The Weekly Seven: 20th August 2012

Stealing Sheep - Into The Diamond Sun

ALBUM One of our favourite Liverpool bands release their debut album this week, and it’s a corker. Touching on kalaeidoscopic pop, lush folk and scratchy indie-rock with a deft touch, it’s unsurprisingly great. Confident, creative, and ridiculously catchy. Out now on CD, download and - get this - glitter vinyl. Whoah.

www.stealingsheep.co.uk

Above and Beyond: Group Therapy/Creamfields

CD/EVENT Trance isn’t dead - it just suffered a midlife crisis. But if you’re heading to Creamfields this weekend, this is the soundtrack to your week. A hypnotic, blood-pumping set from the writers and producers who have matured into the electronic dance artists we all knew they could be. Tribal rhythms, haunting vocals, thudding basslines. See you on the muddy fields of Daresbury (A&B are in the Mixmag tent on Saturday).

www.aboveandbeyond.nu

Bolshy

BAND They’ve played Threshold Festival and been knocking around for a while, but their new prime busking slot on Church Street last week opened our eyes to this band of teens: their sax-parping cover of ‘Message To You Rudy’ made the drizzly weather go away for a couple of minutes. Give ‘em a quid or two if you spot them.

http://twitter.com/BolshyBand

Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present

DVD If, like us, you’ve seen and loved the Ai Wei Wei documentary at FACT, this should be on your LoveFilm wish list. Fearless, intelligent and incredibly moving, The Artist is Present takes an unflinching look at one of the most compelling artists of our time. This is a document of Marina’s world, as she prepares for a major retrospective of her work at MOMA.

www.marinafilm.com

Celebrity Big Brother

TELLY Yeah, we know. But we caught 15 minutes of it (with Julian Clary squaring up to Jersey Shore’s The Situation) and we have to admit it, we were a bit slack-jawed and reeled in. We’re hoping it’s a passing phase.

Sonnenburg at The Lomax (Cumberland St, Liverpool), Friday 24th Aug

GIG Probe Plus’s Sonnenburg are tragically under appreciated. Their soundscape encompasses haunting folk, driving psychedelia and tub-thumbing tablas and percussion. Pastoral, summery and sublime. It could well be the perfect August evening.

www.myspace.com/sonnenbergtheband

The Archtivist

BLOG This site is one of many interior design-focused Tumblrs currently clogging up the interweb, but there’s something a little more refined and interesting about this particular one. Expertly collated, the images are way more attainable and achievable than many design blogs, and makes us want to give new life to that knackered chest of drawers collecting dust in our attic.

www.thearchtivist.com