‘1,313: A Sotones Sampler’ is the second Sotones Records compilation, featuring some of the best music from across the south coast, spanning indie rock to dubstep, folk to electronica. Featuring smash singles by Moulettes, Moneytree, Haunted Stereo, Peter Lyons and Fresh Legs, as well as new works by artists including rude_NHS, nato, Ann The Arc and Jeffisalive. Artwork by Billy Mather (billymather.co.uk)
Tracklisting:
Moulettes / Horses For Hearses / Horses For Hearses EP (Licensed from B.alling The Jack)
Fresh Legs / Julian / Julian EP – Deluxe
Moneytree / Medicineland / The Great Indoors Part III
Haunted Stereo / Lock The Doors / On A Pin/Lock The Doors
Anja McCloskey / Newton / Turn – Turn – Turn
Jackie Paper / All The Wine / What’s Wrong With Broken Glass
Neutralizing antibodies (NAb) able to react to heterologous viruses are generated during natural HIV-1 infection in some individuals. Further knowledge is required in order to understand the factors contributing to induction of cross-reactive NAb responses. Here a well-established model of experimental pathogenic infection in cynomolgus macaques, which reproduces long-lasting HIV-1 infection, was used to study the NAb response as well as the viral evolution of the highly neutralization-resistant SIVmac239. Twelve animals were infected intravenously with SIVmac239. Antiretroviral therapy (ART) was initiated ten days post-inoculation and administered daily for four months. Viral load, CD4(+) T-cell counts, total IgG levels, and breadth as well as strength of NAb in plasma were compared simultaneously over 14 months. In addition, envs from plasma samples were sequenced at three time points in all animals in order to assess viral evolution. We report here that seven of the 12 animals controlled viremia to below 10(4) copies/ml of plasma after discontinuation of ART and that this control was associated with a low level of evolutionary divergence. Macaques that controlled viral load developed broader NAb responses early on. Furthermore, escape mutations, such as V67M and R751G, were identified in virus sequenced from all animals with uncontrolled viremia. Bayesian estimation of ancestral population genetic diversity (PGD) showed an increase in this value in non-controlling or transient-controlling animals during the first 5.5 months of infection, in contrast to virus-controlling animals. Similarly, non- or transient controllers displayed more positively-selected amino-acid substitutions. An early increase in PGD, resulting in the generation of positively-selected amino-acid substitutions, greater divergence and relative high viral load after ART withdrawal, may have contributed to the generation of potent NAb in several animals after SIVmac239 infection. However, early broad NAb responses correlated with relatively preserved CD4(+) T-cell numbers, low viral load and limited viral divergence.
Although major inroads into making antiretroviral therapy available in resource-poor countries have been made, there is an urgent need for an effective vaccine administered shortly after birth, which would protect infants from acquiring human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) through breast-feeding. Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) is given to most infants at birth, and its recombinant form could be used to prime HIV-1-specific responses for a later boost by heterologous vectors delivering the same HIV-1-derived immunogen. Here, two groups of neonate Indian rhesus macaques were immunized with either novel candidate vaccine BCG.HIVA(401) or its parental strain AERAS-401, followed by two doses of recombinant modified vaccinia virus Ankara MVA.HIVA. The HIVA immunogen is derived from African clade A HIV-1. All vaccines were safe, giving local reactions consistent with the expected response at the injection site. No systemic adverse events or gross abnormality was seen at necropsy. Both AERAS-401 and BCG.HIVA(401) induced high frequencies of BCG-specific IFN-gamma-secreting lymphocytes that declined over 23 weeks, but the latter failed to induce detectable HIV-1-specific IFN-gamma responses. MVA.HIVA elicited HIV-1-specific IFN-gamma responses in all eight animals, but, except for one animal, these responses were weak. The HIV-1-specific responses induced in infants were lower compared to historic data generated by the two HIVA vaccines in adult animals but similar to other recombinant poxviruses tested in this model. This is the first time these vaccines were tested in newborn monkeys. These results inform further infant vaccine development and provide comparative data for two human infant vaccine trials of MVA.HIVA.
Acoustic punk-in-disguise Lonely Joe Parker began his career with indie-rock kids The Power, but after festival appearances and national airplay he put down his electric guitar and set out alone last summer to discover ‘a more interesting way to tell stories in sound’.
His bold, performance style harks back to Billy Bragg, while musically he owes more to Pavement, Broken Social Scene and The Clash. “I quickly realised that I wasn’t very good at the guitar,” he explains, “at least, not good enough to be a “guitarist”. But that doesn’t mean it has to be boring, either – you can make just as good a racket with two fingers on a fretboard, you just got to know which ones!”
As his growing live reputation across the UK proves, melody, harmony and performance make a potent combination and Lonely Joe Parker has already supported significant artists such as Band of Skulls, My Luminaires, Stornoway, The Moulettes, Edward J Hicks and Thomas Tantrum in his burgoning solo career.
Joe recently released a split EP, What’s Wrong With Broken Glass, on vinyl and download with Sotones label mate David Miatt a.k.a Jackie Paper. The EP gained the pair a “Track of the Day” accolade on the Q Magazine website, an extensive interview on Fairtilizer, features on The 405 and a great review in The Fly. All proceeds from the vinyl copy of the EP went to Oxfam.
Shanty is taken from the aforementioned EP and gloriously encapsulates Joe’s sincere lo-fi folk sound, with nods to greats such as Nick Drake. His ability to take you on a journey far, far away with heartfelt vocals and simple, beautiful strums will more than charm you into submission. Lonely Joe Parker is defintely set to become one of the most enchanting, underground songerwriters of our generation.
Tracks:
1. Shanty
2. Mary Rose
3. Shanty – Live At Den Of Iniquity
Press release (c) Sotones / A Badge of Friendship, 2010. All rights reserved.
Hepatitis C virus subtype 3a is a highly prevalent and globally distributed strain that is often associated with infection via injection drug use. This subtype exhibits particular phenotypic characteristics. In spite of this, detailed genetic analysis of this subtype has rarely been performed. We performed full-length viral sequence analysis in 18 patients with chronic HCV subtype 3a infection and assessed genomic viral variability in comparison to other HCV subtypes. Two novel regions of intragenotypic hypervariability within the envelope protein E2, of HCV genotype 3a, were identified. We named these regions HVR495 and HVR575. They consisted of flanking conserved hydrophobic amino acids and central variable residues. A 5-amino-acid insertion found only in genotype 3a and a putative glycosylation site is contained within HVR575. Evolutionary analysis of E2 showed that positively selected sites within genotype 3a infection were largely restricted to HVR1, HVR495, and HVR575. Further analysis of clonal viral populations within single hosts showed that viral variation within HVR495 and HVR575 were subject to intrahost positive selecting forces. Longitudinal analysis of four patients with acute HCV subtype 3a infection sampled at multiple time points showed that positively selected mutations within HVR495 and HVR575 arose early during primary infection. HVR495 and HVR575 were not present in HCV subtypes 1a, 1b, 2a, or 6a. Some variability that was not subject to positive selection was present in subtype 4a HVR575. Further defining the functional significance of these regions may have important implications for genotype 3a E2 virus-receptor interactions and for vaccine studies that aim to induce cross-reactive anti-E2 antibodies.
“A split release of jaunty confidence and empathy. It’s worth buying a turntable just to hear this.” Matt Golding, The Fly
“intriguing melodies and playful composition… highly alluring.” Track Of The Day 15/12/09, Q Magazine
“Gentle finger picked guitar and stream of conscious lyrics.. like a late night busker serenading the drunks staggering their way home… Get it for the Indie kid in your life.” Singles Round-up 14/12/09, Clash Music
“a strange, yet fantastic collaboration” Will Slater, The 405
Itinerant bum, romantic, and songwriting-genius-in-rags Lonely Joe Parker stumbled on a brilliant idea when he made it back to the UK last year, fresh from a busking tour of the eastern US seaboard. A planned tour following the Obama campaign trail had threatened to derail when a robbery in Miami left him penniless with 1000 miles to home.
But down on his luck amid the squalour and splendour of an American election, he sat down with a $20 pawnshop guitar and wrote a new clutch of songs inspired by his surroundings. Motivated by the chink of change in commuters’ pockets, he dug deep into americana, conceieving a twisted soundtrack to his predicament that took Tom Waits-ian observation and St. Vincent or Feist’s sonic vision, blended with a streets-eye view of the USA. The songs earnt their creator enough change to make it up to NYC, where gigs in the East Village and Williamsburg followed.
Back in the UK he began to wonder why the songs that had earnt his own keep couldn’t help others too. Hitting the buffers in the docklands of his native Southampton, he ran into guitarist and songsmith Jackie Paper – better known as David Miatt – himself taking time to decompress with a raft of misfit songs written following a hectic six months with his band Thomas Tantrum. Critical acclaim had seen them catapulted from rehearsing in a garage by the docks to the Reading, Bestival, SGP and Latitude festivals and national radio appearances (including BBC1 and 6Music), but now winter had bitten and an older, folkier impulse led him to pen a book of wistful, almost melancholic songs that didn’t fit in with his day-job-band’s indie-pop template, referencing Elliot Smith and Nick Drake more often than YYY or the Pixies.
Whilst browsing for vintage Lemonheads in their local Oxfam Music Store, the two hit on the idea of a split EP to shamelessly showcase their songs while raising money and awareness for Oxfam Music. It seemed deceptively simple: do a record on tick, release it through the UK’s network of Oxfam stores specializing in vinyl (touring them to promote the release), get new punters into the stores themselves (essentially great local indie record shops that happen to be benefit empowering development projects worldwide) and walk off with the memories while letting Oxfam pocket all the filthy money.
Six months later, after many long hours waiting outside friends’ studios (Furnace, The Ranch) for spare time, instruments and beds to sleep on, these six songs are the fruit of that collaboration. Friends in Modernaire, Peter Lyons Band, The Moulettes and Moneytree also perform, while the record was mastered by Thomas Tantrum drummer Dave Wade-Brown. Co-operative indie label Sotones release the EP, with original artwork commissioned from local illustrator Billy Mather.
Tracklisting:
1. Brooklyn
2. Shanty
3. Raining
4. All The Wine
5. Natural History
6. Down Among the Dead Men
Press release (c) Sotones, 2009-2010. All rights reserved.
HIV is capable of frequent genetic exchange through recombination. Despite the pandemic spread of HIV-1 recombinants, their times of origin are not well understood. We investigate the epidemic history of a HIV-1 circulating recombinant form (CRF) by estimating the time of the recombination event that lead to the emergence of CRF33_01B, a recently described recombinant descended from CRF01_AE and subtype B. The gag, pol and env genes were analyzed using a combined coalescent and relaxed molecular clock model, implemented in a Bayesian Markov chain Monte Carlo framework. Using linked genealogical trees we calculated the time interval between the common ancestor of CRF33_01B and the ancestors it shares with closely related parental lineages. The recombination event that generated CRF33_01B (t(rec)) occurred sometime between 1991 and 1993, suggesting that recombination is common in the early evolutionary history of HIV-1. The proof-of-concept approach provides a new tool for the investigation of HIV molecular epidemiology and evolution.
Released 04/11/2010
