I found out this morning via The Stirrer’s Twitter feed that Birmingham is considering a bid for the City of Culture award – and Birmingham Bloggers are urged to show their support.

As an enthusiast for the cultural output of the city I have some mixed feelings – if it can be shown that such a bid – and a potential win – will lead to some real support for some of those that I would think of as cultural leaders in the area then I’m all for it, but I want to be clear that what we need to do is support and nurture what we already have in a sensible and organised way – not throw money at it blindly or spend millions on advertising campaigns that dont advertise anything in particular except some new brand or other nonsense jargon.

My recommendations for the organisations that deserve any additional recognition or support coming their way are:

Supersonic Festival

Fierce Festival

Birmingham Opera Company

CBSO

Drop Beats Not Bombs

Flatpack Film Festival

Gigbeth Conference and Festival

Moseley Folk Festival

Birmingham International Jazz Festival

Birmingham Comedy Festival

Soweto Kinch

Project X Presents

The Hare & Hounds

and of course, The Rainbow!!!!

plus, a great up and comer: Mr Elephant

and Id recommend more support for the Moseley Festival – its already strong and undergoing a renaissance – with more assistance it could be a real jewel in the cultural crown.
Xx

Marc Reck and Pyn Stockmans beautiful day long festival of music, stalls and workshops was one of the highlights of my year so far as I already explained in an earlier post.

Now Jack Brabant has produced a nice little video from footage shot on the night:

STOP PRESS – this event has also been reviewed by Dom Brotherton.

I recently came across the music of Max Richter – I think via LastFM which has this to day about him:

“Though he has a strong background in the canons of classical music, his influences were more modern composers and in particular, Iannis Xenakis whose musical compositions applied mathematical and physical laws and Philip Glass whose sound was a major influence on Richter. His influences also include rock bands The Beatles, Pink Floyd and The Clash, as well as electronic music groups Kraftwerk and Autechre.”

I posted a video up on Facebook which I think is where my friend Chris aka Catweasle came across it. Chris is a very talented guy working in the visual medium and he’s produced this fairly simple but beautifully effective video to the music of Richter. Enjoy.

Blossom from cat weasel on Vimeo.

Frail body, fertile mind,
eyes with glittering spark behind
their gentle gaze.

Hints of depths and will unfazed
by life’s surprising accolades
betray a spirit rare and fine.

No words, no poet’s elegy
can evidence the energy
that you define,
the vital spark that cannot end,
which by your living well you comprehend
and by your loving, you convey.

I drink to you tonight and won’t forget
this evening when we really met.

I hope that as these days grow long
the final cadence to your song
will bring you all the peace that you deserve
and knowing your two sons are well and strong
will put your mind at rest.

You did your best
and gave your all
you spread the news,
and played the ball.

And so, the final mystery,
the marriage of eternity
should affect you, as you did me,
with humour and with love.
Xx

Prior to attending the meeting I mentioned in my last post Leon Trimble, Ant Ramm and myself met up with the lovely Caroline Beavon from Kerrang Radio for an interview about the noise abatement issues in Digbeth.

We took her on a little tour of the area and talked about this issues before attending the meeting, after which she also got some reaction with Kent Davis of the Rainbow and John Tighe of the Spotted Dog.

Have a listen here – its a useful introduction to the subject. A longer edit of the interviews may follow.
Xx

Following on from the success of the Project X Presents production Music Is Not Pollution (845 youtube views and counting) – a short documentary we made in order to highlight issues of Noise Abatement in Digbeth and elsewhere, I was invited to the presentation of the results of the Digbeth Area Noise and Nuisance Study.

The study was commissioned by Advantage West Midlands – a regional development organisation I know surprisingly little about given that they are involved with vast amounts of funding. They presented the results of a study made by Atkins – a major independent consultancy firm – into the noise issues in Digbeth.

The results were somewhat inconclusive – essentially they provided a report detailing the economic identity of the area and a detailed study of noise levels in the area. Bizarrely, they pointed out that C weighted noise ie the bass frequencies is the band that really carries and is hard by their nature to dampen, and yet their highly detailed noise map of the area didnt include this area of the sound spectrum due to some issue with a lack of standardisation in how such information is measured. A questionner from the floor stated, not unreasonably, that this could be said to effectively invalidate their whole report.

They made some somewhat vague but potentially useful suggestions as to how things might move forward in the future, but little or no strategy for how to resolve the disputes that currently exist such as the Rainbow and Spotted Dog versus someone complaining in the Abacus development.

I was left with the overriding conviction that the Abacus should never have been built, at the very least, not in the way that it was – but we are stuck with the fact that it is there and somehow we have to deal with it. Otherwise it looks dangerously as tho the simplest “out” for the Council is going to be to dampen the noise in the area which might ultimately spell disaster for the Rainbow and the Spotted Dog.

At least with the Rainbow theres the chance that the council (or someone) might find funds necessary to seriously sound proof it – (this seems more likely than the council retrospectively applying the building regulations correctly to the Abacus) – but how can you soundproof the Spotted Dog when a) a lot of the noise comes from the garden and b) the windows of the pub are beautiful stained glass.

Anyway, the report offers the Council the chance to look at their position and prepare a holistic, sensible and conciliatory response. We await with interest.
Xx

Just a quick and belated mention to say how delightful the Mr Elephant celebration was last Saturday.

I wasnt around much during the afternoon as I was out postering for Musituality on Saturday, but I spoke to a couple of poeple who did some of the workshops and it sounds like they had a an enjoyable and educational time.

The evening was lovely. Laura-Louise and myself played acoustic sets and in a way set the tone for the evening by performing live. Much of what followed was beat driven, but all of it was live which I really felt added a lot in terms of the connection between artist and audience.

Bass 6 was a really engaging MC (and a fine beatboxer), Dub FX provided a quite remarkable wall of sound every bit as full as a well produced track, but all with his voice. But the act of the night for me, was the closing set from AlphaDrive who played a beautiful set with a brilliant, natural rhythm that was irresistable and uplifting.

Marc Reck also played a typically joyous and fun set, and additional touches such as the mask making and poodle making (on our table we defied convention and made a crap poodle out of the mask making materials) really do help add a gently fun element to the mood which all adds to the incredibly positive vibes that pervaded the Hare and Hounds all night.
Xx

Im looking forward to this all day (and well into the night) celebration of music and creativity at the Hare & Hounds Kings Heath this coming Saturday May 23rd.

Mr Elephant is a delightful collaboration between two lovely people. Marc Reck was recently voted by DJ of the Year Night Times for his consistently exciting and varied sets incoporating everything from party breaks and drum and bass, through classic dance and lately, monkey swing. Pyn Stockman has over ten years experience creating inspiring community art based projects and workshops, many centering around her great skill in mask making.

Together, the two of them have come up with a wonderful looking day of fun, with something to tempt every pallette and age group including FREE WORKSHOPS from 3pm until 7pm in poodle making (out of paper, not actual poodle), mask decorating, drumming, poi, juggling, animation, VJing, beatboxing and music.

Then come the early evening (7.30pm – 9pm), you can catch the angelically voiced Laura-Louse Owen and myself (performing a set of songs).

If you want to stay around all day but need to pop off for some good food, theres lots of options in York Road alone – Kings (my favourite Indian), Byzantine (Tapas) and Kitchen Garden Cafe (organic) to name but three.

Then it all kicks off from 9pm, but its not all bang, bang, bang, theres a blend of artists featuring lots of live music such as Dub FX (amazing orchestral beatbox) on the live stage, as well as an exciting looking dance stage hosted by Osmosis and featuring Jerome Hill (a bit of legend in the world of techno and breaks).

Sounds like a rather amazing day – I hope you can come down, support it and join in the fun!
Xx

Last night, I stayed in with a bottle of wine and whilst my partner worked on a presentation, I had myself a little musical journey via the wonders of Youtube. I thought I’d share my little aural odyssey in case you’d like to try the ride for yourself, so here’s some edited highlights. Might suit a Sunday afternoon quite well as it happens.

I started with one of my favourite artists around at the moment, the downtempo electronica specialist, Jon Hopkins:

From there to another favourite, also on the excellent Just Music label – Digitonal:

Had a little play then with some other electronica, kinda enjoyed Future Loop Foundation, tho they didn’t quite rock my socks to the level of the previous two:

And then, I felt it was time to progress deeper, into the earliest history of electronic music (1937) with this ethereally beautiful piece from Olivier Messaien, employing a very early synthesizer, the Ondes Martenot:

Thence, to the quite simply stunning movement “Louange à l’éternité de Jésus” from Messaien’s “Quartet for the End of Time”. If you dont know this, prepare to be mind blown:

Hard to know where to go from there, but Im a life long Beethoven fan, pretty familar with the syphonies and concertos, but not yet with the chamber music. Which is a shame, cos the string quartets, particularly the late ones, are said to be his very finest work. Here, I tried out the C# minor quartet. Here’s the first movement which begins with a theme described by Richard Wagner as “the most melancholy sentiment ever expressed in music”.

If you enjoyed that and want to hear the rest of the quartet which was a favourite of Beethovens and lead Schubert to remark on hearing it “”After this, what is left for us to write?” then this link will do you.

Enjoy.
Xx

My initial plans for Saturday evening involed catching Black Heart Generator at the Moseley Arms, then Leon’s birthday at the Victoria before Drop Beats Not Bombs, but in the end, that didnt happen.

Lyndall wanted to do some brainstorming on a presentation she’s working on, and what with promoting Project X Presents next Saturday on top of all the usual, I rather fancied a night in. Felt a bit guilty about that to start with cos Im active in the Brum creative scene and think its important to support your friends, but sometimes I find the social/artistic whirl feeling like an obligation and I dont like that because giving and engaging should be freely given. Plus going out on a Saturday can seem a bit full on when youre not totally in the mood, and you can have great company, nice wine and your very own taste in music in the comfort of your own home.

So for this night, my musical journey was inwards, rather than outwards. And a great journey it was, I think I’ll save it for my next post.
Xx