Musings of the Month

...Jones the Rhythm...
Great to read that Grace Jones will be playing live at the Meltdown Festival in London next month. The first picture disc I ever bought was the 12" of Slave to the Rhythm (fantastic record) so I've got fond memories of Ms. Jones. And if there was anyone making better albums than her in 1980/81, I haven't heard them (as good maybe - stand up Talking Heads - but not better). If this description of going to see one of her live shows from the pages of Pop Justice is anything to go by, everyone at the South Bank on June 19th will be in for a treat!

...You call this progress? Or the thin end of the Wedge...
I was amazed to pick up a flyer the other week and discover that Shoreditch chancers Trash Fashion had been booked to play at the Fete Du Progres, the annual May Day fundraiser of the French-speaking Belgian socialist party, the PS, which took place last night. I'm sure Billy Bragg is polishing his cover of It's a Rave Dave as we speak. Twats!

...In search of Cosmic Disco, or the DJ and the producer...
Sadly (or not at all), I missed the Trash Fiasco in order to be at the 6YCC event at the Eskimo Fabriek in Ghent, celebrating the sixth birthday of Culture Club, the nightclub where Soulwax's Dewaele brothers cut their teeth as resident DJs. The main reason for going was to catch a Hercules and Love Affair DJ set. As the timings got all awry, I missed a big chunk of this, which, for some strange reason, was taking place essentially in the foyer of the venue (a former textile factory - very stylish, although the corridor linking the main rooms kept reminding me of the Panamian prison at the end of Season 2 of Prison Break). What I did hear was cool, although I think I prefer Herc & LA's own records. By contrast, Felix Da Housecat, whose recordings usually leave me cold, played a storming set in the main room. I guess that just proves that being great at cutting tracks doesn't mean you'll be the best at playing them, and vice versa.

...Wearing my Rolex, or Grime doesn't play...
Despite entering the UK pop charts at no. 4, Wiley's 'Wearing my Rolex' has divided opinion. Some think it's a cheesy pile of dog's doings, others that it's the best thing to happen to Grime for years. I'm taking the middle ground. Yes, it is pretty cheesy, and perhaps overreliant on the DSK sample (a good track to rely on, mind). But in its defence, when was the last time you went to a club and danced to Grime? I mean, really danced? A case in point, Team Mega Mix played at MMM in March and they played a storming first set. When they hit the decks again later on in the night, they dropped Dizzee Rascal's 'I Luv U', a quality record, but one that, especially outside the UK, is as welcome on most dancefloors as a punk cover of The Birdy Song. Cue a sudden influx of bodies at the bar, and a quick change of musical direction in the DJ booth. Maybe Wiley is wiping away too much of the Grime from his sound, but he should be applauded for taking the genre in a new direction.

...Musique (Concrete) for the Masses...
Nice to see an article acknowledging the pioneers of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. In the same way that trade journals and in-house magazines have sometimes been the first to bring cutting edge graphic design to the mainstream (for instance Bradbury Thompson in Westvaco's Inspiration for Printers magazine of the 1940s), so the radiophonic workshop, in its functionalism, brought avant-garde techniques to a wider audience, under the guise of making weird sounds to illustrate drama. Musique Concrete for the Masses indeed! Given Delia Derbyshire's later career in psychedelic rockers, The White Noise, it seems like good timing to be heading over to London to catch Ipso Facto this weekend. IF have probably never heard The White Noise, but they sure sound as if they have...