The iLeveller: Exposing Guilty Pleasures

"Bon Jovi?" Haha! You mullet-loving chump," the scroller sneers, flicking through the iPod with one hand, scoffing a doughnut with the other.

Sting, Dodgy, The Levellers, Boney M?!

"Umm um how did that get on there?!"

We've all had it. The snobbish, pitying looks of a music-loving friend glancing through your iPod with all the care of Tommy Walsh from Groundforce trampling through a Wiltshire garden.

But the central issue remains. How do you hide the crap? In a music collection, a real music collection - there are records of all shapes of sizes to conceal dodgy purchases, tapes faintly written on in pencil containing guilty pleasures, CDs that you can put in other boxes.

Now not only are the guilty pleasures there in black and clicky scrolly white for all to see but the stuff that's accidentally on there is given undue prominence. The one passable Beatles tune that doesn't make you want to go to Liverpool and ask some very serious questions is given undue prominence alongside a band who turned you onto a whole new genre, you've been to see 14 times and once snuck backstage and shared half a Carlsberg with.

The problem with the iGeneration is it's too much of a leveller. Besides the size of someone's overly techie headphones, there's really no way in the modern world for one overly-earnest indie-folk-everso-electronic-uber-thinks-they're-cool music lover to indentify another. We all look the same, white earphones, little black box. Where's the fun in that?

It's also a matter of pride. I've waded through the dubious smelling treasure trove of Rob's Records in Nottingham or hunched under a piled of books to dig out CDs in Brighton to complete the Bowie collection or chance upon a rare Anticon picture disc. Now, thanks to iHomogenised we can't see or touch the labours of love that have been digitised.

The development is a damning indictment on the modern age, a gynormous blemish on the behind of technical developments like the space shuttle and the television; a disgusting, heartless wrench on those who hold music close to their hearts at the centre of all that's good in the world. A pathetic, soulless annoyance.

Oh, but they are really handy.

Busking brilliance on Columbia Road

Perhaps the best thing about the perfectly imperfect artform we call music is it's ability to occasionally catch you in exactly the right mood at the right time and place. Like a rogue dolphin chomping on a beach ball in front of a Butlins audience, an improbable surprise is more pleasing than the best laid plans. 

As such the incidental set of The Good Time Family offered up some tasty blues on a crisp, sunny afternoon on Columbia Road flower market. For anyone who hasn't been, it's one of those places that justifies the gigantic rent and crushed commute of living in our capital. 

The market is full of great indie shops and classic flower traders (quote: "these daffodils [yet to bloom] are as tight as a nun") creating a great atmosphere. The band themselves, busking by the churos stand, play a classic strand of blues standards - earnest yet lively, skillful yet slightly off kilter. 

There's banjos, slide guitar, spoons and even a strange incident I've never seen outside films about the deep south, essentially a tin bath upended with a thick string providing the bass. 

Set against the low sun and freezing temperatures, the music is warming and cheerful, like your nan entering the room with the secret Jammu Dodgers. I often sniff at the irritating, Beatles-playing buskers near the central line platform at Oxford Circus but sometimes it's just nice to act like a tourist and spare some change. 

The Clean Art of Reverse Graffiti

Always ones to accidentally end up looking backwards at the start of a new year, ShadowPlay stumbled across this excellent lecture from Paul 'Moose' Curtis addressing the agIdeas Conference in Melbourne.
Curtis' skill is in, effectively, cleaning. Instead of using paint to mark walls and signs, he uses cleaning products to remove the dirt and grime and create images.
He describes his work as 're-facing' not 'defacing' in an attempt to highlight how polluted the world really is. Amusingly Curtis has worked both and with firstly the police and secondly commercial client. That the latter have cottoned on to his talent is no surprise - guerilla marketing and graffiti have become big business since Banksy hit the mainstream - but the fact the police have harnessed the idea shows a level of intuition and invention for which they are rarely credited. Of course, the police are often confused and down right idiotic in their approach to graffiti art and how serious a crime it really is but in this instance it's pleasing to see some creative thinking.
Curtis' idea is not new naturally, there have been white vans with 'clean me' written on the back since Ronnie Corbett was in (even shorter) trouser. But it's interesting to see the credit given to it and his eloquence on the subject. Can you think of a cheaper, more amusing way to leave your mark on a town? Watch out, Mr Muscle might just be the new spray paint.

A Very Merry Christmas Zine

My new Christmas jumper worn in rather camp fashion

So it’s the time of year where people actually have ten minutes to take a breather and start reading zines, blogs, magazines and even the Radio Times.

It’s been a great year here at ShadowPlay Towers, there’s been plenty of great music and festivals (see Field View Festival and our stint hosting craft sessions at Greenman) and even an issue of ShadowPlay itself. Having a think about my New Year’s Resolutions last night I decided not to put in my annual stipulation about a certain amount of hours spent working on ShadowPlay or issues per year, instead opting to say – look, let’s see how it goes and enjoy writing ditties about music, art, films and getting drunk and doing silly things if and when I fancy it. 

There’s always a noticeable guilt around many an editor’s intro to a fanzine I find, as if every month that real life gets in the way of cutting and sticking is an insult to the reader. Really a zine should be a special treat to a writer and a reader and fingers crossed that’s what we can be in 2012. Hope you all have a very merry Christmas and a rather fantabulous New Year. I’ll be heading to Nottingham to scoff chocs, binge on new music and maybe even do a little writing. I’ll leave you with a rather daft photo of me in my first Christmas jumper – have a good un! Alex

The Lovely Eggs: Foul-mouthed fun

Got to love a good merch stand

Great to see a packed gig on a Monday night for the sweary indie pop magic of The Lovely Eggs. The northern pair were hosting "a right party" to celebrate the release of their new single Allergies and a free gig at the redone hipster hangout that is The Old Blue Last was very welcome. 
The band constantly play on their Lancastrian routes and, given I've only seen then play in London, it's probably possibly unfair to say they overdo it. 

What has seemed footing is the initially sterile London crowds melt in the face of their truncated, sweary punk pop everytime. 

The duo are tighter than Jesus' carpenters vice and their "what you would call two songs stuck together and what we would call a medley" about bowling alleys and reporting for The Lancaster Guardian is charming.

A buzzing, lively gig and just what the folded arms of London town this Monday needed to loosen up. 

As a treat, here's The Lovely Eggs' most perfect piece of pop...

Tru Thoughts hits Camden

Quantic stole the show at the mega Tru Thoughts night detailed last week. Playing his own mellow madness in addition to version of his remixes – You Don't Love Me (No No No) proved a high watermark – in an excellent, incisive set. Elsewhere, Hidden Orchestra provided a hypnotic centrepoint to the early part of the night, Belleruche were on a bit early in reality and Rodney P provided some rough tongued entertainment for the Camden crowd.

A great evening, a some generous compilation CD giving were all in keeping with the ever-consistent label. 

Bookbinding at The Make Lounge

Tucked away in two well kitted out studios in Islington, The Make Lounge knows how to get the creative juices flowing in a way only a certain Come Get Felt Up can rival. The crafty sessions hosted in the evenings and Saturday mornings include quilting, cake decorating and screen printing. Assuring myself that book binding is at the more manly end of delicate crafts in a ladylike environ (they host hen dos too), I set about creating a book. The process is relatively simple – take two bits of vinyl, glue them together, fold lots of sheets and stitch the two together – and to make a simple book is possible at home with the right tools. Engaging teacher Suzanne Cowan from Vancouver led the class of eight well and the materials (and booze) provided were very good.

Anna's (left) outclassed mine

Yours truly managed to make sure the class wasn’t over too quickly with some, erm, slight stitching issues. But the process was nice and straightforward (Anna and the rest of the class sailed through) and adding in the fastenings proved perhaps the most satisfying click I’ve heard since learning to snap my fingers. I would thoroughly recommend the workshop as a treat (it’s a bit on the pricey side) and warn that concentration levels mean it’s not as sociable as it could be. An excellent skill then, one to look out for.

Top tip:

Open the windows – the industrial glue has quite a whiff!

Pick your vinyl and thread carefully to complement each other

Use an extra length of thread to ensure there’s plenty left

Koko hosts monumental Tru Thoughts night

ShadowPlay’s own debauched and dastardly backyard, Koko in Camden is to host a funk and hip-hop night of monster proportions this weekend.

The glorious Brighton imprint Tru Thoughts Records has provided a huge cast list for the Soundcrash event which will leave musicheads drooling.

Tru Thoughts A&R man and all round good egg Rob Luis will host the night which will see the label give away a mix CD to all attendees.

Quantic, the backbone of the label for many years is coming across from Colombia, Nostalgia 77 is bringing his full live band to the UK, Belleruche will be performing tunes from their hugely successful three albums for the label and one of the UK’s unsung producers in Hint is on the decks. All the way from Melbourne, Australia Lance Ferguson (The Bamboos’ main man/Lanu) is a very special guest travelling especially for this night.

Add to this the new signings and it gets even better. London Posse legend and host for the evening Rodney P is joined by UK soul Godfather Omar and new Japanese signing and live genius Anchorsong in the crazily good line up.

More info on the night here.

Style and Substance: The Hepworth Wakefield

If there is one thing that is truly tragic about Barbara Hepworth’s death in a house fire in 1975 it’s that she didn’t live to see this gallery. I jumped at the chance to visit the relatively new Hepworth Wakefield gallery given the opportunity at the weekend and was not disappointed by the site which has already garnered more than 100,000 visitors since opening in May. A better conceived, designed and constructed gallery does not exist in England (even including my favourite, The Hayward). Full of the perfect light, the right stone and generous space, there’s little doubt that the attraction’s namesake would’ve given it an approving nod.

Hepworth (below, right), who was a DBE and mother to triplets, stands alongside Henry Moore at the very forefront of British sculpture and is more than worthy of such a grandiose space. Her works – many on loan from the Tate, others donated by her daughters – dominate much of the 11 rooms. Her smooth, unpretentious sculptures remind you how easy it is to engage with a simple object and admire good craftsmanship as well as shape. 

What elevates this site perhaps even above the idyllic Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden at her house – in which she died – in St Ives, Cornwall, is the level of practical detail and explanation about her working methods. Enough to satisfy curiosity, not too much as to cloud the facts and kill the interest. Elsewhere, Hepworth’s work is put into context with pieces from Moore himself, fellow St Ives artist Peter Lanyon who also died tragically – in a hang glider accident getting inspiration above the southern town – and even David Hockney. The other major exhibition is from Clare Woods whose giant aluminium paintings (below, left) of rocks and landscapes in acrylic are astonishing. Their size is complemented by the curious shape of the concrete gallery and good lighting to enjoy the detail.

The one downside, and there has to be one, is that the gallery’s location, in Hepworth’s hometown of Wakefield in which she lived until moving to Hampstead, London with her first husband in the late 1920s is it’s, well in Wakefield. On a noisy roundabout opposite a tiling centre and near a Chunky Diner, the town offers little in the way of a day out but this still remains a must-see destination. The gallery’s foundations lie in a weir by a boatyard so the space has an excellent floating feel, far from the only strangely pleasant sensation a visit should evoke.  

 

Drink, Shop and Fold

Fanzine Fun – Wednesday, 30th November

ShadowPlay is going to be hosting a fanzine evening at Drink, Shop & Do in Kings Cross, London. The café/bar is more kitsch than a vintage tablecloth and their Madonna clay modeling and origami nights have made it a staple in the diary.

This is evening is your chance to create a new SUPERFANTABULOUS COMPILATION ZINE which will take the global zine scene by storm. 

Come and discover the world of underground self-publishing by writing and drawing your own and reading the best zines we've collected from Grimsby to Gran Canaria. Glue, scissors, inspiration and typewriters will be provided and your efforts will be combined to create a brand new zine. 7-10pm, Free


Drink, Shop & Do is only a 2 minute walk from Kings Cross Station at 9 Caledonian Road, London, N1 9DX.
http://www.drinkshopdo.com