Centrala Archives - Page 2 of 3 -

September 13, 2017September 23, 2017

BPREVIEW: Beyond The Tracks – after parties, official/unofficial @ Various 15-16.09.17

Words by Damien Russell, Paul Gallear & Ed King

For the happy revellers of the Beyond The Tracks festival who are seeking more to finish off the night (be it Friday or Saturday), there are a number of opportunities to party harder and get more ‘bang’ for a buck (or ten).

There are the official after parties from the Beyond The Tracks team, alongside a few unofficial yet appealing enough alternatives to cater for the weekend long festival crowd. Read our BPREVIEWs below:

Oscillate Sound System @ Centrala 15.09.17

Inviting us to ‘regenerate’ after Beyond The Tracks’ space cadet Friday night, the Oscillate Sound System take over Centrala for an unofficial after party on 15^th September – the fledgling festival’s opening day.

Doors open at 11pm and close at 4pm, with tickets priced at £5. Not sure precisely who’s playing but you can bet there’ll be a DJ set from Messer Higher or Intelligence, you know from the Agency. And as far as my third eye can see it’s a pay on the door affair. Ah, life before Skiddle…

So, Oscillate..? By this point you’re either as unfazed as you were at word one, or you’re skipping down a serotonin sapped memory lane trying not to think of that song by Biosphere. La, la, la, the 90’s were a simple clubland love in with no scars… I don’t want to know what dream you had last night.

But if you need a helpful reminder (either way) Oscillate brought Orbital to Birmingham. So there’s that. And through their bi-weekly club nights at Bonds (as well as a few jaunts to the Dance Factory, Moseley Dance Club, some big-house-in-a-field-somewhere-in-I-think-maybe-Wales, and a disused gas container in Amsterdam) the Oscillate Sound System introduced a further litany of ambient/techno to the second city’s clubbers: Autechre, The Orb, Banco di Gia, Children of the Bong, Sun Electric, The Drum Club, APL, APL, did I mention APL..? I think they even booked Richard James a couple of times, not that that guarantees anything but God loves a trier.

It’s fair to say (and it’s been said by more than I) that Oscillate helped shape the dance music landscape of Birmingham in the 90’s, and left its left-of-centre fingerprints on the city’s club scene for some time to follow. You could argue that if they hadn’t someone else would have, but Scylla Magda and Bobby Bird were the ones that did – earning a dance music debt of gratitude that stands up over twenty years later.

Or to pinch a quote from The Observer in 1994: ‘To those in the know, including the 650 clubbers who frequent the club in Birmingham every other Friday night, Oscillate is the club of the moment, making waves far beyond the Midlands, and attracting clubbers from as far afield as London, Manchester and Edinburgh.’

Plus half of the head honchos at Oscillate are half of the head honchos in Higher Intelligence Agency (Bobby Bird) so all you need is Cheshire Cat and Sister Bliss to turn up and you’ve got most of Beyond The Tracks’ Friday night programme under one roof.

More a ‘second wind’ as opposed to ‘after’ party then… everyone back to Centrala on Friday 15^th September? Whatever the moniker it saves Shaun some tidying up.

For more on the Oscillate Sound System after party (unofficial) at Centrala on Friday 15^th September, click here.

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Way Beyond @ Suki10c 15.09.17

To continue the Friday night party directly after the festival’s opening day, Suki10c are hosting an unofficial first night continuance with ‘Way Beyond’, starting at 10pm and going right through to 4am. The event costs £6.00 including BF (booking fee, not boyfriend) on the mighty Skiddle or £8.00 on the door – showcasing sets from Earth is Flat, Bid, Skint Disco and Doktor Jekyll amongst others as yet unnamed.

Earth is Flat (or EiF) are two producers whose aim is ‘to make a non-generic style of music; using field recordings, traditional instruments and collaborating with people who share similar values’. They have shared the stage with artists such as Plaid, Kelli Ali, Luke Vibert, Coppe and Fungstorung and have performed in venues such as the Hare & Hounds, mac, and The Rainbow in Birmingham, as well as working down in the Big Smoke.

Bid is a DJ who started out in 2012, one who lucky revellers doing both ‘the main event’ and this after party will already have seen performing as part of the Leftfield Leftism 22 Tour. His debut release is due this year on the Download Generation label, showcasing his influential choice in the twisting and manipulation of breaks, beats and sounds.

Skint Disco is providing a DJ set in the form of Joe Reid – 28 year old producer from the Midlands, now residing in London. Skint Disco/Joe Reid has received props from major players such as Jam PRD, Wevaman, Hatcha, Funtcase, Kromestar,Seven, Bukez Finezt, Beezy, Enigma Dubz and Dubloadz all regularly throwing down his tracks. DJ slots all over the UK and gigs in Prague, Paris and Amsterdam have resulted in a mini-tour stateside with bookings in Seattle and Denver later in 2017.

The evening is supported by Doktah Jekyll, the resident DJ for Digbeth Dining Club and more, lining up a diverse sounding lineup of electronic music to see you through to the wee hours.

Even if some of the lineup are people whose stage names defy Google or any other form of research, this sounds like one of those events where those in the know will know to go, and those not in the know probably should be.

For more on the Way Beyond after party (unofficial) at Suki10c on Friday 15^th September, click here.

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Official Beyond The Tracks Friday night after party @ The Rainbow 15.09.17

Friday night’s official, ‘Moseley Folk approved’ after party is held at The Rainbow Venues’ Black Box. It will be starting at 11pm and the ‘you don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here’ is at 4am.

This official after party is brought to us by Procreation – the erstwhile progressive/tech house club night started by Beyond The Tracks promoter, Carl Phillips, back ‘in the day’ – in association with Ransom Note. The event will see DJ sets from A Guy Called Gerald, Bawrut and Timothy ‘Heretic’ Clerkin, in addition to Phil Hartnoll (one half of the Beyond The Tracks Friday night main stage headliners, Orbital).

Even if you’re not into your dance music, the name Orbital is still bound to ring a faint bell. Okay, that may be because they were named after the London Orbital (or M25 as we would more typically know it) but Orbital (aka brothers Paul and Phil Hartnoll) were renowned for their live improvisation, something of a rarity in the genre. But with five UK Silver records, one UK Gold record, four UK top 20 singles and even making it into the top 10 US Electronic Album Chart twice, it would be safe to say that improvisation or not Orbital’s music has appeal.

Perhaps the slightly less prolific of the brothers, Phil Hartnoll, has nevertheless taken his DJ sets to New Zealand, the US and around Europe. And that’s just this year. Now stepping straight from the Beyond The Tracks’ main stage, Phil Hartnoll will be hitting the decks at the Black Box in a rare UK solo show.

Joining Phil Hartnoll on the bill will be A Guy Called Gerald – a pioneer of the late 80’s UK Dance music explosion, whose website hails as ‘an iconic name in dance music’. But A Guy Called Gerald arguably kick started Europe’s acid house frenzy releasing the first UK acid house record, the ’88 classic ‘Voodoo Ray’ – following this with the iconic ‘Pacific State’, and laying down the blueprint for early jungle/drum’n’bass. And while not reaching the commercial heights of some of his contemporaries, the consistency and longevity of his releases demonstrate an acclaim that has endured for 30 years now.

Kicking it all off in 1987, A Guy Called Gerald had his ’own bedroom studio and was recording 90 minute tapes – probably one a week, so the equivalent of doing an album a week, everything from proto-acid sounds to experimental ambient fields’. And while his releases have slowed down somewhat over that last seven years, I hope that A Guy Called Gerald will bring the same energy of old to this 2017 live set. His 40 live show list for the year would imply that he will.

New kid on the block, the Madrid-based Italian Bawrut, will be preceding A Guy Called Gerald on the lineup – bringing his ‘wonderfully balanced line between classics and brand new tracks’. Bawrut’s 2016 release through Ransom Note has been hailed by Mixmag, DJ Mag, Test Pressing, and Data Transmission ‘as one of the freshest releases of 2016’.

Lastly, not least-ly, on is Timothy ‘Heretic’ Clerkin – one half of the amusingly named Eskimo Twins, who have been on the scene since 2009 releasing on Tusk Wax, My Favorite Robot & Relish, Throne of Blood and Ransom Note Records. Eskimo Twins formed around an appreciation of techno, classic house, indie, acid, and a lingering teenage love of metal – so those who know them will no doubt be wondering what Clerkin’s solo set may bring. One one way to find out; you know the drill

For more on the official Beyond The Tracks Friday night after party @ The Rainbow- Black Box, click here.

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Club L’Amour reunion @ Suki10c 16.09.17

The once haven for alternative shenanigans, described by Sam Lambeth as ‘an indie Byker Grove’, Club L’Amour comes back to the venue of its birth for a final, final hurrah on 16th September – giving the Saturday night noise monsters at Beyond The Tracks a comforting place to play until dawn. Well, 5am. Which is dawn enough for us.

There will be live sets from Riscas and Sugarthief, underpinned by DJ sets from the great, good, and garrulous who adorned the once Digbeth based indie night out. On the line up so far are MP3 jugglers: Kez Handley, Ben Clapton, Jack Parker, Arran Bick, Harley Cassiddy, Sam Lambeth, Tim Arstall, Tommy Greaves – with the ever inspiring ‘secret guests’ to kick it all off. TBC, I guess.

But following the fallout of a Saturday night festival line up that boasts Ocean Colour Scene, Maxïmo Park, The Coral, The Twang, Carl Barât and the Jackals, Jaws, Superfood this might be a more than appropriate place to greet the small hours.

Plus it’s a reunion, after Club L’Amour packed up its musical powder puff back in February this year. So what are you waiting for..? Oh yeah, there’s that festival thingy up the road to pop into beforehand… phew, and what a before party that’s going to be.

For more on the Club L’Amour after party (unofficial) at Suki10c on Friday 15^th September, click here.

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Official Beyond The Tracks – Saturday night after party @ O2 Institute 16.09.17

As if all this excitement on the Friday night wasn’t enough, there is another official after party on the Saturday night, post-festival, held at the O2 Institute in Digbeth – running from 11pm through to the wee hours of 3am. Mercifully a little earlier than the Friday night after parties, allowing us a little recovery before the final festival day.

Fresh from headlining Saturday night at Beyond The Tracks, Ocean Colour Scene’s Steve Cradock will take to the O2 Institute stage for a DJ set, alongside Paul Smith from Maxïmo Park. But kicking off the evening (morning…. depends when you get there) will be DJs Gav and Imran from Blast Off – a Wolverhampton institution which celebrated 20 years of clubbing in 2016 (despite ostensibly ending the indie club night in 2014, they have returned for numerous ‘one-off’ specials and Christmas/New Year shows. I suppose you can’t keep a good thing down).

Next up will be will be Dave Southam, a man made (in)famous as one of the DJs for Snobs, a well known Birmingham nightclub that promotes itself as offering ‘indie, rock’n’roll, alt pop and retro jams’.

It is clear then that the theme of this after party is the same as Saturday’s offering at the Beyond The Tracks festival itself: indie and lots of it. Kicking off at 11pm, festival goers will have plenty of time to cover the half-a-mile between Eastside Park and the O2 Institute when Beyond The Tracks finishes at 10:30. Tickets are £10 in advance, plus the usual booking fees.

For more on the official Beyond the Tracks Saturday night after party, click here.

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Beyond The Tracks comes to Eastside Park in Birmingham City Centre, running 15^th to 17^th September. Tickets for this event are £54.45 for individual day tickets, £145 for a weekend pass.

For more on Beyond The Tracks, including full festival details and online ticket sales, visit www.beyondthetracks.org

September 8, 2017September 8, 2017

INTERVIEW: John Fell – Beyond the Tracks @ Eastside Park 15-17.09.17

Words by Damien Russell / Pics by Eleanor Sutcliffe

Feeling like a lazy Sunday afternoon despite being a Monday (thank you Bank Holiday), sitting in the shade at Eastside Park has got something of a ‘last day of a festival’ feel.

Convenient really as I’ve braved exhaustion and headed out to into the sun to see a man about a festival. That man is John Fell and the festival is, of course, Beyond The Tracks.

I say ‘of course’ but given that Beyond The Tracks (for those who have missed the promo so far) is the newest addition to the Moseley Folk portfolio, it may not be as clear cut as that. This new city-centre, three day event is nestled comfortably alongside the Moseley Folk Festival itself, the Mostly Jazz, Funk & Soul Festival, and the Lunar Festival, all under the Moseley Folk banner.

And John Fell is, “kind of Festival Manager, really, so to be honest I do a lot things from booking the line-up to the marketing, to the press, the finances, I get involved with a little bit of kind of planning the site and things like that. All the staffing. So, it’s a lot there really.” If he does say so himself. And I agree, it is a lot; they’re big events with stellar line-ups and not exactly spread out in either area or through the year.

Curious about this, I ask about the rest of the team. “Well, there’s me, full time, and then there’s two directors (Gerv Havill, Carl Phillips) that are kind of more part time on the festivals. They’ve got their other businesses. And we’ve just taken on a new member of staff as well and she’s become a kind of Festival Assistant, so it’s slowly growing but it’s not a big team for all the things we do really”, Fell explains.

Not a big team at all. And with a variety of other events as well as the festivals, it must be a lot to take on. John Fell is a collected man and while he will admit that focusing on so much is “quite difficult”, he quickly adds, “I’ve always been quite good at that really. I’ve always… I don’t sit still very often”. I’m glad we got him pinned down for half an hour to talk to us.

So how did it all begin? And how did it become Beyond The Tracks? “When I joined we’d just created Goodnight Lenin”, Fell says, taking us back to both the start of his band (recently announced to be on hiatus) and his time with Moseley Folk, “and JJ from the band asked me to go round and come and play music at 3 o’clock in the morning because they’d been up all night drinking. Normally I would never do it, not if I hadn’t been out already, and I thought ‘you know what, fine, I’ll go round’. If he wants to play music, I’ll do it, whatever time of day”. And a 3am video became Goodnight Lenin’s application to play Moseley Folk Festival. “Carl who ran the festival rang us up and said ‘I wanna come and see you play’ and he wanted to manage the band and put us as headlining the second stage, the Lunar stage” Fell expands, describing an opportunity most bands would do something their mothers would disapprove of, to get.

It isn’t surprising but it is good to be reminded that Moseley Folk (both festival and company) have always been committed to local talent. And actively looking for it has “always been an ethos of ours, to support that and provide a platform for that. Which is quite cool”. And not just at the festivals. They “do loads of cool shows throughout the year… and because that’s not really our… job, I guess, our festivals are where we kind of scrape our salaries… we can book who we want. We’re not pressured to book gigs, we don’t just put gigs on for the sake of it; we can book who we want”.

An envious place to be. And a powerful place. Free from the constraints of popularity and to a certain extent cost, Moseley Folk remind me of the record companies of old – able to take risks and trail-blaze if they wish, whilst hosting the type of gigs many bands dream of getting to play at.

With such an open opportunity for booking talent, I wonder how the Beyond The Tracks lineup was approached. The answer lies in being different to the other festivals in the Moseley Folk portfolio, “with Folk and Jazz, Lunar’s a bit more psychedelic… we wanted to essentially make three different gigs. I mean, originally we didn’t put weekend tickets on sale because we didn’t think there would be that much demand. Essentially it was an electronic night, an indie night and, I guess, like a post-punk, shoegaze kind of Sunday, which is cool”.

Planning, then combining, three different gigs sounds like an unusual way to approach a festival, but less so when originally it was “going to be an Ocean Colour Scene gig with, you know, Maximo Park or whoever, and it grew into a festival which is, you know…”, John Fell leaves me to offer the rather clichéd ‘really cool’ but charitably goes with it. “It is really cool. So the whole thing has just been, like, a really natural progression”.

Choosing this site, currently just open grass and quiet couples, was also natural progression; John Fell takes us back to 22^nd January 2016, and to the 20^th anniversary shows of Ocean Colour Scene’s Moseley Shoals in Moseley Park. “And that was just incredible”, Fell says, and shortly after those shows “we were just sat outside the pub, the Eagle and Tun, and looking at this space and were like ‘why have we not done a festival here?’ Or at least a gig here” so they decide they should and went full on for Beyond The Tracks.

And what a festival it’s pitched to be. “It’s Birmingham’s, you know, I guess biggest inner city, kind of ‘band festival”, in John Fell’s words. “Obviously you’ve got things like MADE which are doing incredibly at The Rainbow and a lot of other events going on” he continues, “I suppose it’s not like a Great Escape but that kind of inner city festival, Tramlines in Sheffield, that kind of thing. And we thought for the first year we should really celebrate Birmingham music. We already had Ocean Colour Scene; Editors have got strong Birmingham links. So then we just go ‘right, okay, we want to support other bands’ so, you know: Superfood, Jaws, Victories at Sea, Dorcha, Table Scraps. We just added Hoopla Blue and Sunshine Frisbee Laserbeam, there’s so many bands… The Leftfield guys are coming to DJ, Magic Door guys coming to DJ… So it’s a bit of a Birmingham love-in really. It’s gonna be really cool.”

And speaking of Hoopla Blue… I ask John about the sad news that Goodnight Lenin wouldn’t be playing and would be replaced by, you guessed it, “Hoopla Blue. Yeah, we wanted it to be a local band and Hoopla – great band – they just jumped on it straight away. It is a shame but it just felt right to end Goodnight Lenin with Liam rather than playing another show, it didn’t quite make sense”. I don’t ask about the conflict of interest in booking a band you play with; if John Fell began working for Moseley Folk through Goodnight Lenin, it stands to reason Goodnight Lenin would still be one of Moseley Folk’s regular artists.

There’s certainly plenty of Birmingham music at Beyond The Tracks, possibly more Birmingham on the stage than in the audience at times, as to my surprise, “Friday night’s about 40 percent people coming from outside the Midlands. Which is pretty incredible. It’s very similar numbers to the Jazz and Folk, to be honest with you, it’s like, high 30’s from outside the Midlands. Saturday here with Ocean Colour Scene and The Twang, is obviously more localised but it’s still a good 25 percent from outside the Midlands and Sunday as well is about 30, high 30’s. So, we are actually bringing people in,” and in saying so Fell sounds proud. And I believe he is, proud of what Birmingham has to offer and proud to be a part of it.

And not without merit either; four major festivals are not organised through hope alone, that kind of work needs vision. The vision that Beyond The Tracks is “what Birmingham needs really just to kind of give it that other, kind of, star next to its name of what we have here to offer”. The drive to “bring people to Birmingham and actually show them what we do”. And the eye on the future looking to “see what else we can do for the city now”.

But with the rise of Beyond The Tracks, we’ve seen the fall of the Lunar Festival; this yearly switch looks set to continue, as the original three year access to the Beyond The Tracks site has been scuppered by the HS2 development. “We are bringing Lunar back next year and then… we don’t have the land for this (Beyond The Tracks) next year”, Fell explains, taking me a little by surprise. “We were told two years, we could have it… three years we could have it and HS2 is being built on this land. So they’re acquiring the land. So it might be the case that we maybe have a year off Beyond The Tracks, bring Lunar back. We’ve been refining that (Lunar Festival) so we’re quite excited to bring that back. Erm, and then, you know, hopefully we can bring Beyond The Tracks back the year after, maybe”.

Maybe, maybe not; there is always the fear that “it’s four festivals. You do start eating into your own audience as well. People only have so much money”. So maybe one on, one off could be on the cards. Or maybe it’s just a one-off.

Either way, when you think that “Friday night’s going to be crazy with Leftfield and Orbital and the light show they’ve got, here, in the city centre on a Friday night”, then the local focus lineup on Saturday and Sunday, with “Fairground Rides in the middle… a Ferris wheel and everything” it’s hard not to get a building sense of excitement.

And as I walk back across the site toward The Woodman pub, thinking to myself ‘stage there, fairground there, bar somewhere here…’ it’s also hard to disagree with John Fell when he shares the sentiment, “It’s gonna be quite cool. I mean it’s gonna be phenomenal, you know. It’s costing the world, really, so it should be…. But yeah, it gonna be cool, man”. Cool indeed. Phenomenal sounds about right too; I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

Beyond The Tracks comes to Eastside Park in Birmingham City Centre, running 15^th to 17^th September. Tickets for this event are £54.45 for individual day tickets, £145 for a weekend pass, with a host of after parties after each day.

For more on Beyond The Tracks, including full festival details and online ticket sales, visit www.beyondthetracks.org

July 28, 2017July 29, 2017

THE GALLERY: The Hungry Ghosts – ‘Amerika/Lazaro’ single launch @ Centrala 22.07.17

Words by Ed King / Original pics by Rob Hadley

On Saturday 22^nd July, those slaughter house siblings let another one of their scaly offspring slither out unguarded across the plains… or if you’ve not read me write about them before, The Hungry Ghosts released a new single – their double a-side of ‘Amerika/Lazaro’.

Celebrating their latest twisted blues debauchery, The Hungry Ghosts had themselves a fine little single release shindig at Centrala – taking over the upstairs room (which we never knew existed until this event) for a smoke filled DIY affair on the banks of the Birmingham canal network. There was laughter, tears, mother’s ruin drunk straight from the bottle, probably a lost shoe or fractured corpse floating somewhere in the waters, plus a feast of friends coming from all across Albion for some superlative support. ‘Aint alliteration ace, anyway…

The acts that came to play at The Hungry Ghosts‘ ‘Amerika/Lazaro’ single launch are (almost) all represented in glorious Technicolor below, but if you need a chronological roll call: You Dirty Blue, Charlie Boyer, Average Sex, The Lizards.

But honestly, I was having too much fun to seriously comment. Or commit. Or converse, rationally, at points. Although I’ll tell you this for nowt – The Hungry Ghosts have been embedding a new line up this year and the results are blisteringly promising, both on stage and off. I saw the five piece first at The Sunflower Lounge for Counteract’s 7^th Birthday bash in April, with a fresh edge that had been somewhat needed. The fire was back. And their Centrala single launch was another notch above, so as trajectories go there’s something of a second attempt Icarus happening here.

Joe Joseph is fast becoming the front man of legends, whilst Billy Ollis seems to have tapped a little further into that dark spring that wells so wonderfully within him. Flanking the founders now are Jay Dyer and Emily Doyle, who feel like they have always been there, with Rich Burman proving that you can actually keep hold of a percussionist. He’s a keeper; they’re all keepers. This is the band The Hungry Ghosts should be.

So, blah blah blah. Adulation/opinion. Told you… having too much fun. But ‘Amerika’ rocks in every sense of the description so it’s all quite simple really:

1) Read my BPREVIEW here
2) Watch the official ‘Amerika’ trailer video via the link below
3) Buy a copy here – out on August 4th. This band needs to eat

‘Amerika’ – The Hungry Ghosts

Outside of all that, Rob Hadley had a more professional hat on at Centrala and there’s some smokey sex shots for you to skewer you’re way through – a few cherry picked below, or (heartily recommended) for the Full Flickr of Pics click here or on the relevant links.

And if you still need a guiding voice in your ear, you crazed bastard child of Bateman, then simply grab your leather bound Roget, flick those fingers to the words ‘sinister’, ‘gold’ and ‘vociferous’, then start to fill in the blanks. ‘Awesome’ might be worth a look too.

N.B. The Hungry Ghosts are back out on the road in August (tour poster above) so you’ll be able to see this for yourself. Diaries at the ready… Crofters Right (Bristol) 12^th August, Shambala Festival (Northamptonshire) 26^th August, Hare & Hounds (Kings Heath, B’ham) 27^th August.

The Hungry Ghosts @ Centrala 22.07.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham Review

For more on The Hungry Ghosts, visit www.thehungryghosts.co.uk

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You Dirty Blue – supporting The Hungry Ghosts @ Centrala 22.07.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham Review

For more on You Dirty Blue, visit www.facebook.com/youdirtyblue

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Charlie Boyer – supporting The Hungry Ghosts @ Centrala 22.07.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham Review

For more on Charlie Boyer/The Voyers, visit www.soundcloud.com/TheVoyeurs

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Average Sex – supporting The Hungry Ghosts @ Centrala 22.07.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham Review

For more on Average Sex, visit www.facebook.com/averagesex

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The Lizards – supporting The Hungry Ghosts @ Centrala 22.07.17 / Rob Hadley – Birmingham Review

For more on The Lizards, visit www.soundcloud.com/allyourfriendsarelizards

For more from Setting Son Records, visit www.facebook.com/settingsonrecords

For more from Centrala, visit www.centrala-space.org.uk

July 17, 2017July 27, 2017

BPREVIEW: The Hungry Ghosts – ‘Amerika/Lazaro’ single launch @ Centrala 22.07.17

Words by Ed King / Pic by Rob Hadley (Indie Images)

On Saturday 22^nd July, The Hungry Ghosts will be celebrating the upcoming release of their ‘Amerika/Lazaro’ double a-side with a single showcase gig at Centrala (Minerva Works). Support comes from You Dirty Blue, Charlie Boyer (The Voyers), Average Sex, The Lizards.

Doors open at 7pm with tickets prices at £6.50 + booking fee. For direct gig info, including venue details and online ticket sales, click here.

Set for release on 4^th August through Setting Son Records, ‘Amerika/Lazaro’ is the first release for The Hungry Ghosts with their new line up. Adding two new bodies and three new faces, the Redditch born purveyors of slaughterhouse blues are enjoying (we hope) a promising evolution this year – with height, grace, automaton time keeping and the occasional Manchester moshpit brawl now packed into The Mothership (The Hungry Ghosts’ trusty touring steed). Don’t mess with Emily Doyle I think is the message here.

So, any good..? The last time Birmingham Review saw The Hungry Ghosts was at Counteract’s 7^th birthday in April, where the now five piece were supporting The Mother’s Earth Experiment and the world’s worst kept secret. And there was certainly something going on. The new material – still spearheaded by Billy Ollis and Joe Joseph – is a continuation of this curve; fresh yet confidently identifiable, the two snippets we’ve been privy to so far are promising to say the least.

‘Amerika’ opens with swagger, low steel twangs and a guitar riff so addictive it would out twitch a crack baby, before Joe Joseph’s serrated drawl comes to drag us a little further through the grit. Think ‘Super King King’ after the longest sex of its life. Smeared with all the imagery, prophecy and the subtle flavour of gold rush fever you’d expect from a Hungry Ghosts track titled ‘Amerika’, this is a little lighter than their usual brand of twisted metal yet still immediately identifiable. Blood Red Songs is an awesome EP but this is the balance we’ve been waiting two years to hear.

Following the narrative is ‘Lazaro’, a more garage rock affair that introduces the ‘naked as a stranger’ protagonist who will be our resurrected guide through this double a-side. Punched out from the off, this side of the single is more raw and raucous – a hark back to the ‘Hares on the Mountain’ that hooked our cheeks in the first place. Awesome. Again. Double A.

And here’s a sneaky peak into the story of ‘Amerika’ and the dark tendrils that pulled it out from the collective subconscious. Or Joe, for short. The rest you’ll get to figure out on repeat from 4^th August.

‘Amerika’ – The Hungry Ghosts

The Hungry Ghosts are launching their ‘Amerika/Lazaro’ double a-side at Centrala (Minerva Works) on Saturday 22^nd July, with support from You Dirty Blue, Charlie Boyer, Average Sex, The Lizards. For direct event info, including venue details and online ticket sales, click here.

For more on The Hungry Ghosts, visit www.thehungryghosts.co.uk

For more from Setting Son Records, visit www.facebook.com/settingsonrecords

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For more on You Dirty Blue, visit www.facebook.com/youdirtyblue

For more on Charlie Boyer/The Voyers, visit www.soundcloud.com/TheVoyeurs

For more on Average Sex, visit www.facebook.com/averagesex

For more on The Lizards, visit www.soundcloud.com/allyourfriendsarelizards

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For more from Centrala, visit www.centrala-space.org.uk

November 18, 2016November 18, 2016

BPREVIEW: Behind the Curtain Film Festival @ various 18-27.11.16

Words by Ed King

On Friday 18^th November, the Behind the Curtain Film Festival opens at Centrala Café & Gallery in Minerva Works.

Running for ten days at venues across the city, this is the 3^rd installment of the annual event – celebrating and showcasing ‘the spirit of the best of Eastern European cinema and culture through Film, Music, Discussions and Workshops.’

Presenting ‘17 full-length and short films from 12 countries, like Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, and Slovakia’, alongside a series of supporting events, the Behind the Curtain Film Festival is organised by the Polish Expats Association (PEA).

With a strong undercurrent of art, music, food and drink, Behind the Curtain presents more than just a straight film festival – wrapping itself in a kaleidoscope of cultures from Central and Eastern Europe. You’ve seen the film, now try the pastry. Sounds good to us.

Times and admission prices to each aspect of the 10 day programme will vary, but we couldn’t find anything that broke the £10 barrier (even with free cake). Below are a handful of potential highlights from this year’s Behind the Curtain, but for the full festival programme – including times, locations and prices for each screening or event, click here.

Behind the Curtain Launch @ Centrala 18.11.16

Loads going on. Centrala has an intimate feel to it at the best of times, but my spidey sense tell me the launch of Behind the Curtain will be a cultural love-in of the most endearing order. With the aforementioned free cake… thank you The Polish Bakery.

Plus the evening is full of music from Birmingham Conservatoire, including the ‘young open minded undergraduate’ violin quartet Cracovia, the Ajde Trio playing Balkan and Klezmer folk, as well as accordionist, vocalist and composer, Pawel Zaba, singing a selection of Polish songs. There’s also a special presentation of Earth Is Flat – ‘a visual and musical experiment that mixes trippy melodies, broken beats and deep bass wrapped up in never ending ideas.’

Tasters of the festival’s wider film programme will be screened, alongside a special tribute to Polish film and theatre director, Andrzej Wajda – the Academy and Palme d’Or recognised film maker behind internationally revered titles including Kanal (1956), The Promised Land (1975), Mon of Marble (1977), Man of Iron (1981), and Katyń (2007).

Running from 7pm to 11pm on Friday 18^th November, entry to the Behind the Curtain Film Festival launch event is free. For direct info click here.

United Sates of Love / Zjednoczone Stany Miłości @ mac 25.11.16

Set in the middle of Poland’s transition from the People’s to the Third Republic, amidst the ‘breaking’ of the Eastern Bloc, United Sates of Love / Zjednoczone Stany Miłości tells the story of four women as they battle with their frustrations, obsessions and individual interpretations of intimacy and love.

Dark, off beat and visceral, United Sates of Love / Zjednoczone Stany Miłości was selected for the Golden Bear Award for Best Film at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival. Although losing out to Gianfranco Rosi’s Fire at Sea, Tomasz Wasilewski’s third feature film did take the Silver Bear Award for Best Script back from Berlin – receiving international acclaim for the young Polish film maker on his way home.

Screening at mac at 8pm on Friday 25^th November, United Sates of Love / Zjednoczone Stany Miłości is rated certificate 15. For direct info and online ticket sales, click here.

Son of Saul @ mac 27.11.16

A directorial debut, Son of Saul is the story of one man’s determination/obsession to bury the body of a young Jewish boy in the Auschwitz concentration camp. Saul Ausländer, played by Géza Röhrig, is a Hungarian Jew and member of the Sonderkommando work force at Aushwitz – one of the teams of prisoners forced to clear away the bodies, and valuables, from the gas chambers. Exploring morality, camaraderie, family, fear, hope, and the absurd battle for survival amidst the horrors of Hitler’s Final Solution, Son of Saul is a brutal look at the nightmare reality that destroyed countless of lives in Poland and beyond.

The first feature length film from Hungarian director László Nemes, who is currently working on his follow up (working tile Sunset) – Son of Saul won the Grand Prix, FIPRESCI Competition Award and François Chalais Prize at Cannes 2015. Son of Saul was further awarded the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film (2015), Independent Spirit Award for Best International Film (2015) and Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film (2016). Kind of a ‘must see’, even if it hurts to watch.

Screening at mac on Sunday 27^th November, Son of Saul is rated certificate 15. For direct info and online ticket sales, click here.

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On Friday 18^th November, the Behind the Curtain Film Festival opens at Centrala Café & Gallery in Minerva Works – with a programme of film, music, discussions and workshops being held in venues across the city until Sunday 27^th November. For direct programme info and online ticket sales, click here.

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For more on Behind the Curtain Film Festival, visit www.behindthecurtainfestival.uk

For more from Centrala, visit www.centrala-space.org.uk

For more from the Polish Expats Association/Barka, visit www.barkauk.org