Category: Reviews

By Ed Osborne.

Anyone who’s attended one of the countless balls in Durham will know that we have a plethora of cover and tribute bands, always with an ABBA song loose in their fingers. Although these are great for a half-cut dance, sometimes I feel in the mood for something edgier. At times like this it’s important to know that Durham also has a great original music scene with bands – mostly guitar driven – playing songs from all ends of the indie spectrum. Last night, Emy Silver, Mother, and The Cygnets reminded us of just that. The Holy GrAle was the perfect venue: cosy, intimate, and with great drinks that threatened to turn this article into a beer review. Don’t worry – as soon as the music started my focus was recaptured and taken prisoner for the rest of the night.

Emy Silver was a fitting opener as the most atmospheric, mellow act of the three, but don’t let this fool you; herself and her band were still more than capable of filling the room and raising the energy at a moment’s notice. Their opener was moody and menacing, with the guitar and bass interlocking to leave no space empty and the trip-hop drums of Ella Cole keeping the song moving forward. Emy’s voice and synth floated above the rhythm section, her lyrics hard to distinguish but the melody shining through. Her next song was her newest single, ‘This is the World’, which washed spacy synth chords over a looping guitar and bass line. This along with Silver’s ethereal vocals reminds me of Slowdive at their most dreamy.

The crowd are pulled back out of the clouds with the next few songs taking a livelier approach – Silver’s first single ‘Roads Ahead’ is reworked into an upbeat dream pop track and the band keep this energy up for a while. Then, as the set draws to a close, we return to the eerie yet calming atmosphere of 90’s bands like Mazzy Star and Portishead. Ella’s sticks skitter round the drum kit barely touching the skins as the synth takes up a catchy melody. Emy sings “I think I might fade away…” and the band respond, refuse, and crescendo into the set’s loudest moment yet. Just as we feel we are on the edge of something, the final chord rings out and I resurface from my reverie as if no time has passed.

Next up are Mother, a louder four-piece who take their roots in the post-rock of bands like Slint and Swans, as well as stoner- and jam-rock. Throwing the crowd into the deep end with fast-paced riffs, the opening instrumental is over in a flash. Drummer Matti Syrjanen switches immediately from its straightforward beat to a syncopated, accented, skittish line which the band immediately accompany with a fittingly harsh guitar riff. The music is menacing, occasionally dissonant, but very alluring. Their third song is my favourite – they extend its intro as if improvising, teasing the whiny yet endearing riff. The drums shift constantly and soon you don’t know where the hook starts or ends. Jack Redfield’s half-singing, half-screaming drawl gives the songs more traditional structures, but they still never fail to leave you slightly unsettled.

Halfway through the set, the band change vocalists, and Eddie Dewing’s spoken word monologues take over. This is a big change but it doesn’t make the set feel disjointed at all. The riffs are still heavy, the drums still jazzy, the bass still driving and moody, but the vocals become more understated; Eddie hugs his guitar and stares distractedly into the distance á la Robert Smith as he delivers a cynical rant on the hollowness of modern consumer society. “Everyone in this city dresses the same”: it sounds like Trainspotting if it was set in Brighton. Becoming suddenly introspective, Dewing implores “don’t let me keep you” as their set draws to a close. He doesn’t have to worry – I’ll listen as long as Mother wants. The final song ends fittingly: a melancholy riff crescendos into chaos and Jack howls one last lamenting verse, before the room is silent once more. Mother sound like a garage band who’ve smoked too much weed and teeter on the verge of breakdown. It’s weird, it’s fun, it’s some of the best music I’ve heard in Durham.

Tonight’s headliners, The Cygnets, are quick to take to the stage. Styling themselves as an ‘alt-rock and grunge band,’ their set also includes flavours of classic rock and blues – but they give both of these genres a 90’s twist. They open fast, grungy, and earnest with three fun originals, the last of which is their love-letter to Paddy’s Pizzeria. It’s a definite highlight of the night. The crowd are quick to get their feet moving with a small but impressive mosh pit forming. This is no doubt egged on by the three-piece’s cover of The Beatles’ ‘Helter Skelter’ which is given a huge boost by the furious drumming of Dom Zizza, who turns Ringo’s originally measured beat on its head. As their set goes on the musicianship of the trio is on full display; Zac Parkin’s bass is eternally in time, occasionally adding creative flourishes to his steady rhythms, whilst Oscar Dolan’s fluid vocals slide over his equally elastic guitar playing. The band’s final song of the night, ‘The Human Condition,’ is their heaviest yet and a great way to close the night. They further top off a triumphant set with an encore of ‘Hot to the Touch’ – another original, and a punky song which shows off Oscar’s guitar skill with a classic rock’n’roll solo. The Cygnets make playing fast-paced, intricate grunge pop seem easy, and through it all look like they’re having as much fun as the crowd are.

As I leave, I feel like I’ve been taken on a tour of the best music of the 90’s, from dreamy trip-hop to stoner punk to grunge pop. I’d encourage anyone to go and see any of these three bands: they’re some of the best Durham has to offer.

Instagram:

Emy Silver: @emysilver_

Mother: @themotherbanduk

The Cygnets: @thecygnets

By Ailís Osobase.

I’m sure many of you will have seen the recent film Blonde, directed by Andrew Dominik, which centres itself around the life of Marilyn Monroe. Or, if you haven’t seen it, you may simply have heard about the overwhelmingly negative reception it has been met with. Having watched it in full myself, I admit I was disturbed after only one hour and had already decided it would be the topic of this article. Like many others, the film relies on the all-too familiar trope of the ‘hysterical woman’, denying women any claim to success without also being damaged or traumatised in some way first. The fetishization of female distress and illness (albeit mental or otherwise) seems a little outdated for a 21^st century audience, and I find myself wondering how films such as these manage to pass through so many hands before the decision is made that they are fit for public viewing.

Audiences found the film to be ‘depressing’ with no tonal shifts, as Dominik holds his audience in a glorified re-enactment of the traumas in Marilyn’s life. What I found to be most disturbing was the ever-present male gaze that the director feels no obligation to undermine. It would be one thing if the sexualisation of Marilyn’s character in the film was beset against a tone of disapproval, or if it ultimately concluded that she is more than just the sex symbol of her generation. However, I felt the film only renewed with a new vigour the sexualisation of the female icon, effectively setting us back 60 years. 

The film sparked a social media frenzy, my TikTok ‘For You Page’ filled with various watchers who felt ‘disgusted’ by yet another film sensualising female neurosis. All the worse, is the fact that the film actually fabricates much of the star’s life, some of the most harrowing scenes being entirely fictional. Dominik has argued his work does not ever claim to be a biopic and is in fact based on the fictional novel by Joyce Carol Oates of the same name. Even knowing this, it doesn’t sit right with me that a director would go out of their way to engage with an audience that is perhaps unfamiliar with Marilyn and feed them details that are both disturbing and incorrect. One user refers to Blonde as being a ‘treadmill of trauma’, and I’d largely agree with this. The film strategically skips over Monroe’s entire career progression and any positive moments of her life, rather placing a decided emphasis on those darker ones. 

Emily Ratajkowski in a video posted to her social media encourages women to get ‘angry’ with films like these, arguing that anger is an emotion that can’t be sexualised. Whether or not you agree with this statement, the idea of getting angry is rather convincing, because this is exactly how a lot of women have felt when watching this. However, whether this anger alone will ever stop the media from pushing out films of the same misogynistic nature as Blonde, we can’t be sure. We’ve all heard the phrase ‘even bad press is good press. Perhaps the onslaught of disturbed watchers on TikTok is precisely what made you go and watch Blonde, or maybe even this article will. We are in an age of over-consumption, where we all want to engage with what is ‘trending’. Even when we are discrediting something, others feel the need to view it for themselves to be able to discredit it also, or at the very least to make sense of the negative press. 

Dominik in an interview asserted ‘I’m not interested in reality, I’m interested in the images’, and this is made very clear. While the film can be applauded for its cinematography and accuracy in physically transforming Ana de Armas into Marilyn, no such attention is paid to translating the true character of the actress or her life leading up to her death. Women occupying a character significant only as an image of beauty or tragedy is a tale as old as time, and Blonde is a frightening reminder of this. It would be encouraging if we could see the accuracy of female achievement properly translated, rather than all focus being placed on the aesthetic appeal that her role might provide. Marilyn, here, is only one example of the defamation of female legacies on the screen. 

It begs the question, why must female stars be stripped of their career milestones as Marilyn has been in ‘Blonde’? To draw comparison, Elvis Presley in his death was rewarded by Baz Luhrmann’s recent portrayal of him as a rising rockstar despite all obstacles. Elvis himself was not without controversy, and yet his legacy in the film is carefully preserved. It becomes difficult to decipher whether this is simply the difference between good and bad direction, or whether filmmaking as a whole struggles to positively address female histories. Theodore Melfi’s Hidden Figures details the story of a team of female African-American mathematicians whose work was vital to NASA during the early years of the U.S. space program. From watching this film, I know that male direction is in fact capable of depicting successful women who faced hardship, but I wonder whether Melfi is anomalous here. 

It’s therein an uncomfortable reality that male directors like Dominik may continue to profit off the sexualised ‘distressed woman’ until hopefully the next media trend overwhelms this trope and something new takes its place.  In the meantime, though, we can vocalise our anger. What’s more, we can actively endorse productions with female-leads who are talented within their own right, not merely talented in spite of their trauma. 

The Ugly Fruit Group: An Open Letter

An open letter to the students of Durham University,

If you were asked to list the biggest challenges faced both globally or, perhaps more relatable to you, in the North East, what would you say?

I imagine you’d reel off a list of justified causes, all worthy of our concern and attention, and hopefully somewhere on that list would lie food waste and the reality of those without access to nutritious, affordable food (food insecurity). Why these challenges in particular you might wonder? Whilst around three million people in the UK are thought to be malnourished* eighteen million tonnes of food goes to Landfill each year.

10% of children in the UK live in food insecurity, yet nearly half of fruit and veg is thrown away on aesthetics alone. The North East has the second highest poverty rate in the country, yet household waste in the area remains over 1 million metric tonnes. So I suppose this begs the question:

How can it be that there is so much food waste in times of such dire food insecurity?

Perfectly good food is being thoughtlessly discarded, whilst poverty levels in the UK are rising. The fact that both of these problems are endemic is infuriating. So, when I saw a post on Overheard at Durham from a little team called The Ugly Fruit Group, stating that they were looking for volunteers to help tackle these intertwined and ever-worsening problems in the local area, I knew I wanted to be involved.

At the Ugly Fruit Group, we do our best to help tackle both food insecurity and food waste in Durham and the surrounding areas. We receive donations of ‘ugly’ fresh fruit and vegetables that otherwise would not be sold from supermarkets and distribute the freshest to local food banks. This is particularly important as food bank parcels provide almost 50% less than the recommended amount of Vitamins A, C, D and E. Such vitamin deficiencies have a significant impact on energy levels and wellbeing. The lethargy and ongoing health issues caused can make it harder for individuals to break free from food insecurity and partake in social causes.

Whatever can’t be donated but is still edible is used to make long-life sustainable snacks which are sold to raise money to help us continue the project. So far, we have saved over 300kg of fruit and veg, donated 120 packages to local foodbanks, and provided 1080 fruit and veg supplements. It’s been an interesting but rewarding journey. Covid-19 has repetitively thrown a spanner in the works, but despite the challenges, the team has grown arms and legs with us currently having over 46 volunteering members. We have a regular stall over at the Scoop store in the Riverwalk and have managed to sustain multiple donations a week to three food banks that we’re partnered with. Though the problems of food insecurity and food waste often feel like a tidal wave, we are doing our best at having a positive impact on the local area. Though I am extremely proud of the work we do, it is frustrating that we are still needed at all.

There are two main components to our action: to fight against food insecurity and to fight against food waste. The first, more macro-level approach, is by demanding policy change.

But what if I told you that there are easy ways to implement change and that you can do them at home yourself? Both food waste and food insecurity are issues that most students care about in some way, shape, or form. But, hear me out, sometimes this caring is misplaced – and saying you care means a lot less if your actions don’t align with your words. Caring is the first step on a long journey of change, and it is important to recognise how many of these different issues within society are all directly linked to each other. In order to enact change, we need to remember to keep our outlook open and inclusive; if we don’t, we risk isolating the very groups of people we are trying to help. Whilst it is important to make practical swaps and campaign for policy change, as you likely see advocated across social media, it is also important to remember that this is not some far away issue, and to keep people at the centre of our actions.

There is a tendency for these issues to be reduced to dinner table debates. The controversialist of the room, who loves to say they’re ‘just playing devil’s advocate’, blames food insecurity on the individuals. Why should the government help them? They should get a job, they say.

People struggling with these real issues deserve more than a jump to their defence conceptually. We need practical change, and we need it now.

Are you one of the people that genuinely wants to help, but perhaps unintentionally missed the mark? You’re not alone and we want to help. Here’s a small list of ideas on how you can start to help tackle food insecurity in Durham:

Align your actions with your words. Hopefully by now you have realised that this issue is deep rooted but often doing the right thing can start from a simple second thought to that all-too-normalised action. Not going to eat those last two slices of pizza tonight? You’ve eaten most of it, they could just go in the bin…but how about keeping them to take to the library for lunch tomorrow! Your berries got a little squashed in the bottom of the shopping bag? You could throw them away…but wouldn’t they taste incredible in a smoothie! When you notice people around you doing things that you know will directly contribute to food waste, let them know. You don’t have to get angry at them. Instead, inspire that second thought.

Be mindful of how you (and others) talk. Unlearning bias can be a difficult job, but it is one we need to do. If you’ve never faced food insecurity, or seen anyone experience it, well-intended words can sometimes miss the mark. Try not to talk about it as a problem that is far away – you don’t necessarily know that the people listening haven’t faced something similar themselves. By now you are hopefully aware that this is an issue which has in fact been right beside you throughout your entire time in Durham. If someone opens up to you, try not to condescend, and remember that their lived experience isn’t something up for debate. Let’s try to stop the stigma surrounding food insecurity.

Be a conscious consumer. If you have time to sign up to be a volunteer or have the funds to donate, brilliant! But realistically not everybody does, and the act of supporting does not have to be a time intensive process. Come visit our TUFG stalls, and if you like the look of things make a purchase or two. You could switch to buying your dried groceries from Scoop. They donate their profits to local charities, with the donations split corresponding to the amount of votes each charity receives from the customers. Last term, they supported Fareshare, who help tackle hunger and food insecurity in the local area. Similarly, if your college doesn’t already have a food bank donation setup, consider chatting with the staff about starting one.

Avoid large supermarkets where possible because they’re the biggest contributors to food waste. If there are a few items you do still need from these stores, try starting your shop in the reduced aisle to find some perfectly edible hidden treasures before they are thrown out. For the rest, consider switching to the Fruiterers in the market or Robinsons on North Road for your fruit and vegetables. If you eat meat, have a look around for a local butcher. Shop small and local, and don’t underestimate the benefits of a meal plan.