Pet Shop Boys in Milan
A quick visit to the archives. These photographs were originally featured in ‘SUP 20.
Young Fathers
Hailing from Edinburgh, Scotland, three-piece Young Fathers fall out of their car in a ball of laughter and jokes as their manager drops them off at the photographers studio for a ’SUP interview and shoot. Being that they’ve been on the road for two days and have only eaten a sandwich in that time, ’SUP wonders a bit what they’d be like if they were 100 per cent nourished and well-rested. Ally (three sugars in his white coffee), Graham (two sugars and milk in his tea) and KS (just a biscuit, please) are all 20 years old, primed and ready to explode onto the music world this year. (More …)
Gui Boratto
It’s hard not to think of Gui Boratto as one of the most serious and intense musicians and producers out there. The deep contemplation of his three albums, Royal House (Trama, 2004), Chromophobia (Kompakt, 2007), and, most recently, Take My Breath Away (Kompakt, 2009) is hard to ignore and even more difficult to not to let consume you. Syncopated rhythms, densely packed beats, heavily layered synthesizer riffs, and swooning bass and guitar melodies make all his work undeniably complex and indisputably moving. (More …)
Moon Unit
Berlin and Belfast seem like an unlikely musical alliance, but the space and distance between them have only worked in electro duo Moon Unit’s favor. With Paul Mogg (synths/machines) living amongst it in Germany, and Ros Blair (vocals) based in Northern Ireland, they’ve closed the chasm between these two countries with their progressive, dark electro rock band born out of a track created over the internet last year. One track turned into several, and the band was born. (More …)
Comet Gain
Indie rock is littered with forgotten gems. You stumble upon bands and they quickly give life a new, fresh meaning, even if only for the time it takes for your record player needle to span the width of a 7-inch. There was a time when people felt that exciting novelty about U2 (though it’s hard to believe now) and then the Smiths, then Jesus and Mary Chain, and then the Vaselines, then the Cribs, and so on and so forth. The bands pass the baton forward through the insatiable appetite of music fans, who then in turn pick up their guitars, synths, drumsticks, laptops, and continue the relay. (More …)
The xx
Settle down, lean in close and cock your ear because if you don’t, you won’t be able to catch a word of what the xx are telling you. The soft-spoken, black-clad foursome sit in London’s empty Institute of Contemporary Arts bar, utterly devoid of rock star swagger. There will be no grandiose statements of genius. Apparently no thought has been given to world domination and a future of excess, glitz and glamor seems unlikely. What these shy 19-year-old South Londoners seem the most excited about is unleashing their newly-wrapped, eponymous debut album out on XL offshoot Young Turks in July. (More …)
Crystal Stilts
Rock is a bit like an archaeology dig. That’s not to imply the genre is stagnating or has run its course – far from it. But as the eons of rock are solidified, as blues begets rock and rock begets indie, the average listener begins to view each new band and its respective influences as though they were layers of sediment. Dig beneath the surface, and bits of a guitar riff and the bones of a particular instrument from genres past form the layers for future musical innovation. (More …)
