The current regulars are: Sian Webley (vocals); James Youngjohns (guitar, keyboards, viola, folky things); Sarah Kemp (violin, mandolin, glockenspiel); Mike Doward (bass, double bass); Peter Martin (bass, guitar); and Vanessa Lewis (guitar, vocals, saxophone); Dan Melrose (guitar, lapsteel). Occasional conscripts have included Sam Lench, Jo Foot, Gabe Minnikin, Robert Fisher, Alan Cook, David Armes, Eileen Rose, James Smithson, Huw McPhearson, Graham T Ebbrell, and Chris Ingold
Influences
Nico, Sparklehorse, Dirty Three, Giant Sand, Spiritualized, Janis Joplin, Joni Mitchell, Jesus & Mary Chain, Scarlet Rivera, Nick Drake, Phil Spector, Bernard Butler, John Cale, Billie Holliday, Low, Thalia Zedek, Nina Nastasia, Elvis Costello, Neil Young, Smog, Eileen Rose, Miles Davis, Velvet Undergound, Bob Dylan, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Bert Jansch, Elliott Smith, Mazzy Star, Shangri Las
Sounds Like
Q: "A beacon of wit and invention in a genre fast losing its way in pseudo-prog pomposity".....................Mojo: "Truly outstanding... Should rich variety tickle rather than torture your palate, this is for you".....................Uncut: "spectral arrangements (that) range from psych-folk to country-noir on this set of literate, often menacing songs about love, sex and God.....................Record Collector: "A broken world accompanied by bare acoustics and evocative violins: never has desperation sounded so good.....................
BBC Online:"Songs that teeter on the edge of exploding, that sound like they are desperate to scream but never dare, that wind so tight with energy that you cannot fail to be enthralled by them... weaves a web of delicate beauty that shines like a heap of diamonds.".....................
NEWS*** Anna Kashfi are headlining a special night of the popular "For Folk's Sake night at the Zion Arts Centre Theatre in Hulme. This should be a great opportunity to hear the new album played with an expanded band line up in a gorgeous venue. Don't miss it!....................................................................................................................................................................................
Named after the former Hollywood actress and ex-Mrs Brando, the band Anna Kashfi are based around the core duo of singer Sian Webley and multi-instrumentalist and producer James Youngjohns together with an expandable cast of like-minded musicians. They play dreamy, melancholic music that crackles with the memories of past mistakes, missed opportunities and the emotional games played by lovers in battle. Their new album 'Survival' (out January 18th 2010) reflects the duality and tragedy of the real-life Anna Kashfi. It's about that sense of characters being vulnerable to the whims of the world and circumstance, of the thin-line between existing and being wiped-out forever. Many of Webley's words unpick the conflicts between lovers and the emotional battles played out in relationships and she builds on those games with 'Devil's Bridge'. A duet, of sorts, with Robert Fisher of kindred spirits Willard Grant Conspiracy, the song relates the story of how the townsfolk of a Tuscan town tricked the devil into building their bridge for free. Fisher plays the devil of course, superbly so..................................................................................................................................................................................................................Anna Kashfi have received airplay from Radcliffe and Maconie (Radio 2), Gideon Coe (6Music), Elbow's Guy Garvey (XFM), John Peel and have played sessions for Marc Riley (6Music) and ALL FM. The band have played with Laura Veirs, Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter, Giant Sand, Josh T Pearson and Eileen Rose amongst many others. Members of the band have also lent their skills to Willard Grant Conspiracy, Last Harbour, Mark Mulcahy, Eileen Rose and Quiet Loner...................................................................................................................................................................................................................
FRIEND REQUESTS: If you're a band who like what we do and you're sending a friend request we'd love to hear from you, but can you drop us a message as well to say hello? We'd hate to miss a great band because we couldn't face sifting through all the spam in our requests folder...
Its time to brush off those January blues and other such cliched nonsense.... dont know about you but our Januarys been pretty good so far!!!
We are looking to get into Feb though as it means the start of the Designer Magazine gig calender and we've got some great ones for you starting off on Feb 6th at the Roadhouse
Also remember those who want FREE TICKET GIVEAWAYS, UP DATES ON UPCOMING GIGS AS SOON AS THEY COME IN - JOIN OUR FACEBOOK GROUP HERE:
* Feb 12th - The Aftershow @ Moho Live ft Picture Book, Drive There Now, Richard Dutton (The So & So's), The Tracks, Unconscious Jungle, Still Down Gill
* Feb 14th - SKINS BEACH PARTY @ MOHO LIVE (with EFFY from SKINS DJ SET) plus The Mandigans, Of The True Class, Sleepless Nights , Lights Out Action, Aura and more TBC
Tickets SELLING FAST! £7 adv avaliable from (more on the door): wegottickets.com seetickets.com Ticketline Picadilly Records
Grouper (US) has her latest – Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill – of three albums on Type Records. She has also been involved in collaborative releases, contributing a track to Xiu Xiu’s Remixed & Covered and four tracks to a split release with Inca Ore. Her other contemporaries are Belong, Growing, Tim Hecker, Windy & Carl and Atlas Sound.
Jasper TX (Sweden), with a hefty back-catalogue of releases on labels such as Miasmah, and collaborations with buddy Machinefabriek, is an essential domestic appliance in the household of conceptual music. He is comparable to artists Fennesz, Sigur Ros, Múm and Tape.
Intricate and atmospheric songsmith, Danny Saul (UK) performs with different combinations of musicians, making each gig a unique event. His forthcoming release is "Harsh, Final", and he also performs with Greg Haines as Liondialer.
Fieldhead (UK) music delights in tape hiss, bleak landscapes and decaying analogue loops. He is also a member of The Declining Winter and Glissando. His debut album, "They Shook Hands for Hours" is released soon on Home Assembly.
Glass play the Apollo Theatre, Manchester, UK, 14/11/09 (supporting Puressence).
SPECIAL OFFER! Visit the Glass on-line store (via the link below) to
purchase tickets for the Apollo Theatre, Manchester, UK, on 14/11/09 and
receive the forthcoming début album 'Teenage Galaxies' for free!
This month we mostly have Catie Curtis (with a Richard Thompson cover), Lindsay Fuller and The Cheap Dates (and who amongst us isn't?), Josh Fix with a track from the well-titled album This Town Is Starting To Make Me Angry and the rather lovely Red Rooster.
Trespassers William (Seattle, US) are the duo of Matt Brown and Anna-Lynne Williams. "Subliminally sublime and pragmatically perfect, you would have to possess an ashtray for a heart not to feel this coursing through your soul" (DSD Music Magazine). A new EP, The Natural Order of Things, is set to be released on Gizeh Records. They will make a church performance with special guests.
Glissando (Sheffield, UK) “have the kind of atmosphere that can captivate and relax in equal measure- never before has tranquillity sounded so urgent. While track lengths of over 10 minutes may fail to hold the attention of the ADHD sufferers among us, with patience it plays like a majestic dream. And it's one you'll never want to wake up from." NME
Operations (Chris Anderson) is a Manchester based conceptual music producer and sound artist. He performs and records with an array of analog synths and effects, reel-to-reel tape and casette players, and guitars. Followers of Tim Hecker, Slowdive, Fennesz, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Stephen O'Malley, Type and 12K Records will surely nod in approval.
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