I expect everyone knows that this is the reincarnation of bis, back together after taking some time out with their other (excellent) bands The Kitchen and Dirty Hospital. If they were hoping to fool anyone with the name change they’re going to be disappointed. I first heard this playing in Monorail and it was immediately obvious who it was as Steven and Amanda have such recognisable voices. Sadly there’s a large proportion of people who have some kind of Kandy Pop Amplifiers that make all bis songs sound like Kandy Pop to them despite the enormous progression bis made over their 4 or 5 albums. But it’s obvious from this single that Data Panik just don’t care about them any more.

Lead track Cubis is so catchy it’s been stuck in my head since that first hearing with its jaunty chorus and mix and match girl boy verses. But on closer listen, it’s the music that impresses and delights me with a gurgling bassline, some brilliantly 80s electro flourishes and what sounds like half the Nintendo music archive crammed into the background.

Sense Not Sense is more typical of latter-era bis and could fit into Return to Central quite happily; all bubbling beats, stopstart guitars and Amanda’s slinky vocals. I can’t wait to see what they do with a whole album. Fantastic to have them back.

Data Panik

They aren’t about “promo” – what they’re about is kicking the shit into the kids, man. They see music as a void. In the capital (thats London) there is a disgusting trend for style over substance. This band buck that trend. They mix Krautrock and Electronica. They are also crazymental and drink and do drugs. They are from Leicester.
They are KASABIAN.

Howdy. I can’t get Cute FTP to work on this PC so I’m going to plug something on the Weblog instead.
The Telescopes were part of the whole shoegazing scene back in the 80s and were on Creation Records. That kind of sums things up in a neat way but doesn’t really do them justice. One of the reasons I ended up in Nottingham is because I made friends with Emily Kawasaki who lives up here and so I ended up coming to the city more and more. She is a mentalist Telescopes fan.
They split, became Unisex and then reunited as a new beast: no drums, no bass, just some old samplers and plenty of noisy guitars. Anyway, they’re playing Nottingham next Tuesday the 12th April with Fog (Ninja Tune) and because of holiday date confusions, I’m playing guitar for the night so if you’re near here then come along and support my nervous brain!
It’s at Cabaret (The Old Vic) on Fletcher Gate and tickets are at www.damnyou.co.uk

Far more restrained and almost traditional compared to Tiny Pushes vol.1, I think I prefer this. It seems to show a more considered approach to songwriting, with a combination of guitar and keyboards delicately mixing with samples and sequencing. The ten songs on here total less than thirty minutes, meaning that none of them outstay their welcome. Whilst vol.1 seemed to be more about almost random snatches of tune and sound fading in and out of a sometimes messy whole, this is more of a Complete Album: the songs, however short, pack a real emotional resonance, and their subtle textures remind me of Low and, at times, recent Hood records.

It’s an album which is available free to download, and I can’t complain about that value. Not that this is this some kind of quickly knocked-out freebie, it’s cleanly and nicely put together, reflecting – it would seem – a genuine altruism in trying to share some high quality music with whoever wants to hear it.

Calamateur
Autoclave

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And to prove that I don’t get all of my stupid links from Popbitch:
The Top 1 Most Sexy Croatian Keyboard Virtuoso

This was my main reason for being in London this particular weekend as it was the last chance to see this theatre production of Philip Pullman’s ace fantasy trilogy which is something of an Elidor/Tolkien anti Narnia and thus much beloved in my house. I’m not going to try and summarise the plot for you but its epic plotline encompassing a myriad of alternate worlds and the death of God and featuring a cast of humans, witches, “daemons” and ARMOURED BEARS, it was obvious this was something I really had to see live. It’s also unable to tour as it needs the stage at the National Theatre which rotates and has all manner of rising platforms making it both incredibly exciting to watch and easy to show the passage between alternate worlds.I was in the crap seats but this meant being three rows from the front at the same height as the stage which was actually amazing. I may have missed some of the overall picture but seeing the actors 3ft away gave it a whole extra level of realism. The stage was used brilliantly throughout the show with characters able to cut through doors and walk into another world or climb up from underneath. It also meant they could have 3 different sets on different levels and move them up and down to show the action in different places.

Even more impressive than this was the way they brought the non-human characters to life. Some of the major characters in the book are the daemons of humans – basically their spirit in animal form which can interact with other peoples’ daemons and generally act like another character. These were done with puppets made of translucent material and lit with lights. It was astonishing how a puppet being obviously moved and voiced by a visible actor dressed in black could feel as emotionally affecting as the human characters. At other times this was done for laughs with the tiny Gallivespians being marionette style puppets moving in very obvious jerky puppet movements. The armoured bears were also great – despite just being men dressed in shaggy clothes and armour with a puppet style bear head and plastic claw they were quite believable as the bears.

The real life actors were also generally very good although some were overacting a little too much. Lyra even had a perfect annoying accent which made me accept her immediately as the book Lyra (whose annoying accent took a long time to love in the book).

I’d pick out my highlights but it was all just wonderful and even all the major changes to the book (mainly for length reasons) worked really well. I wish I could see it again, especially since the film versions sound like they’re going to cut so much stuff out they’ll hardly be the same story. My only fear now is that any future visits to the theatre will be nowhere near as exciting as this.

Weird-ass dancing music – a combination of kranging guitars, jerky rhythms and sex-tinged vocaaals. I can’t tell if I like this or not. Something like a cack-handed Beck without the expensive studio trickery, or a garage-bound !!! with some dubious hobbies. Gets the toes a tappin’, which ever way you feel about it.

No-Fi Soul Rebellion
Wäntage USA

I was in London over the weekend for the first time in ages intending to go see all the things I never have time to go see. I stayed in an amazing hotel which has reminded me that I need to make loads of money so that I can be one of those crazy old rich people who live in hotels and wander around in my pyjamas carrying a cat.Easter Sunday was my Art Day which started with a lengthy walk past the Tower of London and across Tower Bridge to the Design Museum. I don’t know if they knew I was coming but they appeared to have organised the whole thing with me in mind. A whole floor on the history of maps, road signs, diagrams, typography and safety leaflets was exciting enough but the next floor had exhibitions on Penguin Books and Factory Records, not to mention an N64 with Mario to play on. The only disappointment was the shop which was a bit small and not as full of quirky things of wonder as I had expected. I did get some badges covered in the insides of envelopes though. I’m glad someone else notices these things.

After this I went over to the Tate Modern having heard great things about it. I loved the building but I was a bit disappointed by the art on show. There were very few things I liked that I hadn’t seen before and they seemed only to have inferior works by artists I like. I also found the new Modern Art is Important seriousness of the people there kind of tiresome. I think I liked it better when everyone scoffed at modern art, rather than thinking it’s all very serious and clever. Some of it, at least, is supposed to be fun so stop pondering it.

What did I like? The Rothkos were awesome in real life, sucking everything into themselves. All the pop art was fun to look at close close up to see all the human flaws that never show up in glossy reproductions. There was also a great room of prints by one guy, all with similar motifs of flowing body lines and flower overprints.

I was also impressed with the Bruce Nauman exhibitions – a room of colour treated projections of his studio recorded overnight, like a room of CCTV screens with nothing much happening. You’d get interested in the detail of one projection until a clank or thump made you think you were missing something on another side of the room. I could probably have sat there for hours. He also had a sound thing in the Turbine Hall with a series of speakers randomly muttering and hollering at you as you walked the length. It sounds a bit crap in print but in location with all the concrete and the high roof it was great; a child’s voice fading into sinister rasping fading into robotic repitition and so on. There’s a virtual version online.

To be continued with my trip to the THEATRE as I have not yet caught up on sleep and this is getting a bit long.

Mitch Hedberg and Bass Wolf in the same day.

Today sucks.

This review’s being posted slightly later than originally anticipated, because I’ve had the album stuck on my turntable for a good week now, and not tired of repeated plays. This could either mean that in five years’ time it’s a record I’m thoroughly sick of and never play, or that it’s a rich and rewarding record which grows and intensifies with each listen. I’m pretty sure it’s the latter; ask me in five years’ time.

Comparing this with early Hood records is interesting – gone are the ultra-low-fi scratchy smears of disjointed pop; they’ve mutated into deep, layered and textured sound which, alongside artists like Bark Psychosis, stands alone from the current glut of aggressive noise which is out there. Hood’s very distinctive vocal style fits perfectly with effortlessly processed instruments. The processing is so subtle as to be almost invisible; but listen closely and there are loops of drums and guitars repeating, echoed sound holding them together to give the impression of straightforward plaintive melody. Listen even more closely and the careful arrangement of tracks becomes evident. Hood are pretty much out there on their own with this kind of blend of electronics and acoustics.

Hood
Domino