It's a melancholic tune but at least we can rejoice in the fact that The xx are making more music.
Wednesday 25 July 2012
The xx - Angels
Arguably it's a bit samey to the stuff on their first album, but when the material's so undeniably lush and melodic who cares if it's samey. 'Angels' is a sparse track with more of the delicate vocals that we've come to expect from front girl Romy, the lyrics are uttered softly yet still retain a powerful poeticism as they drift over distant guitars.
It's a melancholic tune but at least we can rejoice in the fact that The xx are making more music.
It's a melancholic tune but at least we can rejoice in the fact that The xx are making more music.
Tuesday 24 July 2012
Hospitality @ Digital
Review first appeared in Brighton SOURCE mag
It seems every genre of EDM is getting prefixed by the ‘future’ tag – future house, future garage, future step. Alright, we may have made that last one up, but drum’n’bass is getting ushered into the corner with all the exciting new developments in dance music. Hospitality, however, is here to prove that it’s still alive and kick-drumming.
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| Photo by Zac Colbert |
Nu:Tone successfully warms up the crowd, as diamond geezers thrash about with their tops off and junglettes get treated to a bass heavy remix of Adele’s ‘Rolling In The Deep’, before headliners Sigma take to the decks. Their productions err on the side of soulful liquid blends but tonight’s set opts for the grittier edge of drum’n’bass, best illustrated when they drop DJ Hazard’s ‘Mr Happy’. Digital’s raving elite gets their jubilee skank on for all of England as the ear shattering sonics pulse throughout the club. The place is rammed, so it’s safe to say that d’n’b is far from flat-lining yet.
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| Photo by Zac Colbert |
Friday 20 July 2012
Wednesday 18 July 2012
Fifty Shades of Disappointment
Was aiming for a satirical take, combining the recent story of porn warping young people's view of what sex is and should be, with the "literary" phenomenon Fifty Shades of Grey. But I don't think I pulled it off.
It is feared that girls growing up with clit lit like E.L. James' Fifty Shades of Grey are building themselves up for a lifetime of disappointment. The easy access and over saturation (there's a trilogy) of such material means that an entire generation of young women believe that multiple orgasms will be a staple fixture of their sex life. Any grown woman will tell you this is pure fantasy, as fantastical as the idea of a multi-millionaire taking days off willy nilly to seduce a virginal college girl and engage in some light domestic violence.
There have been some unconfirmed reports that Fifty Shades of Grey is actually an elaborate initiative from the Coalition government to get people to read again, that E.L. James is merely an invention. Sources close to us didn't say, "MI5 were concerned about the lack of people reading so have begun hiding porn deep under covers, respectable covers that make the filth contained within look like proper literature. Confusion has followed because a) It's been successful and b) It comes after the government tried closing down all the libraries."
It is feared that girls growing up with clit lit like E.L. James' Fifty Shades of Grey are building themselves up for a lifetime of disappointment. The easy access and over saturation (there's a trilogy) of such material means that an entire generation of young women believe that multiple orgasms will be a staple fixture of their sex life. Any grown woman will tell you this is pure fantasy, as fantastical as the idea of a multi-millionaire taking days off willy nilly to seduce a virginal college girl and engage in some light domestic violence.
Equally, men are panicking at the sudden weight of expectation that is building upon their frail shoulders. Clit lit and mommy porn novels are irresponsibly depicting men as bona-fide sex Gods, which I can assure you is not the case. Men find sex both awe-inspiring and terrifying in equal measure. Have you ever seen a man regard a dildo with anything other than utter fear or a nervous joke? Showing a woman a pleasurable time in bed is about as easy for men as committing. Maybe if there was an app for that we could maybe, possibly, potentially manage to deliver one orgasm every now and then, with a lot of work, patience, luck and lube. We need a cervical compass, a labia map and vulva orienteering tools. We need as much help as we can get. Characters such as Christian Grey, who makes Ana gush come like a salty waterfall simply by saying her name, are responsible for a distorted view that is not only unrealistic but grossly careless. Please, take a second to think about the younger generation, who will inevitably be crushed by these great expectations. It is unfair and unjust.
There have been some unconfirmed reports that Fifty Shades of Grey is actually an elaborate initiative from the Coalition government to get people to read again, that E.L. James is merely an invention. Sources close to us didn't say, "MI5 were concerned about the lack of people reading so have begun hiding porn deep under covers, respectable covers that make the filth contained within look like proper literature. Confusion has followed because a) It's been successful and b) It comes after the government tried closing down all the libraries."
Monday 16 July 2012
Thursday 5 July 2012
Tuesday 3 July 2012
Everything is a Remix, EVERYTHING
Every time I watch this section I learn something new. It's a great series and this one in particular, about film, articulates some really interesting points about where ideas come from, the recycling and regurgitation of these ideas. And 'sorry about colonialism' has got to be the best type of film genre ever. You can donate to Everything's a Remix here, I haven't yet but I will, promise.
Rather fittingly, of course, Kirby the author isn't writing anything new. Lev Manovich has been writing about remix culture for more than a decade and Wired mag released an issue back in 2005 called Remix Planet. As is with most things, it all ties in with Roland Barthes, "the text is a tissue of quotations drawn from the innumerable centre's of culture."
Rather fittingly, of course, Kirby the author isn't writing anything new. Lev Manovich has been writing about remix culture for more than a decade and Wired mag released an issue back in 2005 called Remix Planet. As is with most things, it all ties in with Roland Barthes, "the text is a tissue of quotations drawn from the innumerable centre's of culture."
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