Having fully emerged in 2016 with the flourishing Night On Earth, with Jerkcurb there lies a growing sense of an artist climbing into maturity with each succeeding release. After a summer that included sets at the esteemed EOTR festival, Jerkcurb return playing the Roundhouse Rising Festival with Comfort and POiSON ANNA. A festival featuring the likes of Lynks, Grove and Mulah the festival is a showcase for some of the best emerging UK talent.

Ahead of their performance tonight we caught up with Jerkcurb to check out their influences across our Sound & Vision feature. Here are their picks:

Three albums – one for every decade of my existence:

Julee Cruise – Floating into The Night (1989)

I’ve always had trouble falling asleep. The first year of my existence was no exception. As a baby, my parents discovered that playing me this album was the best method to sedate me. I was of course not conscious of this at the time, but many years later I caught a glimpse of the 10 year anniversary of Twin Peaks on television. I didn’t really know what it was or what it was about, but it’s soothing sounds were familiar. A soft and distant female voice singing simple melodies over a bed of strings and tremolo guitars that dip in and out of tune. The effect was like returning to some mystical place I had been before, it was still shrouded in the unknown, but it’s relaxing, slow pace was a comforting journey into the night. 

Ween – Pure Guava (1992)

I barely listen to this any more. I can’t, because it makes everything else feel too sincere, too serious. There is sincerity here too, like Sarah, which makes me feel a dull and distant longing for some unattainable warmth. Between Sarah and Poopship Destroyer there’s something for everyone. Or nobody? I can’t tell. When I was a teenager I was obsessed with this band. Completely obsessed. Ween are like a private joke between friends, they question my taste, my patience, my values, but it’s always worth the pay off, to feel like I’ve been let into their world. Maximalist juvenile pop from Generation X that’s deceptively intelligent, at least I tell that to myself. If anything it’s a beautiful ode to a certain period in time , to youth, friendship and creativity, all within the constraints of limited technology (the whole album sounds like it was recorded on an electric toothbrush. 

Paddy McAloon – I Trawl The Megahertz (2003) 

Imagine a 25 minute Sex & The City monologue fever dream set to existential, vaguely midi orchestration. Half recollected tales about life’s burning passions, regrets, impending comets and portraits in hotel lobbies of rap artists with airbrushed cigarettes. Except I don’t really know if that’s even what’s being talked about because my brain fills in the blanks. Created on an early version of protools by an ageing 80s sophistipop singer whose losing his sight. Nothing stews in my brain and enlightens my soul quite like this. It’s another, more recent comfort for me.

Film

Donnie Darko (2001)

It’s embarrassing but it might just be my favourite film. It’s the film I’ve seen most times over the years. I love the feeling of it. It’s like sitting by the fire with a hot bowl of soup on a cold winter night. It’s very angsty but it’s also very funny. The music is beautiful and there’s still so much unanswered speculation about what it’s even actually about. I like things that I can repeat experiences of and find something slightly different each time. I love how Richard Kelly wrote it in high school, and he always drew the character Frank obsessively. Then he spent years trying to get it made, and everyone thought it was a pile of shit until Drew Barrymore took a chance on it and it became this cult classic that defined a generation. 

A Book I love:

Richard Brautigan – Trout Fishing in America (1967)

Brautigan writes in really simple beautiful language, but it’s very unusual. Trout Fishing is a strange kind of road trip book, it flickers between plainspoken descriptions of two people fishing for trout , and more abstract scenarios in which Trout Fishing acts as a metaphor for something, a flashback to previous life, a glimpse into a parallel universe. At times it feels like a journey into lunacy. His writing style reminds me a bit of Kurt Vonnegut, but it’s less science fiction, and more personal, instead focusing on tiny details & feelings. An odd but memorable book that I tend to revisit because of its uniqueness.

A Song I Always Go Back To:

Kalimankou Denkou – Les Mystere Des Voix Bulgaria 

Bulgarian women’s choir, traditional folk song. Complex, mysterious, ominous, hopeful, and very very beautiful.

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