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GRAVITATIONAL
PULL
Dispatches
from the Spirit of Gravity / Edition 77 / February 09
·
Happenings:
GAGARIN
/ KOMUSO / URBAN DELIGHTS
The
Komedia Studio Bar, 44-47 Gardner Street, Brighton, BN1 1UN
Time
8:30 - 11:00 Cost £5/£3
Gagarin
GAGARIN’s history as a musician is well documented. He started out, as
dids (a drummer), in Manchester cult band Ludus, before embarking on an
extended working relationship with Velvet underground legend NICO,
recording and playing with JOHN CALE, ERIC RANDOM, SUNS OF ARQA, BILL
PRITCHARD and many more. For the last 10 years he has worked with DAVID
THOMAS and PERE UBU, in a variety of roles – remixer, synthesist,
samplist, sound designer and has contributed several pieces to Ubu’s
forthcoming Ubu Roi album. Over the last twenty years DIDS has played
across the globe from a shamanist festival in Siberia to Tokyo clubs and
Scottish castles.
As graham dowdall he has a parallel career as a community music educator
which has brought him into close working contact with numerous London
GRIME crews who have benefited from his sonic radicalism as well as
musical experience. He runs workshops for “hard to reach” young
people, adults with special needs and teaches at Goldsmiths College, Univ
of London.
As Gagarin he has released three albums, several EPs and numerous tracks
on a variety of labels including u – cover, echo, smallfish and his own
geo imprint. He has played many live gigs across several countries and is
a welcome regular on the London electronica scene with his uniquely live
approach using drumpads and hardware sampling. His last album – ARD NEV
received critical acclaim from THE WIRE, ROCKARILLA, GROOVE, FUTURE MUSIC
and many more. This was followed up in late 07 by a 3” EP – AGRICHEM
released by smallfish
<The priests of nothingness.>
<"Shostakovich
performed by wild animals on heavy tranquilizers" The Wire.>
Urban
Delights
www.myspace.com/urbandelights
URBAN
DELIGHTS have just rolled out of the studio with their 2nd album 'Analog
Players in a Digital World' ready mastered. We now have all hands on deck
to get ready for the release in early spring 2009. We'll release the album
via our own label that'll also be launched next spring! we'll use external
PR companies & distributors for the different territories though.
The thing that the boys love best is playing their stuff live to the
people - the band has a good following in Brighton as its 'home-grounds'
so to speak.
Featuring the ElektoKresh
Visuals by _minimalVector
For
details of future Spirit of Gravity events, go to www.spiritofgravity.com/.
We
have video and audio on the Spirit of Gravity mp3 blog from all our recent
shows at spiritofgravity-brighton.blogspot.com/
There
are other videos on the Spirit of Gravity MySpace page at www.myspace.com/thespiritofgravity
There
are also downloads available of some complete Spirit of Gravity sets at
www.archive.org/details/the-spirit-of-gravity
There
are now also some of _minimalVector’s films featuring Spirit of Gravity
acts and guests at the Vimeo HDTV page
www.vimeo.com/thespiritofgravity
Also this month…
JOANNA
MACGREGOR AND SCANNER
De
La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex
Saturday 21st
February 2009
Time : 8pm Tickets : £15
(concs £12)
Booking : 01424 229111 www.dlwp.com
Stellar
pianist Joanna Macgregor opened the London Jazz Festival at the Royal
Festival Hall last November with a collaboration between Dhafer Youssef
and Britten Sinfonia, hailed by The Times as the 'future of music'.
Now director of the Bath International Festival, Joanna has performed in
over sixty countries, made over thirty recordings and has collaborated
with artists such as Nitin Sawhney, Andy Shepherd and Brian Eno. Joanna
performs the music of Bach, drawing on keyboard works: a selection of
Preludes and Fugues from Book 1, the French suite no.5, parts of the
Goldberg Variations and The Art of Fugue.
The programme features live, improvised collaboration with conceptual
artist Scanner, touching on Bach's Chorales and Cantatas. Scanner's works
experiment between sound, space, image and form and his albums are hailed
by critics as innovative and inspirational works of contemporary
electronic music. He has previously collaborated with Laurie Anderson,
Radiohead and Steve McQueen, among others.
·
Greetings:
I've
heard the recordings and seen the video from last months show, and what a
blinder, we're just talking with Robin about what to put up as we had a
sneaky preview of some new material before the mp3's and video get posted
to MySpace
and the SogBlog.
But
that was then, and now we have something different. Graham Dowdall played
last year at the Three & Ten and was excellent, so we're pleased to
have him back promoting his new CD and 7" single.
We
also have Urban Delights gearing up for their new CD due very soon, and
Komuso with another in their series of strange one off collaborations as
Derek Thompson and whoever he has hidden away up his sleeve come up with
some unlikely new project.
·
Reviewings:
Spirit of
Gravity at the Komedia Studio Bar, Brighton, Thursday 15th
January 2009
Mummy,
there's an accountant on stage! Don't worry dear that's just I'm Doctor
Buoyant sporting shirt and tie & grey suit, sensible
haircut belying the swooping dice 'n' bass Mr Tony Rimbaud loves to make,
and we love to listen to (well I do, and other people clapped... so they
must do as well, right?). After spending 10 minutes looking at Bartosz'
arse while he struggled with a recalcitrant video projector, the good
doctor took us on a journey of circling motifs interspersed with drones
and electronic chatter. Let the dice rule.
Next
up, media personality and electronica renaissance man Scanner delivered
a very rare live set. Pretty damn good it was too, rising and falling with
plenty of long swoops and gritty backgrounds pulled out of mid air. Robin
Rimbaud's beats got heads nodding, although there was no actual dancing of
course, that would never do at the 'Gravity. Although his analogue
receiver is long gone, I still get the sense that his textures are
extracted from the ether somewhere nearby, crowds twittering away,
exchanging data, merging with the background.
God bless Henry Collins, he of Slash's Wormhole. Lover of Polish
cinema, farmers favourite and man of the world. He arrived on stage with
his bass hoover and mangling boxes and proceeded to give James Murray
Spangler & Leo Fender's combined greatest moments a pasting. Like his
namesake there was plenty of rock posturing and a certain amount of
rolling around on the floor, but the music's the thing pop pickers and
whilst not being my Mums idea of music (she likes brass bands), I fucking
loved it. How Henry manages to pull what he does from the chaos
surrounding him is anyones guess, but he manages pretty well.
Guest
reviewer, the ever potent Dan “Worse Than Bite” Powell
Yours
as ever
El
Maestro Con Queso
Editor.
Gravitational
Pull is the
official newsletter of The Spirit of Gravity Collective, though the
opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the Collective.
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