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Fix your eyes on these words:

Harrys Gym

What Was Ours Can’t Be Yours

Splendour

The first question to ask is why? Why Harrys Gym? It conjures up images of exercise and sweaty bodies and this is enough to put off any self-respecting hipster. But never fear, great and unusual music lives between these plastic walls. This isn’t Brother, that shit new band NME keep going on about, it’s Norwegian, shoegaze, synth pop. Weird? Yeah, pretty weird but also surprising and beautiful.

Accompanied by some astonishing artwork the album is a must listen for those Beach House and Bat For Lashes fans. Combining elements of both and still managing to sound refreshingly original.

Highlight ‘Sailing Home’ is heart capturing and encapsulates the changing mood of the album. Calm, soothing ‘Next Time’ along side fast paced ‘No Hero’. But the album doesn’t sound like a schizophrenic, getting in a rage when deciding what to wear in the morning. The songs flow together and follow on from each other like a waking, peaceful dream.

English language students might be getting angry by this point at the lack of apostrophe in Harrys Gym. Don’t be getting those furious emails out though, as the deliberate omission adheres to Norwegian grammatical rules. Those crazy Norwegians.

This band are full of potential which is shown on What Was Ours Can’t Be Yours, eleven songs that combine to form a soaring soundscape. A little bit like Sigur Rós, but without all that gibberish.

Harrys Gym play Nation Of Shopkeepers on 10^th February. That’ll be the past by the time this is published, but be assured it was good, better than going to the real gym anyway.

4/5

Yeah? An album worth listening to, I assure you.

Those.guys.look.an.awful.lot.like.Chpl.Clb.

Oh wait, that's because it is. And yes, here's comes another photo-review combo, I am such a pro. Why haven't all the newspapers/magazines given me all their jobs yet? Well who knows, but Chapel Club were sweet, got some sexy looking pics as well, check it out:

Chapel Club

The Cockpit, Leeds

Monday 7^th February

Cockpit 2 has never seen so many people. It’s barely possible to even get in the doors as Chapel Club start playing. But wait… No… That can’t be right… Bald heads? Beer bellies? This crowd is full of old people. Shouldn’t they all be at work, or paying off a mortgage or something? This is a minor travesty. Maybe all the twenty something’s are in bands already or at home taking drugs, that’s cooler than going to gigs right? Either way, the majority of the revellers had seen more than a few millennia

Things were less shocking down the front however, where there were some under 40’s and the five rake like band members dominated most of the field of vision. Things kicked off supremely with material from the new album ‘Palace’ travelling from the stage welcomingly into peoples’ ear passages. Chapel Club are an inventive band and deserved to be listened to. Integrity is a hard thing to place, but these five enviably well-dressed Londoners go along way towards it.

Songs like ‘Surfacing’ and ‘All The Eastern Girls’ are dealt with immaculately. But this isn’t just a routine; there is passion in this performance that makes the gig so much more enjoyable.

The band creep off stage to raucous hand banging but return to finish the set with an impromptu encore, consisting of sexy ‘Five Trees’. Everyone loves this, especially the guy stumbling into people in a woeful attempt to make dancing happen. Not at this Chapel Club gig, feet tapping will more than suffice.

Go buy the album ‘Palace’ it is most definitely worth the investment. And next time a band of Chapel Club’s calibre play in Leeds, get off stupid Fifa, buy tickets to the gig and stop all these old people from turning up, it’s just not right.

4/5

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353

Wax:On & Metropolis present Reclaim The Dancefloor

Pendulum DJ set/Nero/Jack Beats/Kissy Sell Out/Zinc

Leeds University Union

Saturday 29^th January

The recent affair between Wax:On and Metropolis has unsurprisingly produced some amazing line-ups that have seriously entertained lovers of dance music. This meant that anticipation was smothered thickly over the most recent incarnation of this illicit relationship, Reclaim The Dancefloor showcasing the Valve Sound system at LUU on Saturday night.

However, just hours before the night was about to begin it was revealed that one of the main acts and reasons for going, Busy P, was unable to make it. This left the line-up looking slightly dilapidated, so it was with dampened spirits that the night began.

Wax:On and the Leeds University Union go together like chicken and chips and it was comforting to be greeted with electro’s embrace on entering the building. Zinc was kicking things of in Stylus, although the crowd was lacking numbers towards the beginning of his set. This may have been because the entire world was queuing for the toilets or because of the man jumping around the front of the stage, irrationally shouting things into a microphone. Calling yourself an MC isn’t a excuse for ruining a DJ’s set and stealing his thunder.

Things were going down in the Terrace however and the relatively unknown Redlight was making the crowd jump. The prospect of hearing the same song over and over courtesy of Pendulum meant that the Refectory was a no go area for an hour. It turned out that most people preferred to freeze to death for a cigarette rather than subject themselves to the torture.

The night had hardly begun yet though and the best was certainly still to come. Jack Beats, Stylus, and an incredible set, unparalleled throughout the night. They had the room packed and going crazy. Throwing down a mixture of their own tracks, some well-known electro-gold and topping off with some well placed dubstep. Kissy kept the crowd going afterwards and provided an awesome set himself.

Misplaced doubts forgotten about, Wax:On and Metropolis provided another superb night. Busy P better play soon though, or else…

So this happened a while ago. T'was pretty good. What about the photos though? Got to borrow an DSLR, so was experimenting a little. They were taken by myself and the beautiful Miss Harley Wood.