MANCHESTER: Hey! Manchester @ The White Hotel

Saturday 24th March, 2018

7:30pm

Event information

On 9 March 2018 Elle Mary & The Bad Men release their debut album. Entitled Constant Unfailing Night, the nine-track record follows the release of the Bloom In Thickened Skin EP, and showcases the beautiful, stunning and arresting voice of haunting folk-noir singer songwriter Elle Mary.

Currently residing in Manchester where she launched and ran The Folk Cellar for two years, Elle Mary started out as an acoustic folk singer, and her debut album sees her wear her heart and colour her emotions on her sleeve. The record started in response to a break up, morphing into a beautiful journey via the process of grief through which Elle Mary found inspiration and rejuvenation, leaving her previous folk textures behind as she picked up her brother’s electric guitar and transformed into the darker, spidery Elle Mary & The Bad Men. This is what lies beneath the subtle tension that tugs at the heart of her and The Bad Men’s acoustically webbed slowcore minimalism.

‘I’ve moved from folk to this “heavy noir” or whatever you want to call it,’ says Elle Mary. ‘The Bad Men – Michael Dubec and Pete Sitch – have joined me on this journey and probably know me too well as a result of it. The weight they add to the songs is incredible and I really couldn’t ask for a better band.’

From the empowering Behave (Video of The Week on God Is In The TV Zine), a song about suppressed rage that sees the singer find strength in saying what she really wants to an ex-lover (‘I pen your name, Try to find a delicate way, To ask you, To ask you, To go, Fuck yourself’), via Pretend, a satirical look into flings in the dreamy and experimental, and the emotional complexity of the brooding Happiness, Constant Unfailing Night is a deeply personal piece of work. The album is dedicated to the singer’s late father: his passing; her mourning; his story telling; their shared memories; as is evident in the heart-wrenching Undead (‘Bloom, In thickened skin, Awaken, A peace within’) and the jangly Later, which brings the record to a close.

The one consistent throughout Elle Mary’s musical metamorphosis, and what pulls you into her compelling world, is the use of space. ‘Space and a minimal approach have always been the most important part of the music to me, to do more with less,’ says the singer. ‘It’s this that draws me in the most about the artists I love (Low, Julie Doiron, Bill Callahan etc). This allows for my voice to sit on top and the words seep in.’

Elle Mary has performed with Low, La Luz, Jenny Hval, Daniel Knox, Dan Michaelson, Smoke Fairies, Jo Rose and Tara Jane O’Neil, as well as playing a house concert tour of Europe and acclaimed shows throughout UK. Capturing these spellbinding live performances, the album was recorded at Queen’s Ark Studio in Levenshulme and the beautiful 80Hertz. ‘It was very simple, we didn’t do too many overdubs or anything as I like the sound to be as close to what it would be live. I find it more honest,’ says the Welsh-born songstress.

‘Striking folk-noir, her work recalls Jenny Hval or even Sharon Van Etten in it’s ability to process the world around her’ – Clash

Main support is Secret Admirer, the solo project from Nick Ainsworth of Former Bullies and Dinner Party fame. In 2016 he released a 20-song self-titled tape via Belfast’s CF Records. He will be joined here by his live band.

Opening the show is Tekla. Tekla is a local solo performer whose eerie lullabies have been described as ‘understated, yet brimming with invention and delicate beauty’. Expect layered imagery, spacious melodies and fragile fingerpicking.

AGE RESTRICTION: This show is 16+.

Dickinson Street
Manchester
M3 1ND

www.heymanchester.com