Showing posts with label Wire. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wire. Show all posts

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Actress - Welcome to the Headspace


There is a wonderful interview in the March edition of Wire Magazine with Actress (aka - Darren Cummingham ). It covers a fair amount of ground looking at his background in Wolverhampton, his promise as a football player that got cut short by injury and his move to London. Cunningham comes across as rather otherworldly, living in a kind of altered urban reality. He has interesting things to say on the nature of reality, space, music, how music can heal and attempting to get the sounds in his head out in musical form.

Under the Actress moniker he has released 4 LPs, Hazyville (2008), Splazsh (2010), RIP(2012) and his latest release Ghettoville (2014) on Ninja Tunes. Imagine the fractured musical sound of Burial refracted through a hazy mesh of broken speakers, weed smoke, field recordings and relentless rain. It sounds like the film Se7en looks, a noirish combination of grimey undercurrents and forward motion.

There is a small glimpse into the music making process for Actress and the analogue equipment, field recordings and overloading of circuits that are crucial to the weird, warped sound world that features on the Actress releases.

Below is an Actress track Grey Over Blue from his Ninja Tune 12"  that outlines the kind of dislocated sonic ground that his LPs traverse. I would recommend buying the LPs and losing yourself in the blurred South London via Wolverhampton head space of Darren Cunningham.



Quietus Interview - http://thequietus.com/articles/14423-actress-interview-ghettoville
Electronic Beats Interview -http://www.electronicbeats.net/en/features/interviews/an-interview-with-actress/

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

St Etienne's Jukebox Wire September 2004 - Spotify playlist

I have been working my way through a pile of old Wire Magazines and reading the Invisible Jukebox features.

The idea behind the invisible jukebox is as follows:

"Every month we play a musician a series of records which they’re asked to identify and comment on with no prior knowledge of what they’re about to hear. This month it’s the turn of…"

I thought the one from the September 2004 edition featuring St Etienne was good fun and worth creating a playlist for.

Two tracks aren't on Spotify so I have added the videos below.

Say Kids - What Time is It? - Coldcut
Past, Present and Future - The Shangri-Las
No UFOs - Model 500
Orbit Around the Moon - Joe Meek
Blown Away - A Certain Ratio
Superfly Guy - S'Express
Final Day - Young Marble Giants
Strange Love - Mary Wells

Videos

Aretha Franklin - 96 Tears



Lori and The Chameleons - Touch



St Etienne's Wire Jukebox Spotify Playlist


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Friday, February 11, 2011

Hype Williams Gentile Dub Free Stream




Free stream of mysterious Hype Williams track Gentile Dub from the Wire website.
The band seem to disappear behind a fuzzy hazy of half truth, disinformation and obscure releases.

Having taken part in the Wire Invisible Jukebox in February 2011 their profile seems to be on the rise.

"Opening theme to season 2 of The Animals Of Farthing Wood from the Bootleg Rescore DVD series by Dean Blunt and Inga Copeland.."



Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Time Travel with Wire Magazine








I had a great find on Sunday in Lyme Regis in Dorset. In the Sanctuary bookshop I discovered a huge bundle of old copies of Wire.

For the sum of £15.00 I have four years of the magazine to work through reading reviews, interview and generally running backwards through time and electronic music.

First couple I have read through have had a great interview with Mark Hollis,Disco Inferno and a wonderful piece on John Oswald and The Grateful Dead/John Oswald Grayfolded which I have since downloaded from emusic.

All great stuff. I am in magazine heaven.