Floatinghead's ramblings about music and music-related themes interspersed with various interludes and home of Cabeza de Vaca radio show on Scanner FM, Barcelona.
Simon Fisher Turner (SFT) has come up in the media for two main reasons lately. First is his scoring of the soundtrack to “The Great White Silence” and the second is the recent release of “Super 8” a 3xCD set on Fench Art Label Optical Sound which also links to the cinema of Derek Jarman.
“The Great White Silence” is a film made by Herbert Ponting and first screened in primitive form in 1913, but not assuming its more finished state until 1924. It is part fact, part fiction and part documentary, recording the fatal journey of Robert Scott to the South Pole between 1910 and 1912. Ponting was the official photographer and documenter of the expedition, but luckily did travel in the last leg due to age and the difficulty of the journey where he would otherwise have met his end. Therefore, parts of the film were essentially fictionalised by editing in pre-recorded footage or restaged later.
The original film was of course silent, but in the most recent reissue, the British Film Institute (BFI) has commissioned a soundtrack from SFT. SFT has had a long and distinguished career as both actor, artist and musician, releasing on labels like Mute and Creation under his own name and the King of Luxembourg, as well as once being a short-term member of The The.
In this incredibly fascinating mini documentary of the making of the soundtrack, SFT describes the inherent difficulties of scoring a film full of silence and long scenes of animals and ice and also the level of detail taken to produce an authentic and respectful piece of music.
The second news piece of news relating to SFT is the release of a 3xCD set that pays varying level of tribute to much celebrated English film director and gay-rights activist Derek Jarman simply entitled “Derek Jarman Super 8” with the subtitle “Soundtracks for Derek”. I have not heard the music yet and the available information does not distinctly say to what level the sound material is lifted from Jarman’s films. The CD is also dedicated to Coil's John Balance and Peter Christopherson.
The first piece entitled “I’m ready for my close-up” is credited as including “Derek talking and studio sounds from his film "The Garden"”. An unusual feature of the first disc is that SFT appears to be manipulating a track by Terre Thaemlitz aka DJ Sprinkles who may have himself included the source material from Derek Jarman in his piece (originally entitled "A Crippled Left Wing Soars With The Right (Steal This Record Remix by DJ Sprinkles)). Terre Thaemlitz is himself a fierce gay-rights activist and has consistently spoken out about related topics such as transgender issues and AIDs education.
The short second disc has a title that pays homage to Jarman’s short 1973 Super 8 film “Stolen Apples for Karen Blixen” (Karen Blixen is of course the Danish author who wrote “Out of Africa”). The third disc contains another long piece entitled “Their gods are dancing” and the only information is that it was recorded during the last World Cup while England were losing to Germany.
SFT and Derek Jarman have a long relationship, however, extending back far more than this collection. SFT scored Jarman’s seminal film “Caravaggio” from 1986, one of the few he made on 35mm film, which he found limiting compared to the more portable and experimental potential of Super 8.
“Caravaggio” was also notable for the role played by Tilda Swinton who subsequently collaborated with Jarman on several other projects including “The Last of England”, another film scored by SFT. The following scene from the film features Tilda Swinton in addition to excerpts from Diamanda Galas’s terrifying “Saint of the Pit” album which in itself the second part of The Plague Mass, a triptych that also attempted to raise awareness for AIDs since her brother had also succumbed to the disease.
SFT also scored “The Garden” a film made at Jarman’s cottage with some difficulty as Jarman who had begun to suffer serious health problems due to AIDS.
Jarman’s break appears to have been as the Production designer on Ken Russell’s 1971 film “The Devils”, starring Oliver Reid and Vanessa Redgrave, collectively based on the book by Aldous Huxley“The Devils of Loudon” and the play “The Devils” by John Whiting. Russel’s film has just been rereleased, but is still regarded as one of the most controversial films ever made.
Jarman’s 1979 film adaptation of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” which featured much nudity, mostly male, was a likely inspiration for Peter Greenaway’s much maligned adaptation “Propsero’s Books” from 1991.
But more musically, Jarman has played a key role in connection experimental music and film. In the late 70s and early 80s he captured footage of many key groups and made several important music videos.
Amongst these include early footage of the Sex Pistols, Throbbing Gristle and Marianne Faithful. In recent years, Throbbing Gristle have performed live to some of Jarman’s short films at venues like the Turbine Hall of the TATE Modern.
More recognisable perhaps was his work with The Smiths during the recording of “The Queen is Dead” album (excerpts of this footage went to become the video for the single “Panic”) as well as Marc Almond, the Pet Shop Boys and Suede.
The month of May can often be an unpredictable month in Barcelona, with the often constant runs of rainy days souring the optimism that usually heralds spring and the imminent arrival of summer on the Mediterranean coast. Unusually, May was bright and warm, hot even, with the rain arriving at the start of June and seemingly about to threaten Sonar, who’s daytime events, particularly on the Sonar Village stage, need the bright sun to thrive and catalyse the party atmosphere. Thankfully, the clouds parted true to form and in the nick of time with Sonar week kicking off with its traditional warm weather and the first sun burns of the year.
Despite the good fortune with the weather, the only downside on a personal level was the overwhelming pressure of a demanding day job and the unpredictable behaviour of my paranoid boss who made the ability to come and go freely difficult or impossible, compromising the day time events in particular (and by that I mean the ability to stay out all night as well). This meant horrendous hours, up to 16 hour days, and changing deadlines which is not conducive to relaxing, sleeping well or preparing mentally and physically for a three day music festival. Also in somewhat traditional fashion was the proliferation of thieves with the hot weather (who sometimes seem so ubiquitous here) who robbed my English friends Magnus and Kane (not their real names) hours after arrival in the city. Their arrival on my doorstep at 7:30am after a torrid and minimal night’s sleep with no money or address was not what the doctor ordered, but was nonetheless a good primer for things to come.
Little Dragon
Work and the dentist meant a later than desired arrival at the usually quiet Thursday opening day. Missing sets by the intriguing Toro y Moi, Nicolas Jaar and Floating Points was already a blow, but one more than easily tempered by arriving just after the start of Little Dragon. Despite being my first show of Sonar 2011, Little Dragon was easily the best new find of the festival. The quartet from Gothenburg, Sweden delivered an absolutely magisterial set of motoric and down tempo disco electronica that enthralled for their stage presence and the unexpected twists in the music. Yukimi Nagano’s movement and voice was absolutely magnetic, drawing you in, but never once over powering the musicians, Erik Bodin (drums), Fredrik Källgren Wallin (bass), and Håkan Wirenstrand (keyboards). Their simple, but tight interplay kept the groove propulsive for long periods and sent the breakdowns, when they came, into unexpected territory, using genuine, but understated virtuosity to eke out contrasts, angles and recreate new rhythms seemingly from nothing. Having trawled through their back catalogue on record, they are enthralling with a glut of hits and catchy songs, often more down beat than their live show, but too many to post. A sample of what they are like live is here:
They have a new single “Nightlight” out now from their forthcoming album “Ritual Union” (due out later this month)
An intriguing Interview can be found on Canada’s Q TV can be found here:
Finally, for those who don’t know the group directly, you may have some across them via one of their many collaborations that most notably includes Gorillaz on the tracks "Empire Ants" and "To Binge" from the “Plastic beach” album:
Nagano’s vocals were also used on the tracks “Bright Nights” and the eternally optimistic and immensely classical “Summer Sun” from Koop’s seminal 2001 Nu Jazz album “Waltz for Koop”.
Tyondai Braxton
After Little Dragon, we headed to the Sonar Hall to catch the end of Nicolas Jaar, but to no avail and instead waited for the onset of Tyondai Braxton’s set. Tyondai is the son of celebrated free jazz musician Anthony Braxton and a former member of Warp group Battles, but now works as a solo performer. From the back of the room in low light and with little movement on stage it was not always easy to divine what he was doing. But with guitar perched on his lap and other instruments at hand he slowly built up a cacophony of loops into a piecemeal collage of noise. Whereas his recorded pieces often have grace, inventiveness and enigma, live he was almost unlistenable. To be fair, this was largely due to the poor mixing which was extremely loud and at times physically painful and prevented any penetration of the music. Intriguing passages would emerge, but then become uncoupled beneath the pressure of volume and the desynchronisation of the loops and after 15 minutes we had had enough.
San Soda
It was a tough call between Ninja Tune and Big Dada on the Sonar Village stage, or Belgium’s San Soda out back in the Sonar Dôme, but in the end we elected for the later. The light still up, Nicolas Geysens’s equally light and uplifting set was marred only by the use of well-worn records that refused to stay in the groove to the jeers of the crowd. He recovered well by dropping crowd-pleasing tunes like the Friendly Fires'“Paris” and plenty of smoother cuts, like his own releases for We Play House. San Soda was a brief, but welcome, relief from the intensity of Tyondai Braxton, and enjoyable, but somehow a little vacuous as well. Perfect then, for the bridge between afternoon and night.
Raime
As the sky finally turned dark (but not a blackest ever black), London duo Raime took to the stage back down in the Sonar Dôme. But much like Braxton before them, they failed to deliver on the promise of their recorded sound. Starting well with some gut wrenching bass, gradually rising drones and buried, echoing beats, they nonetheless failed to map out any particular direction nor effectively evoke the dark industrial moods of the singles. Unfolding too slowly, they tested the patience even for music bordering on ambient and rather than highlight contrasts and attack with hidden menace they instead overfilled their mid range, suffocating any subtlety or craftsmanship from the music. As much as you wanted them to be more, they were still somehow dissatisfying.
Thursday night:
With work the next day, it was not a possibility to head out late, despite the immense line-up in the off-Sonar events, particularly the Eastender mini-festival that must have been causing the Sonar organizers a headache in potentially lost ticket sales. Thursday’s line-up alone included Desolat and Moon Harbour showcases, while Saturday featured the Planet E 20th Anniversary show, headlined by Carl Craig, in itself a frustrating gig to miss, despite being at Sonar.
Apologies as no posts last weekend as I was at the Sonar festival, but will hopefully get the review done next week. No posts this weekend either as I will be away for the long weekend as it is San Juan here in Barcelona. I need a break after the worst week of work in my life I think.
But not all is bad. My musical salvation of the week has been an astounding podcast by Ben Klock for Chris Liebing and the CLR label which can be heard here. Ben Klock's remix of Jooris Voorn, Rejected and Edwin Oosterwal's "For the people" also caught the ear too. Maybe a headliner for Sonar next year?
Chris Liebing was also the subject of a fascinating Resident Advisor exchange if anyone is interested in his story.
Finally, there is a nice video for a new Workshop single by the ever interesting Move D aka Dave Moufang that is due imminently.
Out today is also a 4x12" package called [In Loving Memory 4:4] from the silent, but deadly dub techno label Styrax from Berlin. Featuring tracks by Sven Weissemann, Tony Daly, John Beltran, STL, Morphosis and more it looks even more a bargain with an extra set of some rare and unreleased tarcks from Ron Trent, Larry Heard, Isolée and DJ Qu.
Another mini-collection of random tracks that have come across my path recently, this time of ambient music.
Expo ‘70
Justin Wright’s Expo ’70 project has given rise to many decent releases over the last five or so years on labels like Beta Lactam Ring Records and Kill Shaman, but last year’s double vinyl set “Where does your mind go?” is perhaps his high water mark. Recorded live with no overdubs, the four long-form kosmische tracks are totally organic and immersive, clichés for ambient music maybe, but here entirely accurate.
A new album “Inaudible Bicoastal Trajectory” has also just been released this month on the seminal Aguirre label.
Motion sickness of time travel
In a short space of time Rachel Evans’ Motion Sickness of Time Travel project has gone in leaps and bounds. Already with a handful of releases in 2011, her highlight is perhaps still last year’s beautifully packaged “Seeping Through the Veil of the Unconscious” on the Digitalis label. Droning and peaceful, the key is perhaps her ability to capture a group sound, not so much reminiscent of kosmische music as much as space rock groups like Windy and Carl with a touch of Slowdive thrown in for good measure, all while simultaneously appropriating from new age ideals to produce a kind of healing music.
One of the tracks off “Seeping through…” also reminds me a little of one of ABBA’s ambient/instrumental pieces, the title track to the 1976 “Arrival” album.
Mountains
While still on “group sounding” ambient, one of my favourite groups over the last few years is Moutains, the duo of Brendon Anderegg and Koen Holtkamp, who have made their home on Thrill Jockey. Originating in a more guitar-orientated sound, the duo latest album “Air Museum” is however, decidedly more electronic. Its shorter length is also an interesting feature and it feels almost poppy at times, which is not to say shallow or disposable, but is an interesting development for a group whose sound often takes time to develop over long durations, such as on the exceptional “Etchings” live album from 2009. There is also a little hint of Spacemen 3 in the sound of “Air Museum” that makes their current live incarnation seem more than appealing should they come to town.
BJ Nilsen & Stilluppsteypa
Last year was an excellent year for seminal Austrian label Editions Mego. They released the Emeralds excellent “What happened” album, Oneohtrix Point Never’s “Returnal” as well as several Fenn O’Berg albums and deluxe re-editions of classics such as Fennesz’s “Endless Summer”. Buried alongside these was the double vinyl album “Space Finale” by Sweden’s BJ Nilsen and Stilluppstepya (the Icelandic duo of Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson and Helgi Thorsson) which was one of the year’s highlights. Slowly unfolding and glacial, it had a powerfully disarming effect, changing without giving the ability to notice it and rising and falling in volume and intensity. The collaboration has recently been extended to a new album called “Big Shadow Montana” on the Helen Scarsdale Agency label.
One of the landmark albums of the year will most certainly be the collaboration of Ricardo Villalobos and Max Loderbauer reworking the ECM catalogue. The work is a return to form for Villalobos who has had several pedestrian releases lately, while for Loderbauer it continues his recent ascent following on from the growing interest in his old Sun Electric project and his involvement with Moritz von Oswald in his trio. The double CD set is an intricate and patient tapestry of sound, embellishing different worlds of jazz, classical and fragmented electronica into often sparse, but still richly detailed sound forms the evolve in unpredictable ways. Here the duo explain the origins of the project
While excerpts can be found here
Orakel
Just released now on the Dutch label 4Lux, is the album “When time doesn’t know itself” by Austrian group Orakel which shares many similarities with the Villalobos/Loderbauer collaboration in that it is a dense collage of jazz and soul fused into a hip hop and down tempo landscape. Perhaps not truly ambient, but well worked and a great foil for heavier club-sounding music.
The second label sampler of ambient tracks from Japans’s Mule Musiq doesnt need any complicated introduction, only to say that it is a very accessible collection of short ambient pieces reminiscent of Kompakt’s celebrated Pop Ambient series. The sounds here a perhaps a little more classical-leaning and closer to say the Type label then the more electronic angle of Pop Ambient. For example, one track has Terre Thaemlitz remixing John Cage which again sounds similar to the Villalobos/Loderbauer project.
John Beltran
Another new collection of ambient tracks, this time fromAmerican John Beltran on the always fantastic Delsin label run out of Amsterdam. The set collects tracks from as far back as 1995 and the results are somewhat different from the fore mentioned Mule Musiq and Kompakt compilations on one important level: the overt positivity of the tracks. So much ambient music is somehow dark, depressing or evocative of gloomier moods. The overt sunniness and alegria of Beltran’s collection is a marked contrast and while perhaps it seems superficial at times, this is perhaps only because it is indeed lighter and uplifting and not inducing a dire introverted state.
Everybody is talking about Rihanna and video cencorship this week after her video to the track "Man down" came under fire from parent lobby groups, particularly in the US, for its depiction of the singer shooting in the head a man who apparently abused her. It is unclear if the video is meant to be a direct or veiled reference to former boy friend singer Chris Brown who was charged twice with incidents relating to attacks on Rihanna when she was his girlfriend.
The timing couldnt be worse for Rihanna as the video was released almost simultaneously with a commissioned report in the UK assessing the Sexualisation of Children. The report cited tv performances by Rihanna and Christina Aguilera and videos by Lady Gaga as particularly controversial but also attacked the clothing and advertising industries for targeting younger children.
There are two sides to the issue, one is about choice and of course whether children are able to make informed choices, or, and perhaps more pertinently, whether their parents are able to choose adequately for them. The other side of the coin is the over sexualised and aggressively manipulated arena of advertising and commercial retailing which undoubtedly creates social pressures and expectations that can influence the ability of children and parents to decide their own level of development, create their own self-ideas and image and map their own goals without excess influence. Overshadowing this world is of course the spectre of fame and the illusion of riches and wealth.
For example, it is wrongly assumed by the media, and in a sense by society as a whole, that public figures should act in the moral good and represent role models for children to follow. This is of course pure nonsense as children should never be encouraged to worship or behave like over-groomed pop stars or football players etc. Why should society or the media expect moral behaviour, particularly from artists? Surely artists, whether of the lowly calibre of Rihanna or the upper echelons of Nobel Prize winning authors, should be upheld as paragons of themselves, of free and infinitely variable individuals? I am reminded of a retort by Australian singer Nick Cave several years ago (which I cannot find in exact quote) to a question that he was sexist. He replied that he wasn't, but in a sense that it didnt matter if he was as he was an artist and had to take particular points of view to express his art or to generate a character to express an idea. "Political correctnes," he quipped (in my own paraphrased words) "is for politicians". Afterall, Nick Cave killed Kylie Minogue in "Where the wild roses grow" without much controversy, perhaps because it truly is more art than pop?
"All beauty must die"
The real question is perhaps why has it taken so long to commission a report or to debate these kinds of issues when music videos and advertising as a lecherous whole have essentially been over sexualised for a generation already? Sure, Madonna received some of the same criticisms levelled at Rihanna, but where did it lead us to if not to Rihanna? Asking for censorship or greater regulation of the internet and particularly video servers like Youtube is likely to be impossible as well. There are plenty of other "naughty" or explicit music videos out there if you look, such as this classic from Add (n) to X.
Explicit lyric content has been a thorny issue in the music business for a long time already. It was perhaps serendipitous that this week I came across this track by Lost and Beezy called "Snake eyes" as part of a three CD mix set of dub step by DJ Hatcha, pathetically marketed as 100% Pure Dubstep, clearly for the novice or entry level dubstep fan. The lyrics are decidedly seedy and almost funn, but of course have not raised any controversy possibly because the debate has been done to death and the track contains suitable warnings (even on Amazon where you can buy the CD or the tracks with a warning), but probably also because Lost and Breezy aren't famous enough.
It is easy to forget that childhood as a developmental stage has not existed in its present form for very long. The Victorian age and Industrial Revolution saw much child labour and it was only with the propagation of school systems and the introduction of child labour laws that saw the protection of children from essentially entering the adult world at a young age. Prior to this in the Middle Ages, one cannot imagine childhood being a particularly innocent or sheltered time either. Finaly,this theme of children reminds me of Peter Greenaway's controversial 1993 film the Baby of Mâcon which details the story of the exploitation of a child in a 17th century Italian town by the mother, church and local politicians.
Here is a collection of tracks unrelated by themes and generally by lesser known or newer producers which caught my ear recently for one reason or another.
Italo Johnson.
The third single by this unknown producer Italo Johnson has just come out on his own eponymous label and is as great as the two preceeding it. Johnson’s style is in a certain way unambitious. By that I mean instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, he prefers to tinker with it to make it work as fluently and elegantly as possible. Well made, catchy, but deceptively simple and even obvious, a path many forsake by trying to be too clever.
DJ Qu
Not really an unknown, but Ramon Lisandro Quezad aka DJ Qu’s work has gradually been accumulating more prominence of late. His most recent output includes an album of four 12”s called “Gymnastics” on his own Strength Music Recordings label, shown here as a series of highlights from each track.
In addition, the New Yorker has been working on a commission for Nike with P Funk and has several other recent and acclaimed releases such as a split single with Jus Ed on the later’s own Underground Quality label (shown below) and a single for Deep Vibes that sports two exceelent and lengthy remixes.
P. Laoss
P. Laoss aka German producer André Müller first came to my attention for his “Back Diffusion” e.p. on the Barcelona-based Pong Musiq label last year. The opening track “Additive effect” was one of my favourites of the year for its sublime blending of minimal and dub techno into a seedy and sleazy late night track perfect for drifting away into states of dream and confusion.
2011 has seen him release the debut single “Bamboo Mat” for US based label Pronounce which sees him delving into deep house territory with occasional well-timed dub embellishment.
Alteria Percepsyne
Dub techno gets a bad rap for generating too many artists that follow the same generic mould of whispy, sexless beats made for nerds, but in truth, the same could be said for any genre from techno to house: there are few innovators and plenty of decent enough artists just holding up the background. But while generic dub techno is a dime a dozen, the great tracks and well-produced ambient pieces still have a tingling effect when you come across them. Alteria Percepsyne’s limited CD-R album “Cloaks of Perception” on Belgium’s Other Heights label is one example of the later. While it won’t turn heads for challenging the established paradigm of dub techno, it is undoubtedly one of the better quality dub techno albums to come out recently. It escapes the shackles of mediocrity by playing up its moodiness and weaving through the mix enough changes to make it progressive and not monolithic.
Textural Being
Sticking with dub techno is a recent album by US producer Sage Taylor under his Textural Being moniker entitled “High Speed Travel” which came out on the French net label ZeECc. I must confess to not being overly impressed by the album as a whole after only one listen, but the first track “High Speed Travel Part 1” has a pleasant warmth and attractive simplicity to it, especially if you are a dub techno fan.
Bill Youngman
Another fledgling Berlin techno label is hardly what the world needs, but this one is a little different as its source is the legendary Killekill night (German for tickle as well as punning on “kill” in English). The night is run in part by Nico Deuster (aka DJ Flush), who is one of the men close to the heart of Shitkatapult, in addition to Tobias Schleinkofer. Together they are also the masterminds behind the Krake Festival shown here in preview from 2010
The modus operandi behind the Killekill label is a blending of experimentalism with dark edged techno such as on their latest release by Bill Youngman which also features a fantastic Sandwell District mix.
Kassem Mosse
Another not-so-unknown producer,but Gunnar Wendel aka Kassem Mosse has been wearing away at the fringes of experimental house for some time, the centre of which seems to belong to Actress, at least for the moment. But the Workshop labels unique and beguiling sound is the perfect playground for Mosse’s patient explorations of the abstract dancefloor. The recently released Workshop 12 is another fine example of his fascinating sound, here on the B side
and also from last year’s 12” for the Nonplus label
Here is a nice record I picked up recently from a Barcelona-based label called Lapsus Records. Only a few releases so far, but a determination to put out both interesting objects and music. The earlier releases included a picture disc of remixes of local producer Wookie who was one of the opening acts of Sonar last year. He actually works (or used to work) at a local record store where he is forever grateful to me as he gave me a full three day pass to Primavera Sound by mistake in place of a ticket to Atari Teenage Riot which I faithfully returned to his relief.
This single is by Pedro Pina who has also released drum n bass under the name of Sloan on the Donna Lee Records label. There are many high points here from the nice cover design, the clear vinyl and of course the miusic, which is fundamentally IDM, but gives the ilusion of other styles, for example the faux techno in the final track "Terminat". With eight tracks it seems a little bit homogenous by the end if listening straight through, but nonethless each track does bear a particular character that makes it overall a compelling release.
David Bowie is always hard to pin down. If you are looking for one definitive musical statement as to who he was, whichever one you pick you will be wrong. There is always a conceptual paradox that you will have to accept or a style somehow not reflected in a particular era. But for Bowie the man at least, there is one particular moment where it all came down and came together; an era when one could see Bowie at last playing himself. Before he’d always been a man playing a god and once “Let’s Dance” turned him into a megastar, it was a man who had transcended to be a god playing a man. But the era of Bowie in Berlin is naked Bowie, is a raw man exposed and looking for somewhere to hide.
The so-called Berlin Trilogy of albums, “Low”, “”Heroes”” and “Lodger”, actually a quintet with Iggy Pop’s “The idiot” and “Lust for life” recorded at the same time and place, represent the creative fulcrum of his career. The three combine pop, poetry and theatre, the critical elements of what had come before and what would come after, but added to them the contradictory elements of experimentalism and the quotidian. Quotidian for Bowie and his entourage that is.
After all, the Berlin Trilogy is not only about Bowie, but about a triumvirate of characters, all looking for the same thing at the same time and finding different outcomes. Bowie had come from California and years of cocaine abuse that had left him on the brink and often delusional, including several mythical television appearances.
With him came Iggy Pop, inspiration himself for the Ziggy Stardust character that had led Bowie to the brink. Ironically, Pop had been rescued by Ziggy, both physically from drug addiction and financially, hauled from jail to the studio to get it back together.
Brian Eno, meanwhile, had shed the feathers of his stay in Roxy Music (leaving after their second album) and wound down a solo career to find a new direction with these two misfits. Producer Tony Visconti is a noble fourth, but overall his character has less influence to play here and especially afterwards.
All three eloped to Germany in 1976 to collaborate and invent a new musical future for each of them. Destination German had been chosen for its fervent musical scene (Bowie and Eno, particularly had already been heavily influenced by Kraftwerk, but would soon extend their local music interests). But also with it came the anonymity they sought, away from their former characters and the shackles of fame, to be themselves. Divided Berlin at the time was an ideal place to lose and find yourself and was a society that understood split personalities and paranoia.
But Berlin was also France and the Château d'Hérouville near Paris where most of Iggy Pop’s “The Idiot” was recorded as well as the first side of “Low”. Finishing was done at Hansa Studios in Berlin where the next albums were recorded, though Bowie’s bookend to the era, 1979s “Lodger” was finished in New York and its hazy mixing has the cocaine edge that suggests that coming down hadn’t quite gone to plan.
David Bowie – Low
“Low” was the second album of the 5 to be recorded, but the first to be released, first seeing the light of day in 1977 where it was critically praised but did not seem to make much immediate impression. “The Idiot” was ready to go, but apparently Bowie’s ego meant that his album was to go first so that it would not seem as if he was drawing influence from Iggy. Hailed as the greatest album of the 70s by Pitchfork, “Low” presents the true low of Bowie’s life: cocaine paranoia, drinking, break up of marriage with Angie and artistic burnout after a decade of high living and creative overload. The first side, recorded in the Chateau is Bowie scraping together his life in little bios and half-finished song.
Thomas Jerome Seabrook in his excellent book on this topic makes the valid points of fade outs: everything on this album fades out, shrinks away, worn out or induced to hide again. This is most pronounced on the second side where Bowie’s only lyrics are meaningless words called out from the abyss of “Warszawa”, the opening track of side two and the usual opening track for Bowie’s subsequent tours. Bowie had effectively been rendered speechless from his life and was also fading away. “Warszawa” was also the first key intervention of Eno, who performed most of the music alone, to which additional parts were added. His and Bowie’s fascination for the “very unfocal” forms of the kosmische/krautrock music they were immersing in were essential for fashioning the atypical song structures that would dominate this track and all the albums, especially the ambient tracks which were a shocking inclusion for an album in 1977, Punk’s year zero. This was also the song that gave the early incarnation of Joy Division their name: Warsaw.
But if the ambient side to “Low” and subsequently “”Heroes”” were to illuminate Bowie’s limitations, the lyrics on the first side of each album are full of clues to his vulnerability. For example, the single “Sound and vision” gives Bowie’s state of mind and creative method in intimate and simple detail.
“Pale blinds drawn all day
Nothing to do, nothing to say
Blue, blue
I will sit right down, waiting for the gift of sound and vision
And I will sing, waiting for the gift of sound and vision
Drifting into my solitude, over my head”
Iggy Pop – The Idiot.
According to legend, the lyrics to Iggy Pop’s “The Idiot” where largely improvised in Berlin, made up in the spur of the moment with the tracks largely written by Bowie, were already completed in France. As with Bowie’s output, the lyrics are largely biographic, detailing the duos attempts to quit years of drug addiction by drinking, particularly noticeable in the seedy, psychedelic stagger of “Nightclubbing”.
“Nightclubbing we're nightclubbing
We're walking through town
Nightclubbing we're nightclubbing
We walk like a ghost”
Alternatively, “The Dum Dum Boys” is a literal biography of his former group The Stooges written at the behest of Bowie.
“Where are you now my
dum dum boys are you
Alive or dead
Have you left me the last
Of the dum dum daze
Then the sun goes down
And the boys broke down.”
The title of the album was often said to refer to both Bowie and Pop and their social failure at the time, as well as referencing the novel of the same name by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Critically, while the album is hailed as a classic, many also complain that it is not really an Iggy Pop album as it seems too far removed from the dirge rock of the Stooges. “The Idiot” has also gone down in rock infamy as being the last album listened to by Ian Curtis on the night he killed himself.
Pop and Bowie subsequently went on tour together to promote the album, with Bowie playing keyboards and trying to keep a low profile and maintain the life style as straight as possible. But inevitably a certain friction began to develop, particularly in the eyes of the critics who viewed Pop as something of a pawn in Bowie’s game, much as Lou Reed had been seen around the time that Bowie and Mick Ronson had recorded “Transformer” with him, an era when Reed had far less influence and fame than he has now come to be associated with.
David Bowie - ”Heroes”
““Heroes”” needs no introduction as it is perhaps Bowie’s most recognisable song. The parenthesis was apparently for irony, though this somewhat undermines the beautiful elliptical lyrics and the wrenching waves of guitar from Robert Fripp providing the signature sound, with the three takes recorded in one day and mixed together on the fly by Eno. This song forms the centre of the trilogy, being its high water mark while also being emblematic of time and place. The lyrics probably refer to Bowie’s declining relationship with his wife, but also recount the story of producer Visconti and his lover, a backing vocalist, meeting for a tryst beneath the Berlin wall which could be seen from the studio window.
The track was also used to great effect in the controversial film “Christiane F”, with a group of disaffected and doomed teenagers running through the empty corridors of a shopping mall in front of the Zoobahnhof station, situated below the forever wounded church that is a reminder of the war. The film uses the bilingual English-German version called “”Helden”” whereas a French version “”Héros”” was also made.
Legend also has it that the name was in part inspired by Neu! and their track “Hero” from their final (official) album “Neu! 75” played here in a rare live version.
The instrumental track “Seed of doubt” from the second side also showcases part of Bowie and Eno’s methods of composition at the time, which often relied on Eno’s “Oblique strategies” method. The Oblique Strategies are a series of cards with cryptic phrases on them and used much like tarot or John Cage’s I-ching compositional method to overcome creative blocks and obstacles or to forge new, unexpected directions. In this track, both Bowie and Eno had drawn contradictory cards, putting them in compositional opposition to each other with interesting results.
“”Heroes”” is also ostensibly a drinking album, with many tracks mentioning alcohol or taking place in bars, such as the line from “”Heroes””
“And you, you can be mean
And I, I´ll drink all the time”
Whereas
“Joe the lion
Went to the bar
A couple of drinks on the house an' he said
"Tell you who you are…””
Meanwhile the track “Blackout” says it all in the title, referring to a dark episode in Bowie’s life where he may have even suffered is first heart problems.
The cover of “”Heroes”” also seems to contain some kind of code. Beautifully showcasing Bowie’s mismatched eyes, the oblique hand gesture and robotic poise seem to hide or suggest something else. Indeed, the cover of “The Idiot” sports a similar poise and both were apparently influenced by Erich Heckel's painting “Roquairol”, though some have also claimed a lot of influence from Egon Schiele as well.
Iggy Pop –Lust for Life
After the chagrin of appearing as Bowie’s “stooge” on “The Idiot”, Pop took a more active role in the writing and production of “Lust for Life”. The music is more optimistic and the lyrics more self-confident, particularly on the title track which given the circumstances is a remarkable transformation, but somewhat contradictory given Iggy's behaviour at the time.
“I'm worth a million in prizes
Yeah, I'm through with sleeping on the sidewalk
No more beating my brains
No more beating my brains
With the liquor and drugs”
The first tour to promote “The Idiot” had been somewhat more restrained, but with Punk now in full swing and widely hailing Iggy and the Stooges as their ancestors, it was not long before Pop was back into old, dirty habits and riding the wave of success to oblivion. This video of “The Passenger”, the second iconic track from “Lust for life” shows Pop clearly wired and stoking the vibe.
“Oh, the passenger
He rides and he rides
He sees things from under glass
He looks through his window's eye
He sees the things he knows are his”
The release of “Lust for Life” effectively spelled the end of Pop and Bowie’s close relationship as suggested by this famous video from the Australian tv show Countdown, filmed here in 1979, with an erratic Iggy showing with body language at least, that he was uncomfortable with living in Bowie's shadow. Bowie did however, return to cover “China Girl” and “Tonight” on his respective “Let’s Dance” and “Tonight” albums in the 80s,the later with Tina Turner, paving and payign the way for another Iggy Pop return.
David Bowie – Lodger
Lodger is perhaps Bowie’s first failure to really find new ground since his breakthrough a decade before. This is perhaps not surprising after such a long creatively rich period and the gradual breakdown of artistic relations with both Pop and Eno. Indeed, Eno apparently was charged with directing many of the sessions for Lodger in Bowie’s absence, using only his Oblique Strategy cards which somewhat offended Bowie’s team of musicians.
“DJ” is proto-Talking Heads from the lyrical phrasing to the edgy, post-punk rhythm. It is no surprise that Eno went on to work with them after the “”Heroes”” sessions, appearing first on their 1978 album “More Songs About Buildings and Food” but with more rewarding results on 1979s “Fear of music” and 1980s “Remain in light”. The lyrics also touch on one of Bowie’s major themes emerging from this time, which is fame, mixed with his usual preoccupation with existentialism.
“I am the DJ
I am what I play
I´ve got believers
Believing in me”
Parts of the video were filmed in central London with a real Bowie surprising real people in the street for an unrehearsed walk.
“Look back in anger” is indeed one of Bowie’s angriest moments and had a video directed to recall Oscar Wilde’s “Dorian Grey”, perhaps again signifying Bowie’s clash with fame and existence/identity as he aged.
“Look back in anger
Driven by the night
Until you come”
Legacy.
The legacy of the five albums from the Berlin period is uncountable. Not only are their numerous high profile covers, from Grace Jones to Siouxsie and the Banshees as well as many imitators, particularly Gary Numan. But perhaps the most significant legacy is Bowie’s breaching of the divide between pop and electronic instrumentation and the recasting of the pop arrangement into more fluid forms. As influenced as Bowie, Pop and Eno were by Krautrock, the legacy also turned full circle with Krautrock paying its homage to them. Kraftwerk’s Florian Schneider had been name dropped on “V-2 Schneider”, the opening track on side 2 of “”Heroes””, but Kraftwerk also returned the favour in perhaps their most famous song "Trans Europe Express", dropping the line:
“From station to station, back to Düsseldorf City
To meet Iggy Pop and David Bowie
Trans Europe Express”
(around 3 minute mark).
Station to Station of course also clverely refers to Bowie's 1975 album of that bname and neatly fits into the groups railway themed lyrics.
The June issue of Spanish street press Go Mag comes with a mix by Agoria who will be playing Sonar by day on Friday 17th. The mix is a nice warm up to the festival featuring most of the key artists all blended with Agoria's usual eclectic style. Enjoy!
Last Monday Diamanda Galas played a free show in Barcelona courtesy of the local government and the Festival Of Poetry. It was the second time I had seen her after an appearance at the Perth International Arts Festival several years ago. The set up was the same, Diamanda and her piano, but this time the setting couldn’t have been more apt. The concert took stage outside on a balmy evening in Palça del Rei, a little square in the gothic district next door to the Cathedral that is surprisingly sheltered from tourists despite its location. It was apparently in this square (or the buildings attached) where Christopher Columbus first informed the Catholic King and Queen of his discoveries in America. But tonight it was the queen of gothic, gothic buildings and of course, many goths in the audience. Diamanda’s set was her usual selection of songs ranging from Chet Baker, Jacques Brel’s “Amsterdam” of course songs of genocide and despair, with plenty of poetry mixed in. Surprisingly, she spoke decent Spanish and often gave long, humorous introductions to the songs and generously gave two encores before being carefully lead away by a minder. Not quite the same as the elctro-satanic mantras of her distant past and the second video, but more in tune with the first. In this case, “Gloomy Sunday” was also the final song of the set.
Saturday night turned out to be a landmark evening of sorts, a (hopefully) once in a life time experience that will be hard to forget, even if admittedly memory is a bit hazy already for various and different reasons.
The match had finished (see also below) and my two friends, a Belgian guy and a Czech girl, decided we would go to visit the protesters in Plaça Catalunya on the way to meet a Colombian friend (not that sort of Colombian). The square is more or less at the end of my street, maybe 2 minutes walking. Arriving at the top of the street things seemed a bit quiet given that Football Club Barcelona had just won the Champions League. There was the zumbido (hum) in the distance of what seemed like people in the near distance celebrating as is traditional at the Font de Canaletes part of La Rambla, just where it meets the square, another two minutes’ walk further on.
Instead of revellers we were meet by a disperse cordon of riot police. Since they weren’t doing anything and neither were we, we approached gingerly. I went up to one and asked if we could go to the square. He gruffly replied no and to go away. I told him, we just want to go to the square to see the people. This time his reply was harsher, but not quite as harsh and intense as his colleague who suddenly started to open fire with his automatic assault rifle right next to us. Ok. We won’t go to the square then. As shots rang out next to us, as visors were lowered and positions held, we backed away slowly from the square in an orderly fashion to not cause more alarm and problems. Behind us in the street a crowd had cautiously approached with us, but as the police opened fire they turned and fled. Last thing we needed was a baton across the head or a rubber bullet in the ribs.
We went another way and found a horrible club and went inside. And so ended the first and hopefully only night that the police ever shoot at me.
Friday wasn’t such a good day however.. The excuse was that the local government (the Generalitat) needed to clean the square, so the garbage trucks arrived early on Friday morning. With the police. Even before I was out of bed I knew something was happening as there was a helicopter circling overhead that wasn’t leaving the vicinity. Even poor Kafka the cat was annoyed by the noise. My only regret is not trying to get closer to the square to film a little before I went to work, but as always, there is more to do than should be sensibly done to make a living.
The result of course was the usual mêlée between the police and unarmed protesters and a fair bit of blood shed (see video). Just to clean the square, apparently.
I did go to the square to film again on Saturday morning and it was almost as if nothing had happened. The mood was more bullish and more urgent perhaps than it had been (a contributing factor perhaps being that the socialists were well beaten in the recent election) and there was a newly erected stand where citizens were able to fill out forms and declarations to denounce the police activity. Ironically, there were plenty of people there cleaning the square (despite the odour of piss still lingering near some parts of the periphery). This is actually not a surprising activity.
When I first moved to Barcelona I had the privilege of living in the suburb of Vallcarca, just next to Parc Güell, in a little street surrounded by Okupas (squatters). Perhaps I was almost the only paying neighbour there, it’s hard to know. But from our terrace it was always possible to see the Okupas, see inside “their” houses and their culture.
Essentially their practice is to enter into buildings that have been sealed closed by their owners while they await sale, demolition etc as part of property speculation and investor “gentrification” of areas. The Okupas connect electricity and water (illegally probably, but in the end for living purposes), they clean up and decorate. In my street they established a library that was open to the public and they regularly cleaned the streets in droves surrounded by their dogs. An outsider looking at them would just see dirty and/or dangerous punks and not really know what it is they are really doing. They wait outside the supermarkets to see what food they throw away at the end of the day and take it home. Many are drug free and organise concerts, speeches and distribute information. Sometimes I saw young business men with briefcases climbing through roughly cut holes in bricked up doorways on their way to work. The dissatisfaction with society runs deep, but the need to participate is often unavoidable, which is itself perhaps the problem. “No escape from society” as sung by Gang of Four.
Plaça Catalunya has become the same, a microcosm of this model where society can be created, just like anything else. Of course this means work and commitment, it means a foundation of ideas and direction. This also means alienation of those with opposing ideas. But here is “the illusion of democracy” (to quote Primal Scream) where there is no alternative, no choice of participation. Clearly the men upstairs have been getting it wrong as we cannot seem to find a way to slow down, to make a system that is equal and sustainable. The last words of the video I took are in Catalan and from, ironically, a massive billboard promoting the Barça football team and overlooking the square. Perhaps unintended, but “Volem mes” (We want more) somehow seems an appropriate principle for the people, despite its double edged consumerist meaning.
Perhaps saddest of all was despite the victory of truly one of the greatest football teams ever, they decided to attend the day after the concert of Shakira (the girlfriend of central defender Gerard Pique), oblivious one wonders to the police preventing their fans walking the streets and celebrating in the usual tradition, and oblivious to their people who are chronically unemployed, deeply disaffected and working for change. An offering of support seems a world too far despite the fact that the revolution is taking place beneath their banner and with their words.
Here is a strange mix of Mary Antoinette and Leed's Gang of Four and their track "Natural's not in it" from 1979.
"The problem of leisure
What to do for pleasure
The body is good business
Sell out, maintain the interest
I do love a new purchase
A market of the senses
Dream of the perfect life
Economic circumstances
Remember Lot's wife
Renounce all sin and vice
Dream of the bourgeois life
This heaven gives me migraine
Coercion of the senses
We are not so gullible
We all have good intentions
But all with strings attatched
Fornication makes you happy
No escape from society
Natural is not in it
Your relations are of power
We all have good intentions
But all with strings attached"
