-12 / PG-13 MOVIE.... The Alien is a horrific, parasitic predator that rips through the internal organs of its victims and then, when in its adult state, shatters the skulls of its victims with its horrendous teeth and bone-ram of a tongue. This isn’t a being that belongs in a mainstream suitable for children movie. The Alien is horrible and it’s violence should be hardedged, though not excessive. A new alien movie should feature the tension, violence and gripping intensity of the original movies and thus not be suitable for children. Covenant finally brought the horror back in a good way with some truly gruesome moments as well as having a good “foreboding atmosphere” to it.
2-THOU SHALL NOT
REINVENT THE WHEEL The alien and its life-cycle are recognised and powerful, as well as logical in its design. Therefore there is no need for you to create new aliens and a new life-cycle just to showcase something new. The aliens are already accepted designs and scary enough. So no Dog-burster and certainly no New-Borns. The alien works and has endured for a reason. Use your creativity on the characters and the setting Covenant introduced several new elements to the mythos; the origin story (interesting) the neomorph (strange but perhaps a bit underdeveloped on screen) and further connective tissue to the original trilogy.
3-THOU SHALL BE CAREFUL WITH HUMOUR Sci-fi is famously humourless and the Alien’s movies don’t have much humour in them. There are some nice moments, especially with the smart-ass dialogue from the marines (Looks like love at first sight to me).... However don’t include jokey moments. Never ever have the aliens play comedy fall guys. They are lethal killers and should be shown respect. Covenant was fairly humourless, though you could argue that Danny McBride and James Franco brought some inadvertent humor to it.
4-THOU SHALL KILL WITHOUT MERCY Alien works because the alien is deadly. Every character that encounters the alien close up, with the exception of ‘final girl’ Ripley is killed. Again in Aliens
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ALIEN the marines can kill the aliens but the aliens are still deadly, using speed and concealment. So let’s avoid any moments where the heroes avoid death through anything silly. If a major character encounters an alien at close range, they should die unless there is a very good reason for them not to. Be ruthless with the cast, even if this means killing off a major character early on. Covenant was sort of merciless, following the tradition that the “captain dies early”. However much of the cast were fairly faceless extras so their deaths didn’t land very hard.
5-THOU SHALL KEEP THE SCI-FI HARD The Alien’s universe is a gritty, dark place with a hard sci-fi sheen. There are robots and space-ships but everything looks like it works. The props look worn, the ships are ugly, bristling monsters and the space-suits are bulky and complex The Alien’s Sci-fi setting is physical, things break down, are jury rigged and scrawled across. This is a lived in sci-fi setting so let’s have no shiny, clean sci-fi environments.
6-THOU SHALL USE PRACTICAL EFFECTS 32 VULTUREHOUND JUNE 2017
No one says that you can’t use CGI and use it well. But let’s try to make sure that there are physical sets, physical settings and quality props for the cast so that they feel like they’re in a serious movie rather than a video-game. The alien was always at its most effective when done with practical effects. Keep in mind that the first alien (arguably the most scary one) was just a tall man in a suit. Having said that, Covenant’s CGI alien felt a bit more real and weighty than usual so that was good.
7-THOU SHALL MINIMISE THE ALIEN’S SCREEN TIME In Alien the actual xenomorph is only seen on screen for a few minutes of a near two hour movie. The alien is best used in the shadows, a lurking Freudian threat. The alien is mysterious, enigmatic and deadly. Therefore no scenes of the alien wandering around, no unobserved alien moments and definitely no alien POV moments. Covenant broke all of these and the alien POV stuff really undermines the third act. The alien should be kept off screen to maximise its impact when it does appear. The alien is the movie’s star and should be treated as such. It’s not just the aliens movies that this works with;
Silence of the Lambs features less than 20 minutes of screen-time for Hannibal Lector and it works perfectly.
8-THOU SHALL HAVE A MEMORABLE CAST Alien and Aliens both have a strong ensemble cast and interesting characters that you care about. From the blue collar heroes of Alien to the cocky marines of Aliens, without good heroes and victims, the xenomorph is just a passenger. So write good characters and cast strong actors. Give them enough screen-time to give us time to care about them. And then kill them off, of course! Again, Covenant has a largely forgettable cast of people with surnames die off pretty quickly. All that was memorable was their gory death.
9-THOU SHALL NOT OBSESS WITH CONNECTING THE DOTS One of the biggest problems of Prometheus and Covenant has been the desperate need for the
story to link up neatly with the original that came out nearly 40 years ago. When making future parts of the saga, it might be better if the directors just try to make the movie a good story and not worry so much about explaining where every little detail of the Alien came from. Remember that because the prequel is made later than the original, none of the technology matches up. Observe the low tech gadgets on the Nostromo compared to the sleek, advanced stuff aboard the Prometheus or the Covenant. You can’t really tie it up so don’t sweat it so much!
10-THOU SHALL KNOW THY LIMITS Make one movie and don’t fret about legacy, don’t fret about sequels and the wider cannon. Make a movie that works and then if there are quality sequels then great. But just make one movie, self contained and effective. Don’t overreach like in Prometheus. So there are some rules to start off with. I’m sure that Ridley Scott will read them and nod sagely. If Covenant proves profitable enough to warrant sequels, then lets hope that a purer, better, leaner beast can be unleashed. Remember that Danny Boyle and David Cronenberg both turned down making Alien movies. This is a hard beat and the talented David Fincher and Jean Pierre Jeunet both had flawed / failed Alien movies.
ALIEN: COVENANT (FILM REVIEW)
B
efore we get down to Alien: Covenant I want to say, yeah there’s plot-holes, caverns if you will, in Prometheus, and Guy Pearce as an old man was all kinds of pantomime ludicrousness, but overall I was a fan. I vividly remember sitting in the cinema and welling up over how beautiful the opening shots were. It was it’s own film whilst stirring in a few dashes of what we know Alien to be. Well, Ridley Scott returns to the film franchise that gave him his first mega hit and attempts to sate the critics of Prometheus. That means more gore, more people running around smoke filled space crafts and Alien action for your buck. Originally titled ‘Paradise Lost’, Scott seems to be going to lengths to let us know “no this is totally, definitely an Alien film”. He goes so far as to emulate the opening titles of the 1979 film (although not as impressively) and re-using music cues. As we meet the crew there is an intense sense of deja-vu; Mother, the computer system from the original is back, the crew are not scientists but workers looking after human cargo. The main bridge looks like an updated, shinier version of the original film. These opening sequences work surprisingly well. Instead of looking like a re-tread it feels like Scott is attempting a light-reset on the series to get us back to where we need to be; meaning that there will soon be monsters hunting these folk. After receiving a jumbled beacon signal, the crew of The Covenant changes course to a planet they think could be a new home for them and the colonists they carry. After a wonderfully shot jungle sequence, that would have worked for The Lost World: Jurassic Park, the horror begins as nameless crew members begin to burst from the inside by way of our beloved xenomorphs. But much like the deadly pathogen we see flying through the air and infecting it’s human hosts so does the germs of Prometheus infect a perfectly healthy Alien: Covenant. You can pin point the exact moment where things go from great to crap. Michael Fassbender returns as David the android. Appearing from
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ALBUMS ALIEN nowhere to shoot an alien attacking the Covenant crew, dressed in an Assassin’s Creed style hood he turns away and demands “follow me”. In that exact moment the film turns from an intriguing space horror into Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. There’s caves, etchings on walls, talk about the creation of life, David having a kung-fu fight with Walter (another android played by Fassbender, so he’s basically fighting himself). For you see David has been busy at work on the planet since landing there with Noomi Rapace’s Elizabeth Shaw some ten years ago and he’s got plans! As soon as David is introduced the film becomes a Saw-like thriller and it just feels odd. The creatures themselves should be the primary antagonist, by all means have a Paul Reiser – Burke figure but don’t have the aliens play second fiddle to a creepy Peter O’Toole impressionist. Speaking of the aliens; the rendering of them is truly bad in some sequences. It’s as though they’ve used the same software they did for Alien3. The insistence of carrying on David’s story from Prometheus just sucks all the haunted house horror from the film. By the time we get back on the eponymous ship for good, old fashioned killings in dark corridors the tension has completely gone. To be fair they’ve managed to make a sequel to Prometheus and prequel to Alien at the same time but the means in which it gets there is just a whole heap of “I don’t care”. Katherine Waterston as the Ripley-esque character is fine, if a little bland, given little to do other than be upset then give looks of ‘toughen up’ before going back to sad. Danny McBride handles himself well in a role which is essentially a toned down version of his usual schtick, come to think of it he might be the best part about the film. Billy Crudup’s reluctant captain doesn’t get hardly enough screentime. The most frustrating thing about Alien: Covenant is the set-up had so much promise. The table is set perfectly to be the Alien film we all want then the second act is so laughable that it ruins the rest of the film. They say Neill Blomkamp’s Alien 5 is now dead as a project. Last week I wasn’t fussed. After seeing Alien: Covenant this makes me almost mad.
ALBUMS OF THE YEAR SO FAR... With the first half of 2017 almost done and dusted, the VH Music team pick out some of their favourite albums of the year (so far)…
BRUTUS BURST Words: Tim Birkbeck There’s a beauty in a blast beat, and it’s even more tantalising when it is capped off in a unique way. For Belgian trio Brutus, their debut album Burst ticks all of these boxes. Shredding guitar riffs and brutal blast beats are all topped off with the hauntingly beautiful vocals of drummer Stefanie Mannaerts. With standout tracks like ‘Justice De Julia II’ and ‘Not Caring’ giving just an appetiser of what this three piece are capable of.
FIEST PLEASURE Words: Samantha Fisher From the way it pulls our emotions to the surface, to its thematic structure as it tells a story, Feist’s 5th album is simply breathtaking. Pleasure goes from angst to bliss, and all the way back again, in an all too seamless manner. It is an album of both brutal honesty, and fragility; a striking account of emotion, with Feist’s vocals pouring over the heartache like honey to soften the blow. It drags up all feelings, but validates them all the same, making for a blissfully comforting listen.
WORDS: MICHAEL DICKINSON
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SIRWAS – DIGGING A TUNNEL
KENDRICK LAMAR - DAMN.
change the fact that we don’t know what we’re getting - but
Words: Cayle Hotene DAMN. starts with ambiguity and ends with a declaration: ‘BLOOD’ finds the Compton wordsmith murdered by a blind woman, while the album closer, ‘DUCKWORTH’, posits that the greatest rapper alive is only alive because of a Sliding Doors-esque variety of happenings. It beggars belief, and so does the record - richly detailed, lavishly produced and masterfully sequenced. Each track, whether thunderous, doe-eyed or prophetic, drips with the unspoken assertion that there is
it does cement the fact that we should be getting it.
Kendrick Lamar; and then there is everyone else.
Words: Cayle Hotene This album laughs in the face of classification. Joel Wästberg’s thoughtful melding of genres and cultures means he’s prey to worn-out buzzwords (avant-garde, genre-bending - bleh). So, to try: DAT is brave & delicate, lovely and lonely, a sonic masterwork beaming with tales of separation, hope, and everything in between. That’s sirWas. And maybe it doesn’t
ANDY OLIVERICALL THEM BROTHERS Words: Ben Adsett A once emotive singer/ songwriter, Andy Oliveri has exploded into a sonic expansive frontman backed by a fuzzy wall of ever controlled feedback. There are nods towards shoe/surf gaze, post-hardcore, and behind it all the song writing intricacies of a folk maestro. This is songwriting at its very best; a combination of lyrics and musicianship which are rarely considered of equal importance.
WHY? - MOH LHEAN Words: Dan Withey Is it a newly found inner peace? Or is Yoni Wolf just happier these days? Whatever the reason, the master of self-deprecating and self-referencing indiecum-hip-hop delivers an album that appears to show a man much more accepting of his place in the Universe. While Moh Lhean may not have the cynical edge of 2012’s Mumps, Etc. nor the genre-fusing tenacity of breakthrough album, Alopecia, it does retain that poetic prowess something that Mr. Wolf is rightly celebrated for.
VANT - DUMB BLOOD
KAMIKAZE GIRLS – SEAFOAM
Words: Ruby Parsons
Words: Tim Birkbeck
An album filled with
With lyrics like “Spending
political and social
a year of my life doing
opinions sets Vant apart
nothing” and “I stood to
from the typical rock/pop
the back of the venue and
stereotype. Still remaining
I worried about my mental
fun, energetic and often
health” you can tell just
juvenile, Vant are a voice for a young generation. These
how ‘heart on the sleeve’ this duo are. But this is by no
guys and this album had a purpose, their message being
means a bleak, doom and gloom record, it explores the
sent via some expertly played balls to the wall rock music.
band’s wider musical influences from shoegaze, fuzz-pop and the heavier side of the genre-spectrum they call home.
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13 REASONS WHY
WORDS: RITA ARESTA
hy would a dead girl lie?” Well, they won’t actually tell you why, but they’ll make sure as hell the first episode starts off with Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart”. There’s some of The Cure later on too. Of course there is. Based on a novel by American author Jay Asher, 13 Reasons Why, one of Netflix’s latest productions and the show everyone’s talking about, attempts to bring to the small screen a realistic account of the troubled period also known as adolescence. Having suffered physical, sexual and psychological abuse, 17-year-old Hannah (Katherine Langford) finds herself crushed to the point she can only fathom one solution to her problems: killing herself.
“W
Two weeks later, classmate/crush Clay (Dylan Minnette) finds a mysterious box with several cassette tapes on his doorstep. As he listens to them, tape after tape – a total of thirteen, flashbacks reveal a dark and cruel side to the small American town teen world: “Maybe I’ll never know why you did what you did. But I can make you understand how it felt”, says Hannah before narrating in great detail her destructive process. Produced by Selena Gomez and Academy Award-winner Tom McCarthy (Spotlight), 13 Reasons Why has some merit in broadening the book’s narrative, allowing for discussions that go beyond Hannah’s problems; it isn’t told through a Manichaeistic lens featuring entirely good or evil individuals. As a viewer, you can (almost) empathise with the characters’ inner troubles, despite being told they’re responsible for the actions that drove Hannah to suicide. Featuring predominantly new actors, the cast delivers a solid performance – even though some of the actors
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are clearly too old for their roles, a la Hollywood 101 manual. It’s also quite moving to see Kate Walsh (Gray’s Anatomy) genuinely express the pain and outrage of a mother who lost her daughter so tragically when she wasn’t even aware of the problem. So after all the hype…where do the problems start? After the first couple of episodes, I was actually pretty excited as this show had a lot of potential. However, having watched it through, read about it and discussed it with others, I have come to the conclusion that no one deserves to have to watch 13 Reasons Why. Spoilers ahead! Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, 13 Reasons Why goes against every single World Health Organization recommendation for the media portrayal of suicide. Three key ideas are totally disregarded: 1) avoid romanticising the act of suicide; 2) avoid portraying suicide as an acceptable response to difficulties; and 3) avoid including the method, location or details of the person who died. This is meant not only to respect those who died and their close ones, but also to portray the subject in an objective manner that focuses on prevention and raising awareness. Anyone who has seen the final episodes of 13 Reasons Why knows that, perhaps in an attempt to be “edgy” and “outrageous”, there’s practically a morbid and desperate tutorial on how to commit suicide… which brings us to the second point. 13 Reasons Why completely ignores how much the portrayal of suicide can affect people enduring some level of emotional fragility. Given the manner in which Hannah kills herself, it provides the perfect ingredients to affect – negatively, of course – other vulnerable
PHOTO: BETH DUBBER/NETFLIX
WHY WOULD A DEAD GIRL LIE? 13 REASONS WHY
young people. I agree that for the mentally healthy, this may be a way to make the viewer think in greater depth; for others, it’s nothing short of a nightmare. The first trigger warning appears only in the ninth episode – but way before that, the heavy undertones and the way in which the plot develops can already send someone vulnerable into crisis mode. I’m not sure the complexities of those who commit suicide should be portrayed as lightly as it is in 13 Reasons Why. It doesn’t actually address the issue of mental illness in adolescence; while you can see the progression of Hannah’s state of mind, by no means does it attempt to elicit how someone’s mental state can lead to suicide. Instead, it choses to point fingers and try to find a scapegoat, as if Hannah had been murdered. Sure, external actions can worsen an internal situation that’s already suboptimal. However, 13 Reasons Why doesn’t actually show a successful attempt at seeking help, much less an alternative way out; it fails to give a single example of how a problem can resolved or reversed. When Hannah decides to take a “last chance at life” and see a counsellor, she states that asking for help simply won’t work. “You know what happens when girls ask for help”, sulks one of the rape victims. For someone who already feels lonely and confused, seeing this can make them believe there’s no way out of this loop. It’s appalling how they couldn’t even include a helpline indication such as the Samaritans as a footnote to the UK audience; this is at best a disservice and at worst pure neglect.
Having said that…forget Hannah’s death. This isn’t a series about suicide, but about revenge. Hannah’s tapes are nothing but a way of blaming others and getting some kind of retribution for everything that happened to her. While crimes have been committed, that doesn’t excuse Hannah’s thirst for vengeance, while playing only the victim part. Talking about suicide, one of the leading causes of death among young people, especially LGBT+ youth, is certainly important. Also commendable is the idea of making the viewer think about their own actions and how they behave in front of others. However, while bullying may lead to suicide, that doesn’t mean every bullying case ends up that way. Simplifying such a serious subject with the pathetic excuse of a “let’s shock the viewer” technique won’t work. Albeit correcting serious structural faults present in the literary version, showrunners Brian Yorke and Diana Son bring us a failed attempt at portraying suicide, bullying and rape. The show flails with rhythm inconsistencies from one chapter to the next, which, paired up with the poorly thought out production, may not inspire Netflix’s usual serial-marathon audience. With good intentions that don’t go beyond being exactly that, 13 Reasons Why is shocking and scary, but ultimately unauthentic and unnecessary. Producer Selena Gomez stated this story “isn’t over yet”, and for what it’s worth, 13 Reason Why’s popularity has prompted Netflix to renew the series for a second season, with a premiere date yet to be confirmed.
DREAMLAND ON THE UP
O
riginal seaside town Margate has spent the last few years clawing its way back from decline, largely through the revival of arts and culture. At the heart of it all, among the boutique stores and independent businesses such as Cliffs, Transmission Records and Etc. Vintage, is Dreamland. The town’s ever evolving fun fair, full of retro charm, while remaining incredibly current, is keeping the buzz of Margate well and truly alive. May bank holiday saw the park relaunch with another brand new look, and it is quite possibly the best yet. Opening a 15,000 capacity event space ready for the sold out Demon Dayz show, the park has surpassed last year’s return of 2000 capacity Hall by The Sea, which in earlier days hosted the likes of The Who and The Rolling Stones. This year sees the third running of By The Sea, going from a two day festival to three days (29th Sept – 1st Oct), with The Libertines, Metronomy and Everything Everything as the first acts to be announced. Prior to the festival, Dreamland will play host to Kent punk duo Slaves in July, and alt-J in early September. It’s shows like this that are proving the town’s worth, building a community based on creatives, artists and musicians. WORDS: SAMANTHA FISHER
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FINAL WORD
FINAL WORD
WORDS: LEE HAZELL ometimes, when you really want to separate yourself from your competition, you make decisions that lead you in an entirely different direction to them. Sometimes, that direction will lead you away from all your competition’s success too.
S
That lesson is one now being learned by DC as they desperately try to rework the moving parts of their Cinematic Universe. Where once they tried to enamour movie goers by applying the Dark & Gritty™ vibes of Christopher Nolan’s Batman Trilogy to franchises they were much less suited for, they are now applying Marvel’s bright and breezy storytelling techniques to films envisioned as an antidote to those same methods. The movies have frankly become victims of their own ambitions. Their desire to tackle difficult themes like the line of justice and the role of life taking in law enforcement have become so dark they’ve formed black holes around the films from which no fun can escape. Their heroes have fared no better. They spend so much of their time in self-reflection I’m amazed they haven’t turned themselves inside out. Patty Jenkins, director of DC’s first cinematic triumph in almost a decade, approached her first Hollywood blockbuster with the same attitude that Marvel has been bringing to their stories for the last nine years. Putting a pin in it, she simply puts the hero first. There is barely any attempt at world building, and links to the other films are few and far in-between. The emphasis is strictly on the Amazon and herself, not on the plot, nor the bad guys. This is seen as a Marvel trait, but ironically this was originally the approach that Richard Donner gave the
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WHY WONDER WOMAN WORKED first Superman movie. Focus on the hero, and the hero’s relationships with the supporting characters and the audience. Everything else is secondary. Marvel brought Donner’s approach back with Iron Man, but in doing so brought back all its flaws. The already thin plots steadily got more anaemic, the villains, with one or two acceptations, are utterly forgettable, but when you leave the cinema, so hyped are you for Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, those problems cease to matter. The same goes for Gal Gadot. When they announced Gadot’s casting as the most iconic female superhero of all time, with only a small handful of supporting roles to her name, I balked; but her performance, along with Allan Heinberg’s screenplay, rounds out Diana’s character into someone whose naivety is endearing, who’s righteous anger is invigorating, and who’s charisma is compelling. Her key scene comes from a moment of compassion. Charlie, a soldier with a voice like a Scottish Shane MacGowan decides to be left behind as he’s no good to them as a sharp shooter who’s PTSD prevents him from shooting. Diana gives him a smile as warm as your mother’s roast dinner and simply says, “But who will sing for us?” I melted like cheese on toast. The Wonder Woman film just gave me a moment to truly believe in the character, and from there I was concerned far more with the success of their mission, not the films admittedly numerous flaws. Snyder insists you think about this universe’s characters as gods, but it took the only DC character so far who actually has a claim at being a deity to show us that connecting with a hero as a human being is the only way to get an audience to truly root for their success.
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TyC comes from a diverse background of genres and first established himself as a member of the band Carousel. After leaving Berklee to go on tour, he’s spent years honing his craft as both a songwriter and a producer. He has spent 2016 shadow producing and working with a network of artists signed with different labels and is finally ready to release his own project! The EP will be featuring Joselyn Rivera, Sonny Step and REN! “All2Myself” is a culmination of TyC’s diverse experience in the industry. A multi-instrumentalist at heart, he combines his unique pop sensibilities with a unique retro-80s aesthetic. He wrote the song when he first moved to LA a few months ago, and being from Cleveland, it chronicles his rocky encounters with the new social terrain. Overtop the big beat, he uses vocoder laden overdubs capture that west coast summer sound! He recorded, produced and mixed the record himself and is excited to premiere the single on June 16th on This Is EDM and Skope Magazine! tyc-music.com https://soundcloud.com/user-529490570 https://www.instagram.com/tycmusic/ https://www.facebook.com/TyCmusicc/ Available on Spotify
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