The Importance of Being Musical

Apocalyptic visions: From Classic Rock to vinyl-doc

Today will undoubtedly go down as a day of rock apocalypse in my book.

It started early this morning, with a private viewing of Last Shop Standing - The Rise, Fall and Rebirth of the Independent Record Shop, based on the eponymous book by Graham Jones (upcoming London screening 20/02 at the Strongroom, Shoreditch - more screenings here).
With help from the likes of Paul Weller, Johnny Marr, Billy Bragg and a couple of dozen UK record shop key characters (from London's Rough Trade East to Cardiff's Spillers Records and Bristol's Rise), Jones discusses sneaky deals behind the charts, the rise and fall of different formats and, most important of all, why the friendly, uber-knowledgeable person behind the counter will never be digitally simulated. A bit happy, a bit sad and utterly insightful, Last Shop Standing makes for a thought-provoking, music-loving 50 minutes. Forever vinyl!

http://wordlesstech.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Vinyl-Pop-Art-1.jpg

One thing led to another and the day continued with my immersion in Classic Rock's article Rock in Crisis: Is Rock Dying?, published last January by Scott Rowley, a lengthy analysis covering, predictably, from the gradual fall of record sales to recycling metal festival headliners, and peppered with impending doom videos like The Doors The End. Among the most interesting points to which the article draws attention, the fact that "...these days we’re in The Age Of More Of The Same, with the websites you visit storing info on your tastes and encouraging you to have, well, some more of the same. ‘People who bought this product also bought…’ ‘If you like that, you’ll like this…’ ‘You’ve been listening to so-and-so lately, why not try this…?’ The result: consumer-driven stasis". Spot on.

The verdict? No matter how you put it - in writing, sight or sound, it's a long and heated discussion that one, with dubious results on either end. Is vinyl, or rock itself as an entity dying, or is there still light at the end of the tunnel, as both of the above doc and feature article seem to point at? Take a look for yourself and have a careful think, with The Who and Dirty Beaches playing tunes in between...

Bluewave on the rocks

So, here we are, in the dead of winter in the North hemisphere, yearning for Mr. Jaar's sexy bluewave that will drop us back on that beach, with the ice drinks, lazy makeshift beds and "linen curtains flowing high over the white sand", as a friend eloquently put it.
With a truckload of darkwave shindigs to attend by the end of May - from Current 93 (8/2) to Sex Gang Children (24/5) via a solo Michael Gira (12/3), I wouldn't mind a few shy rays of sun, awash with Mr Jaar's mesmerising low beats.

But low beats takes him also to places of magnificent contemporary beauty - and they are introvert, far away from that sandy beach, in that rainy leafy park. But you have to let go..

..As for those trapped behind the urban walls, there's always some virtual hanging at Matthew Herbert's Cafe de Flore.

Blue is the warmest colour...

My new psychedelic Mockasin(s)

Kiwi psychedelo-pop gentleman Connan Mockasin will soon grace Londoners with smooth sounds from his latest release Caramel, hopefully along some quirky old ones - check out just a couple here.

The rendez-vous is this Tuesday 28/1 at the Shepherd's Bush Empire.

The Batcave, 1983

I've just come across this "...short piece from Reporting London, by London Weekend Television", according to this video's Youtube host, about Soho's legendary Batcave club. Hardly new stuff, but surely thrilling, from a time when London was leading Goth avant garde, against High Street mass fashions and mainstream trends.

Darkstar @ Corsica Studios

Elevating sounds for weakened bodies and souls

A chilly evening like an Italian gelato on my skin, London beginning December.
I make my way round the Corsica Studios' mystery shabby corner, behind Elephant & Castle's ugly urban giants, to reach a room still empty of fans.
My muesli and rice milk handed to the box office for safekeeping (no shopping bags allowed in the main concert area), I feel burned out after a long day at work, sitting, lame fruit juice at hand, on the wooden bank, at the bar, on the soft-as-heaven couch, on the concrete floor, restless and impatient, waiting for the band to start. I notice eventually the dj plays some cool stuff, and the concrete floor starts feeling way more comfortable after all.

Before I know it, Darkstar are out, and I beg to myself that they don't play all too many cheerful stuff... I didn't entirely disapprove of their second recording News From Nowhere, out this year on Warp, and I definitely wouldn't want to rush and kill the trio's much-discussed colourful and jolly evolution, but there's no denying that I, too, had fallen head over heels for their slow-burning, dark-tempo debut North back in 2010. I needed it back.
And they did it.

It's not that they just centered on North. They didn't have to. Here was a band that was as moody, enigmatic and kickass as I had known it to be, no matter what they played. I felt my tiredness melting under sounds sad and euphoric, introvert and understanding all at the same time.
Darkstar's sound is attractive because it's emotionally tantalizing but essentially uncomplicated. You can retrace your high-school years, all the way to your present and your present nostalgia, while the soundtrack to your strengths and insecurities unfolds. They're the guys next door, they know - and they can put it in mesmerising notes.

...That dj eventually picked up, after the show, with Cocteau Twins and other nameless traveling electronica that hit all the right buttons - making me nail my tired feet on the concrete floor until all music was dead and gone...