Twin’s December playlist comes courtesy of DJ and music mag editor Hanna Hanra. Having spent ten years djing across the globe and writing about music, Hanna now edits her own music paper BEAT, from a basement in Dalston. Born out of her love for music and images she says; “There wasn’t a music magazine that I liked, so it made sense to start one”. While the photography is always striking, it’s Hanna’s passion for sound that’s at BEAT’s core.“Without music my life would be very quiet. And very different. I listen to music constantly,” she says.
Twin asked Hanna to name nine of her favourite tracks…
1/ FEIST – How Come You Never Go There This is just out and it’s brilliant. I love Feist – I love music that is happy and sad all at once – and this is a particulary good example of that. I will probably listen to this on repeat now.
2/ BLONDIE – Rapture The best pop song ever written.
3/ BLACK WIRE – Hard To Love I bought this record in Chicago not realising they were from Leeds…. and I bought it on the merit of the cover alone! It’s so good.
4/ BOWIE – Always Crashing The Same Car I had a phase of only listening to Bowie. So picking my favourite is always hard. I love Ziggy Stardust, but Low is really my favourite album, it’s so weird.
5/ REM – the sidewinder sleeps tonight REM was the first gig I went to see. I was 13!
6/ LATE OF THE PIER – Bathroom Gurgle This is incredible. They were so young when they did it too!
7/ MYSTERY JETS – Young Love
8/ YAZOO – Situation
9/ DIANA ROSS & THE SUPREMES – My World Is Empty Without You (Drop Out Orchestra Remix)
It’s been two years since AIR released their sixth album, Love 2, but the French duo still have their minds on matters of the heart. Painted Love bears their unmistakeable breathy electronic pop, but this is more than just one song. Luxury jewellers Cartier posed them the question “How Far Would You Go For Love?”. This is their answer.
The accompanying film, made by New York based directors Waverly, revisits the myth of Pygmalion and Galatea via down town Manhattan. A young artist searches for his muse, first in his canvas and then in the darkness of New York’s clubs, driven by his obsession to attain her. “The idea of the muse is very important to me, it is like a driving force. I know that for every album, we have needed a love story as a motivation. Creating art is like a huge need to be loved,” says AIR.
Cartier are set to pose their question to two more musicians and directors in 2012. But we’re already thinking how far we’d go. Are you?
No overnight YouTube success can sing a tune quite like Lana Del Rey. Ever the DIY recording star, the 24-year-old’s self-edited clip of debut single Video Games has garnered over 2 million hits and spawned the album Born To Die, set for release in early 2012.
The New Yorker, whose stage name is derived from a combination of film noir actress Lana Turner and the Ford Del Rey automobile, cites Nirvana and Biggie Smalls as two of her biggest musical influences. It is through this combination of retro nostalgia and catchy lyrics such as “you fit me better than my favourite sweater” that the artist also known as Lizzy Grant evokes the days of Sixties sirens singing in small jazz club venues, served with a 21st Century twist.
Del Rey kicks off her UK tour on November 4th in Manchester. It will be the chance to prove to her critics what we already know: she doesn’t just meet the hype surrounding her persona; she exceeds it.
The double single Video Games/Blue Jeans is out now. lanadelrey.com
Last night, Polly Jean Harvey took home her second Mercury Prize. From being the first woman to win the prize, she’s now the first person to win twice. In 2001 she first won with Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea, however the singer-songwriter was absent from the awards ceremony as she was on tour in the US. More than that, it was September 11th and Harvey spent the day watching the Pentagon burn from her hotel window.
Ten years on and aptly her eighth studio album, Let England Shake, is a conceptual work about conflict and war. “I wanted to make something meaningful not just to me but to other people,” says Harvey. With songs inspired by the WWI battle at Gallipoli the 41-year-old has set herself apart from other musicians as an artist unafraid to address ideas politically and melodiously.
This time around Harvey was very much present at the awards ceremony, dressed in a flowing white dress and feather headdress she looked like a punk-rock angel. And with Patti Smith winning the Polar Music Prize in Sweden, now is clearly a good time to be a woman in rock.
Drew Barrymore’s new music video for Californian lo-fi trio Best Coast is a street gang take on star-crossed lovers, played out across the deserted roof-tops of Los Angeles. A cartoon version of the Bloods and the Crips, Chloe Moretz plays Veronica, a member of a graffiti crew called The Night Creepers, who falls in love with a rival gang member. She’s a tragic Juliet but with more venom.
With their washed out denim and leather jackets Barrymore’s lovers come from the pantheon of Hollywood movies, from Rebel Without A Cause to Eighties teen-flicks. Complete with Hip-Hop choreographed fight scenes, Our Deal is a West Side Story for the post-MTV generation.
Twin meets Christa Palazzolo and Sarah Brown of slow motion-pop duet Boy Friend to talk about their latest dreamy incarnation, a U.S. girl group world takeover and what it’s like to be a twin…
Boy Friend emerged from a previous project, Sleep ∞ Over, how did it come about? Christa: We’ve played music together on and off for the last 12 years, and have managed to stay super close through all the ups and downs. When Sleep ∞ Over began to fall apart, it only felt natural to start afresh with each other in a new band. The Boy Friend EP came directly after the S.O. breakup, and was definitely therapeutic. We’re looking forward to new adventures in sound with this new project.
Sarah: The break-up wasn’t the most pleasant of experiences. I think we needed a fresh start and to stay busy and positive, so we’re both really pumped to be making new music.
What are your roles within the Boy Friend project? Christa: I play keys and sing; which is what I’ve done for quite a while now, though I’ve never had so much of my voice thrown into the mix. I also tinker with other instruments- My twin is sort of a musical savant, so I’ve learned a lot from her.
guitar and attempt to sing back up. I’ve taken piano and violin lessons and I played bass in our high school band/project. I’m mostly just here to Keep IT Real.
From a personal rather than stylistic perspective, how would you distinguish the music you produce as Boy Friend from your previous work? Christa: I have personally never poured so much into a musical project before. I’ve been in several bands where I wasn’t doing the majority of the writing, so I wasn’t quite as attached as I am now. I feel so comfortable working with Sarah, I don’t hold anything back. We both tell it like it is to each other and we want this project to be totally true to ourselves.
Sarah: I have to sing.
Christa, co-incidentally you’re a twin – when it comes to your creative relationships would you credit this as having an influence? Christa: It has definitely played a role, but I’m not sure it’s an advantage. Me and my sister have played music together on and off and perhaps grabbed some attention because of the identical twin factor (and have always been competitive with any of our artistic projects), but we’re both pretty different as individuals.
Sarah: NOVELTY FACTOR
In recent years there’s been a surge in American female bands. With groups such as Vivian Girls and Warpaint snowballing into mainstream popularity and inevitable comparisons being drawn across the genre, do you think this is the result of an industrious generation of female artists or are audiences just growing more attuned to female groups? Christa: I think it’s fucking awesome that so many females are getting into the mix, but I don’t feel anyone should be judged solely on gender. Maybe the surge has to do with confidence…either way it’s about talent. I think audiences love diversity, so put those two together and 2012 is going to be AMAZING.
Sarah: I think it’s more socially acceptable now to pursue an artistic career for both men and women. Also I don’t think gender plays a role in anyone’s ability to be creative.
Who are your strongest influences?
Harry Nilsson, Paul Simon, Ray Lynch, Fleetwood Mac, Brian Wilson, The Bangles, Boyz 2 Men, The Cure, The Cranberries, Danny Elfman, Wanda Jackson, The Everly Brothers and R. Kelly
Whose music are you currently most excited by? Christa: Chat Room, Grimes, Love Inks, I Dazzler, Melted Toys, Airwaves, Gucci Mane
Sarah: R. KELLY, Gucci Mane, SURVIVE, Speculator
You have a very luxurious euphoric sound – how do you see your music evolving in the future?
Grittier, bigger, crazier, love jams.
The aching, fatalistic sounds of musician George Lewis Jr. under the sobriquet Twin Shadow have been steadily engulfing L.A. But with an eagerly anticipated live appearance at London’s Lexington theatre tonight, Lewis’ mesmerizing odes to spirits present and passed are set to make a long-awaited first impression on transatlantic followers.
It’s not only Lewis’ liquescent voice that is the lure; spearheaded by standout track Slow, the album, Forget, is addictive. Crisp, mournful and mid-tempo ballads blur into ticking top online casinos guitar-heavy tracks, creating a debut work that feels almost scientific in its ratio of Eighties New Wave and Brit Pop. It”s a warming blend.
The title track’s crashing beat and distortion spirals with intensity, while the blissed-out scales that rise and fall throughout When We’re Dancing reach biting point with euphoric urgency in At My Heels. Above all, Twin Shadow’s freshness adds a necessary dose of springtime to your playlist. Call it a Twin thing.
Twin Shadow plays tonight at The Lexington, 96-98 Pentonville Road, London.
Download Forget by Twin Shadow at 4ad.com.
Forty-seven years ago blonde ingénue Marianne Faithfull released her debut single, As Tears Go By. Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, it was the beginning in the making of a rock and roll icon. From Girl on a Motorcycle to the depths of drug abuse, Faithfull has lived life in the fast lane.
Twenty-three albums on and her latest record, released in March, is a rumination upon lost love. Recorded in New Orleans, on Horses and High Heels local musicians and well-known friends – Lou Reed, Dr John and Wayne Kramer from MC5 – lend a hand. “Conventional happiness isn’t my way, you know,” says Faithfull. “But this is a very happy record. I’m not depressed any more. And I think it’s all been well worth it. I did have a bit of a bad time in the Seventies but I think things have been wonderful. So I suppose this album is a bit of a breakthrough.”
Listen to the first track of the album Horses and High Heels at mariannedownload
Soul Jazz Records founder Stuart Baker and tastemaker Giles Peterson have put together a stunning visual history of the Brazilian bossa nova scene. Bossa Nova and the Rise of Brazilian Music in the 1960s features cover artwork, artist’s biographies and essays on a musical movement that’s a fascinating insight into the changing social climate of Sixties Brazil.
As Rio developed into an urban society, with ‘apartment living’ and consumer goods, bossa nova projected an image that was modern, sophisticated and cool. At the time Brazil’s newly elected president promised the country, “fifty years of progress in five.”
It was the modernist architecture of Oscar Niemeyer, which dominated this fresh vision of the capital, that inspired much of the bossa nova movement’s cover art. The record sleeve designs, like the country, were radical, innovative and exciting. While Bossa Nova quickly became a musical phenomenon with Astrud Gilberto and Stan Getz’s The Girl from Ipanema an international hit, by 1964 the period of Brazilian optimism was spent, and the country fell under the rule of a violent military dictatorship that would affect the lives of ordinary Brazilians – and the music – for the next 20 years. More than another graphic sourcebook of sublime modernist design for your coffee table, Bossa Nova and the Rise of Brazilian Music in the 1960s, is a snapshot of the vivacious bygone era behind the beat.
Bossa Nova and the Rise of Brazilian Music in the 1960 is available now from, Soul Jazz Records, and the accompanying album will be on sale from the 24th January.
Art students have long been relied upon to inject an irreverent attitude into the music industry and Chicks on Speed are no exception. Since 1997 the transnational collective have mashed-up performance art and music while continually smashing through clichés of femininity.
Their song We Don’t Play Guitars typified their DIY post-punk aesthetic and while they found a home within the Electroclash movement of the early Noughties, they remained joyously un-boxable. The group, aka Melissa Logan, Kiki Moorse and Alex Murray-Leslie, opened for Kraftwerk, released albums, designed clothes, appeared naked on stage and achieved cult status.
For their latest show, HAPPENING, they present sculptural objects that double as stage show props. From wearable guitar shoes with sensory strings to cigar box synthesizers, they twist the conventional band into a work of art. Each object plays upon male fetishes and in particular their DayGlo plastic stiletto is an ironic take on the cliché of male rock gods hammering out guitar chords.
With the spirit of Dadaism and the energy of anarchism Chicks on Speed continue to live in a world where what the lady wants, the lady gets on and does.
Chicks on Speed: HAPPENING is at Kate MacGarry gallery until 30 January 2011 katemacgarry.com
As promotional stunts go, Nike’s Destroy to Create campaign rules. Corralling a whole gang of contributors – many of them (like Harry Malt) from the Twin family – to be a part of a special merger of art, sport, music and mayhem marking the launch of their Destroyer jackets. Lucky for those who weren’t there to see the chaos unfold on the night, Niall O’Brien filmed the proceedings.
The ‘Destroy to Create’ artworks are currently on show at 1948, Arches 477- 478 Batemans Row, Shoreditch now.
Canadian musician Leslie Feist is known for her collaborations with bands like Kings of Convenience and Broken Social Scene, but it is as a solo artist that the former rapper turned songstress has found fame. When three years ago her third album ‘The Reminder’ sold over a million copies, Peaches’ former flatmate suddenly found herself everywhere; from Sesame Street to iPod adverts.
Now a documentary entitled ‘Look at What the Light Did Now’ illuminates the creative process behind the album. Through flickering Super-8 footage shot while recording ‘The Reminder’ in a crumbling French mansion and her electric live performances the film is a beautiful and poetic insight into Feist’s artistic world.
But it is her partnerships with the people she calls her ‘amplifiers’ that pull her vision into reality – from shadow puppeteers to a firework conducting video director, as well as her many musical collaborators. Feist says: “I would feel a little bit like the peacock. Ultimately the peacock’s just this scrawny bird but there’s this beautiful fan around it, and it distracts from the scrawny bird and is this beautiful thing that’s bigger than it.” The result is a creative mosaic that sings sweetly of artistic truth.
‘Look at What the Light Did Now’ is at the ICA 3 December 2010 listentofeist
This month Twin’s art editor Francesca Gavin curates ‘Syncopation’, a ten-day Berlin exhibition that explores personal notions of selfhood. Gavin’s work as a curator, editor and writer is already varied, yet: “My true alternative self is a musician,” she explains.
Gavin grew up making music, performing below fleapit cinemas; steeped in the embrace of jazz and folk. Her grandmother’s record label Dial Recordings, which released Charlie Parker and Mile Davis’ records, sparked a love of soul, jazz, hip hop and black music culture and its relation to art.
The show presents the work of artists and musicians Cory Arcangel, Frankie Martin, Jeremy Shaw, Matt Stokes (pictured, top) and Mark Titchner, and is one part of a bigger exhibition – Despina Stokou’s project ‘D12’. Like the Detroit rap group who failed to find twelve members, instead asking six MC’s to create alteregos, Stokou has invited six artists to showcase theirs.
Head to the private view to catch a live lounge jazz performance by Gavin, accompanied by Julien Quentin. The party continues at Bierhaus Urban from 11pm with Jeremy Shaw and Gavin on the decks. Deeply buried true selves may just be revealed.
Jayson Scott Musson, How to Hip Hop, 2010, video still.
21.10-31.10, Grimmuseum, Fichte Straße 2, 10967, Berlin, open daily 2-7pm. grimmuseum.com.
The after party is on the 21.10, Bierhaus Urban, Urban Straße 126, corner Graefe Straße
Stylist, creative director, jewellery designer, Polaroid artist, cult film producer, boutique owner: Maripol’s CV reads like a Soho House members list. But no, this is one woman’s work. Wholly appropriately, then, is it that her first monograph, entitled ‘Little Red Riding Hood’, should be a mixed media scrapbook.
Drawings, designs, Polaroids and writings chart her creative journey from a stint at the famous Fiorucci house to her recent collaboration on a line of accessories with Marc Jacobs. Thrown into the mix are snapshots from her work with Grace Jones, Deborah Harry and, most notably, Madonna, whose iconic ‘Like a Virgin’ style was Maripol’s brainchild. This is one seriously covetable coffee table book.
Both a project and a persona, Fever Ray is the solo venture of Karin Dreijer Andersson, one half of brother-sister duo, The Knife. In taking to the stage at last month’s Bestival she concluded a world tour that lasted eighteen-months. The experience has seen Andersson forge her own distinct musical identity, with a sound that’s not entirely at odds with her established stylistic reputation.
“The songs are about the subconscious.” she explains, “A lot of it is like daydreaming – dreaming when you’re awake.” It’s an atmosphere that’s heightened through fantastical on-stage design. Lampshades switch on and off in time to her songs, visually enhancing the undulating bass rhythms of her set, providing a fitting backdrop to her theatrical stage persona. Masked, feathered and cocooned in tribal robes, Andersson layers her haunting vocals on top of pulsating beats in songs such as ‘When I Grow Up’ and ‘Triangle Walks’. Like a surrealist siren she draws in the crowds. The word on everyone’s lips as they stand captivated by her unique performance is – mesmerizing.
Alison Mosshart is one of the most genuinely rock and roll women alive. Once again – with her musical partner Jamie Hince of The Kills – Mosshart is the face of the brand Zadig & Voltaire. Ok, the merger between fashion and music has been seen before – think Mark Ronson with Gucci, Kanye West with Louis Vuitton – but we love it anyway! Photographed by Olivier Zahm – the editor of Purple magazine and France’s answer to Terry Richardson – the band’s poise and pout is enough to make us head to their shop to find out whether their collection is as cool as their campaign.
Fusing dark synth, surrealist lyrics and the occult – you can’t accuse Swedish pop band The Knife of being predictable. Working out of Stockholm, the brother/sister duo, Karin Dreijer Andersson and Olof Dreijer, have been making electro hits together since 1999. Staying deliberately secluded from the mainstream, the twosome seem to want their music to stay a dark secret. The enigmatic band are touring one of their most unusual projects to date – an opera entitled, ‘Tomorrow, in a Year’.
Commissioned by experimental Danish theatre group, Hotel Pro Forma, the libretto is all about natural selection, taking inspiration from the father of evolution, Charles Darwin. We caught the show at The Barbican last month. It’s an astounding amalgamation of art and science – covering everything from evolutionary theory to Darwin’s love letters about his daughter, Anne. Innovative, enthralling and chilling – it’s opera, but not as we know it.
‘Tomorrow, in a Year’ the album is out now. The opera will be showing at the Melborne International Arts Festival from 21st – 23rd October.
Holly Miranda is the modest type. Her softly spoken, dreamy debut album, ‘The Magician’s Private Library’, concerns that limbo state between sleep and wakefulness. Even though it’s produced by TV on the Radio’s David Sitek it doesn’t shout for attention like many of its Brooklyn peers. Musically, Miranda inhabits an altogether quieter space. This is soulful, thoughtful and deep-spun pop that requires a bit of hush. And we’re happy to oblige.
Holly Miranda plays Borderline on the 26th July, and Westminster Library on the 27th July. ‘The Magician’s Private Library’ is out now on XL Records.
As night falls, four spotlights cross the stage at Somerset House to spell out the name of a band whose success this year has been huge. “It’s good to be home,” announce The XX. Without a chart hit, the minimalist Wandsworth trio have found love everywhere from the critics to Shakira, who covered ‘Islands’ at Glastonbury. Tonight, they stick to their simple set-up – the softness of Madley-Croft’s voice complimenting Sim’s deeper, husky tones, while on an elevated platform, Jamie Smith plays electronic drums. Up close, The XX thrill, and in the process give power to all the shy, introverted and Emo kids of the world.
Under the cover of darkness 15-year-old best friends Nadia Dahlawi and Sara Jade would run away from their boarding school to see their favourite bands play rowdy sets in London bars. Not content as spectators, during their half-term break in 2003 they tried their hand at their first club night – arranging an impressive line-up including Art Brut and Les Incompetents.
A year later their label Young & Lost was born. Since then, the duo have become London”s indie scene sweethearts, casino online and can claim credit for putting out 7 inch singles from bands such as Golden Silvers, Noah and the Whale and Good Shoes, as well as DJing and promoting their own nights with acts like The XX and Laura Marling.
Now, aged 25, the Young & Lost girls have stepped away from spinning their golden empire for long enough to release a compilation, celebrating the release of fifty singles in five whirligig years. From the long-gone sound of Larrikin Love, to new flamboyant crooner Othello Woolf and the Bombay Bicycle Club – this is a fairytale chronicle of the journey of two clever musical madams. A story to be continued.
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