Swallow The Town Like A Vitamin

Much is made of Welsh chanteuse Cate Le Bon’s morbid lyrics, but in reality her art hardly reflects her personality. Me Oh My, her debut album released in late 2009 on Gruff Rhys’ (Super Furry Animals) label Irony Board, was originally titled Pet Deaths in honour of the animals that lived on Le Bon’s family’s farm as she was growing up. “Living with loads of animals you’re faced with death pretty soon on in your life, and when your favourite animals are dropping like flies…” she trails off in laughter.

The recording of the initial album was a long, drawn-out process that eventually dissolved, seeing Le Bon start afresh. “We didn’t have a time-scale and couldn’t stop putting more and more stuff on and it just completely lost direction. So I thought it was quite apt to bury the album and start again.”

The resulting Me Oh My is a mature, realised vision of growing up and dealing with a downcast view of the world. The album’s enduring qualities of starkness and psychedelia are held together with abstract lyrics that are mirrored in ’60s-referential psychedelic music. Almost carnivalesque in aesthetic, there’s an undercurrent of a retro horror theme. The production is sparse, accentuating her crisp enunciation and startlingly pure, strong voice. Backed by intricate guitar parts, strong and prominent basslines and minimal yet hardy percussion, the album is affectingly simple, delivering blows in stand out songs with a unique vantage point. But this perspective didn’t come out until after she’d moved away to the big city, Cardiff.

Growing up in rural Penboyr afforded Le Bon the isolation to hone her musical talents with her equally music-obsessed father, and the two would listen to records and play guitar together.

“My Dad was completely into music… he always wanted a son but mum just kept giving him girls, so I think he decided that I was maybe the more tomboyish of all of us, so he would teach me just guitar chord sequences so that he could plug in his electric and just jam over what I was playing, which was great for a while until you’re like ‘Dad, can you teach me something new?’” she adopts a low, gruff voice, “‘No! Keep playing!’” she laughs.

Barely a review goes by that doesn’t compare Le Bon to Nico. “Yeah,” she sighs, “I think it’s just ’cause I have a deep voice. And I’ve got a terrible heroin problem as well,” she deadpans. One reviewer encouraged her to stay away from bicycles. “It confused my dad a little bit!”

While most of Me Oh My is composed in English, occasionally you’ll hear charmingly bizarre-sounding Welsh words come through. It is almost by chance that she can even speak it; her school happened to teach in the native tongue. “It’s insane, I think it’s probably the most impossible language to learn. Neither of my parents speak Welsh at all, and they’ve tried so hard to go to lessons, but because I think only 20% of the country speak it, it’s so difficult to immerse yourself in it.”

However her use of Welsh is not down to patriotism. “I find it a lot more difficult to compose in Welsh for some reason… I’ll write a song and then it will become apparent that maybe the sound of the Welsh language would work better. There’s nothing political about choosing which one, it’s just about viewing each one as a different instrument. But the majority I write in English just because it comes a bit easier to me.” She lives her life “50% in English and 50% in Welsh”, and like Gruff Rhys, agrees the language should be preserved.

“It’s such a beautiful language and it’s an incredible, unique culture in Wales, of course it should be preserved. I don’t think people view it with as much respect as they would maybe other languages. But with all minority languages it’s important to keep it alive and to respect it as its own language.”

Le Bon completed her first mini tour of the UK a few months ago, playing eight shows with Lawrence Arabia before crossing to America to play more shows including SXSW. After spending time with the kiwis she boasts she’s now “got an extensive knowledge of New Zealand music”.

Daniel Ward of Lawrence Arabia and The Sneaks ended up drumming for Le Bon at SXSW. “We were in a bit of a pickle because we couldn’t all make it out to the States, our drummer that was gonna step in was unable to make it, and I’d kinda spoken to Dan, (and asked that) maybe he’d be able to step in? He was playing some shows with Lawrence Arabia and his girlfriend was coming and he hadn’t seen her in a while; he didn’t really have the time. But fortunately for us, James (Milne) and Hayden (East) couldn’t get their visas too, which is obviously an awful thing to happen, but it meant that Dan was freed up to play for us and he kinda knew all the songs… Unfortunately our fortune came out of someone else’s misfortune. But it was great! We played three good shows and saw some great music and just had a lovely time!”

Studio time in LA that followed the tours will hopefully result in some new material, as the album’s material is now driving Le Bon “up the bloody wall”. While her music may sound lonesome, it’s a collaborative effort, and an upcoming release is in the cards. She says it’s all up to whoever “will be around to help me”.

Cate Le Bon- Hollow Trees House Hounds: MP3

Cate Le Bon- Sad Sad Feet: MP3

Cate Le Bon- Myspace

Posted by Sarah Gooding under Cardiff, Wales
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The Terror of the Man

Ever since St. Vincent checked in with her brilliant debut album Marry Me in 2007 I’ve been on the look out for a female songwriter burning the same desirable flame. Finally I’ve found her; she is Welsh musician Cate Le Bon and her debut album Me Oh My is the first album from a female solo artist to really excite me since St. Vincent grabbed my attention three years ago.

Known already for her role with Neon Neon (she guest appeared on vocals in the song ‘I Lust U’), Cate Le Bon has used her relationship with Gruff Rhys (Super Furry Animals, Neon Neon) to turn herself into a modern day pop star. Rhys runs a record label (Irony Bored) somewhat dedicated to her brilliance and he has already been rewarded, with Le Bon receiving extensive praise across the world.

An instant attraction to Le Bon’s music comes via her sultry voice, which is dainty and perfectly in sync with her byronic narration. Comparable to the likes of Lissy Trullie and Annie Clark, she sings with a wavy love bird-like mystic and has the unique ability to adjust between high and low frequencies with relative ease. However the real beauty that makes Le Bon’s music stand out is her chiseled instrumental arrangements which contain an unusual aggression, often sounding coarse and abrasive but never becoming overly offensive. They often reach breaking point but never snap, producing the type of tension normally associated with synth based noise music.

Cate Le Bon’s debut album Me Oh My is out now through Irony Bored Records. It can be purchased from Rough Trade’s online shop.

Cate Le Bon- Terror Of The Man: MP3

Cate Le Bon- Me Oh My: MP3

Cate Le Bon- Myspace

Posted by Nick Fulton under Wales
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You Need Satan More Than He Needs You

If you read Future Of Left’s myspace blog you’ll discover that Andrew Falkous is a very complex individual who likes to express his thoughts in public. Unfortunately via email he wasn’t as talkative, preferring to leave many topics in the past, including his anger towards the individual who leaked the band’s latest album; constantly dealing with the Mclusky hangover and addressing crowd hecklers with a sarcastic kick in the teeth.

With two former members of Mclusky and one former member of Jarcrew; Future Of The Left has a certain enduring reputation, but singer/guitarist Andrew ‘Falco’ Falkous would rather we didn’t talk about that. Both bands ended badly and now all three members are firmly focused on Future Of The Left. Rumours quickly emerged in 2005 after Mclusky announced their break-up that it was due to tensions in the band between Falkous and fellow band mate Jonathan Chapple. In his closing statement on Mclusky’s website, Falkous promised fans, “There’ll be more music soon, from all of us.” After approximately sixteen months hidden away from the public, both Jack Egglestone and Falkous returned to the stage in July 2006, along with Kelson Mathias (whose band Jarcrew had also disbanded around the same time as Mclusky) and Hywel Evans, who is now a member of Welsh math rock band Truckers Of Husk. To avoid Mclusky and Jarcrew devotees turning the band’s first few gigs into embarrassing reunion shows, the quartet played under a number of different names, including Monks Of Passim, Guerilla Press and Dead Redneck. It wasn’t until a small UK tour in September, 2006, that the band chose to stick with the name Future Of The Left.

Sick of hearing Future Of The Left compared to Mclusky, all Falkous will say on the matter is that “it would be nice if it would tone down a little.” The band has a special rule to deal with Mclusky requests, “It happens occasionally,” he says, “and allows us to respond with a pre-prepared line… The special rule is that if someone requests a Mclusky song then we don’t play it. Mind you, we don’t play it anyway.” But while Falkous wants to go forward with his new band, and wants the crowd to appreciate that Future Of The Left is not a continuation of Mclusky or Jarcrew, he admits passionately that personally he doesn’t want to forget about Mclusky. Frustrated with the public’s confusion around FOTL’s unwillingness to play any Mclusky songs, he doesn’t want people thinking that he is deliberately ignoring his old band. “I still have the same voice and stupid guitar tunings… there’s a keyboard but it’s hardly played in a freshly fruity manner. I was in that band for eight years, so y’know, it’s hardly a figment of my imagination.”

Impressively, just three and half years after forming the band, Future Of The Left has already built a hefty catalogue. Their first album Curses, released in 2007, won over a new audience, while strongly clinging to a devoted group of fans who could see beyond the fractured Mclusky reinvention. In early 2009 the band released a live album titled Last Night I Saved Her From Vampires, which immediately had some critics questioning the move and coming just a few months before the band’s pivotal second album was released it was indeed an interesting decision. However the move seems to have paid off, FOTL’s reputation benefited greatly, drawing a world-wide audience into their at-times humorous live antics; calling out members of the audience and demanding respect via a sarcastic pitch that often has their crowd in hysterics. On the live album Falkous calls out a fan who interrupts his stage banter, “You’re wearing a Tool t-shirt, so your opinion is invalid,” he pipes back. “I enjoy Tool as much as anybody else who never listens to Tool does… at the end of the day they’re a bunch of hippies who dress like the cast of the Matrix, ” he says sarcastically.

“I grew up in an environment where I was exposed to many different ideologies and regard them all with a total lack of disrespect…”

He admits that his approach on stage can sometimes cause conflict, however he seems to laugh at fans becoming overly sensitive about his remarks and he says he’s never ever felt intimidated on stage. “If it gets out of hand there’s usually security.” And while interaction with the audience appears to be a huge part of the band’s live performance, he says, “It doesn’t always work but we attempt to engage the crowd as much as is appropriate. Sometimes it becomes a major feature of the show and sometimes it merely bookends the noise. Either is fine.”

Engaging might also be a good term to describe the band’s lyrical content, or perhaps the term aggressive is slightly more appropriate. Falkous has no problem directing insults towards particular politically or religiously motivated groups whose opinion he staunchly disagrees with. The final track on the band’s new album Travels With Myself And Another is testament to this. The song, titled ‘Lapsed Catholics’, attacks religious extremists for their close-minded view on human nature and their approach towards non-believers. He says, “I grew up in an environment where I was exposed to many different ideologies and regard them all with a total lack of disrespect. I admire the idea that you should try and be a good guy but for its own sake, not necessarily because a bearded guy may wreak revenge on your soul at the end of your days.”

Is the name Future Of The Left a political reference? “A reference and allusion, yes. A mission statement, no. We’re all left-leaning individuals but we’re no political activists,” he says. However despite his claim that they are not political activists, they are definitely doing their bit to push their own left-wing, socialist opinions. Songs like ‘Chin Music’, ‘The Hope That House Built’ and ‘You Need Satan More Than He Needs You’ all have obvious political messages. Perhaps he has just come to accept his place among the working class. He adds, “We’re certainly not from rich families and as a result of having dedicated our lives to this shit are unlikely to be able to send our kids through college.”

Recently Falkous went public with his anger towards the person who leaked FOTL’s latest album online. On the band’s myspace page he expressed bitter anger and pain towards the online music community, threatening to kill the the person who originally leaked the entire album. Perhaps then, there is a bit of sadness in his voice when he talks about putting his kids through college. All he wanted to say on the matter was that “the problem with the internet is its lack of accountability. All I can do is express my sincere opinion on the matter and then move on.”

 Future Of The Left- Chin Music: MP3

 Future Of The Left- Myspace

 Buy Travels With Myself And Another at Insound

Posted by Nick Fulton under Wales
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