She Makes War

I for one am thoroughly excited about the release of She Makes War's debut solo album - Disarm.

I'm sad to say that I was late in my discovery of the musically astounding Laura Kidd - I in fact discovered her from something that was retweeted (thank you Twitter) - but as sad as I am that I have been missing out, I'm more than pleased to have found her.

Having spent much of the last few years touring with other bands such as The Young Punx, Kidd finally gathered together a set of 41 demos and headed to the studio. This has resulted in a thirteen track album dealing with everything from love and loss, to genocide.

It's difficult to liken it to anything I've heard before. It appears she's carving herself a niche in the music industry with her beautifully crafted songs, defiant of genres.

As I sit here trying to find the words to describe just how good this album is, I struggle. I am unfortunately not a music journalist. It would appear that I am headed more into financial journalism than I am music and film. The best thing I can really say to you is that the album is out on 1st September, 2010.

When it comes out. Go get it. You need it in your life.

Soon you'll be wondering what treats were in those original 41 demos she had. More please.

Imogen Heap 19.02.10

After much anticipation, and some trepidation because of a sore throat, I finally witnessed Imogen Heap live in concert last night. I'd like to be able to wander off into some beautifully descriptive tangent at this point about her skill, her talent, the brilliance of the show, the genius of it all and her commitment to her fans. But honestly, nothing I can say, nothing I can write, could ever do her justice. I could write paragraphs about her and still not scratch the surface of that show and so I shall leave it at this:

Brilliant.

The only bad point in the entire evening was the horrendously drunk and obnoxious peroxide blonde wanker who thought he was better than her. Five songs into the set and he was shouting louder and louder, not singing, just shouting to his girlfriend, making jokes and taking phone calls. Eventually after many threats from people nearby he shut up and once he'd sobered up he left before any of us could get our hands on him. But once he'd settled down, despite being on edge the sounds washed over me and Imogen worked her magic. Calming, soothing, moving, funny and haunting beautiful. It couldn't have been better.

I was pleasantly surprised by the accompanying acts too. Generally a little disinterested in the opening acts after years of seeing bad ones (though not exclusively bad - I've been lucky enough to see Sean Walsh, Sonic Boom Six, Big D and Rhys Darby as warm-up acts). But Tim Exile was hilarious and within ten minutes of being on stage had turned a 'meow' sound into bubbles and dived into the crowd to perform some homemade magic with a mental recording joystick. But he was preceded by my new favourite artist - Back Ted-n-Ted. His set was fantastic. The songs were great and his music is genius not simply in its construction but in the very method in which it is created. I urge you to listen to him (http://www.myspace.com/backtednted) and know that even though these songs sound awesome, they're even better live.

His first album is out on April 27th and you can (and should) follow him on Twitter. Cause he really is just that cool.