Hi Gigantic Gang,
Well we can’t believe it – summer is almost over! We hope you have had a lovely season, enjoying live music and festivals, hopefully without the need for a cagoule! But don’t despair if you are true sun child because Gigantic will always be here to bring you the hottest tunes with our #NewMusicFriday blog and playlist.
Plus; are you a #GiganticGigGoer? Then we have a massive giveaway just for you! If you have an amazing photo on Facebook or Instagram of live music you know needs sharing with the world, then use #GiganticGigGoer to be in with the chance of winning 5 x £20 Gigantic vouchers. We will be choosing winners from our favourite pics over the next seven weeks and you can find more details HERE.
See you at the front!
Video
MANU DELAGO – ‘Zeitgeber’
Taken from their forthcoming album ‘Circadian’, London based drummer Manu Delago releases his new video for his zesty single ‘Zeitgeber’. German for ‘timer’, the percussionist famed for having worked with innovative Icelandic songwriter Björk, his atmospheric new video reflects his own experiences of insomnia and disturbed sleeping patterns whilst out on the road through lively tension centred around rapid rhythms and deep sax.
“Before I made this album I had a phase of very intense touring with multiple trips to five different continents, without a break for several months. The last track on the album, ‘Zeitgeber’, is the most upbeat track on the record, it represents the morning hours – a sort of ‘musical alarm clock’ – and the meaning of the track title is something that puts you back into a 24hour rhythm. I played drums on the track – it’s a really fun energetic track to play, which I think comes through in the way the musicians play on the recording....
Title track ‘Circadian’ employs a repetitive 24-note-pattern for this reason, with some small rhythmic variations symbolising that our 24-hour-rhythm is not perfect, and everyone has individual variations in their sleep pattern – in my own case often due to jetlag”
‘Circadian’ will be released on Friday 13th of September on One Little India Records and you can see the Manu Delago Ensemble play Metronome in Nottingham later in the month on Monday 30th.
Manu Delago tickets are currently available.
Album
MALLORY KNOX – 'Self-titled'
Cambridge rockers Mallory Knox have returned with their intense forth album. Eponymously titled, the twelve tracks are incendiary take downs of the trials of modern life which represent a new era for the band following the departure of singer Mike Chapman last year – now replaced on vocals by bassist Sam Douglas.
Rather than be daunted by the significant change in their line-up, they have been spurred on to reach deep into themselves and found that the creative juices really started to flow.
“When Mikey told us he was leaving, we wanted to make sure that after we announced it to people, we had a song ready to go the next day. We didn’t want people dwelling. So, we went in to record ‘Black Holes’ and we ended up recording four songs. That was supposed to be the first singles. Then we discovered that when you stop working for two months, you end up writing more songs that you think are better and you want to record them. It becomes a domino effect. We’d do four, write 10 more, then go again. I don’t want to do an album like that again, but that’s how it ended up working.” – Sam Douglas
Mallory Knox tickets are currently available.
JAY SOM – ‘Anak Ko’
Melina Duterte adopted the moniker Jay Som in 2015, releasing her critically acclaimed shoegaze-centric debut album ‘Turn Into’ a year later which quickly saw her develop a cult following which helped her achieve modest success with lush second LP ‘Everybody Works’, getting to No. 17 on the US Heat chart in 2017. Today, Duterte reveals third album ‘Anak Ko’ to the world.
The title means ‘My Child’ in Tagalog, a native dialect found in the Philippines, and references letters of love and inspiration sent to Duterte by her mother. ‘Anak Ko’ reflects upon her own personal growth, both as a woman and a songwriter, and likens her own creative process to that of raising a child herself.
“In order to change, you’ve got to make so many mistakes. What’s helped me is forcing myself to be even more peaceful and kind with myself and others. You can get so caught up in attention, and the monetary value of being a musician, that you can forget to be humble. You can learn more from humility than the flashy stuff. I want kindness in my life. Kindness is the most important thing for this job, and empathy.”
‘Anak Ko’ benefits from Duterte’s past experiences and shows tremendous development, succeeding in creating a record which still inhabits youthful optimism and innocence whilst accomplished enough to perhaps be her first real taste of mainstream success.
Jay Som tickets are currently available.
TROPICAL FUCK STORM – ‘Braindrops’
Looking to get weird? Then Tropical Fuck Storm are exactly what you need! The Australian psyche-punks are led by Gareth Liddiard and Fiona Kitschin while their seminal band The Drones are in hiatus and they have just dropped second album in eighteen months ‘Braindrops;’ which is a wonky collapse into LSD drenched fear of a dying planet, eroding social decay and the worldwide rise of the Far Right as they command the debate through conspiracy theories and reject knowledge as fake news.
“Everything we do, we try to do it in a weird way. The whole album is full of weird beats, and just weird shit everywhere” – Gareth Liddiard
Tropical Fuck Storm tickets are currently available.
SHEER MAG – ‘A Distant Call’
Following on from their highly acclaimed debut album ‘Need To Feel Your Love’, Philadelphian party band SHEER MAG are back with their second LP ‘A Distant Call’. Almost verging on a concept album, their second album has a constant narrative sown deep into the ten tracks which takes a hard look at the issues of the day including fat shaming, the international refugee crisis and the West Virginia teachers strike. These concerns are close to singer Tina Halladay’s heart and she has been “waiting to write these songs since we started the band and we were able to take these experiences and build a story out of them.”
Despite the heavy themes, the record is a lightening fast 35-minute wild ride of glam, lo-fi disco, raw punk rock and huge anthemic riffs which sure packs a punch. Catch Sheer Mag at Mirrors 2019 when it hits Camden on Saturday 2nd of November, two days before they takeover YES in Manchester for their very own headline show on Monday 4th.