TUTV said: Manimal and Samara are a poetallica sensation. A new laser light at the end of
a mythical tunnel where anything can happen. Imagine Sylvia Plath fronting a theatrical and mind-challenging psychedelic noise band. Their debut album is a multi-faceted opus in sound and vision. Compelling poetry exploring life, death, birth, past, present, and future embedded
in a titanic thunder and lighting symphony going from perplexing metal to chill-out ambient. The final result is at times jaw-dropping, at times weirdly confusing, at times dumbfounding
but always flabbergasting and fascinating. When surreality becomes reality you know something is about to happen.
TUTV wrote: Gusto, high-spiritedness and anxiety are the keywords here.
This warm-blooded record is a heart-rending reflection of the group’s state of
2021 mind. A galvanizing collection of cohesive poignant emo songs influenced by
the disturbing way our troubled world is handling human issues, once-in-a-lifetime
dramas, and the personal turmoil of frontwoman Chavez. Her soul-stirring and
powerful (Aretha Franklin / young Tina Turner) voice, weeping guitars, and the
electrical intensity are at times overwhelming and heartbreaking. Impressive!
Released: 12 March 2021 – second LP TUTV wrote: “The essential message of this new powerhouse album is loud and clear:
noise-challenging turbo Pink Room is here to stay! Their tsunami energy is beyond any
decibel regulation. Again, loudmouth Bart Cocquyt leads the rip-roaring troops. As I said
before his vocal range is out-of-this-world. He easily could front a death metal band (Stay Black/Stay White) or a Nirvana reunion (Losing/Skin) or kick Ozzy Osbourne‘s ass (Hail Satan). Expect ear-shattering jackhammers, over-the-top frenzy, and an overall sonic lockdown paranoia.”
TUTV wrote: “The masters of drone rock are back, and they’re getting better over the years. Gigantic fuzz and buzz jackhammers but also some softer – yes, since they became fathers they let their heart & soul speak/play more – stuff. This stunning work will end up on many end-of-the-year lists.”
tutv wrote: “i’m damn sure this incredible punch-powered-punk-passion turbo was here before, about 40 years ago, inspiring bored kids like black flag , shellac, melvins, jello biafra, and other anarchist snotnoses, to leave home, steal guitars and drums in order to have some wild fun while scaring bad people with their deafening racket that’ll teach those old-fashioned adults watching fox.news all day long. so here they are back again, inspiring young social media junkies to steal guitars and drums instead of watching their phones all day long. home is where it all starts when you have no money to rent a smelly rehearsal room to rock your heads off. so you move into your own smelly basement and scream your poor lungs to pieces. listen up all you lost teenagers out there, play i became birds over and over again ’cause these hungry florida misfits can and will save your lives.”
Key track: sewn together from the membrane of the great sea cucumber
TUTV wrote: “A mix of the romantic crooner and the haunting crooner. Growing with every spin. Compelling orchestrations, classical arrangements, with Ellis showing his musical skills once more. Can’t remember when Cave made an average album. Did he, actually? Okay, Carnage once again on my headphones.”
TUTV wrote: “The rap and roll venom of Rage Against The Machine, the fuck-you-hypocrites grimness of Black Flag, the punky saxophone of X-Ray-Spex, the sharp poetic spit and sneer anarchy of Mark. E. Smith, the challenging spirit of an open-minded-plainspoken-asskicking-anti-establishement-and-other-scumbags force of doom and gloom. Sounds exactly like 2020/2021, like the end of the world as we know it, but also like an album that’s going
to be on my earphones for a long time.”
Last week the debut longplayer FULL SPECTRUM
by THE CHRONICLES OF MANIMAL AND SAMARA
(finally) arrived. One of the best albums of 2021. Fact!
Turn Up The Volume wrote: Manimal and Samara are a poetallica sensation. A new laser
light at the end of a mythical tunnel where anything can happen. Imagine Sylvia Plath fronting
a theatrical and mind-challenging psychedelic noise band. Their debut album is a multi-faceted opus in sound and vision. Compelling poetry exploring life, death, birth, past, present, and future embedded in a titanic thunder and lighting symphony going from perplexing metal to chill-out ambient. The final result is at times jaw-dropping, at times weirdly confusing, at times dumbfounding but always flabbergasting and fascinating. When surreality becomes reality you know something is about to happen.
Today TUTV wants to add: “These two artists care intensely
about everything they do and create everything – lyrics, music,
artwork, video clips, promo – with heartfelt love and passion,
and an awe-inspiring level of quality. Amazing!”
We are pretty excited that the authors of this
remarkable record, Daphne & Andrea, will
guide us through the journey track by track.
THE MUSIC…
. THE STORIES…
Hello Daphne,
Hello Andrea,
1. ATOMS
Andrea: With Atoms I wanted to compress about 4.5 billion years into a 5 minute long track. This track represents to us the circle of life from the different eras. The music and the lyrics really scan the timeline from creation to evolution, till death, and on and on.
Daphne: I wanted to bring out Andrea’s vision for the music – which was to tell the
story of the creation of the universe. I wanted it to be a more balanced story of creation, so I decided to combine my own writing with extracts from the sacred texts of both the Eastern and Western religions. So I chose and adapted from texts the Vedas and Buddhust scriptures and contrasted this with Gnostic and Hermetic texts, and the story of Genesis as told by Dante.
The clip…
2. PSYCHOPATS’ MONOLOGUE
Andrea: “I was at this techno rave party and I thought,
“a fucking metal riff would be great with this kick!”
Daphne: I had been bombarding Andrea with really dark, hard, and heavy industrial techno tracks for a while…And then he came up with this track which completely blew
me away as it combined two of my music loves – [hard and dark] metal and techno.
This was actually the first recording we did together. It was totally impromptu, at least
for me. I remember Andrea sat me in front of the mic and pressed the record button,
and I froze. The magic happened when Andrea suggested that I should use some of my
old poems, so I pulled out an old manuscript with some of my old poems. My first instinct was to recite it – like a theatrical monologue, not to sing it. When I read the verses out
loud over the music, it fit so snugly within the music at the first take.
The lyrics are based on 7 sonnet poems that I wrote over a ten-year period. I kept a collection of poems in a notebook which I called the “Psychopath’s Monologue” – hence
the title of the song.
The clip…
3. DEUS EX MACHINA
Daphne: We wanted to do something related to Greek Tragedy for this song. We decided
to base the song on the greatest tragedy of them all – Oedipus Rex, which was written by Sophocles and performed in Ancient Athens over two thousand years ago. I wanted the lyrics to be written and performed as it would have been in Ancient Greece, but also to keep the language accessible to a contemporary listener. So I had to do a lot of research on the structure of Greek lyrical poetry for this song.
Andrea: I wanted to add an extra nightmare on this one playing the Tar guitar with a Persian flavour because at the “premiere” of Sophocles play Oediupus Rex, which was performed in a theatre in Athens around 429 BC, the Greeks were facing an imminent attack from the Persian Empire.
The clip…
4. MATA HARI
Andrea: The first concept behind Mata Hari was: How I will see the world in 2080?
Fucking worse than it is now! So…what could we do to reverse this trend? I thought we should reverse our lifestyle first. So I’ve made some changes and reversed some sounds.
Daphne: Mata Hari’ was probably one of the two songs which was purely grounded in emotion and feelings. The song is actually based on one of my paintings titled, “Feelings” https://daphneang.com/part-iii ] – which we used as the cover artwork of the single.
In both the song and the artwork, I wanted to capture the intensity of the feelings and emotions that arise from love’s encounter – much like what ‘Mata Hari’ means in Malay – “the sun” or literally, ‘eye of the day” or “day star”.
The clip…
5. THE DESCENT
Andrea: As a surfer, I’ve always had a silent but deep connection with mother nature, especially with the oceans and seas so this track has the tempo of nature. Sometimes nature takes 6 minutes to completely change the environment around you.
Daphne: The lyrics are actually based on a poem I wrote in 2004 right after the ‘Boxing
Day Tsunami’ and earthquake which claimed 225,000 lives across Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Maldives and Thailand. When it happened, it struck very close to where I was, so the sense of danger was very real to me. The last line of the lyrics “climbing trees to have a glimpse of the world, crumbling nevertheless”, I wrote after watching the news which showed footage of stranded survivors perched on treetops over flooded areas in the aftermath of the Tsunami. It is uncanny that something I had written years ago fit perfectly with the music and message of a song that Andrea wrote years later – this is synchronicity perhaps.
The clip…
6. MESSAGE FOR THE KING
Andrea: We were watching the Game of Thrones series for
the fourth or fifth time, so this came out really organically.
Daphne: This was pretty much me acting out something from The Blackadder!
It was probably the easiest to record as it came very naturally to me.
It worked perfectly as an interlude for the album [much like in the old days of theatre], providing some comic relief before the album descended into the valley of the shadow
of death with the next song, “Love in The Time of Pestilence”.
7. LOVE IN THE TIME OF PESTILENCE
Andrea: Definitely the most trickiest song for the album because I wanted the amplitude waveform view of this track to visualise the evolution and progression of the pandemic over the course of 2020. This song became our tribute and homage to all the healthcare professionals around the world, who have risked their lives to save the lives of others.
Daphne: This was definitely the most challenging song for me as well. We wanted “Love in the Time of Pestilence‘ to be a collective message, not just ours, so I decided to combine my own writings with some quotes that would document mankind’s experience of pandemics, plagues, and disease over the course of history. The lyrics include Latin proverbs and quotes from historical figures such as Aeschylus, Benjamin Franklin, and George Orwell.
This is to remind humanity that if we don’t learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it. I wanted the chorus of the song to be a warped version of Bob Marley’s anthem, “One Love”. But instead of “One Love, One Heart. Let’s get together and feel all right.”, ours would be, “One World. One People. One Disease. It’s in the air for you and me.” I guess the songs are similar in the sense that they are both a plea to mankind.
The cover artwork is based on one of my paintings titled, ‘Il Medico Della Peste’ or ‘The Plague Doctor’. [ https://daphneang.com/part-iii ] It was originally meant to be an abstract painting but Andrea saw the figure of the ‘Medico della Peste’ – a beaked Venetian carnival mask representing the physicians who treated victims of the bubonic plague. I continued the painting to emphasise the figure more. So it was definitely a befitting cover artwork for the song.
The clip…
8. TCOMAS S01 E01
Andrea: Samara bought me a keyboard for my birthday. She played it on the same day and this song was born. Without Samara’s gift, this album would definitely have sounded very different.
Daphne: Tcomas S01 E01 is a storytelling song which is based on our manga comic series, “The Chronicles of Manimal and Samara“. We developed the script and characters together, and I painted the comic book cover and made illustrations of Manimal and Samara – which we then used for the cover of our debut single “Atoms”. The story is about a schoolgirl who runs away into the jungle to escape from society and the modern world. “All grown up, but alone in the wilderness, she discovers someone who would change the course of her life forever…”
One day, I was editing the script and listening to the recording we made with me playing the piano at the same time. I started reading the script out loud and realised that it fit perfectly within the music!
9. FULL SPECTRUM
Andrea: This is the only instrumental track in the album. A reminder that all technology is based on primitive needs. I wanted to evoke the experience of the unpredictability of life, our paths in life twisting and turning with every choice we make.
10. AT THE WORLDS ENDS
Daphne: We wanted this song to visualise the end of the world caused by human destruction, leaving mankind on a planet that is no longer able to sustain us. We wanted this so to bring attention to the damage human actions have brought onto to nature and our planet’s environment. But I didn’t want it to be your typical environmental activist song – so I wrote the lyrics to tell this message through a tragic love story of two lovers who bid farewell to each other on the last day on earth.
Andrea: This song has been inspired by a recent study by IPBES [Intergovernmental
Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services] which concluded that,
“Human actions threaten more species with global extinction now than ever before.”
[ https://ipbes.net/news/Media-Release-Global-Assessment ] The message of the
song is that we all have to do our part as citizens of earth.
Also, did we mention that TCOMAS also paints together as ELKYMY?
[ https://elkymyart.com/ ] We made sculptural 3D paintings inspired by
forms and flows in nature. We used a series of our paintings – also entitled ‘At The Worlds End’, as the cover artwork and title of this song.
[ https://elkymyart.com/at-the-worlds-end ].
The clip…
11. THE GREAT NEWS
Daphne: I had finally finished writing the lyrics for ‘Love in the Time of Pestilence’. I had been putting this off for a long time as it was the most challenging for me. It was the last song we had to record to make our album complete. So it was a huge achievement and relief when this was done. Waving a freshly printed copy of the lyrics, I announced the great news to Andrea. He was so amused, we recorded it immediately.
Thank you very much, Daphne and Andrea, for guiding
us through Full Spectrum track by track…
Band: THE CHRONICLES OF MANIMAL AND SAMARA Who: London-based duo comprising Daphne Ang (Singapore) and Andrea Papi (Italy). Drawing inspiration from TOOL and Kraftwerk, as well as the poetry of Sylvia Plath,
Virginia Woolf, and Jim Morrison, TCOMAS fills a gap in music by bringing literature,
art, and history together into a space where rock and metal meet electronic.
Album: FULL SPECTRUM – debut LP Released: 26 February 2021
Turn Up The Volume: Manimal and Samara are a poetallica sensation. A new laser
light at the end of a mythical tunnel where anything can happen. Imagine Sylvia Plath fronting a theatrical and mind-challenging psychedelic noise band. Their debut album
is a multi-faceted opus in sound and vision. Compelling poetry exploring life, death, birth, past, present, and future embedded in a titanic thunder and lighting symphony going from perplexing metal to chill-out ambient. The final result is at times jaw-dropping, at times weirdly confusing, at times dumbfounding but always flabbergasting and fascinating. When surreality becomes reality you know something is about to happen.
Keep your eyes peeled. Next week Ag and Papi will tell you
the story behind each and every sonic trip on the album.
But here and now comes what Turn Up The Volume
is waiting for a long time: FULL SPECTRUM
Band: THE CHRONICLES OF MANIMAL AND SAMARA: Who: London based poetic metal tandem. Turn Up The Volume‘s
most intriguing band of 2020 and now ready for a significant
breakthrough in 2021 with debut album Full Spectrum.
“The song imagines the world at its end to raise awareness for an earth in crisis. The song
is told through the eyes of two lovers who exchange a final declaration of love, on the last
day on earth. The song also offers a glimpse of a possible future, and the hope of a new
world, when the lovers pledge to meet each other again, “where it all began, at The Worlds
End”.
Score: Another single, another triumph. If you never heard of this poetallica sensation
by now, you can catch up right here, right now. Imagine Sylvia Plath fronting a sound-challenging psychedelic metal band. Exciting? You bet. Mind-exploring? You bet. 2021 warning? You bet. Hope and despair go hand in hand in these times of a world in crisis. Manimal and Samara translate the precarious situation into another sonic tour de force.
Artist: THE CHRONICLES OF MANIMAL AND SAMARA Who: London-based duo comprising Daphne Ang (Singapore) and Andrea Papi (Italy). They’re pioneers of a new form of expression through the performance of poetry in their genre-defying music. Drawing inspiration from TOOL and Kraftwerk, as well as the poetry
of Sylvia Plath, Virginia Woolf, and Jim Morrison, TCOMAS continues to fill a gap in music by bringing literature, art, and history together into a space where rock and metal meets electronica
Spotify said: “The most innovative and forward thinking metal of today”. TUTV calls it poetallica from now on.
Expect: One of the best albums of 2021. I know, it’s very early, but I repeat with conviction… FULL SPECTRUM will be one of the best albums of 2021 where poetry and metallic turbulence come together as one. Encounters of the third kind. Why do I know? Because 6 of the 11 tracks were released the past 12 months as singles and are already worth an album on its own. And I had the privilege to hear the other four gangbuster trips. So there you go. And TCOMAS deserve also five-stars for their videos and artwork. Ang and Papi care about their art.
I love the smell of rock and roll.
Here come Turn Up The Volume’s
20 Knockout Tracks of 2020.
Nothing but the best! Hands down!
1. ‘State Of The Union’ byPUBLIC ENEMY (Long Island, New York)
Time to get up and leave the White House, Donald Dumped. You split the USA right down the middle, you’re a disgrace for America, for humanity and the whole wide world. GO!
Unprecedented, demented, many president’d / Nazi Gestapo dictator defended / State of the Union, shut the fuck up / Sorry ass motherfucker / Stay away from me / State of the Union,
shut the fuck up…
2. ‘Ultra Plus Ultra’ by ELEFANT (Belgium)
The Belgian sound-exploring motherrockers unleashed their second stupefying album Behajung early this year with Ultra Plus Ultra‘ as one of the dazzling highlights.
A schizophrenic sonic blast with balls. Abso-fucking-lutely cool! VREE WIJS! You betcha!
3. ‘Hot Slick’ byPINS (Manchester, UK)
A hot stuff disco stomper that should be played in all discotheques around the globe,
from one of the coolest gangs on the planet. Bad girls forever. Title track from their swirling party album. Saturday night pins fever all the way!
4. ‘Under The Spell Of Joy’ by DEATH VALLEY GIRLS (Los Angeles)
Sickly sticky like first-class glue. With an angelic choir, feet-tapping drum beats, sweaty
sax flames and a mental finale. Yes, it’s Death Valley Girls en-joy-ing themselves in a new sonic zone. Don’t resist the spell! From the rad, same titled full length.
5. ‘I Found Out’ by OFFWORLD (UK) Hard-Fi‘s frontman Richard Archer and imposing vox Krysten Cummings realized a high-powered tour de force. An epic heart and soul explosion! TOP! Waiting for the album!
6. ‘Never Ever Ever’ by BOA Vs COBRA (Belgium)
Don’t mess with charismatic frontwoman Sandy Fee who rants unambiguously about a toxic relationship from the very start when ‘Bad bad bad boy‘ bursts out of your speakers. The decibels turn up when the ablaze chorus kicks in. Stunning uppercut!
7. ‘American Dream’ by TOKYO TABOO (London, UK)
A steamy stunner with an explosive in-your-orange-face-intro, kick-starting this
clamorous jackhammer instantly with a titanic wall-of-blazing-riff hurly-burly and deafening percussion slams. YEAHHHHHHHHHHH!
Hey Mr President
You’re just a joke
Kids dodging bullets
World’s up in smoke
8. ‘Sweet’ by PORRIDGE RADIO (UK)
A towering loudQUIETloud haymaker with Margolin‘s repeating magnetically ‘I’m charming, I’m sweet and she will love me when she meets me‘. Emotive belter from the band’s excellent album Every Bad. Porridge Radio is on its way to world domination! Capeesh??
9. ‘Mr. Motivator’ by IDLES (Bristol, UK)
A riff-roaring ripper made to start crowded moshpits at gigs (for now you need to pirouette yourself bananas at home). A red-hot-blooded corker that does your head in. Hells Bells! Album: Ultra Mono.
10. ‘A Hero’s Death’ by FONTAINES D.C. (Ireland) ‘Life isn’t always empty ‘ states frontman Grian Chatten in his characteristic parlando
flow while the band grooves non-stop. Album:A Hero’s Death.
11. ‘Dark Blue’ by THROWING MUSES (California)
A firm banger driven by a solid beat with a pounding guitar groove, Kristin Hersh‘s characteristic sensual voice, and a catchy polyphonic chorus. Throwing Muses rocks!
From the band’s highly acclaimed longplayer Sun Racket…
12. ‘The Rise And Fall Of America’ byTHE MOODS (Manchester, UK)
A crystal clear stream of cutting lines as sharp as a brand-new Swiss knife. It’s The Moods‘ towering take on the bombastic American National Anthem. They rock, roar and rage. The Moods kick ass! Go home Donald Duck Trumpet!
13. Psychopath’s Monologue by THE CHRONICLES OF MANIMAL AND SAMARA
A 2020 Apocalypse Now Odyssey. It all starts enigmatically with Samara reciting her Dante’s Inferno inspired poem in a haunting foreplay tone until Manimal shows up and all metallic hell breaks loose. Learn more about this year’s most intriguing act in their interview with Turn Up The Volume righthere.
14. ‘Paycheck’ by LEG PUPPY
A dizzy disco-ball drone making you jump up and down like a kangaroo on E. It goes bang, bang, bang, and bang with crazy duet vocals all over it and that psych-o-delic surf guitar riff that messes up your mind the way you like it. Dance floor blast. PAY THEM!
15. ‘A Reason To Celebrate’ by bdrmm (Hull, UK)
Delightful shoegaze rainbow. Like a nightingale symphony waking you up in the morning. From – yes, ladies and gents – the best debut LP of the year with Bedroom.
16. ‘Out Of The Shadows’ by GREAT HARE (Sweden)
From the stimulating intro on you’ll tap your feet, without even noticing it. This is the wake-up-call I want to hear when I can’t get out of my bed in the morning. You simply can’t resist this shot of adrenaline. This is what elevating pop is all about.
. 17. ‘Man Of Chaos’ by FLIGHT ATTENDANT (Nashville, US)
A feverish cracker and jaw-dropping power slam. The sensual, magnetic, and spellbinding vocals create a sort of delirious trance. And when, unexpectedly, bouncy strings kick in as a harbinger for a vibrant finish you’ll reach a sonic orgasm.
18. ‘Rainbow Records’ by OCEANOGRAPHY (Oakland, CA)
Glorious guitar pop stonker getting your aural attention from the get-go with a repetitive riff sticking immediately. Inflammable passion, scintillating ardency, and vehement fervor. Big tune, big sentiments and a big voice reminding me of Greg Dulli‘s imposing vocals at times.
. 19. ‘Maggot Line’ by THE BATTERY FARM (Manchester, UK) “We all gonna die and it’s our fault.” This is not just a punk slogan. It’s the fucking truth. Middle-finger to all those buffoons who ignore global warming, corona and The Battery Farm. NO MERCY!
20. ‘No Rock Save In Roll’ by CORNERSHOP (UK)
A rattling Stones-esque garage rocker with an unstoppable groove that makes you
want to jump in the street and have a sweet little dance (with mouth mask on).
The Chronicles of Manimal and Samara, the most intriguing act of 2020? You bet. Why?
Because of their mesmerizing way of combining music with poetry in sound and vision. Because of the way they embed their open-minded and progressive views on political
and social issues in arresting sonic poems and sagas. Because of the fact they introduced themselves to the world these past bizarre 12 months with no less than six remarkable singles. And last but not least because of their overall empathetic and human approach.
Let’s start this end-of-the-year chat with the brand new single Love In The Time Of Pestilence. “An appeal to humanity and an emergency broadcast to mankind at a critical moment in the current crisis. The music video is a tribute and homage to all the healthcare professionals around the world who have risked their own lives to save the lives of others“…
Hello Daphne, hello Andrea…
I called you the most intriguing act of 2020 before. Let’s start with
your intriguing artist name. What’s the story behind it?
“Thank you for that! We are most flattered!
‘The Chronicles of Manimal and Samara’ was actually a manga comic series that we
came up with. I guess you could say that ‘Samara‘ and ‘Manimal’ represent our alter
egos, or perhaps even our doppelgangers. We developed and wrote the story and made illustrations of the characters – which we decided to use on the cover of our debut single ‘Atoms’. The story is about an awkward schoolgirl who runs away into the jungle to escape from society and the modern world. All grown up but alone in the wilderness she meets someone who would change the course of her life forever. In fact, we turned the actual script of this story into a song, which we will be releasing early next year.”
Which of your songs would you play to introduce yourselves to
people who never heard of you?
“Probably our debut single, ‘Atoms‘ because it shows the many facets
of our musical and lyrical styles in just over 5 minutes.”
The combination of spoken-word-poetry and fitting soundscapes is
not something you hear every day. Why this format of performance?
Andrea: “Basically the global pandemic gave me the time I’ve never had to focus on composing and recording music. Daphne sent me some of her poems and I found them fuckin’ awesome. So I asked her if she would like to try to read it over the music, and this
is how it started.”
Daphne: “That was such a brilliant idea! Manimal wanted me to record some vocals over an instrumental techno-metal track that he had composed. Our first recording session was totally impromptu and I had not prepared anything for it. Manimal suggested I use some of my old poems, so I did. My first instinct was to recite it – like a theatrical monologue, not to sing it. Having practiced acting and training in theatre school in my earlier days, this way of performing was a mode of expression that I was most comfortable with. This particular recording session actually resulted in our second single, ‘Psychopath’s Monologue‘.” I think we’ve really developed our own style of combining “poetic performance’ with music, over the course of recording our album.”
The music goes from ambient to metal, from dance to rock, from eastern vibes to cinematic imagery. Pretty special. What triggers you to jump from one genre to another?
Andrea: “I don’t think this genre-criss crossing is intentional, it’s more like choosing a specific sound to convey a certain idea, topic, or mood. I usually start the music making process with a mental visualisation. I would first see the track unravelling in my mind as a film or a short movie. When the overall picture becomes clear in my mind, I choose my instruments and then start to record the music. I believe that some storylines or topics need to be evoked by certain kinds of sounds in order to deliver the message completely.
I usually put my focus into researching how to achieve specific sounds, drawing across cultures and musical styles….the choice is never really about deciding on which musical genre to fashion the music in.”
Daphne: “Also, in hindsight, this wide coverage of styles was with the intent of making music that would allow one to experience the full spectrum of human experience and emotion.”
Who are your favourite poets and your favourite kind of poetry?
Daphne: “Oh that’s a tough one. But my favourites would be the lyrical poetry of Ancient Greece, the sonnets of Shakespeare and Francesco Petrarca, the love poetry of John Donne, Virginia Woolf, William Morris, Edgar Allan Poe, Oscar Wilde, and from the more recent times, the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore and the American poet Sylvia Plath. I really, really likeSylvia Plath.”
“In my poems and lyrics, I draw a lot of inspiration not just from poetry. I get a lot of my inspiration from sacred texts, classical literature and dramatic works, as well as from the fields of philosophy and psychology. I draw a lot from the imagery and stories of the Vedas, sacred Hindu scriptures and epic poems such as the Ramayana, and the great dramatic works of the Ancient Greek Tragedians. The works of Carl Jung in particular, his study of
the collective unconscious and archetypes, has had a massive impact on how I see and interpret the world in my writings and through the words for the music. That being said, there’s also poetry in the mundane and in everyday life.”
Andrea: “Dante Alighieri, Michelangelo Buonarroti, Ugo Foscolo, Giacomo Leopardi, Giosuè Carducci, Giuseppe Ungaretti, Luigi Pirandello, and Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud, Charles Bukowski, Jim Morrison… and Samara – she didn’t make it say it, honestly.”
Did you create the impressive video for new single THE DESCENT yourselves?
And what did you want to visualize?
Thank you! Yes, we make all our videos and visuals ourselves.
Andrea: “When I composed ‘The Descent’, I visualised it starting out as showing nature’s beauty and purity, like in a nature documentary. The song would then progress to show how quickly nature can turn into a wild and destructive force. Nature operates on her own timing and is independent of the needs and ways of civilisation. So when she decides that it’s time to strike, we often don’t expect it, and by the time we recognise the signs of imminent disaster, it is too late – this is the story behind the music of ‘The Descent’.”
Daphne: I wanted the lyrics to give nature a voice through which she actually communicates with us in words and in a language we understand – something that nature does not do. So I wrote the lyrics like a lyrical poem, which is told through the point of view of Mother nature personified, who warns mankind of imminent natural disaster in an affectionate but mildly admonishing monologue.
“The video really consolidated and crystalised both our visions for ‘The Descent’. On one hand, we wanted to show both the beauty and brutality of nature and to convey a sense of nature’s transcendence and almost divine and numinous character. But we also wanted the video to show the realness of the danger of its powers of destruction when nature chooses to strike.”
A lot of musicians came up with a cover of another artist’s song during these bizarre times. Which one would you pick to cover?
Andrea: “It is not in our plans at the moment, but I’ve always wanted to cover Polarized by Carcass – to present the message of the song from a new point of view and to cast it under a different light. That is if Carcass would allow us to.”
Daphne: “I would choose to cover ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’ by Billy Joel – I would use the same chorus but change the lyrics of the verses to talk about the events and personalities of current times.”
What was the best track and album you heard in 2020?
“System Of A Down with Protect The Land, for sure. Not only because we’ve been waiting
15 frigging years for this, but because it truly is an anthem on an epic scale. The music and poetry in the lyrics so very masterfully and artfully succeeds in riling up the listener, while also bringing attention to the atrocities of a war that the world would have otherwise ignored. Don’t really have a favourite album for 2020, but for 2019, it was without a shadow of a doubt, Tool’s Fear Inoculum.”
The video clip that impressed your eyes this year?
“Definitely the videos and photos of animals taking back human spaces and cities
while the world was in lockdown. Pelicans strolling along the Mall in London, sheep at McDonalds, ducks and deer in strutting around central London and Paris, mountain goats parading around in a welsh seaside town….simply delightful.”
Prick of the year and hero-ine of the year ?
“Prick of the year for the both of us would be every single prick who ever flaunted lockdown rules without an acceptable reason to do so.
Hero or heroine of the year for us would be the doctors, nurses, health professionals and researchers who have risked or lost their own lives in order to save the lives of others. We felt so strongly about this we made a song, Love in the Time of Pestilence’.”
What made you laugh crazily and what made
you cry your eyes out the past 12 months?
Daphne: “Manimal.” Andrea: “Samara.”
Which song will be on your stereo on 31st December at midnight?
Andrea: “Dario Moreno – Brigitte Bardot, because it’s an amazing
rhythm to start the new year.”
Daphne: “Slayer, War Ensemble. I like new beginnings to start with
a big and heavy bang.”
Name three things you really want to see happen in 2021?
Andrea: Clean air, good waves and doomsday.
Daphne: “A vaccine and no more new pandemics, to be able to feel safe travelling and going to music venues….and then the apocalypse. Or perhaps, for The Chronicles of Manimal and Samara to be Turn Up The Volume!’s most intriguing find of the year again.”
Can we expect a full album next year?
“Oh yes! We will be releasing our first full album entitled ‘Full Spectrum’ early next year, sometime around the end of February. You will be able to pre-order the album, so look out for the announcement on our socials, or you can subscribe to get notified when this goes out, right here.”
Thank you Daphne, thank you Andrea.
Have a safe Xmas and a successful 2021 debut album year.
Sixth 2020 single. Sixth tour de force. These poetic metalsmiths honour all the real caring heroes in these hazardous times, with an ill-fate inspired roller coaster that “reflects upon the events of the ongoing pandemic and global crisis. The song is an appeal to humanity and an emergency broadcast to mankind at a critical moment in the current crisis. The music video is a tribute and homage to all the healthcare professionals around the world who have risked their own lives to save the lives of others.”
The accompanying video clip is a heart and soul touching then and now visualization
‘BL/FF (Fake Friends)’ by MONOWHALES (Toronto, Canada)
A boosting crackerjack to play on your car stereo when go out at night looking for a playmate. An electrifying ‘I Feel Donna Summer Love’ flare-up. A hormones-fueled slice
of peppery power-pop for (safe) Saturday Night feverishness. Go for it here…
“At its heart ‘Blush’ is essentially just a soppy love song, two people recounting that magical feeling of falling for each other” says the band. To my ears, this is at its heart a full-steam-ahead knockout wanting you to leave your lockdown hole, roll over and over in the street and jump for joy. Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! From the band’s upcoming debut album ‘Subatomic Party Cool’, out June 2021 via Alcopop! Records.
“In the search for your true calling in life, it’s easy to try so many things that you end up confused. It can lead to an enormous build-up of frustration.” That’s what this ongoing
rolling-guitar-and-bass-riff-driven jam is about. Sticky as first-class glue. Here’s why…
Last week the Brit trio released their new, critically acclaimed, album Night Network.
On this highlight, good friend and ex-Sonic Youth memberLee Ranaldo joins them (again) for a dreamy groover. Tune in here…
The experimental art-rock duo THE CHRONICLES OF MANIMAL AND SAMARA
switch their sonic and subject-matter approach so inventively and arrestingly that
you’re looking forward to what is coming next after every release. And yes, they
surprise once again with a stupendous fresh piece titled THE DESCENT.
A twofold composition that becomes one picture,
one whole after a couple of spins.
It starts with Daphne Ang telling – literally – what the song is all about. This time
her spoken-word essay takes us to the spooky reality of the fact that Doomsday is
coming closer and closer. We desperately need a tabula rasa in order to design a restart,
a new beginning to stop the current chaos, growing at an ominous speed, organised by evil forces that destroy our climate, our human spirit, and our very life. As she progresses the background soundscape swells until a metallic eruption, simulating the downfall of humankind, bursts out of your speakers. Be ready for a shattering, infernal finale.
Turn Up The Volume‘s 15 Knockout Tracks for October!
Right here, right now…
‘Rock ‘N Roll Refugee’ byPIG (London)
A dark glam wave banger with a titanic chorus to wake up the neighborhood. A glitter haymaker fueled by layers of intimidating guitars and Pig’s voice resonating like Sisters Of Mercy‘s figurehead Andrew Eldritch. From his new album ‘Pain Is God‘ out 20th November.
‘Intercontinental Radio Waves’ by TRAAMS (UK)
Back after 5 years with a trademark Traams jam. Rattling drums, propulsive bass, turbulent guitars, and an overall infectious groove. Hallelujah! New LP coming soon.
‘Maggot Line’ by THE BATTERY FARM (Manchester)
Scorching guitars, a merciless drum beat, and red-hot fulminating spits and sneers.
Like the 1-2-3-4 Ramones‘ blitzkrieg craziness, but nastier and with twice as many
decibels. “We’re all gonna die, it’s all our fault!” An alarming 2020 warning! Lobotomy!
. ‘Shot In The Dark’ by AC/DC (Australia)
A new riff loaded sucker-punch by the veteran Aussie rockers. Old school boy Angus revealed: “The title is a little bit cheeky because we all like a little nip of alcohol in the night
or a few shots in the dark.”
‘Hesitating Nation’ by CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH (USA)
About the ugly signs of these times, and sonically a hauntingly guitar-driven
ripsnorter with Ounsworth‘s otherworldly voice all over it. Spectacular return!
‘Shine’ by N.O.A.H (Ireland)
Move over Bono! These Irish indie rockers have that powerful grandeur, that euphonic richness, and that monumental magnitude of U2’s stadium rock sound. This is a 24-Carat gold debut. Bingo!
‘Normal People’ by THE NEW POLLUTION (Worchester, New York)
Funky punky injections with clashing guitars, manic bass lines, organ-ic electronics
and critical vocals. An edged tune for basement parties and illegal ramshackle discos.
Dance till you drop is the key message as Armageddon is just around the corner. From their excellent Shakedown EP.
. ‘Bombshells’ by SANDCASTLE JESUS (Essex, England)
From the very tingling intro chords, you instantly feel that a stupendous tune is coming your way. Oh yeah, game on, definitely. And what actually follows is an alive and kicking guitar pop hit that puts a big smile on your glowing face, activates your adrenalin’s production, triggers your body movements, and makes you just feel ecstatic.
‘Revolution Son’ by SHIVA AND THE HAZARDS (Melbourne, Aus)
The swagger, the vibe, the beat, the Noel Gallagher guitar solo, it’s what made the 90s so exciting and vivacious. Supersonic sing-along anthems made of stone and bittersweet epic symphonies. It was cool to be a rock ‘n’ roll star & now again. D’ You Know What I Mean?
. ‘On And On’ byLOOSE FANG (Vancouver, Canada)
I’m sure you’ll agree that screwed-up times were and still are a fertile resource of inspiration for dazzling rock crackers. Just like this roaring roller going forth and
back with a flaming on and on chorus speeding up your pulse instantly. Get up
and make the right moves for a better get-together future, folks.
‘Nowhere Near An Ocean’ by SUNSTACK JONES (UK)
Imagine you’re in the Californian desert watching a non-stop 24-hour retro psych festival, dreaming on cloud nine. This what this sunset reverie does to you. We can all use such moments in these strange mouth mask times. From their notable new LP Golden Repair.
. ‘Today’ by REGENT (UK) ‘Today’ is a solid gold staggering ballad made to be played in huge arenas with the crowd waving with candles all the way. The passionate blues at play here reminded me instantly of Led Zeppelin‘s timeless timeless score ‘Stairway To Heaven‘. Electrifying emotions going forth and back, going quiet and loud, going from intense to breathtaking and back.
‘It’s Never Easy’ by CLASSIC WATER (The Netherlands)
This is a captivating, meditative gem, centered around a rollin’ guitar riff and sparkling piano touches. The song moves and grooves all the way until the gospel-like handclap finale. Tom Gerritsen‘s Americana voice has that glowing timbre that made Ryan Adams
and the late great Gram Parsons so emotionally special. Lovely!
. ‘Mata Hari’ by THE CHRONICLES OF MANIMAL AND SAMARA (Italy)
A slowdown trip-hop trip with a relaxing repercussion on your worried 2020 thoughts, an ambient soundscape for the midnight hours. British 90s dance act Leftfield came instantly to my mind, especially that tipsy track on their debut LP called Original with the sensual ex-Curve singer Toni Halliday. Another far-out trip!
‘Happy House’ by COMMON FLAWS (Italy)
With an ongoing deep bass beat Common Flaws gives the already vibrant rhythm of Siouxsie and The Banshees‘ 1980 jam ‘Happy House‘ a 90s techno resonance. The sampled, female vocals come from the 1999 romantic comedy Notting Hill with Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant. Eye-catching video clip this way…
