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The Mire

John Wall on Glossolalia

Tune into to Resonance FM tonight, 9 August, at 23:00 to catch the latest edition of Glossolalia , a show which, according to presenter Oliver Fay, is "produced with the intention of exploring the outer limits of composition, searching for those still thrashing uncomfortably around the perimeters of genre, the outsiders of the experimental music/sonic art frameworks." Tonight's edition features an hour long collaboration between digital composer-improvisor John Wall and poet Alex Rogers, both of whom fit Fay's brief for the show to a tee. John's last CD release was 2005's Cpohn , which contained just 20 minutes of material, and his live performances, while they have been growing more frequent in recent years, are still relatively few and far between, so this is a rare opportunity to hear one of the most unique and advanced (non-)musicians we have. As Helena Gough put it in The Wire 318: "His...

The Mire

The Wire Salon: Electric Eden

Our monthly salon series continues with a talk by The Wire ’s Editor-at-Large Rob Young based on his history of folk, folk rock, psychedelia and the British imagination, Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain’s Visionary Music (published by Faber And Faber, 5 August 2010.). The talk will be illustrated with film and audio clips and will be followed by a discussion of the book’s central themes; plus DJ Jonny Trunk will be in attendance spinning the sounds of wyrd and wired Britain. London Café Oto, 5 August, 8pm, £4. • Read: The Incredible String Band and The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter . Extract from Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain's Visionary Music by Rob Young • Read: Into The Woods . "Across folk, classical, pop and exploratory music, the sense of exile from Eden is key to the progress of British music...

The Mire

Monolake in Romanian

For all Romanian Techno and Ableton heads, you can now check out Derek Walmsley's interview transcript with Robert Henke/Monolake in Romanian on this excellent blog: http://boingbumchakro.blogspot.com/2010/07/interviu-robert-henke-aka-monolake.html .

The Mire

Jeff Keen: public meeting

Brighton's Lighthouse organisation is hosting an emergency public meeting to discuss how best to secure the archive of local underground film maker and artist Jeff Keen. Keen is ill with prostate cancer, and also faces eviction along with his wife Stella from their current home in the town. This necessitates them moving into Keen's studio, which currently houses his archive, which in turn necessitates relocating the archive to another location. Any interested parties are urged to attend the meeting at Lighthouse in Brighton on 28 July, whether to show support, or to offer practical solutions. Keen is one of the UK's pioneering experimental film makers. Three of his short films dating from the mid-1960s are currently on show as part of the exhibition Blow Up: Exploding Sound And Noise (London-Brighton 1959-1969) at Flat Time House in South London. The exhibition has been curated by The Wire's David Toop...

The Mire

How To Wreck A Nice Blog

If you haven't already had your brain rearranged this year by Dave Tompkins's How To Wreck A Nice Beach , an occult history of the vocoder from Cybertron back to the communication R&D labs of Second World War... well, you should. But if you want to try out your code-breaking skills before you buy (by the way, it's one of the most beautifully produced books I've seen in a long time) you can visit Dave's blog . Essential musings on Rammellzee's death, vocoder ephemera, an astonishing and essential mix taking in Jonzun Crew, ELO and The Human League, and many other enigmatic variations on the vocoder theme. All done by the dude above in the Luke Skyywalker jacket. Essential reading and listening... as is this completely singular book.

The Mire

Foundational text

“I was a sound recordist from the age of 11, long before Richard Kirk, Stephen Mallinder and I got together as Cabaret Voltaire,” announces Chris Watson in the new August issue of The Wire. “I was inspired by Stockhausen and Pierre Schaeffer and musique concrète. I also read this fantastic little yellowed paperback I still have called Composing With Tape Recorders written by an Englishman with the fabulous name of Terence Dwyer. There was a picture of a tape loop going round a jam jar on the cover. To see that as a 14 year old made me think that this was exactly what I should be doing: recording sound." Earlier in the same issue, Anthony Child, aka UK Techno producer Surgeon, tells Derek Walmlsey, "It began with playing with tape recorders, like a lot of people do, and then taking them apart, and...

The Mire

Juxtavoices

Martin Archer, the Sheffield based improvisor, composer and owner of the Discus label, has started an avant community choir project called Juxtavoices in South Yorkshire, and is looking for more eager voices to swell its ranks. Choir membership is open to any singer irrespective of training, ie no previous experience of either group singing or improvising is required. The repertoire mixes simple scores and instructions with improvised elements, which often allow the choir itself to determine the shape of the music as it progresses. Rehearsals begin with workshop style exercises which are designed to encourage the choir's confidence in using non standard techniques, including improvisation. The choir meets once a month in Sheffield, and the objective is to be in a position to perform and record in 2011. The choir currently has 25 members, including a large slice of Sheffield's leftfield music, visual arts and literary communities, but is looking to double that number. Anyone interested in joining should contact...

The Mire

Indomitable Lions

Readers in the UK should run come rally to check out Babylon , the 1980 reggae drama set in South London which the BBC has got on its iPlayer for the next few days. I'd not seen this before, but it's terrific, with a young Brinsley Forde sympathetic but spiky as the deejay of the Ital Lion soundsystem which the film follows. It feels factually a little off target (overt intimidation of one soundclash crew by another, negotiating for ages and massively upping the ante to buy a prerelease rhythm of just one single track, stealing speakers from schools), but it always manages to to feel right somehow. There's enough grime, oil and solder to somehow make the plot stick, and the dedication, the grind, the gallows humour of keeping a soundsystem up and running is right there. It pinpoints that atmosphere of sitting in a van with jack shit...

The Mire

[Reciprocess: +/vs.]

[Reciprocess: +/vs.] , which was compiled to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Marseille-based BiP_HOp label and was given away exclusively to all The Wire ’s subscribers with copies of the March 2009 issue, has been nominated for Compilation of the Year in the sixth edition of the Qwartz Electronic Music Awards. The nominations for the awards were chosen by a jury that this year included Gudrun Gut and Alejandro Jodorowsky. Since 1 December the public (that's the rest of us) has been able to listen online and vote on the jury’s nominations. The winners will be announced in April 2010 at a ceremony in Paris. To hear the nominations in all categories and vote on them go to the Qwartz site. [Reciprocess: +/vs.] takes the form of an 80 minute piece of music assembled by BiP_HOp label boss Philippe Petit. The piece includes input from...

The Mire

Sonar 2009: Omar Souleyman

Fresh from the successful Sublime Frequencies UK tour last May, Omar Souleyman continues on through Europe, kicking off his set at Sonar 2009, 19 June: Sonar 2009: Omar Souleyman from The Wire Magazine on Vimeo .

The Mire

Sonar 2009: Konono N˚1

Another new vid: Congolese group Konono N˚1 were set to play at last year's Sonar festival but unfortunately had to cancel at the last minute due to visa problems... The video below is of their soundcheck about a half hour before their scheduled set on friday 18 June. Though the lighting is low it's definitely the clearest view I could get as once the hall filled out it was nearly impossible to stay still from everyone dancing! Sonar 2009: Konono N˚1 from The Wire Magazine on Vimeo .

The Mire

"High"

American artist and musician (and bandmate with Mike Kelley in The Poetics) Tony Oursler recently opened an exhibition at the Lisson Gallery in London. The show, which runs until October 3rd, features a mixture of his work from the 90's along with new work from this year, if you're familiar with Oursler's art then there won't be many surprises for you, but it's still well worth a visit. Using sculpture, painting, video projection and sound, Oursler combines a hand-made DIY aesthetic with images of obsessive habits such as chain smoking, internet addiction and compulsive gambling along with the sound of indistinct mumblings and sharp angry whispers. Wandering through the darkened galleries as the emanations from each work overlap with one another creates a sense of being in a space of conflict and psychological violence; as if caught up in an argument between a roomful of tatty puppets, disembodied heads...