Queen Elizabeth Hall, South Bank Centre, London 17 January 2001 It’s something of a joy to behold – the entire Queen Elizabeth Hall foyer buzzing with anticipation before the start of the London event in the Japanorama tour of eleven British towns and cities. Why a joy? From Kendal to Liverpool, Colchester to Manchester and Sheffield, in venues with capacities of a few hundred to tonight’s couple of […]
Label: Submergence Format: 2CD The psychedelic rock freak out is not dead, despite rumours to the contrary, and Flourescent Tunnelvision is here to prove the point, ramming home on a coasting scrawl of fuzz, wah, delay and phasers set to half-past stun; the amps probably go a long way over eleven, too. The full benefit of this collection is naturally to be gained at the maximum volume the […]
Label: Mego Format: CD One of the elegant possibilities proposed by this record is of the recursion of loop upon loop; as skeins of glitch or oscillator pulse become intertwined around, along or through each other, they work into the backbrain and get the blood streaming to electronic time signatures derived as much from the sine wave frequency as from intervention by Ilpo Väisänen. One of the legacies […]
Club Mesa Costa Mesa, California 19th December 2000 AA23 opened the night, and I thought they had some really, REALLY nice moments. but things did seem a bit sloppy and loose at points – especially with the excessive scratching (which when ON – was wonderful.. but less is more when it comes to scratching). The set was MUCH more active than when they opened for Sol Invictus of […]
15th Anniversary Show Queen Elizabeth Hall, South Bank Centre, London 4th December 2000 As usual, I arrived at this show in a rush, a little late and with no idea of what to expect. Straight into complete darkness and tracked by lovely ambient sounds and an over-zealous usher trying to get me to take any seat as there were plenty available and filming was going on, so wandering […]
The Underworld, London 2nd December 2000 What was supposed to be a World Serpent presents show with Sol Invictus, Sorrow, and Ostara turned out to be a lot less/more, depending on how you look at it. Due to illness, Tony Wakeford and Sol Invictus were forced to cancel, and due to lateness(my own), I missed seeing Ostara. I did arrive in time to catch the end of a […]
November 2000 Bobby Conn does his very best to be the model of a post-Modern underground superstar. His two albums to date, Bobby Conn and Rise Up!, have placed him somewhere in a grey area between parody and genuine adulation of crooners, cabaret singers and all-round stars of the spangly stage. This interview took place after his New Orleans gig in November 2000, and as Bobby remarked “I […]
The Garage, London 25th November 2000 Ahhh, poor Suicide… always just missing the boat but still trying to hitch a ride thirty years after Alan Vega claims to have coined the term “punk”. These guys are getting old now, and I must say I did feel a bit sorry for them tonight, faced with a boring as stiffs crowd and faint memories to go on. My sympathy was […]
Label: Threshold House/World Serpent Format: CD,LP Coil, man. What the fuck can you say about Coil that even comes close? Whether they’re slowly frying your brain with drones and disturbingly unidentifiable sounds (Time Machines, for example, or the wonderfully bizarre Elph album Worship The Glitch) or beating the shit out of you with percussion and noise (much of Scatology) they plough a furrow very much their own. A […]
New Orleans 12 November 2000 Again, a third way around the world and this time for Bobby Conn. This is the Shim Sham Club, 615 Toulouse Street. A round of jokes on that one and 19,000 Heart Association convention goers available to egg it on (“Why are the French Navy’s bases on the Mediterranean like their sailor’s trousers? They are both Toulon and Toulouse…”). Other venues imitate this […]
Label: Creation Format: CD,LP “The time to rise has been engaged” – REM It has occurred to me on more than just this one occasion that giving our seers and soothsayers money to throw about is often not the best thing for them. Witness the fate of Roxy Music and Johnny Rotten, Jefferson Airplane, Sly Stone, The Rolling Stones, Kurt Cobain and (most recently) Van Morrison and Prince. […]
Label: God*Factory Format: CD How to make a milk shake, the Laboratory Of Sonic Discovery way: Ingredients: Milk, soya or otherwise as preferred; Vanilla ice cream or non-dairy substitute; Soft fruit such as bananas or strawberries; 1 litre jug (preferrably non-shatter or plastic); CD player; Amplifier; The largest speakers available, preferably with a rating of 100 watts per channel or more; 7 Songs/77 Frequencies CD Method: Warn neighbours […]
Label: Thrill Jockey Format: CD It all starts very well with “American Kooter”‘, funky in more ways than one and it reminds me of early Cabaret Voltaire; yes! “Now you die, Thriddle Fool” delightfully homicidal Electro or “Strong Sensations” – a riffing orgy the other side of Ritchie Blackmore‘s hair curlers. But besides that it all gets a bit lazy. But so it should be, because this is […]
Royal Festival Hall South Bank Centre, London 25th October 2000 Faust were originally asked to improvise a live score to F.W. Murnau‘s classic expressionist retelling of the Dracula story for an outdoor vampire film festival in Germany a few years back. For some reason the promotors asked them to perform to the silent film twice on the same bill; the generators failed, rain loomed, disaster threatened. Still, they […]
Label: Mute (USA)/Wonder (Europe) Format: CD,2LP Perhaps the best chill out album for the Fall of 2000, Kreidler have produced here a lovely self-titled musical edition of what sounds to me like a big after-dinner Disco mint for post whatever you might have been doing earlier. Calm and uncomplicated, Kreidler runs through eleven tracks of pleasant but not in the least bit boring Electro-Pop which is a welcom […]
Label: Nettwerk / Sub-Conscious Communications Format: CD Okay. Let’s get this straight. The back cover is composed entirely of acid blotters. The pictures of Phil Western and cEvin Key on the inside are just a bunch of eyes. And the tracks are called stuff like “Muscaria” and “Ayahuasca”. Yes, kids, it’s an album about – call the cops – DRUGS. And really mental ones at that. A lot less abrasive than much previous Download output, and a lot […]
Label: M Records Format: CD, LP The indefatigable Ryan Moore keeps up the Dub pressure with this, his seventh album release as Twilight Circus, purveyor of fine Seventies-styled Dubs to the kids… and beyond. One of the first impressions of Dub Voyage, as is only to be expected, is the bass. Tons of the stuff, and warm, gloopy booms of it; while the LP starts off gently enough, […]
The Third Millennium Festival Union Chapel, London 14th October 2000 Generally I would say that if you want to see a gig in London, there are not many more beautiful places than Union Chapel. I would also add to try for summer. This cavernous gothic spired chapel all of stone and wood and beautiful doorways into maze-like passages provides an atmosphere of spooky tranquility and usually gorgeous acoustic […]