As tonight's Corsica Studios shakedown dawns, I undoubtedly have better things to be doing than updating my blog (now I see why they invented Twitter!). But I thought some of you may appreciate some set-times in advance, so I feel duty-bound:
I also have a sad announcement to make: the Tombola has been cancelled this time, on account of a lack of effort on my part. But if anyone finds themselves too traumatised by this devastating news, I will be offering my counselling services on the evening. Hey, maybe next time?
Hopefully the Kraut-tinged live set from Falling From Cloud 9 will offer enough incentive to get yourself down there early (check his Myspace and the Avus guest mix for a sneak preview); fans of a certain other Border Community artist on tonights bill should pay particular attention to the Falling From Cloud 9 set for a special guitar-based re-interpretation of something very familiar!
And beyond that there lies the magical mystery tour of a Kate Wax DJ set, Fuck Buttons' Andrew Hung's taming of the dancefloor, Avus' mainroom big guns, Ed Chamberlain's extremely BC twinkles, the long-awaited revelation of wherever it is that Petter' head is at nowadays, and of course, our old faithful golden Holden. I can't wait!
Our return to Corsica Studiosthis Friday night (5th March) is fast approaching, as I am sure you are aware. But as if you needed any more inducement to attend, those crafty devils over at We Fear Silence have come up with the goods, in the form of this Fuck Buttons DJ set that they have just uploaded to their Soundcloud page, and having previously directed all of my internet expertise towards trying to track one of these down, I do believe that this is an internet exclusive, so well done them!:
Everyone knows that the best producers have the best taste, as this half of the Fuck Buttons' guest mix neatly demonstrates (and Transitions seems particularly topical!). And there will be plenty more where that came from this Friday night, when the electronically-minded Andrew Hung (representing the Fuck Buttons) joins our own James Holden, Avus (listen to his own guest mix over on Mixcloud!) and Petter, and special guests Ed Chamberlain, Kate Wax and Falling From Cloud 9, for another Corsica love-in. Get your advance tickets here, and invite all of your mates here. It is going to be great!
Then if you are still standing on Saturday evening, I propose that we reconvene in the slightly more fraught surroundings of a Free Saturday at Cargo, hosted this week by the dedicated Upset The Rhythm. Kria Brekkan, former member of Iceland's Mum and current wife of Animal Collective's Avey Tare, headlines in support of her charmingly titled Uterus Water EP, whilst Walls, the exciting new Kompakt-endorsed project from Sam Allez-Allez and Alessio Banjo Or Freakout, provides the intriguing and able support. Say you'll be there?
The submerged Fisher Price screaming buried in the wall of noise of Fuck Buttons' Colours Move has the power to divide audiences, or at least the sort of people who leave comments on Youtube:
I love it, of course, but then, as those who know me can testify, I am not averse to the odd bout of shrieking myself: as well as the elephant noises that came with Andre Kraml's original parts, the breakdown of James Holden's remix of Safari (out on Crosstown Rebels back in 2004, so it might take some tracking down) also features additional monkey noises provided by my good self, animal impersonator extraordinaire. In the end I didn't get my credit on the vinyl (I will have to take that up with my agent, I suppose), but Mr Luke Abbott has hinted that he may have cause to call on my services in the near future, so it looks like my career in animal impersonation isn't over just yet...
Dropping a Fuck Buttons track in a club DJ set can be a similarly divisive act, so no surprises that our man Holden has made something of a habit of doing just that ('The Lisbon Maru', Surf Solar, 'Rough Steez', or Bright Tomorrow, perhaps, but thus far no 'Colours Move' - now that really would melt some heads!). But does there really have to be this great chasm between "dance" and "not dance"? And if such a fault line even exists, then collectively I think we ought to do all that we can to narrow it.
Edging towards us from the other side of the canyon is Fuck Button's own Andrew Hung, whose acquaintance we finally made at Four Tet's funnest-ever club-concert mash-up at the Tufnell Park Village Hall (I mean the Dome). And just how snugly the tectonic plates are rubbing up against one other will be revealed at our next Border Community night on 5th March, when the Buttons' electronic troubador will steer the Corsica Studios main room through his own danceable territory, which I have a feeling we may find looks rather similar to the landscape of Holden country (a bit like Scotland and New Zealand, if you will).
Captain James Holden, Avus, Petter, Kate Wax, Ed Chamberlain and Falling From Cloud 9 will also be joining us for the trip, so book your tickets here, and don't forget your advance check in here. Your holiday reading list will follow forthwith.
i think the term is 'melt faces'. "O+S - Permanent Scar" is a good example too of genre ligase needed to fix the okasaki gaps in the code between the dance and not dance dna.
The countdown to our next Corsica Studios shindig on 5th March has begun (line up: James Holden, Fuck Buttons (DJ set), Avus, Falling From Cloud 9 (live), Ed Chamberlain, Kate Wax and Petter - phew!), which means that it is also time for us to coax another guest mix from one of our crew. Kindly soul Avus has obliged: his dependable warm-up sets were a permanent fixture of the End mainroom during our old residency, so it is about time we invited him and his future Moog anthems from his upcoming Border Community EP to grace the hallowed Corsica decks. And what better way to celebrate than by uploading a new mix to Mixcloud, in which Avus wheels out his mainroom big guns in preparation:
Avus - We Fear Silence Mix February 2010 1) Avus – Little Adventures 2) Jared Wilson – Last Two 3) NathanFake – Fentiger 4) Paul Bennett – Backbreaker 5) Falling From Cloud Nine – 80 6) Luke Abbott – Whitebox Stereo 7) Agoria – Magnolia 8) Craig Loftis – Yes it’s right 9) Avus – Poppy 10) Entro Seenestre – Glazed 11) Ratsnake – When It’s Late 12) Regis – Ital 13) Surgeon – Screw The Roses 14) Four Tet - Love Cry
As well as a sneak peak at some of the gems contained within Avus' precious forthcoming 'Poppy EP', you may also have spotted a taster of what to expect from the early doors live set from the mysterious Falling From Cloud 9, aka Northampton's Luke Print, friend and musical cohort of our own Northampton man Avus. We can vouch that Luke's one-man live show is of a decidedly kraut-tinged, danceable bent having previously caught him in his hometown, and naturally we'd advise you to get down to Corsica early to see for yourself, not least because a special Border Community-related surprise that ought not to be missed is apparently also in the works...
And as well as the Northampton massive, and our own James Holden, we have yet more guests to offer the humble Corsica visitor on 5th March: topping the bill comes Andrew Hung of the mighty Fuck Buttons with a rare club DJ set showcasing his exemplary musical taste. Whilst one Button (Mr Benjamin John Power) grew up on a diet of Mogwai, the other (our on-call DJ Andrew) apparently travelled a more electronic path through Aphex-ville (this scenario sounds familiar...). Last week we managed to catch him in his more typical between-bands setting at Eat Your Own Ears' Esben & The Witch show, and I can confirm that his taste is indeed extremely "on message", right down to Holdy-Holden's 'Idiot' played at the right (slow) speed!
Meanwhile, over in the other room, we have nailed down our elusive techno wanderer Petter for a family reunion, dragging him off the Swedish party train to play room host for the evening: and it is about time that we all caught up on whatever it is he has been up to lately! We're also extremely excited to welcome Switzerland's Kate Wax into the fold (for the evening, and beyond!) with another rare DJ set outing, as she swaps the studio for the club, taking some time out from the preparations for her vocally-exhilirating new album. And last but by no means least, my beloved British electronica underground is also represented by Avus-fave Ed Chamberlain, he of the twinkle-encrusted electro-breaks as heard at the yearly BLOC workouts.
And no Corsica shakedown would be complete without a visit from the inimitable An'Unexpectacle, who I believe is currently plotting around a glove customisation theme, whilst my not-at-all-confusing Community Cast-Off Tombola will also be returning for a refined second run featuring yet more thrilling prizes on a Border Community (and guests!) tip for those early birds. Those advance tickets are available now from Ticketweb for just £10, or more on the door: so get thee there!
They say great minds think alike. Ali "The Bear" MFA sent us this photo over the weekend: a black cab which apparently has the "best number plate ever", where meat meets legendary drum machine to cause much hilarity amongst the synth nerds. Coincidentally, James Holden had already spotted and chuckled at the very same cab out on our travels round London, much to my bemusement: look out for the techno-producing pig-farming taxi driver's P808 ORK cab on a street near you soon.
James was equally excited about our flight back from Frankfurt last night (following his appearance at minimal ground zero - aka Ludwigshafen's Loft club - on Saturday), whose flight number BA909 alluded to yet another legendary Roland drum machine. James' heart seems to skip a beat every time a digital clock rolls round to a Roland-time, whilst at one hotel on our Japanese tour last year James, Nathan Fake and Petter were simply overjoyed to be assigned rooms 202 and 303. Resident acid-house obsessive Avus is just as bad - in fact, for sheer nerdiness I would say that he is probably the worst of the bunch, and I don't think he would object to me saying that!
Other synth-related humour that we have seen recently includes the Poni Hoax keyboard that has been modified into a "Poland" by colouring in one leg of the R, and Nathan Fake's afore-mentioned Evolution UC-33, which has been renamed "Pluto" through some deft scraping-off and colouring-in. Oh, the fun that these boys have with their toys!
ive got a shitload of photos somewhere with numbers like these at random places that i stumble upon. it happens to often to be incidental. must be some godlike force. and picid is my wordverification, can NOT be a coincidence. picid = acid
hmmmm my message didnt seem to come through yesterday. lets try again:
the point is indeed hard to find, but then again isn't it in a lot of interesting stuff? this shouldnt witheld me from actually doing something so irrelevant such as this, you think? maybe in the future we should make photos of all our discoveries for my new project: www.0bs3ssi0n.com , why not. right? the obsession is absurd! we seem to have triggered a switch that turns on our 1337 vision.
Hello from Paris, great picture of the cab but any chance to know when the MotherFA will be releasing any new stuff. i am dying for that since I saw you at sonar...
Begone Dull Care is a kind of early forerunner to both the modern music video and the club VJ alike, created way back in 1949 by painting directly onto film to accompany the jazz sounds of the Oscar Peterson Trio. Scratchy abstract lines and flashes of pulsing colour skip about in time and give visual form to the young Peterson's music in a wonderfully warm and organic analogue fashion: a timeless reminder of just how effective the combination of music and visuals can (and should) be.
And if I may say so, the scratchy detail and gentle bleed of the glowing luminescent colours visible in the still above does look strangely familiar, and ever-so-slightly BC-esque - the cover for our Swedish meatball Petter's Some Polyphony (as created in sugar paper by Colouring Competition winner Jonathan David) might initially spring to mind. But interestingly it is actually the artist behind the cover of Petter's Six Songs EP - Dutch visualist Judocus - who employs this same sort of painting and scratching on film technique in his work, giving his finished piece for Petter's Border Community debut a similar hyper-real glow to the McLaren-Lambart film:
('Begone Dull Care' music-provider Oscar Peterson meanwhile is a particular favourite of our own Luke Abbott - we recently picked up his Night Train album on Luke's recommendation after he bigged it up over on his blog).
The National Film Board of Canada's Online Screening Room has plenty more fast-loading animation, documentaries and other visual goodies in their extensive archive for you to browse - and all for free! The playlist introduction to the work of NFB trailblazer Norman McLaren (compiled by old friend and collaborator Donald McWilliams) is well worth your attention: as well as developing experimental animation techniques working directly onto the film, as McWilliams explains, McLaren was also an early electronic music pioneer, using his patented scratching technique to create a new instrument from the optical soundtrack area of a piece of film.
Speaking of Canada, in one final tenuous link before I sign off, it just so happens that our own James Holden set off for Canada this very morning, boxfresh new DMs in tow in preparation for the sub-zero temparatures. Dagobert in Quebec City gets their Holden debut this evening, before he heads back to Montreal for the decidedly chilly sounding Igloofest and after party tomorrow night. Igloofest is every bit as crazy as it sounds: an outdoor festival in the dead of the Canadian winter - and trust me, Canadian winters are cold, as the video from last week's Modeselektor appearance will testify (just watch all the steam rising!).
Still, I suppose all that dancing should keep the crowd warm, and they can always warm up again at the indoor after party. Apparently DJs are provided with a polar-grade jacket - which is lucky as I doubt that James' trusty West German issue army coat could cut it in those temparatures - but as the flyer so humourously suggests, I don't think it is possible to DJ in mittens:
Then finally on Saturday it is time for James to head over to Toronto, hometown of Fairmont man Jake Fairley, for a show at Footwork. Jake has also promised to source some calorific poutine (made with vegetarian gravy, of course) for Sunday lunch to replace any lost fat reserves, just in case James doesn't get a chance to grab his beloved cheese curd delicacy on his dash through the dish's Quebec homeland.
Coincidentally, I just read on the Domino site that the Junior Boys' new album is also called "Begone Dull Care": http://www.dominorecordco.com/uk/news/30-01-09/
It feels like I am always the last to know these things. Our Swedish meatball Petter is stopping by London this weekend for the first time in a good while, but of course, slippery and elusive creature that he is, he didn't think to tell us that. It was left to Amit of the Man Make Music crew to alert me to this most exciting of happenings, when he requested a plug for their new winter residency at yet-another-new-Shoreditch-club - the aptly named The Last Days Of Decadance - which Petter has been given the honour of launching this Saturday (8th November):
Actually, I am not sure if Petter has notified anyone at all of his scheduled presence this weekend, for there has been talk amongst the troops of a rival outing to see Hopen on the same night, which I gather has something to do with Nathan Hrdvision (aka brother of Mathew Jonson), although what exactly that is I am not sure. For me of course there is no contest: normally when we get to see Petter play it is in a supporting role at one of our Border Community specials, so the chance to see him deliver up his special sound blend in a starring role is a rare opportunity which I intend to seize with both hands.
I urge you to do the same of course, although past experience has taught me to remain cautious in my endorsement of these kind of untested new Shoreditch venues that are springing up all over the area like a rash. But I think we can trust the Man Make Music boys to have chosen their spot wisely before trading in their nomadic warehouse party lifestyle in favour of residency security. Back in March our bunny boy Nathan Fake guested for them at the sike warehouse party they organised together with our good friend Matt (aka barrow-jam merchant and resident situationist An'Unexpectacle), from which evidence I can confirm that they most certainly know their rave onions. So who is coming with me?
Peter from the Laptoprockers website just sent me this rather amusing photo of our Border Community boys "doing" Barcelona, which he found during a (rather belated) rummage through his colleague Reinier's photos from this years Sonar extravaganza:
Left to right you can see: Ricardo Tobar, Nathan Fake, Petter Nordkvist, James Holden, and some mystery texter who has sneaked into the edge of the shot. They were papped hiding in the corner at the Beatport rooftop pool party which they all went along to the day after our Loft party. James tells me that the photo captures the precise moment that they were all contemplating jumping off the side of the building just to escape the minimal onslaught, with Petter seemingly volunteering to go first...
i didnt think minimal was even being played anymore. good shot, should have cropped the texter. better yet, cut/paste the head of abbott on the texter and cut/paste a banana in his right hand. or a sign that says 'minimal rocks my world'
Julie from Parisian promoters We Love Art just sent me a selection of photos from the special We Love Border Community soiree they organised for us in Paris a couple of weekends ago. The combination of the perfect location, an electric atmosphere and an all-Border Community line-up made for a wonderful evening for everyone involved: James Holden reckoned it was the highlight of his current mini-tour with Ricardo Tobar, and I reckon it was also coincidentally the gig where little Ricky got the most wasted, so it was probably one of his highlights too...
Anyway, on to those photos: the venue was a monumental seventies wooden building set in the Bois de Vincennes park right on the edge of Paris. Inside was your normal sweaty dancefloor with some hardcore lazer action:
Outside was a chance to cool off without missing any of the music in the wooded garden decorated with our ubiquitous clouds hanging from the trees:
A photo of Petter, who managed to open proceedings with a DJ set, in spite of Air France's best efforts to lose his record bag "somewhere in Charles De Gaulle":
When a particularly wasted stage invader took to grinding behind our little Chilean cutie Ricardo Tobar during his set, James' paternal instinct immediately kicked in and we began to make our way back towards the stage to relieve poor Ricky. But when said stage invader took to swinging James' DJ bag around by the handle before falling over into the lighting rig at the back of the stage, James' walk soon turned into a run, and the fuck-up was forcibly manhandled from the stage by our little stick-like and confrontation-shy James himself: I have never seen anything like it! But if you ask me, it was his desire to protect the precious record bag that motivated him, rather than his concerns for poor Ricky as the much more charitable Rosana (my only corroborative witness that this actually happened!) was inclined to believe. Ricardo meanwhile carried on regardless, and didn't seem phased at all:
A Nathan Fake live show really is a bit of an extreme sport, and the bizarre shapes that the techno contortionist throws during the course of a set always brings a smile to my face. I think these two photos rather ably illustrate my point - someone should turn them into one of those animated gif things, enabling a Nathan Fake live show simulation in the comfort of your own home:
Finally, James Holden handled the graveyard shift to round things off while the others got wasted, as is usual at these type of events:
Only for some reason tonight he decided to take his shoes and socks off to DJ, much to the entertainment of Petter and myself (and seemingly also the other photographer in this shot):
So there we have it: thanks to the We Love Art crew for everything, and thanks also to everyone who came along and embraced the full head-to-toe Border Community experience. We Love Paris too!
rich blogging, tron. nice coverage. good nattie flake art. the g forces actually pull his cheeks forward as he lunges at the controller. doesnt get more iconic than that. really good to hear about james going hellboy on that fuck. there is so much ass to kick but so little moments where its spontaneous and excusable. i tell you, its hard to not go taxi driver on some of these every day bitches. bare feet on deck, you just dont mess with the zohan. SMELL IT, SMELL IT, NOW TAKE IT!!!!
Not content with wowing crowds across Europe with his shit-hot new live show, our Chilean recruit Ricardo Tobar (or Richie Tobarlobos as Nathan and Petter took to calling him during this year's Sonar-week antics) has also found time to turn in one of those lovely influence-showcasing podcast mixes for our bum chums Allez-Allez. I have been a little slow on the uptake this time as Ricardo's mix has actually been up on their site for download since last week, but because Sam and Steve are currently operating on summer slack-time there will be no new mixes for another full week anyway, so I think I just about got away with it...
That mix tracklist in full, then (download link is here): 1) Prodigy - Medusas Path 2) Chemical Brothers - Three Little Birdies Down Beats 3) Leftfield - Afro-Left 4) Aphex Twin - 0008900569 5) Miwon - Hush 6) Slowdive - Good Day Sunshine 7) Jess M - Coitus 8) Umek - Voices Of Africa 9) Unknown Track 10) Atlas Sound - Winter Vacation 11) Duo505 - Nochwas 12) Kero - 6.18 Multi Just 13) Arovane - Tascel 7
Despite being the proud possessor of one of those killer laptop-live shows that we are so fond of, Ricardo does also do a spot of DJing: indeed, it seems to be the preferred mode of performance for promoters in his Chilean homeland (next date August 2nd at Club Declive in Santiago). Thankfully, those arbitrary souls at UK customs decided not to deport him after all "for not having enough cash on him" last weekend as he tried to return to his between-gig base at his cousin Andrea's house in Brighton, so Ricardo is free to continue to showcase his live stylings around Europe for the rest of this month: do yourself a favour and catch one of his remaining shows in Amsterdam (tonight), Paris (5th), Aix En Provence in France (11th), Lake Balaton in Hungary (12th), Athens (13th) or Gent in Belgium (18th). For full details check Ricardo's Myspace...
And probably you have already realised this, but I think it bears repeating, if only to foil anyone trawling for free music blog downloads (Google Analytics is watching you!): Ricardo Tobar's wonderful new Boy Love Girl EP is always available to download here on mp3 for the eminently reasonable sum of just three of your English pounds.
Here is a photo of friendly Swede Tomas Andersson with a Pikachu, for no other reason than that Petter just sent it to me, because he knows we are Poke-maniacs after we dragged him and Nathan to Tokyo's Pokemon Center during the recent Border Community Japanese tour:
And here is a video of a circuit bent Pikachu, mainly for James and Luke's benefit:
Details of the location for the We Love Border Community blowout in Paris this Saturday 5th July (featuring James Holden, Nathan Fake, Petter and Ricardo Tobar) have just been revealed: the We Love Art team have secured the La Chesnaie du Roy salon in the Bois de Vincennes park right on the edge of Paris as the site for this special one-off. This info comes hot from an email from press agency Phunk, whose rather poetic French language description of the place actually came out in pretty decent English when I shoved it through Google Translate:
"Dans un lieu digne des contes de fees, une pagode en verre avec vue sur le parc floral et le grand jardin, une nuit exceptionnelle entre reveries electronica et dancefloor minimal sous les arbres."
"In a place worthy of tales of fairies, a glass pagoda overlooking the park and the large floral garden, an outstanding night between reveries dancefloor electronica and minimal under the trees."
The Bois de Vincennes park in the 12th arrondissement is the largest green space in Paris, and We Love Art have held a couple of parties in La Chesnaie du Roy in the past, taking full advantage of its indoor dancefloor with a view to the garden and accompanying outdoor magical woodland space for dancing in. They kindly sent me a few sneak preview photos, taken at their We Love Fantasy and We Love Get Physical events:
So as you might expect, we are all pretty excited as we prepare to descend on Paris tomorrow for a weekend of fun! The weather on Saturday evening is supposed to be warm and rain-free, if perhaps a little on the cloudy side, so all the signs are good!
what am i thinking? this location and occasion has some real fucking gravitas. i see alot of northern techno alliance in this. this could be big for paris and the future of how to experience the BC. kind of like the discovery of a rat that can cook and then tasting the fruit of its a labors as you fast backwards to the better times of innocence
I have just been sent the finished flyer for the upcoming special We Love Border Community party in Paris, for which the We Love Art crew seem to have constructed some kind of amusing imaginary midi-controlled handcrafted windmill:
Full marks for doing their research, as the particular midi-controller featured is the preferred model of party guests Nathan Fake (when playing live) and James Holden (in the studio, although his is currently serving as a handy surface on which to rest his Monome and voltmeter): the trusty Evolution UC-33. But that is not really such a strange coincidence, since the fact that it offers lots of knobs at a reasonable price meant that the Evolution UC-33 became pretty ubiquitous: the company were eventually bought out by M-Audio, who still sell the rebranded UC-33e should you have the urge to add one to your own music gear collection. James Holden has kindly provided me with his own mini-review: "It was great with Buzz, is OK for Ableton / Traktor, and shit for Cubase". (But if anyone has managed to find something useful to do with it in Cubase, James would dearly love to hear from you in the comments...)
Putting the nerd talk back to one side again where it belongs, the We Love Border Community party takes place on Saturday 5th July in Paris, featuring live sets from Nathan Fake and Ricardo Tobar, and James Holden and Petter on DJ duty. We Love Art have found a fabulous indoor-outdoor woodland location to host the party, exact details of which will only be revealed closer to the time: for tickets and more information, keep your eye on their website and Myspace. Should be a good one!
nice usb controller. sniped the same one on ebay a few years ago. nath said they break easy, but perhaps has was using his to stone that bird with that kept flying away from him and olly in the wideo. something tells me that this year is the year of the table full of wires, controllers and noise makers. i know abbot and my man deacon are riding them like golden chairots at the moment, that means the geeks will be humping the concept by 2009 or 2010 depending if we run out of oil in the mean time and the world ends. so disregard geeks, this is not the trend you are looking for *waves hand and uses the force*. i say we start building the tables of wires, controllers and noise makers at hq and selling them through this website. you could have a link below the blog button for them. of course we will include into the table a brick of C 4 plastic explosives that will be set to detonate as the geeks gather around said purchased trend object at one of their fuck a trend in the ass-athon fests.
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