Concert pitch: Hackney’s gig guide for July 2018

Laura Cannell

12 July: A$AP Twelvyy @ Archspace
339-340 Acton Mews, E8 4EA

There’s been something of an East Coast bias to our recent hip-hop previews – hot on the heels of the excellent Wiki’s trip from Manhattan to Hackney’s OSLO, A$AP Twelvyy is headed over for a sweaty summer bop at Archspace. (Twelvyy takes his name from his 212 area code, which is as NYC as bagels, bad tempers and big yellow taxis.) While the beats stay dark and minimal in the New York tradition, Twelvyy’s debut 12 bristles with confidence, with lines like “I’mma conquer what I vision, bet my time gon’ come” and songs celebrating “my last year being broke.” Coincidentally for a man who has designed clothes for New Era, he won’t be far from the New Era estate on stage at this show – Haggerston’s Archspace will host the A$AP Mob man. His recent, effervescent A$AP Ant collab ‘Fraternal Twins’ is well worth a blast before heading down.

13 July: Laura Cannell & André Bosman @ Cafe Oto
8-22 Ashwin Street, E8 3DL

Laura Cannell’s neo-classical music and ritualistic experimentalism has led her to carve out a unique performer’s relationship with her ancient, native UK. Her Modern Ritual evenings of music and folklore, featuring a rotating cast of characters including harpist Rhodri Davies, The Quietus’ Luke Turner and writer/foghorn expert Jennifer Lucy Allan (the latter two teach on our biannual Music Journalism Bootcamp course, doncha know) who’ve wandering minstrel-ed with Cannell from London’s LSO St Luke’s to Hebden Bridge Trades Club. Abandoning her trademark recorder for a violin, latterly the Norfolk-native has joined forces with fellow improvisor – and video game designer – André Bosman. Together they’ve made RECKONINGS, an album of howling double-violin. It’s launched here at Oto on the 13th, and released the same day.

14 July: Porridge Radio @ The Shacklewell Arms
71 Shacklewell Lane, E8 2EB

Porridge Radio

Slogging away in the Brighton DIY scene has given Porridge Radio a certain industriousness. In three years their Bandcamp page has racked up albums, EPs, splits, demo collections and singles brought to fruition from the mind of driving force Dana Margolin. They’re also all over Hackney recently – they’re playing at the forthcoming Visions Festival on 4 August, and supported another young, raw act, Sorry, at the Courtyard Theatre Hoxton just this week. Their music runs from the polished (the dog-tired ‘Eugh’; the ooh-oohing ‘Lemonade’) to the home-scrawled, like pretty much all of recent limited-edition tape Bad Breath – the recorder and tinpot drum-machine ‘bread’ is a perfect example of how to condense lo-fi sounds into an affecting whole, much like Daniel Johnston, a clear influence.

19 July: Peaness @ Paper Dress Vintage
352a Mare Street, E8 1HR

Paper Dress Vintage have good reasons for increased confidence recently – their weekend opening hours have just been lengthened by an approved license application, and bands like Fat White Family, The Wytches and Public Service Broadcasting have all seen heightened fame following their shows at the vintage clothes shop-cum-venue. So there’s some synergy in inviting a band confident enough to run with the name Peaness down for a show. The cheeky Chester indie-poppers will impress fans of Pulp (at their most shiny), that dog. and Ash, and in this most Labour of boroughs, George Osbourne kiss-off ‘Oh George’ will surely get a good reception.

Peaness. Photograph: Twin Moon

29 July: Alex Zhang Hungtai (ex Dirty Beaches) @ MOTH Club
Old Trades Hall, Valette Street, E9 6NU

It’s been three-and-a-half years since Alex Zhang Hungtai retired his project Dirty Beaches in search of musical pastures new. In the meantime, the Canadian seems to have developed a sax addiction, replacing the fuzzy frequencies and depressive doo-wop he put out under his old moniker. Post-DB endeavour Last Lizard relied on the brass to trace out noir-ish slow-jazz runs, the sound of a detective sparking up a tab. Moreover, his brand new release (the first under his given name) sees him take the sax recordings from the Last Lizard era and plump them up with sonorous reverb, digital overdrive and time shifting techniques – lending his new material the titular Divine Weight.