Excited to bring you today the premiere of Feral Five’s space-tastic video for single ’Get a Grip’. We featured the track on our site on release day and described it as “a sexy 80s synth-goth disco in space” – and the video has completely captured this vibe!
“It’s a song for when enough is enough, and you need to reclaim your own power.”
Today’s track of the day comes from London/Kent electropunx FeralFive: ‘Get a Grip’. It’s a sexy 80s synth-goth disco in space! Band Captain Kat tells us:
“It’s a song for when enough is enough, and you need to reclaim your own power.”
Track of the day today is the mesmerising ‘Butterfly Wings’ from KatFive (aka Feral Five) – hypnotic electro-pop inspired by Morocco’s Racines and its slogan #LaCultureEstLaSolution. Produced by Kat and mastered by KatieTavini, nominated for Mastering Engineer of the Year, so it’s a 100% female production.
Kat let us in on the audio magic behind the fluttery sound on the track … it’s the sound of a real butterfly’s wings!
“When I heard the butterfly in my studio I grabbed my portable Zoom and recorded a burst of the wing sound, which was surprisingly loud, before helping the butterfly fly off outside. I keep my recorder handy and often use unusual sounds in my tracks.
Armed with the butterfly recording and an idea, I worked on the lyrics and a melody. I looped and layered the butterfly sound to give a sense of flying around, and I created very sparse beats including a sharp crackle (like a fly zapper) to add a sense of danger. I experimented a lot and it was like painting with sound as I added vocals, synths, and guitar, with the bass more of a background drone. I didn’t want to swamp the butterfly, so tried to create space and depth in the mix, aiming for an organic fragile feel, but with quiet strength too.
Katie Tavini’s brilliant mastering really made the track live and breathe.”
Last night (11 May) at the Hope & Anchor was a splendid reminder why LOUD WOMEN gigs are so vital. Four very awesome woman-powered bands from up and down the country, and across the Atlantic (Miss Eaves, TV Face, Feral Five and I, Doris) ; a fun raffle full of awesome prizes (original Bikini Kill poster! records! golden pineapple ornament!); filming for Gaptooth‘s new music video (Post-Patriarchy Disco!); plus the friendliest, most up-for-a-good time crowd you could wish to hang out with on a Saturday night. More of this sort of thing please!
1. Who would you most like to cover one of your songs?
Lizzo – we’re imagining the flute solo already!, or Kylie Minogue with Nick Cave (we covered one of hers and took it to the dark side). St Vincent would produce an amazing avant-pop thing with our stuff!
2. If you could add one member to your band – any person, living or dead, musical or otherwise – who would it be, and what would they play?
Daphne Oram on whatever new machine she’d just invented
3. What was the last song you wrote, where were you when you came up with the idea, what inspired it, and how did it turn out?
‘Ego’. It started with a crazy sample Kat made hiding in the bathroom at Xmas with her new mini synth, and grew in a fit of fury after a run in with an egotistical music biz monster. We jammed it up in a rehearsal studio, it came out disco-sexy good, and it’s going to be our next single!
4. Which was your favourite gig you’ve a) played and b) watched?
a) Shuffle Festival, founded by Danny Boyle – on a platform up in the trees in a gloriously gothic graveyard park. Kat jumped so hard the floorboards started coming apart, and we played an electro-punk cover of Japan’s ‘Ghosts’ that went down a storm.
b) Tough call, but Sleaford Mods, Savages and The Pop Group playing on a truck on the same night at Dismaland is right up there.
c) If there was a category for both on the same day – then Cro Cro Land festival for sure!
5. Recommend a record that you think our readers might not have heard of
Gazelle Twin’s Pastoral album – eviscerating, political, and electronic. Punk spirit without being punk rock.
6. What’s your best piece of advice for young musicians?
Be brilliant. Be yourself. Experiment.
7. Your top 3 most beloved albums ever – go.
Dream Wife – Dream Wife
Cocteau Twins – Heaven Or Las Vegas
Future Sound Of London – Lifeforms
8. What are your musical goals?
To make people think while they dance in another dimension
9. What’s the most important thing we need to know about your band right now?
We’re launching new single ‘Shake It’ at the 11th May Loud Women show, you’ve summed it up pretty nicely as a “floor-filling guitar-sexy banger”, and John Kennedy’s been giving it a few spins on Radio X! And we’re working on our debut album.
10. Give your top 5 contemporary bands/musicians
deux furieuses – visceral music, incredible musicians, their new tunes are next level
Ms Mohammed – brilliant Island punk, gets us moving every time
Liines – we first saw them at Loud Women Fest and were blown away
Bugeye – disco-punk with Abba-esque feel good factor, we’re down the front always
Miss Eaves, TV Face, Feral Five, I, Doris, The Noise and the Naive, BbyMutha, The Shangri-Las, Rico Nasty, Argonaut, Billie Eilish, Janelle Monae, Kero Kero Bonito, GUTTFULL, Leikeli47, Le Tigre, Sisteray, Lizzo, Miss Red, Chaka Khan, SAULT, Ibibio Sound Machine, ILL, Party Fears, Sink Ya Teeth, Christine and the Queens, Neneh Cherry, Pom Poko, The Breeders, The Lovely Eggs, Velodrome, Pip Blom, GGAllan Partridge, Cid Rim, Tacocat, Mo-Dettes, X-ray Spex, The Slits, Missy Elliott, M.I.A., Ana Tijoux
Massive thanks to Abby/Doris Werth for the particularly choice selections ❤
Out today from London’s favourite electro-punks, FeralFive, a floor-filling sexy-guitar banger. We challenge you not to shake your tail feather to this … and you can shake it live too, as Feral Five are joining us for our next LOUD WOMEN gig at the Hope & Anchor in London on 11 May!
Massive thanks to everyone who came and celebrated our 3rd birthday last night – what an absolutely lovely night, full of friendly faces, brilliant music, and heaps of fun – exactly the stuff of Loud Women! Awesome performances from Party Fears, GUTTFULL, Feral Five and Spare Rib – check em all out online. There was dancing, cake, a fun raffle, and plotting … our ‘woman in the USA’ was in the house and our plans for LOUD WOMEN NYC are coming along nicely – bring on 2019! 💥
Feral Five have an electrotastic festive gift for your ears – called I Want U. Frontwoman Kat says, “It’s a feminist song about cutting the crap at Christmas, and features big beats, powerful bass and pulsating synths”.
Following their BBC 6 Music Recommends Track of the Week ‘Kiss’ with Equinox, a Gideon Coe pick, the new song is about people not things, and the trend-busting list of unwanted shabby gifts leads to one conclusion – I Want U.
“I don’t need a fitness band, some running shoes
I don’t need a skipping rope I’ll never use…
You won’t fit down the chimney so get a cab
I’ll start off with the whisky so the time won’t drag”
Acclaimed for their innovative and future-facing music, and their dynamic live gigs, the Ferals have tackled #3Dprintinghumans, worked with sonified algorithms, and played Picasso-inspired songs at the National Portrait Gallery at the invitation of electronic legend Martyn Ware.
Feral Five have had support from DJs across BBC 6 including Steve Lamacq, Tom Ravenscroft, Shaun Keaveny, and Stuart Maconie, as well as from Eddy Temple-Morris on his Remix show.
Kat and Drew Five are a London and Kent-based duo who write, produce, record and mix at Feral HQ buried deep in the woods, and have remixed rising Indie bands Sisteray and deux furieuses.