V Sjoberg New Jazz Ensemble, Do Nothing ‘Til You Hear From Me (iDEAL)

I thought that the boundaries between all musical forms had been long settled by the UN, following the great rap-rock intifada of the early 1990s.  Then along comes this new album from the New Jazz Ensemble.  New Jazz Ensemble?  This is jazz?  Well, Victor Sjoberg seems to think so: “This is a jazz album and I hope you enjoy it”, he says, neatly circling his eight metre high wall to capture areas within the territories of ambient drone and electro-acoustic improvisation.

They Came From The Stars I Saw Them, Giant Paw and Glockenspiel, Buffalo Bar 26/07/08

 

Well, that seemed to go pretty well.  First up on this gLASSsHRIMP night were Glockenspiel, who recently supported Stars of the Lid in Birmingham, were typically excellent: all big fuzzy guitar drones and bowed cymbals.  I’m a big fan, as you may remember.  Giant Paw were insane, proper firemen’s helmets and animal heads on poles insane, and inspired some vigorous manly giration down front.  They Came From The Stars, I Saw Them (thankfully) packed the place out and brought the roof down – even I was doing the rabbit/seal/monkey dance, and I’m not one for doing rabbit/seal/monkey dances normally. Before and between, I was tag-teaming with The Lost Chord of Atlantis and her psych/folk/prog/pop/trucker (!) set, which forced me into parts of my record collection I probably don’t venture into enough these days.  

Peter Wright, Nigel Wright, Julien Ottavi, Radioactive Ensemble and Ben Spiers at Cross Kings, 24/07/08

This night in King’s Cross’s confusingly ennobled Cross Kings was billed as a meeting between New Zealand and UK electro-acoustic improvisation, found sound and noise artists. In case that all sounded a bit serious, the Cross Kings website advertised the event as taking place in The Jester Bar downstairs. When I descended the steps I was confronted with something which didn’t sound quite as I had been expecting. Rhythm. Melody. Even vocals. Turns out the joke was on me, they’d switched the noiseniks to the stage upstairs, downstairs being used for the launch of some RnB single entitled, with an endearingly misguided sense of optimism, “Wanna See You Dance”.

gLASSsHRIMP at the Buffalo Bar, Saturday 26th July 2008

Saturday 26th July 8pm
Buffalo Bar, Highbury and Islington.

Live sets from
They Came From The Stars, I Saw Them
Giant Paw
Glockenspiel

WIth DJs
The Lost Chord Of Atlantis
Mapsadaisical 

Sons of Noel and Adrian, Sons Of Noel and Adrian (Shelsmusic)

As John Maynard Keynes was quick to point out, the economics of being in a band with around ten members aren’t too healthy.   “You can’t be in it for the money, without recording crass reggae covers of Neil Diamond songs”, he rightly said.  You’ve got to really love what you are doing, and in the case of Brighton’s Sons Of Noel And Adrian, that passion is captured within the dusty grooves of their new self-titled record.

Joanna Newsom at Somerset House, 20/07/08

I haven’t been to any of the Somerset House series of summer concerts in many a year, which is unsurprising given that they appear to have descended to the booking of identikit guitar-toting kid-pleasers.   I suppose that keeps the money flowing through its grand arches; Somerset House having once been the administrative centre for the nation’s tax take.  In fact they still have a presence there, and on our way in, we all grudgingly handed over our bottles of water – truly one of the most pernicious of modern taxes.  

James Blackshaw, Litany of Echoes (Tompkins Square)

For some time now, I’ve been throwing praise in the general direction of James Blackshaw with all the enthusiasm of Monty Panesar bowling to tail-enders on a spinner-friendly track. Whether live or on record, each encounter I have with his work makes me want to leap around girlishly, high-fiving anyone within a ten metre radius. His new release Litany of Echoes is another six-fer for his records, and one that will undoubtedly have purists purring.

Elephant9, Dodovoodoo (Rune Grammofon)

Of course everything released on Rune Grammofon has Kim Hiorthoy on sleeve design duties, but it seems to be increasingly the case that they also have to feature a member of Supersilent. Supersilent albums can go as far as having four of them, which seems to me to be an unnecessary embarrassment of riches.  After the frenetic splatter of the Box album, the supergroup superbug appears to have so bitten Supersilent keyboardist Stale Storlokken that he has decided to run the (dodo)voodoo down with a rhythm section of Torstein Lofthus (Shining) and Nikolai Hængsle (The National Bank, Lester).

Rise Festival, Finsbury Park, 13/07/08

What messages can we take from Boris Johnson’s first three months in charge of this city?  The sum total of his efforts, as far as I can see, are to ban drinking on the tube, to scrap increased charges on heavy-polluting vehicles, and to strip the Rise festival of its explicit anti-racism theme.  So I make that: fun is bad and the environment can go whistle, but for the first time since the 1970s, racism is right back in fashion.  You could even say it is the new black.  The cynic in me thinks that by removing this message from the event, he is making it easier for himself to scrap it next year* (remember: fun is bad), as no-one, not even that bastard Boris, could abolish an anti-racism festival. 

Seasons (Pre-Din), Above The Tides Fold, The Canopy Falls and By The Banks Go Through (all Thy-Rec)

Where am I? How did I get here? I remember I was following a trail, I glimpsed something glinting between the trees…I set off in pursuit. Moss gave way to mulch, which in turn gave way to mire. I walked off the edge of the map, and off the end of the day. Darkness is dripping through the canopy, and energy is draining from my legs. I’ll stop here, rest a while by this stream. Close my eyes. Just for a few minutes.