Tom from "The World Wont Listen" freesheet contributes to S@E..
Mogwai - kicking a dead pig: mogwai songs remixed (eye-q records).
everyone should know by now that mogwai are one of the best new bands in
the world. `mogwai young team', last years album, was brilliant and heralds
the return of shoegazing. So in an atte
mpt to up their dance credentials, or maybe just for the laugh, they're
doing a remix album. is it essential? that's debatable. the list of remixers
is eclectic to say the least (meaning i haven't heard of half of them)
and there are no big names in evide
nce.
the album opens with the hood remix of `like herod', in which hood,
whoever he/she/it is, removes all the huge noisy bits from the original
and does an impression of my bloody valentine gone dub, all backwards noises
and spacey drums. This is quickly foll
owed by max tundra remixing `helicon 2', like as if someone got the
hi-fi original and added lo-fi guitars and chimes of their own, and then
decided to bung in a
spacemen 3 drone over the top. it's okayish, but nothing on the original.
the surgeon remix of `mogwai fear satan' follows. the original song is
17 minutes long - every time i've listened to it i've found something new
and wonderful to it. surgeon reduce
s the whole song to a 6 minute 2-note keyboard squall. this is either
someone giggling up their sleeves at how silly we are to believe that this
is a `remix', or it's unreconstructed genius. i haven't decided yet.
this comprises side a of the vinyl. side b starts with mogwai's labelmates
arab strap doing a mogwai megamix -`gwai on 45'. it's disappointing that
there's no vocals on the track from arab strap's lead mumbler aidan moffat.
instead there's 8 minutes of ba
stardised big beat with 10 different mogwai basslines. third eye foundation's
forgettable mix of `a cheery wave from stranded youngsters' follows, going
all drum 'n' bass on
what was a quiet piano instrumental. `like herod' then makes it's second
appearance, remixed by alec empire (he of atari teenage riot fame). he
lays off the usual headmelt atari approach, and the end result sounds pretty
flat.
side c has 2 remixes. klute smothers `summer' with breakbeats like
they're going out of fashion (which they probably are...) and the result
is uninspiring. then DJ q commits the utlimate crime. `R U still in 2 it',
a brilliant and moving love/hate song in
its original form, is turned into a crappy house splodge, complete
with 303 squelches. i can almost picture
the slappers dancing to it alongside aqua. however, the best is saved
for last. side d has the last 2 remixes, with "kid loco's playing with
the young team mix" (well that's what it says here) of `tracy', and the
mogwai mix of their own `mogwai fear satan
'. the album is worth buying for these two songs alone, with kid loco
keeping all the subtelties of `tracy', and adding his own swooshes and
beeps in truly wonderful fashion, and mogwai giving their own song an ambient
feel, keeping the flutes and cutting
out the noise (well, except for a few exemplary guitarry distorto-drones).
these songs amply compensate for side c's flatulence.
so to summarise: some crap house, some boring breakbeats, some ambient
noodling, some spacey dub and some truly inspirational moments. my only
qualm is that the kevin shields remix of `mogwai fear satan' isn't here,
although at 17 minutes i can see why it
might have been left off. if you're new to mogwai, you'd probably
be better off getting yourself a copy of `mogwai young team' or the singles
collection `10 rapid'. however, if you have a brain you'll already own
and treasure these. `kicking a dead pig'
is a mixed bag - it'll leave you happy as a pig in muck one minute
although it'll stink like a pigsty the next. however, if you like brilliant
instumental avant-garde scottish post-rock, you might as well splash out.
Book Review "Naked Graffiti": We here at S@E are always liking the odd
bit morself of smut in our hectic freesheet-writing lives. This is a collection
of short stories by modern "hip" writers, and they're all centred (some
very loosely now, mind you) arou
nd fucking and its many variants. Personally I've always got a good
kick out of erotica. Porn is good in that its in
your face and its filth there for immediate consumption, but dirty
stories mean you have to conjure up images in your mind, so you can put
whatever faces you want to on the bodies.. yeah alright I'm a bit of a
pervert, but the imagination can be a wonderf
ul thing. It takes you away to far-off beaches in the sun with the
most beautiful girl in the world lying on top of you rocking back and forth
gently.. mmmm.. anyway, where
was I. My first introduction to erotica was in secondary school when
a girl friend (but not a girlfriend) lent me a copy of an Anais Nin book
(now I think about it, she might have been trying to tell me something
at the time, but it went way over my head.
.). Suffice to say it turned me on quite a bit. This was better than
the shite like "Big Bustys Volume 5" that I'd watched in
Micks house one Saturday afternoon when he had a free gaf. The stories
in Naked Graffiti are not all as outwardly filthy as Nin's tales, but some
of them are. 'Subway Dick' by Marco Vassi was probably the most entertaining
story for me. It concerns a man
who regularly sees an attractive woman on the New York underground.
She shares the same train as him on his
daily trip to work, and ever so agonisingly slowly, he begins to drift
closer and closer to her, at first just brushing off her gently, to then
touching her with his hand, then engaging in a bit of serious frottage.
Nice little twist to the end of it as w
ell. Other examples of pure filth are Evelyn Lau's "Pleasure". a very
short excursion into S/M territory, which was interesting;
and Pat Califia's "What Girls Are Made Of", which is a pretty boring
and pointless tale of three dominatrix strippers. Maybe some people get
turned on by this, its not for me though. Licking someone's leather boots
just doesnt appeal to me on any level. A
s stories go, its fairly uneventful, and I was left wondering at the
end what the whole point of it actually was.
Then theres several stories that hover around filth but dont really
get down to the messy, sticky details. Martin Amis' "Let Me Count The Times"
was another favourite. The main character is an accountant, Vernon, who
keeps accuate numerical analysis of hi
s sex life with his wife, calculating how frequently they perform various
acts - ".. fellatio was performed by Vernon's wife every third coupling,
or 60.8333 times a year, or 1.1698717 times a week. Vernon performed cunnlingus
rather less often:
every fourth coupling, on average, or 45.625 times a year, or .8774038
times a week." Unfortunately Vernon succumbs to the demon habit of masturbation
while away on a business trip and becomes heavily addicted to it. This
has a slight effect on his sex li
fe.. very amusing story.
Then most of the other stories are more about relationships and the
consequences we all suffer from fucking each other - diseases, unease,
paranoia, love, lust, pleasure, pain, pregnancy, openness, confusion, and
everything else. Some of them were fairly
thought-provoking, such as John McVicar's "Fuck Off", a first person
tale of a career-driven woman
who becomes infected with HIV. Enough to make anyone run for the test.
Others were just nice stories about couples, such as "Keeping Distance",
which highlights the problems thrown up by long-distance relationships,
or "Table D'Hote", a conversation betwe
en a couple at a dinner table, where she has just found out that he
has been unfaithful to her.
Overall I enjoyed the book - theres a healthy mix of filth and real
life to keep your interest, and also to keep you wondering when the next
bit of fucking is going to happen. I would have liked a bit more hardcore
erotica but thats because I'm a pervert,
and most of you would thoroughly enjoy reading this collection
of short stories.
Book Review: Tobias Wolff "The Night in Question": Occasionally once
in your lifetime you'll read a novel that will spark something deep inside
you. It might be something like Anais Nin, that would appeal more to your
genitals, or maybe a masterpiece like
Paul Auster's "The New York Trilogy", which touches a part of
your mind so thoroughly, it turns
everything you've ever thought on its head and leaves you speechless.
This book, a collection of short stories, come close to this. Almost, but
just stops short of it, because many of the stories are true to life, and
so this grounds them in reality, so y
ou can often identify with whats going on. What made a story like "City
of Glass" from the NY Trilogy so brilliant
was the complete insanity of it - a situation and a storyline far removed
from anything that most of us will never even come close to experiencing,
but at the same time, the thoughts and emotions expressed are scarily familiar.
"The Night in Question" really does make your head spin in places.
The opener, "Mortals", hits you in the stomach. Someone has called in an
obituary to a newspaper, but the man named in it has not died. The obituary
writer and the named man sit down and g
o through a list of possible suspects who may have rang in with the
details. I wont reveal any more for fear of spoiling the story, but suffice
to say the end result is all something we have thought about in one way
or another in some point in our lives.
Other gems that strike a nerve are "The Chain", where a mans' revenge,
extracted on a vicious dog that attacks his young daughter, leads to a
cycle of violence, leaving his life and passing onto someone else; and
"Bullet in the Brain", a chronicle of the
last few precious moments inside the head of Anders, a book critic,
before a bullet does its work and "leaves the troubled skull behind" during
a bank robbery.
The stories are all close to home and because of the wide range of
characters featured, anyone who reads this book will sympathise with one
of them somewhere, having gone through something similar. And although
we only get the briefest glimpses into the c
haracters lives, the reader is never left questionin their actions.
The people in the stories are
neighbours, friends, relations or co-workers. They may exist only in
fiction but you've met all these types before - they reassuring father
driving through a treacherous snowstorm, the story-telling brother with
the moral dilemma, the jealous teenage love
r.
This is a nice collection of stories and they never get heavy or bogged
down with narrative. The snappiness of them means that your attention doesnt
wander; not that it would anyway because the tales are quite gripping.
Reccomended reading for the summer.
Bobby Pulls A Wilson and The National Prayer Breakfast..Sat 23rd May
This gig was a first for myself, it was the first gig i went to from
reading about it on the web. I had my second last exam in college that
day (a Saturday! agh! ) and was intending on wasting the day doing as I
do, arseing around on the internet/Redbrick chat+newsgroups. So, trawling
through the usual load of Irish music web-sites as only music saddos like
myself do, I read on the Road-Records site that Bobby Pulls A Wilson,
The National Prayer Breakfast, Das Madman and The Chicks were playing
an afternoon gig in the Irene Ballroom on Parnell Street! Waahoo, i said
to myself, better get my arse into town a.s.a.p.! Some of Dublins best
underground bands, and The Chicks, are playing! So, i was thinking of starting
this review talking about how great the web is, and how wonderful it is
to be able to recieve and transmit
info on the web. But, in fact, the information was wrong, exposing
the great problem about the web... theres an awful amount of bullshit on
it. Now I'm sure that Mr.Road-Records didn't mean to mislead anybody, but
they got their lines crossed, not just about who was playing at the gig,
but the time stated was wrong ( it was more like 5.00-7.30, then
2.30-6.00, leaving a lot of time to kill in town...) the Ierne ballroom
is not on Parnell St., it's on Parnell square (big difference.......) and
Das Madman and The Chicks just weren't playing at all..... Anyway,
wow was it a nice setup in the Ierne Ballroom. And boy, is it a ballroom.
Its one of those places that your grandparents probably met each other,
drunk in a corner, in the 50's. It was probably "The Grove" of its day.
It's got classy disco-balls, excellent kitsch lights, and a nice
old smell too. And there wasn't just bands to entertain the masses,
there were boardgames setup around the venue too... remember the classics,
KerPlunk, Battleship, Connect 4, etc. as well as Twister and table football!
Not to mention the selection of peanuts and sweets dotted around in bowls..
I thought this was going to be the best gig ever, all these fun things
to do, and bands to watch. And the drink was cheap. (here comes the
"but"...) BUT, there was nobody there! At most, including the bands/staff
there were 40 ppl there over the course of the evening, maybe 30 at the
one time. I mean, maybe the timing was bad, summer exams time, and i don't
think the gig was well advirtised, but only 40 ppl! Where were you that
Saturday afternon, eh? Were you honestly doing something better? *tutt*
Bobby Pulls A Wilson opened, playing their catchy style of messed-up
chirpy indieish hyper-active pop songs. Usual jangly guitars, with loud
bits every so often, harmonys, indie-schmindie kinda stuff. Except they're
actually quite quite good. So, if you vaguely like any kind of pop-music,
and don't mind noise, then ya'll like 'em, I do. I was more familiar with
them this time, and they impressed me lots, pity the last 3
times I've seen them, they've been playing to less them 50 ppl each
time....... see a review of their first release elsewhere in S@E. Some
Dj played in between the bands, he played some boring housey/garagey kinda
stuff, but really impressed me by playing the first track from Squarepusher's
"Hard Normal Daddy".... And onto the headliners The National Prayer Breakfast.....
I saw about 10 minutes of
their set when they played at the Tcd ball last month, i think they
won some sort of Tcd battle of the bands competition, so were offered to
open the main stage... but i was all excited, and just in the door, so
i can't remember much of what they played there... They weren't too impressive
today, though, I just didn't like their brand of music.... as ever,
usual indie stuff, except, unlike Bobby, they weren't intresting enough
to like. Apparantly, it was their last gig with their saxophonist,
he's going back
home, or something, so maybe they'll have a different set the next
time i see them...
Anyway, so, these late Saturday afternoon gigs are going to be a regular
thing, apparantly, every 4 weeks or so, in the Ierne ballroom... with a
setup as wonderful as the one here, and quality acts promised for future
gigs ya can't really go wrong.. So, keep an eye out for these gigs, it's
something to do on a saturday afternoon, and it leaves ya in town for any
other gig related activites that go on in Dublins fair city.... which is
exactly what i did, coz i went to....
Gorkys Zygotic Mynci 23rd May Mean Fiddler...
Well, i was a bit late for this one, actually, and i've no idea who
supported them. Very Un-Singer of me, totally. For those who don't know
who Gorkys are, they're are much touted Welsh indie-folk-rock band, who
sound like they've ingested lots and lots of Welsh magic mushrooms. Which
explains the silly name, i suppose. You won't find too many trainspottery
"they played a b-side, except they changed the lyrics in the 2nd verse
around.." coz I don't have too much by the band, just a single and
an album, and they've released another album since (5 albums since 94,
i think). I was expecting a far more quiet set from the 'mynci, they seemed
intent on rocking out a little too much for me... I was hoping for Euros
and co.to play some laid-back Welshy folky tunes.. oh well.. *sigh*
although "diamond dew" was a refreshing folkish break... They
seemed to be well recieved from the crowd, though there were a load
of scene-heads there (and there was i getting away from indie-aristocracy
gigs..) That day was probably too long for me to enjoy the band anyway..
up early for a 9.30 exam, went to the afternoon gig, etc. etc.... so i
suppose had i been more awake, i might've enjoyed them more.
Its funny the
way Gorkys get so much press from the Nme, MM etc. while Bobby Pulls
A Wilson were by far the best band I saw that day..... Yes, Dublins most
oddly named band have released something!! Bobby Pulls A Wilson have gotten
their shit together and recorded stuff, stuck it on mass produced tapes,
and left a load of 'em into Road Records for sole distribution! (Now that'd
be cool if a load of bands started all
doing that..) Of course, it'd be dangerous if Bobby Pulls A Wilson
actually released a normal tape, so thats why the cover is made of sandpaper!
Theres no actual name to the release, its more like a glorifyed demo..
but dont hold that against it, the quality's as good as you'll get.. so
then, 4 tracks on it, the first one being the best one, methinks.. "for
the love of cork" is a great track, totally humable, and
it'll stick in yr head for decades, if ya like pop at all. The 2nd
track "ride" is as upbeat as the first one, and has a load of excellent
bass playing in it, as well as a wonderful da-da-da bit! The 3rd track
is a quiet one, and the 4th one is the loudest of them all, almost bordering
on rock. BPAW sound like Sack mixed with The Wedding Present (spot the
sad indie-kid) on the tape, but don't hold that against them, they're lots
better than those old farts :)
So then, not as good as they are live, but they have darn good songs, and they make for good listening. I stuck this tape in the tape player in work, it rotates 4 tapes around, so the Bobby demo was being played about every hour or so, the customers didn't seem to mind it at all, and it was fun to work to good music, as opposed to the easy listening muck thats pumped through the Centra sound system.....
Anyway, the tape is available in Road Records (ya'll know where that
is
kids, eh?) and they're playing in the Temple Bar Music Centre on the
Wednesday 17th June, admission only 3-4 pounds, so go go go kids!
Red Snapper "Bogeyman": The Snapper return with their first single since
Loopascoopa a long time ago. They're competing again with Alpha for the
title of sleaziest band in existence. I bought this double 12" pack in
Comet with "Promotional Use Only - Not For Resale" written all over it,
heh heh.. Its good to see they're still producing their own distinctive
brand of
fucked up jazz. "Bogeyman" is very upbeat and funky but not too fast
though, wiyth a bending curving bassline and a sassy trumpet melody in
a New Orleans style. "Crease" ups the tempo a small bit with a dark pounding
drum intro and a plucky double-bassline and then wakes up and bursts into
life eventually, but still remains menacing and slightly paranoid.
The most over rated DJ in the world, David Holmes does a remix of Bogeyman.
Not highly removed from the original, perhaps not as bright and jazzy.
Holmes' mix removes the trumpet blares and hides them in the background.
I prefer the original. This mix gets slightly tedious after a while. The
Two Lone Swordsmen, Andy Weatherall and Keith Tenniswood (who have been
signed to Warp and should be releasing an LP soon - check out "Stockwell
Steppas" on Emissions Audio Output for a taster of their electro) work
their magic on Bogeyman also, basically its exactly what you'd expect from
a 2LS remix, the downbeat tempo and mellowness of it could have come from
any of their previous releases. Overall then quite
enjoyable. Red Snapper release their new LP "Making Bones" sometime
during the summer, we at S@E can already say that it will be worth a purchase,
if the first two tracks on this EP are anything to go by.
Surgeon "Balance": When I think of the Surgeon, I think of dity hard
filthy techno coming out of an enormous speaker stack, surrounded by sweaty
E-heads giving each other back rubs and blowbacks from a Vicks tube (sideways
glance at Singer). But this is much mellower than his DJ sets - the first
track "Preview" is totally ambient and would fit on something like Aphex's
Selected Ambient Works II or a Biosphere LP, while "Dialogue" is as left-of-centre
and avant-garde
as something by the likes of Aurobindo, with freaky shard noises and
vibrating tones and beats. "Dinah's Dream", the last track, is also very
relaxed and melodic. Tracks such as "Golden" and "Pnuma" are approaching
techno, but stop short, either being funky or more minimal with the notable
absence of thumping bass drum beats on Pnuma.
However, tracks like "Circles", "the Heath" and "Box" are stompin four-to-the-floor
tunes in a D1 records style, quite repetitive and relentless. This LP has
one or two interesting moments, but they come from the more ambient or
fucked up tracks like Dialogue. The techno elements bore me and really
dont offer that much musically.
On a floor they probably sound great but on the home stereo they dont
shape up. Theres only three or four decent tracks out of ten, the rest
is throwaway material.
Leila "Like Weather": The music press has gone nuts for this ex-keyboard
player with Bjork. I cant really see all that much of the attraction. This
is a very atypical Rephlex release, but then again Rephlex have a habit
of releasing very wierd shit. Most of the tracks on this are "skip" material
[ah you filthy youngsters with your CDs, I remember when you had to
listen to an old vinyl record the whole way through, there was no skip
button on my turntable I tells ya] except for "Space, Love" which is probably
one of the best tracks I've heard in years. Thankfully there's no vocals
on it, its just beautiful. Lush ambient washes float around these extremely
echoed beats, so echoed they dont even sound like beats anymore
(maybe they arent?). Gorgeous. Theres no other track that comes within
pissing distance of this one. The single "Dont Fall Asleep" is here, which
would be alright with the squelchy beats except its got that horrible warbled
vocals which sound like (the artist formerly known as) Prince on morphine.
"Underwaters" rises slightly above the rest
of the stuff, sounds a bit like a nice Pram track. Theres some other
Ok tracks on this, like "Melodicore" and "Blue Grace", which sounds very
Scala-esque, but the rest of them dont shine or stand out. The vocal tracks
just irritated me more than anything else. Not much more I can say about
it really. Missable.
Boards of Canada "Music Has The Right To Children": At this stage you've
probably heard loads about this release from the Skamsters. I got this
LP over a month ago, and the first chance I got to listen to it fully was
during that period of about five days when it was unbelievably sunny and
hot, remember? I was flaking in the back garden and had the speakers pointing
out the back door.
It was perfect listening for the weather. The sleeve sums this LP up
well, blue and hazy. Its very relaxed and the wide range of vocal samples
used work very well. Most of the samples sound like they've come from a
nursery. "The Colour Of the Fire" has a young kid saying "I love you" over
and over behind a dark but warm ambience, sort of scary actually; while
"aquarius" has kids shouting "yeah thats right" occasionally, along with
this sexy school teacher voice counting from one upwards until she
has some sort of brain seizure at thirty-six and starts saying random numbers
as the kids giggle in the background. In places BOC stray into Autechre
territory with seriously heavy fucked up beats, for example on "telephasic
workshop", "sixtyten", or "pete standing alone", which has
that skittery Ae feel circa Incanabula. I think my favourite track
must be "Turquoise Hexagon Sun" which is warm and gentle on the ears, the
beats just glide along lazily and dont threaten to get any faster.. the
LP is gorgeous; there are some darker paranoid moments but they are insignificant,
theres a real glow to the 17 tracks..
BOC have been praised everywhere lately and on the strength of this
LP its completely justified.
to the dissappearing S@E...
1) its on a need to know basis only - johnny moy & paul davis are
the
people responsible. Other co conspirators include dj's billy scurry,
the
armies, romin, stephen mulhall, and many friends from around the globe.
2) more important than putting other peoples out
3) only if you stroke it a little harder, anything by mickey hickey
and the
pepper mint twists
4) we're not telling you, you might jump on the band wagon
5) the club scene was a bit boring for a while , then someone brought
out
an eighteen inch (as opposed to 12 inch) club wrapped in barbed wire
with
nine inch nails protruding, that soon livened it up.
6) were letting a few prisoners out of the dungeon for a red box
fetish
spectacular
7) you betcha
8) to try and get off the fridge and get on to at least one of
the records
----------
> From: Sl@nted @nd Ench@nted <slanted@RedBrick.DCU.IE>
> To: Influx@iol.ie
> Subject: S@E i/view
> Date: 07 April 1998 19:11
>
>
> Hello there.. we're putting together a fanzine for late April, we
would
be
> very grateful if you could answer just a few questions for us...
>
> 1) Could you give us a brief history of Influx and who's currently
> involved?
>
> 2) Influx recently released their 4th EP by Invisible Armies. How
> important is it for Influx to put their own records
out?
>
> 3) Influx has had residencies everywhere, the Funnel, the Kitchen,
the
Red
> Box, in many guises. Can it get any bigger? Is
there any kind of music
> that Influx wont put on?
>
> 4) Theres always been a multimedia aspect to Influx, with things
like the
> live broadcasts over the Web. Do you think theres
much of a future in
> this?
>
> 5) What do you think of the Dublin club scene? Whats wrong with it?
>
> 6) Are there going to be more Influx releases in future?
>
> 7) Is Influx recieving any recognition outside of Ireland?
>
> 8) Any long term plans for the label?
>
> Hope you can answer some of them.. if theres anything we didnt ask
and
> you'd like to talk about, then feel free...
>
> thanks for your time...
>
> S@E
>
>
--wRRV7LY7NUeQGEoC--