With the echo of synth stabs and a pungent mix of overwrought Sparks and Freddie Mercury still hanging in the air the Anglo-Argentinian duo of Sebastian Muravchix and Ali Renault, aka Heartbreak, leave the stage having set a decidedly retro mood romping through classics in waiting like 'Regret', 'We're Back' and 'Living Just For Fun'. Aided and abetted by the Road to Rimini DJs the whole place is in fine Italo fettle. I've said numerous times of late that the rediscovery of tunes and dancing this year has been a revelation and my needs are suitably sated even before Little Boots arrives to blow any final cobwebs away.
This said former Dead Disco diva Victoria Hesketh has transformed out of sight and with Little Boots - akin to watching Kylie fronting Orbital at times - there's a whole new reason to be excited. There's the full on trance/Ring My Bell tilt of 'Magical', the pop genius of 'Mathematics' and you'll have heard 'Meddle' in the ether as it's undoubtedly been played in every club every five minutes over the last couple of months. And rightly so. There are acres of cooler than cool songs, a vulnerable Piaf demeanour, the Tenori-On (look it up), a witty stage banter, whipping out the Keytar for a full on 'Brian May rock moment' and goddamnit a fucking exceptional cover of Freddie Mercury/Giorgio Moroder almost lost dance classic 'Love Kills'.
There's so much to love with Little Boots including an affectionate camp which takes you over and transports you a time when Howard Jones was synth king and singing into a hairbrush with dreams of appearing on Top of The Pops wasn't as shameful as it appears in retrospect. Come on surely that's not just me?
www.littlebootsmusic.co.uk
www.mekongdelta.co.uk
Monday 24 November 2008
Saturday 15 November 2008
Murcof - The Versailles Sessions
The Versailles Sessions shouldn’t be considered as a follow up to Murcof’s Cosmos album of 2007. In fact this music isn’t really an album at all as it’s a collection of aural compositions commissioned for a site specific artwork on display at the Jardin du Roi.
All of the music is played and/or sampled on original 17th Century instruments and filtered through the Murcof brain to generate expansive, looming passages of intense and occasionally regal sounding noise this is a pretty big leap from what where minimalistic beginnings but Fernando Corona seems to have a firm grasp on the powerful sounds at his fingertips.
As with all most music classified experimental The Versailles Sessions requires a certain listening shift – there are no pretty songs in here anywhere, nothing remotely approaching a tune in the classic sense – but of course that’s not the point. The powerful, evocative noises and interplay of instrumentation feels more like music for film, amped up and monolithic. Anyone who enjoyed Jonny Greenwood’s score for There Will Be Blood, for instance, will hear good things in this Murcof offering but let’s be honest that is a niche crowd.
My preference would have been release this on DVD where the music and visuals of the installation compliment each other but as this isn’t the case you have to become enveloped in the wash of sounds, in the interplay of the bangs and clatter and the hugely evocative choral passages – and give yourself over to imagination.
www.murcof.com/
www.mekongdelta.co.uk
All of the music is played and/or sampled on original 17th Century instruments and filtered through the Murcof brain to generate expansive, looming passages of intense and occasionally regal sounding noise this is a pretty big leap from what where minimalistic beginnings but Fernando Corona seems to have a firm grasp on the powerful sounds at his fingertips.
As with all most music classified experimental The Versailles Sessions requires a certain listening shift – there are no pretty songs in here anywhere, nothing remotely approaching a tune in the classic sense – but of course that’s not the point. The powerful, evocative noises and interplay of instrumentation feels more like music for film, amped up and monolithic. Anyone who enjoyed Jonny Greenwood’s score for There Will Be Blood, for instance, will hear good things in this Murcof offering but let’s be honest that is a niche crowd.
My preference would have been release this on DVD where the music and visuals of the installation compliment each other but as this isn’t the case you have to become enveloped in the wash of sounds, in the interplay of the bangs and clatter and the hugely evocative choral passages – and give yourself over to imagination.
www.murcof.com/
www.mekongdelta.co.uk
Monday 10 November 2008
Kyte - Two Sparks, Two Stars EP
I’m an unashamed lover of Kyte’s cinematic style and otherworldly music. The seemingly simple way they build songs from a few glockenspiel notes and piano chords into a quiet roar of Nordic sounding majesty is utterly spellbinding. They really do evoke a twilight fairytale world of mystery populated by curious sounds and emotions which seems perfectly at home as winter draws in.
The orchestrated sound of Two Sparks, Two Stars sees a progression from the band’s more precise eponymous mini album earlier in the year which was much more about the cyclical building of tracks upon tracks and for all the album's beauty, and it is a thing of aching beauty, this EP shows the band with more dimensions, more experimental yet retaining their ability to write superbly lush songs like opener Eyes Lose Their Fire.
Not that it’s all their own work. The cover of Peter Gabriel’s Solsbury Hill will probably sneak up on a fair few people as it’s so perfectly molded into the Kyte oevre that it takes a little time to actually realize it’s not their own tune, a rare thing to achieve well and rarer still with a familiar song.
Of the EP’s four tracks it the final installment Light Outside Here which tugs on the seasonal heart strings most of all. Not for any specific Christmassy references though simply down to it's texture and ambience. Kyte make you want to curl up in front of a warm fire and dream impossible dreams.
www.myspace.com/kyteband
www.mekongdelta.co.uk
The orchestrated sound of Two Sparks, Two Stars sees a progression from the band’s more precise eponymous mini album earlier in the year which was much more about the cyclical building of tracks upon tracks and for all the album's beauty, and it is a thing of aching beauty, this EP shows the band with more dimensions, more experimental yet retaining their ability to write superbly lush songs like opener Eyes Lose Their Fire.
Not that it’s all their own work. The cover of Peter Gabriel’s Solsbury Hill will probably sneak up on a fair few people as it’s so perfectly molded into the Kyte oevre that it takes a little time to actually realize it’s not their own tune, a rare thing to achieve well and rarer still with a familiar song.
Of the EP’s four tracks it the final installment Light Outside Here which tugs on the seasonal heart strings most of all. Not for any specific Christmassy references though simply down to it's texture and ambience. Kyte make you want to curl up in front of a warm fire and dream impossible dreams.
www.myspace.com/kyteband
www.mekongdelta.co.uk
The Kills - Live: 8th Nov 2008
Go on then, name some cool male/female duos!
Those without anything approaching a long term memory might opt for Anonymous and Old Cow from The Ting Tings. As if. Or Alice and Ethan from Crystal Castles. Okay I’ll give you that because those two kick ass! Or maybe, now cast your minds back fickle bastards, Jack ‘Bond-theme-strangler’ White and his sister/wife Meg. They had the blues man. Seriously though there are umpteen others you could sift through. It’s subjective after all. But I bet it’d take a while for most to come up with VV and Hotel from The Kills. Well shame on you.
What is heartening to see is that there are a lot of people who do see this duo, Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince if you prefer their birth names, for the rockingest man-woman blitzkrieg they actually are. The venue is uncomfortably full, health and safety could bust the place at any second. It adds to the intoxicating atmosphere as The Kills roar into action as the dying embers of Obama’s presidential speech die in the PA. This is all about change.
Kind of shoehorned in maybe but as they hurtle through songs from all three Kills eras – or albums if you prefer – there’s a definite change to see. The squall, white noise of earlier tunes gives way to genuine ‘hits’ on new album Midnight Boom - U.R.A. Fever, Cheap and Cheerful and Alphabet pony to name only three - are greeted more feverously. You do sense though that the sleaze and filth with which the older songs are flung around on stage also hits the spot with those in attendance. Good. The Kills rock the fucking bollocks off any limp-wristed chancers I can think of and deserve their time in the spotlight. They’ve got the attitude, the tunes and the dark glasses to cope with the glare.
www.thekills.tv/
www.mekongdelta.co.uk
Those without anything approaching a long term memory might opt for Anonymous and Old Cow from The Ting Tings. As if. Or Alice and Ethan from Crystal Castles. Okay I’ll give you that because those two kick ass! Or maybe, now cast your minds back fickle bastards, Jack ‘Bond-theme-strangler’ White and his sister/wife Meg. They had the blues man. Seriously though there are umpteen others you could sift through. It’s subjective after all. But I bet it’d take a while for most to come up with VV and Hotel from The Kills. Well shame on you.
What is heartening to see is that there are a lot of people who do see this duo, Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince if you prefer their birth names, for the rockingest man-woman blitzkrieg they actually are. The venue is uncomfortably full, health and safety could bust the place at any second. It adds to the intoxicating atmosphere as The Kills roar into action as the dying embers of Obama’s presidential speech die in the PA. This is all about change.
Kind of shoehorned in maybe but as they hurtle through songs from all three Kills eras – or albums if you prefer – there’s a definite change to see. The squall, white noise of earlier tunes gives way to genuine ‘hits’ on new album Midnight Boom - U.R.A. Fever, Cheap and Cheerful and Alphabet pony to name only three - are greeted more feverously. You do sense though that the sleaze and filth with which the older songs are flung around on stage also hits the spot with those in attendance. Good. The Kills rock the fucking bollocks off any limp-wristed chancers I can think of and deserve their time in the spotlight. They’ve got the attitude, the tunes and the dark glasses to cope with the glare.
www.thekills.tv/
www.mekongdelta.co.uk
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)