Narc. Magazine Online
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Issue 14 of our E-ZINE continues to bring you multimedia diversions aplenty
By NARC. on Friday, September 27th, 2024
Welcome to edition 14 of our digital ‘zine! Right here you’ll find all kinds of interesting and unusual diversions, designed to keep you entertained and informed on the region’s alt. music and culture scenes. Video interviews and sound clips, mini-documentaries, live performances, playlists, reportage, reviews and much more are all created exclusively by us as well as by some of the region’s talented creatives.
Spanning music, theatre, comedy, film, art and everything in between, the NARC. E-ZINE is designed as an antidote to doom-scrolling! With the aim of entertaining and informing, we will provide you with a constant source of exciting, surprising and unusual content continually evolving throughout the issue’s lifespan. Dip back in regularly, there’s new content uploaded all the time!
In the latest episode of our writing podcast My Writing Life, Fran Harvey chats with horror/crime author Matt Wesolowski, about his forthcoming new book in Wild Hunt Publishing’s Northern Weird collection, (Don’t) Call Mum, which is out in May. They chat about being inspired by red-ink typewriters, humour in horror, nuance (or lack of) in how society portrays and understands ‘evil’ people, and how Matt uses linguistics to create convincing folkloric monsters and more. There’s also a genuinely scary one-line horror story in the middle of the interview, so fair warning to listeners!
Celebrate the launch of Matt’s new book at the Centurion bar, Newcastle on Thursday 8th May.
Read the transcript to Fran and Matt’s chat here.
York-born writer and journalist Adelle Stripe’s recently released memoir Base Notes: The Scents of a Life has been roundly praised for its bleak yet funny insight into dead-end jobs, lost weekends and brief encounters, using perfume as memory markers.
In the latest edition of Fran Harvey’s podcast My Writing Life, she chats with Adelle about her wayward beginnings in writing (with unwitting help from the Moody Blues); how she learnt the foundations of writing from Chuck Palahnuik; why all writers would benefit from learning about and writing poetry for a while; perfume, and the weirdness of telling the world things you’ve never told anyone, plus much more.
Read the transcript of their chat here.
Sunderland joined the Music Cities Network on 21st January, becoming the UK’s second city to do so. Rising star Tom A Smith celebrated with a new track titled Music City, capturing his love for Sunderland’s vibrant scene. He recently surprised fans at The Peacock with a live rendition of the track, which pays homage to Wearside’s rich musical heritage.
In this episode of My Writing Life, Fran talks to actor and writer Jill Halfpenny about her memoir on love, loss and tragedy, A Life Reimagined. She reveals her experiences of being in the public eye since releasing such a personal story, the process of book and script-writing, and the importance of being open to ideas.
Image by Rachell Smith
The Futureheads’ frontman Barry Hyde has announced his sophomore solo album, a concept record inspired by the coal mining heritage of the North East, with emphasis on Sunderland and Washington. Miners’ Ballads is due out in early 2025, with the first single, The Miner’s Life out now.
Hyde used the Cello Suite in G by JS Bach as a harmonic template and inspiration point, he says of the track: “[The Miner’s Ballad is] a traditional colliers song about the dangers, hardships and bravery of those that worked underground.”
Bassist and musical magpie Ian ‘Dodge’ Patterson has come up with another stunner of a track in his new single, the intriguingly titled Duck #25. Under his OUTRI moniker, Ian takes influence from jazz, folk, electronica, found-sound and cinematic landscapes to concoct mesmerising soundscapes, and Duck #25 is no different.
Inspired by the annual Cluny duck race, Ian explains the new track is a nod to influences including Four Tet, John Hopkins, Brian Eno and Cinematic Orchestra. The accompanying video was filmed during recording sessions at Blank Studios.
A special film project highlighting the experiences of children arriving in the North East from countries affected by war has made its debut. Now We Are Here is a collaboration between families from Syria and Ukraine and a collective of local artists and producers. The touching and informative short film tells the story of refugee displacement through the eyes of young people Nader and Solomiya as they and their families make their way from their home countries of Syria and Ukraine to the UK in search of peace and a new life.
Now We Are Here was conceived by children’s writer Danielle Slade, alongside sound artist and composer Bridie Jackson, illustrators Josie Brookes and Tom Madge and filmmaker Sheryl Jenkins.
Singer-songwriter and producer Zak Younger Banks continues his musical explorations with the release of new single, With Shadows. Recorded with a four-piece band and accompanied by a self-directed video, the artist’s influences range from the likes of Leonard Cohen and The Japanese House to David Lynch and Frank Ocean. With a fluid sound that takes in everything from avant-folk and ambient electronic to jazz and shoegaze, the track expands Zak’s unique vision for his sound.
An award-winning faux documentary short created by composer and synthesist Scott Ampleford has had its online premiere. Written and directed by Scott and animator and filmmaker Alisa Stern, the action centres on a record collector who stumbles upon a mystery after discovering hidden messages on vinyl albums from the 1970s, and features a host of talented cast and crew from across the North East. Incredibly, the music from the fictional albums heard in the film was all created by Scott, leading to two albums of material.
Check the film out via Oddframe Films YouTube channel.
With a brand new album on the horizon, Hartlepool’s cult indie pop band Mt. Misery unveil a video for their new single, Hey. The timeless indie pop tune pays homage to late night American TV, as Andrew Smith from the band explains: “For the past few years I’ve been obsessed with US late night TV, particularly ‘Late Night with Conan O’Brien’ – my YouTube home page is pretty much wall to wall Conan clips in various degrees of dodgy VHS quality. I don’t know why but the idea of this strange little show being broadcast every night at 12:35am is just very interesting and appealing to me. It’s like a window to a world that doesn’t really exist anymore.”
New album Love In Mind will be released via Prefect Records on 1st November.
Newcastle’s tremendous fuzzy alt. rock five-piece Pit Pony have well and truly awoken from their slumber, and treat us to this delightful ditty about staring death in the face amidst the mundanity of everyday life. The video is a playful portrayal of the monotonous routines and seemingly never ending to-do list that comes with parenthood, a sense of humour that vocalist Jackie Purver relates to as a mother juggling her day job alongside being a musician.
“Sometimes it feels like there’s an unwritten rule that women in music aren’t allowed to get old and have children, and that’s one of the reasons why we wanted to do this video,” she explains, “the more we talk about being mothers the better, because it is obviously a massive lived experience and should be normalised.”
Dance company Fertile Ground bring their new performance to venues across the region from October, showcasing stunning new work by renowned choreographers Patricia Okenwa and Jamaal Burkmar, performed by some of the best emerging dancers from the region. Play, Pause, Repeat explores themes of love, memory, and the complex emotions intertwined within them through evocative music, improvisation and poignant storytelling.
The production visits Alnwick Playhouse on Tuesday 8th October, Queen’s Hall Arts Centre in Hexham on Tuesday 15th October and Gosforth Civic Theatre on Thursday 21st November.
With influences as varied as Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Radiohead, Bon Iver and FKA Twigs, North East alt. rock trio Binaries are gearing up for the release of their debut album in November with new single Soft Machine.
“Soft Machine is about the way a slow, gentle, persistent control can be as damaging as an overt oppression.” The band explain. “Rather than being clearly abhorrent, it can steadily seep into our lives unseen until we become almost complicit in our own suppression. Whether through employment, societal norms and expectations or ingrained and repeated behaviours the soft machine can – like a gentle, menacing nursery rhyme – slowly rock us into a state of docile acceptance.”
Marking the official countdown to the bicentenary of the Stockton & Darlington Railway, the first public passenger railway, folk singer-songwriter Sam Slatcher unveils new single Pioneers, the first track to be taken from forthcoming album release Passengers & Pioneers, which also features poetry from Lizzie Lovejoy, Carmen Marcus, Rowan McCabe and Harry Gallagher. Last year the artists travelled the line from Bishop Auckland to Saltburn gathering stories from passengers to create new pieces of work, get a first taster here…
Newcastle’s fast-rising rapper NE-O is riding high after a productive summer spent playing festivals including Reading & Leeds and Kendal Calling, not to mention selling out a hometown show. He enters the Autumn season with a track which shows off the artist’s versatility; Headliner Freestyle is a reflection on his journey, blending humble introspection with gratitude for the support of his family and the community that shaped him. NE-O plays Generator Live at the Boiler Shop on Saturday 5th October.
Check out the video here, which features a few backstage behind-the-scenes snippets of his fantastic summer.
North East-based tech training company Crew Gal have been working alongside a group of adult learners on a skills bootcamp programme which aims to provide grass root job skills for the TV and film industry. Tutored by industry professionals, groups have been working alongside emerging North East bands to produce a quality music video.
This vid, for ‘radgewave mamgaze’ band Snakes With Tits, was filmed at King Street Social and directed by Barnaby Fairley of Livestock Studios. Crew Gal Academy are seeking adult learners aged 19+ to participate in future courses through to March 2025 together with artists and bands interested in taking part in the programme. Email: [email protected] for more info.
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