Ty: Special King of Fool (BBE Records)

Special Kind of Fool represents a first outing for Ty, aka Ben Chijioke, on BBE Records, having formerly only really arrived in the public’s ears through the established auspices of legendary hip-hop label, and Ninja Tune sub-label, Big Dada.

Interestingly Ty describes the record as his story. And an interesting tale it is – that of artist who after ten years, three critically acclaimed albums (Awkward 2001, Upwards 2003, Closer 2006), collaborations with the likes of Tony Allen, De La Soul, Damon Albarn and Estelle, a Mercury nomination amongst other accolades, and a worldwide army of fans, has always followed his heart it seems.

But it feels like there’s too much heart and not enough of what makes Ty great here. His burly, thunderous rapping drawl has always contained plenty of humour in the past with the frontman always bouncing live and with an irrepressible amount of charisma. But somehow his passion has been channelled in the wrong direction here, passing on the vocal duties to a posse of impressionless, sometimes irritating guests. Many of them try so hard to sound soulful that they just appear vacuous and you are left craving more of the main man’s sturdy vocal. The beats are also a little pedestrian, rarely stepping up a gear and providing the genuine hooks usually so evident from the London-based Tony Allen associate.

There are a few positive signs though. The appearance of Sway and Roses Gabor does genuinely complement the ebb and flow of Heart is Breaking and there is a span of several songs, including the relaxed rhythm of Me and the clubby feel of I Get Up, where Ty is at his swashbuckling best saying: “where I’m from I’d probably make twice the money/if my skin was a different colour ain’t that funny?” before nonsensical lyrics and nursery rhyme rip-offs. But it’s too little, too late and it feels like a waste opportunity for one of Britain’s biggest hip-hop talents to burst back out of an overlong hiatus.

Ulrich Schnauss: Missing Deadlines (Selected Remixes)

This record begs the question - at what point is something so altered from its original form as to be unrecognisable? Now, you might think this is a question best posed to the likes of the late Michael Jackson or the hideously reformed Sophia Loren, but in this case it is master craftsman Ulrich Schnauss falling under the auspices of the surgeon’s knife.

The ambient German producer is a well-known aficionado of shoegazing, pulsing works and here he applies his touch for warped remixes of contemporary tunes. As chief alchemist he rearranges and restructures pieces way beyond recognition to glorious effect.

Schnauss said of the work: “Essentially what makes me really happy about this album is the fact that it’s a selection of the – in my opinion – best mixes from a musical point of view, rather than a compilation of the commercially most successful ones, or the tracks that have the biggest names associated with them.”

Thus, we get Howling Bell’s Setting Sun becoming an edgeless, lilting wonder more akin to My Bloody Valentine’s abstract waves than the Australian’s usual bruising torrents. Dreamy New York band Asobi Seksu also get the treatment, with Yuki Chikudate’s ebbing vocal over a beautiful wash of sound on their iconic track, Strawberries. Mahogany, The Dragons and I’m Not a Gun all provide particular highs here while the denoument provided by the 10-minute reworking of Mojave 3’s Bluebird of Happiness, complete with ‘found sounds’ and carefully constructed piano-vocal combinations, provides an excellent representation of the album. Meticulous, faraway yet completely, disturbingly full of focus.

Brighton Zinefest

It’s always tough to write about zines without falling into self-referential piffle – we are afterall unsubbed and unvalidated – but events such as this genuinely does remind me why I bother, sporadically, to produce material. There were a number of events, including a gig featuring the wonderful Bobby McGees and a knees up at the Cowley Club, around the festival but I just managed to leg it to the London Bridge train down from London for the main Saturday sale the fest was centred upon.

Having been to similar events in Manchester and London, I had an idea what to expect but it never fails to make me smile how much passion, genuine excitement and creativity can be so immediately evident. Sure, there’s some of the old record shop intimidating-ness about the situation – where self publishing is involved, there’s always a level of pretentiousness and feeling you’re being judged – and there’s some awkwardness to studying, and sometimes rejecting, someone’s wares right in front of them.

But the overwhelming feeling is one of worth. The host of papercuts, the empty wallet, the lack of sleep – worth it to see people enjoy zines. Needless to say I bankrupted myself fairly quickly and there were many zines I would’ve loved to have picked up but the coffers didn’t allow. Of the massive pile I did pick up a number stood out. It’s great to see a new issue of Bubblegum Slut zine, a mere six years after I started reading it, A Call from Karl effectively combined simple drawing with gentle humour, likewise Joe Decie’s What I Drew while The Quick and The Dead was very affecting and tackled the issue of depression engagingly, the list goes on… Emma Falconer also gave an interesting talk on the difficulties and tricks of putting zines together which even opened my realitively zine-wisened eyes to a few things. Honourable mentions go to the lovely people at Shebang, Dead Trees & Die and Beat Motel’s stalls who are always a pleasure to see and I was particularly glad to see Gadgie has been put into a book in the form of Now Then Gadgie – which you can get hold of here.  Love to the zinesters, party for the fight to write, and write on…

Champion Kickboxer: Clouds

To celebrate glory of more impending snow, ShadowPlay would like to post up its favourite weather-related tune ever. Here's Sheffield's finest, Champion Kickboxer playing on our old show, Faces for Radio.

Listening in Tongues podcast: The human voice and the warmth of the machine

So I've pulled my finger out and got back in the studio to record a new podcast you can get hold of here. Trailing the latest Broken Yolk night at the Pangea Project, Tom Bonnett and Alex Lawson look at combinations of man and machine, looking at how they can complement each other and work together in a creative crunch of vocal chords and circuit boards. 
The likes of Jamie Lidell, Scott Walker, Four Tet, Mount Kimbie, Schneider TM and Raymond Scott join Yolkie stars Ryat, Segment and Mataniu to explore the theme and provide a backdrop for cheeky chat and bootlegging banter. 
More info on the night at: http://brokenyolk.net/  February 20th - Ryat, Mataniu and Segment. Free before 9pm, £4 after, Broken Yolk DJs spinning ‘til late. 
Pangea Project, 72 Stamford Hill, Stoke Newington, London, N16 6XS
Download, subscribe or stream the podcast here: http://shadowplayboys.podbean.com/

Live: The Golden Filter at Pure Groove // Piney Gir at the London Transport Museum

I’ve long held a theory that the thing that puts the beauty of going to gigs apart from, say, going to the cinema, is that you never know what’s gunna happen. Even in a venue you’ve been to loadsa times, seeing a band you’ve seen loadsa times – maybe even a band you’ve seen in that venue loadsa times still present something different, exciting, new people, a bum note, a longer set, a new support band, the potential to find an artist that engages so much that whole swathes are your life are soundtracked differently. It’s always a possibility.

So this weird combo was very welcome. First we dash up to the beautiful Pure Groove, the record shop/café in Farringdon which has put out so many great records it’s almost sick, to see an ‘in-store’ (cue images of thousands of teens queuing up outside Virgin Records to see Mel B sing solo or some shit) which is thankfully busy but without any acne-covered scamps armed with a black marker and crop-top they’re desperate to get signed. The Golden Filter, an NY three-piece fronted by model Penelope featuring synths and nice, heavy drumbeats take some time to drum up an atmosphere in the un-clubby atmosphere near the twee-tees but their sheer class shows through their net-happy hit Hide Me evoking the most reaction. Favourite Things, with its New York, Sydney, London, Paris mantra evokes both joy at the simple song at envy at the well-travelled gits. They’ve certainly been provoking plenty of reaction and there’s no doubt there’s any extra something, maybe in the league of St Ettiene, in there, I’ll be watching with interest.

A quick dash to the Transport Museum in Covent Garden (yep, that’s right) brings one-time ShadowPlay agony aunt Piney Gir happily to our ears. As part of an Arts Council funded monthly night the fulsome folkster follows a glorious screening of a video of some couples dancing in the 50s (on a screen 20ft up above a light up London 3D map). Piney, aka Kansas hailing and London-living Angela Penhaligon, takes the stage amongst the red buses and old taxis with a welcoming crowd cheering on her every accordion stroke. With some fine backing singers and a beefed up band in the shape of the Age of Reason, Piney has moved away from her original electronic-y ways to a much more traditional, perhaps ironic given her quite stringent upbringing outlined in several interviews, country-style with the twee but lovely duet Of All the Wonderful Things, the new single, a particular highlight. And as Gir finishes her set choo-chooing around the rather splendid, if nerdy, museum singing you have to say there’s a lot to say for having a night less ordinary.

The Wire: "No one wins. One side just loses more slowly." - Prez

What felt like an important chapter in my life ended yesterday…yes, I finally finished what appears to be the last series of The Wire. First off, I realise how silly it is for me to be so involved about a television programme but then, when people are so crushingly earnest about films, it only seems fair that the only programme I’ve seen ever approach its style in novel form is worth it.

Quick background – The Wire is an American police drama set in Baltimore, Maryland largely following detectives as well as drug dealers, gangsters, politicians, judges, blue and white collar workers and solicitors – the whys, hows and wherefores of its background are too variant and, as the programme outlines, unsolvable to go into but I wanted to look at my response as a viewer.

Firstly, as a white, middle class viewer in the UK, it’s fair to say my life is far removed from those on the stoops and corners of Baltimore, let alone the courts and city homicide department. But it is the meticulous detail in which the show approaches each episode which evolves and reveals this unfamiliar world for me. I have often been critical of the extended series that are produced in the US, many comedy series are flabby where series like Peep Show and Black Books show you can say as much in six episodes as you can in twelve. But The Wire is different. It’s not just passive, each series is a project as they deal with the issues of the drug trade, smuggling, reform, education and journalism in turn. It is with this trust in creator David Simon that the viewer goes with each addition to the plot, each unsolved particle, each heartbreaking killing or smeer on the progress of evidence.

Ultimately, few series will engage the viewer in the next few decades. It has had me hooked when I should have been going out, on trains when the power cuts out and you’re begging the laptop battery to hold out and, amusingly, in an airport lobby in Egypt when I had to trail the wire (ironic huh?) across an escalator to plug it in. I don’t watch much TV these days, preferring to watch either catch up at my own leisure or, as this, hoards of DVDs, and in characters such as McNulty, Bubbles, Stringer Bell, Bunk, Kima and Omar Little (pictured) my faith in modern television, and the excellent HBO, may just rest. Adios.

ShadowPlay..slowly, slowly slowly

So just a quick update as to where I'm up to with the latest ShadowPlay, I'm sure regular readers will be aware that it's been over a year since the last issue - a fact I find painful but also realistic. The problem with having a day job in which you both expend a load of energy and also, y'know, give a toss (previously unheard of for me) is that it really does test the energy levels.

Anyway, excuses over, its shaping up to be a really good issue under the particularly vague and pretentious theme of "darkness" and submissions are most welcome. Articles of 400-500wds most welcome, likewise, am ALWAYS on the look out for new artwork on account of not being able to draw and the like - do get in touch at shadowplayfanzine@hotmail.com ahead of submission. Just on a bit of a hunt for printers in London at the moment, any suggestions of cheap places welcome though I reckon there's one in Holborn that might just do the job. Cut'n'paste zines are always a struggle what with copiers usually needing to feed the page through a machine for double-sided - never too friendly towards the carefully tacked together proof it must be said. So any thoughts and ideas welcome and fingers crossed for a spring birth for the little un. Alex

New Listening in Tongues podcast

Songs from a parallel universe and the black magic of soul

Journeying to a world unlike our own, Tom Bonnett and Alex Lawson ask what tunes might top the charts in another dimension and take their chances with the occult investigating the secret spell behind a perfect soul record. The ponderous duo take you through some pop puzzles and play some genuine classics to boot. Enjoy.

Listen and download here

or subscribe using this:

http://shadowplayboys.podbean.com/

MC Lars makes plea over suicides

Had an interesting email through from old ShadowPlay friend and hip-hop fiend MC Lars, if you can help him out, get in touch...

Hey everyone,

As I'm sure many of you know, a song on my new record TWENTY-THREE details the life and tragic death of a best friend and Stanford roommate, Patrick Wood. You can read more about him on his blog. He was a brilliant friend who battled with depression and took his life in Berlin in early 2006:

http://patrickwood.blogspot.com/

We are making a video for this song, as it is the next single off of THIS GIGANTIC ROBOT KILLS.

To make this video be effective and raise awareness, we NEED YOUR HELP!

If you have any friends or family members who know or who have lost anyone to suicide, please get in touch with us. We want to feature photos of loved ones who have taken their own lives. The goal of this video is to help raise awareness that this is an issue that affects us all, and pay our respects to those who have passed on. One of the things that helps me get through losing Pat is having a song about him to sing and listen to. I hope that you will share this with me if you have gone through anything similar.

Please hit me up at - horrisrecords@gmail.com with photos and stories if you have friends who haven taken their own lives.

Thank you for all of your help! Together we can help raise awareness and help prevent suicide. We are talking to non-profit organizations to have some promotional support and help change the world together.

Much love and Happy Holidays.

MC Lars
mclars.com

P.S. Just on a legal side-note - we will need signed waivers, so before you get in touch with us with photos of your friends, please hit up your friends' families first. We know this is a sensitive issue and just want to make sure everyone's on board.