Former Ghosts - Fleurs [Album Review by Erol Sabadosh]

Former Ghosts are a collaboration between Freddy Ruppert (previously of This Song Is A Mess But So Am I), Jamie Stewart (Xiu Xiu) and Nika Roza (Zola Jesus), and their debut album Fleurs does indeed sound like what one would expect from such a collaboration; emotive and introspective songwriting with an aesthetic that blends synthpop sensibilities with industrial influences.

What is perhaps most striking about the album is the consistant balance between beauty and ugliness/tenderness and violence that characterizes not only the lyrical content but the sound of the album as well. The title, the French word for 'flowers', is foremoest suggestive of affection and romance yet flowers can also signify death and mourning, and while the majority of the songs here are overtly about love and desire there is an undercurrent of sadness and nostalgia throughout. On album opener 'Us And Now,' as well as the title track, Ruppert expresses feelings of extreme happiness and yearning, while acknowledging the transience of human emotion and, ultimately, life itself, singing "if I could stretch out these moments/I would make them last a lifetime." He exhibits a clear talent for mining romance from melancholia, following a statement such as "it is ok/everything dies" by having Roza sing "who will love you like I do?"; the cathartic elements of the music shine through the darkest depths of despair.

The reverb-soaked and distorted vocals are accompanied by equally reverb-soaked and distorted synths, at times sounding like hissing power tools or bleeping dialysis machines, pounding bass drums and all manner of clicks and crackling sounds. Nonetheless, the harsh timbre and texture of the instrumentation and production is offset by the strong and gorgeous melodies. Roza's voice lends the album a feminine touch, soaring high above the mix with an intense passion on the tracks where she takes lead vocal duty.

Fleurs offers a collection of dense and unconventional love songs that mix celebratory and rousing sentiment with existential awareness to potent results; easy to recommend to anyone who appreciates emotionally charged music with a twist.

Former Ghosts on Myspace

Jasiminne Yip [35mm] by Erol Sabadosh

Me and MOWGLI DJing @ Star of Bethnal Green

The Life of the World to Come - The Mountain Goats; a positive review by Erol Sabadosh

Three tracks into The Life of the World to Come, the new album from The Mountain Goats, and you may be wondering where exactly it is that songwriter John Darnielle is taking us. Over the course of fifteen full length LPs (The Life of the World to Come being the sixteenth overall and the sixth since signing to label 4AD and moving away from the ultra lo-fi aesthetic of early releases to a more polished studio sound) Darnielle has explored issues ranging from drug addiction to domestic abuse, occasionally from an autobiographical perspective, and has proven to be consistently engaging and prolific in his efforts. While previous album Heretic Pride lacked a strong overarching theme, but was still a great album, Darnielle has opted to place focus on faith this time, or more specifically Christianity (although it is certainly not an album written about the Bible).

Heretic Pride opened with the immediately likeable and rousing “Sax Rohmer #1,” whereas here the listener is treated with the brooding and sparse “1 Samuel 15:23” where Darnielle embodies the character of a crystal healer who believes he is helping people with his supposed healing powers while selling self-help tapes and sewing cloaks. Each song on the album is named after a Bible verse which somehow relates to it and in this instance the chosen passage reflects judgement on the character within the song for rejecting the word of God. Rather than preaching the Bible Darnielle juxtaposes the fictional and autobiographical narratives within his songs with Biblical references in a variety of ways that add extra depth to his characters and narratives; he is not trying to convert people to Christianity, nor is he entirely challenging the Christian faith, he is simply writing songs the way that he always has but with an emphasis on religion or faith as an overarching theme or reference.

The second track is a raucous one compared to the muted opener, recalling the wild strumming and wailing evident in Darnielle’s earlier work, and it’s oddly followed by the most radio-friendly pop song on the album, “Philippians 3:20-21,” which could have just as easily appeared on Heretic Pride. The extreme variation in style of these first three songs proves to be rather jarring, but thereafter the album settles into a predominantly down-tempo and introspective balladry that tends to favour piano and the violin arrangements of Owen Pallett (Arcade Fire/Final Fantasy) over Darnielle’s distinctly rough guitar playing. This places the album in a similar category to his low-key and greatly underrated 2002 effort Tallahassee and the more recent Get Lonely, which may indicate that it won’t be quite as instantly well-received as its predecessor.

Darnielle has made a surprising album, choosing not to pursue the more commercial and accessible pop-potential that marked his last LP while focusing on a theme that may split fan opinions, but regardless of expectations the fact is that there are songs here that will sit comfortably alongside some of his most beautiful and subtle work ("Genesis 30:3" is an instant classic, and "1 John 4:16" is similarly gorgeous). On “Matthew 25:21” Darnielle describes the day he left his tour to visit his dying mother-in-law in hospital, and it is surely one of the most raw and affecting songs he has written, reminding of his ability to convey complicated human emotions through bold and vivid imagery. The album also ends with one of the darkest Mountain Goats songs ever, “Ezekiel 7 and the Permanent Efficacy of Grace,” which features a particularly haunting piano arrangement that glides over ominous bass drones with lyrics that depict the journey of a murdering drug addict who is driving to Mexico through a seemingly apocalyptic storm. The Life of the World to Come is a mature and complex album by an incredibly talented songwriter who doesn’t seem to be running out of steam any time soon. God bless you John Darnielle.

Listen to The Mountain Goats on Myspace

Deformed - Transformed

D E F O R M E D - T R A N S F O R M E D

JOHN PICKERING / REBECCA IVATTS

SW1 GALLERY, Victoria Street, London
SEPT 16 – OCT 3 (Private view on Tuesday, September 15, 6.30-8.30pm)

Hands deformed by rheumatoid arthritis depicted on vast canvases; mathematical equations transformed into spatial sculptures waiting to be inhabited by our imaginations: yet these impossibly gnarled hands belong to the sculptor himself. This is the astonishing truth behind the unique collaboration between emerging painter, Rebecca Ivatts, and veteran sculptor, John Pickering.

Tiny Vipers - Life On Earth, A Glowing Review by Erol Sabadosh

Jesy Fortino’s sophomore album, created under her stage moniker Tiny Vipers, is an aesthetically minimalist yet potentially exhausting record in terms of length, pacing and subject matter. Opener Eyes Like Ours sets the tone for the majority of the album’s nine proceeding tracks; Fortino’s quivering voice reverberating atop finger-picked guitar lines that wander back and forth without a rhythm section to tie them down. It’s a long and sprawling record, eschewing any current trend or fashion for a bold and uncompromising vision, that demands an attentive and willing listener. Fortino offers a portal into a dark and mysterious world of existential angst with little in the way of consolation for anyone who may dare to venture into it. There is a pervading atmosphere of meloncholy throughout, one that at times becomes overtly meditative but with an emotional sensitivity that is never too dour, characterized by a controlled usage of negative space complimenting the lyrical focus on loss. The album’s characters search for meaning, grappling with faith and love, but end no closer to any kind of truth. On the final track Fortino sings that “the problem with life is you can’t do it twice and you don’t know why you came.” The protagonist of the song spends their time following a thought-to-be long lost ex-lover, afraid to be spotted, only to be confronted by the haunting realization that “it was somebody else.” Life On Earth is an astute and poetic exploration of human loneliness and yearning, and while it has a tendancy to alienate the listener it is nonetheless a fascinating and affecting work.

Inglourious Basterds: a Scathing Review by Erol Sabadosh

Tarantino’s latest film, Inglourious Basterds, begins promisingly, with a skilfully directed scene introducing the character of Col. Hans Landa, played by Austrian-born actor Christoph Waltz, as he leads an S.S. patrol to the house of a French farmer who is suspected of harbouring Jews in order to interrogate him. The tension in the scene is well handled and the climax, while suitably terrifying, is tastefully restrained, a potential indicator that perhaps the director, well known for his pop-culture influenced pulp style, has created an atmospheric and mature piece of cinema that will bear some resonance. What follows, unfortunately, is two-and-a-half hours of vulgarity, glorified violence and derivative cliché.

The film’s segmented narrative, split into five chapters, meanders with overlong scenes exasperated by trite dialogue; Tarantino’s smug philosophizing is embarrassingly hollow, and there is an inane amount of movie-reference fodder littered throughout the script. A scene involving a game of trivia between a German soldier and a group of undercover Allies is contrived in order that Tarantino may highlight, though for whose benefit exactly remains unclear, the colonization metaphor implicit in King Kong for the purpose of a tasteless and uncomfortable joke. The film is callously racist, indiscriminately so, stemming from the caricatured and underdeveloped characterization and Tarantino’s blatant ignorance and disregard. Even the Inglourious Basterds of the title, a group of Jewish-American Nazi-killing soldiers lead by Brad Pitt’s Aldo The Apache, are barely explored.

That Tarantino fails, or deliberately chooses not to, add dimension to his characters in a film that runs 153 minutes long and consists mostly of dialogue, until the final act, is frustrating and makes it difficult to invest in their thin stories. He does manage to elicit some sympathy for his woman scorned, Shoshanna Dreyfus, played by Mélanie Laurent, but any potential moments of emotional drama are undermined with boorish attempts at humour. Tarantino’s facile utilization of pastiche has reached such an extent that it becomes mere cliché in nearly every instance. The only subversion of expectation comes with the fantastical re-writing of WWII history, which again serves no purpose other than to satisfy the revenge plot. Tarantino’s fetishistic glorification of violence has reached an apex of juvenility and arbitrariness.

The film fails as disposable entertainment simply because it is not particularly entertaining; there are brief moments of tension, excitement and genuine humour but they are too few and far-between to justify the film’s length. There are also hints of farce, but without any intellectual satire the historical context becomes the butt of crass and juvenile jokes. The acting is mostly good nonetheless; Waltz is terrific as Landa, Laurent does well with what she is given and Pitt is as goofy and likeable as he was in Burn After Reading. Most of the film’s problems lie with the script and direction, and therefore the criticisms are levelled primarily at Tarantino. Inglourious Basterds may have been conceived as an homage to exploitation cinema but with its distinct lack of originality or flair, not to mention fun, it is difficult to recommend to anyone. After carving a swastika into the scalp of a Nazi in order that he remain conspicuous even without his uniform, Aldo proclaims “I think this could be my masterpiece,” and one can imagine Tarantino grinning as the credits roll. Think again.

Laura and Marcus

Examples of some recent photos I've taken:

Laura Greenwood (35mm)

Marcus Dye (Digital)

Tomorrow at Dalston Superstore

Ramblings

All of this interpreted information passed around every day, completely subjective and relative to our own limited existence.

What is it that I want to say? What do I want to put back into this animal soup from which I have extracted so much and yet so little? I am always in relation to something else, but ultimately there is no outside or inside, it just is. I always want to speak directly to someone. But I feel as if they either understand to a certain extent already whatever I could say, or never will, and if they do; what comes after? Does it really matter whether we agree or disagree on an idea? Even I am prone to changing my mind.

The universe is infinitely large and infinitely small, and somehow it is all connected, but the distance between any two objects is always infinite. We have our own self-conceived notions of distance, time and other abstractions set on a human scale, but there are some things that we may never be able measure. Do I feel confined by popular definitions? Can I really use words to articulate myself effectively if they have an accepted meaning but are simultaneously malleable? It is representation, not the actual thing, but even the actual thing is not a fixed thing. Can two people ever truly connect? What is my ultimate goal, not just in my creations, but in life? Should my art reflect this? At times the most primitive urges and actions seem to dispel all angst and focus the bulk of my existence to a fine point that aims toward a visibly attainable target, evoking a sense of momentary satisfaction when that target is reached. There are other times, though, when that distant and elusive sentient flicker of transcendentalism beckons and urges me to pursue it.

I can either stay within my comfort zone or move out into the wilderness. Do I think too much, or not enough? What is it all worth and who decides?

Worthless

Inspired by the recession and compelled to create something positive, Josef Valentino, Founder and Creative Director of Pollocks is launching ‘Worthless’, a live art installation that explores the value of material items in the heart of Seven Dials. For one week only (22^nd–29^th May) members of the public will be invited to bring their own ‘worthless’ items into the store and have them transformed into pieces of art.

With Worthless, Valentino intends to explore the concept that one man’s junk is another man’s treasure, challenging current perceptions of ‘worth’ and providing a service that will benefit artists and participants involved.

Says Valentino; “Worthless is a harsh, derogative word - but what exactly does it mean? The term applies as much to every day junk as it does to retail casualties of the current economic climate – none more dramatic than the recent demise of retail giant, Woolworths.”

The Worthless store event, Valentino’s first since Blank Canvas in July last year on Carnaby Street, will pay homage to the institution that was Woolworths, via ironic references throughout the installation space.

Valentino continues; “I don’t want to give too much away at this stage but the shop signage will be undeniably recognisable. On entering the store people will experience -

some very British institutional eccentricities. The aisles, the checkouts, a tanoy system, truly ‘helpful’ staff and shopping bags are all included!”

A team of Pollocks creatives will be working continually in the basement workshop on the transformations. The experience cumulates for participants when on collection of their item, the customer will be asked how much they now think the item is worth. This amount is what the customer will then pay for the item, and all proceeds will be split equally between Pollocks and the Artists. The pick of ‘worthless to priceless’ creations will be exhibited in the store from 1^st – 5^th June with several items being auctioned on behalf of the ‘MS Society’.

Valentino adds; “The exciting part is that we have really incredible talent lined up to participate in the transformation stages including some high profile Designers and Artists. This event will be an exciting example of how the negative outcomes of a recession can have positive impacts for other people/areas of society...”

Donna Lambert from Shaftesbury PLC, landlords of the Seven Dials area, “We are very excited about facilitating this great activity within Seven Dials, making use of this unit in an innovative way and also giving the consumer and visitor to Seven Dials another great experience”.

All We Do Is Party

I have been extremely busy for the last few weeks, hence the lack of updates. This is what I have been up to:




On Tuesday I went to see the Anette Messager exhibition that was being held at the Hayward Gallery. The central piece was titled 'Casino', and was a theatrical interpretation of a portion of the story of Pinocchio. It played on rotation, lasting fifteen minutes total, and was contained within a room with a doorway at the far wall with another room visible beyond. The floors of both rooms were covered in a red material that would raise and lower as air was pumped under it from an unseen source, making it ripple and move as if it were liquid. Underneath the fabric there lit up small fabric constructions that looked like illuminated buildings, while black organic-shaped 'entities' descended from the ceiling and a projection of a clock appeared in the background. The first instance the fabric rippled to life and the air pump sent waves moving outward was chilling, reminiscent of the scene in Kubrick's The Shining when the elevator opens to reveal a tide of blood.

I also really liked a piece titled Articulated-Disarticulated which consisted of various animals, including cows, some moving or being dragged and some still, which was influenced by the outbreak of mad-cow disease and seemed to highlight the frailty and whimsical tragedy of human and animal life. Messager's work conveyed a dark playfulness that was both morbid and humorous, and genuinely interesting.


Later that night:

The following day:

This is me on stage at Alternative Miss World:

On Sunday I went to the Tiga Ciao! album launch party hosted by Bugged Out in a warehouse on Scrutton Street with my friends Becky and Al. We hooked up with Matt Walsh, who was sharing the bill with Tiga, and danced for many hours. The Proxy also played and was superb.

On Monday I went to see the Art Against Knives exhibition set up by Katy Dawe, Oliver Helmsley and others, which was held at the old Shoreditch Town Hall. The exhibition featured works by high profile artists ranging from Banksy to Antony Gormley, but also showcased pieces by art students and up-and-coming talent, and it was excellent.


On Wednesday I attended the Disco 24 re-opening, hosted by My Beautiful City, which featured a performance by Johnny BlueEyes and music from guest DJs Alice Dellal and Pixie Geldof.

Thursday night, Hannah Holland's popular monthly party Bastard Batty Bass at The Star of Bethnal Green:

On Friday Mmmélanie (Pump) DJ'd at Beach Blanket Babylon with Lucile Troquet (Night Bright), and they were both amazing.

Let The Right One In (Moderate Spoilers)

Let The Right One In is an interesting film, from Swedish director Tomas Alfredson, and one that I struggled to understand until I came home and thought about it after seeing it for the first time this evening in the cinema. The plot focuses on the relationship between a twelve year old boy named Oskar and his mysterious young neighbour Eli, whom he forms a close bond with. Oskar lives with his disinterested mother and is bullied at school. When he meets Eli the pair begin spending time together in the courtyard of their apartment building, and Oskar relates to Eli his troubles. Eli convinces Oskar to stand up for himself and to use violence against the bully to teach him a lesson. What Oskar doesn't know at this point is that Eli is a vampire whose 'watcher' murders young children and desaguinates them, bringing their blood home for Eli to drink. Eli says to Oskar early in the film "I am not a girl," but the full meaning of this statement isn't revealed until the final act, at which point Oskar has already retaliated against his tormentors and Eli's watcher has been killed, leaving Eli with no choice but to find another partner and companion.

The film explores themes including coming-of-age, violence, redemption, revenge, sexuality and love. It can be categorized as a horror, although the more overt moments of horror that occur seem so absurd in an otherwise believable and subtle film, provoking nervous laughter rather than fright. The real horror lies in the details of the story and the relationships between the characters, a more unsettling sense of dread, angst and uncertainty that pulses beneath the surface of the snow-covered, bleak winter environment. It begs serious thought and active engagement to illuminate the subtleties of the plot's subtext. For instance, one may wonder if there is a sexual relationship between Eli and the watcher. Was the watcher young when he met Eli initially, like Oskar? Will Oskar end up the same? None of this is answered explicitly within the text, but enough suggestions and clues are provided for the audience to complete the puzzle.

Eli's hunger is eternal. Oskar will die unless he becomes a vampire like Eli, but if he does so then the pair will not be able to survive together, since Eli relies on the benefits of having a human partner who can travel in daylight, establish a residence and perform other tasks that a vampire would be unable to. The film implicitly comments on the nature of human interdependence and roles of passivity and dominance, as well as violence and intelligence as tools of power and manipulation.

Oskar is enthralled and inspired by Eli. Eli's watcher, by contrast, has become a shell of a human being, a murderer, surviving only to appease and sustain Eli, the relationship between them having been worn down to the process of its own dynamic, highlighting the basic needs at the heart of human desire. Is it still love that is holding them together?

We all use each other to fulfill certain needs, including survival. Love brings hope, the possibility of something transcendental, but love fades. We all hunger for something more, but we will never be fully and permanently satisfied.

Morissey - Let The Right One Slip In

White Noise and Other Sounds

I've spent the last few days indoors working on my final papers. One of them is about the disappointment of the American Dream and the novel White Noise by Don DeLillo, an amazing book, one of my favourites. It is extremely funny yet utterly morose at the same time. It's basically about a middle class college professor, Jack Gladney, who teaches Hitler Studies and who is obsessed by the idea of death, living with his family and his fourth wife in an archetypal suburban American neighbourhood. A third of the way through the novel a man-made disaster, referred to as "The Airbourne Toxic Event," causes the town where they live to have to be evacuated, and Jack is exposed to a dangerous chemical derivative that forces him to confront his own mortality.


"No sense of the irony of human experience, that we are the highest form of life on earth, and yet ineffably sad because we know what no other animal knows, that we must die."
— Don DeLillo (White Noise)

"The power of the dead is that we think they see us all the time. The dead have a presence. Is there a level of energy composed solely of the dead? They are also in the ground, of course, asleep and crumbling. Perhaps we are what they dream."
— Don DeLillo (White Noise)

"What good is knowledge if it just floats in the air? It goes from computer to computer. It changes and grows every second of every day. But nobody actually knows anything."
— Don DeLillo (White Noise)

"When I read obituaries I always note the age of the deceased. Automatically I relate this figure to my own age. Four years to go, I think. Nine more years. Two years and I'm dead. The power of numbers is never more evident than when we use them to speculate on the time of our dying."
— Don DeLillo (White Noise)


White Noise - New York Times Review


I've also just completed an essay on the legacy of slavery and the morality of affirmative action for my sociology class on ethnic notions and race relations in America. I am not very experienced with sociology so I am worried about whether or not I have produced something appropriate.

I have had enough essay writing for tonight so I am just listening to music at the moment. These are some of the new albums I've been enjoying recently:

Handsome Furs - Face Control

Handsome Furs are Dan Boeckner (also of Wolf Parade and Atlas Strategic) on guitars/vocals and his wife Alexei Perry on synths/drum machine. Their new album, Face Control, is stellar. Boeckner's guitar sounds like rusty metal cutting through bone. "Baby's out of step with the occupation/No one's gonna notice if you disappear/I've heard something about reclamation/Do anything you want but just not here"

Bell Orchestre - As Seen Through Windows

Bell Orchestre are a six piece instrumental band from Canada, including Sarah Neufeld and Richard Parry, full-time members of Arcade Fire, and part time Arcade Fire member Pietro Amato. I saw the band live a few years ago when they toured their first album, Recording a Tape the Color of Light, at the University of London Union and they were fantastic. Their music sounds like travelling on old trains at night through the mountains, somewhere in Europe, while staring at the stars and contemplating romantic fire-lit nights that may or may not have happened.

Dan Deacon - Bromst

This album is pure bombastic noise overdose. I want to hear Red F blasting at earsplitting volume from an amazing soundystem, that would be the definition of joy.

Antony & The Johnsons - The Crying Light

This album is quite minimal compared to the first two, but I think stylistically the sparse texture works very well, particularly since the classical arrangements are beautiful, and Hegarty's songs are as emotive as ever, just less bizarre than the days of, say, Hitler in My Heart. I'm sure most of you have listened to this album already, but have you heard his cover of Bob Dylan's 'I was Young When I Left Home'?

Peaches - I Feel Cream

Only just had a listen to this, sounds good but slightly patchy. I love Peaches though, I think she's amazing, and I'm digging the Charlie Le Mindu wigs in the new video for 'Talk To Me.' I saw Charlie's show during London Fashion Week and it was great. Anyway, this new album has a lot less sex and a lot more electroclash.

Doves - Kingdom of Rust

I remember seeing Doves live nearly ten years ago supporting Travis. It was one of my first gigs, and I thought they were amazing. After the show I rushed to get a copy of both of their albums and used to spin them all the time. I don't understand why they aren't huge now. I prefer them to other stadium 'indie' bands like Coldplay, Keane and Snow Patrol. I think this new album sounds a lot like Hope of the States, another band that I used to adore but that never really took off.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz!

I don't think I need to say much about the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I love everything they have done. I think Karen O just breathing into a microphone is enough to make me wet. The new album isn't as fierce as their previous work, but there are some gorgeous songs on it, two of my favourites being 'Soft Shock' and 'Hysteric.'

Bonnie 'Prince' Billie - Beware

I was first exposed to Bonnie 'Prince' Billy by my friend Robin in Brighton. We were both quite depressed and sitting in her house not really doing anything when she decided to put the song 'I See A Darkness' on, from the album of the same name, because she said something like it reminded her of me. It brought tears to my eyes and made me simultaneously incredibly sad and incredibly happy. This new album isn't anywhere near as life-changing, but I still have a soft spot for Mr. Billie (real name Will Oldham).

Swan Lake - Enemy Mine

I've already spoken about how much I love this album in a previous post, so scroll down and have a look if you're interested. This is a brilliant album.

Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest

I never really understood the hype surrounding Grizzly Bear. I missed out on a chance to see them at a small venue in London a few years ago, and now they seem to be pretty big, not least of all because they toured with Radiohead. One of the songs on the new album even reminds me of Radiohead. I still can't say I like them very much, but I'm still trying to get into them. To me they sound like Bon Iver with greater technical skill but less heart.


I will leave you now with an instrumental version of the unreleased track 'Burning Bridges Breaking Hearts' by Arcade Fire, that the band seemed to have either released or leaked to promote the release of their new film Miroir Noir. 'Burning Bridges' was one of my favourites for a while, but all I had was a live recording (see below) that I used to listen to over and over a while ago. Arcade Fire are one of my favourite bands, I've seen them numerous times now and met the band. They are wonderful people and they make music that makes me immensely happy.

Arcade Fire - Burning Bridges Breaking Hearts (Live)
Arcade Fire - Burning Bridges Breaking Hearts (Instrumental)

"we're burning bridges, breaking hearts/everything you taught us to do"

A Bloc Party Easter, A Weekend in the City

On Saturday I met up with my friend Marcus and we went to see Bloc Party with our friend Mel.. The gig was at the Olympia, which is 10,000 capacity, all standing. We arrived just as about ten members of Kele's family walked in. Mel took us backstage and we watched the set from the balcony. We also drank an excessive amount of alcohol. Mel had a video recording device with her that she was assigned to use to record footage for their website or something, and so she filmed me dancing around like a maniac, singing along and jumping on Marcus. This was the first time me or Marcus had seen them live and we were both impressed. They played two encores to rapturous applause, although Matt made a dig at the Arctic Monkeys that didn't go down well with some of the crowd.


After the show we went to the afterparty and danced to Kele's short DJ set, which featured the great anthems Single Ladies and I Wanna Dance With Somebody.





Remi Weekes on Myspace

We decided to go and see the band play again on Sunday.

The band performed even better that day in my opinion, and I preferred the set list. For the encore Kele emerged on stage wearing an Easter Bunny costume. As with Saturday night they closed the set with Flux. We went down to the dressing rooms again and mingled. Kele began to eat a rather large Sunday roast and Miquitta Oliver was jumping around and making a lot of noise. We passed around and ate a chocolate Easter egg. The band have recorded a new single, something that isn't on Intimacy, and apparently it's very good and they're going to release it soon.


Bloc Party - Idea For A Story

Low

This is a photo I took of Daniel Lismore:


This is where I'm DJing on Thursday:

and also Friday, which is going to be amazing:

Right now I'm listening to Low (the band, not the David Bowie album, though I do love Bowie).

About Low, and why I love them: Low are a band from Duluth, Minnesota, that formed in 1993 and consist of Alan Sparhawk on guitar and vocals, Mimi Parker (his wife) playing drums and also providing vocals, and (currently) Steve Garrington on the bass guitar. Their music is often labelled under the 'slowcore' sub-genre of rock, which is characterised by sparse and minimal arrangements and slow tempos, though the band generally show disdain for this term, and not all of their songs adhere to this style. What draws me to Low the most is the way Alan and Mimi conjure the most striking and powerful imagery from meticulously crafted but very simple and short lyrics, and this, coupled with their gorgeous vocal harmonies, creates some of the most beautiful and haunting music I have ever heard. It's been around six years since I discovered Low, and I still listen to them almost every single day. Unfortunately they're probably most famous for their cover of Little Drummer Boy which was used for a Gap Christmas commercial. They do seem to like Christmas though:


My favourite Low songs (click the song titles to listen):

Dinosaur Act
(all through the dust/you feel you must hear the strings of a dove/but it's a dinosaur act)

Closer
(hold me closer than that)

Starfire
(let's take a ride/starfire tonight/ten thousand miles away)

Immune
(does it taste like home/only when your eyes are closed)

Soon
(soon it will be over/I laughed under my breath over your shoulder)

In The Drugs
(breaking like dolls/singing like birds/we always get what we deserve)

Over The Ocean
(if I belong/then I'll be longer than expected)

La La La Song
(sometimes I could choke myself with laughter/sometimes everything's so true)

Two Step
(the light it burns your skin/in a language you don't understand)

Sunflower
(with your half of the ransom/you bought some sweet sunflowers/and gave them to the night)

They have released eight studio albums thus far, with a new one supposedly coming this year. Their best album, in my opinion, is Things We Lost In The Fire, followed by Secret Name. The Great Destroyer is interesting in that it's a big departure from their signature sound, and quite a noisy album, but it's probably their weakest, although it has some great songs on it. Their most recent album, Drums and Guns, was partially inspired by the war in Iraq, and featured quite a claustrophobic and tense sound with more electronic aesthetic influences.