Melody Pour Serge

After watching Gainsbourg (Vie héroïque), a weekend listening to Serge is always good – Here are some I quite like courtesy of youtube.

The Heritage Orchestra play the Music of The Clangers

Monday 20 July 2009, 7.30pm

On the 40th Anniversary of the first moonwalk Southbank Centre and the Heritage Orchestra celebrate by bringing you an evening of the music and visuals of the Clangers alongside other lunar delights, including Russ Garcia’s classic electro-orchestral album Fantastica: Music from Outer Space.

Expect a mixture of music, narration, sound and sights commemorating the genius team of Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin, and Vernon Elliot’s inimitable Clangers score. A space gig like no other.

Check it here.

The Viking of 6th Ave – The Music of Moondog

You might know the music of Moondog and the track ‘Birds Lament’ as it was sampled by Mr Scruff on ‘Get a move on’. Well if you love Moondog and fancy a trip to London then the forthcoming gig at the Barbican will be a total treat -> See below for the details.

From the Barbican ->

A glimpse into the world of iconic blind American composer Moondog (1916-1999), whose music has influenced a generation of artists, from Philip Glass and Steve Reich to Charlie Parker, and later devotees like Mouse On Mars, Anthony Hegarty, Damon Albarn and Elvis Costello.

An extraordinary range of guests from the worlds of classical, pop, electronic and avant-garde music bring the music of iconic blind American composer Moondog – Louis Thomas Hardin(1916-1999) to life in an amazing one-off concert event .

The Britten Sinfonia with Andi Toma (Mouse On Mars), perform music from Moondog (1969) and Elpmas (1992) and previously unheard material. Plus London Saxophonic with pianist Liam Noble and percussionist Paul Clarvis explore Moondog’s joyful brass and sax arrangements.
In addition, a specially–assembled Moondog All-Star Choir including Gruff Rhys and Bunf (Super Furry Animals), Lightspeed Champion, Pictish Trail and Adem will provide vocals.

Pre-show FreeStage set from composer Max de Wardener and percussionist Tom Skinner exploring the canonical music from the 1970 Moondog 2 album .

Interval ClubStage DJ set from Caribou.

Post-show ClubStage live performance from Domino Records stalwarts Clinic and DJ set from Kieran Hebden (Four Tet) mixing sounds from all kinds of genres and crosses any musical borders he can find.

In a companion event, Moondog Around Midnight takes place in the beautiful setting of the church of St Giles Cripplegate at 11.30pm on the same evening with US organist Paul Jordan and Moondog percussion disciple Stefan Lakatos. Tickets are at a 50% discount for main concert ticket holders.

‘Moondog was as recognisable in the NewYork City landscape as the Empire State Building.’ New York Times

‘Wonderful music: strange, jaunty, sad, eerie, virtuosic, maddeningly catchy.’ The Independent

Tickets: £15 / 20 / 25 – subject to availability

For more info and bookings: http://www.barbican.org.uk/music/event-detail.asp?id=8740

I Got Paid To Listen To Skip James On A $30,000 Stereo!

Spotted this story by the excellent Waxidermy music site. If your into music/records – start weeping.

Working on a fashion shoot and when we arrived I discover the location we rented for the day belonged to the gentleman who owns Oswald’s Mill Audio.

The house is a museum of vintage tube equipment (the 200w 5 channel “Fantasound” set-up used in the ’40s performances of Fantasia; Pultecs; Telefunken V72; Ampex tape machines from the ’50s, an old RCA lathe used for acetate transfers of radio shows). The tour of the house ended in his workshop where all his turntables, speakers and amps (retail and prototype) reside. So fucking crazy.

Via Waxidermy

Ornette Coleman’s Meltdown

Tickets went on sale today for the Meltdown festival – I totally forgot – Yo La Tengo – Gone. Bugger – Still there is lots more.

Free jazz legend and avant-garde icon Ornette Coleman takes over Southbank Centre as the 16th director of Meltdown. Featuring major artists, unique collaborations, rare appearances and UK debuts, this year’s Meltdown line-up reflects both the pioneering spirit of Ornette Coleman and his widespread influence.

Saturday 13 June

The Roots with guest David Murray and more

produced in association with Jill Newman Productions

Royal Festival Hall

Saturday 13 June

David Murray & The Gwo-Ka Masters

+ Jamaaladeen Tacuma

Queen Elizabeth Hall

Sunday 14 June

YOKO ONO PLASTIC ONO BAND

Featuring Sean Lennon, Cornelius and more

Royal Festival Hall

Monday 15 June

Baaba Maal

Royal Festival Hall

Monday 15 June

The Freewheeling Yo La Tengo

Queen Elizabeth Hall

Tuesday 16 June

Moby

Royal Festival Hall

Warp20

Amazingly Warp records is 20 years old – DJ Mink, Two Lone Swordsmen, LFO – some bloke called Aphex Twin and a whole lot of bleeps and donks later – they’ve decided to release an official Warp20 retrospective album, the definitive ‘Best of’ from the last 20 years.

Vote for your favourite Warp tracks on Warp20.net. The top 10 (by different artists) will be combined with those chosen by Warp co-founder Steve Beckett to make a 20 track album. On the site, you can leave personal memories and messages about your choices and the best will be printed in the album’s artwork. I’ve never seen Aphex Twin described as ‘if this was the theme to thee exotic shampoo ad id never tire watching it and im sure it would sell by the bucketload’

Each user has 50 votes in total, but you cannot vote for the same track twice. Voting will be closed on Friday 8th May.

Crowd sourcing sucks for crowd? Looks like PSFK can go tell Warp this is a rubbish idea – me – I think it’s marvellous.

The Radiophonic Workshop

The Radiophonic Workshop were pioneeers of electronic music but you probably have never heard of them or ever even seen one of their records – but you certainly have heard their music. The insane sonic assault that is the Dr Who theme tune was brought to life by one of their team – Delia Derbyshire.

Some of the surviving members of the workshop – Peter Howell – Paddy Kingsland – Roger Limb – Dick Mills – Mark Ayres – are coming together for a special gig as part of the Short Circuit festival at the Roundhouse in London.

The Radiophonic Workshop get together again to explore Radiophonics past, present, and future. Old and new innovative electronica for a large arena combines with live performance and multimedia projections. An event not to be missed.

The BBC Radiophonic Workshop was founded in 1958, and closed its doors 40 years later. Throughout its life, and since its closure, it has been enormously influential on generations of musicians, with the names of composers such as Delia Derbyshire, John Baker, Brian Hodgson, Dick Mills, Paddy Kingsland and Peter Howell taking on almost legendary status.

Find out who else is on the line up for Short circuit.

As a treat check the videos below ->

Video Cut-Ups

The very good plus guys told me about a few early examples of ‘video cut-ups’ which compliment the ‘Thru You’ videos I posted the other day.

Multiple Sidosis

Three Piece Band (2001)

Godley and Creme Mondo Video Pt.1

As a treat here is one that really inspired me -

timber coldcut and ….

The Mother Of All Funk Chords

I’m a sucker for a good video mashup and my jaw just hit the floor when I saw these ThruYOU mashups – Scour youtube for thousands of music clips – stitch them back together to compose a visual song – Instant eye/ear candy.

The coherence of the finished pieces really raised the game for this type of mashup – Funk, Bouzouki Drum and Bass, Dub – All styles put into the visual blender.

As a special mention – Mr Hopkinson did something on similar grounds last year but with a live performance of Beardyman. He layered the audio and video together to create an incredible video with bags of style.

Thanks adcentered

“Monkey Jazz” : BEARDYMAN & mr_hopkinson™

Jerry Dammers Spatial A.K.A. Orchestra Presents Cosmic Engineering: A tribute to Sun Ra and other musical mavericks

Songwriter/keyboardist Jerry Dammers and an 18-piece orchestra, featuring some of the UK’s foremost jazz musicians, pay tribute to the futuristic jazz of Sun Ra and Alice Coltrane by mingling their sounds with those of dub innovator Coxsone Dodd, Exotica pioneer Martin Denny and more.

Dammers (founder of The Specials and 2 Tone, main songwriter (Ghost Town, Free Nelson Mandela) presents his unique take on retro futura. Initially a tribute to Sun Ra’s futuristic jazz, Dammers has combined some of his other musical obsessions – from library music and exotica to ska and reggae – in a style that reflects more recent influences such as hip hop, jungle and dubstep, alongside adaptations of a couple of Dammers’ own compositions.

Originally conceived as part of an art event, the show combines strong visual and theatrical elements including costumes, art props and projected images, creating a complete alternative musical world, credible to jazz, breakbeat, and rock fans alike.

10 March 2009 / 19:30
Barbican Hall

http://www.barbican.org.uk/music/event-detail.asp?ID=8458