27The Star,Thursday, February 9, 2012www.thestar.co.uk

TIMEOUT

n Boy Friend EgyptianWrinkle (Hell, Yes)

BEST friends of 15 yearsSarah Brown and ChristaPalazzolo deliver a debut thatwill either depress the lungsout of you,inspire orsoothe. Be-neath theangelic,echoeyvoices anddreamy,sparse,sometimes soupy melodies liebruised lyrics born of dentedsouls.Tragically lovely valiumfor the ears.

n Hyperpotamus Delta(Pias/Believe Digital)

GREAT name, but what is thismystical beast? H is a Lon-don-based multi-vocal soloartist who honed his soundin the un-dergroundstations ofhometownMadrid.Delta ishis secondalbum ofinstru-ment-free songs poweredonly by looped human voice.Clever, niche, but an acquiredtaste.

listeningpost

ment-free songs poweredment-free songs powered

same page musically andknow instinctively what eachsong needs – and we had thelegendary Alan Smyth at thewheel.

“We had more time inthe studio so we could playaround with different tech-niques and try out variousthings until we had it justright, things like gettingexactly the right drum soundfor different songs – we’venever had time to do thatbefore.”

Nat Johnson & The Fig-ureheads launch the recordat the Memorial Hall onWednesday. Content: Nat Johnson

please

JUST done with record-ing his album, Rotherhamsinger/songwriter Jay Mya,pictured, completes a busyline-up of acts giving theirtalents for a variety showin aid of SAFE@LAST chil-dren’s charity at the CivicTheatre tomorrow.

He joins a cast of morethan 100 performers, includ-ing Steve Smith the showbizlawyer, jazz/pop singerLauren Housley, West Endmusical regular Phil Coleand rock act Diesel Vanilla.

Comic compere WayneBiggin also hosts cabaretartist Dave Knight, Zubaidahbelly dancers and variousyoung people’s dance andtheatre groups, starringalongside adult acts.

“It’s important to raisefunds for SAFE@LAST inthese days when money

is scarce and we all feelthe pinch,” says organiserChristine Ayres. “A fabulousshow is a great way to helpwhile having a good time- all proceeds will helpSAFE@LAST reach someof the most vulnerable chil-dren in our area.”

Charity has a good Jaymusicnotes

TWO days of live music,comedy and poetry aimedat giving the commercialside of Valentines Day awide berth gets underwayon Saturday afternoon whenSheffield’s Rude Shipyardrevives ‘Cupid In Nooses.’

Cakes not murderedroses feature alongside anextensive line-up from 2pmthat includes two bandsfrom Sweden sharing spacewith mellow favourites LittleRobots, pictured, and LittleGlitches and livelier pros-

pects The Hot Soles, DoubleNo No, Black Gold Of TheSun and the Payroll Union.

See The Star’s Gig Guide(Page 30) for line-ups.

House Of Trees and Valde-mar Have are the Scand-invaian brace on a bill thatincludes a poetry sectionhosted by Sheffield’s WordLife Poetry with moneyraised via donations assist-ing Sheffield Committee toDefend Asylum Seekers.

The Friday aspect of thefestival has been cancelled.

Anti-Valentine weekend

AMERICANA returns to TheGreystones tonight whenamong the ‘WagonWheelPresents…’ guests is thisman...

As Quiet Loner, song-writer Matt Hill, pictured,won the 2004 AmericanaUK Album of the Year for hisdebut Secret Ruler Of TheWorld, going on to play withthe likes of Lambchop andNeko Case.

As well as songs aboutlove, loss, infidelity, suicide,attempted murder, capitalpunishment, the databasestate, terrorism, religion,war, fallen angels and theredemptive power of coun-try music, Hill is a raconteurand delivers a show that isemotional, often funny, usu-ally political and occasion-ally angry.

His songs have a dis-

tinctly British lyrical bite, asillustrated by most recentalbum Spectrology, re-corded deep in the Englishcountryside during the last‘big freeze’.

Expect individual setsfrom him, Dan Raza andGreg Harrisburg and somecollaborations as the triocontinue a joint UK tour.

Hill climber is not alone

wheels to live...

your life.“But that doesn’t happen

any more because peopledon’t spend money onrecords. Well, they do butthey’re so cheap, I buy moreexpensive apps. It’s gone to

such a low value it’s mean-ingless because it costs moreto make them.

“We wanted to slow peopledown to the extent they werehelping create a record. Evenif they didn’t at the end press

‘send to basket’ and buy theprocess was drawing them into what we’d been creating.I don’t want to sound like aponce, but it is art and thataspect has been lost.

“We wanted to get that

back, to involve people. Theway they used to was by get-ting on a bus into town andgoing to a shop, handing over15 quid, getting on the bus,going home, listening to it,headphones in the bedroom.That was an experience.That’s been lost because it’sjust a click.

“So after two years of whatpeople thought was absenceone day we said ‘here’s 20songs, choose your favourite10’. It was exciting, I didn’tsleep the night before; I washoping it would as excitingfor them.

“We had loads of peoplehaving a go on the websiteand although that didn’ttranslate into millions ofsales it was brilliant and formonths after I was check-ing the website, seeing theTweets, looking at people’sartwork and track listings.It was more exciting thanweekly sales figures.”

And let’s face it, the albumwas cheaper than a ticket toElland Road – and you mightactually want to relive theevent. While Ricky admits heis less of a Leeds fan than therest of the band – he struggleswhen set quizzes by Japanesefans – he laughs at the anal-ogy.

“You’ve just got to takeeach day at a time and enjoyit, and remember to enjoy it,”he concludes ahead of unveil-ing newer songs on Monday.

“A lot of people in music,especially bands, have kindof forgotten it’s the thing theywanted to do since they couldtalk.

“It’s not very cool to looklike you’re enjoying yourself.It never has been. All thecoolest people look like theyreally don’t want to be there,but if you didn’t want to bethere you wouldn’t be there.”

Kaiser Chiefs play 02Academy on Monday.

Sold out

Music is art:The KaiserChiefs withRicky Wilson,second right.piCture: dannynorth