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’.

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.

King For a Day, Fool For a Lifetime

Well honestly i feel like my best friend threw a party and i wasn't invited, what a bitch!

i was aware that Faith No More were reforming to play download and some european festivals this summer but i had NO IDEA they were doing this Brixton warm up gig. Incase you are unaware (which most likely you are) FNM was probably the first 'alternative rock and roll group' that i ever obsessed over from the age of 14. unfortunately they have been hailed as responsible for spawning the blasphemous music genre known as 'nu metal' this is unfortunately true, after one listen to 'angel dust' and all is forgiven.
obviously the band were long dead by the time my ears started to listen to 'the real thing' and 'angel dust' but hey i still got to see Mike Patton perform with Peeping Tom and Fantomas!
i even dedicated part of my GCSE english project to a mock review of one of the bands albums, AND named them (along with old metallica...eurrrgh) as my fave band when i had a brief cameo in a girly magazine- everyone else seemed to go for beyonce and natasha bedingfield. but not me, nuh uh- FNM were number one!
I was in two minds when my friend informed me of this reunion. it must be greed, i assumed at first, pattons gone bankrupt and needs funds to support his record company Ipecac and his many many many many 'side projects'. but nah, im guessing he's pretty loaded thanks to the track 'epic'.
what i would have given though in hindsight to stand there at the front singing along to 'Midlife Crisis' and 'be Agressive' ah an opportunity wasted. shame they couldnt get jim martin back on geetar plus original vocalist chuck mosely singing 'we care alot' would have been the icing on the cake...ah well a girl can dream. sigh.

Sud Afrika

SHARP SHARP!

Having been in South Africa for the past few months i figure it might be appropriate to try and write something about the music over there. thing is, there isn't a huge scene over there and after watching the SABC music awards on the tv, i realised that they do have a lot of shit music! in terms of live scene, cape town in parituclar had little to offer, unless you have your contacts and you're willing to dig deep, it's almost impossible to find live stuff going on, very unlike london. when i was over there i missed out on the cape town international jazz festival where i think south african jazz legend hugh masekela performed and mos def made an appearance, alongside other jazzy types.
BIG MISTAKE, looked like it was the only thing goin on in cape town at the time.
in terms of whats popular in the strange country Kwaito is massive, it's a fusion of hip hop, trance/ techno and traditional south african rythyms and a huge bassline- usually punctuated by the MCs or rappers shouting repetitively over the top of the tune. anyone who has seen the film 'TSTOSI' will have heard Kwaito- you see guys dancing about with 90's fashion and what looks like fisherman sunhats on their heads- that's Kwaito. Every time i got into a minibus taxi (which does exactly what it says on the tin) the driver would have this sort of music cranked right up and i think it was the best music i heard in the place. speeding through the streets of cape town and durban with this stuff blaring out is a common sight and sound in the country. so expect a little article on south africa my experience there!

R.I.P Plan B

After returning from the Bermuda Triangle, i attempted to rebuild my contacts and my short lived stint at Plan B Magazine ( i spent a day at there cool little scruffy office in london on 'work experience and did some flyering around camden for them).
After emailing the editor and seeing if i could continue my time at the magazine i was saddened by the news that the magazine has folded and the june issue was the last of it's kind! here's a link to the Stack subscription website where the news was broken. Plan B had some of the coolest articles, features, illustrations in the land so i shall miss looking upon it's perfectly crafted pages. too sad. i shall now conduct a 2 minutes silence in honour of Plan B...

On another note STACK is damn awesome. although i'm not a subscriber the concept behind it rules and i managed to bag a freebie magazine from them a few months ago which was damn cool. the idea is that each month they send you a different magazine on rotation, you don't have any control over what you get but you are guaranteed a super cool, beautifully presented publication that may well change your life...or your choice in reading material at least. dooo it!

Artrocker Brownies

i'm pretty sure the Brownies article is in the latest edition of Artrocker, i aint go now way of gettig hold of this so if some kind soul wants to purchase a copy and send it to my humble abode on my return and i will pay you with copper coins and twigs.