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.

Wilco at the Roundhouse, Camden

Great to see Wilco again last night, Jeff Tweedy on great form. Here's a clip from one of those people who wave their phones in the air.

For more info, check 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

Boom Bip - Zig Zaj

Great to see Cincinatti beat mangler Boom Bip return with a new release on the magnificent Lex Records. Following on from his Mercury Music Prize-nominated Neon Neon project with Gruff Rhys, this album also features a variety of vocal tracks. 
But Zig Zaj is still very much a Boom Bip solo album; maintaining the lush and powerful instrumental melodic elements of his previous work. He's got quite the celeb cohort on board for this latest output with Luke Steele (Empire Of The Sun), Alex Kapranos (Franz Ferdinand), Josh Klinghoffer (Chilli Peppers), Money Mark, Cate Le Bon (Neon Neon) and members of Warpaint and Bon Iver all appearing. At times it sounds just like that, going in many directions but there's a mark of quality synonymous with Lex that is never lost. Ten years as one of the pre-eminent hip-hop labels and still right up there. 



Read full review of Zig Zaj - BOOM BIP on Boomkat.com ©

La Volume Courbe - Theodaurus Rex

Photo courtesy of Andrew Kendall

It’s excellent to see La Volume Courbe’s Charlotte Marionneau back releasing music after almost four years absence and there’s no doubt this EP provides an interesting development in a promising career. The ever-modest Frenchwoman has set up a new label, Pickpocket Records, with none other than My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields to distribute the new material. In an interview with Marionneau in 2007 while promoting her last release, Freight Train, she told me working Shields and Hope Sandoval – a connection brokered by former Creation and Poptones boss Alan McGee – rovided a wealth of ideas to work on. Here, Marionneau appears more melancholic than her previous work – released on Honest Jons and Trouble Records – with a dreamy, fragile touch to each of the four tracks. Her broken English proves endearing while there’s a vulnerability (“thank you for everything that you do” on I Love the Living You) that underlines each track. 

The pick of the bunch is Lazy which has a catchy “you’re crazy and lazy, you know how much I love you” refrain and is punctured intermittently with short busts of heavy riffing, strangely thrilling in their bizarre juxtaposition. Elsewhere there’s beautiful violin, a track that featured as the closing track in Nick Moran’s film The Kid last year and artwork which features Belgian surrealist Paul Nouge’s La Bras Revelateur. Plenty to enjoy here. 

Interview: Kelpe and electronica Christmas carols

ShadowPlay caught up with Kelpe main man Kel McKeown to discuss DC Recordings, gigging in communist outposts and electronica reworkings of Christmas carols

As we wait anxiously by the letterbox each day to hear whether ShadowPlay’s Dutch choral beatboxing demo has been picked up by Warp Records, we can empathise with the feeling Kelpe’s Kel McKeown must’ve felt when his bedroom audio daubings were picked up by DC Recordings. “I was into the label when I was younger and DJing, really into Depth Charge and that stuff. Then quite a few years later a friend told me they were still releasing a lot of good records and recommended I send a demo in to them, they were keen and phoned me up straight away and we worked out an EP of material,” he says. DC has provided a swish, cool home to the likes of Padded Cell, The Emperor Machine and White Light Circus and gained a kudos in clubs rarely afforded for long. “They were always into releasing stuff that was different from the norm, some quite gritty, hard-edged stuff but also a lot of funky, sleazy stuff and a lot of hip-hop-inspired music and disco. Then later they got more into live bands with a krautrock feel,” he adds. 

Usually home to Sensible World of Soccer fanatics, the Amiga computer kick-started Kel’s fervour for computer aided sounds which he has honed since. Combining the less than trendy machine with a sampler and cassette deck aged 14, he moved on to a four track and then PC as he formed Kelpe in 2002 and released his first material a year later. Rich in experimental, gravel-y sounds, Kelpe has always mastered the art of sounding like a man in a field rattling a handful of curtain hooks with a genuine ear for a tune which has left him DJing across London, playing live with drummer Chris Walmsley since 2008, curating countless mixes and most importantly, creating the most incredible electronica-prog theremin heavy version of Silent Night you’re ever going to hear. Fact.

When ShadowPlay caught up with Kel, he’s just returned from SATTA festival in Lithuania, playing live in a run down outdoor communist lecture theatre packed from lecturn to top step with 2,500 people under a full moon. “[I was there with] with Paul White, Machinedrum, Gaslamp Killer, 100names. Debruit, Loops Haunt, and a load more top names in that type of music,” he explains. “It was generally a raucous time partying with my friends and musical heroes, and the kind of weekend that makes you feel its all worth doing.”

So how have things progressed in the studio? “I recorded a lot of drums and synths last year and need to get the recordings into shape. I think as a lot of electronic musicians will tell you, I've got like 100 half finished tracks, and its about selecting the ones that are worth pursuing.” With the new record just weeks away from release, and several 12”s in the pipeline, expect Kelpe to return in fine style. 

How to make a zine

Nice little stop frame on how to make a zine here. Just shows how easy it is, you can make a decent zine in a couple of hours and a great one in just a day.

The Sheffield Publicity Department launches

I received an interesting missive from Tom Common, formerly one half of the Toms who ran the excellent Go fanzine and tried valiantly to save Sheffield's greatest landmarks, the Cooling Towers, today about the launch of the Sheffield Publicity Department. An interesting new project I hope you'll agree. 


"Dear ex-Go fans.
Hope you're all well, and enjoying Sheffield's many new piles of rubble. Isn't St Paul's tower looking iconic and well-built? 
Introducing you to a new project that, like Go, aims to celebrate this silly old city of ours. Step forward, the Sheffield Publicity Department. 
The Publicity Department is a dream tourist agency for the city. It's not your usual tourist agency: we don't know what's on at the Crucible, and we haven't got the phone number for that Travel Lodge near Argos.* Instead, we aim to show residents and visitors alike the things that make this city so special, and where to find them: maps to the best views, tours of the terraces, postcards of the sunsets. We want to help people see the Sheffield we know and love.
With this in mind, we're doing a new project: tree-rubbings posters, celebrating Sheffield's beautiful urban forest. We're putting together special tree-rubbings packs, containing everything you need to get up close and personal with our trees, and create your own unique, DIY publicity poster for the city. 
Plus, we're running a workshop this Thursday, at the Site Gallery, to take you to some trees, and get you started. It's part of Site's DIY Summer, which has got all sorts of other creative things to make and do. Why not come?
There's more info on our blog, and on this facebook thing. And here's our twitter. 
Here ends the plug. Thanks for reading. 
Yours fondly,
Tom Common
Publicity Officer, SPD.
* We can recommend a restaurant though. Zeugmas. Thanks."