| #624 |
|
2002 |
Perilous 624 It’s strange to be describing something as a “stomping prog breakbeat monster” without either referring to the inimitable Sasha and Digweed, or to some local DJ who undoubtedly was imaginative enough to be using their real name as their DJ moniker. But that’s exactly what the a-side of Tooth’s new 12” is. It’s not ‘prog’ in reference to some 90s term applied to house or trance, but in reference to 70s progressive rock. Te track, Shift, is underpinned by a chugging breakbeat and bassline that moves forward over nine minutes – all swirling layers of chime and slight distortion. A sensibly dancefloor-oriented 12”, the flip, The Sons Of Shade, moves even deeper into 60s rock territory – a torrential wall-of-sound that barely abates until a small oasis appears two-thirds through before a sample – “be quiet”, “no” – and down it pours again. A very nice new release with a good loud pressing courtesy of the Czech Republic. Out on Soft Records it should be snapped up before it’s limited vinyl pressing is all gone. Another local vinyl release of recent times is the first in a series from the Mofonics crew. Titled Musique Tranquille it is a 6 track split EP with one side handled by Jonny Phive and the other by Lowrion. Jonny Phive’s selection includes the fabulous Oceanic Jazz which has been remastered and sound superb on vinyl – a classic piece of mid-90s ambient instrumental hip hop, and, incidentally one of Phive’s earliest recordings. The flip from Lowrion is slightly more upbeat but retains a kitsch lounge feel punctuated by deft scratching. A lovely colour sleeve design completes a very slick package of smooth lounge instrumentalism. This week, Sound Summit, Electrofringe, Young Writers and their associated NCL Nights and Hardwarehouse events are in full swing. A short train ride to Newcastle and you will be surrounded by several thousand young artists, writers, musicians, programmers, MCs, poets, and oddballs. From Wednesday to Monday, the festivals under the umbrella term This Is Not Art (in homage to a legendary piece of Newcastle graffiti), have roughly 420 notable speakers running around 200 workshops, panels and forums – most of them free of charge. Electrofringe has brought out two prominent digital video manipulators – programmer John Dekron, and the quite spectacular Light Surgeons who combine film and VJing with performance-style lighting. Electrofringe have also secured the extremely disturbing V/VM who seems to hate ‘art musicians’ with the same passion as he does pop musicians. V/VM is a Manchester-based project that veers wildly from highly illegal copyright infringing pop destruction (like re-releasing a Spiller’s Groovejet or Chris De Burgh’s Lady In Red on 7” as their own track simply by playing it back into a recorder and fucking with the pitch control so it wavers and jumps all over the place – and then sitting back waiting for legal action) to arty industrial Autechre-isms. Apparently “over here for the ladies” no one is sure whether V/VM is a big joke like the fantastic pisstake zine Shoreditch Twat, or what. On the Sound Summit tip there are a host of internationals running workshops from Anticon battle MC and many times Skribble Jam champion Sage Francis, the gentle pastoral electronics of Neotropic, the skittering laptop beats of Manitoba, or the maniaical pop kitsch of Chicks-On-Speed and Tigerbeat6 artist Kevin Belchdom. Then there is the Scalene crew which includes the deep glitch minimalism of Mitchell Akiyama and the crunchy Gescom-affiliate Battery Operated or the Montreal-based Ninja Tune DJ Luv who also records more electro-styled sounds as Identification. Add to that a bunch of locals running workshops on sampling, remixing, hip hop and techno production, mastering as well as those essentials like distribution, pressing and licensing and Sound Summit is a quite unique opportunity to get a glimpse inside the creative and business world of independent hip hop and electronic music. Then go and jump around in a warehouse to them all playing live . . . Unlike other music development conferences, Sound Summit is cheap - $33 for 3 days or $17 a day and if you are releasing stuff yourself then there’ll be a shop at which you can leave your own releases to sell And at Frigid over the next fortnight we have Manitoba and Tooth at a special one-off Wednesday night Frigid on October 2 ($15). There’s no Frigid on the 6th because you should be in Newcastle. We return on the 13th with the only Sydney show from the Scalene crew (Akiyama, Battery Operated, DJ Luv etc) for $12, and Sage Francis with The Herd and Morganics on Monday Oct 14 for just $10. Yellow Peril (www.snarl.org)  Goto
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