Abbe May - Nay, WILL - Design Our Desire

Amongst the long list of bullet points that constitutes my loves, there's one at the top that burns like a beacon - I love me a good woman. Its just who I am - Im only human(ish).

But there is a definitive post script to this love of mine, for what I really love is a female that rocks. But not just rocks (attractive girls in bands aren't enough; my well documented disdain for the Dum Dum Girls should have signposted that...), but really really rocks - can wail on their instruments, rip the balls out of a vocal and sell the whole deal to the Devil with change to spare.

Abbe May is that kind of female.

Design Desire is the West Australian's third album, and whilst it still doesn't harness the power (let alone the sexiness) that May exudes exponentially in the live arena, it certainly should help sell her case that she is one of the most unique rock singer/songwriters in the country, and deserved of wider acclaim across the globe. 'Mammalian Locomotion' and 'Design Desire', the first two singles from Abbe's third album, indicate a new direction; showcasing heavy, scaling riffs and seductively ethereal vocals. May is an intense and primal live performer, capable of slaying an audience with her electric guitar and then stripping it back to a disarmingly intimate delivery. Design Desire itself offers simultaneously heavy and delicately beautiful sonics, the yin and the yang of the enigma that is Abbe May. There are rock influences everywhere, if you want that sort of thing - Polly Jean, Alison Mosshart, even Josh Homme in the grooves underpinning 'Universes'. But she is very much her own woman, and cuts an imposing musical presence that needs to be experienced.

And goddamn she can play the guitar...

Design Desire is out today on Source Music/MGM.

Abbe May - Design Desire
Abbe May - Mammalian Locomotion

Video Vacuum - Kevin Costner Suicide Pact, Gagarin, Abbe May

I thought we could all do with starting this week with looking at some moving images and listening to some sounds strung together in an apparently cohesive strand, as it beats the hell out of doing anything constructive, right? And do I have some left-of-field doozies for you...

First up is Kevin Costner Suicide Pact, which had me chuckling for some time - that's just the name! Ryan over at Tome To The Weather Machine made up a video for the ambient-drone duo's track 'Decay' out of footage from the 2008 riot in Philadelphia after the Phillies won the World Series, combined with some skateboarding footage. It also helps to keep it in the family, as one half of KCSP, Peter, writes for the Tome also, and they all part of the Act So Big Forest Collective (which also features one of Paul Masala's faves, Candy Claws)!

The Kevin Costner Suicide Pact – "Decay" from Tome to the Weather Machine on Vimeo.

On 12th April 1961 Yuri Gagarin became the first human to undertake a successful journey in space. He orbit ted the Earth in his Vostock 1 spacecraft - code 3KA-3 for 108 minutes. Taking his his name for his solo music project, London-based artist Gagarin plans to celebrate and commemorate this in a number of ways. One of those ways is with this video made for one of the two tracks of his 7", '3KA-3' (which is the code name of Yuri Gagarin's spacecraft). The track has audio commentary that Gagarin made back to Earth, and the vid actually features footage of the amazing historical event (there is a lot of love here!!) As an aside, Gagarin is playing a few shows in London, including a set at the Freedom of Expression night in Croydon next week, and a support slot behind Demdike Stare at The Lexington on June 17th. Gagarin's album Biophilia is due out three days after this show.



Finally (and no offence, but my fave of the bunch) we have Abbe May. With a growing reputation as an intense and exciting live performer, Abbe May has created her own moody, guitar driven sound over the last four years. Forthcoming album Design Desire is attracting comparisons to everyone from Portishead to Patti Smith, yet the music Abbe creates is best explained as a unique soundscape of crunching guitars with a seductively haunting vocal. I know that this isnt Marnie Stern, but for some reason she was the first person that came to mind. The video itself (of the titular track) is suitably slinky and trippy, filmed in a dried lake near Gin Gin in Western Australia. Ive even got the single for you to listen to sans video if you want it like that - cos Im a giving chap.

Abbe May - Design Desire



Now get back to work!!!