Ectopic Ents Orchestras. I wanna talk about orchestras, the poor maligned things that they are. Once mighty engines of bombast and glory, capable of simultaneously breaking your heart and conquering the world, like smooth-talking dictators of sound. People rioted at the opening performance of The Rite Of Spring. Hitler had a successful second career as one of those guys who concentrates rather too much on the bits of […]
Monthly archives: November 2010
15 posts
OK, first things first. Until The Light Takes Us isn't really a music movie. It's not a musical, for a start, though that would be awesome. Can you fucking IMAGINE how awesome that would be??? It isn't a musical, though. It's not even a movie ABOUT music, because while it DOES talk about the music, it moves swiftly on. It's kind of a movie about musicians, because all its leading characters are musicians, but their musicianship is not really the issue - fuck it. Let's start here. Let's get that can, rip the lid off and chuck the worms out onto the newly-painted floor. Until The Light Takes Us is about Norwegian Black Metal.
Monty Maggot Well this isn’t what I was expecting (which of course is never a bad thing), before spinning the disc I did my usual thing of checking the sleeve out, reading lyrics, etc, to get a general feel of what an album may sound like. Added to this the fact that I knew that vocalist Bridget Wishart is an ex-member of Hawkwind. So can I just say […]
The Nest, London 9 November 2010 The Nest is the old Barden’s Boudoir with a bit of a face lift. Rather than the stage being in the centre of the room, as it once was, it’s now tucked away nicely into a corner. As the venue is quite long (and there is a handy pillar right next to the stage) the further you stand back the less chance […]
Rocket “Klytus I’m bored. What plaything have you for me?” “It’s a band from the SK system your majesty – the inhabitants call them Teeth of the Sea”… Teeth of the Sea’s second album builds up on the momentum and foundations laid down by the first and from their EP. It’s an eclectic mixture of styles that sees the band lurch between Terry Riley minimalism to full-on space […]
Camp Basement, London 8 November 2010 This is Bo Ningen’s night, it’s their album launch and there’s quite a bit of a buzz going around about them at the moment and rightly so. The gig is sold out and still people are queuing in the vain hope of getting in to see the band. The support slot is filled by Invasion who are promoting their album The Master […]
Thrill Jockey Music that stops you in your tracks is a revelation and there’s a clue in the sleeve notes to the selective but universal world this recording inhabits, revels in. A mossy rock somewhere up a mountain trail, overshadowed by its misty Appalachian cousins and yet once stumbled over, no less significant and astounding than the mountain giants that threaten to overshadow it. No less difficult to […]
Staubgold Timo Reuber‘s fifth solo album finds him plucking sounds from his collection of samples and loops mixed in with a few restricted-instrument selections, and spewing them out in the visceral statement of intent which is opening track “Ring Ring.” And it does just that, in layers recursive loops which bounce off each other like an clockwork piano miniature. Deliberately lo-fi, it and two accompanying hi/lo tech electro […]
The Lexington, London 5 November 2010 As a night taking its title (Death to Trad Rock) from John Robb‘s book about the Eighties underground music scene in the UK, and held on the 405th anniversary of the gunpowder plot to destroy Parliament, it’s not surprising that there’s an atmosphere of challenge to the status quo (and perhaps especially Status Quo) in the air, though the music is drowning […]
Conspiracy Sunburned Hand Of The Man member Paul Labrecque turns his hand here as Head Of Wantastiquet to his own particular variation on American primitivism, taking the form down meanders which can be as strikingly wondrous as the packaging the record is released in. Both the music and visual imagery are redolent of shadow-dappled ruralism and forest-dweller rusticism, though rather than the US backwoods, Dead Seas was recorded […]
Conspiracy Two oddities from the pacific North-West USA’s favourite oddball ethnodelic forgers of all things conjured up from an alternate world music scene. Side one’s “Themes From The Motion Picture Man With The Green Gloves On” is a slice of solemn gamelan’n’drone in their usual temple of the weird mode, all chimes and rumbling percussion interspersed with feedback and other signs of electronic life. As the drift becomes […]
Stolen Recordings If you’re thinking of buying one Japanese cross-dressing psych rock freakout album this year, I would suggest you shed out your hard earned cash to get this one. The opening track “4 Seconds To Ascension” is a statement of intent. It’s fast and powerful and kicks you in the gut like High Rise playing Black Sabbath on speed and falling into a factory that makes Stooges […]
Barbelo Remix albums never seem to make a very cohesive whole; they also don’t serve very well as an introduction to an artist in general. Some are just a money-making activity rehashing band material whereas others are for die hard fans and completists only. Some artists even refuse to talk about their remix albums as was the case with Blixa Bargeld when I interviewed him around the time […]
Corsica Studios, London 31 October 2010 Its Samhain, the time to dress as ghosts and devils, a time to watch reruns of old Boris Karloff films and listen to wind howling over bleak moors. However, I am doing none of these things. I’m at Elephant and Castle (ok, not too dissimilar to a bleak moor) about to see two Frenchmen [post=zombie-zombie-play-john-carpenter text=”play the back catalogue of 80s horror […]
Demdike Stare This is a budget priced (around £7) mix of some of the earliest of Demdike Stare’s recordings. The one track is housed in a basic cardboard sleeve with no information on it except the name of the artist. The music itself though is magnificent and makes up for the lack of information on the packaging design. It shifts between elements of 70s sounding free jazz, Arabic […]