An ear for an ear

My apologies dear readers for being off the radar for so long. Holiday in France, working on our rollator-soundsystem Blanche, tight deadlines, a course at Central Saint Martins in London and friends visiting were to blame. But now I’m catsitting in London for a week so for once I’ve got loads of interesting stuff to blog about!

In between work I’m planning to go to lots of museums and exhibitions, a musical, the Hackney carnival, do shopping (of course), go to Brighton and see lots of live music. I’m not doing too bad on the latter with Field Day festival, Jens Lekman, the Blow and the Evan Parker Trio already under my belt.

Funnily enough balding men were the stars at Field Day. Caribou was great live, playing songs of his EXCELLENT album Swim. Max Tundra could play schlagers for all I care ‘cause his dance moves are the best and make his sets always enjoyable. I was pleasantly surprised by a very techno-oriented set by experimentalist Matthew Herbert, partly created from the top of a ladder and in a little dome tent on stage.

Then on Tuesday we went to see Jens Lekman and The Blow in the beautiful Union Chapel in London’s East End. My friend Kate was spot on when she described The Blow as “the female Max Tundra”; her dancing was a bit like a spastic tapdance. Very nice, just like the songs (with lots of finger snapping and hand clapping sound effects). It was a bit of a pitty her lyrics were inaudible due to the enormous natural reverb of the church. Then again, it's a real church with pews and a pulpit and candles, so what are you gonna do. Jens Lekman's performance was a joy, as always. I never listen to his albums (his “tram number seven to heaven, did you eat your banana from Seven Eleven”- lyrics tend to get on my nerves), but when he’s in the neighborhood I can’t resist seeing him. He's just too charming! And from the balcony where I was sitting I noticed Jens is balding…

Last night my beau tried to push my musical boundaries by taking me to The Vortex Jazz Club to see Evan Parker, an apparently very famous free jazz improvising saxophone player. This music needs trained ears to be fully appreciated, I think. So I just took a pen and doodled away on the reservation card that was lying on the table. In return for enduring this my boy promised me to join me to ANY show of my choice. So tonight I’m dragging him along to a African house club night at Notting Hill Arts Club. Ngagna, sweet revenge.

Caribou - Sun. Get it here (YSI).

Max Tundra - What Time is Love (KLF cover). Get it here (YSI).

The Blow - Hey Boy. Get it here (YSI).

Jens Lekman - A Postcard to Nina. Get it here (YSI).

Evan Parker - Dark Interior (extract - just to give you an idea...)

It's all I can Talk Talk about

So here I went... off to my favorite record store in The Hague for some very necessary vinyl. I wanted to find some female hiphop and some ragga. But before I went to the 'urban' section I went through a pile of low-budget records and found something that would soon become a bit of an obsession. It has been for four weeks now, but we're still counting...


This Talk Talk record It's My life was only 2,50 and I knew I hated Such a Shame, but I knew I loved It's my life, so I bought it. I generally try to ignore tracks that get airtime at Arrow Classic Rock because that is better for my reputation. But this early eighties album is a gem. This sound is filed under New-Romantic or Post-Rock. Which are horrible horrible words that I identify with dirty old men and dried flowers. Besides that, I recognize the brilliance and intensity of Mark Hollis's voice and the tastefull arrangements and production. I can definately see that this album could have been a big influence on personal heroes such as Chromatics, John Maus and Caribou. In which case post-rock turns into experimental psychedelic electronic music which sounds much more artistic and intelligent. But either dried flowers or avantgarde, this record has become my anthem and on that note I'm playing it AGAIN.

Talk Talk - Tomorrow Started Get it here (ysi)

Talk Talk - It's My life Get it here (ysi)