@ Enmore Theatre: Fantastic idea. Take a wicked 1995 film set in Paris with subtitles, minimal soundtrack and wickedly stark black and white images and put it to the chaotic, dark, thumping sounds of political English group Asian Dub Foundation. Thanks to FBi I found myself at the Enmore Saturday watching a film that presents the experiences of being a young, poor man of a minority group in Paris 1995; dealing with the racism of the police and the general consensus that you’re scum and not worthy of anything. In an attempt to regain some power they embrace the macho stylings of the American gangster culture.
Asian Dub Foundation amplifies much of the simmering emotions and thoughts, and other times builds the tension to near-breaking point with their drum and bass, reggae and hip hop infused live soundtrack. At times they near carried the narrative, hinting at all the trouble you can feel threatening to break out.
And by the way, if you’ve ever wondered what I sound like you might have heard my review Sunday afternoon (around 12.30) on Nick Findlay’s show, at FBi 94.5FM – Will be on again on Wednesday (around 1.30) to review The Lab.
I found myself shouting “Boy, you are the sh*t!” at the television last night (Yes I have the mouth of a sailor and yes I do tend to talk to characters who CAN’T TALK BACK). Horatio Hornblower is just the most dashing, likeable dude on the seas. This series is like Master Commander x 6.
So last night I found myself entering through a crack in the wall on Cleveland St for the nownow festival. I’d never been to the lanfranchis discotheque but its an awesome venue. You follow these wooden stairs, its dark and quiet with only a string of fairy lights and then emerge into a largish room in which there’s a large red wall, wooden floorboards, lines of colourful lampshades (with lights) and a whole lot of people sitting very quietly on retro couches and lounges or on persian rugs on the floor.
The first act I saw was one dude on “drums”, one on “saxaphone” and another on a laptop (I think, he was sitting on the floor so it was hard to see). When I put those instruments in quotation marks its because they don’t really play the instruments in traditional fashion. They don’t make music they make noise and they explore what other ways these musical instruments can create sound. At first the improvised cacophony of bangs or blows or taps or brushes or beeps or glitches seem really disorganised and erratic. But if you persist a progression or narrative does emerge and you realise they are persuing some ideas or evoking certain moods. The best thing about this act was the organic way in which they worked off one another, one person might bring up the whiff of an idea and the other two pick up on it, run with it and soon it emerges into a fully matured construction.
The second act (The Decompositiongs) was even more stripped back. Six guys on assorted electronics (eg. speakerphone, sampler) sit down and create one “note”. The resulting sound is this high buzzing noise, like maybe of a computer or neon lights. Then they sit and we sit for half an hour listening to this noise. My friend said this kind of thing pisses her off, but I actually found it really interesting. Firstly, it IS art because the “musicians” do create the sound and are there, on stage, with their instruments (doing nothing until they fade or stop the sound at the end) and we, as the audience have chosen to sit there and listen to this sound in this environment (on stage) and thus qualify it as art.
Secondly, after continued listening, much like the first you begin to notice things, like how its not really just one buzzing noise, a few voices emerges (there’s the general static sound, there’s something more pulsating) and any changes in speed or volume become quite dramatic – which is possibly the point – to tune yourself to such tiny fluctuations. Not to mention the fact that they’re capable of making us go, yes, that buzzing noise from your electronic goods and home can be music/art.
Overall, I thought it was fascinating and plan to go back for another session. Runs til Saturday.
Globe really is dead.
Salt Shaker begins.
@ Metro: So what can you do when you strip everything back to a couple of guys and some acoustic guitars? Well Turin Brakes, aka. Olly Knight and Gale Paridjanian seem to want to make some tender, heartfelt music – which I guess is what usually happens. And tonight they don’t fail their patient fans (who’ve waited a good many years) with tunes that siddle up to you like a warm breeze, blowing though your mind and unsettling all sorts of memories of old faces and places which you could have sworn were forgotten. Of course you get this with their albums too, intimate and sincere, but seeing them live probably enhances the feelings just a touch, makes the response a little more immediate and a little more deeply felt.
