Audioboom interview Steve Davis about his music interest & The Utopia Strong:
They say:
Steve 'Interesting' Davis, household name, 80's snooker superman, on the musical passion that's taken him to the stage at Glastonbury and the recording studio with his experimental 'prog rock' band 'The Utopia Strong'
Steve Davis, snooker legend, tells the story of his journey from six times world snooker champion to the stage at Glastonbury with his experimental 'prog' band 'The Utopia Strong'. Chris Skudder and John Anderson meet one of the most 'Interesting' men in sport, 'trying to live my life in reverse!'
Listen here: Audioboom
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Circuit Sweet say a few words on PETBRICK new single “Coming”:
PETBRICK — the duo comprising Wayne Adams (Big Lad/Death Pedals/Johnny Broke) and Iggor Cavalera (Sepultura/Soulwax/Mixhell) — have arrived at an audial destination whereby electronic experimentation, hardcore attitude, dystopian dread and in-the-red dementia collide and collude to form a uniquely invigorating assault, custom fit for an accelerated age. This debut explores fresh lunacy anew whereby both members’ past experience — Wayne in a variety of musical guises ranging from punk to breakcore and gabba, and Iggor in a planet-straddling metal colossus whose questing spirit played a crucial role in the music’s evolution – are both profitably employed and left obsolete by a resolutely genre-free onslaught whose spirit remains firmly in the here and now.
Read the whole piece: Circuit Sweet
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Italian online culture magazine 'VORREI' have interviewed Julie's Haircut about their new album & career.
It reads (Rough Translation):
Interview with Julie's Haircut , a piece of history of the Italian independent music scene.
They were trained in Sassuolo in the nineties and at the beginning they were in three - Nicola Caleffi, guitar and voice; Luca Giovanardi, drums and voice; Laura Storchi, bass and vocals - today there are six elements.
Ten discs - of which the last, "In The Silence Electric", published just over a week ago for Rocket Recordings - one different from the other, dates on dates collected between Italy and abroad and a very strong propensity to improvisation, to experimentation and the search for sound, an attitude that over the years has led the band to an evolution of its sonorities originally linked to garage-rock.
For a chat about their music making and what it means to be a band we intercepted Luca, co-founder of the band who in these days celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the debut album's release, is engaged in a tour started in late September in Belgium , France and England, and that this week will bring them before a brief stop in Turin on 18th at Spazio 211 and on Saturday 19th at Monza in Arci Rincewind for All Our Blood.
Twenty years have passed since the release of your first album which was followed by another nine. Which track are you most attached to? Is there one that, in hindsight, you wouldn't have wanted to publish?
It's really impossible to choose just one song. There are so many that I love, others that (fantozzianamente) I esteem, others that I find dated but for which I still feel very affection. I can say that there is not even one that I never wanted to publish. Obviously, if you go back to the first two / three albums I find songs that today I wouldn't even write, but what you have to understand, and that you sometimes missed out on interpreting, is the strong dose of self-irony that some of the early songs contained . Pieces like Too much love, for example, when you hear today they make me smile. But then I think that even then they made me smile, in reality, there was not the least machismo in writing a song of sexual revenge like that: it was a way of saying: “look, we are so unlucky that we can afford to write our Sex Machine and laugh about it ".
This year for you it was a year of double publication, the soundtrack of Josef Von Sternberg's film "Music from the Last Command" and the new album of unreleased "In The Silence Electric". What was the genesis of the two jobs? How have they engaged you differently?
The soundtrack of 'The Last Command' was commissioned by the Cinema Museum and Transiti in 2017, while we were in the middle of the Invocation and Ritual Dance of my Demon Twin tour. It was challenging, but we couldn't miss the opportunity and so we took it. We didn't want to take the chance by doing simple improvisations on the images. We could have done it, we know how to do it, but the opportunity to put a silent film to music was too tempting: we analyzed the film in detail, we looked for themes and references to its structure, we studied how music and images influence each other and we have brought all this into writing the film's musical themes. It has also allowed us to explore unusual musical territories for us, both in terms of sound and style. When it was time to record the album, we did it at the speed of light, also because unlike what normally happens to us, we entered the studio when we already knew the music well and we knew how to do it. So in just two days of study we recorded all 17 pieces of the record. Compared to the live version, which lasts an hour and a half, it is more concise and essential, more focused on listening without images.
For ' In The Silence Electric' instead Nicola and I wrote some pieces in the form of a demo at my house, then we made as usual a couple of days of free studio improvisations together with the band and all this material, then reworked and turned into a studio, we got the nine songs on the record.......
Read the full interview: Vorrei
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The amazing Utopia Strong track 'Swimming' features on this months Steve Davis & Kavus Torabi NTS Radio Show:
Listen here: NTS
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Nice to see:
Anthroprophh
Centrum
Gnod
Hills
Julie's Haircut
Kuro
Teeth of the Sea
...in this rundown of 50 Essential ‘Psych’ Albums 2013-2019 by Fragmented Flaneur.
See the full 50 here: Fragmented Flaneur
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Recently The Utopia Strong were asked to remix Snapped Ankles track 'Rechargeable', Check out Steve Davis an Co plucking stems off from the bands Rechargeable tree.
Here is their satanic deconstruction:
Bandcamp
Stream
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Backseat Mafia review Julie's Haircut live in Manchester:
Julie’s Haircut are an Italian neo-psychedelic offering who have been around for more years than they would care to admit now, having initially formed back in 1994. Their recent allegiance has been to UK based label Rocket Recordings, who today have released their latest offering, their ninth studio album no less, In The Silence Electric.
Tonight they grace one of Manchester’s finest underground, independent venues, The Peer Hat, a setting that is perfect for them. They open with ‘Gathering Light’, probably their most recognised track from 2017’s Invocation and Ritual Dance of My Demon Twin which sprung them to public attention in the UK. With its slow build that intensifies throughout as layers are added, it’s the perfect track to start things off. This is closely followed by ‘The Fire Sermon’ from the same album and the two make an intoxicating atmosphere, laden with intrigue that sets the mood for the rest of the set.....
....Julie’s Haircut have delivered something really special here tonight, in a venue that has suited their sound perfectly. The quality of the songs on the new album shows their development as a band and if they keep putting out performances like that, they’ll soon be playing to much larger crowds.
Read the full review: Backseat Mafia
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With the release of the Julie's Haircut album 'In The Silence Electric' out last week, we are delighted to share a short interview with the amazing German artist Annegret Soltau, who's 1975/76 work 'Selbst (self)' features throughout the sleeve. We are huge fans of her amazing work so was delighted when the bands Nicola Caleffi managed to asked Annegret a few questions.
Here statement about the work:
Annegret Soltau
Selbst (self) 1975-76
photo overstitchings
Self 1975-76
"These are my first projects using thread in the context of photography. Using gray silk thread, I overstitched self-portraits and created a filigree of threads over my own face.
I started with a photograph taken during a performance piece, and stitched over the thread in the photo using real thread. The reverse side shows the traces of the work on the front side as a spontaneous haptic drawing, an unconscious by-product of the main piece."
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Nicola Caleffi
The Selbst series from 1975-76 is one of your early, and most powerful, work. Can you describe the genesis of it?
Annegret Soltau
As a starting point for these photo-stitches, I took photographs of the documentation of my performance “Self” from 1975, in which I wrapped my head with black yarn. I sewed these self-portraits with gray silk thread.
Nicola Caleffi
The series comprises about 30 pictures of yourself with different grades of binding on your own head and body and etching on the printed photos. What is the relationship between the real wiring on the skin, mouth, eyes and hair and the subsequent sewing that you made on the printed work?
Annegret Soltau
The photographed thread served as a direction for my over-sewing. From the sensory organs of my eyes and mouth I let the threads flow over my face, extending my eyelashes into new formations that cover my face like a mask. There is a dialogue, an exhange, between the photographed thread of the performance and the real thread, they form a unity in the face, but also an irritation.
Nicola Caleffi
Your work, and Selbst in particular, seems to be constantly balanced between freedom and oppression, even self-coercion, just as, in its peculiar form, Julie's Haircut's music, in its never resolved relationship between looseness and restraint. Do you see art as a form of liberation of the self?
Annegret Soltau
For me, these representations are ambivalent. On the one hand they show through the fine threads a sensual touch on the skin, on the other hand also a constriction through the lacing over mouth and eyes up to the blindness and lack of communication. The liberation can only be done by oneself.
Nicola Caleffi
What is the role of art and the artist today? Do you see any difference between today and the past, in terms of artistic freedom?
Annegret Soltau
As an artist I do not play any role, I work authentically by “incorporating” myself and my body into my art. That's how I see myself and my work: as a symbiosis of life and art. During my studies in the 60s and 70s, we fought againts the traditional forms of society, it was a break from given expectations. Awareness is what we need now if we do not want to lose the achievements of our generation.
For further reading: Annegret Soltau
Julie's Haircut album 'In The Silence Electric' is out now on LP/CD/DL Available worldwide on Rocket Recordings:
In The Silence Electric
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GIGsoup review Julie's Haircut live in Chester, they say:
Fairly well known in their home country of Italy, the Sassuolo-formed Julie’s Haircut have been releasing music for the best part of 25 years now. However, many here in the UK probably only encountered them after the release of 2017’s Invocation And Ritual Dance Of My Demon Twin on Rocket Recordings, arguably Britain’s best psychedelic label.
During their first decade together they performed a mix of garage and indie rock, but collaborations with the likes of Damo Suzuki, Sonic Boom and then Philip Corner inspired more experimentation. Since then they’ve evolved to become one of Europe’s top psychedelic krautrock bands, also incorporating elements of prog, post rock and jazz into their sound.
On the eve of the release of their ninth full length album In The Silence Electric, the Northern Italian outfit stopped by The Live Rooms in Chester for their first ever performance in the city. It was part of a seven date UK tour that also included dates in Leicester and Newcastle before they headed back for a tour of their homeland.....
.......Despite missing the trippy sax of Laura Agnusdei on a few tracks, it was a fantastic performance from a band who have been at their creative peak in recent years. They will certainly have gone back to Northern Italy with many more fans than they had when they arrived here and will always be welcome to stop by Chester when they embark on any future UK tours.
Read the full review here: GIGsoup Music
(Photo & review by Daniel Kirby)
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Amazing DJ & Primal Scream bass player Simone Maries was kind enough to play some Julie's Haircut on her Soho Radio show.
check it out here: Simone Maries Naked Lunch
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