Musée imaginaire

The Repeat Prescriptions, Green Door Store, 22 January 2012

The Self Help Group, Green Door Store, Brighton

They're a six piece, got 2 guitars, banjo, xylophone and one of those skiffle box drums. They have sad songs, happy songs and gorgeous folky 3 way harmonies and each song has an interesting story behind it ... There's the one about a Seattle based crime solving super hero Phoenix Jones. Then there's the one about some 1930s Glasgow school kids that read a comic book about a vampire that lives in a graveyard, this in turn leads to 200 school kids spending a night in their local cemetery together looking out for said vampire. And then there is the twisted one about the kid that celebrated the end of the world by swimming in a river but then drowned. It's all enough to keep the audience well entertained tonight and for the band to go home having sold some cds and made a few new fans. A Brighton collective worth looking out for.

The Self Help Group on Facebook

The Self Help Group on Twitter

The Self Help Group on Band Camp

The Self Help Group on mySpace

Best albums of 2011

PJ Harvey - Let England Shake [Island]
Peepholes - Caligula [Upset the Rhythm]
Peaking Lights - 936 [Not Not Fun]
Maria Minerva - Cabaret Cixous [Not Not Fun]
Teeth - Whatever [Moshi Moshi]
David Lynch - Crazy Clown Time [Sunday Best]
Deerhoof vs Evil [ATP Recordings]
Yuck - Yuck [Mercury Records]
Art Department - The Drawing Board [Crosstown Rebels]
Crystal Stilts - In Love with Oblivion [Foruna Pop]

Favourite songs for the first half of 2011

true widow - skull eyes
This song (and band) just took me by surprise. One day it somehow showed itself up amongst all the usual inbox drivel, I was drawn in and clicked. And I got what one could describe as The Kills gone sludge or Yuck slowed down. It was melancholy vocals with a solid yet sleepy warm fuzziness that won me over.    

yuck - get away
This song is a pop song and it just sticks.

peaking lights - all the sun that shines
Lo fi indie dub psych out, something new and interesting.

fear of men - spirit house (cassette mix)
Released in August 2011 on Italian Beach Babes and underhyped. But there it is an eerily catchy guitar song about liars and dreaming with pretty backing vocals reminiscent of old style 4AD outputtings.

braids - lemonade
crystal slits - through the floor
factory floor - (REALLOVE) - Optimo Remix
teeth - shawty
craft spells - after the moment

Ulrich Schnauss: Missing Deadlines - Selected Remixes (Rocket Girl)

These are ephemeral twilight till dawn sound constructions flowing down River Melancholy. These are remix highlights of German born Ulrich Schnauss, for the first time collated on this Rocket Girl (powered by Spacemen 3) release. Schnauss is known for his atmospheric synth outings that combine the spirits of shoegaze, krautrock and dreamy electronica: On the one hand he is inspired by Chapterhouse and My Bloody Valentine, on the other you have Tangerine Dream, the Orb and 808 State. He stretches these influences out and fuses them back together with contemporary music to create amorphous agitated ambient tracks littered with jagged beats.

Schnauss: You may have heard of him from his keyboard contributions as part of the Engineers and Longview, or you may have noticed his production talents at work with Kirsty Hawkshaw (of ‘It’s A Fine Day’ fame) and Exit Calm. Even if his CV doesn’t sound familiar his work may have infiltrated your consciousness through the medium of car adverts or computer games. Maybe you heard about 2 of his past record labels suing Guns N’ Roses for alleged copyright infringement? Hmmm.

Anyway, here is the sound of a producer/musician accomplished in his original brief of creating otherworldly headphone music. And it opens with, former Bella Union belles, Howling Bells’ reworked ‘Setting Sun’ that slowly dissolves into ‘Ghost in the Graveyard’ by ‘A Sunny Day in Glasgow’, full of backwards reverb and Linda Lamb like vocals. And just in case you thought the carrier bag sunshine sparkle of shoegaze was well over, there are artists cloaked within this collection that show this is not the case. For instance, there are new gazers Asobi Seksu, off of One Little Indian, presenting their reworked ‘Strawberries’ single, along with a made over ‘Coastline’ from Rachel Goswell, singer from seminal shoegazers Slowdive. Yep, old and new they are all present and still drifting.

This is a collection of tracks that are worth exploring and dreaming to. In Schnauss’ own words “ the original songs are already great in their own right -  which made it really inspiring to work with them”. And it shows.

Bestest of 2009

The XX - The XX

Micachu & The Shapes - Jewellery

Silversun Pickups - Swoon

Lulu & The Lampshades - 'Feet To The Sky' [Voga Parochia]

Tension building xylophone and ukulele open the track immediately drawing you in. Then the humming starts and soon turns into harmonious folky vocals, not unlike Kate Nash, just more delicate and dreamy. Apparently this track was written whilst cycling to France on New Year's Eve and explains the running undercurrent of the rhythm and the change in time signature - like a bike stopping at traffic lights then speeding on ahead. Singer Luisa's lyrics on the other hand describe an adventure into unknown territories - drink the wine to the bottom of the glass and watch it refill from air, turn our cheeks to the ground and feet to the sky and take it from there.

The other track here is 'Rose Tint' and is more of the same, slightly less upbeat with even more hand claps and hooky vocal aahs. These Lampshades are ornate, detailed and well designed.

• Available to download 18 October and the 7" is out on 26 October.

• Jamming with plastic containers Lampshade style here.

Lulu & the Lampshades @ the Flowerpot, Kentish Town, 01 October 2009

 

Ok so the dancing lampshades with the nipple tassels are on holiday, but this band are really worth catching. They tread the boards of the balcony in the happening house inhabited by Micachu & the Shapes and Conan Mockasin. Their blend of folk, 3 way harmonies, thoughtful use of original objects to make music including a wooden trailer box, typewriter and pint glasses, along with the whole coy/aloof persona make them a great catch before they ascend to mid sized London venue mayhem.

Tonight the Flowerpot crowd are a surprise to the band as singer Luisa remarks they thought the venue would be empty. Throughout the set Luisa and her main accomplice Heloise are constantly swapping round instruments and taking time out between songs to compose themselves and get their set up just right. They play a handful of new songs, including new single 'Feet to the Sky / Rose Tint' and as the crowd are so receptive to their sound they come back for one encore initially offering a choice of three older songs with Luisa quickly narrowing this down to two. Catch them:

5 October - Lofty Heights (single launch) @ the Slaughtered Lamb
6 November - ICA with Peggy Sue
28 November - Libre Infancia @ Passing Clouds

Free Download - Alex Metric mix of Ladyhawke's Paris is Burning

To coincide with her latest single rerelease, the catchy, evocative, party out tune 'Paris is Burning' is available as a free download here. Remixed by Alex Metric signed to Marine Parade, Adam Freeland's label, Mr Metric gives 'Paris is Burning' a late night electro house Soulwax type feel.

And as if that wasn't enough, there is a competition to win 5 Ladyhawke t-shirts - currently only available at her live shows.

Oberman Knocks – 13th Smallest [Aperture] 9 March 2009

How about some scattered beats? How about some mysteriously warped vocal samples and persistent atmospheric stops and starts? How about Andrea Parker’s new label adventure? Yep it’s been a while since we heard what Parker was up to. From her early trip hop heritage on Mo’ Wax to her electro and

Miami bass investigations, this lady has shown us the darkside of electronic experimentation. Now her path mysteriously unravels in a new unchartered direction, as always, keeping ahead of mainstream trends. Here on offer is the first release on Aperture and it defies easy catergorisation falling somewhere between dubstep warriorism and WARP’s sci fi oscillations.

 

And what of Oberman Knocks?

Real name: Nigel Truswell.

Origin: Sheffield.

Occupation: Graphic designer.

Mission: using three pieces of software, a minidisc recorder and a cheap mic, to creatively dodge the painstaking technical talk of the usual electronic artist.

Result: he has delved into an unconscious realm of concrete jungles and back street laboratories to produce haunting, deep rumbling, sounds where each irregularity unveils a new area of soundscape. Nigel has been identified as being under the influence of Mira Calix and Autechre’s techno manglings.

With song titles like ‘Indomine Rhittiger Plans By Four’ and ‘Holtzen Anger Mine’ you can begin to imagine what to unexpect. Just when you think a groove is building up, the bottom drops out and the musical configuration resets and flows into another space like on ‘Beckerton First Draft’. And there are no lyrics here, no vocal harmonies but cybernetic mutterings and mutations like on ‘Motor Sepple Freak’ - the music on offer here wouldn’t be out of place as a backdrop to an early Cronenberg remake.

 

This is a complete antithesis to the status quo and refreshingly so. Push the ‘venture forth’ button and experience a strange new world.