Fold do music with a message; not in that earnest ‘well, you’ve got to like it because the message is important’ way but in that ‘the music seduces while the words make you think’ way, the way it should do.

The subject here is the suppression of dissent, and the music is a wonderful funky slow groove that is frankly rocking my world. It;s the musical equivalent of melted chocolate; melting over you in the most wonderful way. Horns that sound so good it hurts, a sparse drum track that grooves magically. And yet the music does more than this, it’s visual, it allows you to ‘see’ bell saying the words. It is both music and documentary. If you’re familiar with Fold then the beauty of the music isn’t going to be a surprise, but this is outstanding.

The (spoken) words come from the late bell hooks; carefully chosen and placed soundbites that weave an important message. The track reflects a society in which dissenting voices are being deliberately and increasingly stifled. Yet there is hope because, as hooks states, ‘people are really hungry for truth.’

Seth Mowshowitz of Fold says “We are continually impressed by bell hooks’ observations and with each new discovery we feel her loss more keenly. Like me, bell hooks was also a New Yorker. She was a professor at CUNY where my father taught for most of his career. This piece uses excerpts from a 2002 interview that triggers memories for me of how it felt to live in post-911 New York / USA. Dissident voices were ruthlessly silenced. Powerful forces took full advantage of the hurt and fear that people were experiencing. What bell hooks observed at that time was the beginning of a trend that has only increased since. We are now very much, as she puts it, ‘in danger of silencing any form of speech that goes against what is perceived to be the status quo.’ This is the perspective that we want to amplify right now.“

The importance of the message in this track right now is that, in my opinion, while the, let’s call them, the alt-right trumpet freedom of speech and cite being cancelled by the left; it appears that at the same time they seek to cancel the voices of those that disagree with them through both actions and legislation. Further I think it’s important to say that if it was the other way around that would be just as bad.

This is a compelling track from Fold. It compels both musically and with the important message it contains. Musically and in the message it contains it’s beautiful. In its own way it speaks truth, and there’s beauty in that. It’s also addictive as hell, you’ll not be able to resist playing this on repeat. This is a must listen, you get that people.

The info

The horn arrangements on ‘The Painful Truth’ are by long-time Fold collaborator Emma Johnson.

Fold play The Old Woollen, Farsley on 26th July 2023
Tickets: https://oldwoollen.co.uk/event/5121449/640464427/fold

This single is released on brand new and exciting, multi genre UK label SUBTXT. With the core ethos of “dig deep, shout loud”, their aim is to create a platform for artists that want their music to question, interrogate and challenge as well as delight and entertain. In times when opinions are divided, SUBTXT fundamentally sees music as a vehicle for conversation, enlightenment and hope from a diverse range of voices in sonic landscape made from belief.

If we’ve learnt anything from the two teaser releases from MABGATE’s EP, it’s that the EP was going to be one special release. Prepare to have that confirmed, and then some.

So, before we go any further we need to get one thing clear. This is an EP that is meant to be listened to in its entirety, in the order the band have arranged the music. There is an intro, an interlude and an outro. You could do the random play thing but let me assure you you’ll be missing out.

The intro – appropriately titled MABGATE- is a mood setter, a classically influenced piano and drums jazz piece that impresses both technically and, more importantly, in atmosphere. It’s smoky, it speaks of darkened, cigarette smoke filled basement venues.

And then the first of the two previously released tracks – ‘I asked’.Following the intro it seems to tell us that this basement venue is not what we quite expected. It’s not quite the jazz venue we might have expected.

The sonic basis of this track seems – at least as far as this release is concerned – to be jazz with just the right amount of funk. You should note here that I said basis because there are hints of desert blues, something kinda Middle Eastern and more than a hint of drug infused jazz based progressive music – like Gong and Soft Machine. And a wonderful return of that classically influenced jazz piano.

This is all downright confusing to be honest, if we’re approaching it from a ‘what does this band sound like’ angle. But that is the bloody wrong way to approach it. This is music to immerse yourself in. There’s that hypnotic pulse of that slightly funky desert blues, a guitar scattering compelling riffs over the track, the frankly wonderful organ floating and it’s sound like a soft pillow. Oh a bass clarinet solo that’s going to blow your freaking mind. It’s mysterious, mesmirising and haunting. It’s visual music, it invokes pictures in your head. Now look I’ve managed to get to this point without mentioning that there are no vocals on this. Why? Because you just don’t miss them, at no point do you find yourself thinking ‘well, this is brilliant but it needs vocals and words’.

A guest vocalist steps up with August Charles on ‘Tell It How I See It’. when I saw that MABGATE had teamed up with August Charkes it made me more than a little excited. August Charles was my random Long Division artist last year, and what I heard was frankly astounding. He has a voice that encompasses jazz, soul and something quite theatrical, a voice that is pure emotion. I just knew that the combination of him and MABGATE would produce something amazing. I wasn’t wrong.

The sound here is a magical mix of desert blues, jazz and soul. The emotion of the track is conveyed in this angular sparse sound where instruments dart in and out over an oddly off-kilter drum. It’s sparse until a piano bursts in with a sound that sits somewhere near big band jazz and classical. Now this sounds as though it’s going to be an awkward fit, and it is to a certain extent. But you see, that’s the entire point; it’s all about communicating the emotion of the song

And over this August Charles weaves his voice into the track, telling a story. He comments “The guys came to me at a time when I was in a situationship with an Austrian girl who came to Leeds to study… immediately when I heard the track, I knew it had to be about how I was feeling in that moment, half of me, was fighting to maintain this lacklustre relationship and the other half was trying to shine a light on the fact that she was in the wrong and I was getting crucified for saying the obvious.”

Now do you see how the mix of feels and sounds conveys the mixed feelings of the song?

‘Interlude’ floats a slightly warped organ over jazz drums and bass. Seemingly moving seamlessly into ‘Inline with featured guest artist Alex Fisher. It’s big classic jazz that evokes sounds of yesteryear and of now. The standout is a frankly jaw-dropping trumpet that wails, it wails good. It’s all so wonderfully loose. This is simply something you must listen to, words are inadequate.

‘Club 45’ takes us to a place that is part organ led cabaret jazz, part freaky late 60s’ club. It is both this, and not this. The part that is not this is a frankly astounding piano solo that drops sparks of glorious sound that swirl around your head. Yes, this is somehow jazz based but then again that’s a leaping off point.

The sultry sounding ‘Outro’ brings the musical journey all too soon to an end

This EP is a journey, a trip, into sound, mood and atmosphere. It’s totally inadequate to describe MABGATE’s sound as jazz based. Yes, jazz is part of their sound but it’s part of an unholy glorious mix of influences that defy listing. The only thing you need to know is that the music they make is gorgeous, compelling, beautiful and all kinds of lovely. It evokes pictures in your mind. It works both as purely wonderful music and as music that you can immerse yourself in, to let it take you to unexpected and fantastic places. It feeds your mind as well as your ears..

This is the second album from electronica duo Scienius. In the way of a quick catch-up for those who don’t know the duo; they play electronica based on the sounds produced by retro electronic instruments. To my ‘been there, got the t-shirt’ ears this seems to sit in a period from the early post-punk electronica – such as Human League – to the heyday of synth based music in the 80s. This means I spend the whole review, if I wished to, name-checking bands and artists from that period both obscure and well known; but I won’t. The first reason for this is because those references possibly won’t mean anything to you.

The second is that in the period between the first album and this release, their sound no longer feels as retro as it used to. This may be because I’ve just got used to itp; an easy reason but not one I’m taking. In fact I think it’s because of the rise of post-punk influenced music recently, and that I’m listening to an increasingly large number of new artists using this retro electronica sound to make new music by mixing it with sounds of now. That said, let’s dig in.

‘Life’s A Thing Again’. Now while this could be interpreted as a personal rebirth or a global one is up for debate. The sound is reminiscent of mid-period Depeche Mode (that’s a rule broken), in that it’s sparse; based around a strident rhythm track with bursts of a richer sound. How while I’ve announced this album as sounding like rebirth, there is an edge, the sound seems to suggest ‘life’s a thing again?. There’s a moody undercurrent that runs beneath.

‘A Million To Go’ is richer, with carefully crafted layers of sound. And the vocals are more upfront. There is a distinctly post-punk tone to this track – that sits near to New Order – even though there are subtle nods to Rave. The duality in the tracks is laid bare in ‘High Low’. The music manages to sound both dark and pop bright. The vocals, by the way, are a thing of loveliest.

‘La Meme Nuit’ shifts up in tempo. Pulsing sounds, repetitive phrases. In contrast the vocals are deadpan and world weary. Again there’s that duality, the music sounding hard edged and frantic, the vocals not. Although it sounds retro in sound, it doesn’t; there’s an of now sound that’s there as well.

No Scenius album would be complete without a track (or more) that is all about atmosphere, mood and emotional response; ‘Hindsight’ is that. This is far from being a conventional song, being built on sounds that rise and fall with vocals that are seemingly improvised over the sounds. It might be better thought of a sound piece.

Now ‘Chinese Room’ was released as a single (read my full review here). It brings the dark into the forefront. In fact the more I listen to it the more scary I find it (in a good way, I love music that puts me on edge). Here harsh edgy and rich sounds collide to produce something utterly wonderful.

With ‘Escalation’ we have a track that in name seems to reflect its music structure. It’s made up of sections that escalate from low key to bright. Strangely it has me in mind of sounding like Joy Division doing electronica (OK, so I’ve given up sticking to that rule). It has a dark pulsing quality. As does ‘’Moon Fall’ which combines that pulse with a glorious vocal tune that is so totally earwormy it hurts.

‘Rise Above’ is another of those deeply atmospheric and moody Scienius tracks that sits in the dark end of their musical sound. Low synth sounds underpin what is actually your classic ballad. Go on, listen to it and then imagine this with just a piano, see what I mean.

The album closes with ‘Hot Dust’. A track that does not do the usual album thing of ending on a happy note. Instead, edgy harsh sounds crawl beneath swells of very slightly off-kilyer synth. It evokes a darkness, a mood, an emotion. There is one part of this song with vocals, the rest is given over to pure atmosphere.

While their songs can be enigmatic, with meanings that are hard to decipher, there does appear to be an arc in the album; if only in sound, from bright with a dark underbelly to dark with lyrics that seem to contradict that. Now I might be wrong in that but that’s the feeling I get. This album doesn’t wear its story on its sleeve but demands interpretation by the listener. And this is a good thing, that makes it an album you need and want to go back to again and again, creating your own story, your own meanings.

And what is going to help you with this is the complete brilliance of their music. While it may be electronica, this is merely the means they use to make music that is emotional and atmospheric. It may have some sounds that could be sequenced but others sound like they are played by people in real time. It has the soul of musicians.making music organically. This is, as I’ve said before, how electronica should be done.

‘Life Is A Thing’ is a darkly beautiful album made by two people who so obviously care deeply about their music. This is a must for fans of electronica, that goes without saying. But if you love well made, atmospheric and emotion laden music of any kind but not ventured into electronica, listen to this.

This song from TRUNC (the band formerly known as The Elephant Trees) is a raging raw raucous punk anthem delivering an insight of the restless generation emerging from the solitary confinement of the last few years; covering mental health, sexuality, and life in Britain. You know the full nine yards and more.

Over an angry breakbeat and raging guitars Martha delivers the words monologue style; and boy is she fucking angry. It seethes with a justifiable anger, frustration and a need for recognition, validation and just more bloody life.

The key thing is while the words spill out at a rate of knots, skipping from subject to subject; this is no mindless rant, it’s a meaningful rant that just makes sense, that hits home hard. This is one powerful song.

I have to be honest here but I’ve not been keeping an ear out for TRUNC, now I’m wondering why; with words and music this good I’ve clearly been missing out. ‘Bored’ is a song for our times. Oh, and if you like to mindlessly throw yourself around a room, this is one for you. This is fucking brilliant.