Friday 24 July 2009

Interview: LED Illusions



A few weeks ago I came across Glasgow via London based 21 year old all rounder Kid Adrift.

Somewhat of an A&R's wet dream, his dub infused pop has been a huge hit on BBC Radio 1 and 6Music, with at least four of their DJs giving his track Red, Green and Blue airtime inside a week.

Given the fact that he's a bit of an elusive character and there isn't much known about him at the moment, I decided to try and find out a little bit more.

Let's get straight to business, what, or who is Kid Adrift?
Good question! I heard a few rumours that people think I'm on a boat, or that I'm a music producer gone riot or something!? It might be a bit of a secret alter-ego I suppose.

A lot of people probably know me as this kid who appears at electro clubs around Glasgow and London and then disappears for several days at a time. But they don't know that I'm Kid Adrift. I like having some secrets.

What's the thought process behind Kid Adrift?

I started out playing a few different instruments and got pretty into harmony and orchestration and stuff. But I recently spent quite a lot of time down in London with a guy called Kulture who is on Skream's new label.

He's basically this guy my age but he's like some wise sage or something. He'd lock himself away in his house for weeks on end with philosophy books and when he mixes he closes his eyes and touches the speaker to feel what the bass will be like in a club, it was all quite intriguing as he was making sounds that no-one else even knew how to make.

Me and him and some friends would go on like 40 mile walks around the country-side and just fire ideas back and forth, it was inspiring times. Basically all that probably re-wired my classical/pop side into whatever it is I'm doing musically now...

BBC Radio 1 seems to be all over you and has been for a while now, how
did that come about?
I just handed in a CD of the single to Vic Galloway who is the Radio 1 DJ up in Scotland and he opened his show with it and soon after he tipped it to Huw Stephens and Tom Robinson, then Huw tipped it and Nick Grimshaw started playing it on his show and suddenly it started appearing all over the place.

When Record of the Day picked up on it it all went a bit mental! It was just in the space of 6 weeks or so. Apparently it's been on the Radio in America as well. BBC Introducing are great people they're really helping me out with it all, even with advice and stuff. It all took me a bit by surprise, I'm almost like whoa hold up let me actually get my first CD out everyone!

So what does the next 6-12 months hold?
The first EP will be out very shortly, I should have a release date in the next couple weeks. Then me and the band are going to hit the road with the Live show which I'm really excited about.

We got offered sets at Glastonbury and Reading only 2 months into the whole thing which feels pretty mad but we're not going to launch into anything before we've done some more warm up gigs! We've done some pretty mad shows before in previous bands using laptops and samplers etc and we want to create the same feel about it.

I hear you're working on a remix at the moment, can you divulge who it is or is it a secret?
Yes, I'm really, really excited about that. There's a couple I'm working on, just finished the first one today actually. An electro-pop band that I really like somehow heard about my stuff after Record of the Day featuring Red, Green and Blue and next thing I know I had the multi-tracks in my inbox. I've basically taken a pretty light poppy song and made it pretty dark and subversive. I feel all guilty now. All will become known soon....

Is remixing something you're going to be doing more and more of or is
the artist side of things taking precedence?
The songwriting will be the main thing for me always but I'm going to do as much remixing as possible. I like taking very poppy stuff and just adding a dark streak to it. I don't know where that comes from...

When I was a kid I ripped off Santa's beard at the local village hill in front of all the kids to let them see he was a fake. Something satisfying about taking something really twee and breaking it down in front of everyone.

Are you in to new music at all? If so, who's got your ear at the moment?
This guy Son Lux on Anticon. He's writing songs that basically just tear my whole world apart and rebuild it in the space of 3 minutes, breathtaking.

Well, I did say that I tried.

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Check out the much hyped track in the widget below, the lyrics for which can be found at his website. Also, look out for a Guest Mix from Kid Adrift in the coming weeks, it's definitely going to be something special.

<a href="http://kidadrift.com/track/red-green-and-blue-remastered">Red, Green and Blue (Remastered) by Kid Adrift</a>



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Thursday 23 July 2009

Hype: We're Living In A Warrior's World



Mancunian two-piece Kiss In Cities is the new project from Laura Marsden and Joe Cross of (we are) Performance.

It's still early days for their self-proclaimed "pop experiment", as the live setup is still in development, but it's clear that the tracks are practically there already (with Lunatics being my favourite thus far).

Their aim is to "craft catchy tracks with darkly intelligent and kitschy, comic lyrics" and I think that sums them up pretty well, with synth-pop romp U R My Girl perfectly encompassing all of the above.

I know the 80's vibe has pretty much gone beyond saturation point this year but when it's done right it's like mullets never went out of fashion and this could easily be mistaken for a Lauper classic.

Kiss In Cities - U R My Girl

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Friday 17 July 2009

Hype: A Vision



North London four-piece WILD PALMS are a band I've quickly fallen for in a big way since reading about them in Dazed a while back.

Whilst they do have an air of familiarity in their sound (perhaps something akin to what These New Puritans would sound like if they focused less on pretension and more on musicianship), there's something really refreshing, gripping and almost consuming in their music.

WILD PALMS come across as a band who aren't about the bright lights, the huge deals or the spot on Jools Holland but instead about a work ethic and emphasis on being a band that they themselves can be proud of. I can't help thinking that the track that I'm about to post holds their mission statement in its lyrics, "I crave for something fresh, I crave for something new".

It's also a busy time for Darrell, Lou, Gareth and James, as they are set to play 1234 Festival, have just been confirmed as tour support for Good Shoes and are currently half way through supporting The Warlocks on their UK tour.

WILD PALMS - Deep Dive (YSI)

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Competition: Zootime Winners

Just over a week ago, I gave you the chance to win two pairs of tickets to Gold Panda / Simian Mobile Disco gig at Camden Roundhouse as part of the iTunes festival.

Rather than do the usual and boring thing of asking you to answer a ridiculously easy question or send me your basic details, I asked for you to send me an image/painting/drawing of whatever came to mind when listening to Gold Panda's fantastic track Back Home.

Both me and the Panda himself chose a winner when the competition closed on Wednesday and with some fantastic entrants, here are the winners who'll each receive a +1...

Gold Panda chosen winner: Dan Wainscoat


Illegal Tender chosen winner: James Miller



Apologies to all of those who didn't win the tickets but themz the rulez. Perhaps I'll do another competition soon but enough of the Blue Peter shit, normal business will now resume (didn't mean to start MC'ing there).

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Thursday 9 July 2009

Hits The Spot: Cub


Image by Tom O'Neill


It's always nice when the opportunity arises to include two Illegal Tender favourites in one post, so when I heard that the recently blogged Baby Monster had remixed Wolf Gang's debut single Pieces Of You (released through the almost sickeningly Midas-like Neon Gold), I couldn't resist.

I'd even go as far as to say that I prefer this over the original, Baby Monster have just given the track more energy and life and when the piano kicks in, it just takes off.

Wolf Gang - Pieces Of You (Baby Monster Remix) (YSI)

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Tuesday 7 July 2009

Competition: Zootime



In an unprecedented move and courtesy of the magnificent Gold Panda and good friends Brilliantly Different, I'm giving away two pairs of tickets to the Gold Panda / Simian Mobile Disco gig at Camden's Roundhouse which is part of the iTunes Festival on the 29th of July.

Rather than have you answer some ridiculously easy question or just mail me your details with "OMGZ I LUV GOLD PANDA!!!!1", I thought that I'd make it a little more interesting.

If I were asked to describe Gold Panda's sound or how one of his
tracks made me feel, I don't think I could do justice to either.

With that in mind, I'm asking you to send in a drawing, painting or photograph that best represents the feeling, thoughts or emotion conjured in your mind when listening to the track Back Home (which can be found on his Myspace).

Please email illegaltendermagazine@gmail.com with the subject line Gold Panda Gig and include a link to the image as well as your name with the restriction of one image per person. The competition will close on 15th of July.

The two winning images will then be chosen by myself and Gold Panda and will be announced the next day. Good luck!

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Pre-order Gold Panda's debut release (via Various Production) the Miyamae EP (which includes track Back Home) now through Puregroove and Rough Trade.

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