Saturday, October 30, 2004
Freq Presents: The Drones Club No. 4
"We're pretty broad minded here, and if you stop short of smashing the piano, there isn't much you can do at The Drones that will cause the raised eyebrow and the sharp intake of breath/".
PG Wodehouse, "Young Men In Spats"
*Thursday 4 November 2004*,
The Eye,
79-81 Stoke Newington High Street,
London N16.
8pm - late,
£3 on the door.
Line up for the night will be (not necessarily in this order):
*Stella Maris Drone Orchestra*
*Moonus* (Groop)
*Andrew Bailey* (drone comedian)
Not all the music played at The Drones Club is necessarily droney(though it might well be).
Sometimes it is danceable, sometimes thoughtful, sometimes melodic, often harmonic. No-one has yet smashed a piano, at least not literally, but it might happen one day. Thankfully the music and crowd at The Drones Club is rarely dull, and more often than not quite entertaining...
Droning DJs will be *Tango-Mango*, *Mink Pelican*, *Leo Avanti*, *Barry K*,*Jim Backhaus*.
There will usually be a venue-transforming psychedelic light show by *Lightning Rod*.
Thursday, October 28, 2004
Thanks to John Eden for pointing this out:
http://www.wumingfoundation.com/english/giap/giapdigest26.htm
Tenth anniversary of Luther Blissett...
http://www.wumingfoundation.com/english/giap/giapdigest26.htm
Tenth anniversary of Luther Blissett...
does anyone out there have a copy of the Ragga Twins Peel Session in any format?
jim@lumin.org
really want to play a track on the show.
jim@lumin.org
really want to play a track on the show.
Tuesday, October 26, 2004
"... it was like your favourite footballer, favourite musician, favourite comedian and favourite uncle all dying at the same time."
Paul Morley's tribute to John Peel. A huge inspiration and a terrible loss.
Paul Morley's tribute to John Peel. A huge inspiration and a terrible loss.
Wednesday, October 13, 2004
Looks like this forum could be home for some fruitful discussion:
http://www.dissensus.com/
and thanks to John Eden, who's thoughtfully posted my dissertation link up there already - aw shucks!
--
post soon to come: what i bought at the music and video exchange today part 2. still got to listen through 'em first. lots and lots of 1992 - 1993 vintage 'ardcore. 50p a throw. best record shop in the world!
http://www.dissensus.com/
and thanks to John Eden, who's thoughtfully posted my dissertation link up there already - aw shucks!
--
post soon to come: what i bought at the music and video exchange today part 2. still got to listen through 'em first. lots and lots of 1992 - 1993 vintage 'ardcore. 50p a throw. best record shop in the world!
Tuesday, October 12, 2004
Monday, October 11, 2004
Go and see Finnish neo-krautrockers CIRCLE on Friday night! They'll doing their NEU! - cum - Judas Priest - cum - Magma thing at the Spitz. Matthew Bower will be performing with his new cosmic drone unit SUNROOF! and GUAPO will bust out with some leaden Magma/King Crimson-esque heaviosity. Should be fun fun fun! And I'm DJing too, so I'm not in any way biased in recommending it unreservedly.
I'm doing the Kosmische show tomorrow night too, so check it out. Ommm will be coming in with me to play some records and play a couple of live tracks from his forthcoming album. It's 10-11.30pm...
I'm doing the Kosmische show tomorrow night too, so check it out. Ommm will be coming in with me to play some records and play a couple of live tracks from his forthcoming album. It's 10-11.30pm...
HOORAY!
I got my computer back!
Nice post from Woebot on the 'golden age' of the inner sleeve, and the improbable collisions provoked by their pre-niche-market-segmentation economic functionalism (or summat)
Really enjoyed tonight's show (that's YOU ARE HEAR see the link on the sidebar) --->
The Radio Science Orchestra were wonderful, drawing one into unashamedly wallowing in retro-futurist neo-stalgia (sorry). And Bruce Wooley, former Buggle and co-writer of 'Slave To The Rhythm' is the nicest man you could hope to meet! Thanks to everyone involved! Think that's one of the best programmes we've put together.
Speaking of Resonance theres a Resonance Radiophonic Orchestra performance this weekend. Apparently it's to incorporate live boxing, opera and improvised digital glitch-tronics, as part of the Frieze Art Fair (which, Resonance content aside, looks to be mostly trite and predictable, although that's probably quite a trite and predictable appraisal) .
I got my computer back!
Nice post from Woebot on the 'golden age' of the inner sleeve, and the improbable collisions provoked by their pre-niche-market-segmentation economic functionalism (or summat)
Really enjoyed tonight's show (that's YOU ARE HEAR see the link on the sidebar) --->
The Radio Science Orchestra were wonderful, drawing one into unashamedly wallowing in retro-futurist neo-stalgia (sorry). And Bruce Wooley, former Buggle and co-writer of 'Slave To The Rhythm' is the nicest man you could hope to meet! Thanks to everyone involved! Think that's one of the best programmes we've put together.
Speaking of Resonance theres a Resonance Radiophonic Orchestra performance this weekend. Apparently it's to incorporate live boxing, opera and improvised digital glitch-tronics, as part of the Frieze Art Fair (which, Resonance content aside, looks to be mostly trite and predictable, although that's probably quite a trite and predictable appraisal) .
Thursday, October 07, 2004
THE INVISIBLE INSURRECTION
well - after all that, you can download my flawed but (hopefully) worthwhile work here:
http://www.geocities.com/jimbackhouse/dissertation.doc
it's in word format.
academics and bureaucrats, shake in your boots. ;-)
well - after all that, you can download my flawed but (hopefully) worthwhile work here:
http://www.geocities.com/jimbackhouse/dissertation.doc
it's in word format.
academics and bureaucrats, shake in your boots. ;-)
(ahem.)
Wednesday, October 06, 2004
THE INVISIBLE INSURRECTION OF A MILLION MINDS...
Well....
I just spent the last 3 hours painstakingly converting the footnotes of this piece over to fit the blogger format and it just fucking crashed and lost the lot. It's completely pointless without that info, so fuck it - if for some reason you actually want to read my thesis on Trocchi, The SI, TG, Neoism, Luther Blissett et al then email me: JIM@LUMIN.ORG and I'll email it to you.
AAaaaaaghhh!!!!!
Well....
I just spent the last 3 hours painstakingly converting the footnotes of this piece over to fit the blogger format and it just fucking crashed and lost the lot. It's completely pointless without that info, so fuck it - if for some reason you actually want to read my thesis on Trocchi, The SI, TG, Neoism, Luther Blissett et al then email me: JIM@LUMIN.ORG and I'll email it to you.
AAaaaaaghhh!!!!!
Tuesday, October 05, 2004
THE DRONES CLUB
A third night of jollity will convene on 7th October 2004, once more at
The Eye, 79-81 Stoke Newington High Street, London, N16,
from 8pm untillate. £3 on the door.
The line up will be:
Stëllämärïsdröënörchëßträ
Disinformation vs Stella Maris Drone Orchestra
Mr. Fireman
Al The Megaphone Poet vs Seth Ayyaz
along with Kosmische/ResonanceFM DJs Mink Pelican, Tango-Mango and BarryK (http://www.dacianos.com)
Full-on psyechedlic lightshow by Lightning Rod
Details and flyer at www.freq.org.uk
A third night of jollity will convene on 7th October 2004, once more at
The Eye, 79-81 Stoke Newington High Street, London, N16,
from 8pm untillate. £3 on the door.
The line up will be:
Stëllämärïsdröënörchëßträ
Disinformation vs Stella Maris Drone Orchestra
Mr. Fireman
Al The Megaphone Poet vs Seth Ayyaz
along with Kosmische/ResonanceFM DJs Mink Pelican, Tango-Mango and BarryK (http://www.dacianos.com)
Full-on psyechedlic lightshow by Lightning Rod
Details and flyer at www.freq.org.uk
Things I Bought Today At The Music and Video Exchange part one (of many)
Rehberg and Bauer - Passt (Touch CD)
Pita Rehberg, as you know since you're all good Wire readers, is the man behind the mighty MEGO empire, and theundisputed king of digital laptop noise. This one escaped largely unnoticed back in 2001 on Touch Records, and comes wrapped in one of Jon Wozencroft's lovely sleeves, sensually depicting vivid blue dandelion clocks in ultra-close up.Pita being on the jetset laptop A-list, this CD was recorded at various festival in Australia.
The only other stuff of Pita's that I've heard on CD was 'Get Out' which, I'm told, is a 'classic of the genre' but it left me a bit cold -- I mean, that's probably the point, but whatever - this set seemed to have a bit more texture and space on offer. Maybe it's down to the input of Ramon Bauer (about whom I know precisely zilch). Who knows, but this has all the rushing cold surfaces and data shards which made the whole glitch-noise thing seem exciting in the first place but there's also fragments of static which almost threaten to turn into melodies, and semi-recognisable sound-sources mutated,stretched and skewed into unravelling their constitutive elements, almost a la Parmegiani.
I saw Pita play live at the ICA about 2 years ago with Tina Frank (MEGO's groovy in house designer) and it was the best gig I've ever seen at the ICA, with all these astringent sounds ping-ponging around the hall, which you could feel in thepit of your guts, but in a NICE way, like a massage. And lots of space and prolonged silences. Weirdly for a solo laptop gig the whole audience seemed to be completely rapt into the performance!
Anyway -- apparently this CD is the third in a series, so I'll be seeking out the other two in due course...
next thing I bought was:
Demi Semi Quaver - Demi Semi Quaver (God Mountain CD)
Wow!!! Demi Semi Quaver is the brainchild of Hoppy Kamiyama, the cross-dressingproducer / svengali behind the God Mountain label, and groups like Optical*8,eX-Girl, and others. I remember the track by Demi Semi Quaver being a highlight from the 'Cosmic Kuruishi Monsters' double CD of Japanese Psych / Noise stuff. I also recall a b/w photo of Kamiyama in the Wireabout 5 or 6 years ago looking very pretty in a feather boa and make-up - the article sed he acquired the name 'Hoppy' from his prediliction for a drinking alcohol-free lager mixed with ethyl alcohol. Which seems slightly proposterous and is probably one of those crypto-racist 'Oh those crazy Japs' type stories.
Anyway - this album has that early Boredoms-ish jump-cut genre-colliding intensity, combining disparate elements of prog rock, punk noise, metal bashing, pop, motorik-kraut-bliss and shards of glitch-noise almost reminiscent of the aforementioned Rehberg/Bauer CD. If that sounds overbearingly Zorn-ish then that's 'cos it is, but somehow it all bypasses the grating 'knowingness' of the downtown NY knitting-factory boho dilettanteism. It probably helps that Kamiyama is producing it and not bloody Bill Laswell. It probably helps too that I don't understand a word of Japanese -- the echo saturated screaming vocals from Emi Eleanola could cut glass!
Fuck! I'm only up to track 4 too... Amazing!!!
Dem 2 - Destiny (Locked On)
Bit late on the uptake on this one!! Seems to have been all over the the pirates lately (daytime). Maybe it has been all along but I've not been attentive enough to notice.
Anyway - can't really add much to what's been send about this tune already, except that it's amazing how much space there is in it. And THAT bassline.The Dem 2 4/4 remix is great too, all stuttered vocals and shimmering synth pads, although the New Horizons mix on the other side is a bit of an overegged pudding.
Todd Edwards - Stop The Fighting (i!)
Heard this about 2 weeks ago on Rinse daytime too - basically it's like Daft Punk given a 4/4 garridge makeover inna Todd Edwards style. It's dead cheesy. It's great. Guess it's 'cos even now I'm still a sucker for any track with a vocoder on it.
Botany 5 - Lovebomb (LFO Remix) (white label)
Remember seeing this in the local OurPrice sale rack for weeks and weeks, until it was reduced down to 50p and even then STILL not buying it, even though it had an LFO mix on there. I think it was 'cos I'd previously been suckered into buying a Bridewell Taxis 12" (they were a really turgid indy rock band from Bradford) for full price and that was terrible.
Anyway, some 14 years later I finally spend my 50p on a copy (in MVE vouchers, of course).
And it's not as crap as the Bridewell Taxis LFO remix (Bridewell Taxis LFO remix HOW did that happen? Was it a Leeds / Bradford solidarity thing??). It has all the trademark punchy and compressed electro dynamics of We Are Back and those sproingy synth sounds like off Mentok 1 which still sound like the future15 years after the fact. But then the strings come in just to confirm my initial suspicions. How many great techno records have been ruined by crap strings (I'm sure there must be a thread on ILM dedicated to just this vital matter)
Rehberg and Bauer - Passt (Touch CD)
Pita Rehberg, as you know since you're all good Wire readers, is the man behind the mighty MEGO empire, and theundisputed king of digital laptop noise. This one escaped largely unnoticed back in 2001 on Touch Records, and comes wrapped in one of Jon Wozencroft's lovely sleeves, sensually depicting vivid blue dandelion clocks in ultra-close up.Pita being on the jetset laptop A-list, this CD was recorded at various festival in Australia.
The only other stuff of Pita's that I've heard on CD was 'Get Out' which, I'm told, is a 'classic of the genre' but it left me a bit cold -- I mean, that's probably the point, but whatever - this set seemed to have a bit more texture and space on offer. Maybe it's down to the input of Ramon Bauer (about whom I know precisely zilch). Who knows, but this has all the rushing cold surfaces and data shards which made the whole glitch-noise thing seem exciting in the first place but there's also fragments of static which almost threaten to turn into melodies, and semi-recognisable sound-sources mutated,stretched and skewed into unravelling their constitutive elements, almost a la Parmegiani.
I saw Pita play live at the ICA about 2 years ago with Tina Frank (MEGO's groovy in house designer) and it was the best gig I've ever seen at the ICA, with all these astringent sounds ping-ponging around the hall, which you could feel in thepit of your guts, but in a NICE way, like a massage. And lots of space and prolonged silences. Weirdly for a solo laptop gig the whole audience seemed to be completely rapt into the performance!
Anyway -- apparently this CD is the third in a series, so I'll be seeking out the other two in due course...
next thing I bought was:
Demi Semi Quaver - Demi Semi Quaver (God Mountain CD)
Wow!!! Demi Semi Quaver is the brainchild of Hoppy Kamiyama, the cross-dressingproducer / svengali behind the God Mountain label, and groups like Optical*8,eX-Girl, and others. I remember the track by Demi Semi Quaver being a highlight from the 'Cosmic Kuruishi Monsters' double CD of Japanese Psych / Noise stuff. I also recall a b/w photo of Kamiyama in the Wireabout 5 or 6 years ago looking very pretty in a feather boa and make-up - the article sed he acquired the name 'Hoppy' from his prediliction for a drinking alcohol-free lager mixed with ethyl alcohol. Which seems slightly proposterous and is probably one of those crypto-racist 'Oh those crazy Japs' type stories.
Anyway - this album has that early Boredoms-ish jump-cut genre-colliding intensity, combining disparate elements of prog rock, punk noise, metal bashing, pop, motorik-kraut-bliss and shards of glitch-noise almost reminiscent of the aforementioned Rehberg/Bauer CD. If that sounds overbearingly Zorn-ish then that's 'cos it is, but somehow it all bypasses the grating 'knowingness' of the downtown NY knitting-factory boho dilettanteism. It probably helps that Kamiyama is producing it and not bloody Bill Laswell. It probably helps too that I don't understand a word of Japanese -- the echo saturated screaming vocals from Emi Eleanola could cut glass!
Fuck! I'm only up to track 4 too... Amazing!!!
Dem 2 - Destiny (Locked On)
Bit late on the uptake on this one!! Seems to have been all over the the pirates lately (daytime). Maybe it has been all along but I've not been attentive enough to notice.
Anyway - can't really add much to what's been send about this tune already, except that it's amazing how much space there is in it. And THAT bassline.The Dem 2 4/4 remix is great too, all stuttered vocals and shimmering synth pads, although the New Horizons mix on the other side is a bit of an overegged pudding.
Todd Edwards - Stop The Fighting (i!)
Heard this about 2 weeks ago on Rinse daytime too - basically it's like Daft Punk given a 4/4 garridge makeover inna Todd Edwards style. It's dead cheesy. It's great. Guess it's 'cos even now I'm still a sucker for any track with a vocoder on it.
Botany 5 - Lovebomb (LFO Remix) (white label)
Remember seeing this in the local OurPrice sale rack for weeks and weeks, until it was reduced down to 50p and even then STILL not buying it, even though it had an LFO mix on there. I think it was 'cos I'd previously been suckered into buying a Bridewell Taxis 12" (they were a really turgid indy rock band from Bradford) for full price and that was terrible.
Anyway, some 14 years later I finally spend my 50p on a copy (in MVE vouchers, of course).
And it's not as crap as the Bridewell Taxis LFO remix (Bridewell Taxis LFO remix HOW did that happen? Was it a Leeds / Bradford solidarity thing??). It has all the trademark punchy and compressed electro dynamics of We Are Back and those sproingy synth sounds like off Mentok 1 which still sound like the future15 years after the fact. But then the strings come in just to confirm my initial suspicions. How many great techno records have been ruined by crap strings (I'm sure there must be a thread on ILM dedicated to just this vital matter)
