Save Plastic People

And on to today's most important news item; due to the Met forcing a review of their license, Plastic People is at risk of closure. Quite aside from my personal feelings, there are a whole host of reasons why this shouldn't be allowed to happen.

Firstly, it offers a club space like no other, either in London or the rest of the UK, in that it takes the emphasis entirely off the dancers and places it firmly on the music being played. Plastic People's darkened room and iconic single light fixture creates a wholly immersive environment within which ravers toy with sensory deprivation, sharply attuning the hearing as sight becomes attenuated. It becomes a vast, living and breathing tank, heightening the physical and emotional properties of sound through the system's purpose built design.

Secondly, its heritage. In creating an environment in which its focus on introspection, musicality and individualism could thrive, in many ways dubstep would not be the creature it is now were it not for PP. The same goes for any number of London-nurtured bass musics, each of which found new ways to express itself and a close-knit community vibe within its walls. Yet it's hardly trading off past glories -- the same feeling remains intact every time I find myself in there, and it continues to nurture FWD>> (at least for the next few weeks). In fact, the very first post on CB/OB was a chat about Untold's set at FWD last summer:

"There’s something to be said for the continued existence and success of a space like FWD>> for the nurturing and airing of new and innovative sounds; detachment from the crowd-pleasing pressures of performing at a Friday or Saturday night rave encourages sets that do not merely skirt round the edges of subtlety and musicality but fully embrace the possibilities that come with a devoted and attentive audience. It’s often said that dulling one sensory input heightens that of all the others, yet I’ve always found the environment inside Plastic People unusual in that its pitch darkness seems not only to attenuate vision but also touch, taste, smell; yet the alienation engendered by almost total sensory deprivation is redeemed by the total immersion in sound such an environment offers. Away from these anchors to reality the experience is pleasurably dissociative, the constant motion of bodies in monochrome only occasionally disturbed by the sudden spark of a lighter held to the ceiling in triumph, everything suddenly lit for a fraction of a second in glorious technicolour before plunging back into darkness."



Purely on a personal level, FWD>> served as the point at which a piqued interest in dubstep via Burial and Kode9's first Hyperdub CDs, and later Pinch's Underwater Dancehall, blossomed into full on obsession. The first track I heard on that system was Pinch's 'Qawwali', instantly transforming the softly meditative track I was used to on headphones into a full body, intensely physical experience. It will be a great shame for London, and for dance music in all its forms, if such a space is consigned to memory.

Plastic People put up their full statement today, it's available to view on the Save Plastic People Facebook group. Join the group and stay tuned for announcements from the newly-formed Friends of Plastic People about how to help -- if this legal process is to be fought and won, it's going to need active support.

RBMA: Bristol chapter

On the subject of the Red Bull Music Academy, why let the Big Smoke hog all the fun?

This weekend there are a host of events going on in Bristol that shift the event's ethos to a smaller locale - Metropolis on Cheltenham Road (handily about five minutes from where CBOB calls home). On Saturday 27th they host a day of workshops, lectures and live music from 2:30 - 5:00pm -- blurb stolen from the RBMA's website:

"After a good night’s sleep, Metropolis will again be the host for a session of workshops and performances. The Bug his newest project on Hyperdub, King Midas Sound. Reprazent rhymeslinger Dynamite MC hosts an MC production workshop. Pee Wee Ellis sits down on the couch to talk about life with James Brown. Henry Bainbridge of Dubstudio, mastering engineer for everybody from High Contrast to Ramadanman, runs a vinyl cutting demo. Minotaur Shock will showcase his unique self-developed live performance technique. And Innervisions honcho and 4/4 hypnotist supremo Dixon shares tips and knowledge about succeeding in independent music, joined by local luminaries Ginz and Yolanda of Phantom Limb."

And even bigger, if at all possible, that evening sees them take over Motion with Futureboogie, putting on Theo Parrish, Dixon, Appleblim, Headhunter, King Midas Sound, Peverelist and many more. And it's only six quid.

See you in the skatepark.

Steve Reich talks to RBMA

New York composer, musician and pioneering sonic experimentalist Steve Reich gave a lecture to the Red Bull Music Academy last week, taking in his life in music and the outward progression from his earliest experiments with tape loops to fully expansive orchestral pieces [thanks to FACT, once again, for drawing attention to this]. As well as coming across as a disarmingly down to earth individual, he makes some interesting points about the role of machines and electronics in music, taking a modernist stance many miles from the one many classically trained composers, either of then or now, would.

"We live in a time when it’s possible to get ideas for live music from machines, and to get ideas for computer music from live music, that are perfectly valid and will work if you get it right. And that to me is an answer to the people who look at anybody who does electronic music as a bunch of robots."

A fascinating insight into a fascinating musician. The entire full-length video of the lecture can be watched here, along with ones from Roska, Jazzie B, A Guy Called Gerald and more.

Cliffordandcalix - Lost Foundling [Aperture]

Digging through an archive of recorded-on-the-fly material and sticking it all together on a disc is far more likely to produce an incoherent mess of half-formed ideas than a lost masterpiece. That Warp luminaries Mark Clifford (he of Seefeel) and Mira Calix have managed to assemble an album that holds together surprisingly well, and from such disjointed source material, is undoubtedly to their credit. Lost Foundling, at its best, touches on something entirely separate from either artist’s solo work. There remains a feeling throughout, however, that Clifford and Calix’s efforts on here pose more questions than they answer.

Strangely though, that’s not entirely a bad thing. It’s easy to debate ad infinitum around what makes music ‘good’, or worthy of praise, and a sense of purpose and narrative thrust tends to feature pretty high up on most peoples’ lists. Yet many of the tracks on Lost Foundling seem to work against the notion that easily definable temporal progression is necessary to give music a purpose. Opener ‘Someone Like Me’ and the ethereal drifts of ‘Beethaven’ and ‘One 2 Far’ seem merely to hang around, content to wallow in a bath of analogue electronics and static interference, broken only by the occasional recognisable melody. Throughout its length there are hints that something spectacular is just around the corner, and the sudden dynamic shifts of ‘Myrie’ and ‘cket’ are suggestive of potential resolution, but for the most part this doesn’t arrive.

When those promised moments of transgression come, and all these elements – harsh electronic feedback, Fennesz-esque ambient meanderings and Calix’s heavily processed vocals – gel to produce something more than the sum of their parts, the effect is remarkable. Digi-soul lullaby ‘Dream Of You’ offers a glimpse of human warmth from behind a wall of noise, as Calix’s simple refrain stacks upon itself in a chunky major key harmony before shifting to darker robotic foreboding. ‘Pull It A Part 1’ is even better, the tension between impossibly busy percussion and soft melody a little reminiscent of the tightly packed, pastoral beatscapes of Highpoint Lowlife artist 10-20.

That this record remains more a curio than a definitive document is not entirely surprising – it was pieced together as a compilation of the duo’s favourite tracks from over five years’ worth of snatched studio time, music laid down in brief snippets of downtime between tours and other work. In that sense it’s impressive that Lost Foundling sounds as coherent as it does – the common thread running through all these tracks suggests that both fell repeatedly into the same headspace each time they met, picking up effortlessly where they left off before. And somehow it pulls together into a coolly meditative whole, not necessarily an easy record to listen to attentively – or, indeed, to fall in love with – but one to float away in. For a little while at least.

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Originally written for Drowned In Sound

The Brown Acid - Bastard Kids [Ikonika Remix]

Worth its own post, without a doubt, even with the annoying voice over that repeatedly reminds you that 'this is a preview'. Out on March 1st. Huge.

Kontext - Acid Pasta EP / XI - 000 [Immerse]

Bristol's Immerse Records has just made an older EP of Kontext tracks available for free via their site/Twitter. Its title, Acid Pasta, is only slightly less ludicrous than its cover art (and you only need to look above to catch a glimpse of that garish little beauty).

Thankfully, the contents are more in tune with the label's darker aesthetic and Kontext's roundly excellent set of EPs for the label, which culminated in the chilly brilliance of 'Convex Curved Mirror' -- also due to feature on his debut full-length Dissociate, which Immerse are putting out sometime in the near future. While his recent tracks for the label have been exercises in diffuse, broken minimalism, the tracks on Acid Pasta are a little more rhythmically straightforward, his characteristic spaced out austerity welded to propulsive 4/4 kicks. It's worth grabbing for the floor-filling tech-house of 'Toxic Zombies' and the uncharacteristically melodic 'Arctic Spaceship' alone.

Get hold of it here, and be grateful you don't have to look at that cover in full 12" glory.

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In other Immerse news, XI's new 12" for the label, 000/Slippin', has just been released, and it's great. I reviewed it for Sonic Router a while ago; here's a bit of a reproduction.

"Appropriate to the label’s output, which tends towards dark, percussive minimalism, his Immerse 12” further relegates melody to a supporting role, barely making an appearance at all in the sub, voice and drum battle of ‘000.’ 'Slippin' on the flip is another slice of particularly delectable ghostly garage, joining the ranks of an ever-swelling sub-genre that manages to encompass (amongst others) Burial, recent work by Instra:mental and Scuba, and Clubroot’s aquatic ambience. It’s also probably the best – and most dancefloor-ready - of the four tracks here, underpinned by razor-sharp, hard-panned hi-hats and a techy two-step flex.

Regardless of their relative energy levels, the common trait running through all four tracks is a deliciously palpable tension between XI’s complex, spiraling drum patterns and their backdrop of swelling, oceanic ambience – leaving his music suspended in some tranquil vacuum between waking and dream. The overall effect is oddly disconcerting, neither entirely dance-immediate nor calm enough for comfortable headphone listens, but all the better for it."

http://www.myspace.com/xidubs

Highpoint Lowlife - 2010 Mixtape

The love for the Highpoint Lowlife label round these parts is hardly well hidden. Almost everything they've released in the last year or so has been of an excellent pedigree, from the nocturnal techno and grainy textures of TVO and 10-20, through blistering rave from Hot City and the softer ambience of Pausal.

The latest EP in 10-20's Landforms series, Mountain, is due to drop any day now (review forthcoming in the next few days), but in the interim period label boss Thorsten Sideb0ard has put together a mix of the label's forthcoming material for 2010. It's available to listen and download from the label's blog and is well worth checking out, including as it does upcoming material from (amongst others) Brassica, Production Unit, 10-20 and Mandelbrot.

The label's never been one for sticking to an easily defined raft of styles, instead choosing to showcase a wide range of material that tends to be united in a slightly different or unusual outlook. The variety of stuff on the mixtape bodes well for this trend continuing well into the next few months.

http://highpointlowlife.com/

Eighteen - On The Fly mix

Third CB/OB mix time - my February selection, all chucked together in an even more haphazard and unplanned manner than usual. More 'what u call it' business - Africanised house variations, garage, a grimey as hell opening ten minutes, some brand new bits, some doubles and some far older stuff. I've recently been caning Villalobos' Alcachofa album and Sully's Phonebox EP, so both found their way onto here.

Available to download here.

Tracklist:
Alexander Nut – Anti-Focus Part One [unreleased]
Cosmin TRG – Siberian Poker [Tempa]
Terror Danjah – Acid [Hyperdub]
Untold – Anaconda [Hessle Audio]
Erik XVI – Unionens Sista Dagar (Hot City Remix) [Highpoint Lowlife]
Mosca – Gold Bricks, I See You [Fabric]
Jumping Back Slash – IBITHITI 1 [unreleased]
Martyn – Hear Me (Zomby Remix) [3024]
Hanuman – Bola (Atki2 Remix) [Idle Hands]
DVA – Ganja [Hyperdub]
Cooly G – Him Da Biz [self-released]
Eprom – Never [Surefire]
Cosmin TRG – Love 2 Hide [unreleased]
Sully – Phonebox [Frijsfo]
James Fox – Put It Back (Ramadanman Remix) [Take]
Ricardo Villalobos – Easy Lee [Playhouse]
Mosca – Square One (Roska Remix) [Night Slugs]
Hackman – Funky Tune [unreleased]
Royal T – 1Up (Martin Kemp Remix) [No Hats No Hoods]
Atki2 & Dub Boy – Tigerflower [Idle Hands]
Alex Nut – Wotberry [unreleased]
Greena – Actual Pain [Apple Pips]
Hot City – Setting Me Free [Infrasonics]

Also available to stream at m'DJ page http://www.mixcloud.com/eighteen/on-the-fly-february-2010/