Morrissey for Dublin

Hurrah!!!!!!!

The queen of sardonic wit plays on the grounds of Royal Kilmainham Hospital on June 28th. Special kudos goes his way for delaying this announcement until after Fergal bought his ticket for the Cork show. Bravo sir.

LIVE: Broken Social Scene, Vicar St, May 20th

Don't remember much of this one.

BSITWT #14

Bonobo- 'Recurring'






Beautiful and inspiring music.

James Holden, Spy, May 23rd

Spy treated us to another world-beating DJ on Friday night with the arrival of Border Community head James Holden. He was supported by Anja Schneider, who was rocking the place for the half hour of her set we caught. As for Holden, he was on top form, treating us to what someone referred to as a set that was "soooo Holden". There are not too many DJs about whom this can be said, but Holden does seem to have his own style and almost his own genre of melodic, uplifting (at times bordering on the Trancey) brand of techno. He played some huge tracks, including Shitrobot's Chasm and two-time BSITWT recipient Jake Fairley's Centre of Gravity, which I only seem to be able to access through a set of Holden's from Spain earlier this year. Expect to hear a lot more of these two tracks in the coming months. The atmosphere was raucous (and extremely hot and sweaty) in Spy as the Dublin crowd once again showed why DJs love coming here. Another quality night in Spy, which has really treated us to the finest the world has to offer this year.

Broken Social Scene, Vicar St, May 20

Broken Social Scene, sans Feist, made a welcome return to Vicar Street on Tuesday for a belter of a gig, all the more so considering it was during the week. Anyone who attended will attest to the fact that it is hard not to get roped along when they get going. Kevin Drew, impeccably dressed in a trucker hat and a suit jacket, was his usual lively self, an Brendan Canning treated us to his legendarily crap jokes. Love it.
As for the tunes, it was great to have Amy Millen from Stars there (especially as there was no other female vocal...). Check her out doing "Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl" below, which, along with Drew's solo version of Lover's Spit were two of the more tender highlights of a gig packed with energy. The opener, Pacific Theme is just the most summery, jolly way to get a gig going. They proceeded to play quite a few (maybe too many?) of the tracks from the Spirit If album (BSS presents Kevin Drew). One nice taste of things to come was a track from the upcoming BSS presents Brendan Canning album. I have no idea what it was called but it sure wasn't bad. Other tracks that stood out were Superconnected, KC accidental, 7/4 Shoreline and the one where they got everyone to roar like crazy before the chorus (I think it was It's all gonna break...either way it was an unreal laugh). BSS live is something I will happily experience over and over again until they decide enough is enough. Their humility towards, and very entertaining interaction with, the crowd, along with a seriously high quality repertoire, make them essential viewing. Bravo!!

Four Tet - Ringer

Kieran Hebden, aka Four Tet, is back with a 4-track EP, Ringer, which was released last month.
Ribbons is quite dreamy, with colourful melodious spatterings appearing over a nice beat. The title track has the looping quality to keep a room going early in the morning, while Wing Body Wing is a very impressive slow-burner. You can check out these tracks here

More impressive than the EP itself, in my opinion, are two DJ mixes of his which have appeared of late. Both are well worth the time investment*....
One, a half-hour dinger in recognition of the release of Ringer, is available here
The other, a more complete affair, is available here

Hebden is probably as well if not better known for his huge selection of remixes as for his own productions. One particular favourite of mine is his remix of Weight of My Words by the Kings of Convenience**. It is a lovely subtle flowing track. Check it out here




*I have officially spent too much time today reading about economics.
** KofC are performing at EP this year and will surely receive attention on this blog over the summer. As will their lead man Erlend Oye, a hero of ours.

Review: Ellen Allien

See post below for a rough idea of our appreciation for Ms Allien. She did not disappoint last night, even if her set was slightly different from what we expected. It was a much deeper, mature affair than usual, but different is always to be expected with someone as innovative as her. The set was very much a slow-burning, building one, and in the last hour really hit a climax, as profound air-filling build-ups were hammered home by stomping bass-heavy beats. It was certainly far less minimal than what I would expect or usually enjoy, but there are certainly no complaints here. She finished with a gem that had heads turning too: from Machine Gun from Portishead's new album (see Ed's post ).

The National, Weds May 14th

The National returned to Dublin for three shows this week to start off their new tour (of Europe? The World? The Milky Way? I'm not sure which...), due to the fantastic reception they have received at previous shows and their love of the city's music scene, which is a pretty big endorsement..
The gig started off slightly subdued, with the Wednesday night crowd taking their time getting into the swing of things, which is understandable. Early major tracks included Mistaken for Strangers, which I found slightly odd due to its potential to be a big epic finisher. As the gig progressed we were treated to the majority of their biggest tracks from the two superb albums Alligator and Boxer. Big highlights for me included Start a War and the huge energy and emotion of Matt Berninger's performance, particularly striking during Abel and Squalor Victoria. Also big mention for their keyboard/violin guy (with the long hair and beard). He rocks!!! All in all a great Dublin night, full of hand-clapping, jumping up and down, sing-alongs and the general joys of going to a gig!!!

Here is a video we didn't take of them performing "Fake Empire", a classic.

Ellen Allien, Spy, Friday

Spy welcomes one of the biggest names in world electronic music this weekend. Berlin's Ellen Allien arrives to provide one of this year's highlights in Dublin. Not only renowned for her production and DJing, this lady is also the creator and head of the world famous BPitch Control label (which also boasts artists such as Apparat, Sascha Funke, Paul Kalkbrenner, Ben Klock and Modeselektor) and runs a fashion label which is releasing a line called 'plus' this year. I quote from her website: "... organic prints are crucial for *plus* - they represent the human body’s energy flux. hence, the name *plus* stands for the positive energy, which we all need for being happy and that never shall become subdued by negativity". But of course.....

Fashion aside, it is the music that we will be going for, and between her collaborative album with Apparat Orchestra of Bubbles and her Fabric 34 compilation of last year, there is a lot to whet the appetite. On top of that, her newest album Sool ('subtle, mysterious and minimal', according to her) goes on sale at the end of this month, so hopefully there will be a taster on offer on South William St tomorrow.
Check out a video of her in action below. The track (i.d. anyone??) and bear on a motorbike that come in around 1 min 15 are particularly evil.

BSITWT #13

Fairmont - 'Fade and Saturate'







Canadian Jake Fairley makes a welcome return to this category. This track is simply immense. He is pictured above at his recent appearance in Galway. He rocked. I could attempt to write a meaningful appraisal of the gig but the following words sum it up nicely: fucking awesome. Ferg described the gig, and all that went with it, as "good for the soul".

Taken from Colured in Memory. **highly recommended**

MUTO - new wall painted animation by Blu.

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

More at:
www.blublu.org

Made in Buenos Aires over god knows how many days. Impressive stuff.

Jape is Grape

May 12th is the release date for Jape's sophomore LP Ritual.

Anyone lucky enough to witness his appearance last November at A Month of Sundays (one of our favourite gigs last year) will be d'lighted to see Phil Lynott (one of the more obscure tribute tracks you're likely to hear) on the tracklisting, along with established live tracks like Christopher and Anthony. Early listens suggest that it could be something special, combining folksie electronica and indie with his trademark knack for a good story.

As mentioned below, he's also playing as part of Foggy Notions' Future Days festival, an early contender for Sneaky Highlight of the Summer 2008.

If you're one of the many, many people who feel cripplingly marginalised by their lack of "I was at Dan Deacon" clout in music-related discourse, you should already have your ticket for this twosie. We can't wait.

Morrissey

It appears the big man is back on Irish soil, according and due to Aiken. It will have been nearly 2 years since his Marlay Park appearance in August 2006 (in that epic week that featured Radiohead and Daft Punk in the Rathfarnham utopia) when Morrissey takes the stage at Live in the Marquee in Cork on June 26th. I, for one, will even forgive the fact that attending this means having to go to Cork. Yuck. Tickets this Thursday May 15th at 9am.

Check him out performing "the boy with the thorn in his side"

Minus presents Contakt.

Minus end their 10 week silence by announcing a string of concept parties revloving around a glowing cube. eh?

This new concept seems to feature the Minus crew dressing up in sci-fi costumes, incorporating new visuals and a website to match.

Despite the strange concept, the tour will feature some of the best names the label has to offer with Gaiser, Magda, Marc Houle and Troy Pierce all set to perform. It is also rumoured that the performances will feature live collaborations between the artists, breaking from the lineal, one-after-another, tradition structure. That in itself should provide enough stimulus to check out the parties, continuing the label's 10th birthday celebrations.

There’s also a whole backstory about the cube, of course, which is described in the press notes as “a mysterious object discovered in a clandestine excavation site. Initial tests reveal a dense, carbon-based structure utilizing liquid crystal technology. While its origins remain unclear it seems to have been created by intelligence far greater than our own.”

“What is apparent is that the Cube is a highly advanced communications device that responds positively to the presence of humans and interacts accordingly,” explains Richie Hawtin. “By acting as a central hub it seems to allow us to direct our thoughts, collect and share ideas, transcend language and interconnect musically in ways previously not possible."

Again, eh?

Anyway, to get involved, you'll need to buy a membership card, which is embedded with a microchip which can “make contact” with the cube. This puts you in the running for various prizes, downloads and allows you to tune into a wireless network during the gig.

Despite what is clearly a marketing ploy and the exegesis of an 'in-joke', some forgiveness is forthcoming after listening to Hawtin's podcast for Resident Advisor. Hawtin was chosen to mark the milestone of reaching 100 podcasts for the influential Australian site.

Richie Hawtin - Resident Advisor 100th Podcast (28-04-2008)Published / 28 April 2008 Filesize / 73.09 MB Length / 1:00:54

http://rapidshare.com/files/110981084/RA.100_Richie_Hawtin.rar

or

http://ra2.residentadvisor.net/audio/RA100_080428_Richie-Hawtin-residentadvisor.net.mp3

Tracklist:

Cassino & Labén / Oliver Dodd - Elevators and Escalators - Addon /

Dub Kult - Crypt - Curle Recordings /

Danilo Vigorito - Alnitak (Dark Side) - Inside Orion Minimal Muzik /

Click Box - Peek a Boo - Items & Things /

John Conrad - Maxime Dangles /

Aleph-1 - C A G 08.4s - iDEAL Recordings /

Alex Under - Gris - CMYK /

Johnny D - Tramodyssee - Oslo /

J.Alter - Track 1 / Gaiser - Ground 1.1 /

Acid Circus - Uncle Jak - Droid Recordings /

Obtane - Tribute to Mandragora (Damon Wild Remix) - Synewave /

Heron - Afterhour - Minisome /

Hugo - Born To Bop - Claque Musique /

Gel Abril - 200 Grams - Be As One /

Moritz von Oswald - Watamu Beach - Desolat /

Seuil - Dance - Minibar /

Skoozbot - Two Over The Eight - Mindshake Records /

Dan Berkson & James What - Reflections feat Robert Owens - Poker Flat /

Rasmus Hedlund - Betoni - Resopal Schallware /

Alva Noto - Haliod Xerrox Copy 1 - Raster-Noton /

Nick Curly - On My Way (Ali Nasser Remix) - Supernature Records /

Heron - The Way Home - Minisome /

J.Alter - Track 2

What the f**k is going on in: Baltimore, MD

This is not a post about politics or 'reality' but the title is nonetheless fitting, as a recent spate of discoveries of artists' whereabouts has led us to wonder: "what the f**k is going on in Baltimore?". The place just seems to be a madhouse. The music and the characters emanating from here that are appearing on the international stage are noticeable for their idiosyncratic, trippy, off-the-wall nature. Not coincidentally, a number of the mentioned artists are appearing in Dublin in the coming weeks. The experimental obscure nature of the city's artists means it is surely not for all tastes, but it at least keeps you guessing and never leaves you stuck for food for thought.

Our first taste of Baltimore came in the form of Dan Deacon. Deacon is well-known for his quirky psychedelic style and for his mesmerising live shows, which see him perform in the middle of the crowd on a table. Fun is the name of the game with Deacon. As a guy from Videohippos put it"I think people like Dan Deacon because he really lets them feel like infants."
A big influence on the artistic activity coming from Baltimore seems to be Wham City. It was voted 'best creative hive' by City Paper in 2006. It runs a festival called Whartscape, each year, at the same time as Artscape, as city-run festival. Artists associating themselves with Wham City include Dan Deacon, Missoula Oblongata, Santa Dads, Videohippos, along with an array of visual artists.

The discovery that Animal Collective were also from Baltimore, after over a year of presuming they were part of the 'Canadian bands with funny names' set, only furthered our interest. Although now based in New York, all members of the band hail from Baltimore. Among these is Panda Bear, whose album Person Pitch received PitchFork's 2007 record of the year. The 'psych-folk' combination espoused by this lot, along with the bizarre style of the Wham City crew, certainly lead us to believe there is something in the water in this east-coast haven.

The work of the city is as likely to irritate and confuse as to delight. I for one however must say I relish the idea that scenes with such "no holds barred" attitudes to artistic output still exist. It seems like a real throwback to a freer age in the States when "anything goes" was the order of the day. And long may it last.
Check out Dan Deacon's Crystal Cat for a taste of the acid-laced nature of this city.

BSITWT #12

Midlake - 'Roscoe' (Beyond The Wizard's Sleeve Remix)

www.myspace.com/midlake

Ulrich Schnauss

We took in Schnauss on both sides of the country last week. The two parts of this post were written completely independently of each other. The plan was to edit them together into one post, but I think the similarity between the two says it all about Airiel's role in Ulrich Schnauss' current live performances.

Galway, Thursday 1 May

Ulrich Schnauss & co. started their journey around Ireland in the intimate surroundings of DeBurgho's last Thursday. Galway's Boetpoet (left) got proceedings underway, impressively entertaining the early arrivals. Using only a rare 'mono' to trigger sounds through Ableton, we were treated to an improvised performance joining the dots between ambient and IDM to produce an excellent appetiser for what was to follow. Airiel took to the stage shortly after. Being Schnauss' tour band and collaborators we were entitled to expect them to complement his sound in terms of quality and direction in some shape or form. How wrong we were. Maybe it was the acoustics, maybe it was the system or possibly a combination of both but they left us with no alternative but to escape to the aural safety of the front bar to prevent hearing damage. Similar reports from their appearance the following evening in Dublin only serve to reinforce the prevailing sentiment in Galway.

Ulrich Schnauss then took the stage, or more correctly the middle of the floor, and we were back on course for a while. The intro to the first track was played expertly by Schnauss using a keyboard to trigger a software instrument. The sense of anticipation in the room was almost tangible when he turned to his laptop and began to layer melodic synths over the recorded loop. Sounds flowed nicely from there, the crowd began to feel at ease once again and started to move to Schanuss' atmospheric electronica. Then KABLAMMO!!, 30 mins into a growing and endearing set, Airiel got back in on the action. The distortion and feedback from their input easily took the sheen off what had been a hypnotic last half hour. When Schnauss began his encore with what was, for me, his best track of the evening we were once again on a road to somewhere. But, you've guessed it, on came those Chicago lads once again to desecrate what was a beautiful soundscape. For me, the combination just didn't work live. I'm sure with the benefit of a studio and some EQ polishing the end product could be palatable but on this occasion the ingredients simply did not mix well.

While it was great to Mr Schnauss in Galway for the extremely decent price of €8 and the Stress!! lads deserve enormous credit for such a coup, it was the local lad who really stole the show for me. Cian Ó'Cíobháin included Beatpoet's 'Tao' on the An Taobh Tuathail Vol. 1 compilation released last August. Info and tracks available to sample at http://www.myspace.com/beatpoetmusic.

Ed

Dublin, Friday 2 May

A confusing gig. Chequerboard opened the night and confirmed what we thought - he is fucking class loch. Then Airiel came on, and after getting a headache from their first song we decided to go for a well earned half hour coffee in Temple Bar square. Arriving back just as they finished their last song left a sweet taste of victory. Schnauss, after a brief technical glitch, got going with his ableton and keyboard solo performance, treating us to a selection of his truly beautiful shoegaze/electronica, which was accompanied by a really nice picture show. 4 or 5 songs in there was a sense in the room that the crowd were being treated to a really special show. But then Airiel appeared back out and played the last few songs with Schnauss, including the encore. While some of it was still palatable, the distortion and noise-experiment style was really out of sync with what we had expected from a night involving Schnauss and Chequerboard. While some of these later tracks did evoke Mogwai-ish memories, a lot of it was just too much for these ears. While certainly treated to some of what we had expected from Schnauss, the overwhelming feeling on leaving was "eh?".

Ferg

Future Days Festival, June, Dublin

A lovely mini-festival going on in venues around Dublin in June, brought together by Foggy Notions and Forever Presents. This promises to be a great few days. Here is the full (AFAIK) line-up:

June 12, Andrews Lane: Matmos and Si Schroeder.
June 13, Andrews Lane: Low, Atlas Sound, the Holy Roman Army
June 14, Vicar Street: Dan Deacon, Jape, White Williams, High Places
June 15, Vicar Street: Bonny Prince Billy, Baby Dee, Paul Cureri
June 16, Andrews Lane: Metronomy, Spilly Walker

Definite highlights for me include
Si Schroeder, a great Dublin act who delighted us out of our misery and stupor on Sunday afternoon at EP last year.
Low, whose last album Drums and Guns included the absolute gems Belarus, Breaker and Murderer (one of my songs of 2007, which nearly caused two of the BTBW crew to cry with drunken joy last summer on a rooftop somewhere hot).
Jape, whose new stuff is causing a stir. Floating is one which is instantly recognisable
Dan Deacon, because I keep missing his much-touted "in the crowd" live shows in Dublin.
Atlas Sound, who is soloist Bradford Cox, whose music has been described as "very nice noise-clouds" or something to that degree. He also supports Animal Collective May 19 in Tripod.
Spilly Walker. Nuff said. This blog will shamelessly plug anything David Kitt is involved in in perpetuity.

One final point: hooray for Andrews Lane!!!

What the F**k is going on in: Abkhazia

Gotta love those Russians. Without them flexing their geopolitical muscles this column would have very little to write about. The background to this one is pretty simple: Russia doesn't like Georgia. It is an ex-Soviet state, newly cosied up to the US, and currently attempting to gain NATO membership. What's more it is a vital energy transit route. So basically it pisses our Vlad off. Loads. Abkhazia is a tiny semi-tropical province in Northern Georgia, on the Black Sea, bordering Russia. It was once the playground of the Soviet elite. Shortly after Georgian independence separitist groups fought a war for self-determination which was unsuccessful. It claims independence and pretty much runs its own affairs independently of Tblisi to this day. The resolution of the 1994 conflict led to the Russians being allowed to have 2,000 peacekeeping troops in the region permanently. The Americans have stated in the past that they support Georgia's claim on the region and would like the Russians to piss off out of there. Not sure what game they have been watching lately, but this kind of tone does not sit well with Vlad. In the last few weeks Russia has sent an extra 1,000 troops into Abkhazia, in what has been described by Georgia as an act of "full scale military aggression". As of April 16 of this year Russia, in classic "up yours" style, has established formal diplomatic ties with both Abkhazia and South Ossetia (see map).
There are three possible things going on here:
1) We all know that Vlad likes Serbia, and was less than pleased about the whole Kosovo thing. Thankfully for Vlad's "Don't fuck with me" foreign policy, support for Abkhazian independence represents a perfect opportunity to show that we certainly shouldn't do anything of the sort, and reconciles well with his now-legendary schoolyard bully style.
2) Abkhazia is a place of strategic and historical importance to Russia, and Russia has decided it wants it, and is simply going to bully Georgia out of it. Which is pretty legend in this day and age. Come on, who does that any more? The last Annex I came across was in a first year accounting exam.
3) Vlad has set this up as an initiation for "Mini-Vlad", Dmitri Medvedev. As in: "Go on D, I dare ya to go over to yer man and just nick his province. If you don't I'll call you a pussy for the rest of the school year and nick your lunch money". This might be slighlty less likely but even the possibility that it may be going on makes me laugh like hell.

In summary, watch this one for confirmation that Russia doesn't follow anybody's rules, not even their own.

BSITWTs #11 and #11a

BTBW is spiffed to see that people are still remixing the shit out of all things Thom Yorke related. Here are two of the better efforts I've heard of late:

The first, from Ring Trick, is a proggy rendition of In Rainbows closer Videotape. Much like the original, it resists the temptation to fall prey to over-indulgence, while still comfortably retaining its haunting/captivating/*generic-Yorke-related-adjective* intensity.

Radiohead - Videotape (Ring TrickMix)


The second, from Yorke's 2006 record Eraser, is simply a classic go-faster track*.

Thom Yorke - The Clock (Surgeon Remix)



* Song which invariably, and inexplicably, turns your jog into a sprint for circa 27 seconds.

Chromatics - Andrew's Lane Theatre, April 24

Slightly late with this one as the Dublin brigade of BTBW have been busy with things non-music related for the past few days. This was our first experience of the newly opened Andrew's Lane Theatre venue, smack in the middle of the hub of all things great in Dublin - the Grafton-Stephen's Green-George's St-Dame St. rectangle*. We were more than impressed. The dark, brick walled interior to the dance-hall style venue allows for a nice atmosphere to generate. There is ample room to throw a few shapes too which is always good. The line-up fitted the surroundings perfectly - David Kitt opened playing his Spilly Walker stuff, sans his brother. Aside from the already established (in our kitchen anyway) classic Let the freak come out at night, Spilly Walker appear to have a few more gems up their sleeve. The dark and heavy electronic beats accompanying colourful guitar riffs are a far cry from Kitt's earlier work. An album or EP release is highly anticipated in these parts after this taster. Donal Dineen finished the night once Chromatics were done, and as usual did not disappoint. If every gig ever was accompanied by these two gentlemen that would be just fine with me. As for the main event, Chromatics treated us to a very competent and progressive rendition of what they have to offer. Their attire and onstage demeanour are straight out of the uber-cool New York scene, but, I suppose, as Ron Burgundy famously conjectured, When in Rome....Early tracks included their beautifully subtle rendition of The Boss's** I'm on Fire before moving on to more upbeat tracks such as Night Drive and In the City, the quality of which should render this group destined for greatness. Their finisher, a cover of Kate Bush's Running up the Hill was more than enthusiastically received by an audience which knew they were looking at a group with serious potential. Hopefully this will not be the last we see of them on these shores. Oh, did I mention, the singer is a hottie too?

*this area may not in fact be rectangularly shaped.

**Bruce Springsteen is the boss

chromatics myspace