DISARMing Questions for Stephen Barnes of Thousand Yard Stare

One of the many highlights of Shiiine On Weekender 2015 was the set put on by Thousand Yard Stare, which earned them a spot in Step On’s highly coveted 2015 “Best Of” lists.  Well, maybe not highly coveted is pushing it a bit, but it does means we liked what we saw.  A lot!  One thing not in dispute is the fact that front-man Stephen Barnes won the weekend for best shirt with his “How Soon Is Slough” beauty.  And as anyone who was there can attest, there were some absolute relics pulled out of cold storage and aired out especially for the weekend.

Stephen will have a chance to prepare to hold on to his well-earned shirt trophy this November when he and Thousand Yard Stare return to Minehead for the second installment of the Shiiine On Weekender.  Which, we are excited to learn, will likely feature new music from the band as they prepare to release a new LP in June!

Stephen was kind also enough to take the time to tolerate our pesky questions about his music tastes, travel preferences, art obsessions, and life in general, and provided us with these pearls of wisdom.

Step On Magazine: What are you listening to right now?

Stephen Barnes: The new LNZNDRF album, Oliver Wilde, and Father John Misty. Just got the Ry X LP too, sublime. I work with a lot of up and coming bands and it still buzzes me. For psychedelic vibes, try the Vryll Society, for indie pop/rock try Kid Wave. There’s an endless supply of good music!

What was the first LP/tape/CD you remember owning?

Searching For The Young Soul Rebels by Dexys Midnight Runners.  The 7 inch single of “Tom Hark” by The Piranhas.

What is your favourite band? Who is the most underrated band that you just can’t understand why they weren’t more celebrated?

Super Furry Animals basically sum up all my musical tastes in one band. No other band can span acid pop, psychedelia, kraut, pop, rock, indie, electronica and incisive lyrical content like these Welsh wizards! I think I speak for all of Thousand Yard Stare by saying the Cardiacs are probably the most under-rated band, but they seem to be growing in kudos more every day as people discover them, despite being on permanent hiatus. (God bless you Tim!)

Why do you live where you do?

I’ve lived in Bristol for the past 5 years after being in London for over 20. I love its ‘militant hippy’ vibe and it works to its own rhythm.  It’s a gritty city and a high brow city, small enough to walk around but big enough to have an international standing. The music and arts scene is always buzzing. There’s a real freedom of expression and experimentation. It can be a bit sleepy at times, but maybe it’s just me that needs to slow down!

What is your favourite journey?

Life’s a journey, man! Probably through the central plateau in Vietnam. Despite its violent history, it’s lush and green and the food and people just incredible.

What is essential to take on a plane or tour bus?

Your sanity, and try not to have it stolen or leave it anywhere. I have a “find my mind” app on my phone.

What is your dream vacation/trip if money was no object?

Right now, Cuba. Been on my mind for quite a while, and it’s starting to go through a rapid change, post-Fidel. It feels like it has a unique spirit.

What do you do with 4 hours to yourself in a new city?

Find where the real folk are. People make cities, not buildings, so go where the locals go. Drink their drinks, eat their food and talk to them. Then you’ll know how a city vibes.

What advice should you have taken but didn’t?

“Sleep On It”, which is very good advice in almost all cases. However, bouts of insomnia mean I don’t take it often enough.

Who’s your ideal dinner guest, living or dead, and what would the menu be?

Billie Holiday. I was part of the team that made a BBC Radio 2 documentary about her a few years back, and her story is both fascinating and heartbreaking. I’d ask her to sing “I’m A Fool To Love You” whilst I served her Moroccan Lamb Stew.

Who is your favourite hero of fiction?

There’s No More Heroes Anymore, didn’t you know?

What was the best live gig or music festival you attended?

Last week I got to see Brian Wilson at sound check doing “God Only Knows”. That was quite a moment.  The gig was great too. Festival-wise, probably Primavera 2013. Nick Cave, The Postal Service, The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Oh Sees, My Bloody Valentine, Kurt Vile; seemed every band I saw was great…and all right in the heart of Barca, which I love. Not been the last couple of years due to other commitments and I’m gutted!

What is your “must” reads?

Huffington Post, VICE, Football Italia.

Name something you consider a mind-altering work of art.

‘Nu descendant un escalier # 2’ by Marcel Duchamp. Never looks the same twice, no matter how many times I’ve looked at it. It’s actually an oil painting and the core colours are sublime. He was a bit of an outsider and arguably the first true Modernist, so he’s alright with me.

What does the next 6 months look like for you?

A spattering of live dates with Thousand Yard Stare, some more recording (hopefully), a massive cross Europe arts project, and cycling around Sri Lanka.

Which musician rule do you agree with? Always meet your heroes, or Never meet your heroes?

No. There’s no more heroes anymore, remember?

Thanks Stephen!

Dave MacIntyre

An Interview with Jeppe Dengsø and Ludvig Kastberg of Moon Loves Honey

On our 21st playlist of Shoegazers we’re listening to, we featured the rather excellent “Tell Me More Of Your Lies” by Denmark’s Moon Loves Honey.  Guitarist/vocalist Jeppe Dengsø and drummer Ludvig Kastberg accepted Step On Magazine’s challenge and answered our invasive questions about music, inspiration, and what the future looks like for them personally and as a band.

Step On Magazine: What are you listening to right now?

Jeppe: I have been listening to a lot of Mazzy Star and Soundgarden lately. Other than that, I’ve recently discovered Anderson Paak. He plays a really cool mixture of rap, jazz and soul.

Ludvig: I’ve been listening to the new Tame Impala album, Currents, a lot lately. It’s quite catchy, you know! I’ve also been spacing out to Washed Out a lot. Also, I recently discovered a Danish band by the name, Kentaur. They made a live-recorded album called “Ode 314”, which I think is the best they made. And it’s really beautiful, very organic, slightly psychedelic and catchy).

What was the first LP/tape/CD  you  remember owning?

Ludvig: System Of A Down – Toxicity

Jeppe: I think my first CD was a James Brown album. But I don’t remember which one. Probably a compilation album of some sort. I was into funky stuff when I was a kid.

What is your favourite band(s)? OR Who is the most underrated band that you just can’t understand why they weren’t more celebrated (any era)?

Ludvig: Vulfpeck! Everyone in the world should listen to Vulfpeck. Whenever I introduce people to this band it makes them so happy, because it is so groovy and immediate that it’s hard not to like.

Jeppe: I have listened to lots of different styles of music – old and new-  which makes it difficult for me to really narrow down who my favorite artists are, but there are some that I regularly revisit without feeling that their music has been outdated for me. Artists such as Pink Floyd, Bill Evans, Alice In Chains, My Bloody Valentine, Beach Boys and Beatles. Newer acts like Kendrick Lamar, Tame Impala and Beach House are artists whose music I expect will stay with me the rest of my life too.

Why do you live where you do?

Jeppe: I live in the second largest city in Denmark, Aarhus. It seemed like the natural next step after finishing high school in a smaller city. Moving to Copenhagen or another country seems like the only options for the next step from where I am now, but I don’t know when I need to take it. 

Ludvig: I live in Aarhus because that’s where all my bands are.

What inspired you to take up music/ How did you get into music?

Jeppe: I come from a quite musical home and I began playing guitar at the age of 12, because I started feeling the need to play an acoustic guitar that had been in my room all my life, but I had never touched for some reason. Soon after that, I started playing drums and piano too and started some bands. Whenever I heard something that sounded cool, I wanted to be able to play it. So I just started listening to all kinds of music, letting it enter my head and figuring out how to play it. Music is endlessly fascinating and the mystery and magic of it is what initially inspired me and still inspires me to keep writing, listening and playing.

Ludvig: My mom had a drum kit in our basement that my dad gave to her as a birthday present, and she didn’t really use it, but I did. I had no idea how to do it, but after all it is basically just hitting stuff with sticks, so I felt that I was pretty good at it, so I just kept playing.

What advice should you have taken but didn’t?

Ludvig: My mom wanted med to learn some theoretical stuff, but I really hated it and so I rejected it. Also I didn’t ever practice what my teachers wanted me to practice. And when I think about it, I realize that it would be nice to have some more of those theoretical and technical advances, that I never wanted to practice.

Jeppe: I’m not sure that I’m old and/or wise enough to know yet.

 What should everyone shut up about?

Ludvig: Themselves.. Which is quite ironic since I am sitting here writing about myself.

Who’s your ideal dinner guest, living or dead, and what the menu be?

Ludvig: Ghandi and the menu should be salt.

Jeppe: I would love to have a chat with Michael Jackson to find out how much of his music he created himself, and how it felt to be the king of pop, dealing with pressure, expectation and adoration. Talking to Jesus could be interesting too. I’m no religious man, but hopefully he would have some useful advice for life. I’d serve him homemade pizza.

Who is your favourite hero of fiction?  What are your favourite films?

Ludvig: Dr. Manhattan from Watchmen is my favourite superhero. He’s beyond space and time! He’s omnipresent! He’s the cleverest and most over-powered man-like being, with a good excuse for his insane powers.

Jeppe: Some of my favorite films are; Up, because of the romance in it. The Truman Show, because of the beauty of it and Full Metal Jacket, because of the intensity and style.

What was the best live gig or music festival you attended?

Jeppe: The best live gig I attended recently was The War On Drugs at Roskilde Festival last summer. The entire show was extremely captivating and had a great flow. Emotional but upbeat. Their songs are great.

Ludvig: The best concert I’ve ever been to is probably Sigur Rós at Roskilde festival 2013. I was in ecstatic trance for one and a half hours.

Name something you consider a mind-altering work of art.

Jeppe: Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys. The harmonies, layers of instrumentation and melodies have not stopped blowing my mind yet, even though I have listened to the album since childhood.

Ludvig: Björk made a music video with a guy by the name Andrew Thomas Huang, which goes so good together with the music that it makes me cry every time I see it. Alex grey, the guy that makes art for Tool, makes very beautiful, visionary art. There’s a whole lot of mind-altering art! Actually I think all art is mind altering in some way or another.

What does the next 6 months look like for you?

Ludvig: I am touring Germany and Holland in May with a band called Captain Casanova. And when I come home in June I will attend some festivals in Denmark and rehearse with my bands. Then in July I’m going to Indonesia with a friend of mine. From September I only have rehearsals scheduled, but I will have to find a job as well.

Jeppe: We will play a couple of shows before summer, and then I think we’ll take a short break during the summer to travel. Then we’ll reconvene and work on new material that we’ll release inside of a year and a half hopefully. We will keep playing shows and hopefully we will be able to go on European tours in not too long.

Thanks Jeppe and Ludvig!

Check out more of Moon Loves Honey on their SoundCloud page!

Dave Dupuis Talks About Life, Leisure and Nightmare Air’s Forthcoming LP

FROM A SKATEBOARDING CHUCK E. CHEESE TO CRUISING THE MEDITERRANEAN AND ALL POINTS IN BETWEEN:

DAVE DUPUIS TAKES US INSIDE HIS ROCK N’ ROLL JOURNEY IN STYLE

We first heard L.A. noise rockers Nightmare Air back in 2010 when they absolutely crushed the Silver Dollar Room in Toronto with a vocal and guitar assault that left our ears blissfully ringing and wanting more. In a week-long citywide festival that boasts and hosts hundreds of talented bands (Canadian Music Week) Dave Dupuis, Swaan Miller and Jimmy Lucido were the easy stand-outs.

Singer/guitarist Dave Dupuis, previously of Shoegazer greats Film School, shared with us his thoughts on music, inspirations, leisure time, and the upcoming release of the band’s newest LP with Step On Magazine.

What are your current fixations?

The speed of passing time, synths, people, sounds, trees, strangers, mountains, air, songs, green and orange, hiding eyes.

Why do you live where you do?

I live in Los Angeles. Been here for about 8 years now transplanted from Oakland by way of Seattle by ways of New Hampshire. As much as a cliché as it is, the weather is pretty amazing and the reason we are still here in L.A.  It’s very fitting for someone like myself that tours most of the year. Coming back to L.A. after a tour is always just “nice”. If you don’t get stuck in a hole, L.A. can be a great city to be in a band too. You’re surrounded by great and new talent popping up all around. L.A. is very much a choose your own adventure city. You can hide away in your house and tuck into the hills for weeks at a time and be totally happy, or you can go out and do crazy drugs with rock stars and actors…it’s all here.

What record/tape/cd/digital format music album inspired you to take up music?

Inspiration to actually start a band came back in the days of high school and early college.  It came from the punk and indie bands that were getting popular at the time. Seeing them as the raw/ terrible musicians they were with their raw/terrible sounding instruments, I thought if they can do it with the same crappy gear I have, I can do it too!  After a few years of making bad noise it worked out pretty well.

What advice should you have taken but did not?

I should have bought all the vintage Space Echos, vintage guitars, and synths when they were basically giving them away in Boston Music stores when I started getting into this game. They were everywhere and pennies on the dollar to what you see you now. I remember buying a sweet Korg Poly 800 synth in the early 90s for next to nothing and having these dickhead guitar dudes behind the counter laughing at me for buying it. Who’s laughing now mofo? They were too busy collecting rack gear and processors for their bullshit guitar rigs. Oh shit…now I’m starting to collect those same processors now….oh jeez, guess I’m a dickhead too?

What should everyone shut up about?

Gay marriage and smoking weed. They are both awesome.

What’s your idea of a perfect Sunday?

Sun, friends, tacos, tunes, stiff cocktails, weed and maybe a cool movie before the sun goes down.

What was the first LP/tape/CD you bought with your own money?

Culture Club’s Colour by Numbers. I got straight A’s on my report card and my mom gave me 10 bucks…I was just entranced by that damn “Karma Chameleon”. Funny full-circle to coincide with Culture Club, as I am writing this in our studio, I’m sitting under a 4 x 4 foot painted portrait of Boy George.  Jimmy Lucido (greatest drummer of all time), acquired it from a roommate who left it at a shared apartment a handful of years ago. That Boy George has been staring at us the past couple months as we’ve been making this current record. I wonder what that has done subliminally to these new tunes.

What was your most memorable day job?

It’s a toss up between painting fire hydrants in a small beach town in New Hampshire when I was 19 or in high school when I worked at Chuck E Cheese’s and wore the mouse costume. The costume job was pretty fun actually. I was a big skateboarder at the time and because of that they sent me around to local fairs and events with the sole purpose to just cruise around on my board in a 6 foot mouse costume.

How do you spoil yourself?

I buy way too many things that make noises. I for sure have a gear acquisition problem, especially when it’s record making time. If I think I may be able to use it I just buy it….the credit card companies’ love me.

Who would be your ideal dinner guest, living or dead, and what would you serve them?

Street tacos w/ Hendrix.

What is your favourite 90’s band(s)?

Tough one…but probably Swervedriver, Jane’s Addiction, Archers of Loaf, Quicksand, Superchunk…

What is your favourite journey?

To new unknown places with friends and guitars.

What is your current mood?

Amped for the new record/tunes. We spent most of this past July recording in Ireland at a really cool destination studio called Grouse Lodge. We came back in August with a good framework for the record, but had to leave almost immediately for another tour. Back in L.A. now buckling down, getting settled with some wild sounds and taking the remainder to the finish line. I’m looking forward to sharing our new children with the world next year.

What person or thing do you most despise?

Right wing bigots and closed-minded bible thumping fucktards.

What is your favourite occupation?

Being a musician.

What should people know about you?

I shattered my skull in a mosh pit when I was 19 and still have wires in my head.

What does the next 6 months look like for you?

Finishing the album and all that goes along with that, getting the live show together and earning money in the middle. I have a few work tours with Gary Numan coming up in the New Year that I’m beginning to focus on now. As well as play and tour with Nightmare Air, I tour manage and do front of house sound for different bands/artists.  I’ve been on tour with Gary Numan a lot in the past couple years or so, a truly amazing person to work with. A lot of his new music leans to full on industrial, full range sounds which has been really fun and inspiring to mix live and loud…perhaps why I’ve been buying up a bunch of random synths lately!?

Favourite TV shows/streaming shows?

Today…Game of Thrones, True Detective…and I just finished Mad Men. Was in and out of Mad Men over the years but thought the ending was great.

Who or what makes you laugh?

When I decide I won’t wear all black one day and immediately spill coffee down the front of my white shirt….and of course when you see a person walk full stride into glass doors not knowing there was a door there. I’ve done it too many times to mention so I can laugh without apology to the people that do it.

What is your dream vacation/trip if money was no object?

A month long boat trip in the Mediterranean on a large catamaran.  Love that sea. We were lucky enough to do that last summer for a couple of weeks with some friends after Nightmare Air played a festival in Greece. Greece has some of the best food, people and beaches out there.  I want more Greek island time in my life.

What has been the most significant achievement you’ve had with your music so far?

I’ve had the chance to play some of the coolest and most iconic stages in rock history alongside some of my heroes. That in itself is a win and I hope it continues. But really, just being able to live off rock and roll after all these years is an achievement. Definitely feel like I’m winning this round.

By Dave MacIntyre

An Interview With Andy Came and Joe Hatt of Spectres

Adam Hammond spoke to Andy Came and Joe Hatt of Spectres to discuss their stunning debut album, Dying, and that Record Store Day controversy….

It’s what Record Store Day has become: just another event in the annual music industry circus, co-opted by major labels and used as another marketing stepping stone … U2 have already shat their album into our iTunes, why should they constipate the world’s pressing plants with it too? … Because of the rules and regulations (minimum pressing amounts, no direct to customer sales, blah blah blah) Record Store Day really isn’t fun, and it’s certainly not beneficial to small, backs to the wall labels … but we are still affected by it. Badly.

Amid the echoes of self-congratulatory backslapping and the chimes of overflowing cash registers, another Record Store Day came and went, filling eBay with overpriced excrement and leaving the major record labels wallowing in the cataracts of abundance. As they gorged themselves on plenty, it would have been easy for them to ignore a lone voice of protest from two small British independent labels whose complaints in reality mattered as little as a gob in the ocean, but not so. Any barbs aimed at the most holy cash cow needed to be ruthlessly stamped out and Sonic Cathedral and Howling Owl became the subject of much ridicule as the argument was dragged on to the national stage. Why, reasoned the minnows, who kept the pressing plants in work for 365 days a year, should their business be put on hold while the majors clogged up the chain of production making picture discs of A-ha records that could be bought for a few pence in any local charity shop? A moot point you would think, but there was to be no debate. RSD was the insulin that kept the lifeblood of the music industry stable; to question it bordered upon insanity. This, the majors sneered, was all a publicity stunt by two small labels desperate to sell a few records. Talk about missing the point. Sonic Cathedral couldn’t sell their latest release because they couldn’t get it re-pressed. And they needed it re-pressed because it had sold out on the day of its initial release with barely a whisper of publicity. What they needed were records, and how dare a record label need records in RSD month.

The album that caused all the fuss was Dying, the debut from Bristol-based four-piece Spectres, a record that flew out of the shops as quickly as it arrived. Sometimes it simply seems the time is right for a band who transcend all of the usual hype to find favour with the minimum of fanfare, and that was certainly the case for Spectres whose approach to their career had been anything but high profile. The band had pressed a hundred copies of their Hunger EP on their own Howling Owl label in 2013 and there had been 250 copies of “The Sky Of All Places” single released by the Too Pure Singles Club in 2014, but that had been it. Spectres had played live, and featured in Wire’s DRILL festival, but the sheer impact made by Dying was as remarkable as it was unpredictable.

Andy Came: We were surprised about how much attention the album received, most of the reviews and press were amazing. The first pressing of the vinyl sold out on the day Dying was released and we were genuinely shocked.  We were then told it would take three months for the re-press to arrive due to the clogging up of vinyl pressing plants because of the same old shit being reissued for RSD. We toured Greece in early April and couldn’t take any copies of the album with us to sell because we didn’t have any. It was definitely a hindrance. The whole point of the protest against RSD was to raise awareness that the music industry is controlled by the mainstream and was not helping the little guys like Spectres/Howling Owl and Sonic Cathedral get by. We were surprised at how much attention the statement got; they are still making their millions on reissue after reissue so why should they care?

Photo courtesy of Spectres

The unusual aspect of Spectres’ success is that their music is by no means accessible, being dark, difficult, dense, and deliberately confrontational. Inspired by a host of No Wave artists, the band fill their songs with sheets of noise, built layer upon dancing layer, and have talked of their desire for their music to drag audiences into their own personal black holes. Hell, the album itself is titled Dying, has a cover picture of a drowning man, and is themed around, well, death. And after the warning sirens of opener “Drag” there is no let up from the dramatic sonic assault. Yet, Dying is no mere attack on the senses and Spectres are not a band to shout in a storm. Their use of noise is considered, textured and shaped to purpose. The incredible “This Purgatory” both hums and howls, veering from the cries of whales in a boiling ocean to full throttle chainsaw massacre. It carries you tenderly before dropping you off a cliff. Spectres don’t use noise as a cudgel as did the noise terrorists in days of old, but as a multi-faceted instrument of torture, intended to break you in a variety of ways; this is creative stuff.

Joe Hatt: I wouldn’t say that bands like us form noise into something more creative as I still think the whole No Wave movement is one of the richest periods of creativity, but I do agree that we harness it in different ways. There are still plenty of ‘true’ noise artists making statements through sheer abrasiveness and don’t care about it being in any way accessible/enjoyable, but we enjoy the tease of lulling people in and then attacking them with feedback and sheets of noise. To be honest I don’t think anyone has done that as well as Sonic Youth, and probably never will.

Well not until now, maybe. Just listen to the looping attack of “Mirror” as it scratches out your heart and it is difficult to imagine even the most committed Youth enthusiast not nodding in appreciation. This really is a monster of a song, searing and penetrating before it passes away abruptly after three minutes with Joe Hatt’s dark vocals echoing in your brain, “Soon this concrete running through my veins will set and leave me in stone.” The lyrics throughout are unremittingly dark and were the last part of the album to be recorded.

Photo by Guy Christie for Isolation

Joe: The rest of the band genuinely didn’t see or really hear the lyrics until the album came out due to our writing process. That involves me recording the music on a phone at practice and then playing the songs on repeat in my headphones and writing to them. It definitely wasn’t a conscious decision for the album to have a theme running through it, it is just what came naturally due to scenarios happening around me at the time. My mum asked me if I needed counselling when she read the lyrics, I just told her it was all fiction … ha ha! I think this band is a psychiatrist’s chair for all four of us.

Unsurprisingly, given the craft involved in shaping these songs with their painstakingly interwoven layers of sound, Spectres are not prolific writers, yet when they have discovered something they like they embrace it, nurture it, and guide it to maturity. These songs matter. Dying is not the pick of the crop, it’s the band heart, body and soul, with nothing spare.

Andy: Our songwriting process is a slow one as we only rehearse once a week for about three hours. It usually involves the four of us staring at the floor playing different things and then somebody will come up with something that we all like. We then piece together the song and get a structure from that idea which can take several weeks. When we recorded Dying we only had those ten songs; we aren’t the sort of band who will write and record twenty and then choose the best ten or twelve.

Such intensity not only explains the unwavering quality of this collection but also sets the warning bells ringing. Spectres’ music has grown ever more ferocious over the past couple of years, so how far are the band able to take it? Is it even possible to better the warped fury of “Lump” or the creeping threat of “Blood In The Cups”? If Spectres look to outdo themselves every time they enter the studio, things could easily end very messily.

Andy: I think that is a reaction to what is going on around us and how we have grown as a band. We never say this needs to sounds like this or we have to make this bit sound horrible, it all comes naturally and the four of us all bring our own experiences from the outside world into the practice room.

Joe: I don’t think we’d ever spend enough time in the studio for us to want to kill each other, which is maybe something we should address. The album was recorded in five days as we just do live takes and then the odd extra track but for the next one I think we’re going to try and do the whole clichéd ‘hire a cottage in the country’ and write for a week, away from the internet and ban ourselves from our phones etc… and see what happens. Hopefully something terrible.

As the band continue to promote Dying, they will be appearing at a few summer festivals in the UK and Europe including Incubate, La Route Du Rock, Supernormal and Reverence. These will be followed by a European tour in September and a short UK tour in November of places they haven’t yet managed to reach. If you haven’t caught Spectres playing live, then make sure you do so, as watching them is something you will never forget. That may be because of your mad dash for the door, the consequent purchase of your first hearing aid, or just the thrill of seeing these consummate musicians create such stunningly addictive patterns of sound.

Photo by Guy Christie for Isolation

Andy: People can take our live show however they like. We appreciate fans who enjoy our music as much as people who can’t stand it. If it makes someone smile then that’s great, whether that be in a disturbed way or if they genuinely like it. We do like people appreciating what we are trying to create and there will be people who like the darkness and the ear battering. We also smile when someone leaves a show because they can’t handle it or have a look on their face whereby they don’t know what to do with themselves. We want people to pay full attention to what we are doing and not be distracted by anything else around them.

It’s difficult to imagine anyone being distracted when Spectres are playing, even by World War Three. Just put the album on and see for yourself. Dying is great; everyone should try it.

Adam Hammond is the head of Isolation in Sussex, once a small record label and now an independent music website and gig promoter. www.isolationrecords.co.uk