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Minus The Irony

I've just had a quick look through one of the latest editions of Slice, the German DVD magazine that those kind people over at Juno send you for free whenever you buy some records at their online store. I'm not sure if it's the most recent one, but it features Serge from Clone, Legowelt - whose demeanour redefines geek chic - and French DJ Chloe, for whom the word 'wispy' was invented. Of course, what piqued my attention the most was the Mathew Jonson feature, not for his own nuggets of wisdom, which include vaguely ridiculous statements like 'making music is like meditating or keeping a journal'(!), but for the Minus label photo shoot that Jonson participates in at Richie Hawtin's suitably minimalist apartment in Berlin.

It reminds me of an anecdote that a photographer I once worked with recounted about touring with The Happy Mondays when they were at the height of their popularity in the late 80s/early 90s.

He said the worst thing about the week-long experience was not the Mondays' own behaviour -  although his tale of being told in very plain English by a JD-sodden, cocaine-fuelled Shaun Ryder that if he did not put down his camera and participate in antics that would make Hieronymous Bosch blush, he would get 'whacked', or worse still, 'bummed' by Ryder himself, would be enough to make a lesser man tremble -  but the hangers on that followed the band everywhere like blood-hungry vampires.While everyone who featured in the Slices segment is involved in some shape or form with the Minus /Hawtin empire, the body language made it clear that the Canadian is surrounded by yes men who hang on his every word.I've met and interviewed Hawtin a number of different times and he has always been intelligent, passionate and erudite, but some of the adoring looks and the jaw sucking and posturing that took place in his loft bordered on the kind of satire of that the Ubercoolische website does so brilliantly.

Maybe the whole escapade was intended as an in-joke, some much needed ribbing of a scene that takes itself way too seriously and is devoid of irony. Otherwise, Hawtin should consider moving to an isolated wood shack in the Canadian tundra to get some perspective.

That's what a real minimalist would do...

Rumour Has It?

OK, so it’s time for some gossip: there have been rumours circulating for the past week or so that John Tejada, probably one of my favourite techno producers ever, is about to give up making music to become a chairman of the BMW group. Apart from the fact that it would be impossible for a thirty something electronic music artist to suddenly jump ship and join the be-suited, highest echelons of one of the world’s biggest car making conglomerates - it also makes you question the sanity of those who actually believed this rumour, initiated by a very dubious sounding press release that accompanies Tejada’s new release on Palette - there’s also the small fact that Tejada is about to drop a new alternative rock/jazz album as I’m Not A Gun, ‘We Think As Instruments’, a release that slips and slides, ebbs and flows through a freeform universe inhabited by the ghosts of Can and John Coltrane, and, a load of new rigid, twitchy EPs for Poker Flat and his own label. Unless he’s been hiding a yearning for the corporate world all these years - Tejada incidentally, also earns a crust as producer of music for TV ads - this is one of those bizarre but briefly entertaining little nuggets of gossip that originate online. Unfortunately, one rumour that is true concerns the very brilliant Dutch electro/Italo producer Alden Tyrell: it looks like he is considering giving up live gigs for the foreseeable future. In many ways, it’s understandable: I spoke to him yesterday and he seems disillusioned with playing in clubs, or, as he calls it, ‘the hard, fast life’. He’s also not the most prolific producer around, with just six original EPs in seven years, and he’s going to put performing on hold to focus on studio work, which may include collaborations with Dexter. Anyway, if he can make more records like 'Rendez Vous At Rimini', it’ll be time well spent…

K house strikes again...

The gurning continues more like...

Road To Nowhere

I’ve nothing against Bristol house label NRK – on the contrary, they’ve occasionally put out some excellent records over the years by Sirus and Nick Holder -  but their current run of mix CDs is
fast becoming a licence for once great DJs to lose the plot and make fools of themselves. Joe Clausell’s awful ‘Translate’ featured sections where there was nothing but silence, even more embarrasingly pretentious because Clausell referred to them as ‘questions’. Now Rolando, an ex Underground Resistance foot soldier no less, a supposed doyen of all that is specialist and pure in electronic music, has put out a mix that consists primarily of rolling, cheesy house. It’s like discovering that Villalobos slaps mascara all over his face  - actually, that part isn’t too far from the truth – and jumps around vogueing to synth pop in his spare time.
Maybe Rolando is unaware of the fact that the stuff he’s playing, and, it must be said, mixing to his usual level of perfection, is out of date and is genuinely trying to showcase his ‘lighter’ side. Even if this were the case though, it’s hard to imagine how he convinced himself that some of his picks were on a par with his own ‘In Transit’, which he ends the first disc with and he also lazily used that ubiquitous Carl Craig remix of Theo Parrish. At least he included Quinn’s ‘No More Drama’ and Derrck May’s remix of 'Sueno Latino' on the ‘home listening’ CD to compensate for what is hopefully only a temporary bout of insanity…

Flash In The Can

Props to new label Citinite, their second release is a compilation of the best bits from US producer John Davis’s 80s catalogue. I must confess ignorance at this stage, his work had never made it across the Brophy radar, but what with Newcleus ‘Destination Earth’ re-released by two different labels, ex-NWAer Professor X putting out new music and now this little gem, it seems like there’s a lot of ‘old school’ electro types resurfacing. Call it a reaction against electro house or just someone being shrewd and checking their older brother’s 80s collection, but it certainly makes for some fascinating listening.  Davis’s forte is the slap bass and the vocodered vocal, and while some of it goes down a brooding synth route that UR and Model 500 also ventured into – if you were convinced Atkins electro productions were mainly influenced by Kraftwerk, think again – there’s also some bona fide pop moments and, best of all, the warm, tripped out 'Dream Six-O' , which a certain Dutch producer called I-F seems to have been inspired by as well as the obvious Italo sources. Apart from making great music, John Davis also looks like one of Chic on crack. Don’t tell me it’s all about the music all of the time!

Tunnel Vision...

It's Not Good To Talk Talk

Don't ever deal with a firm called Talk Talk or their parent company, The Carphone Warehouse...Talk Talk keep ringing me day and night, trying to sell me services and products that I don't want, while Carphone Warehouse deducted money from my bank account last year for an insurance direct debit on  a mobile phone that I had cancelled a year prior to that.
That The Carphone Warehouse had the nerve to hang onto my details, including my bank account, for a whole year is surely a breach of privacy laws, something I keep meaning to take up with the data protection agency when I get a chance. They were also slow to refund me the money they had basically stolen for a service I had never received, and it was impossible to get through to their 'customer service' agents, despite promises that the money would be sent back to me. In the end, I had to get my bank to call them to inform them that I would be taking legal action, which worked.
Now they have the neck to call me to sell me Talk Talk products, and are blissfully unaware of how much I despise them.
Talk Talk was a great band and it's a shame that its members have somehow allowed their name to be used for such evil ends - maybe The Carphone Warehouse agreed not to direct debit their bank account for imaginary services or Talk Talk promised that their agents would never call them in exchange for the rights to the 'brand' - but one thing is certain: if there is a hell, Talk Talk and Carphone Warehouse have landed an exclusive deal there to provide telephony to Satan himself....

Out In The Cold?

Matt Black from Coldcut had some interesting things to say for himself yesterday when I interviewed him, but he never really fully explained why he made sniping comments about electronic music in a recent interview with The Guardian. After all, Coldcut pretty much pioneered the art of the remix and their new album, although largely a coffee-table affair - in a good way, as opposed to in the bad, Moby way – depends on the self-styled ‘tricknology’ of the modern digital studio for its appeal. For them to say that electronic music has lost its spark smacks too much of sinking into cosy middle-aged suburban life and losing their grip or just not being aware of great albums by The Knife, Nathan Fake and Booka Shade this year alone. Having said all that, it’s hard to fault Coldcut too much -  they’re one of the few dance acts that make smart political statements and Black’s zippie ideas, especially the ones about living off sunlight like plants and achieving a collective consciousness are nothing if not amusing… Will post the full text up in  a few days…