en http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/ Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 60 http://www.audioscrobbler.net/data/webservices http://www.last.fm/user/ChristopherLux/journal The Last.fm journal for ChristopherLux. Last.fm journals are a place to talk about all things music. http://www.last.fm/user/ChristopherLux/journal/2008/04/15/b7h2s_jos%C3%A9_gonz%C3%A1lez_@_manchester_opera_house,_8_april_2008 Tue, 15 Apr 2008 00:14:48 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/ChristopherLux/journal/2008/04/15/b7h2s_jos%C3%A9_gonz%C3%A1lez_@_manchester_opera_house,_8_april_2008 José González @ Manchester Opera House, 8 April 2008
http://www.jose-gonzalez.com/

José González’s pulsating, minimal, folk is by its nature never going to make an exhilaratingly energetic gig, but with the lights off over the plush seats of Manchester Opera House and the booming, clean sound of fingers on frets chiming out, there is an intensity to his performance. A seventeen-song set ran through most of the material from his two albums. It is true that some numbers are a bit on the brief side, betraying his love of a simple riff above all else, but a gradual build to an aching finale with Teardrop left the audience cheering and he soon returned for four more, including a rendition of Kylie’s Hand on Your Heart. The privilege of the night was to see his imperious guitar playing stumble in an intro, revealing José’s human side – the man behind the guitar.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/ChristopherLux/journal/2008/04/14/b7h2r_rabbit_frightened_by_fighting_organ Mon, 14 Apr 2008 22:46:17 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/ChristopherLux/journal/2008/04/14/b7h2r_rabbit_frightened_by_fighting_organ Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Fight
fatcatrecords
http://www.frightenedrabbit.com

The Midnight Organ Fight alternates between rocky pop-folk populated with catchy acoustic riffs and a more indie world of tight guitars and incessant rhythm. The album opens at full-throttle with ‘Modern Leper’ and ‘I Feel Better’ rushing at you raucously, the first describing disturbingly modern dysfunctions while the second covers well-charted happy-angry, I’ll-get-over-you territory. Scott Hutchison’s vocals are punchy and swerve occasionally towards a twang he shares with Snow Patrol’s Gary Lightbody (the music too is occasionally reminiscent of their fellow Scots, particularly on ‘Fast Blood’). The highlight is ‘Keep Yourself Warm’, which builds from a gentle organ to a pulsating disco beat demonstrating Frightened Rabbit’s full range and bluntly acknowledging that it ‘takes more than fucking someone to keep yourself warm’. Though the odd track becomes repetitive (dull, droning guitars are usually the culprits) the variety ensures this fourteen-track album never becomes too long.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/ChristopherLux/journal/2008/04/14/b7h2q_islands_@_night_&_day_caf%C3%A9,_20_febuary_2008 Mon, 14 Apr 2008 22:35:47 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/ChristopherLux/journal/2008/04/14/b7h2q_islands_@_night_&_day_caf%C3%A9,_20_febuary_2008 Islands @ Night & Day Café, 20 Febuary 2008
www.islandsareforever.com

Islands’ first album revealed a fresh brand of indie-pop that quivered with whimsy, floaty melodies and lyrics about apocalypse. Judging by a set consisting almost entirely of new material, their second – due for release in a few months time – will take a darker turn. A predominance of unfamiliar material meant they never really built momentum with the crowd and the highlights were undoubtedly reprises of old favourites, Where There’s A Will There’s A Whalebone skilfully replaced rap with fiddle solo and Don’t Call Me Whitney, Bobby struck a pleasingly jaunty chord amidst the denser new material. Nonetheless, the violins and bass clarinet frequently lightened the mood, leading some songs down the road of skewed Dixieland and country. If not immediately accessible, Islands’ energy and warm instrumentation enticed us to believe that the new album may reveal all.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/ChristopherLux/journal/2007/11/28/b7h2p_jens_and_tammy_jam_instead_of_the_preacher Wed, 28 Nov 2007 16:26:12 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/ChristopherLux/journal/2007/11/28/b7h2p_jens_and_tammy_jam_instead_of_the_preacher Tue 27 Nov – Jens Lekman, magic arm, Neil Burrell

I hadn't yet got my claws on a copy of Night Falls Over Kortedala so some of last night's material was new to me, but it was almost more exciting for that. Jens opened with a meandering tale of leaving home, first kisses and helping his lesbian friend Nina in Berlin, this was all tied together with familiar samples and two chords, it was almost musical stand-up, but sweet and awkward, and in the setting of a church in Salford everything was set for an outstanding night.

Like Jens said, he didn't yet really know how to use his loop pedal, but his minimal use of it made it unobtrusive and seamless, unlike Magic Arm whose skilfully built up textures sometimes seem a bit obvious, the necessity of slow build-up giving every song a familiar structure, though his musical material is often fun and always well executed. We were treated to most of 'Night Falls' as well as select gems from the back catalogue - A Sweet Summer's Night on Hammer Hill lacked it's trumpets (as did Friday Night at the Drive-In Bingo) but came off nonetheless with help from jumpy spanish guitar and Tammy Karlsen's bongo playing; Pocketful of Money was at last accompanied by a more enthusiastic audience, clicking their fingers, whistling the backing samples and rumbling the low backing vocals to recreate the original. Black Cab and You Are the Light were both treated to a pared-down treatment and were just as amazing as the originals without orchestral backing, Jens's "beautiful voice" (as he put it) can just carry it off on its own.

Neil Burrell's high, folky voice and guitar playing showed promise with some haunting melodies and catchy riffs, but suffered from words mumbled incomprehensibly and a stage presence that never quite got the early crowd going. Magic Arm is clearly much more experienced and weilds his harmonica, guitar, xylophone, synth and loop pedals to great effect. This was my second chance to see him (he seems to be playing quite a few support slots at Hey!Manchester gigs) and I enjoyed him more second time around, getting the chance to get past the obvious gimeckiness of the loop structure. His songs work best when punctuated by cut-down sections, right back to voice and guitar, emphasising his more orchestral moments very effectively.

Post gig, Jens and Tammy proved to be as endearing as their music suggests happy to while away time chatting to fans and signing copies of the new album. They were so friendly I was tempted to head over to Leeds to try and get in tonight, but decided student budgets don't stretch like you'd like them too.

Got home last night and put on 'Night Falls' and it reminded me of leaving home, just like it should.]]> http://www.last.fm/label/De+Lux/journal/2007/08/06/b7h2o_singing_on_the_coastline Mon, 6 Aug 2007 11:03:41 +0000 http://www.last.fm/label/De+Lux/journal/2007/08/06/b7h2o_singing_on_the_coastline Christopher Lux's Songs From the Coast is scraping together slowly. 6 tracks are already available here on Last.fm and he has 3 more written and waiting. His latest crackly offering is Sung from the Coast to the Ears of the Mountains a restrained love song, set on a beach - surprise, surprise. Once we have them all down in boxes and bites we'll be shipping them all around the world via the magic of the internet.
Take care.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/ChristopherLux/journal/2007/05/01/b7h2n_music_and_space_reflect Tue, 1 May 2007 18:32:50 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/ChristopherLux/journal/2007/05/01/b7h2n_music_and_space_reflect Sat 28 Apr – Music Space Reflection - Manchester

The jutting, dark, fragmented architecture of Daniel Libeskind's Imperial War Museum North has garnered critical acclaim and as he collects a portfolio of dark masterpieces from Berlin to Copenhagen to New York it seems the IWM North's slogan 'War Shapes Lives' certainly applies to him - and born in Poland in 1946 not only through his architectural work.

The main exhibition space of the museum is open-plan, divided by large columns that sheer up from the ground like icebergs. The minimalist design results in an empty feeling, avoiding any grotesque glorification of war. At the centre of the hall for example there stands a gleaming, red battlefield fire engine. Though not large, its blood-coloured body is striking, but the small label and the way it is spot lit in the dim hall is eerily understated. So it is for all the monstrous exhibits - a test A-bomb, an old fighter jet, a SCUD missile. The respect shown for the human loss that war entails is also impressive. One of the columns contains a room in which the walls are decorated as giant filing cabinets stretching up to the high ceiling. Some of the drawers pull out to reveal an individual's life.

This was the poignant setting for the world premiere of Simon Bainbridge's Music Space Reflection. Commissioned by the IWM and the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, it is a 25 minute work for orchestra and electronics (executed by Sound Intermedia), which aims to work with the spatial aspects of the building (obviously composed with this particularly interesting space in mind). The orchestra is by no means the traditional hierarchy of instruments, they are divided into 4 antiphonal groups of mostly equal instrumentation and play essentially as individual units, though all conducted by Diego Masson.

The importance of the spatial aspects and non-concert hall setting of the music meant that the audience were encouraged to move around the hall during the performance and, sensibly, the work was performed twice (the second after a discussion between Simon Bainbridge and Richard Steinitz and an interval). Antiphony and spatialization are techniques used since possibly the very beginning of music (a notable early example can be found in Monteverdi's Vespers) and has been explored extensively by electroacoustic composers in the latter part of the 20th Century such as Francis Dhomont and Jonty Harrison. However, most often the concept has been to see the listener as a fixed point around which sound is manipulated rather than a wandering observer, free to decide what angle they wish to receive the music from. The listener almost becomes an improviser, playing an active role in the creation of their musical experience. To allow a certain amount of educated 'improvisation' then, the second listening was vital.

The nature of the performance allowed the listener, if they wished to, to hide in a far corner, sheltered from view and allow the music to emerge in the distance; or - an even rarer and more terrifying experience - the ability to hear the music coming from behind you. The pillars of sound that make up Music Space Reflection appear out of nowhere like stabs to the back when appreciated in this way. The lack of visual stimulus also improves the work. While watching the conductor it became obvious when the next sound would appear from the silence, removing any sense of drama from the work, in short ruining it.

One thing you realise when trying to appreciate the differing aspects of each listening point is how slow the ear is at appreciating a space. Whether through lack of training or inability, the ear takes several minutes (a long period in terms of musical activity) to fully comprehend the nature of the resonances, reverberations and echo patterns engendered by listening from that particular point in the space. This means that to fully appreciate the music through the prism of the whole space would require hours of repeated listening. Nonetheless, the single, unique experience drawn by your trajectory through the hall has its own value and brings to the concert goer a fascinating new way of looking at sound.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/ChristopherLux/journal/2007/04/28/b7h2m_quatuor_danel_at_manchester_university Sat, 28 Apr 2007 00:47:58 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/ChristopherLux/journal/2007/04/28/b7h2m_quatuor_danel_at_manchester_university Thu 26 Apr – Lunchtime Concert
Fri 27 Apr - Friday Evening Danel Series

Usual brilliance from the Quatuor Danel. Programmes as follows:

Thursday:
Mieczyslaw Weinberg - String Quartet No. 1 (UK Premiere)
John Casken - Choses en moi
Sergey Prokofiev - Sonata for Two Violins

Friday:
Franz Schubert - String Quartet, op. 125, no. 1
Richard Whalley - Interlocking Lines (World Premiere)
John Cage - String Quartet in Four Parts
Dmitri Shostakovitch - String Quartet No. 7 in F sharp minor

Two excellent programmes suplemented by a seminar on postgraduate compositions on Thursday afternoon. The Danels remain insightful and open.]]>