Usually I like to keep this blog about stuff connected to dodgy stereo artists or gigs or exhibitions, but occasionally you come across something you feel you have to share. This little drum solo is one of those things.
Relax, and make sure you're not going to spill what you're drinking, nor choke on what you're eating.
First time at Alterna club last night. This odd band were from France (sponsored by the Alliance Francaise on their poster) and after a chat i found out they are from Britanny (the same part of France as my co-blogger Sophie). Their music is a strange blend of styles and instrumentation. A surf/rockabilly electric guitar, a chugging/country acoustic guitar, stomping blues drums, stereotypical french accordian with surprising disco/soul electric parts (have you ever seen an electric accordian? If you have, imagine it played through a Marshall amp) and some gypsy/folk (bass) clarinet, alto sax, double bass, mandolin and fiddle. Although this may sound like an awful experiemnt to some I enjoyed it a lot. And I was clearly not on my own - the club had plenty of other enthusiastic dancers happily clapping their hands ad swinging wildly.
Straight out of work and up to Fleda for another installment of Heavy Mental. I am very happy to have found out that the event was happening at all as it was only the evening before that I first saw the advertisement.
The flip side of the flyer made for very interesting reading (not just because I have to struggle reading Czech). As is quite popular on many flyers these days the names of the bands are listed and below each is a link to their myspace account and also a few words to describe their sound.
In particular I liked 'offstep', which I had never heard of before. I could google this to see if it's a commonly used name for a genre or if Batcha invented it himself, but I prefer not to know and simply enjoy wondering about it.
Sadly you can't see with great detail from my video clips, but the team of VJs (VJS GND, LIU, P.O.P.CORP. a PITCH.THE.GLITCH) did a pretty amazing job of streaming constantly evolving moving images to accompany the sounds; no repeating loops like I do instead, they had their live feed or loop constantly twitching and glitching with what looked like the equivilent of visual granular synthesis (it's probably time for me to become more familiar with Max/MSP + Jitter).
The evening was full of loud and incredibly challenging and diverse sound. I guess that many people would contest that it was music. I found it really exciting and felt that theoretically, anything was possible afterwards.
I posted my remix of Jamie Lidell's 'Feel Good' (BEW remix) on myspace yesterday before going to work. After the Heavy Mental event i feel it's a bit tame. Go have a listen for yourself and judge. Note to self: must figure out how to stop spam-bots in the comments section.
Lineup 5.4.08 21:00 Vje 22:30 Shroombab + MC Coppa 00:00 Dieselboy 02:00 CLS & Wax + K-Size 03:30 Sayko 05:00 Eddrum Sterling performances all round. MC Coppa and Dieselboy
Last night I went to see Control (2007 Anton Corbijn). A black and white film about Ian Curtis of Joy Division based on the book by his wife Debbie. A touching biopic, created with affection for the subject matter, without over sentimentalising or trivialising the narrative.
This was the first film I made it to in the Brno leg of the international festival of music films called 'Music on Film - Film on Music'. unfortunately due to my work schedule I will miss many of the screenings, but I intend to go and see Metallica - Some Kind of Monster (a film to be taken seriously in the words of radiohead's Colin Greenwood)on Friday. Good times. In other news I'll be vjing for Dieselboy at Fleda this weekend. Another Break 4 Beats party; so you can expect a long night full of high-tempo beats and large helpings of bass to bounce to.
