A blog on gigs, music, art and London.

Saturday 31 May 2008

eMusic

Following on from the last post - another great place to find excellent new music is the eMusic website.

It is a subscription based service, allowing you to download and keep MP3 files from artists on some of the best alternative record labels around. I have the 100 tracks per month download package. It can be very addictive.....

My downloads refreshed on Saturday and I have gone for the following:

Dirty Three 'Whatever You Love, You Are'
Spaghetti Western String Co. 'Lull And Clatter'
Devotchka 'A Mad And Faithful Telling'
Bon Iver 'For Emma, Forever Ago'
Beach House 'Devotion'
Tape 'Luminarium' (a real find - shades of late Talk Talk crossed with quiet electronica)
Vaughan Williams ‘Symphony No. 5’

Alan Hovhaness ‘Sympphonies No. 4, 20 & 53’

Edvard Grieg’s Sigurd Josalfar (after hearing it for the first time on Radio 3 earlier in the morning)

And I still have 27 downloads left.

Let the listening begin!

Alternative, esoteric, brilliant radio programmes

Two of my favourites radio programmes are Stuart Maconie's Freakzone on BBC 6 Music and Where's The Skill In That by Mark Russell & Robert Sandall, broadcast on Resonance FM.

Over the last couple of years I have discovered some tremendous music through these shows.

The music played is so brilliantly varied - modern classical, electronica, jazz, art-rock, leftfield indie, nu/pysch/alternative folk and all kinds of experimental stuff all get a look in (and that doesn't even get close to summarising it).

Whilst I am on the subject it would be slightly unfair not to mention Late Junction also, which is broadcast on BBC Radio 3. Another brilliant show, the only problem these days is that it is on too late in the evening (proof I am getting old I guess). They play a nice mix of classical, world, jazz and electronica. As soon as the sound comes back to my PC I will be using the Listen Again function.

Go check them all out!

Stuart Maconie's Freakzone is broadcast on Sundays 17:00-20:00 on BBC 6 Music
Where's The Skill In That is broadcast on Wednesdays 21:00-22:00 on Resonance FM.
Late Junction is broadcst on Tues-Thurs 23:15-01:00 on BBC Radio 3.

Thursday 29 May 2008

Heresy

We went along to Drill Hall on Thursday to see a recording of the excellent Radio 4 radio programme, Heresy. The show picks 3 perceived wisdoms and the panellists attempt to challenge them, occasionally with the help of the audience.

This show the 'wisdoms' we had were:

1) Radio 4 is aimed at middle class, middle aged people.

2) Rising sea levels spell disaster for mankind.

3) Men who go out with taller ladies end up looking silly.

I agree with point 2 and, on the whole with point 3 but point 1 is a little more complicated. Radio 4 may well be aimed at those kind of people but surely it has content for a wider demographic? Anyway, I like it, especially the Today programme (but then again at 31 I am close to, if not already middle aged I suppose).

The show is presented by Victoria Coren and the guests for this show were comedians David Mitchell and Arthur Smith, and journalist Michael Bywater. David Mitchell was very funny, Arthur Smith was quite funny (in a slightly rambling way) but the hack wasn't very funny at all. I guess that's why the first two are comedians huh?

On the whole - pretty amusing stuff. And free as well, which is always nice.

Heresy is currently broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Thursdays 18:30-19:00.

Fleet Foxes at Rough Trade East

Fleet Foxes are an excellent new band from Seattle.

I went along to Rough Trade East on Wednesday to see them do a DJ set in support of their forthcoming eponymous debut album.

I picked up a copy of their new CD (see below - signed!). I am generally a bit rubbish when it comes to meeting bands, never really knowing what to say. Anyway, the album sounds great - lots of nice harmony-laden baroque guitar pop. Check it out! I will be heading along to ULU on 11th June to see them play live.


Tuesday 27 May 2008

Durham Concerto by Jon Lord

I have been listening to and enjoying Jon Lord's Durham Concerto very much recently.


Commissioned as part of the celebrations to mark the 175th anniversary of the founding of Durham University it is a 6 movement piece performed by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. It is divided into 3 parts - Morning, Afternoon & Evening and is meant to represent a typical day in the city.

It is both a majestic and stirring piece, with moments of drama and colour. Appropriately it features some nice Northumbrian pipes played by Kathryn Tickell.

Overall, it is an excellent piece of music and I recommend it to anyone interested in accessible, contemporary classical music. It is available on the excellent emusic website (more of which to follow in another post).

Hopefully they will perform it in London at some point - I think it would sound great at the RFH or the Barbican!

Monday 26 May 2008

Street Art at Tate Modern

I went along to Tate Modern on Sunday 25th to check out the Street Art exhibition which opened recently. They have used the facade of the building to present 6 large scale works by various international 'street' artists.

My first thought was that it was surprising they haven't done something like this before. Apparently it is the first major public museum display of street art in London.

Overall it worked pretty well I thought. One of the most impressive pieces (in my humble opinion) is by an artist from Barcelona that goes by the name of Sixeart (see his 'piece' below).

Another of my favourites was from Blu, an artist from Bolgna (see below). One of the key features of his art is his concentration on the internal workings of the human body, which was certainly evident in his piece in this exhibition. When you see it close up there is a lot of stuff going on it there....

Some more images.




There is a separate Street Art Walking Tour around the Bankside area, I didn't manage it this time but may come back to investigate. On a similar theme, at some point I will also try to check out The Cans Festival in Leake Street by Waterloo.

Saturday 24 May 2008

The Beginning

So here it is. My first blog entry. Exciting.


I decided it might be fun to join the blog-world, mainly to keep a record of what I get up to (mostly around London). If others end up reading it, cool. It will most probably end up including stuff on music, gigs, cinema, art and general London life.


On Thursday 22nd I went along to the BFI on the South Bank to see BUG07, the regular pop video showcase event hosted by Adam Buxton. Very good it was too, despite problems with the sound. A nice mix of funny, surreal, disturbing and beautiful pop videos. Check out the link above for which videos were shown. The videos for recent singles by Goldfrapp, Sia and Sebastien Tellier were all highlights for me.

I will be going to future BUG events for sure I am thinking, possibly the Massive Attack special as part of the Meltdown festival if other stuff allows (and I book tickets in time).




I also was able to enjoy a nice Hoegaarden with lemon on the tables in front of the BFI beforehand, which set my mind towards thinking about the joys of summer in London.