The Huddle Formation

The Universal Sigh

2011-03-28T09:14:00.004+01:00

Today is the day Radiohead's new alum, The King of Limbs gets it's physical release here in the UK. To coincide with the release Radiohead are also giving away a free newspaper called The Universal Sigh. I live i Leicester which is about two ours from either London or Manchester which are the only two places where it is being given away in the UK. Thankfully Rip It Up is hosting a version of the paper on PDF. This isn't likely to last all day or even until midday so get it while you can.

Justice Is All In

2011-03-25T18:16:00.006Z

ADIDAS IS ALL IN from U_MAG on Vimeo.

Above is the new advert that Adidas is running. Why is this something to get over excited about? It features the first single the will be featured on Justice's currently unnamed follow up to their 2007 debut album, ✝. The last genuine new tracks we heard from Justice were the our tracks on the Planisphère EP which they gave away for free on their Myspace page in 2008. There have a few hoax leaks of materia claiming to be new Justice l over the past few years, most notably "Beginning of The End" that even fooled Stereogum. I was convinced by this as well, but the reason it was so convincing was just that we were all just so excited by a new Justice track, it was easy to believe as it had an especially if it had a convincing story behind it. In retrospect it's kind of hard to imagine what was so convincing in the first place, must have been just the fact that there was track floating around.

MP3| Justice - Planisphère (Final)

Justice [Myspace] [iTunes]

Primal Scream present Screamadelica @ Leicester O2 Academy 24.03.2011

2011-03-25T15:39:00.002Z

I would have been 4 when Screamadelica was originally released and even if there was a chance I could have been aware of the music, my dad only first heard of Primal Scream a few years ago so it would not have been playing in the house. Like most music fans in the UK I am now aware and have been for years of the legendary status of Screamadelica and the influence it has had on music since it was released. So even though the tickets were quite pricey for an academy gig it I was just a show that I thought I would kick myself for missing it if I didn't go. Justification for the price came a few days later when the band were announced as the Friday headliners for the Other Stage at this year's Glastonbury. As well as being confirmed for Glastonbury they have been confirmed for Oxegen, T in the Park, Benicassim, Bestival and V Festival.

I did not try to make it to the gig in time for the support act as they were only listed as DJs on the Academy's website. The audience for the show was pretty much wha I expected it would be with me being one of the youngest there at 23. With a majority of the crowd being made up of people would have been teenagers when the album came out first time round 20 years ago. I was very impressed with the venue as well. I have only been to the Birmingham Academy since the chain was taken over by O2 and the venues given a make over. The Leicester one is a lot smaller, probably a third of the size, but it is just as much of a modern venue. So it may double up as a club for some nights in the week, but it does not feel like some dirty student club.

When the band came on stage Bobby Gillispe announced before any music started "we're gonna blow your fucking minds". The band then started the gig with album opener, "Movin' On Up". I had expected the to play the album in it's entirety track for track and for the first three songs of the night that looked exactly like what they were going to do. For the fourth song of the night, they broke from the track listing of the album and played one of last few tracks on the album, "Damaged". I am not as familiar with this track and assumed on the night that it was b-side from one a band's singles of that period before later finding out I was wrong.

As they had now broken from the album track listing for the rest of night they just played tracks from all over the album. For the track "Higher Than the Sun" they played a very extended instrumental at the end of the track. So much so that it was closer to the "Dub Symphony in Two Parts" that is featured on the re-issue that I own rather than the original. To close the set they played the last two remaining tracks on the album, "Loaded" and "Come Together". The first of which is my favourite on the album so I particularly enjoyed it, even if the live version didn't have all of the intro that the recorded one does. Then there was nothing left to play on the album so I hadn't thought they would come on for an encore, unless they played some of tracks that were on the Dixie Narco EP included with the 20th Anniversary re-issue.

The lights did not come back on so they were obviously coming back for an encore. Rather than playing Screamadelica era songs they played some of their most popular tracks they have released since then ("Country Girl", "Jailbird" and "Rocks"). That then closed the night with a bang even getting some members of what had been a chilled out crowd so far, pumped enough to do a bit of crowd surfing.

I think part of what made he show so spacial was lost on me because I did not grow up listening to the album. That being said I thoroughly enjoyed the show and have now gained a whole new appreciation for the album. I was right to spend the money on the expensive tickets, I would have missed them at Glastonbury this year as there is no way I'm missing U2 and as I found out sat night this was not a show to be missed.

Primal Scream [Website] [Myspace] [iTunes]
Leicester Academy [Website] [Twitter]

Time to start again

2011-03-24T22:48:00.000Z

Well I used to write this blog (same title, slightly different URL) up until May 2010 when Google took it down. I tried unsuccessfully since then to get the posts back with no luck for a while and I just just lost interest in it. I was content to not have one because I never really had that much spare time to write it. For me the blog became one of those things that I didn't miss until it was gone and in an attempt to procrastinate from doing the work I should be getting on with I decided to see what URLs were available on Blogger with a view to start writing again. That was nearly 6 months ago and now I'm eventually getting round to start writing again.

So maybe a little introduction is necessary as I didn't even write one previously. So my name is Warren and I'm a 23 year old from Leicester. I used to study Medical Science at Birmingham University, but in my time in Birmingham I became more and more interested in music. Since leaving the course in 2008 I took a year out and have now started a Music Tech degree at De Montfort Uni in Leicester in 2009. This is a degree I'm much more suited to and enjoy a lot more, so rather than treating it like an extension of school.

So there you have it, that's a bit of background. I will update on a fairly regular basis both with my thoughts on what's happening in music and as many live reviews as I can write from the concerts I go to. Oh I nearly forgot, I should really say what sort of music I like, but you will probably gather from the posts. Here it goes anyway, I like:

Indie

Alternative

Electro

Electronica

(Some) Rap

You can keep a watch on what I've been listening to that week on the chart from my Last FM profile on the right. It covers quite a variation, my favourite band is Radiohead with Arcade Fire pulling up in second place, but it's a bit all over the place as you will see. So that's enough about me, now to name of the blog. When I first created it The Huddle Formation, the track of the same name by The Go! Team was one of my favourite tracks, since then when I have thought about renaming it. I thought about what the term huddle formation meant to me in terms of music. I got thinking it's a pretty good description of the way the crowd always gathers at a concert.