JUNKYARD SHOW

So here we are… the day after the night before. I’m pleased to say that last night saw the return of Spiral Architects, playing at the Fawcett Inn as part of another successful Junkyard Show.

Having only had the one band camp in the lead up to our first Spiral performance in a while (the last being a Junkyard show at the Barn) it has to be said that the gig went seemingly well. We played our set around 5.30pm, ommitting "108" and "the new one" and had some top comments which is nice… and I even had a table. So yeah a set which took the crowd on a journey through pyschadelic tendancies, the way we know and love...

Rolling back a couple of hours before us were the acoustic duo of Bemis followed by some rather impressive tribal drumming courtesy of DrumNation. Later in the evening were the live instrumentation and hip hop flavours of Jack Presto ( www.myspace.com/jackpresto ) , and a bit later our hosts Cool Banana ( www.coolbanana.com ). The afternoon/evening also provided some top Dubstep tunes from DJs Wobble and Squeak (which includes our very own Spiral Mitz) and other DJ’s providing Trance and such like… Plus hats off to Spiral Nick for also managing to pop round the corner to play in his third band of the day, Self Inflicted.

There’s also talk of a Spiral gig the end of June, which unfortunately I personally won’t be able to play as I will be seeing Neil Young at London’s Hard Rock Calling… can’t believe I may miss my own gig but there you go… Also, elsewhere on these pages you will see Spiral Architects are playing a mile out to sea on Spitbank Fort! Check out details here: www.thecoalitionfestival.com and tickets now on sale.

HAUSCHKA and SPACESHIPP

Last week I took a trip up to London to see Jason Spaceman from Spiritualized perform with Matthew Shipp, in what was an hour and 15 minutes of one continual drone piece. I think London’s Southbank is probably one of a limited amount of venues where they could get away with this… basically the sound was immense, with Spaceman hammering away at pretty much the same chord whilst Shipp played Celeste/Organ.

Initially I thought the sound man somehow managed to get the balance of the two on stage wrong, but soon enough I realised Shipp was basically playing the same keys and the barrage of noise was indeed coming from both organ and guitar. There was a definite element of art for arts sake, and people were walking out… part of me can’t blame them, it was pretty unbearable after a while! With minimal change in notes and played at quite a volume - you did find yourself getting lost in the sound at times drifting in and out of enjoyment, amazement, appreciation, dislike and despair… Then after about an hour it changed for a bit before the pair stood up, bowed, and walked off stage. It was all well and good if you like that kind of thing but after a while it was a bit “ok lads, a jokes a joke, we get the idea…”

This though, was preceded by German pianist/composer Hauschka, which in a complete contrast to what followed was absolutely beautiful. I can’t explain enough how I loved it. Playing semi-classical pieces with his grand prepared piano, consisting of random objects under the strings – wood, metal, bells and such like.

He was also happy to chat, explaining how one piece was written about water because there was a particular swimming pool he enjoyed as a child another was written specifically for the gig as he enjoyed London so much. At one point he’d written himself out of a composition so he could sit back and watch the string quartet that had been accompanying him throughout.

Hauschka’s set then ended on a piece where he gradually removed the objects from his piano, before pouring a handful of ping pong balls inside to bounce around… it was the great and perfect balance of amazing beautifully crafted music with the slightly experimental… Oh and did I mention I loved it?

Well that’s all folks, two blog entries for the price of one.

www.myspace.com/jackpresto
www.junkyardshow.com
www.coolbanana.com
www.hauschka-net.de
www.myspace.com/hauschka
www.spiritualized.com