Fortunately, my fickle-minded sister made me fly over to Brussels a month ago at the very last minute as she was suppose to come visit me. Therefore, I spent the long weekend that the Brussels Arts Festival was taking place. I only happened to stumble upon an article about this piece of performing arts by a Belgian group of artists known as Berlin (how ironic).  They tend to use digital media to depict the urban portrait based on research that they have done.

Moscow is the latest episode from a series of urban portraits that they have done over the years. They travelled to Moscow to observe, to interview the Muscovites and to film the entire event into a documentary. This piece was presented in a form of a video installation in a big red balloon tent with an orchestra playing live soundtrack. The audience was taken into the scenes with these mobile multi screens surrounding them. The ears and the eyes experienced the surround effect. The movements of the screens were choreographed and synchronised with the music, recorded sounds and story line. People talk about their mixed feelings towards the city in this film. As emotional and dramatic as the documentary was, the live orchestra played a few pieces over some pre recorded electronic beats. Watch out! sometimes the screen moves into your face!

Berlin 

The fire is slowly dying
The mountain is cooling down
She takes a step closer
She sees a clearer horizon

Through the thin smoke
She gazes into their eyes
She sees meloncholy
Through the soul of hers
She sheds drops of tears
She yearns to embrace them

The sun weaves through the clouds
The light flashes them hope
She goes chasing the sun
She tries holding it above everyone

They turn around to catch a glimpse
While they trudge the flight of steps
She tries to smile and wave goodbye
While she stays and her heart breaks

The bitter sweet past
The changing moments
They are lost in transition
They are all confused

Another night with an unexpected gig. An intended glass of wine can take us to a place full of surprises. After the a slice of brownie, I managed to dash off the dinner table to Schlachthof for a drink or 2 with some friends.

The support band, Dos Hermanos, who is all about lo fi and trashy rock and roll music. 2 men who play about 5 guitars, harmonica as well as 2 customised drum kits,  possibly with stuff collected from the junk yard. With a Megaphone, they sang and read a few extracts from their little story books but in German, so could not be comprehended. Nevertheless, they were full of actions on stage, which also make them good comedians. However, the resemblance in the music is a mish mash of beck, blur, modest mouse and a few other catchy indie rock bands. Good performers with skills on various instruments but composition is lacking originality. 

 Mama Rosin,  a Swiss band from Geneva who spoke German with a strong French accent last night. They released brilliant vibes in the Cajun Music style, which took us to Louisiana for the rest of the night. The music took a speedy ride on an accordian, banjo, electric guitar, drums and a triangle, the fiddle was missing! Mama Rosin has time travelled back to the roots in New Orleans and brought some music influence back to Europe . They have put the music into a new frame within the Rock genre and it works out pretty well for the people in this era.

 The crowd did the 2 thumbs in the pocket dance as they played from rock to blues to waltz and to country. The melody on the instruments were so loud that we could only hear some babbles on the vocals but apparently, that is the way they do it.

 http://www.myspace.com/mamarosin

The Playlist:

01 - A Certain Ratio - Down Down Down 

02 - Bats for Lashes - What’s A AGirl To Do?

03 - John Maus - Time To Die

04 - Mahjongg - Tell The Police The Truth

05 - The Mae Shi - R U Professional?

06 - Simian Mobile Disco - I Be Alive

07 - Gang Gang Dance - House Jam

08 - Extraperlo - Negroni

09 - Ebony Bones - We Know All About U

10 - Skatebard - Gamble Furutraer

11 - Zombie Zombie - Torture

12 - Squarepusher - Illegal Dustbin

13 - Dan Deacon - Surprise Stefani

14 - Aphex Twin - Film

15 - St Etienne - Lazarus

 

 Primavera Sound Pt.2 [67:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (486)

The Playlist:

01- Spiritualized - Ladies and Gentlemen We Are FL

02 - Since When -  Reigning Sound

03 - Jason Lytle - Elevate Myself

04 - Yo La Tengo - Speeding Motorcycle

05 - Agent Ribbons - Birds and Bees

06 - Karl Blau - Before Telling Dragons

07 - Bowerbirds - In Our Talons

08 - The Extraordinaires - A Proud Salute

09 - Black Lips - I’ll Be With You

10 - Plants and Animals - Bye Bye Bye

11 - Phoenix - Lisztomania  

12 - Jay Reatard - Always Wanting More 

13 - The Secret Society - Lifetime Compromise

14 - Deerhunter - Like New

15 - My Bloody Valentine - Blown A Wish

16 - Michael Nyman - The Heart Asks Pleasure First 

 

 Primavera Sound Pt.1 [58:06m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (358)

  I browsed through the music on my abandoned PC last night and found The Cheap Poet. So, I played this album on Itunes with the psychedelic visualiser and continued reading my book. Immediately, my mind was torn between 2, the book and the tracks. There is a great illustration of sounds intervened between gentle rhythm and haunting vocals.

He, a poet is from Venezuela. Unfortunately, that is all I can write about him. However, there is a poem behind the composition of the sound piece. Simple riffs with various synth sounds, maybe some other electronic oscillations, real glockenspiel or marimba circulating within an auditory environment. All the sounds, melodic and non melodic are dynamically changing in relation to the distance and direction, which creates a 3 dimensional audio image. I imagine him doing a spatial recording in a space with random events (laughing people, children scrambling for coins, one on marimba, strange program on television, one hitting pans and pots).

There are certainly quite a few elements to discover. He has got the ears to discover the significance behind these sounds and of course managed to interprete them into rhythm and melody.

 www.myspace.com/thecheappoet

  I would have missed it if I did not log on to facebook again (like I have ever stopped!) To my surprise and delight, Ms Jain made her way to Basel for a short gig. Essie Jain, an English born folk singer song writer who grew up in London is currently based in New York (how ironic?). She had only released her first album ‘We Made This Ourselves‘ in 2007.  Ms Jain is still a little girl in this music biz but sings like she was born to sing. Music is simple but often with chordal ‘alterations’ that gives the mood.

She pulled a little notebook out of her pocket, flipping through a few pages and ta da, she found a list of her songs. She did not prepare a set list but only randomly picked songs out of her notebook while she spoke about how much cheese and fondue her guitarist had. The first tune they played was ‘Glory’, which left me mesmerised for the rest of the night. She, like an instrument amateur only played very simple riffs on the guitar. She also played the piano in a child like way while her legs were constantly doing that little dance under the keyboard. Instead of sounding like an amateur, the riffs accompanied her warm and gentle voice (with haunting alto weaving in and out) well. With my eyes shut, I could imagine Joni Mitchell singing to a 5 year old girl playing on her toy piano.

With their guitars and trumpet lying around on that tiny stage, Ms Jain and her sessionist, John had played the audience captivating music, more than the lights that were shinning through the blinds from the back stage. She seemed thrilled and grateful to the crowd for being present but little did she know about how her music had left us in awe, well at least for me.

http://www.myspace.com/essiejain

   Skype has been an efficient, cost effective and fun way of keeping in touch with people all over the world. The wonder of audio and video transmission over the internet has enabled us to stay familiar with one another, to verbally share thoughts and experience.

However, some could do and collaborate musically in a performance mode. Tim who is based in Switzerland produces the beats, dials into skype to connect to Mimi who is based in Tokyo. The gig at Goldenfass started at around 10 pm CET while Mimi probably managed to crawl out of bed at 6 am (Tokyo time) to sit infront of the webcam with a microphone. Tim got the electronic beats going and Mimi who was projected onto the screen started singing. The combined virtual world and live performance brought them together as a present performance. 

Mimi who has influence from her previous pop punk band blends her vocals with Tim’s playful electronic beats. The music seems to have very animated synth and bass lines with a touch of hip hop on certain tracks. Coming far from that, the flute drifts in as well as Tim also plays the flute on top of spinning? hmm…

http://www.myspace.com/timandpumamimi

I read the news this morning

I sipped my tea that almost made me weep

50,100,700 or more have been killed

The kids never had the chance to play with rockets no more

 As the strikes took them away

I wondered how men can be inhumane

What drove the animality

When will it recur to purity

Where they only play the game of love instead of hate

No weapons but only candies and popsicles

Love to hate war

This is war against pride

Love to hate war

This is war against greed

Love to hate war

This is war against anger

Love to hate war

This is war against War

   Itunes shopping is my new addiction. Blowing cash is only a click away even though there is no intention. Not cool but it pleases my ears..

Global Goon is the latest investment. Johnny Hawk a.k.a Global Goon had lived with Richard D.James a.k.a Aphex Twins in London in the mid 90’s. I liked the sound of Goon even before I knew anything about him. Flatmates? Music Making? There must be some kinda influence and that is probably why as I am also an Aphex Twins fan. However, Global Goon sounds less dark and mysterious than Aphex Twins. The beats can be digested more easily along with funky, fat and happy bass lines. Alot of wobbly synth melodies that gives the sense of playfulness and animated moves. Random vocals, chopped, gated, synthesised can be found in between elements, which also make the music less robotic. Electronic music can be repetitive most of the time and that often causes listeners to only ‘hear’ and not ‘listen’. However, I have been listening to every track, not all bits to be honest but almost. The music takes you through variety such as the unexpected presence of vocals in various forms, audible toys, catchy melodies, vibrance from the crispy hi hats and snare and funky beats to get your body moving.

So much to expect and to unexpect but they can all be digested with you feeling constipated by the end of the day…

It is easy listening hard stuff

Enjoy it}

 

 Global Goon "Dead Weird Keks": Play Now | Play in Popup | Download