This beautiful and evocative short film, created and animated by hand over three years by Japanese anime artist Shingo Tamagawa gives us – through its journey and exploration of transformation – bearings and direction. A subtle and powerful prompting about the space of human life and the capacity for art and stories to redeploy and […]
Tim Hecker, the Canadian musical artist whose albums create relationships in sound that at times confer feelings as to a most daring encounter or dance; in the most abstracted and imaginative of senses. Paragon Point (above) from 2009’s ‘An Imaginery Country’ exudes a shimmering vastness to its drone, guided by a tonality that has the […]
Recently I was lucky enough to catch a live set from the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Fulu Miziki, playing in Hackney Wick in London, the final date of a brief UK tour. On a night of searing, unreal heat in the Studio 9294 venue Fulu Miziki played, adorned in their ebullient costumes, rendering them as […]
(w/ Sigur Rós, Postminimalism) In March 2013, my friend Steve bought us tickets to see Sigur Rós play in London. They played a set that reached lofty if inconsistent heights – at times transporting with brilliant melodic force, aided by an ingenious and huge dual projection system involving two screens, one behind the band and […]
Whilst researching for a piece, I came across the journey of this documentary about Pauline Oliveros (May 30, 1932 – November 24, 2016) which has been slowly fundraising and gestating into existence, directed by Daniel Weintraub. The quote above in title of this piece is something said by Steve Buscemi at the end of his […]
Mark Lanegan’s recent passing brought to mind the beautiful instrument of his voice, but also the thrill of reading his autobiography ‘Sing Backwards and Weep‘ (published in 2020) in which he takes us through an astonishing journey via a story of his life from his young and visceral rebelliousness through to his time in music […]
The above photo was how I started to record the album that would be finished recording 5 years later, and then finally mastered and ready some 8 years on (Bandcamp). I’d been making music in computer sequencing and recording programmes for years and just felt more and more that alongside the impact of difficulties in […]
Near to Nothing Bandcamp I’ve been playing with the Hackney based improvising group Fear of Fluffing for near enough 6 years. Here is a biography written for a live event in November that took place at Trowbridge Gardens Arts cafe. About FEAR OF FLUFFING:The Fear of Fluffing have been playing around East London(mostly) for over […]
A documentary film in the course of it ‘documenting’ something can sometimes be a deeply problematic beast, in as much as it gives something a single narrative line (even while it may be conserving the multiple). In one sense it crystalises or settles a space of events and singularities that might include contrastings of seeing […]
A friend (R. Sutherland) mentioned this band he was due to see recently Beak〉and upon quick encounter it was immediately apparent to me that this is a high, high quality sonic outfit. The first track from them I came across was the sleekly brilliant ‘Oh Know’ (below), which also happens to have a fantastically discombobulating […]
For seventeen years between 1990 and 2007 BBC Radio 3 had a very extraordinary show called Mixing It on air that was broadcast once a week and featured the most interesting music of the time which had an experimental bent. A poppier sound or edge was never unwelcome and yet routinely there was an edge […]
Been really enjoying Dom Whiting’s mobile Drum and Bass sets recently, they’ve been catching fire on YT and are a rare treat. Dom is clearly riding a rising wave and its interesting that Drum and Bass is part of the equation. ‘This one’s a banger’ In part it helps to see where Drum and Bass […]
An untimely river, ‘Near Wild Heaven’ and Synecdoche New York (2008) Part 1 For a number of years, I hadn’t listened to R.E.M. much if at all. I came across Stipe’s performance a few years ago on late night American TV in remembrance of David Bowie, a solo sung version (above) of ‘The Man Who […]
Nature, traps and escape in songs from R.E.M.’s ‘Green’ album (1988) Like many people 1991 was when I first heard R.E.M. spearheaded into my consciousness via breakthrough single ‘Losing My Religion’, a song that blasted the band into the mainstream. While there had been early TV appearances, they were part of an alternative rock scene […]
Gruff Rhys, former front man with Super Furry animals has a new solo album coming tomorrow! (21st May) ‘Seeking New Gods’ and there’s a really lovely tune from that at the end of this piece. I’ve followed Gruff’s work in and out, from the wonderful ‘American Interior‘ from 2014 the lead song of which certainly […]
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