Ok, I'm sorry… but self promotion time again people:

SPIRAL ARCHITECTS _ Live! SATURDAY 24th May @ FAWCETT INN SOUTHSEA
FREE ENTRY
Plus Support

For those of you in the know, the Fawcett pub is my second home, and having now played Castle Field and Havana this will be our first full gig at the Fawcett, more than the regular Wednesday night performances as part of the open mic nights. So if you fancy it, and you want to see some hippies, please make yourself known by stepping forward and coming to support the local music scene.

Other info:There's a beer garden
10 minute walk from Fratton train station
We will have power!

Feel free please to invite the world via phone, email, text, facebook, word of mouth, smoke signals, carrier pigeon etc.

Thanks to any one who attended Oxjam where we may have spiralled in and out of randomness due to lack of power after our third song, but hopefully you all enjoyed our set and had a good day out regardless of if you saw us play.

In other Spiral news a September gig is in the pipeline (tbc) supporting Cool Banana @ Havana bar which I will promote nearer the time.

We will also be playing a lunchtime gig in honour of the Summer Solstice, again at the Fawcett, on Saturday 21st June basically for those whom are travelling to the pub having spent the night at Stonehendge - which will include at least half the band… I believe therefore this may be invite only for Stonehendge people and Fawcett regulars - however if you're interested I can find out…

…in the meantime, have fun, be happy.

Peace, love, unity

Spiral Keith/Spiral Lolly

Photos from benjamin_sanguine @ Flux=Rad Friday 28 March 2008 (courtesy of Aaron Shah).
 
 
 
possible benjamin_sanguine/Samneric performance/film action at Tate Modern in June - watch this space to find out more.
 
 
MAY 1968:
STREET POSTERS FROM THE
PARIS REBELLION
This show is at the Hayward Project Space until 1 June.
http://www.parismai68.net/

Artist and film-maker Jesper Just is at the Victoria Miro gallery until 14 June www.victoria-miro.com

Go to the Jerwood Space before Sunday 18th and see the Contemporary Painters show featuring Nadia Hebson. http://www.jerwoodspace.co.uk/documents/AprilE-LETTER08.pdf 

Maria Lassnig's paintings are at the Serpentine until 8 June. Described as 'Bold and Introspective' whilst being avant-garde and feminist, this Viennese has been producing great works in Paris, New York and Vienna for over 60 years.  www.serpentinegallery.org

See Paul Rooney's exhibition La Décision Doypack at the Matt's Gallery until 15 June  www.mattsgallery.org

Moriceau + Mryzk Quantam of Solace is a show at Ritter/Zamet until 14 June and takes its title from the next Bond film. This french art duo have created an environment of circular framed drawings and wall-painted works, silhouettes and illustrations. www.ritterzamet.com

We had a great night at the Montague Arms this week with Duncan giving an excellent performance - film to follow soon.  www.myspace.com/montaguearms

Massive Attack's Meltdown at the Royal Festival Hall features:
Gong 14 June
Yellow Magic Orchestra 15 June
Elbow 16 June
Vangelis' Blade Runner soundtrack played live by the Heritage Orchestra and mixed live by MA 17 June
Stiff Little Fingers, Mark Stewart and Adrian Sherwood / Martina Topley Bird  18 June
Grace Jones / Future Sounds of Hip Hop Featuring Dalek 19 June
Gang of Four 20 June
George Clinton and Parliament/Funkadelic / Tunng and Leila 21 June
Silent Disco featuring outdoor sets by Kieren Hebden (Fourtet) and Peaches 13, 14, 19-21 June
Also many BFI film screenings including Blade Runner (naturally) and The Night James Brown Saved Boston
All book-ended by performances by MA on 14 and 22 June
http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/festivals-series/meltdown 

Mogwai play the Queen Elizabeth Hall on Monday night, but not surprisingly its sold out. But Seb Roachford's post-jazz group Polar Bear play there on 12 June
http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/music/productions/polar-bear-40691
Next Saturday (17 May) Schlomo and the Vocal Orchestra will perform a 14-piece beatbox choir.
http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/music/productions/shlomo-and-the-vocal-orchestra-39081

For those of you on the south coast, look out for Le Couteau Jaune (my basic french tells me that's The Yellow Knife) will be playing the Southsea Festival in September.
Or if you're in London go to the Vibe Bar (19 May), Brixton Windmill (24 May), Beaconsfield Gallery (with Matmos 7 June), Wetsound Festival Hackney (19 July); and they're at Glastonbury www.myspace.com/lecouteaujaune

Duncan will be doing a performance at the Montague Arms on Thursday 8 May from about 8.30pm. I understand it involves antlers and soap.
www.myspace.com/montaguearms

See you there!

(more blog to follow later in the week)

Well, here I am currently on a train of sorts, I say sorts I know not why as it is a train but the journey is long and after having watched Juno thought I’d write this ‘ere blog.

So Juno, quite a good film, although fairly straightforward storyline. Teenage girl falls pregnant, decides to have the baby but give it up for adoption to a happily married couple who split up for no particular reason and the woman adopts the baby any way whilst the teenage girl realises she is in love with the father but it doesn‘t matter that they no longer have a baby… the end. If you haven’t seen it already I’ve just spoilt it for you, but cool soundtrack so keep an ear out for that.

Going back to the train thing I was on one last Friday too when I made it up to Clapham to see Benjamin_Sanguine perform on stage in what was a rather compelling performance. Nice crowd and a nice little venue, with nice beer which I forget the name of but that’s not important right now… On stage with nothing but combinations of himself, an acoustic guitar, four track mixing desk, harmonica and voice Ben took the audience through a wide cross section of what he is capable of and there wasn’t a track I didn’t enjoy being created in his own personal way. At this point I will also make a quick reference to the guy from Seafood, who’s more straight forward musical approach was also compelling, with the highlight being the slowest cover version of I Wanna be Sedated by Ramones ever.

Talking gigs, Spiral Architects took the Havana audience through a forty minute musical journey the other weekend performing our complete repertoire and it seemed to go down pretty well with only a handful of minor hiccups (too much feedback during the tabla/didgeridoo track). It was well received and thanks to any one who made it. I am also pleased to announce we are playing Oxjam festival on Castle Field Southsea on 26th April, which is gonna be so cool. Although it’s not long off I’m not sure exact plan or line up as yet so will leave that to another time. I may just be out of touch but for a raising awareness gig in honour of Oxfam it doesn’t seem to be particularly over publicised so please check out www.oxfam.org to find a number of other events set to take place across the country.

What else have we had recently, well Dave and I went to Buck 65 which I think he should do the review for but needless to say neither of us were disappointed. Other recent musical listens/purchases have come in the form of Ministry, which is really great album but just slightly hindered by the fact they have got to a point of just churning out the same ole thing. The new un-cheery album by Malcolm Middleton is fantastic, and I’ve lost count how many times I’ve played it. Bizarrely I’ve only just got into Seasick Steve recently, who’s raw honest and lo-fi blues have given me faith that there are other true blues players out there waiting to be discovered… although once upon a time Ben did point out one mans blues is another mans hip-hop and such like.

Right then, the ticket man is coming to check tickets so on that note I shall sign off for this blog I think.

Laters
Mr Teeth

Jim Bob gigs coming up...

A big thank you to everyone who came to see my performance at Flux=Rad just over a week ago. In particular thanks to Sangiunearts affiliates Matthew Douglas (aka Matty Windup from early Samneric recordings) and Keith Sandys (aka Mr Teeth, with whom I collaborated on a tape/distance project, also of White Cliff Sands and Spiral Architects, who played a gig at the Havana in Portsmouth - Keith: how 'bout an update on how that went?).

I played a few songs from my previous recordings:
1. acapela and maracas version of Bowie's 'Oh You Pretty Things'
- Keith: I still forgot to give you the maracas back! mistaken taken last July when recording towards White Cliff Sands III, which will come out eventually...
2. tape/guitar/voice improvisation using samples from Windows and 'Panic in Needle Park (an early Pacino film).
3. spoken word version of Utopias from the aforementioned tape/distance project 'Fabricated Memories and Future Notes', accompanied with tape noise and samples (including Brian Eno).
4. a version of Hand to Mouth (Duncan's Organ) [from my album Bontempi 9 recorded for Duncan], without the organ, just guitar vocals and harmonica. I had to play the harmonica, drop it and then continue playing the guitar still in time - I managed to thump the mic and give a massive feedback howl! Unfortunately I also messed up the third verse which goes:
This is it, Duncan's Organ:
It's better than a TV,
but he's got one of those too,
but he doesn't use it
5. Finished with Find Your way Home - a straight guitar and vocals song which I've been playing around with for several years.

The feeback from various quarters was good, and I was invited to come back by my good friends in Flux=Rad; but I'd like to have been less nervous and made less mistakes. It was certainly very different for the beautiful but straight and traditional fare offered after me; which might be why some of the audience were not so into the tape stuff. But that's what I do, so perhaps there are other nights or other forums for my stuff. I definitely plan to do more gigs in time, and have practised more...

If you were there please send us your photos!

Duncan and I went to a night called Coronary Crumpage at the infamous Montague Arms in New Cross. Simon Bookish was playing along with bass, drums, farfisa and tenor, soprano and alto saxophonists (instead of just laptop): amazing! also amazing were the first band Micachu and the Shapes: drums, keyboard and a singer who was playing an amplified toy guitar. They had a flavour of post-punk, the singer reminded me of Justine Frischmann. I missed the main band, I think Duncan stayed on. I got a CD which is good, but as ever is not as good as they were live. I think we might go again next month (Thurs 1 May).

Lou Reed plays his full Berlin album with a full orchestra, choir and film backdrop at the Albert Hall 30 June

A Place to Bury Strangers tour the UK in May, including:
Barfly Weds 7th
Industry Thurs 8th
Koko (Club NME) Fri 9th
ATP Camber Sands Sun 11th
Legion Mon 12th
Madame Jo Jos Tues 13th
Brighton Great Escape Festival Friday 16th
...and others further afield.
www.aplacetoburystrangers.com

Whitechapel nights coming up:
Duke of Uke Fri 11 April - Acoustic sounds
The Delinquents Thurs 17 April -  spoken word
The Wire: Below the Radar Fri 18 April - featuring Jason Pierce from Spiritualized
www.whitechapel.org

Tindersticks play Royal Festival Hall on Sat 3 May www.southbankcentre.co.uk

Blood on Paper: The Art of the Book opens this weekend at the V&A. Artists featured include Louse Bourgeois, Damien Hirst and Robert Rauschenberg amongst many other notables. http://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/future_exhibs/blood_on_paper/index.html

Last chance to see Jarman at Serpentine and Rodchenko at Hayward this weekend.
www.serpentinegallery.org | http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/minisites/rodchenko/ 

Lucy Skaer 'The Siege' at Chisenhale Gallery until 4 May www.chisenhale.org.uk

Things that go Bump in the Night is a group show at the Cafe Gallery in Southwark Park, featuring The Centre of Attention.  until 4 May www.cafegalleryprojects.org

Michael Barney's Cremaster Cycle is on at the Barbican 18 May www.barbican.org.uk

Inka Essenhigh's mysterious paintings are Victoria Miro until 2 May www.victoria-miro.com

There is one name which is defining this spring and its Derek Jarman. See his films all across London including The Gate Cinema in Notting Hill and Picturehouse cinemas; go to the exhibition at the Serpentine curated by film artist Isaac Julien (until 13 April); see the films in the Lightbox space at Tate Britain (5 April to 1 June). http://www.serpentinegallery.org/2007/04/derek_jarman_curated_by_isaac.html

Coming of Age: American Art 1850s to 1950s is on now at the Dulwich Picture Gallery until 8 June.
http://www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk

The Courtauld Institute's 8th East Wing Collection is on now, displayed throughout the academic areas, featuring Mark Wallinger, Antony Gormley, and lots of no doubt more interesting new artists.
www.eastwing8.co.uk

Contemporary painter Natasha Kissell's show The Hours is on at Eleven Fine Art from 26 March to 26 April. http://www.elevenfineart.com

Go to Tate Britain and see the Neoclassical Sculpture; or rather, don't look that close but just absorb the atmosphere of the darkened Duveen galleries; and see the greta Peter Doig exhibition.
www.tate.org.uk/britain

There is an exciting season of films on at Tate Modern as part of two concurrent themes: Paradise Now! Essential French Avant-garde Cinema 1890-2008 (from Dada and Duchamp to May 68 and contemporary artists), and 1, 2, 3...Avant-garde Film, Art Between Experiment and Archive (Polish avant-gardes over the last 80 years). Other film events include Warhol's Blow up (10 April) and Cindy Sherman's Office Killer (11 May).
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/eventseducation/film/
Also on now is the latest Leve 2 Gallery show: Here We Dance.
Coming up in May at Tate Modern is an interesting-sounding photography show called Street & Studio: An Urban History of Photography, which features Diane Arbus, Beaton, Cartier-Bresson, Mapplethorpe, Tillmans and many more. 31 May Cornelia Parker will talk about her work at TM's Starr Audiorium

...when it comes to self-promotion:

I'm going to be performing as benjamin_sanguine at a night called Flux = Rad in a pub in Clapham called the Bread and Roses. Its a regular night organised by members of the band King of Spain, also performing: William Fairley Project and Jack Hayter (ex-Hefner). I'll be playing a few songs, and perhaps the odd improvised avant-garde piece. Hopefully the start of more such performances.

28 March 8pm-ish

www.myspace.com/fluxisrad
www.myspace.com/kingofspainmusic
www.breadandrosespub.com

Ok, there will be other reviews coming at some point honest, but for now just some self promotion again!

SPIRAL ARCHITECTS - FAWCETT INN open mic

I’m just listening to the latest performance to have gone up on www.somefoolwitha.com/fawcett from the 6th Feb and we sounded at the time and on reflection somehow heavier compared to normal. Not that it’s a bad thing for the recording is probably my favourite from lately, and I’m liking the big crash begining.

As we’ve performed every Wednesday since the begining of the year in our ever spiralling line up I’m getting slightly forgetful on what date what happened so I shall just pick out a couple of nights/events... and where could be more fitting a place than that of the 9th January, our first performance of 2008. We were an eight piece on this occasion, with our now “official” line up of Ross on drums, Paul on bass, Johnny on guitar/fx, Dan K vocals, myself on theremin/pedals and both our horn players being available (Nick and Mitz) being joined by Anji on female vocals... considering there had been a few weeks pass due to the festive season this one went pretty well me thinks, feel free to listen on the site it weighs in at 20mins.

The following week we started proceedings with our version of Master Builder, the one “cover” that we perform, and its getting nice and tight although maybe we should be keeping it later in the set. Crowds have been varied, with some nights clashing with football keeping people away and some nights being hectic with people even dancing and putting heads into speakers in order to enjoy (if thats the right term!) our Spiral doings.
13th Feb isn’t up on the site yet but I for one am looking forward to hearing it for we were a nine piece and it was definitely good fun at least. The line up mentioned above were joined by a bongo player who’s name I forget but he is also in Cool Banana (a band whom you can also find on www.somefoolwitha.com/fawcett and whom Nick has been playing horns in for a long ole time). I know there was a lot going on with this line up, but from my positioning it strangely didn’t seem too chaotic, we even got the big noisey ending weighed off as well as the subtle and randomness of our regular Spirally sounds.

Well, as it’s only my opinions of it all please feel free to let me know your thoughts and feelings if any of you are unlucky enough to listen to the recording s or indeed make it along to the open Mic or as I have found out today our GIG on the 22nd March at Havana bar, although I don’t know the full details behind this event as yet but I’m sure I will do more self promoting nearer the time!

Apologies for the long blog, I wasn't meaning to waste as much of your reading time as I have so with that said and done I will leave you with the knowledge that last weeks performance was a bit of a messy affair, and although the proof is in the recordings, it shows we can all have an off day if we put our minds to it... although other performances were great with Pier Pressure, Rock n Roll Lorry and Owen amongst others all putting in great sets so check them out when available too.

Spiral Lolly spiralling off. Best Regards, mr.teeth

Ok, I know last post I said various things would be coming up but I felt compelled to ensure I got over my excitement of the Black Francis gig by writing this review first… so here it is:

Black Francis (aka Frank Black) – Wedgewood Rooms 14th Feb

Well, what can I say… it was a weird set but was a great night. I feel it necessary to hold the real gem of the evening until the end of the review, so please read on.

With a selected bunch of friends and work colleagues it was off to a near sold out Wedge to see the Pixies front man/rhythm guitarist on tour in his current three piece band. I’m sure the crowd would have been overflowing onto the streets had it not been for the day of affection that was upon us, and so those entertaining loved ones in other means missed a great show with openers Bobbie Peru kicking off the festivities. Bobbie Peru were also a three piece, providing old school rock n roll influenced garage punk rock with shouts and solos worthy of a headline act themselves… check them out.

Frank Black took the stage, wearing his shades and talking about the first half of the show being jazz with the second half being the opera (?) playing his solo material for the first half from memory pulling heavily from “Svn Fngrs” along with the beautiful folk song with the line “put the needle in my arm, and I’ll be dead and gone” - a song originally covered by the Pixies for their acoustic show at the Newport Folk Festival.

There were far too many dicks in the crowd talking incredibly loudly about when they saw him however many years ago, and how fat he was and such like, you know as if we were expected to give a damn! …these were probably the same people expecting the second part of the gig (ie the “opera”!) to involve a number of Pixies classics, which it didn’t, what we were however treated to was a stunning performance of the whole of Black Francis’ new album Bluefinger - which to be fair unlike some of his other solo albums does in itself sound very much like the Pixies, and it is a fantastic album to fall instantly in love with (it was Valentines day after all).

So with that all done and dusted there was no encore, the lights went up and we went home… encores are so contrived these days and as such I get more excited when there isn’t one. What Frank Black has been doing though is a series of pre-cores, low key acoustic street performances at pre-arranged locations a few hours ahead of doors opening. So with little hunting around on the internet to find the venue a couple of us were luckily enough to make it outside the One Eyed Dog pub for 5pm. This was just in time to see him don his guitar and play a set containing three or four from his solo career along with Pixies tracks Holiday, Cactus and ending on Nimrods Son. Apparently 1,000 people turned up at the Dublin pre-core gig which is cool but it was amazing to witness this so close up and personal (around 30 people were watching on, blocking the pavement to various passers bys disgust!) and to then go into the pub for a beer and hang out with the man who we’d see on stage a couple hours later was just a perfect way to end a hard day working in the office.

http://bobbieperu.tripod.com

www.blackfrancis.net

www.wedgewood-rooms.co.uk

I drfited through the Peter Doig show at Tate Britain today - I liked it very much and will go back. Also Tate Modern has a Duchamp Man Ray Picabia show opening on Thursday so that's probably worth seeing www.tate.org.uk

Forward diary date: open studios on Telegraph Hill SE14/SE4 visit www.thehill.org.uk/festival/Open%20Studios%20Flyer%202.pdf for more info.

New Litro out now, featuring 'Venice ... City of Secrets' by Trevor Ray and 'Part of the Process' by Karina Mellinger www.litro.co.uk

Make sure you get the Jim Bob album 'A Humpty Dumpty Thing', as it's marvellous: all the great storytelling we've come to love him for, but also some great tunes. I personally found it hard not to break into a run when listening to 'Battling the Bottle..', which sounds a lot better without the YouTube video which was circulated a while back. The CD comes in a hardback cover with a short story inside about a dystopian near future where the arts have been nationalised into a kind of compulsory jury service. www.jim-bob.co.uk

Shame I didn't get round to telling you all about the King of Spain gig at the George Tavern (Save the George Tavern!) yesterday. Thursday is their poetry night, Saturday experimental music from SkumShot Productions and on Sunday French Electronic folk from Double U.
www.myspace.com/thegeorgetavern

Massive Atttack have been confirmed as this year's Meltdown curators at the Southbank Centre. They are looking a bit long in the tooth, but then aren't we all... www.southbankcentre.co.uk

More new albums this year: Portishead; Breeders; REM - could be good; Goldfrapp - out next week; Billy Bragg. 

Well, it’s been a busy ole time lately and so many things I intended reviewing/previewing so Spiral Architects update, Wooden Shjips album review, Sons and Daughters live, Bob Dylan film review are all to come… or maybe not…. but for the time being:

KORN – Brixton – 25th January.

Having missed the first support, those up next were Flyleaf and they seemed rather cool, although Brixton’s sound was unusually a little off at times. I think Flyleaf would have gone down better in a small venue but all credit to their stage presence, with no amp/monitor/drum kit too high for the bass player to jump off, and jump off he did. Vocals reminded me of Aimee Echo (Human Waste Project and the Start) which is a good thing and I will keep an eye out for them in the future.

So onto the headliners, a band who seemed to have evolved from their early debut of stripped down raw guitar/bass/drum/vocal approach to a more composed and produced outfit with an array of samples, keyboards, effects etc which is all cool stuff but it’s actually been the MTV unplugged that I’ve found most hard to put down these days… tonight however was definitely electric.

With the band going from a five piece to a four piece a few years back and then for the last album no longer having their own drummer, it was (or rather wasn’t) a bit of a joke when we heard guitarist Munky had left the tour leaving Korn as officially bass and vocals, so it was a big surprise to see the stage filled with an 8 piece band who to be fair were damn good.

Pulling from albums across the years, I was pleased and rather excited to hear old tracks such as Fagot, Shoots and Ladders (complete with bagpipes) and ADIDAS stand out as classics alongside latter day songs such as I’m Coming Undone and also stuff off the more melodic latest album all sounding awesome too. The additional musicians/backing singers etc in the end gave it all a bigger depth and unlike my concerns prior to going it didn’t seem to matter one bit that it was less than half of the line up that I myself know Korn to be.

www.flyleafmusic.com
www.korn.com

30 Seconds to Mars – Southampton Guildhall – 4th February

My mate had asked if I wanted to go some time back and I said yes although not having a clue who they were. We got tickets, he leant me the albums and I thought mmm…. It will probably be alright live…. Oh how wrong I could be.

Firstly, just to confirm I did have a cool night, support I thought were really good although I don’t like the name (Lost Alone) and I did buy their CD which unfortunately I’ve only listened to the once. They were a three piece with loads of energy and charisma, kind of Therapy? like riffs with more shouty / screamy vocals and I liked them. The CD is ok, probably wouldn’t have bought it if I saw them on MTV, but live they were out to impress and even if no-one else cared they won me over for sure and it’s always good to discover a new band.

Then after much waiting around, being surrounded by an apparently sold out (didn’t look it) crowd of more diversity than I expected… we weren’t the oldest people there, although some of the older folk may have been parental units for the youngsters… a great intro with cool lighting and shadowed images, the curtain dropped and it was time for Jared Leto’s ego to take the stage.

For those of you who don’t know, 30 Seconds from Mars is Hollywood actor Jared Leto’s band he formed with his brother (who was a damn good drummer and apart from the intro was the definite highlight for me). Jared Leto is an actor who all the girls fancy, which is fair enough, but on that basis it appears he can go on a sell out tour, with talent being secondary to looks you may as well go see a Robbie Williams tribute act.

They did go down well though, just not with me personally. Bands like to have sing-a-longs and hand claps, but is it really necessary to have crowd participation in EVERY song and sometimes more than once? …and the shouts of “go mental for me Southampton”, is all well and good if only you had a song heavy enough to go mental to. I love all types of music, but it’s just when a band acts like they’re something they’re not that it’s difficult to appreciate where you’re supposed to “go mental”… or maybe I’m just old… either way, it wasn’t long until they were gone and it was time to fall asleep on the journey home.

www.lostalone.com
www.thirtysecondstomars.com

The latest evening of short films curated by (a dog barks) on 21 Feb at the every popular and stylish Roxy bar and screen in Borough. www.adogbarks.co.uk | www.roxybarandscreen.com

I've been having flashbacks from reading Simon Reynold's Energy Flash: A Journey Through Rave Music and Dance Culture. Not that I ever went to any raves - far too young for that... and growing up in a nice town on the south coast I wasn't exposed to all that was going on in the major cities; or more accurately in the fields around them. My first introduction to electronic music (apart from the radio) was 2 x 7"s amongst a bunch that were given to us by a girl in her teens. She lived somewhere around Portsmouth and my parents were buying some fitted bedroom furniture for my sister off her parents. I remember they had poodles everywhere. Most of the singles are consigned to history (or the bin), but two remain in my possession: the reissued 'The Model' by Kraftwerk, and Art of Noise's 'Closer to the Edit', which I knew from a Tony Hart TV show.

But reading about tracks like Pump up the Volume, Inner Cuty's Big Fun, S Express, KLF, Altern8, Prodigy, SL2, Bomb the Bass, Mantronix etc, takes me back to being not quite a teenager but finding an amazing new life in music through a cassette walkman. I got a few of the Deep Heat compiltions. I loved the the complete artwork of the images, the writings, the merchandise; not realising the real deal was 12"s with white labels in handwritten slip covers: gold dust for cate diggers. Friends had tape copies of more serious compilations like Hit the Decks. So I missed rave, but as a student I went to a few superclubs like Fabric, Brixton Mass etc, and caught the tail end of the Drum'n'bass boom, going to nights like Movement at Bar Rumba.

I'm also getting flashbacks from listening to Kaffe Matthews' CD Ann, CD Bea, and CD Cécile. You can get these three albums for a budget price now (www.annetteworks.com). They are her live improvised electronic sound works from the late 90s. I recall seeing her play about a decade ago at the Spitz, on a night I think was called Electronicage, and might have been organised by Peter Cusack (unless I'm mixing it up with something else). We were there with some art school bods, we'd seen Richard D James there one time, but this week some old dear with a bicycle wheel had been boring us to tears, or was it that dire nonsense from Alchemia? Duncan won her CD in the raffle - dear oh dear. Anyway, Kaffe come on sampling the applause from the crowd (something Matty Windup tried to replicate when Sameric played at the Klinker in Dalston a few years ago). From then on we were captivated. And I can't believe its taken me 10 years to buy the albums, as they are marvellously beautiful pieces. I hope to stump up a bit more and by the more recent works soon. Kaffe has also created works for the Serpentine Pavillion - the only bit the Wire seemed to rate - and has been touring the world of late, like a real rock star.

Just opened in the Hayward Gallery there is a show of the Russian avant-garde photographer Alexander Rodchenko (to 27 April). Slightly dubious though, about the Laughing in a Foreign Language show also on there, based around humour (to 13 April). www.southbankcentre.co.uk

The Estorick Collection in Islington is celebrating 10 years of displaying Italian Modernist Art with an exhibition of their collection: A Decade of Discovery, on until 6 April and featuring Modigliani, Boccioni, Morandi, Russolo and more. www.estorickcollection.com

bing bang bong is an exhibition of 4 Irish Artists, whose work they describe as 'playful' and 'obsessive'. That'll be the autistic kid in the back then... but if you're up the Brick Lane end of things take a look before the 13th of Feb. www.oisinbyrne.com  www.teamyes.wordpress.com

We're excited about the current exhibition at the Milton Keynes Gallery of Belgian artist Marcel Broodthaers, even if we won't get around to seeing it. It's on until the end of March so you never know. Please note, they're closed for Easter.
www.mk-g.org

The Korean Cultural Institute has a show of Fluxus/new media artist Nam June Paik and his contemporaries, until 7 March 

...same as it ever was is a show of painting from Chelsea College, at the Arts Gallery, (University of..) Davies St W1; until 22 Feb www.arts.ac.uk

The Deutsche Borse Photography Prize is on show now at the Photographer's Gallery until 6 April www.photonet.org.uk

Alfredo Jaar: Politics of the Image is at the South London Gallery until 6 April www.southlondongallery.org

Willie Doherty short films at Matt's Gallery until 16 March www.mattsgallery.org

A film by Cornelia Parker is part of the latest Whitechapel Laboratory, featuring Noam Chomsky, until 30 March www.whitechapel.org

From next Thursday the ICA has a show called Double Agent - artists who use others as a medium (nothing to do with espionage). Features: Phil Collins and Pawel Althamer amongst others. until 6 April.
ICA films: 'Casablanca', 'La Belle et la Bete' (dir. Jean Cocteau), a preview of Harmony Korine's latest 'Mister Lonely'; Daft Punk's 'Electroma'
ICa music: Sebastien Tellier (aka Mr Oizo) 21 Feb, To Rococco Rot 20 Feb, St David's Day Welsh music celebration with Gruff Rhys and many more 1 March.
www.ica.org.uk

Jim Bob (from Carter) has a new album about called 'A Humpty Dumpty Thing', which the press seem pretty pleased with. I'll tell you what I think when mine arrives. NB: its slightly cheaper to buy it from Cherry Red Records (www.cherryred.co.uk) than direct from www.carterusm.co.uk. Also at Cherry Red you'll find Einsturzende Neubaten, Cabaret Voltaire, Prolapse and curious tributes to all kinds of artists such as Nine Inch Nails, New Order, Tool and Radiohead.

We'd like to give a shout out to King of Spain, a good new band. gigwise.com described them as a 'British Decemberists' with 'a wierd mix of indie rock and sea shanties'
www.myspace.com/kingofspainmusic

Friday 22 Feb beatboxer Shlomo and DJ Yoda bring together everything from pop ans rap to nursery rhymes and TV themes, Queen Elizabeth Hall £15
Eels play the following Monday at the Royal Festival Hall, from £22.50
www.southbankcentre.co.uk

Goldsmiths Electronic Music Studios Concert Series III, 8 Feb
10 year anniversary of the death of Russian composer Alfred Schnittke, recital and talk (13 March)
also talks: 'New Labour and the Music Industries: From Britpop to Brown' (19 Feb); 'From Rock against Racism to Live8: Musicians, Music and Mobilisation' (4 March) www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/events

Diamanda Galas at Queen Elizabeth Hall 18 & 20 March, Van Der Graaf Generator 3 April; Get your tickets for Ether at the Southbank Centre in April: Goldfrapp 18 April, Current 93, OM, Baby Dee and Marc Almond 21 April, Pere Ubu 25 April

WHY? aka Yoni Wolf from the hip hop Anticon collective cLOUDEAD has released a new album called Alopecia on Tomlab records www.myspace.com/whyanticon 
Check out his cover of The Cure's Close to Me:
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/page/forkcast/48045-why-close-to-me-cure-cover-mp3stream

For any of you cyclists out there, check out the madness of bad cycle paths (now the subject of a book: www.warringtoncyclecampaign.co.uk click on facility of the month.

Contemporary designer Spinifex has a new website and new products to show you: www.spinifex.co.uk

This Sunday  (27 Jan) is Hunga Munga's Art Bazaar at the Melange Social Club, 281  Kingsland Road. Its free entry and many local artists and makers will be selling their wares, from fashion and jewellery to toys, books and art. www.hungamunga.co.uk

I popped into the Union Gallery  - one of my favourites - and caught the Richard Learoyd photos. Like giant colour pinhole images, his aesthetic was mainly wan young girls and flowers but undeniably beautiful with an incredible depth of field: like you feel the texture of blossoms or a moistened lip. www.union-gallery.com

Steven Claydon's intriguing exhibition 'Strange Elements Permit Themselves the Luxury of Happening' is on now at the Camden Arts Centre (www.camdenartscentre.org). The title is taken from a Charlie Chan mystery, which no doubt creates a level of story and interplay, but think more of a provincial museum stuffed with minor relics, along with works by Paolozzi, Wyndham-Lewis, Sutherland etc. With themes of museology, the mystical and musty prevail.

New albums due this year from: Hot Chip, Gnarls Barkley (despite their label threatening to get bought out by the soulless moguls at EMI), Morrissey (Greatest Hits with new single then studio album in the late summer/autumn), Kaiser Chiefs, The B52s (!), Metallica (what can we expect from these dinosaurs when even the nu-metal crowd are sounding decidely long in the tooth?), Primal Scream...

Coming soon to our screens, Anna Friel in a US 'Twin Peaks-esque' black comedy called Pushing Daisies. She plays the partner to a pie-maker who can bring people back from the dead.

If you're bored of the drivel regurgitated in the London free papers look our for Litro - an independent literary publication which is available in good bookshops, newsagents and on the street. www.litro.co.uk  

And finally... we love all things art and we're pretty fond of getting on our bikes and riding. So imagine how pleased I was to learn of Frank Patterson, a cycling illustrator from the first half of the 20th Century. He was probably the princical illustrator of his day for anything involving a bike. He was born in Portsmouth (yay!) in 1871 to an Naval family and attendedPortsmouth Art College from age 14 . When at 19 he realised his creative fortunes lay in the capital he walked all the way! With little money life was hard and he lodged in poorer districts of Brixton and Islington. (NB: Van Gogh briefly lived in Brixton). After a brief and unhappy stint in the army  he returned and developed through design studios into his own practise, regularly working for the popular Cycling magazine. Very inspiring. For more info and prints visit www.thefrankpattersonsociety.co.uk

Check out the music of this guy who used to live upstairs: www.myspace.com/tarabrowne

Secret Masterpieces of Cinema at Tate Modern from over this weekend Friday to Monday, featuring short works by Luis Bunuel, Maya Deren, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Len Lye, Charles and Ray Eames, Kenneth Anger, Eduardo Paolozzi, Fernard Leger,  Martha Rosler, Germaine Dulac, Hans Richter, Jake & Dinos Chapman, Nam June Paik, Pippilotti Rist and more! The series is then on at the ICA then tours the country - do not miss it! Tickets just £5
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/eventseducation/film/icoessentialsthesecretmasterpiecesofcinema.htm
www.icoessentials.org.uk
www.independentcinemaoffice.org.uk/essentials.htm

No More Heroes
Music and Identity are intrinsicly linked - so goes the strapline of this talk about pop culture and image at the London College of Communication in Elephant and Castle on Thursday night 6.30-8.30 £5, includes beer.

I got an mp3 album of one of my favourite music/art groups: Dreams of Tall Buildings at Ditto Music. I've also been in contact with them via MySpace to get a few other items, and perhaps work on some projects for the future, so who knows.

Check out this exhibtion currently on in New York Public Library:
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2007/12/04/line-up-bush-administration-mug-shots/
It's by artists Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese, and the full online exhibition 'Multiple Interpretations' can be seen here:
http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/spe/art/print/exhibits/multiple/index.html
There are lots of articles about it on the web with Yanks slagging each other off - very funny, good timing what with that dreary election going on... so well done I say to these artists for raising the tempo a bit, even if the work is a bit glib.

Closer to home, Check out the website of an artist friend of ours, Robert Birch: www.robbirch.com
and also Pascale Marthine Tayou who is currently on display at Milton Keynes until this coming weekend: amazing website:
http://www.pascalemarthinetayou.com/pmtEN.php

Some new exhibitions: 
Space to Draw at the Jerwood Space 17 Jan - 10 Feb, PV on the 16th, drawings by sculptors such as the people's favourite Antony Gormley.
Jennifer Evans new sculpture at Ritter/Zamet 10 Jan - 2 Feb, PV on the 10th; Evans is a recent RCA Masters graduate using some traditional materials along with found objects in her installations.A couple of good tracks I heard on the radio:
Santogold - Creator: sounded a bit like M.I.A but a bit different...
Does it offend you, yeah? - Rockstars: great name, indescribable but amazing
so download those when you can.
Also think the Wombats are okay, and liked new material form Maximo Park (not a million miles away from Wombats really), and quite liked a track from Gallows, although I can't remember what it was called. They were secribed as punk, but I'd say they sounded more hardcore/death metal. Anyway, nice to hear that on mainstream radio - otherwise (with the exception of people like Lily Allen and Mike Skinner, and the dubstep/grime crews, and the alternative noise weird folk crowd [but they're rarely on the radio]) current popular music is like being back about 10 years ago: there's techno/house tracks, garagey tunes, jangley indie bands who sound like they're working on the next High School Musical teen movie - it's so sickening, where's the innovation? Hopefully underground and not in the hands of the pop music machine.

OK, since my last post I am pleased to announce that Spiral Architects are in full effect performing regularly at the Fawcett open mic nights playing sets around 15min/20min long and as such I thought I’d give you a quick breakdown and if you so wish check out www.somefoolwitha.com/fawcett to hear the sounds Spiral in and out of control for your listening mis-pleasure.

The first performance with me in the frame on theremin and pedals I have documented in the pages below, the second however again on the website, was on the 28st November and continued in the randomness we have since become accustomed too. For this night we became an eight piece, with Ross (drums) Paul (bass) Johnny (guitar) myself (theremin) Dan (vocals) and Nick (sax) being joined by Steve (guitar) and Mitz (sax).

It seemed very hectic on stage and at times not really knowing what direction it was going in or indeed being able to hear things properly it was very hit and miss, although having said that when it came to listening to the recording… feel free to make up your own mind… but it sounds not too bad for the first ten minutes or so which was a nice surprise! It was a great night though and it still seemed to go down pretty well amongst the locals.

The following week however, on the 5th December, is also up on the sight and probably the best yet. It still maintains the jam elements to the performance but the benefit of having the pubs sound guy in the band is definitely helping! So much so that the first SA link you will see for this date came about from a sound check for Ross, Paul and Johnny being randomly joined by a top mc in the form of Freedom (check it out). Further down the list for this date you will find the official performance, and I for one could definitely hear myself properly this time and the 15 minutes or so took us through various changes and sounds far more together… it works pretty well, and I think the Spiral Architects have arrived…

Then the next week on the 12th December horror as illness struck Ross (the man who goes boom) along with sax player Mitz were not able to attend. However Spiral on we must and Spiral on we did taking the audience on a musical journey. In the absence of a drummer we made it as trippy and ambient as possible with Paul on bass, Johnny on guitar, myself on theremin/pedals and Nick on sax. The second half of the performance we were joined by a random drummer who keeping the beats slightly faster made it a more a noisy affair than that of the first half….again www.somefoolwitha.com/fawcett .

…and that leads on to tonight, 19th December. Our lettuce munching hippy Ross, still unwell, had to again pass on the festivities and we look forward to him being back in the saddle for the new year. Mitz having been stuck in Gosport arrived at the pub too late to join us, so Nick was on hand for the horn section. Again the lack of drums meant it was all very ambient and psychedelic, but this time I had a monitor set up (cheers Johnny), plus a little dictaphone action at the beginning, so although the recording isn’t up on the net yet I’m pretty sure it sounded cool, I enjoyed tonight’s set so it was a shame the pub wasn’t that busy. Like the week before we had a random drummer step up for the second half of the set, with beats more in line with the vibe than the previous weeks effort. I look forward to hearing this one for sure, and look forward also to having what is becoming the “official” line up ready to perform again in January and I am going to try and get more people to come check us out…. In the meantime have a Spirally Xmas and an Architectual New Year.

Keef/Teef/Lolly

Its been a little while since I've been able to update the journal, but I am pleased to announce the latest collaborative work between my wife and I and a new addition to the Sanguinearts clan in the shape of baby Isaac: 8lbs 15oz, born 02:43 15 December 2007, currently sleeping on my lap.