Thursday 30 July 2009

MOLE


Artwork for MOLE by Ellen Leber



Thursday 23 July 2009

MOLE AT THE GEORGE TAVERN 28TH AUGUST 2009



SOOOOO.....when we were about 16 an acquaintance and myself had grande ideas about hosting a club/gig night shindig in a local townhall which was home to many a misfit and troubled youth (we wern't one of them, but basically the townhall was a bit of a shitter).
Unfortunately our lack of initiative, funds and well any sort of experience prevented us from going ahead with our big plans.

Needless to say, not a great deal has changed, experience and funds are still relatively low but we have finally taken the initiative 3 years later to put on a pub night on the 28th August in Londonia at the infamous George Tavern in Whitechapel.

It's all very exciting, scary and fun to sort out, we're organising this event with a lass from London called Charlotte, so just incase you get an invite to this thang, thinking it's some faceless pointless generic club night with aload of tendy hipsters posing and pouting so that they can be posted on a photo website in ironic clothing...THIS IS NOT THE CASE. we just wanted to be involved and be proactive rather than being the cynical, passive, critical bastards we are, complaining about having nothing to do!

The night basically stemmed from an idea (not the most original one i know but hey an idea's an idea) to create a MIXTAPE AMNESTY at my sixth form, now as i'm sure those of you who may have gone to my sixth form can guess, this never actually happened. But now it is.
I havn't given up on buying cds and it's always fun to have a surprise compilation featuring music that you have never heard of of would never usually listen to, so i think this would be a pretty special opportunity to discover some unheard sounds and maybe strike up some conversation and chumships.

we've got other ideas floating around which include crazy raffle, some free badges and maybe a copy of MOLE Zine once in bloom.

It's a friendly affair, we have some mates helping us with leaflet and flyer design. They're gonna provide much better artwork than my little flyer job you see above.
we're gonna be handing out flyers ourselves and glueing up posters. so whether you know us or not come along for MOLE night, think it might be a chuckle.

If you are interested in getting involved, have any ideas yourself or any other enquiries drop me a line: radical_imo AT hotmail.com

ummmmmkay!


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Saturday 4 July 2009

Standon Calling



Standon Calling is a lovely little 'boutique' festival located, i do believe, in the grounds of a 17th century manor house in Hertfordshire.
This looks amazing, i'm gonna be 'bartending' at this years festival because it's only a few minutes away from my hood and the lineup is particularly special.
They have a space age intergalatic feast this year, last year the theme was Japanese and they managed to get hold of Melt Banana and Acid Mothers Temple to perform, I missed it unfortunately!
This year has afro beat legend Fela Kuti's son Femi headlining along with the late Afro futurist jazz legend Sun Ra Arkestra and Hawkwind- it's going to bedazzle.
In the mean time watch this little clip of Space is The Place, I'm now desperate to watch this film.

Tyondai Braxton- 'Central Market'


So usually when I review an album I’m generally cooped up in my dark grotty chambers, alone with only my quill and rats fighting in the shadows for company. For this particular solo debut however, I find myself draped over a leather couch at the Roxy bar and screen, roped off in a romantic room surrounded by burgundy drapes and candles, plied with a fountain of free alcoholic beverages to sweeten me up and dull my senses I’m assuming.
A clever ploy to prevent leaking of any tracks whilst simultaneously earning brownie points for the PR department of the record label in question, Warp records home to Aphex Twin, Gang Gang Dance and one of the leading forward thinking British independent record labels...god damn it, their evil plan just may well have worked!
Tyondai Braxton the ambitious vocalist of ‘complex time signatures and weird proggy effects’ group Battles and son of legendary multi instrumentalist Anthony Braxton, releases ‘Central Market’ a collection of compositions this September.
From the classical compositional feel of ‘Opening Bells’, punctuated with syncopated rhythm at the records beginning, I couldn’t shake this vision of Braxton conducting an orchestra of Disney characters in some cartoonish green utopia; I was instantly reminded of the film score to Snow White.
As the record evolves we’re interrupted by urgent horn sections, a bass heavy sequence and a plethora of quirky sounds from cowbells, kazoos on ‘The Duck and the Butcher’, to inaudible alien vocals interspersed between dull metallic noises.
Braxton is in possession of an auditory crystal ball in which he predicts the sounds of the future.
In this sense ‘Platinum Rows’ appears to be the more accessible track on the album for those not too down with epic orchestrated pieces, it’s a far Mellower, sludgier affair. A haze of apocalyptic, dirty guitar builds up in contrast to rest of records clearer sheen, transforming into grungy repetitive guitar chords and a rumbling bass line, the track is accompanied by shamanic indecipherable vocals.
Central Market certainly has a narrative to it and felt to me like a chronological record of modern orchestration, guiding the listener by the hand into the ‘22nd century’.

Wednesday 1 July 2009

O Brother where art thou


Little Brother at the Jazz Cafe 1/7/09



Thanks to the deelitefool Shook and Doctors Orders mammoth 4th birthday celebration I got to check out North Carolina natives Little Brother at the Jazz cafe.
Now i'm not particularly hot when it comes to hip hop, as i've established before, I'm not incredibly good at keeping up to date, but I did a lil bit of research before trotting down to camden and recognised a few names on the groups good ol' wiki page- Kanye West anyone? Lil Wayne anyone else? nah? ok!
supported was Ghanian rapper Wanlov the Kubolor and acquaintance, these guys were a nice choice of warm up and managed to get the crowd going nicely with their global blend of afroamerican tinged hiplife. a highly enjoyable affair.

It wasn't until Phonte, Big Pooh (ahar i know, i like it too) and co came onto the stage that things really started to pick up. Waltzing onto the stage to the soulful acapella version of Jackson 5's 'I'll Be There', it nearly made me cry, maybe it was a combination of alcohol and the death of his majesty the King of Pop last week, but it was nigh on impossible not to be touched by rapper Phonte's homage to jacko.
I strongly believe regardless of a groups performance, flawless or not, the crowd reaction is paramount, (eg. Tv on the Radio at ABC in Glasgow- awesome band, shittest audience in the galaxy did not make for a particularly great gig). But the Jazz cafe crowd were really responsive, everyone seemed to know the words (except for me of course, i just mumbled unconvincingly and mimed some made up words inorder to feel like part of the crew). Many a head was nodding away, arms pumping up and down and three of the tallest guys i've ever seen in my life stood smak bang in front of me doing a strange jig. They were all at least 6ft 4 plus, why would they do that?!!!

Phonte provided some lovely smooth rnb style crooning, singing random phrases and words in the lull between each song. 'ASSSS ON THE COVER, ASSS ON THE COVER'. Whilst Big Pooh gave the crowd a taster from his latest solo album, which might i add sounded exactly like every other song Little Brother performed, but i'm not complaining, just making an observation.
unfortunately i didn't get to witness the remaining spectacle due to public transportation being what it is. Just as I made my way out of the door, a tune which sounded to me like one I ACTUALLY recognised crept into my ears and the crowd seemed to get even more restless- but I still regrettably made my way into the humid london night! I always seem to miss the best parts god damn!

For now, Here's a relatively amusing video from the group it's kinda funny.