Time to get creative

Creative energy is an interesting entity. It manifests itself in so many different ways, is expended at vastly varying frequencies and means so many things to so many people. The one thing that is widely acknowledged is, it ain’t easy.

Despite the fact I don’t see myself as a creative person and am, objectively shit at drawing, presentation or writing in long hand, in the eight years that ShadowPlay has been in existence the increasing hold television, new media and most importantly, phenomena like the invention of Facebook have created a nation of young people that make bashing out some words, stealing artwork and photocopying them look vibrantly expressive. There are two elements at play in this conundrum: dedication and raw talent.

I see and envy people with the latter all the time, marvel at the way they can find a creative spark and envisage an idea instantaneously. What makes me turn even more green is that, on the whole, many people who turn their hand to one thing – say drawing – and succeed usually find themselves a consummate Jack of all trades at a number of skills.

The central conceit of my day job, journalism, works on this basis. That artists are somehow set apart, that their work means they have achieved an ‘otherness’ and the more lauded they are the more license they have to talk about more quasi-psychological and social matters. Whether it’s just more convenient to work this way is another matter but certainly a few notable examples of artists interviewing each other in music magazines have yielded eminently readable results.

As for dedication, that implies that you can learn to be creative. That absorbing enough information will help bred the skill forcibly but this is a flawed concept, assuming that creativity comes from the conscious, rather than the subconscious.

In truth, their co-dependent. There’s no point having raw talent if you’re not prepared to work for it. I have recently started working on two fledgling projects run by dedicated an admirable Londoners – as reviews editor for football website footymatters.com and as a presenter on shoreditchradio.co.uk (The Anoraks – stream and download at http://shadowplayboys.podbean.com). The dedication of the volunteers who work for both projects has been promising but not always consistent. Personally I find myself compartmentalising creativity outside of my 9-5 life, thinking it’s not possible to think in a more expansive manner when concentrating on busy day-to-day tasks, which is pathetic. So how can young people be convinced that it’s work putting in the time and energy to find a creative release outside study, work or an increasingly common unemployed malaise?

Looking at my monthly night Come Get Felt Up (run at the Book Club along with the legendary Anna Harding, Nathan Crawley and Tom Whalley) each month, the small release that participating in a silly competition in which people craft Blue Peter style for naff prizes get from the creativity is particularly evident. So unleash your creativity – glue an egg box, write a letter or build a wonky boxcar – you might just feel better for it.

Keep calm and carry on waiting

Coming home today on the tube, I got angry and distracted from my paper by the fact the train didn’t move for a full three minutes. When I got home, from where I didn’t intend to leave this evening, I promptly sat down and waste 20 minutes watching some pap on the telly.
Opposite me in the carriage a bloke sat, slumped down in this big brown coat, looking really content despite the fact it was an infuriating and unexplained stoppage. I envied him. So how can he left go and let it wash over him and I’m a nervous, furious young man?
I’ve always been uptight, a worrier, I mean that’s par for the course in fanzine circles. But do actions belie happiness? In the last three months, for various reasons, I have felt happier than I have in five or six years, happier at times than I have ever been. But this is not about being smug, and I certainly easily get down at times too. No, this is about how happiness manifests itself.
Surely, if you have an underlying feeling of happiness, of being content with how life is moving, that should superceed the day-to-day anger, or at least temper it? I’m yet to discern whether this is a personal thing, whether others, while essentially happy, still get wound up by very small things and are wound tight.
The reality is there’s always going to be hang ups but if you can find ways to distract yourself from certain common sources of irritation – wheelie suitcases, poor grammar, a shocking ignorance of basic defending (see Sheffield Wednesday’s defence in the last four months) – and pressure points then perhaps it’s possible to alleviate some of that irrational, stupid stress. Sometimes knowing yourself inside out and facing up to your largely unchanging personality is the only option.

East End Film Festival arrives

Now in its tenth year, the East End Film Festival (EEFF) has established itself as an event not afraid to flex its muscles beyond the boundaries of simply seats, screens and popcorn. It is perhaps unsurprising then that EEFF HQ is home to a hive of ‘to do’ lists longer than an Elizabethan skirt on visiting just two days before the gala opening. Besides the weird and wonderful of contemporary and revived cinema, the five-day festival (27 April – 2 May) features live music, exhibitions, DJs, VJs, masons, stars, bars and, yes, popcorn.

Under the stewardship of artistic director Alison Poltock, the festival has landed some impressive names. Portishead’s Adrian Utley is to give a presentation at the UK premiere of the digitally re-mastered version of Martin Scorsese’s iconic Taxi Driver at the beautiful Aubin cinema; St Etienne and the Guillemots are to curate two afternoons of music and cinema as part of the Sonic Film programme in conjunction with fellow decade-old hedonists Camden Crawl and the festival is open with a world premiere of The Libertines – There Are No Innocent Bystanders. The debut feature from music photographer Roger Sargent is an all-access documentary into a band that only a glance at will reveal are an intriguing car crash of moderate talent crushed beneath the weight of expectations and, well, large quantities of drugs.

The event is backed by Tower Hamlets council, Film London, National Lottery funding and sponsors including the likes of Clash magazine, Sheffield Doc Fest and Old Spitalfields Market, which is to host an orchestra made of people turning up chiming bicycle bells.

The festival’s enthusiastic head of marketing Andrew Simpson, who has experience of both the Edinburgh and London film festivals as well as moving up from an internship at EEFF last year, is bristling with excitement ahead of the event. “The EEFF started ten years ago funded by Tower Hamlets council as a community festival. The area has more filmmakers than anywhere else in the UK, it’s such a hive of activity, such an incredibly vibrant, creative, productive area,” he says.

“It’s very much about grasping the nettle of the potential the area holds,” Simpson (pictured) continues. “There’s an audience for local output and every type of cinema from around here which makes the festival what it is. We can pick up the pulse of what’s happening around the globe and it’s amazing how coherent the programme comes together but that’s often the artists reactions to what’s happening around the world.”

Simpson cites several particular highlights. In conjunction with The Romanian Cultural Institute and award-winning filmmaker Bobby Paunescu, the festival has put together a strong line-up of Romanian films and events including the UK premiere of Bogdan George Apetri’s Outbound. Beyond this, there’s atmospheric horror in Sir John Soane’s church in Bethnal Green, films on secret societies in Masonic haunts and a swath of free activities on 2 May across 88 venues.

“It’s a real group effort, everyone pitches in, there’s no real hierarchy. It’s hard work, but very, very rewarding. It’s going to be a lot of intense fun,” concludes Simpson. An accurate statement one suspects, don’t forget the popcorn.

www.eastendfilmfestival.com

27 April – 2 May

Various venues, London

ShadowPlay #28 comes out

ShadowPlay returns with a blockbuster issue featuring more intrigue and excitement than a distant-sounding ice cream jingle.
The likes of Icelandic starlet and Bjork collaborator Olof Arnalds and downbeat techno DJ Chloe Thevenin hone into ficus with interviews in a zine jam packed with characters.
Elsewhere our resident Agony Aunt Piney Gir returns to deliberate romantic troubles and debates over fish-based TV; graffiti artist Baron tells us about his new film Dots and we send Emily Mac under cover in the European parliament.All that and the usual rambling,short stories and musical musings.

Email shadowplayfanzine@hotmail.com‏ for a copy.

MJ Hibbett lands NOT number one

MJ Hibbett & The Validators have thanked everyone who helped them to achieve their aim of NOT getting to Christmas Number One this year.

"We're especially excited," said MJ Hibbett, "because, with the possible exception of Simon Cowell, we're the only group whose Christmas Number One campaign was in any way successful!"

The campaign began a few weeks ago when the band decided NOT to try and get their Christmas single The 29th Day Of December to the top of the charts. "So many people try for the Christmas Number One these days that it's become boring", said violinist Tom 'The Tiger' McClure. "We decided to go the other way - and succeeded!"

The 29th Day Of December was accompanied by a stop-motion animation which has similarly managed not to top the YouTube charts. "That wasn't part of our original intention", says drummer Tim Pattison, "but it's a nice extra Christmas present for all of us."

The advantages of the band's victory are many. Just this morning bass player Frankie Machine didn't have to get up extra early to appear on Daybreak to talk about it. Singer Emma Pattison, meanwhile, didn't have to cancel an appearance on The Andrew Marr show when her flight home was delayed by snow. "Being stuck in an airport was stressful enough", she remarked by telephone, "without having to reschedule TV appearances!"

ShadowPlay dons its anorak for new radio show

ShadowPlay has extended its tentacles into yet another ocean hoping to find the clairvoyance of a certain psychic octopus. Fortunately apart from discovering who is due to win the 2016 European Championships, we have a new radio show.
Teaming up with long-time collaborator Tom Bonnett (aka DJ Teddy Stones) and reggae aficionado and BBC bod Alex Burnard, the new collective The Anoraks will appear bi-weekly on Shoreditch Radio. Broadcasting at shoreditchradio.co.uk, the magazine show will cover the most exciting new labels and events across a ridiculous combination of musical stylings.
This week don their macks for a deluge of musical mightiness. The Nerd-Js discuss the new compilation Tradi-Mods Vs Rockers - Alternative Takes On Congotronics featuring Juana Molina, Andrew Bird, Kasai Allstars, Juana Molina and more, go down to the bottom of the garden to find out what's in Micah P Hinson and decide how best to an achieve an orgasm at the Christmas dinner table.
Download, subscribe or stream the podcast here: http://shadowplayboys.podbean.com/

New Mount Kimbie Tune

  

Chloe: One in Other

Ears from both within and outside the hardcore electronic music scene have been pricking up since the mysterious Chloé came to prominence with The Waiting Room in 2007. Alex Lawson caught up with the DJ to discuss bringing her bedroom out to the watching world

It’s 4am in an aeroplane hangar of a building outside Barcelona and Chloé Thevenin is making a lot of people incredibly happy and dancing like they are nursing an ingrowing toe nail simultaneously at Sonar festival in the summer of 2008. She flicks up eyes up for a second from her precious vinyl, surveys a crowd dancing inside a giant igloo and blinded by the giant blue lights that accompany her triumphant set, allows herself a flicker of a smile and gets back to work.

Two years later these same eyes stare out from the cover of new record One in Other, a record hotly anticipated thanks to performances like the one in Catalonia and the underground success of her full debut, The Waiting Room. The French DJ’s passionate intensity is portrayed in the cover image captured by friend and photographer Bruno Staub and in there is a sense that Thevenin has stepped up a gear in the interim, upping the tempo of her electronica which falls somewhere in between the chasm separating Ulrich Schnauss and Clarke. So what’s changed? “Between the two albums, I started to play live. It was a new experience to me on the top of DJing and producing in the studio,

playing live meant bringing my studio in front of the crowd and get a direct feedback. It gave me a lot of new ideas like on how I wanted to record my next record, like recording my music live, to be quicker, more spontaneous.”  Thevinin first appeared on the scope of many minimal electronic producers and DJs with her first EP, Erosoft in 2002, but with no avenue to see her live it has been slow going for the undoubtedly talented noise inventor until signing to the ultra cool Kill the DJ records and playing out. Her new record, with its subtly humorous pun and flurry of heavy, teasing beats which bring the listener to the brink of frustrating such is there psiren-like promise, reflects this evolution into a fully fledged live entity. “I wanted to be the closest of the feelings I get from my DJ set during the weekend,” explains Thevenin. “I wanted to give back this great energy I receive but give it back on different tempos to build this new album, probably this is why you get this positive atmosphere.

“I build the track playing it live in my studio to keep something spontaneous. I use what I know to do as a DJ, I play with the dynamic, play with the music, the people, give or hold, I really like the idea of performance, as a DJ, in the studio or playing live, it's a good game which is very inspiring.”

Growing up on an aural diet of Parisian club and rave DJs, Thevenin has released material on labels like Karat, Gomma and Bpitch Control and her status as a minimal techno figurehead is growing. With a series of gigs lined up from September through to December culminating in a performance backing a contemporary dance show, Pandora Box by the tres chic Fabrice Ramalingum, there can be little doubt Chloé’s quirky material is turning heads. And those live performances, can we expect the same intensity? “When I DJ I play club music – I can equally produce an EP or a remix for clubs – for me it's the same mood, it's just not the same tempo.”

Come Get Felt Up: In Video Form

Wondering what this ShadowPlay hosted Come Get Felt Up Night night is all about? Get a taster here. It basically a monthly night at The Book Club in London where people craft to win prizes along to the sounds of great bands, good eh? More info at www.comegetfeltup.com

Field Day: A cracking time in the sack

It has been interesting to see Field Day evolve in its short history. Having attended each year since its inception four years ago, the small east London one-day festival has shown a certain amount of progression. Gone are the overflowing toilets and, for the most part, the giant queues for the bar. In their place, an army of amiable staff willing to have a laugh and who wince along with you when the painful booze bill looms into view. So, complete with sniffer dogs and, y’know, The Feds, but still with a craft tent and a mean tug of war, the fourth edition of the Victoria Park event got underway.

On a personal note, the day was a blur of bowling bacon (Frazzles up for grabs? Done), valiant sack races, silly dancing and a fervour to empty cans (10p each when returned, good to see an English festival finally follow Europe in working out a recycling method at festivals). Objectively, the line-up was not as strong was previous years. Pheonix do not have the cache of a Justice or Santogold, nor the talented Caribou (a Field Day stalwart) that of Les Savy Fav or Sleater-Kinney. But fuck it, the curators have taste. Thus the likes of Andrew Weatherall, Silver Apples, The Fall and Simian Mobile Disco stick their names on the bill.

In fact, the big names proved a little underwhelming, The Fall proved just as they have always been – stodgy ­– and Gruff Rhys vs Tony Da Gatorria sounded just that – a fight between two different styles which produced a cacophony so unbearable that the crowd quickly thinned despite the Power Ranger outfit. Among the highlights, and the reason Field Day has such a reputation for being on the mark, were The Golden Filter and Mount Kimbie. Both have been around for a little while but, in granting them early slots, they drew in the crowds (a tent bursting one in dubstep maestro Kimbie’s case) and proved beguiling. Aussies The Golden Filter are a hive of thrashing synchronised drums and inventive synth sounds which work perfectly to create fairly vicious pop; Mount Kimbie are an entirely different proposition drawing nodding heads and shuffling feet left, right and centre. Chilly Gonzalez also proves a popular delight, both defending his mix of jokey rap and classical piano (accompanied by duel drummers) and offering ‘stern words’ to those who doubted the combination, a genuine joy. Appearances from Hudson Mohawke, The Fact DJs and Gilles Peterson were cause for further salivation from any fingers attached to musical pulses.

What Field Day lacks in some of the logistical nous of making a one-day festival have the slick organisation of a larger, three to four day event, it makes up in passion for good, innovative music rarely seen in the often weary, lumbering cash cow genre that is British music festivals.