/ Mind Made Up In Blue /

 Mind Made Up In Blue Issue One (Print) / Distributed in venues around Manchester / Jan 2010 :

"This small magazine project began in January 2009 with the stunted launch of 'An Apathetical Reader', a publication devoted to supporting and encouraging young 'creatives' in our city. The aim was to create a product fulfilling our ideals of 'proactivity' and react against disillusionment, malaise or apathy - especially during a time of increased unemployment. The original proposal was idealist and ambitious, presenting an open public forum for 'artists' of any kind, and for local individuals to connect and discuss their ideas freely. The Internet was the apt tool, where participants could contribute their work, share their ideas and discuss in real time. This print edition hopes to represent the same ideal of a public sphere, is demure. In this format it has no relation to illusions of personality. It is not an instant space. It will only be what it exists to you now. It stresses the importance of starting small, being earnest and retaining the innocence of small gestures."

With music reviews:
/ Former Bullies www.myspace.com/formerbullies / 
/ Hyacinth Girl wwwmyspace.com/hyacinthgirls /
/ Waiters: www.myspace.com/kuwaiters /
/ Nathaniel: www.myspace.com/nathanieltheband /

Illustration:
/ David Bailey: www.itsmountpleasant.com /
/ Emily Carew Woodard: www.myspace.com/ljtiny /
/ Alice White (boy): www.alice-ruth-white.blogspot.com /

Typography:

/ Lucy Vann: www.lucy-vann.blogspot.com /

Photography:
/ Martin Wilson: www.herearephotos.co.uk /

/ Alexandra Shah: www.alexandrashah.blogspot.com /

Poetry:
/ Max Wallis: www.poethesis.com /

Prose:
/ Alice White: www.alice-ruth-white.blogspot.com /
/ Darcy Eleanor Fox: www.darcyeleanorfox.wordpress.com /

With mix cd from Comfortable On A Tightrope promoters: www.comfortableonatightrope.blogspot.com

....ONLINE VERSION AND PRINT EDITIONS ARRIVING SOON....

When Your Old School Burns Down

Rec.tangle

Adrien Rhodes comments about his latest work with Rec.tangle and the debut album, "Heavy Maple", claiming it exists as a "soundtrack to a late night documentary on sea turtles". His use of synthesizer, sitar, zither and harp, amongst a range of instruments that make this new work wholly departed from Topo Gigio, relates to Sven Libaek's work on the Life Aquatic soundtrack, where a playful and ambient sound exists with romantic and almost idealistic use of percussion. Rec.tangle similarly feels like a voyage, and one with an 'enterprised' aesthetic of discovery. Beautifully minimal, abstract synthesizer on 'Seaharp' whirls, picking up drums, guitar, percussion and strings and writhing instrumental layers expand into vast soundscapes.

Have a listen: www.myspace.com/rectangularmusic

Cover art: Yuko Michishita (www.yukomich.co.uk)

Boy

Deaf To Van Gogh's Ear / Well Wisher / Hyacinth Girl @ Crack Yr Skull

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Last night saw the first Crack Yr Skull ‘fucking sweet happy night’ that featured live bands – moving from existing strictly as an emo, punk, rock, post-hardcore and surprisingly screamo disco to supporting a range of different but thematically loud 'party' bands in Manchester. With a DIY ethic, Crack Yr Skull is an earnest encouraging forum for emerging artists and happily avoids twee inaccessibility. Matching homemade baby photomontages for band visuals with the Beastie Boys and Nirvana was a mean feat.

Headlining were Heaton Chapel’s finest, Deaf To Van Gogh’s Ear, a young math pop band with mature influences. For a band so young it’s refreshing to hear a deliberated sound, a sound steeped in modern classical influence, technical, creative initiative and calmer pop. DTVGE stop and start with intricate rhythmic structures, interspacing bass, trumpet, guitar, drums and keyboard last night for a sound that displays their interest in emo sensitivity (Evan’s lyrics are jerky and soft (in a very British way, no US twinge here), electronica and melodic pop. This emerging band who sound like they work damn hard, with all their influence, are not pretentious or poseur and, frankly, they should be travelling the world with their balloons very soon.

Deaf To Van Gogh's Ear... “…could give Carol Vorderman a severe brain ache’…” MEN

Joined were Well Wisher, a loud, thrashing, spasmodic pop band with a lead singer that twist, jumps, turns and shrieks emo until your ears bleed loveblood (got carried away there) and Hyacinth Girl, noise-pop in the vein of Abe Vigoda, straight outta Withington. Both Well Wisher and Hyacinth Girl suit the punk tastes of Crack Yr Skull and made for a drunken riotous night, with split bass drums and all.

Check them all out below...

www.myspace.com/deaftovangoghsear

www.myspace.com/wellwisher10

www.myspace.com/hyacinthgirls

“Well Wisher…pulling down pants across the UK”

This came in the post for free yo...The Cribs / We Share The Same Skies

After a few listens to the brilliant new single taken from Ignore The Ignorant, you come to understand the extent of The Cribs’ mature progress, perhaps focused on Marr’s inclusion and their ascendance up rock hierarchy. But, just listen to their lyrics:

“A strange union the other day

It's a dead Russian, the papers say

But it would be nice if they realised

That she thought 'he is mine”

The Jarmans’ writing may focus still on tensions and anxieties in day-to-day dalliances and looking back at ‘You Were Always The One’, or ‘Learning How To Fight’, there always are reflections on restless and deliberated love with naïve rhythmic patterns and regional, gravelly chants. Within We Share The Same Skies, however, there are cleaner moments of vocal harmony and thankfully they drift away from the ‘real’ laziness of, say, “And I know I said I needed some time alone, and I know I never seem to pick up the phone, and though you will see me with someone else, you were always the one.” The Cribs still retain the same youth rebellion and discordant pop melody as they slip past peers The Paddingtons or The Others to find success, and these smoother songs from Ignore The Ignorant allow Marr to thicken their guitar pop and the band remain one of the best pop rock acts out there, departing from grey Northern Wakefield skies to broader horizons. The Cribs clean up, let’s just wait for a Jarman collaboration with butterman John Lydon.

“I have decided it's best that you know

I'm still thinking about

Old ties as north-west skies grow cold”

Oxjam Manchester website

Here's the Oxjam Manchester festival website. All articles composed and administered by Alice White.

www.oxjammanchester.org