tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87056847796705956082024-03-05T17:45:24.500-08:00Man Walks Into A BarThat band was great, that band was rubbish.Stuart Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16038167771654389885noreply@blogger.comBlogger101125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8705684779670595608.post-21179046158865934752010-10-28T04:05:00.000-07:002011-04-13T11:17:56.362-07:00Zeni Geva/Ruins Alone - Corsica Studios 26/10/10Again, I don't remember, this was October and I'm posting it in April. I just had the draft title there. Sorry, there's been a lot of shit happening in my life. I think this gig was pretty decent.<br /><br />That's possibly my worst review so far. A whole new low...Stuart Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16038167771654389885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8705684779670595608.post-90114401455337755472010-10-25T13:32:00.000-07:002011-04-08T02:05:53.787-07:00The Lowest Form of Music - Beaconsfield 22-24/10/10Arriving hot off the set of the new Spielberg film in which I play a silhouette in the background, I'm too late to catch Morphogenesis (shame) and just in time to see ten minutes of Tom Recchion, which is really quite pleasant, particularly the last section of his set which went all ambient chimes and relaxing atmospherics. Didn't dig the video too much just 'cause it didn't really need one.<div> </div><div>Le Forte Four are up next after a cigarette and another £3 little bottle of beer, and they're entertainers, they're strange but true, they're a spastic ad break, a detuned TV station, their aerial needs adjusting. At one point Rick Potts plays a piece of polystyrene like a violin and it's horrible, but it's also brilliant, especially when he heckles the audience for not applauding his awesome solo.</div><div> </div><div>Smegma build up, the guitar is pretty wack. And the femme vox. I made a note in my phone about this but I lost my phone so I don't remember. Use paper notebooks people.<br /></div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div> </div><div>Saturday no go for me, I didn't want to see that bitch girlfriend of mine. Sunday, Raionbashi &Kutzelina yodel performance strangely predictable. Dinosaurs with Horns strangely unlistenable, garbled, directionless. The Tenses was Ju Suk and Oblivia and they were pretty good. Hijokaidan were ridiculous and had skinny guys acting like they were big men.<br /><br />This is a draft of the review that I never got around to finishing and now it's six months later and I can't remember what I was gonna say about any of it so you just get this series of notes and ideas which haven't been strung together coherently which is actually quite in keeping with the whole LAFMS style or at least that's my excuse.<br /></div>Stuart Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16038167771654389885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8705684779670595608.post-64996039298628682052010-10-12T03:22:00.000-07:002010-10-12T06:38:21.439-07:00Wet Paint/Big Deal/The Racket - Old Blue Last 11/10/10I've been to a heap of gigs between this and Mark Kozelek but they've mostly been one's I've played at or one's with my girlfriend playing or Aphex gigs that I've worked at and I don't want to review myself and I don't want to review Mari's band again and again (it's always great really) and I don't want to review a job. Having said that, Wet Paint is my mate Babak's band and I'm gonna review him now, but I feel the need for it so that's how it is. Also, Big Deal were cool.<div><br /></div><div>But let's not get ahead of ourselves, first off, this is a night to launch Babak's comic, Hilarious Consequences. I just finished it and I liked it a lot. It's like Jeffrey Brown, except I don't like Jeffrey Brown. It's funny and you should buy it is what I'm saying.</div><div><br /></div><div>The first band tonight were The Racket and they were bloody awful. I mean I felt embarrassed for them, and it wasn't just that their music was crappy it was that they couldn't even play their crappy music well. I went and stood outside and to make sure I missed the end of their set I stayed there for ages and ended up missing the second band completely. Such is gigs.</div><div><br /></div><div>Big Deal played next and even though they're absolutely not my usual bag, I enjoyed it quite a bit. It probably helped that I was on my own and trying really hard not to be cynical. Plus they're really very easy on the eye. They're just a boy and girl, two guitars and two mics. Dead simple stuff and all the lyrics are about oh why won't you let me in I love you etc but they get away with it because their voices both sound like they should be singing that kind of trite teen stuff. So they were nice anyway, then Wet Paint played and they were really loud and loads better than last time I saw them and I prefer their newer stuff as it's a bit less by the numbers 90's America and on the whole a bit more inventive and veering closer to the kind of stuff I'm interested in. They played well and even when Siamak stood on his tuner pedal by accident at the end of the last song he rescued the situation by taking his bass off and doing a robot dance in place of a bassline. It was good, modest, fun and I had a relaxing night which is an achievement in itself these days.</div>Stuart Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16038167771654389885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8705684779670595608.post-6258144114105850772010-07-29T16:38:00.000-07:002010-07-29T18:54:14.738-07:00Mark Kozelek - Union Chapel 29/07/10<span style="font-style: italic;">i'm sitting in a church about to see a guy called mark koyzelev or something.</span> That's what the guy in front of me is writing on some live feed thing on his iPad while I'm sitting in a church waiting to see Mark Kozelek. Who the fuck brings an iPad to a gig? In a church? After checking some useless shit out on his toy he finally puts it away only to immediately pull out an iPhone and start texting. I look around to see if anyone else has noticed this guy, this slick old cunt with multiple touchscreens on his person. This slimy fuck who conducts his affairs by sliding his fingers all over everything. I look around and instead of seeing other furrowed brows I see more iPhones. I'm not joking, the woman he's with has an iPhone, the woman to the left of me has an iPhone, the woman just past the man on my right has an iPhone, and they're all sliding shit about, prodding at the luminous little tablets like apes at a monolith, receiving and disseminating useless information, looking at fuck all for no reason, contacting someone else for no reason. I don't know exactly what each of them was doing, but it doesn't matter, they're doing something when they should be doing nothing. Do you really have to go on the internet right now, can you not just sit for ten minutes and wait for a man to come and play the guitar? The man immediately to my right thankfully doesn't have an iPhone, instead he has a disgusting cough and snort routine worked out, whereby every minute or so he coughs really loudly and follows it up with a big hock of phlegm up the back of the nose there. And the guys behind me are having an incredibly boring conversation about photoshop, incredibly boring even by usual photoshop conversation standards. It is possibly the most jaw clenchingly irritating bit of a crowd I've ever been in.<br /><br />That said, Mark Kozelek is excellent and the venue is exceptionally complementary to his show. Sat alone on stage with just his guitar, partially candlelit against a backdrop of stained glass, he runs through a choice selection from Admiral Fell Promises, a few April songs and a couple of older ones including a nice variation of Carry Me Ohio. His fingerpicking is deft and delicately done, with the occasional rough strum for emphasis. It's not perfect, he fucks up a pluck here and there, but it's unimportant. No-one in the world could play these songs better. Watching him play The Leaning Tree sends shivers in waves from my fingers up my face and makes me want to cry, the transitions in the end section of Blue Orchids achieve a dreamlike fluidity I didn't think possible in waking life and hearing You Are My Sun live has to be one of the prettiest things I've ever encountered in my life ever ever ever.<br /><br />Even the banter is brilliant, with some lad shouting out that he wants to get hold of tab or whatever so he can play Kozelek's songs to which he replies "you... concentrate on playin' your own stuff" and after a pause continues "you need to spend less time on the internet, shut down that twitter account, get rid of that facebook page, you'll get good at something" which earned a huge round of applause and left me feeling less guilty about all the mental vitriol I was heaping on the people around me before the gig.<br /><br />So, despite the fact that the iPad guy in front of me is looking at his iPhone every two minutes and has a head like a semi erect cock, lolling from side to side blocking my view over and over to the point where I want to smash his face into the fucking bench in front of him, it still manages to be gig of the year.<br /><br />Thanks again Mark Kozelek, and please don't slash your wrists like you said you would at the end of the set. Great, thanks, bye!<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">NOTE: I have draft reviews of all the gigs between this one and the last one I posted about (metalking?), and I've been slowly trying to catch up to the present, but I'm gonna go ahead and leave a big gap there because I want to post this review now. Maybe I'll come back to the others, maybe I'll leave a gap there forever. Who knows? I don't.</span>Stuart Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16038167771654389885noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8705684779670595608.post-68070119369814179882010-04-07T05:29:00.002-07:002010-06-25T12:20:40.615-07:00Metalking: RICHARLES BRONSON / RIOJIM + PAUL ABBOTT / SEYMOUR WRIGHT / ROSS LAMBERT - Cafe Oto 03/04/10Fuck knows.<br /><br />Someone did some stuff on film, letting the projector burn through the film, that sort of thing. It was alright I guess. I don't remember the rest. I might not even have seen anyone else actually.<br /><br />What a review. Possibly a new low that one.Stuart Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16038167771654389885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8705684779670595608.post-31096137067524383702010-04-07T05:29:00.001-07:002010-06-25T11:46:45.921-07:00Stinking Lizaveta/some other bands - Bardens Boudoir 01/04/10Going back over my notes I see I wrote two things about this gig so I'll just reproduce them here and let that be the review:<br /><br />1. Drummer looks like a dead crackwhore dragged out of a swamp that someone has resurrected and put an evening dress on. And she's angry about it. And she's still on crack.<br /><br />2. The guitarist seems to be playing the national anthem. Really emphatically, over and over. I actually find it puts me off his guitar playing because he looks so fucking happy all the time.<br /><br />I couldn't remember this gig at all before I checked my notes and now it's all so vivid thanks to those two observations there. They really sum up everything. What did they sound like, you say? Well they sounded like they looked (see above).Stuart Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16038167771654389885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8705684779670595608.post-10744440452715036702010-03-29T05:07:00.000-07:002010-06-25T11:33:23.202-07:00These Plumes have Feathers/Guy from Bo Ningen - Catch 22 26/03/10I went to see these acts after having a bit of a weird experience with an osteopath and I could hardly walk, stand still or sit down which made it a little tricky to relax as you can imagine. These Feathers Have Plumes, quietly battling a dastardly wobbling table, created a dreamy collage of bowed bass and humming wine glasses which soothed my ailing spine a little, before the guy from Bo Ningen whose name I can't remember played some laptop noise and shouted a bit and I think he might have even (sort of) played guitar. It was alright. I don't remember really, I'm writing this months after the event and I was doped up on ibuleve at the time.<br /><br />Fun.Stuart Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16038167771654389885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8705684779670595608.post-91356809844912606682010-03-29T05:06:00.000-07:002010-07-08T02:03:47.915-07:00Florian Hecker Sound Installation - Chisenhale GalleryWell this was totally pleasant. I enjoyed walking around it for sure, just a big white room with some speakers set up playing some noises which I'm sure Hecker put a lot of effort into creating and which probably represent some precise concept involving the science of sound and space and all sorts of fascinating mathematical ideas I don't know about because I couldn't be bothered picking through all the sesquipedalian guff on the accompanying info sheet.<br /><br />One of the pieces bounced off some tiles stuck on the wall, another came from overhead, another came from a row of speakers at undulating heights... I mean, I have no idea what he's saying, unless all he's saying is check out these interesting sounds, but I had a thoroughly pleasant time until a couple of 2.4 nuclear families who apparently hadn't seen each other for a while happened to meet by chance in there and decided it would be an appropriate place to catch up on their life stories. It wasn't.<br /><br />Here's a video where you can experience what Hecker's carefully sculpted pieces sound like when recorded on the shitty little mic on a flip HD mini camcorder. It's perhaps more effective as a document of how people move about in a big room when guided by their ears. It stars Horacio Pollard, both members of Kayaking and Joel from Wet Sounds/Trash Club. Enjoy!<br /><br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dyQN85yxHgb-gYm0Gt9tKsETlhUnNbv6nZSB3DX6U4cWyXmxrEdZPk1oKXiIaS2R8HiveVP9CwYeGnawcN-Pg' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe>Stuart Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16038167771654389885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8705684779670595608.post-30101232994519821562010-03-23T02:15:00.002-07:002010-05-26T10:02:07.148-07:00Oneohtrixpointnever/No Fun Acid - The Grosvenor 18/3/10Well everyone has been all ONeohtrixpointnever is the best thing to happen for ages, he's so awesome and he's the best so I thought hey I'll go along then and besides I got old Konxy to wing me in so I di9nt aff ta pay nowt. It was at The Grosvenor which has been a bit too regular as of late, seeing as it's a bit of a 'mish' to get too but hey ho ey. Carlos Giffoni also known as No Fun Acid played a decent enough acid set on hardware made for exactly that and people seemed to like it well enough and I seemed to like it well enough so that was that, nothing spectacular but certainly solid and it was nice to see it being kept 'real', a popular yardstick by which to judge any genre of music over five years old (probably less nowadays, with kids failing to keep new genres of music real for even a couple of weeks before being accused of ruining the scene/selling out/fakin it or whatever kids do these days. I don't know, I'm not one, I didn't understand them when I was one and I doubt that'll change anytime soon. Maybe when I reach old age and start to shrink and rely more on others and just regress generally, maybe then with that combination of<br />pseudo child like state and the benefit of hindsight will I be able to understand kids. Of course I will be very old and the knowledge useless. Anyway, who cares, Carlos Giffoni is about forty and none of this stuff applies to him.<br /><br />Oneatickspooneva was up next and he played a nice enough set of ambient keyboards and seagull sounds. It was alright, I thought that kind of thing had been done in spades over thirty years ago but<br />apparently it's new and exciting. Or maybe he's just keeping it real too. Who knows eh. All I know is that it was fairly pleasant music in fairly unsuitable surroundings done ok.Stuart Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16038167771654389885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8705684779670595608.post-1747729526737209192010-03-23T02:15:00.001-07:002010-05-18T18:09:00.813-07:00Jazz Poetry Night - Pangaea Project 10/2/10Ok everybody thanks for coming I'm gonna do the ice cream song.<br />La la la la ice cream song<br />La la la la ice cream song<br />La la la la ice cream song<br />La la la la ice cream song<br /><br />What a shitty night.Stuart Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16038167771654389885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8705684779670595608.post-52561330712232821032010-03-23T02:13:00.000-07:002010-05-18T18:07:28.272-07:00Brotzman/Edwards/Noble - Cafe Oto 29/1/10Brotzman fucking ripped it, Edwards was his usual awesome-on-the-bass self and Steve Noble looks like he carries a knife. They also had a dude on piano who I didn't know but who was excellent and the best bit of the whole night was when Brotzman wasn't even playing and the other three were all freaking out, just fully freaking out and all stopped suddenly all three of them without looking at each other or anything, just stopped perfectly together. It was fucking magic. Jazz magic. Jazz fucking magic. No lie.Stuart Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16038167771654389885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8705684779670595608.post-56072785018795856732009-12-14T09:38:00.000-08:002010-05-18T18:00:57.215-07:00Hulk Dash 10 - Korsan Bar 13/12/09I don't remember, was this the one Richie was supposed to play at but didn't? I think so. What the fuck was up with all the spanish squatters in attendance? Yeah I remember now, oh god I didn't like anyone who played or attended this evening, oh yeah and the worst offenders were the Korsan bar owners who managed to be even more abhorrent than the crusty spanish squatters, which I honestly thought was impossible.<br /><br />Anyway, I feel sorry for Guiseppe who organised it and had a terrible night with every cunt there being pissed off with him. Live and learn though eh.Stuart Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16038167771654389885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8705684779670595608.post-38605973969438983342009-12-14T09:37:00.000-08:002010-05-18T17:55:26.144-07:00Ramleh/Voltigeurs/Sudden Infant - The Grosvenor 11/12/09This was disappointing. Just all very underwhelming. Oh well.Stuart Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16038167771654389885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8705684779670595608.post-75572536891969366332009-12-08T10:48:00.000-08:002010-05-18T17:51:43.849-07:00ATP Curated by My Bloody Valentine - Butlins, Minehead 5-6/12/09ATP gets shitter by the minute. This time I got mugged by a seagull, saw a wasted girl embarrass herself on stage distractingly enough to put me off Lightning Bolt completely, saw My Bloody Valentine again again again and then stayed up in the chalet all night and watched about five films in a row which went something like Grey Gardens, L'Argent, Excalibur, Gummo, The Shining, The Shadows, The Nightmare Before Christmas.<br /><br />At some point my band played one song and got shut down for being a fire hazard. I don't even fucking care anymore, when are ATP gonna put some new bands on it's an incestuous little fuckfest of alt shit and it's fucking boring. Oh guess who's curating the next ATP guys, it's some band you liked in the nineties, oh shit no way! I wonder who they're gonna put on? Oh look all the same bands as all the previous curators. Oh no way! What a massive fucking surprise!<br /><br />And Minehead is fucking horrible and depressing. Fuck you ATP, you've lost it. Do something special again, I dare you.Stuart Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16038167771654389885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8705684779670595608.post-7811802626638780772009-12-04T18:05:00.000-08:002010-05-18T17:39:09.596-07:00Six Organs of Admittance - Bush Hall 04/12/09So damn good. This was one of my favourite gigs of the year. Thanks to Miles of Smiles for putting it on, really a lovely venue and a lovely evening, Ben Chasny and his crew really played and it was friendly and intimate and free (spirited I mean, not free to get in, I think it was like a tenner or something) and that one from the Magic Markers was playing with him, whatsername Lisa or Sarah or something and both of them were really fucking wailing on their guitars, really freaking out and doing some of the crunchiest most fucked up guitar soloing I've seen in ages and it was all beautiful and dusty and I felt like I'd started dreaming but I hadn't even got on the tube back home yet but it didn't matter I just floated on it all it was beautiful.Stuart Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16038167771654389885noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8705684779670595608.post-77287353235944569882009-11-27T09:46:00.000-08:002010-05-18T17:27:08.727-07:00Black Heart Procession/Shit and Shine/Scout Niblett/Todd/Dosh - The Scala 26/11/09I really don't like the Scala right and I'll tell you why right it's a combination of two factors: firstly it's four quid for a drink right and a shit drink at that, you've got a choice of draught carling or grolsch or strongbow which all taste like the lines haven't been changed ever or you can plump for a can of red stripe. A fucking CAN, for four quid. All the drinks options give you the shits pretty much. This wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the security they have there. They only employ people who are at least five times as big as the Scala's biggest customer (usually some fey indie kid). All of the bouncers are absolute titans, it's insane, even the woman bouncer is built like a tank. And they always do a proper search so basically there's no sneaking any booze in because they'd find it and they'd kick you in.<br /><br />So yeah, the Scala is always shit because you go there, you spend £15 to get in and you spend £12 on three drinks which make you ill instead of drunk.<br /><br />All the bands were shit anyway and Big Alan was being a dick. Ok well Todd were alright I guess.Stuart Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16038167771654389885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8705684779670595608.post-28949200484145600832009-11-23T03:43:00.000-08:002010-05-18T17:10:52.189-07:00Night of the Long Worms - Cafe Oto 19/11/09I don't even remember who played at this night now. I can always look it up on google. Yep, here you go:<br /><p class="support"> <a href="http://www.last.fm/music/Baraclough">Baraclough</a>, <a href="http://www.last.fm/music/Philip+Jeck">Philip Jeck</a>, <a href="http://www.last.fm/music/Bruce+Gilbert">Bruce Gilbert</a>, <a href="http://www.last.fm/music/Simon+Fisher+Turner">Simon Fisher Turner</a>, <a href="http://www.last.fm/music/Leif+Elggren">Leif Elggren</a>, <a href="http://www.last.fm/music/Souls+On+Board">Souls On Board</a>, <a href="http://www.last.fm/music/Meltaot">Meltaot</a> and <a href="http://www.last.fm/music/Joachim+Nordwall">Joachim Nordwall</a></p><p class="support">I remember Simon Fisher Turner was entertaining on two pianos, Baraclough were notable for having a member who used to work as a runner at the place I used to work at (big fucking deal eh) and Philip Jeck played a set nobody realised was being played until half way through because he was at the back of the room tucked away and it sounded like nothing was going on. I think that was Philip Jeck. Anyway, I missed Leif Elggren and was annoyed. Oh and one of the acts was really bad and I think it was Meltaot.</p><p class="support">Opinions.<br /></p>Stuart Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16038167771654389885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8705684779670595608.post-44320101637979666102009-11-17T04:23:00.000-08:002010-05-18T17:02:14.562-07:00Hair Police - The Old Blue Last 16/11/09Turned up late after rushing from the ICA Dilloway gig and managed to catch the end of a set you probably had to see the beginning of to appreciate.<br /><br />Oh well.Stuart Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16038167771654389885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8705684779670595608.post-555195131573692142009-11-17T04:22:00.000-08:002010-04-07T15:41:50.359-07:00Aaron Dilloway/Chocolate Monk Variations - The ICA 16/11/09Fucking Aaron Dilloway man. He's fucking excellent. There were various combos of various Chocolate Monk artists to start off the evening at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (a clean, serious venue...) including Dylan Nyoukis, Karen Constance, Neil Campbell and yes, Dilloway, and they were all lovely and entertaining and everything and it was a great showcase for inventiveness and playful improvisations but it was Dilloway's solo set in the main hall that was the highlight of the night. A rusty-tooth grinding opening section gave way to heavy drones, driving downhill, a rolling horror, a real cave digger. And then the contact mics go in the mouth and he starts to growl his way out of the pit, up n up, against the tide of his tape machine, and then he's standing, flailing, agonising like a transmogrophying wolfman, and he wins, and it's over, and everyone cheers.Stuart Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16038167771654389885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8705684779670595608.post-83700482995290067242009-11-17T04:21:00.000-08:002010-04-07T14:59:10.987-07:00Dorian Gay/Atomck & Others - Cable St Studios 13/11/09I'm writing this in April 2010. All I remember is Tim Cementimental's cohort throwing a pig's head on a table and getting punched in the face.<br /><br />Oh and I seem to remember Dorian Gay were passable hardcore.<br /><br />This blog has gone to shit. I have my reasons, but anyway, I'm trying to catch up to April so it should start resuming normal (average) service around then.Stuart Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16038167771654389885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8705684779670595608.post-9352781838741600082009-11-17T04:19:00.000-08:002010-04-07T14:39:57.954-07:00Toshiji Mikawa/Nihilist Assault Group/John Wiese/Putrefier & Romance/Bbblood - The Grosvenor 06/11/09Everyone was ace tonight, just a slight downer that we lost all of our filming equipment and a powerbook. It was kind of an all stars night and I really enjoyed everyone's sets, I just don't want to think about it...<br /><br />Maybe I'll come back to this at some point.Stuart Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16038167771654389885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8705684779670595608.post-64946385679765698092009-11-17T04:16:00.000-08:002010-03-30T13:10:13.752-07:00Vomir/Mutant Ape - The Others 05/11/09Vomir was a nice guy and he got everyone to put bin liners over their heads while he blasted out some harsh noise from an ipod. Then Mutant Ape played some stuff using scissors. He's also a nice guy.<br /><br />That's about all I wanna say about this night.Stuart Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16038167771654389885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8705684779670595608.post-35086809496056908522009-11-02T16:47:00.000-08:002010-03-30T13:02:51.129-07:00Colour Out Of Space Festival - Brighton 30/10/09-01/11/09I won't write too much about this as I'm working on a documentary which includes a lot of it. That said:<br /><br />-Trevor Wishart was entertaining and odd, wresting vocals from his jawbone.<br />-Eli Keszler was brilliant, making a drum kit sound nothing like one whilst gurning dementedly.<br />-Justice Yeldham was a twat and failed hilariously to get anything to work whilst he slagged all the other artists off. Fucking Australian.<br />-Damion Romero played until his bottle of water vibrated off the table.<br />-Mechanical Children played until the huge floor speaker vibrated most of the way across the room.<br />-Edwards/Noble/Wilkinson Trio were Noble/Wilkinson duo and lapsed into samba for a moment there.<br />-Joseph Hammer rubbed some tape between his mime hands.<br />-Sten Hanson was enigmatic and sat on a stool.<br />-Morphogenesis made magic out of trinkets.<br />-Ju Suk Reet Meate & Oblivia closed the festival with some bizzaro sounds and a horrible video accompaniment.<br /><br />Overall, a lovely festival full of nice people (apart from that cunt I hate).<br /><br />Thanks, bye.Stuart Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16038167771654389885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8705684779670595608.post-3454933936550299752009-10-12T04:55:00.000-07:002010-03-29T05:37:33.445-07:00Broadcast/The Caretaker/Thomas Ankersmit - The Vortex 11/10/09The second of the Wire magazine's Into the Vortex nights started with Thomas Ankersmit who I've never heard of before. His set went like this: manic screeching and steam sounds like trains braking hard on their rails, then calm and high, then drone with sax and drool. Having a mental breakdown. It was great. There was a seriously long line of drool from his sax mouthpiece almost down to the floor from all the circular breathing he was doing. Drone sax. Very nice.<br /><br />The Caretaker hid himself away in the corner - rather effectively considering the size of his hairstyle, a large frizzy bulb - and hit play on his laptop. I don't know if he did anything else but then I don't know what else he could be expected to do with his music. Last time I saw him play was as V/VM where he had a discman which he just played along to with an inflatable guitar and a rubber chicken mask over his head. I guess that kind of performance would jar a little with the nature of The Caretaker material, but he still managed to fit in a cheeky pisstake, allowing his languorous set to stretch out to what seemed like an ending already overdue and leaving just enough pause before starting a whole other section. Much of the room sighed, some laughed, including myself, but really it's music that requires a lengthy listen, so in that respect this was one thing he could affect live. I like The Caretaker's stuff and I understand the concept behind it but it's better suited to solo listening, at night, at home, the exact opposite of this packed out daytime jazzbar. Still, it was as enjoyable as could be expected I suppose.<br /><br />Broadcast were supposed to be on some hot shit new direction and playing along to a film so I thought hey I'll give them a chance seeing as I haven't listened to them for a decade so I did, I gave them a chance and I watched the whole set, the video was uninspired, dull and hackneyed and the music really suited it. At its best it was inoffensive, at its worst, twee.Stuart Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16038167771654389885noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8705684779670595608.post-39096569406055266152009-10-10T03:55:00.000-07:002010-03-23T13:00:57.424-07:00Richard Youngs w/ Heather Leigh Murray/Astral Social Club/The Skaters - The Vortex 09/10/09I'm so behind on these reviews I'm gonna try and speed through them, drawing on my fast fading memories to paint what will probably amount to a not very accurate portrayal of events. This is <span style="font-style: italic;">my</span> gig blog though and the only people who read it are me (when I'm trying to remember whether I liked a band) and people who search for themselves on the internet, so if you're offended it's probably because you're insecure about your abilities as an artist. Feel free to leave a comment backing that theory up. That said let's get on with some quickfire reviewing.<br /><br />Richard Youngs w/ Heather Leigh Murray was great, frankly. A swirling dual guitar noise gradually giving way to duel repeated vocals, chanting no lights on over and over, or something like that. I'll check it in a minute, it's details like that that really set one apart from the lazy bloggers. I liked it, whatever it was they said. I'm writing this in March so I don't have too much to add really. I remember them doing the vocal bit for ages and going past that point where it stops seeming like too long and starts getting better <span style="font-style: italic;">because</span> it's so long. That's what I reckon anyway.<br /><br />Astral Social Club played. Good old Nelly Campbell. He was great, he said something about pork pies and then he played a load of pedals and amps and little bits of kit and a microphone, I dunno, I wasn't really looking. He did some nice stuff with mic feedback, I recall. 'Little bits of kit', Jesus how vague can you get. So anyway I was really looking forward to seeing The Skaters but they didn't turn up I don't remember why, something to do with aeroplanes maybe, but so they put on Alex Tucker instead so I didn't bother staying.<br /><br />Oh and I just tried to check the audio recording of Youngs and Leigh Murray but I think it's on an external hard drive and I dunno if it's plugged into the USB so sod it.Stuart Londonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16038167771654389885noreply@blogger.com0