Musings of the Month: In the land of Aqua and Trentemøller

It's a Danish special this month. I've just got back from a short trip to the happiest country in the world (part business, part pleasure) and here are a few observations...Let's kick off with a verbatim transcript of a text message sent to a friend last week: "The music in this town is terrible: danish schlager pop, commercial trance, happy hardcore cover versions of bon jovi. And Peter Andre. Wake up aalborg!" The gateway to Northern Jutland is a very pleasant small city, but if you are looking for cutting edge music (or just decent commercial tunes) look elsewhere. Dr. Alban's Sing Hallelujah is about as good as it gets on the packed bar street Jomfru Ane Gade. I spotted a some posters for a tech-house night and a couple of punk gigs, none of which were taking place during my brief stay.

Further south in Denmark's second city, Aarhus, things are looking a little better. I headed to Gyngen, a small venue on the northern edge of the city centre. This cultural centre puts on a wide range of music by mostly up-and-coming local acts (although later this month it's one of the sites for Elektronisk JazzJuice, a jazz meets-electronica-meets-impro-meets-noise festival headlined by Cluster and Shackleton no less). The night I was there there was a young guy rapping about revolution in Danish (pretty sick self-produced beats). Not sure having your parents show up to video the show is quite so 'revolutionary' - seemed very Danish somehow though - no wonder they are such a well-adjusted people! After a short break, teenage emo punks Bad Addiction took to the stage. Trading more on enthusiasm than skill, they were a little callow for my tastes, but, hey, the kids liked it!

Aarhus is also currently hosting an effing great exhibition of music videos called Music To See. It's at the art museum, Aros, and includes works by "five of the most innovative and experimental image-makers within the contemporary music video genre": Michel Gondry, Chris Cunnigham, Anton Corbijn, Spike Jonze and Mark Romanek. There's something slightly weird about sitting in a dark room with a bunch of strangers to carefully appreciate the artistry of Windowlicker or Come to Daddy. But hey, it's cool! While I enjoyed the Cunningham, Corbijn and Jonze vids, I couldn't really get with Mark Romanek. I mean I dig what he does, I just can't stand most of the performers he works with (particularly those useless dicks Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Nine Inch Nails).

The same can't be said for Michel Gondry - brilliant images illustrating great pieces of music. As well as the infamous White Stripes, Daft Punk and Bjork videos, it was instructive to see Gondry's fabulous promo for Jean-Francois Coen's 1993 single La Tour de Pise - Paris will never look the same again...

...And as for Brussels - it's probably only in Matonge, the city's predominantly Congolese district, that you could find a music store that doubles as a hairdresser. "Chez le Professeur de Francais" at 9 Rue Francart is home to both Planete Music (where I just picked up a tasty CD/DVD double pack by Ferre-Gola - 'Sens Interdit') and to Salon Clarisse (Coiffure Dame). An interesting solution to the fiscal challenge of running a record store. I can see it now: Phonica-Pedicure...

Musings of the Month

...When the excellent Merz is touring his album in Borders rather than traditional venues, and even Moby is taking to playing acoustic shows in bars as a promotional gimmick, it should have been no surprise to see members of Dirty Projectors working the merch stall after their fine performance at the Cirque Royale the other week. DP were supporting the frankly superb Explosions in the Sky (no nonsense psychedelic rock - just what the doctor ordered). If only all gigs were this good.

...Just after last month's musings, it was announced that Duran Duran and Mark Ronson would be playing a special invite-only concert together in Paris in July, at which Ronson would be reinterpreting various Duran hits, with the whole caboodle being sponsored by Smirnoff Vodka and filmed for broadcast on the web, etc. It will probably be a mildly diverting occasion, but there's something about the buttoned down coolness of Ronson that irritates. A little too slick, a little too knowing and actually, when it comes to the crunch, a little too bland. Coffee table beats and dinner party pop. If he has to be trendy could he at least unsettle the listener a little too - like the feeling you get flicking through a copy of Wallpaper magazine in a dentist's waiting room?

...Black Kids, Black Noise, The Black Ghosts, White Denim, White Williams, White Lies...(Not forgetting the return of the Black Dog!). Are we to assume from this selection of hip new projects that we are living in a black or white world? Absolutes in place of (on top of) Absoluts? Absolutely! Now, where's that Monochrome Set LP?

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...