New Music Lockdown 5: Foals, Claptone, Luke La Volpe, Minecraft's music festival and more

Way into lockdown now and, as the music world adjusts, so what artists are attempting becomes, in some cases, more sophisticated. In others, many impressively make the most of whatever tech they have to hand. Either way it’s always fascinating to check in on the best that’s out there. Below is this week’s pick. Dive in!

Foals’ FBC Transmissions

Last Friday Brit Award-winning alt-rockers Foals launched Foals Broadcast Corp Transmissions, a weekly series of short films that will be appearing over 12 weeks on YouTube. Foals are currently poised to become that rare thing, a stadium-level outfit who’ve also retained musical credibility. The first of their “transmissions”, filmed on the fly in a in a synth and percussion heavy French studio, reveals the production process behind the single “Exits”, but future material runs the gamut from interviews to a live set from Truck festival. Put together by Transgressive Records co-founder Toby L, and drawn from the last 18 months when the band were filmed “more or less non-stop”, the project adopts “a pirate radio-style aesthetic” and will clearly do Foals’ unstoppable rise no harm at all.

Below: Watch FBC #01: The Making of Exits

Claptone in the Circus

You couldn’t make this one up! Every Wednesday evening at 8.00 PM German DJ Claptone has been presenting a set in a big top, accompanied by a show from “a tiny family-run circus” fallen on hard times that he discovered on his daily exercise walks. He has decided to support them during the pandemic. Who knows the truth of it, given Claptone’s track record – a couple of years ago the golden plague mask-clad spinner was revealed to be at least two people – but what’s certainly fact is that reliably each week he’s live on YouTube for half-an-hour with knife-throwers and the like amid much dry ice. It’s all on behalf of WHO’s Solitary Response Fund and each set has a different musical theme. Happily, unlike so many of these live-streamed events, old sets are left up after the event.

Below: watch last week’s Claptone in the Circus

Nice N' Sleazy Big Weekend

Glasgow venue Nice N’ Sleazy has long been an institution in the city, with a lengthy list of bands who’ve performed there over the years. Now they have called upon some of those names for their first Big Weekend of Streaming event, running from Thursday to Saturday, with the likes of Idlewild singer Roddy Woomble, Lou Barlow of Dinosaur Jr and Dead Meadow frontman Jason Simon lined up to perform. It starts at 6pm each night and, in keeping with Sleazy’s philosophy, should offer a diverse selection of music, while the shows will also attempt to raise money for local good causes too. All that’s missing is their famed White Russians. Visit www.facebook.com/nicensleazyglasgow for  more details. (written by Jonathan Geddes)

AETH3R Festival on Minecraft

Alt-indie underground music festivals are not the first thing that springs to mind when the word “Minecraft” crops up, but the video game giant has developed experience in this field during the COVID crisis. They threw a major event back in April, featuring Idles, Sports Team and others, and this Friday the AETH3R Festival presents a line-up heavy on notably strong female acts such as Pussy Riot, Alice Glass, Rine Sawayama, Kreayshawn and Uffie. The event is a benefit for the Groundswell Fund for “grassroots organizations led by women of colour, trans people of colour, and low-income women and trans people in critical, but unexpected, fights to protect and advance reproductive and social justice.” You’ll need to be a night owl if you’re British as the show starts at midnight here! It's be live here.

Luke La Volpe’s Sofathon Singalong

Scottish singer Luke La Volpe last month organised the Sofathon Singalong, roping in the likes of KT Tunstall, the View’s frontman Kyle Falconer and emerging synth-rockers the Ninth Wave to perform. Held across various Facebook pages, including famed venue King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut, the all day event earned funds for the Music Venue Trust, and now enterprising troubadour La Volpe has organised another bash. Running for 12 hours this Saturday, the exact line-up is still to be confirmed, but it’s likely that plenty of emerging Scottish talent will be appearing, and will be worth dipping into on the day to see if there are any up and coming acts that catch the eye. Visit www.facebook.com/sofathonsingalong for details. (Written by Jonathan Geddes)

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