Saturday 18 June 2011
The Coming of Archangel...
Please view my interview with Gabriel Maselino, founder of new London-based fashion label Archangel, click here
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Tuesday 7 June 2011
Art Review // Paint for Japan with Secret Wars (Village Underground, Shoreditch)
To view my online work at http://www.freedomspark.co.uk/, click here
Walking into the huge creative space that is the Village Underground, we were welcomed by artists drawing Japanese themed illustrations, drum’n’bass tunes and lots of people drinking and generally soaking up the atmosphere.
As we wandered around the room, there was more art from Monorex on sale with a silent auction and it included all types of illustrations, paintings and graffiti style street art.
With two of the artists flying in from Japan the day before, the Secret Wars battle started at 9pm. Limited to using black pens or paint, the teams were quickly split into England Vs Japan and they went to work…
After reading about Secret Wars, I was pretty damn excited to see how the artists would create something from scratch in just 90 mins, but they covered the entire white canvas approaching it with a laid-back attitude and complete ease doing what they love.
A random DJ set accompanied the art battle in the form of Eliza Doolittle, who appeared unable to mix any kind of beat but managed to surprisingly pull out some cracking tunes from Frank Ocean to the White Stripes.
With much of the audience having enjoyed Streetfest the day before, many recognised one of the illustrators named Reeps One. Aside from his artistry skills, he brings another ridiculously amazing talent to the table as a beat box extraordinaire. He shocked the crowd for about 15 minutes with non-stop dubstep beats and became my highlight of the evening.
Ending with Session on the decks with the best mix of dubstep tunes, this charity fundraiser was a storming success raising loads of money for a great cause.
For more information on the next Secret Wars battle, go to http://www.secretwars.co.uk/ or http://www.monorex.com/ to discover the creative agency.
Walking into the huge creative space that is the Village Underground, we were welcomed by artists drawing Japanese themed illustrations, drum’n’bass tunes and lots of people drinking and generally soaking up the atmosphere.
As we wandered around the room, there was more art from Monorex on sale with a silent auction and it included all types of illustrations, paintings and graffiti style street art.
With two of the artists flying in from Japan the day before, the Secret Wars battle started at 9pm. Limited to using black pens or paint, the teams were quickly split into England Vs Japan and they went to work…
After reading about Secret Wars, I was pretty damn excited to see how the artists would create something from scratch in just 90 mins, but they covered the entire white canvas approaching it with a laid-back attitude and complete ease doing what they love.
A random DJ set accompanied the art battle in the form of Eliza Doolittle, who appeared unable to mix any kind of beat but managed to surprisingly pull out some cracking tunes from Frank Ocean to the White Stripes.
With much of the audience having enjoyed Streetfest the day before, many recognised one of the illustrators named Reeps One. Aside from his artistry skills, he brings another ridiculously amazing talent to the table as a beat box extraordinaire. He shocked the crowd for about 15 minutes with non-stop dubstep beats and became my highlight of the evening.
Ending with Session on the decks with the best mix of dubstep tunes, this charity fundraiser was a storming success raising loads of money for a great cause.
Live Review // Trophy Wife play The Lexington in Kings Cross
To view my online work at http://www.freedomspark.co.uk/, click here
At the intimate venue upstairs in The Lexington in Kings Cross, we found ourselves arriving early for a night of electronic-synth rock.
The first band entered the stage looking as if they had just come from their 6th form college, even with one band member donning a Donald Duck baseball cap – and later this seemed pretty entertaining, watching a cartoon character playing synth! Beaty Heart went on the play a few decent tunes with an absolutely amazing drummer and wicked synth mixes. Unfortunately, this sound was let down by quite awful vocals. Note to electro bands everywhere, constantly using the ‘echo’ button does not cover bad vocals. Aside from this, I thought that the members of this young quartet were good, energetic musicians and with a new singer and some hit tunes, they may just be sorted.
Having read some hype about the next band as well as listening to their myspace tracks, I wasn’t sure what to expect. This Hackney duo named Plants Plants were yet again pretty much electro pop/synth lovers with some average vocals. With one audience member behind me stating ”they were shite” after their set, I don’t 100 percent disagree with them. Lacking stage presence and ultimately a song I wanted to dance to, maybe I just couldn’t find where this band were coming from. Maybe they’ll find their feet eventually and manage to create a decent pop song; they’re still a new band after all. There’s still hope yet.
After a short break, headliners Trophy Wife took to the stage and gave us all a sweet polished performance. With yet again an outstanding drummer, this band was technically sound and played to an excited audience. Apart from the lead singer looking slightly like a geography teacher, his vocals and guitar riffs were always on tune. Playing tracks such as ‘Microlite’ and ‘The Quiet Earth’, Trophy Wife may not blow you away but at least you would want to get up and dance!
At the intimate venue upstairs in The Lexington in Kings Cross, we found ourselves arriving early for a night of electronic-synth rock.
The first band entered the stage looking as if they had just come from their 6th form college, even with one band member donning a Donald Duck baseball cap – and later this seemed pretty entertaining, watching a cartoon character playing synth! Beaty Heart went on the play a few decent tunes with an absolutely amazing drummer and wicked synth mixes. Unfortunately, this sound was let down by quite awful vocals. Note to electro bands everywhere, constantly using the ‘echo’ button does not cover bad vocals. Aside from this, I thought that the members of this young quartet were good, energetic musicians and with a new singer and some hit tunes, they may just be sorted.
Having read some hype about the next band as well as listening to their myspace tracks, I wasn’t sure what to expect. This Hackney duo named Plants Plants were yet again pretty much electro pop/synth lovers with some average vocals. With one audience member behind me stating ”they were shite” after their set, I don’t 100 percent disagree with them. Lacking stage presence and ultimately a song I wanted to dance to, maybe I just couldn’t find where this band were coming from. Maybe they’ll find their feet eventually and manage to create a decent pop song; they’re still a new band after all. There’s still hope yet.
After a short break, headliners Trophy Wife took to the stage and gave us all a sweet polished performance. With yet again an outstanding drummer, this band was technically sound and played to an excited audience. Apart from the lead singer looking slightly like a geography teacher, his vocals and guitar riffs were always on tune. Playing tracks such as ‘Microlite’ and ‘The Quiet Earth’, Trophy Wife may not blow you away but at least you would want to get up and dance!
Monday 23 May 2011
Review // Villagers, Shepherds Bush Empire, 21 May 2011
To view this online, click here
Having recently played the Camden Crawl and Great Escape, the Irish act Villagers were ready to entertain the London masses at Shepherds Bush Empire.
The evening started with support from former Magic Numbers bassist, Michele Stodart, who performed a selection of folk-driven acoustic tracks.
Entering the stage with a beautiful array of acoustic solo songs including 'Cecelia', Conor J O’Brien (aka Villagers) dazzled us with his voice on this sunny Saturday evening.
Shepherds Bush Empire was nicely full with a polite British crowd and as the keyboardist accompanied O’Brien for 'Ship of Promises' they warmed up the venue to an excited reception.
Moving into a great folk set with short flashes of heavy rock, they played more intense and slightly eerie singles, 'Home' and 'That Day'.
The biggest hit, 'Becoming A Jackal', was played out brilliantly – with the single having recently been awarded an Ivor Novello for Best Track musically and lyrically!
O’Brien as the creator and frontman is a sweet and perfect vocalist who tells epic stories and poetry throughout his songs, with support from a full band.
Moving into the rest of the album released last year, songs such as 'The Meaning Of The Ritual' and 'Twenty Seven Strangers' slowed the pace.
As they share a record label with other unique new acts such as Wild Beasts, Anna Calvi and Austra, it highlights the way Domino Records are pushing the music industry in a different direction to the mainstream.
The encore was once again intense and dramatic with beautiful lyrics and tight instrumentals playing songs including 'The Pact (I’ll be your Fever)'.
Since releasing Becoming A Jackal in 2010, Villagers have been nominated for the Mercury Music Prize and the Choice Music Prize, so expectations were high. But there was certainly no disappointment as they played an incredible live set.
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| Villagers |
Having recently played the Camden Crawl and Great Escape, the Irish act Villagers were ready to entertain the London masses at Shepherds Bush Empire.
The evening started with support from former Magic Numbers bassist, Michele Stodart, who performed a selection of folk-driven acoustic tracks.
Entering the stage with a beautiful array of acoustic solo songs including 'Cecelia', Conor J O’Brien (aka Villagers) dazzled us with his voice on this sunny Saturday evening.
Shepherds Bush Empire was nicely full with a polite British crowd and as the keyboardist accompanied O’Brien for 'Ship of Promises' they warmed up the venue to an excited reception.
Moving into a great folk set with short flashes of heavy rock, they played more intense and slightly eerie singles, 'Home' and 'That Day'.
The biggest hit, 'Becoming A Jackal', was played out brilliantly – with the single having recently been awarded an Ivor Novello for Best Track musically and lyrically!
O’Brien as the creator and frontman is a sweet and perfect vocalist who tells epic stories and poetry throughout his songs, with support from a full band.
Moving into the rest of the album released last year, songs such as 'The Meaning Of The Ritual' and 'Twenty Seven Strangers' slowed the pace.
As they share a record label with other unique new acts such as Wild Beasts, Anna Calvi and Austra, it highlights the way Domino Records are pushing the music industry in a different direction to the mainstream.
The encore was once again intense and dramatic with beautiful lyrics and tight instrumentals playing songs including 'The Pact (I’ll be your Fever)'.
Since releasing Becoming A Jackal in 2010, Villagers have been nominated for the Mercury Music Prize and the Choice Music Prize, so expectations were high. But there was certainly no disappointment as they played an incredible live set.
Friday 20 May 2011
Review // Stag and Dagger Festival, Shoreditch
To view this online, click here
After running half way round Shoreditch last night, I managed to get a full taste of new and upcoming talent in theUK
After running half way round Shoreditch last night, I managed to get a full taste of new and upcoming talent in the
Firstly it was a roaring set from Mammal Club on the Old Blue Last’s tiny upstairs stage. They managed to entertain the small group of festival goers kicking off the evening in style. Having recently played The Great Escape, this Newcastle-based band stormed the venue with their beat-driven chaotic but slick performance.
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| Entrepreneurs |
Running over to 93 Feet East was our next mission to capture the sound of the Entrepreneurs. Hailing from Hampshire, this mental electronic vocalist hit out and played amazing songs that feature both Foe and Ghostpoet.
The young MC Dels was up next with only a few more people gathering in the back room for his set of lyrically spectacular and electronic-based tracks – with his big tune ‘Shapeshifter’ giving the crowd an uplifting feel.
Finally, Ghostpoet took to the stage having watched all the acts supporting him from the floor. After reading so much press about this guy, I had so many expectations for his performance, but he nailed it! With the assistance of band mates on drums and electric guitar, he proved that ‘Survive It’ is as good live as it is on the radio.
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| Ghostpoet |
Skipping and jumping to XOYO, we managed to catch the female electro-synth duo Creep. With not a huge crowd and only a short set, the track ‘You’ featuring Nina Sky was definitely the highlight.
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| Patterns |
Moving back to the Old Blue Last we caught an incredible set from Patterns. After knowing little about the band apart from their ‘Pure Shores’ All Saints cover, I was impressed with a collection of atmospheric tunes from their debut New Noise which was released last year.
Having finished chasing new music around East London at about 2am after watching the amazing Star Slinger, I felt spectacularly pleased with a quality line up of diverse acts all mixed together with an electro edge – exciting stuff for the music scene of 2011!
Thursday 19 May 2011
Newly signed Washed Out hits the UK this summer…
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| Washed Out: Ernest Greene |
Having started by creating music in his bedroom studio in Atlanta in the US
After being signed by Subpop last month, he is releasing his third album in the form of Within and Without which will be out on 12th July. Other artists on this label include The Go! Team, Fleet Foxes as well as Band of Horses so it seems Greene has really started with the right backing.
Ben Allen co-produced his new work having previously worked with the Animal Collective, Gnarls Barkley and Deerhunter and it certainly seems that he has moved the multi-instrumentalist into a new arena of “chillwave”.
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| New Album: Within and Without |
In 2009, Greene worked hard creating two EP’s with Life of Leisure and Hard Times, with one single from the first album, ‘Feel it All Around’ being used now as the theme song for the US show Portlandia.
The next single from the new album, ‘Eyes Be Closed’ is an epic sound of a chilled electronic big beat with echoing vocals and there will be definitely be more where this came from.
After a tour of the US and Europe, Washed Out will be playing in the UK at Lovebox festival in July as well as other venues in London and Manchester
To check out more music from Washed Out go to Greene’s myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/thebabeinthewoods or listen to the new single ‘Eyes Be Closed’ on Subpop’s website at http://www.subpop.com/artists/washed_out
Big Deal – blowing their own trumpet or the real deal?
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| Big Deal: Alice Costelloe and Kc Underwood |
Big Deal are a duo based in East London who only started playing together and creating their moody tunes last Spring.
Although some comparisons can be made to Slow Club or Ting Tings due to the band existing of one boy and one girl, I’d sooner compare them to cooler acts like vocals as good as The Kills and stylish mystic surrounding them like the White Stripes.
Their music is a slow, sultry rock sound with great vocals from both Alice Costelloe and Kc Underwood, playing with only an acoustic and electric guitar. I may be slow on the uptake with the Guardian spotting this two-piece back in September but they are ones to watch this summer.
Stand out tracks include ‘Locked Up’, ‘Homework’ and ‘Lunch Money’ with all three sweet tracks referring to lust in old school days. Having joined the NME Radar tour this May with Anna Calvi and Grouplove, Big Deal are moving slowly upwards with their brooding guitar driven tracks.
You can catch them tonight at CAMP basement as part of the Stag and Dagger festival or this summer as they will be playing Lounge on the Farm festival on 09 July. Strangely, this duo are still as yet unsigned so serious A & R people need to move fast!
To listen to more music from Big Deal, visit their myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/weareabigdeal
Wednesday 18 May 2011
Check out Stag and Dagger Festival tomorrow!
To view my online copy on http://www.hivemag.com/, click here
Music lovers get prepared as the Stag and Dagger festival takes over Shoreditch with over 100 acts and 20 venues tomorrow night.
This little evening of joy will showcase upcoming bands so you will be fighting for your place in the crowd to get in some of the best venues in London, and from the start you will be pretty flustered about where to begin this musical minefield.
Venues host a variety of acts early on including CocknBull Kid who will be entertaining the masses at CAMP and Mammal Club in the Old Blue Last, which is always packed out so get down there early.
With amazing headliners, you may have some trouble deciding on where to stand your ground. If you decide on XOYO, head down for 11pm and you will find a new buzz surrounding Brooklyn-based duo Creep. They have an electronic synth dubstep sound with sweet vocals, with stand out tracks including ‘Days’ featuring The XX’s Romy Madley-Croft and ‘You’ with Nina Sky.
There is also the incredible Ghostpoet playing at 93 Feet East, New Young Pony Club at The Macbeth and Ghost Eyes showing off their electro talent at the Queen of Hoxton as well as many more diverse musical delights along the way.
You can buy a wristband for £13.50 at XOYO from 6.30pm onwards and this will get you into all the festival venues. But it’s always best to plan ahead, so sort out your must-see list now and go to http://www.staganddagger.com for the full line-up and all information about this yearly event.
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| Cocknbull Kid |
Music lovers get prepared as the Stag and Dagger festival takes over Shoreditch with over 100 acts and 20 venues tomorrow night.
This little evening of joy will showcase upcoming bands so you will be fighting for your place in the crowd to get in some of the best venues in London, and from the start you will be pretty flustered about where to begin this musical minefield.
Venues host a variety of acts early on including CocknBull Kid who will be entertaining the masses at CAMP and Mammal Club in the Old Blue Last, which is always packed out so get down there early.
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| Brooklyn-based duo Creep |
There is also the incredible Ghostpoet playing at 93 Feet East, New Young Pony Club at The Macbeth and Ghost Eyes showing off their electro talent at the Queen of Hoxton as well as many more diverse musical delights along the way.
You can buy a wristband for £13.50 at XOYO from 6.30pm onwards and this will get you into all the festival venues. But it’s always best to plan ahead, so sort out your must-see list now and go to http://www.staganddagger.com for the full line-up and all information about this yearly event.
Review // Gang Gang Dance's New Album Eye Contact
To view my online copy on http://www.freedomspark.co.uk/, click here
Hailing from the experimental arena, Gang Gang Dance are back with another album of surpreme delights. Released last week in both the UK and the US
Known as the band impossible to categorise, they appear to capture a psychedelic electro slash world music vibe. Starting with a hellishly long opener with 'Glass Jar', this album moves into different zones of their own musical niche after rejoicing together from various Manhattan
There are no special guests like there was with Tinchy Stryder's in 'Princes', but with vocalist Lizzi Bougatsos talent's beautifully highlighted on 80s-esque 'Adult Goth' and 'Thru and Thru', there is clearly noone else needed.
The song 'Chinese High' moves the ten track into a lighter electro feel before the new single 'Mindkilla' plays out as an amazing synth dance track.
The band have previously released 4 albums after signing with the independent record label The Social Registry in 2004, with the most recent one being Saint Dymphna in 2008. However, they have certainly moved things forward with Eye Contact as we hear a variety of funky echos in 'Romance Layers' and synth sounds in 'OO OO OO'.
Having just played All Tomorrow's Parties as well as The Great Escape last week, GGD are touring through Europe before heading back to the US
This is an album for those summer night highs so go grab yours now and start enjoying an eclectic mixture of musical sorts.
To watch the video to 'Mindkilla' on the GGD website, click here
Rating: 7/10
Review // Those Dancing Days at XOYO
To view my online copy on http://www.freedomspark.co.uk/, click here
Coming back to London to promote their second album Daydreams and Nightmares which has been produced by Robyn’s collaborator Patrik Berger, Those Dancing Days played to a packed out venue at XOYO in Shoreditch.
With NME suggesting in 2008 that this ‘cute’ band were lacking “the simplicity of a classic hit”, the Swedish female five piece came back with a vengeance to prove critics wrong.
Whilst playing a few songs from their debut album, In Our Space Suits including ‘Home Sweet Home’, the energetic gang pulled out new tracks sounding almost identical to the record.
With Linnea Jonsson on lead vocals, her soulful and possibly never out of tune voice is matched by an equally incredible bassist and a mighty fast drummer.
Stand out tracks from the album were also reflected in their live set with ‘I’ll be Yours’, ‘Fuckarias’ and ‘Forest of Love’. Playing to perfection is impossible but yet it felt as if they were when the track ‘Reaching Forward’ was performed turning into my highlight of the night.
With an amazing crowd and great atmosphere, Those Dancing Days gave their all and proved that although their music is certainly indie pop, it is definitely anything but boring.
If you can’t wait to see them this summer, they are playing Glastonbury on the Saturday as well as various festivals in Germany, Ireland and Sweden.
To follow Those dancing Days, go online to
http://www.myspace.com/thosedancingdays
www.thosedancingdays.com
Or check out their record label in the UK, www.wichita-recordings.com
Coming back to London to promote their second album Daydreams and Nightmares which has been produced by Robyn’s collaborator Patrik Berger, Those Dancing Days played to a packed out venue at XOYO in Shoreditch.
With NME suggesting in 2008 that this ‘cute’ band were lacking “the simplicity of a classic hit”, the Swedish female five piece came back with a vengeance to prove critics wrong.
Whilst playing a few songs from their debut album, In Our Space Suits including ‘Home Sweet Home’, the energetic gang pulled out new tracks sounding almost identical to the record.
With Linnea Jonsson on lead vocals, her soulful and possibly never out of tune voice is matched by an equally incredible bassist and a mighty fast drummer.
Stand out tracks from the album were also reflected in their live set with ‘I’ll be Yours’, ‘Fuckarias’ and ‘Forest of Love’. Playing to perfection is impossible but yet it felt as if they were when the track ‘Reaching Forward’ was performed turning into my highlight of the night.
With an amazing crowd and great atmosphere, Those Dancing Days gave their all and proved that although their music is certainly indie pop, it is definitely anything but boring.
If you can’t wait to see them this summer, they are playing Glastonbury on the Saturday as well as various festivals in Germany, Ireland and Sweden.
To follow Those dancing Days, go online to
http://www.myspace.com/thosedancingdays
www.thosedancingdays.com
Or check out their record label in the UK, www.wichita-recordings.com
Tuesday 17 May 2011
Discovering Toronto-based trio Austra
To view my online copy on http://www.hivemag.com/, click here
Having stumbled upon the wonderful Austra, I quickly delved into a scurry of research as I usually do when I slip back into my teenage-like self.
Having stumbled upon the wonderful Austra, I quickly delved into a scurry of research as I usually do when I slip back into my teenage-like self.
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| New Album: Feel It Break |
Austra are a Toronto-based band formed in 2009 with 3 core members and today is the day they are releasing their debut album Feel It Break.
Since searching the web, I have repeatedly played two songs in particular, 'Lose It' and 'Beat and The Pulse', with the latter video featuring arty females dancing their slightly revealing hearts out.
This 11-track collection moves with a powerful continious mood with pained vocals, starting with 'Darken Her Horse', moving eventually to 'The Future' and 80s-esque track 'The Choke'.
This album may not make you jump backwards but it is certainly a clear cut stylish synth-pop set of tracks with such incredible vocals from Katie Stelmanis. After training in classical music from a young age, the singer and co-founder admits that all she really wanted to was ultimately make "classical music with really fucked up, distorted, crazy shit on there."
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| Austra |
The trio definitely show off their beat-driven dance-friendly songs with great confiction and in a way that should play out amazingly well to a live audience.
If you are ready to get lost in the music of Austra, catch them at Cargo in Shoreditch on 07 July with as yet unannounced special guests or visit their myspace.com page here
Review of Friendly Fires' new album Pala
To view my online copy on http://www.freedomspark.co.uk/, click here
Since releasing their debut album, Friendly Fires have built a serious fan base and admiration from the music scene in the past few years after being nominated for the Mercury Music award as well as two Brit awards.
The band are now back with their second album, Pala, which is an eclectic mix of rock, pop and electro dance beats, with yet again fantastic vocals from front man, Ed Macfarlane.
As a huge fan of Friendly Fires with their live performances being some of the best gigs I’ve ever been to, I had high expectations of their second coming. Although I wasn’t bowled over on my first listen, after playing the record many times Pala definitely has more to offer than I first recognised.
The band continue to sound like themselves, but this is no bad thing as the album starts with amazing tracks ‘Live Those Days Tonight’ and ‘Blue Cassette’. The former track has had serious radio airplay in the past few weeks and it does well to summarise the best of FF’s sound; encompassing amazing drums, lyrical highs and electronic notes that will make you press that repeat button.
Friendly Fires have no doubt moved forward in their sound as it appears that this album is way more influenced by house and electronic music, however tracks such ‘Show Me Lights’ and ‘Pull Me Back to Earth’ also reflect a clear pop vibe.
New sound also comes in the form of ‘Hurting’ which provides an electronic pop mix, as well as ‘Pala’ and ‘Helpless’ having a much slower-paced and chilled Ibiza mood.
There is also ‘Hawaiian Air’, a sweet summer tune with harmonies and synths and ‘True Love’ which holds a funky pop rhythm. These tracks are perhaps the weaker side to the album but by no means bad.
With Macfarlane recently stating he prefers to “listen to Justin Timberlake than Morrissey”, this is understandable once listening to this album as it presents a triangle of sounds and layers of instrumentals and vocals. Friendly Fires are no typical British indie band; they are something way different and far more diverse.
The band recently played their hometown of St Albans but they have gigs all over the world this summer, from the recent Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Carlisle to Hamberg, Amsterdam, New York and Toronto.
They are one hard-working band and if their previous live performances are anything to go by, buying your gig ticket to see Friendly Fires is a great investment.
To keep up to date with all news and tour dates, visit www.myspace.com/friendlyfires
Pala is out now on XL Recordings.
Rating: 7/10
Since releasing their debut album, Friendly Fires have built a serious fan base and admiration from the music scene in the past few years after being nominated for the Mercury Music award as well as two Brit awards.
The band are now back with their second album, Pala, which is an eclectic mix of rock, pop and electro dance beats, with yet again fantastic vocals from front man, Ed Macfarlane.
As a huge fan of Friendly Fires with their live performances being some of the best gigs I’ve ever been to, I had high expectations of their second coming. Although I wasn’t bowled over on my first listen, after playing the record many times Pala definitely has more to offer than I first recognised.
The band continue to sound like themselves, but this is no bad thing as the album starts with amazing tracks ‘Live Those Days Tonight’ and ‘Blue Cassette’. The former track has had serious radio airplay in the past few weeks and it does well to summarise the best of FF’s sound; encompassing amazing drums, lyrical highs and electronic notes that will make you press that repeat button.
Friendly Fires have no doubt moved forward in their sound as it appears that this album is way more influenced by house and electronic music, however tracks such ‘Show Me Lights’ and ‘Pull Me Back to Earth’ also reflect a clear pop vibe.
New sound also comes in the form of ‘Hurting’ which provides an electronic pop mix, as well as ‘Pala’ and ‘Helpless’ having a much slower-paced and chilled Ibiza mood.
There is also ‘Hawaiian Air’, a sweet summer tune with harmonies and synths and ‘True Love’ which holds a funky pop rhythm. These tracks are perhaps the weaker side to the album but by no means bad.
With Macfarlane recently stating he prefers to “listen to Justin Timberlake than Morrissey”, this is understandable once listening to this album as it presents a triangle of sounds and layers of instrumentals and vocals. Friendly Fires are no typical British indie band; they are something way different and far more diverse.
The band recently played their hometown of St Albans but they have gigs all over the world this summer, from the recent Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Carlisle to Hamberg, Amsterdam, New York and Toronto.
They are one hard-working band and if their previous live performances are anything to go by, buying your gig ticket to see Friendly Fires is a great investment.
To keep up to date with all news and tour dates, visit www.myspace.com/friendlyfires
Pala is out now on XL Recordings.
Rating: 7/10
Monday 16 May 2011
Introducing Ghost Eyes...
Releasing their first single on 7" today, Ghost Eyes are a mysterious London-based act who are pushing forward records as they become a special entity. The new track called "Phantom Mountain" is a multi-cultural mash up of electro eastern hip hop rock (yes, quite literally) mixed with various vocals including a children's choir. The video features eerie hooded dancers and was directed and produced by the band themselves.
Having mixed songs for Fujiya & Miyagi, Cymbals and We Are The World, they have also toured with Gold Panda and Matthew Dear, but now this genre-pushing trio are ready to get some personal creditation. You can catch them playing all over the UK in the coming months but if you are gagging to see them this week then get down to The Queen of Hoxton in Shoreditch on Thursday! To follow all news of Ghost Eyes, go to http://www.myspace.com/ghosteyes or watch to the video online, click here
Having mixed songs for Fujiya & Miyagi, Cymbals and We Are The World, they have also toured with Gold Panda and Matthew Dear, but now this genre-pushing trio are ready to get some personal creditation. You can catch them playing all over the UK in the coming months but if you are gagging to see them this week then get down to The Queen of Hoxton in Shoreditch on Thursday! To follow all news of Ghost Eyes, go to http://www.myspace.com/ghosteyes or watch to the video online, click here
Introducing Carsten Kruse...
To view my online copy on http://www.freedomspark.co.uk/, click here
Carsten Kruse talks to us about his unique paintings on structures such as trams, houses, cars and other odd things all over Germany…
Kruse is a German artist based in Heidelberg and he is certainly a man of many talents; hand painting images on cans, recycled scrap materials and canvas with monster and fish style paintings.
The energetic artist has been painting on canvas since 1990, with his first exhibition held in Heidelberg a year later for a local computer company. He began painting houses in 2002 and trams in 2003, taking 6 weeks to complete this latter project.
As a child, Kruse explains that he was always painting and no-one could stop him from decorating the furniture and even the walls in his parents’ house! He went onto draw with water-resistant pens on school property, then his own bike, his own car as well as his friends’ cars and so on.
Kruse is now employed by companies to construct a marketing concept which in turn becomes his artwork. An example of this is Kruse’s work on Aqualand in Cologne which included hand painting a building wall and a tram. He tells me that many projects are determined by his own imagination but others want to show a strong corporate identity, and one example of this is the B5-Solar company in Berlin.
He states that essential skills for working in the arts industry include “talent, courage and an instinct for business”, and that having “maximum freedom” is the best thing about his job… “I can do what ever I want. Nobody cares about my hair cut. I get money for all the crazy ideas in my head”. However, Kruse doesn’t take kindly to criticism and struggles if he does not have a big project in sight.
I ask what advice he could offer to others wanting to pursue a career as an artist and he says that “not developing a big interest in too much money or luxury is essential as most artists I know are poor”. He recommends networking to get noticed although admits to hating this side to the art industry.
This summer Kruse will be producing T-shirts that will be available online, and for this he founded a company in Stuttgart and the prototypes are in production now.
To see more of this unique colourful array of work, go to Kruse’s website at:
http://www.ck-paintings.de/
Carsten Kruse talks to us about his unique paintings on structures such as trams, houses, cars and other odd things all over Germany…
Kruse is a German artist based in Heidelberg and he is certainly a man of many talents; hand painting images on cans, recycled scrap materials and canvas with monster and fish style paintings.
The energetic artist has been painting on canvas since 1990, with his first exhibition held in Heidelberg a year later for a local computer company. He began painting houses in 2002 and trams in 2003, taking 6 weeks to complete this latter project.
As a child, Kruse explains that he was always painting and no-one could stop him from decorating the furniture and even the walls in his parents’ house! He went onto draw with water-resistant pens on school property, then his own bike, his own car as well as his friends’ cars and so on.
Kruse is now employed by companies to construct a marketing concept which in turn becomes his artwork. An example of this is Kruse’s work on Aqualand in Cologne which included hand painting a building wall and a tram. He tells me that many projects are determined by his own imagination but others want to show a strong corporate identity, and one example of this is the B5-Solar company in Berlin.
He states that essential skills for working in the arts industry include “talent, courage and an instinct for business”, and that having “maximum freedom” is the best thing about his job… “I can do what ever I want. Nobody cares about my hair cut. I get money for all the crazy ideas in my head”. However, Kruse doesn’t take kindly to criticism and struggles if he does not have a big project in sight.
I ask what advice he could offer to others wanting to pursue a career as an artist and he says that “not developing a big interest in too much money or luxury is essential as most artists I know are poor”. He recommends networking to get noticed although admits to hating this side to the art industry.
This summer Kruse will be producing T-shirts that will be available online, and for this he founded a company in Stuttgart and the prototypes are in production now.
To see more of this unique colourful array of work, go to Kruse’s website at:
http://www.ck-paintings.de/
Friday 13 May 2011
Review of Rome album created by Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi
To view my online copy at http://www.hivemag.com/, click here
Rome
With The Guardian streaming this album for free, I could not resist listening to it over and over again on a somewhat blue Monday. It changed my day as it took me through the most chilled if slightly eerie acoustic guitar riffs and sweet harmonising vocals.
Since releasing his prominent 2004 The Grey Album, which consisted of slicing instrumentals from The Beatles’ LP known as The White album with acapellas from Jay-Z’s The Black album, fans have been waiting with baited breath to see what limits Danger Mouse will go to next, to change and push musical mainstream boundaries.
After spending the past few years working on his act Gnarls Barkley, to producing music for Gorillaz, Beck, MF Doom as well as The Shins, Danger Mouse has chased his wish to complete an album full of magical tracks that I would put up there with one of the best albums of 2011.
This album includes vocals from the legendary Jack White of White Stripes/Raconteurs fame on tracks such as Two Against One’, ‘The Rose with the Broken Neck’ as well as ‘The World’. There are also vocals from the middle of the road/not so cool singer Norah Jones, who’s reputation appears ever-changing especially when you listen to her sensual sounding voice on songs such as ‘Season’s Trees’, ‘Black’ and ‘Problem Queen’.
There are other amazing shorter tracks such as ‘Gambling Priest’ and ‘The World (Interlude)’, which include haunting harmonies and seductive string sections. Also, the song ‘The Matador has Fallen’ sounds strangely like The Doors!
This is a refreshing guide into Danger Mouse’s passion for Piero Umiliani, Bruno Nicolai and Piero Piccioni. It will certainly make you glad that he has the imagination and will power to complete such a detailed music project, and it once again highlights Danger Mouse’s ability to continually be a unique and forward-thinking producer.
If you’d also like to enjoy free streaming of Rome
Monday 9 May 2011
Review of London Street Photography Exhibition, Museum of London
To view my copy online at http://www.thenationalstudent.com/, click here
After being surprised to read that there was a Museum of London, I was pleased to find a creative and insightful exhibition held on the lower level in this structurally fascinating building.
The exhibition presents over 200 images of street photography from 1860 up to today’s digital phenomenon. This sort of project is great for a new Londoner as you feel much closer its past and what happened historically in areas that you now frequent on night’s out.
Each photo reflects scenes of everyday London life from obscure facial expressions, to ironic situations and public events that record an important political time in the Capital.
The collection showcases 59 photographers and continually shows a film which includes 4 modern day street photographers discussing their work. They talk of their experience throughout their career and how the anti-terrorism and privacy laws are affecting how London is captured in the 21st century.
One elderly photographer named Wolf Sushitzky spoke of his experience after moving to London from Vienna in 1935. His personal project was to capture Charing Cross in both day and night. He was intrigued by dramatic weather changes, people at work and everyday scenes that as a tourist he found exciting and thrilling as he was seeing a different type of life in Europe.
Other photographers, Matt Stuart and Polly Braden spoke about their troubles capturing everyday life in London. They noted that people are more aware of being photographed and now the anti-terrorism act is in place, the police have the right to move you on.
Moving around the exhibition, you could see the excitement in people’s eyes to be photographed and documented historically but the photos of the present day reflect how shy people are in front of the lens.
Paul Trevor highlighted that the new generation of children growing up in London may be the first not to be captured on film. The innocence, playfulness and daft behaviour that only feature within children’s lives may be lost as young people do not hang out on the streets as they once used to.
As we moved into the modern day, there were colour photographs and at this point it seemed quite obvious what is being lost by moving with technology. Digital cameras allow not just one moment to be captured, but many that are then edited and this almost loses that sense of reality. To review your photos of a ‘moment in time’, takes away the excitement of what is developed at the end and almost ceases to ensure that your one-off shot is captured.
This exhibition was a wonderful selection of London life and definitely a visit worth making especially as entry is free. So get down to the Museum of London or look online at more events through http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/. To cherish this exhibition for longer, there is also an accompanying book at www.museumoflondonshop.co.uk. Museum of London also works with The Big Issue.
After being surprised to read that there was a Museum of London, I was pleased to find a creative and insightful exhibition held on the lower level in this structurally fascinating building.
The exhibition presents over 200 images of street photography from 1860 up to today’s digital phenomenon. This sort of project is great for a new Londoner as you feel much closer its past and what happened historically in areas that you now frequent on night’s out.
Each photo reflects scenes of everyday London life from obscure facial expressions, to ironic situations and public events that record an important political time in the Capital.
The collection showcases 59 photographers and continually shows a film which includes 4 modern day street photographers discussing their work. They talk of their experience throughout their career and how the anti-terrorism and privacy laws are affecting how London is captured in the 21st century.
One elderly photographer named Wolf Sushitzky spoke of his experience after moving to London from Vienna in 1935. His personal project was to capture Charing Cross in both day and night. He was intrigued by dramatic weather changes, people at work and everyday scenes that as a tourist he found exciting and thrilling as he was seeing a different type of life in Europe.
Other photographers, Matt Stuart and Polly Braden spoke about their troubles capturing everyday life in London. They noted that people are more aware of being photographed and now the anti-terrorism act is in place, the police have the right to move you on.
Moving around the exhibition, you could see the excitement in people’s eyes to be photographed and documented historically but the photos of the present day reflect how shy people are in front of the lens.
Paul Trevor highlighted that the new generation of children growing up in London may be the first not to be captured on film. The innocence, playfulness and daft behaviour that only feature within children’s lives may be lost as young people do not hang out on the streets as they once used to.
As we moved into the modern day, there were colour photographs and at this point it seemed quite obvious what is being lost by moving with technology. Digital cameras allow not just one moment to be captured, but many that are then edited and this almost loses that sense of reality. To review your photos of a ‘moment in time’, takes away the excitement of what is developed at the end and almost ceases to ensure that your one-off shot is captured.
This exhibition was a wonderful selection of London life and definitely a visit worth making especially as entry is free. So get down to the Museum of London or look online at more events through http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/. To cherish this exhibition for longer, there is also an accompanying book at www.museumoflondonshop.co.uk. Museum of London also works with The Big Issue.
Wednesday 4 May 2011
Interview with Garson Byer
To view my online copy on http://www.freedomspark.co.uk/, click here
Garson Byer is a London-based street photographer who captures unique images of people in all types of quirky places. His pictures seem out of place and full of hope or near sadness, with a black and white 1950s movie feeling. Here, Byer takes us through his career in photography…
How did you get started in photography?
When I was 18 I started work in a black and white darkroom in the basement of a minor advertising agency in Holborn. After a couple of months the owner decided to travel around the world in his 2CV and leave me in charge. I had unlimited access to paper, film and chemicals which were very expensive and spent most of my time misusing the rostrum camera to copy photographs from old movie books. Sounds odd today, but the ability to do that and make prints of Orson Welles or Montgomery Clift was like having keys to the toy box. Of course I got the sack when the owner came back to the huge bills I’d run up. I also spent some time as a photographer’s assistant to the arguably the world’s worst photographer. He specialised in boring pack shots and managed to blow up the first Apple Mac in the UK by plugging into 240v and destroy the matt finish on a fifty grand piano at Steinway & Sons by using dulling spray to stop a reflection. I learned nothing at all, but he used to pay me extra not to tell people he’d screwed up.
After that I started to take photos in the street with a borrowed camera, but always of architecture or fragments of the past – 1930s shop fronts, 1960s lettering on building names etc. Never people then – I was way too timid. I used to like to walk around the City of London on a Sunday. In the 80s nothing was open and you’d see no one else around apart from the odd tramp.
Did you have a main inspiration or someone that pushed you forward when you were younger?
There were two people who actively inspired me – one was a Brazilian photographer called Flavio Colker who mainly worked in fashion and album covers/music videos but who got me to buy a tiny Minox 35mm camera to take pictures in the street without people noticing. He also encouraged me to break the rules in what was considered ‘good’ and ‘bad’. The other was someone I never met in person but whose work changed the way I thought about what I could or couldn’t photograph. That was Garry Winogrand who had a retrospective at the Hayward Gallery in about 1991. In those days the only way to see the work of others was to be lucky in who you met or hope that a gallery put on a great exhibition. Books of the classic street photographers were very thin on the ground. There was also no way to analyse the technique of these guys from books alone. Only with the advent of YouTube did I find out that Henri Cartier Bresson used to lie in wait for hours for one of his ‘decisive moments’ or that Winogrand really did just walk up to people and shoot in their faces. I used to take the train to Paris just to go to the Centre National de la Photographie at the Trocadero, where they printed these little pocket boots of the great photographers. The others who were an influence on me at that time included Danny Lyon, Bruce Davidson, Diane Arbus, Burk Uzzle and Richard Avedon. Movies were also a huge influence in the style of what I wanted to shoot. The inherent fashion element in Avedon’s ‘non-fashion’ work was a big influence, too. I like taking photos of people with interesting style or clothing. That attracts me to someone in a crowd immediately, whether the style is intentional or not. Usually, it’s more interesting if it’s unintentional.
How have you developed your skills in photography?
I would say my technical skills are still pretty non-existent. It took me a long time to be comfortable showing my work to anyone because all the other photographers I knew were always talking about f-stop this and 50mm lens that. I had no training in the camera end of photography and so felt disadvantaged. Now, I realise that it was the other way around to a large extent. Not knowing what I was doing produced a very personal style.
I stopped taking pictures for many years whilst working in the music business in Rio and London. When I started again I was amazed that the style was still there almost exactly the same. In other words I hadn’t got technically any better but my eye were still there picking out the same things. Some photos taken in the last couple of years can easily be confused with images taken 20 years ago. Partly this is because I’m always attracted to people and things that are not of their current time. The images at The Social are not just seen through the passing of twenty years, but were all images that were already out of their time and place – the Horse Loose on Council Estate looks like Ireland in the 1960s, the Man Reading in Shaftesbury Avenue is wearing a 60s raincoat with a kind of late 50s version of greasy long hair, the Woman with Dog, Boy With Pistol look like New York from the early 80s. These were all images that struck me as being out of place even then. Even the Orthodox Youth at East Finchley station, when you think about it is a boy wearing 19th Century clothes with a 1960s Tube train passing, despite being shot in 1991.
With specific reference to the question I don’t think my technical skills have got any better. I still develop my own film when using 35mm and still mess it up from time to time but I like that aspect of the work. One of my favourite pictures is one I shot in Rio in the early 90s. It’s only two thirds of the last frame of film on a roll. It’s blurry and out of focus and there’s a scratch through the negative no doubt caused by me, but somewhat magical for all that.
Do you have a system to your work flow?
I’m naturally very unorganised so I try to organise as much as possible but I find it hard. Maybe the ability to see the unusual in the everyday needs a certain kind of unstructured mind, I don’t know. I do keep all my negatives together and they have survived countless house moves and country moves and radical decluttering. These days I use Adobe Lightroom for digital images, but I’m still quite bad at organising the workflow.
Do you keep up to date with new technology and how do you feel about digital prints?
Well it was the fact that Leica finally had a digital M series camera that used classic lenses that got me back into photography a few years ago. No more mess, no more 36 shots on a roll, plus black and white quality that was as good as, albeit different, 35mm film. The irony is that soon after buying the M8 I felt a desire to start using film again and bought a Leica M4 and then later a replacement Minox GT, the tiny 35mm camera I started street photography with. I’ve got two of those now and carry one most places I go. Now it depends on my mood which one I use. It’s great to have the choice and to be able to get an image from camera to laptop in a fraction of the time it takes to develop film. But sometimes I like to dig out a few undeveloped rolls, process them and then scan the results. It’s great when you’ve forgotten the images on film and rediscover them. Both ways of working have their magic. The prints at The Social were all shot on film, all developed at home, but scanned and digitally processed by the guys at Metro then digitally printed. The idea that you can get so much information from a tiny negative compared to wet prints is fantastic. It just enhances what’s already there in the image.
Do you have any other creative outlets or is photography your true and only passion?
Years spent in the music business, and before that writing screenplays and drama, made me realise that the ideal for me is to be able to be creative entirely alone, without the need for any collaboration. From camera to photo blog is an entirely personal journey that relies solely on me. I like that. I do sometimes go on a ‘photo walk’ with another photographer friend of mine but that’s like working in tandem. The results of shooting even the same people are entirely independent of each other.
Is your interest in people or the culture of the city you are surrounded by?
I would say it’s the people foremost. Especially people for whom the word ‘culture’ is only every written with a small ‘c’ –where it’s not contrived. The fact that that takes place in a particular city definitely adds to the mix though. Milan, Tokyo, London are all cities that are intensely photographic in terms of people. One of the reasons I love Oxford St so much is that you never know what the next person in front of you is going to look like. I was recently in Vancouver and it was clearly a fantastic city to live in, but everything seemed so ‘nice’ and I hardly shot any photos at all. Coming back to London, a city that gets harder every year to physically live in with its crumbling infrastructure and stratospheric cost of living, you can see something happening to photograph almost anywhere.
In your latest exhibition held at The Social, you show photos from the past 20 years in London – do you have a favourite photo?
From the images at The Social I love Man Reading in Shaftesbury Avenue. When I was framing these pictures for the exhibition someone at the framer’s asked me if anyone ever recognised themselves in one of my photos. I laughed and said it had never happened and was so obscure that they ever would, especially these images from The Social as they were mostly around two decades old. That same evening someone emailed me having seen that photo on my website. He told me he knew the man and it was his old maths teacher, one Mr Collins, who regularly hung outside the ABC Shaftesbury Avenue (now Odeon). That completely freaked me out, the fact that I’d loved that picture for so many years and suddenly there was a name to the figure, Mr Collins, nevermind the chances of someone into photography chancing upon my site and then knowing the the guy in the main image. I loved the flyer the guys did for The Social with Mr Collins on the cover. However, my favourite image is the Woman with Dog, Boy with Pistol. They were walking along the Bayswater Rd one hot summer day and she had mirror shades on and a faded glamorous outfit, and the boy, who looked Indian, was shooting himself with a water pistol. When I took the photograph, she said ‘Why?’ But, if I hadn’t taken it there be no record of them walking there that day.
Can the general public buy your work?
Yes, all the photographs at The Social are for sale. I probably should have marked them more clearly! I’ve sold a number of them – including the ‘Woman with Dog’ to a lady who realised afterwards that she lives yards from where it was taken.
There’s also a photobook of London based images from the last 20 years to go with the exhibition which you can buy from my website.
Garson Byer’s exhibition of photographs from the past 20 years is currently showing at The Social, 5 Little Portland St, W1W 7JD. You can also visit his website www.InALonelyPlace.org and follow him on twitter @GarsonByer.
Garson Byer is a London-based street photographer who captures unique images of people in all types of quirky places. His pictures seem out of place and full of hope or near sadness, with a black and white 1950s movie feeling. Here, Byer takes us through his career in photography…
How did you get started in photography?
When I was 18 I started work in a black and white darkroom in the basement of a minor advertising agency in Holborn. After a couple of months the owner decided to travel around the world in his 2CV and leave me in charge. I had unlimited access to paper, film and chemicals which were very expensive and spent most of my time misusing the rostrum camera to copy photographs from old movie books. Sounds odd today, but the ability to do that and make prints of Orson Welles or Montgomery Clift was like having keys to the toy box. Of course I got the sack when the owner came back to the huge bills I’d run up. I also spent some time as a photographer’s assistant to the arguably the world’s worst photographer. He specialised in boring pack shots and managed to blow up the first Apple Mac in the UK by plugging into 240v and destroy the matt finish on a fifty grand piano at Steinway & Sons by using dulling spray to stop a reflection. I learned nothing at all, but he used to pay me extra not to tell people he’d screwed up.
After that I started to take photos in the street with a borrowed camera, but always of architecture or fragments of the past – 1930s shop fronts, 1960s lettering on building names etc. Never people then – I was way too timid. I used to like to walk around the City of London on a Sunday. In the 80s nothing was open and you’d see no one else around apart from the odd tramp.
Did you have a main inspiration or someone that pushed you forward when you were younger?
There were two people who actively inspired me – one was a Brazilian photographer called Flavio Colker who mainly worked in fashion and album covers/music videos but who got me to buy a tiny Minox 35mm camera to take pictures in the street without people noticing. He also encouraged me to break the rules in what was considered ‘good’ and ‘bad’. The other was someone I never met in person but whose work changed the way I thought about what I could or couldn’t photograph. That was Garry Winogrand who had a retrospective at the Hayward Gallery in about 1991. In those days the only way to see the work of others was to be lucky in who you met or hope that a gallery put on a great exhibition. Books of the classic street photographers were very thin on the ground. There was also no way to analyse the technique of these guys from books alone. Only with the advent of YouTube did I find out that Henri Cartier Bresson used to lie in wait for hours for one of his ‘decisive moments’ or that Winogrand really did just walk up to people and shoot in their faces. I used to take the train to Paris just to go to the Centre National de la Photographie at the Trocadero, where they printed these little pocket boots of the great photographers. The others who were an influence on me at that time included Danny Lyon, Bruce Davidson, Diane Arbus, Burk Uzzle and Richard Avedon. Movies were also a huge influence in the style of what I wanted to shoot. The inherent fashion element in Avedon’s ‘non-fashion’ work was a big influence, too. I like taking photos of people with interesting style or clothing. That attracts me to someone in a crowd immediately, whether the style is intentional or not. Usually, it’s more interesting if it’s unintentional.
How have you developed your skills in photography?
I would say my technical skills are still pretty non-existent. It took me a long time to be comfortable showing my work to anyone because all the other photographers I knew were always talking about f-stop this and 50mm lens that. I had no training in the camera end of photography and so felt disadvantaged. Now, I realise that it was the other way around to a large extent. Not knowing what I was doing produced a very personal style.
I stopped taking pictures for many years whilst working in the music business in Rio and London. When I started again I was amazed that the style was still there almost exactly the same. In other words I hadn’t got technically any better but my eye were still there picking out the same things. Some photos taken in the last couple of years can easily be confused with images taken 20 years ago. Partly this is because I’m always attracted to people and things that are not of their current time. The images at The Social are not just seen through the passing of twenty years, but were all images that were already out of their time and place – the Horse Loose on Council Estate looks like Ireland in the 1960s, the Man Reading in Shaftesbury Avenue is wearing a 60s raincoat with a kind of late 50s version of greasy long hair, the Woman with Dog, Boy With Pistol look like New York from the early 80s. These were all images that struck me as being out of place even then. Even the Orthodox Youth at East Finchley station, when you think about it is a boy wearing 19th Century clothes with a 1960s Tube train passing, despite being shot in 1991.
With specific reference to the question I don’t think my technical skills have got any better. I still develop my own film when using 35mm and still mess it up from time to time but I like that aspect of the work. One of my favourite pictures is one I shot in Rio in the early 90s. It’s only two thirds of the last frame of film on a roll. It’s blurry and out of focus and there’s a scratch through the negative no doubt caused by me, but somewhat magical for all that.
Do you have a system to your work flow?
I’m naturally very unorganised so I try to organise as much as possible but I find it hard. Maybe the ability to see the unusual in the everyday needs a certain kind of unstructured mind, I don’t know. I do keep all my negatives together and they have survived countless house moves and country moves and radical decluttering. These days I use Adobe Lightroom for digital images, but I’m still quite bad at organising the workflow.
Do you keep up to date with new technology and how do you feel about digital prints?
Well it was the fact that Leica finally had a digital M series camera that used classic lenses that got me back into photography a few years ago. No more mess, no more 36 shots on a roll, plus black and white quality that was as good as, albeit different, 35mm film. The irony is that soon after buying the M8 I felt a desire to start using film again and bought a Leica M4 and then later a replacement Minox GT, the tiny 35mm camera I started street photography with. I’ve got two of those now and carry one most places I go. Now it depends on my mood which one I use. It’s great to have the choice and to be able to get an image from camera to laptop in a fraction of the time it takes to develop film. But sometimes I like to dig out a few undeveloped rolls, process them and then scan the results. It’s great when you’ve forgotten the images on film and rediscover them. Both ways of working have their magic. The prints at The Social were all shot on film, all developed at home, but scanned and digitally processed by the guys at Metro then digitally printed. The idea that you can get so much information from a tiny negative compared to wet prints is fantastic. It just enhances what’s already there in the image.
Do you have any other creative outlets or is photography your true and only passion?
Years spent in the music business, and before that writing screenplays and drama, made me realise that the ideal for me is to be able to be creative entirely alone, without the need for any collaboration. From camera to photo blog is an entirely personal journey that relies solely on me. I like that. I do sometimes go on a ‘photo walk’ with another photographer friend of mine but that’s like working in tandem. The results of shooting even the same people are entirely independent of each other.
Is your interest in people or the culture of the city you are surrounded by?
I would say it’s the people foremost. Especially people for whom the word ‘culture’ is only every written with a small ‘c’ –where it’s not contrived. The fact that that takes place in a particular city definitely adds to the mix though. Milan, Tokyo, London are all cities that are intensely photographic in terms of people. One of the reasons I love Oxford St so much is that you never know what the next person in front of you is going to look like. I was recently in Vancouver and it was clearly a fantastic city to live in, but everything seemed so ‘nice’ and I hardly shot any photos at all. Coming back to London, a city that gets harder every year to physically live in with its crumbling infrastructure and stratospheric cost of living, you can see something happening to photograph almost anywhere.
In your latest exhibition held at The Social, you show photos from the past 20 years in London – do you have a favourite photo?
From the images at The Social I love Man Reading in Shaftesbury Avenue. When I was framing these pictures for the exhibition someone at the framer’s asked me if anyone ever recognised themselves in one of my photos. I laughed and said it had never happened and was so obscure that they ever would, especially these images from The Social as they were mostly around two decades old. That same evening someone emailed me having seen that photo on my website. He told me he knew the man and it was his old maths teacher, one Mr Collins, who regularly hung outside the ABC Shaftesbury Avenue (now Odeon). That completely freaked me out, the fact that I’d loved that picture for so many years and suddenly there was a name to the figure, Mr Collins, nevermind the chances of someone into photography chancing upon my site and then knowing the the guy in the main image. I loved the flyer the guys did for The Social with Mr Collins on the cover. However, my favourite image is the Woman with Dog, Boy with Pistol. They were walking along the Bayswater Rd one hot summer day and she had mirror shades on and a faded glamorous outfit, and the boy, who looked Indian, was shooting himself with a water pistol. When I took the photograph, she said ‘Why?’ But, if I hadn’t taken it there be no record of them walking there that day.
Can the general public buy your work?
Yes, all the photographs at The Social are for sale. I probably should have marked them more clearly! I’ve sold a number of them – including the ‘Woman with Dog’ to a lady who realised afterwards that she lives yards from where it was taken.
There’s also a photobook of London based images from the last 20 years to go with the exhibition which you can buy from my website.
Garson Byer’s exhibition of photographs from the past 20 years is currently showing at The Social, 5 Little Portland St, W1W 7JD. You can also visit his website www.InALonelyPlace.org and follow him on twitter @GarsonByer.
Tuesday 3 May 2011
Japanese Noise-Rock…adventurous or just a bit shit?
I have recently come across the strange music notion Japanese Noise-Rock. I doubt its true popularity as this is a genre of blaring, screeching and howling and somewhat uncomfortable experimental noise. This is distortion of electronic music in the most intense way.
With a limited audience in Japan
Apparently, the musicians to look out for are Keiji Haino, the free jazz, noise-rock veteran and The Boredoms who have collaborated with the former. There is also the artist named Masami Akita who is seen as the purest champion of the genre. His work is harsh and shocking with an obsession of bondage and severe sexual themes, so maybe his work is not the place to start.
This music is alternative but a bit too much chaos for me so I think I’ll bow out of listening to anymore of this ear-shattering disturbance. This genre may continue to stay underground as its far-fetched distortion appears less musical than anything I’ve ever heard.
Adventurous or just a bit shit – feel free to make your own mind up by going online to check out The Boredoms at http://www.myspace.com/boredoms.
After a long wait, Tom Vek and his electronic beats are back
After apparently creating music in his parents’ garage for 8 years then creating We Have Sound during his graphic design degree, Tom Vek likes to take his time about things.
Now 6 years since the release of his debut album, Vek is back with a sophisticated sound releasing ‘A Chore’ as his new single, with its first official radio play on Zane Lowe’s Radio 1 show last night.
With his ever imaginary videos, ‘A Chore’ sees Vek hosting the “Island Show”, skirting round the band and finally joining them, only to be left as he is, a solo musician in the end.
Now a suave and attractive man of nearly 30 years, Vek has come back with 12 tracks on his second album named Leisure Seizure. He will inevitably receive raving reviews for his upcoming gigs in June from 5 venues across the UK including Glasgow , Birmingham and London
For eager fans, you can pre-order the album online which will be released this summer on 6th June. After playing his debut repeatedly for 2 years, I will be making space for his new mix of electronic rhythms in my 2011 collection immediately!
To view Tom Vek’s new video for ‘A Chore’, click here. To keep up to date with all Tom Vek news, check out his website at http://www.tomvek.tv/
The Royal Wedding Sickbag Story...
A young graphic designer and print maker has created one of the most unusual and fantastic souvenirs for the impending Royal Wedding - what do you need the most on this special day….yes a sick bag! After many months of tedious media coverage and now the release of US-made movie dramatisation ‘Will and Kate’, I think many people will be pleased when all the hype has died down.
Lydia Leith designed the official looking retro airline sick bag after hearing many friends say how ‘sick’ they were of hearing about it and soon thought of the witty pun ‘throne up’. Leith comes from a creative background as her father is an Illustrator and her mother a crafts tutor and she has now become well known worldwide designing this memorable piece in the royal history of must-have souvenirs.
The 24 year old explained the money she receives from this project will fund her new ideas so she can continue making her own designs in the future. For your own special royal sick bag for Friday 29th April, order online at www.lydialeith.com and check out her other wonderfully unique illustrations, screen prints and packaging designs.
Wednesday 27 April 2011
Kunsthaus Tacheles Art House in Berlin to be Demolished
To view my online copy on http://www.freedomspark.com/, click here
‘Tacheles’ – Yiddish for “straight talking” has been an art house and a nightclub since the Berlin wall came down in Spring 1990. Originally built as a department store in the Jewish part of former East Berlin in Mitte, then subsequently used as a Nazi prison, the future of this cultural paradise is under threat.
Demolition took down parts of the building including the dome and movie theater in 1980, but the rest was saved last minute by an arts group named Künstlerinitative Tacheles. The initiative occupied the building and demanded it was saved as a historic landmark, which was later certified as the structure was still in tact.
As much of the exterior was damaged in WWII, there are huge colourful graffiti-style murals covering almost every space. The inside of Tacheles was used to house the artists and their work, until in 1991 when the housing association was burnt down. Inside now features sculptures and paintings from artists all over the world from Argentina, Britain, Japan, America and many from Germany itself.
Now, the future of Tacheles is unknown because the group that stood in the way of developers may have finally backed down. Tourists are banished from using cameras inside the building; art fans need to move fast. With a hop, skip and a jump over to Berlin, you’ll be there in a flash experiencing the best of Berlin art and culture under one roof. Be sure to sign the petition situated on the top floor to save this special place, but don’t leave it too long.
To join the group Save the Tacheles, go to http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=63977795383
or check out the I Support Tacheles blog at http://isupporttacheles.blogspot.com/
‘Tacheles’ – Yiddish for “straight talking” has been an art house and a nightclub since the Berlin wall came down in Spring 1990. Originally built as a department store in the Jewish part of former East Berlin in Mitte, then subsequently used as a Nazi prison, the future of this cultural paradise is under threat.
Demolition took down parts of the building including the dome and movie theater in 1980, but the rest was saved last minute by an arts group named Künstlerinitative Tacheles. The initiative occupied the building and demanded it was saved as a historic landmark, which was later certified as the structure was still in tact.
As much of the exterior was damaged in WWII, there are huge colourful graffiti-style murals covering almost every space. The inside of Tacheles was used to house the artists and their work, until in 1991 when the housing association was burnt down. Inside now features sculptures and paintings from artists all over the world from Argentina, Britain, Japan, America and many from Germany itself.
Now, the future of Tacheles is unknown because the group that stood in the way of developers may have finally backed down. Tourists are banished from using cameras inside the building; art fans need to move fast. With a hop, skip and a jump over to Berlin, you’ll be there in a flash experiencing the best of Berlin art and culture under one roof. Be sure to sign the petition situated on the top floor to save this special place, but don’t leave it too long.
To join the group Save the Tacheles, go to http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=63977795383
or check out the I Support Tacheles blog at http://isupporttacheles.blogspot.com/
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