A quick heads up for Brighton Wire folk: Joseph Stannard's psych/prog/kraut/cosmic/electronic extravaganza The Outer Church touches down again on 9 June, with a special guest DJ in the shape of Moon Wiring Club’s Ian Hodgson, who promises "AN ELECTRONIX FIZZPOP SLURRED ITALO SYNPOP SPACE EXPLOSION". We don't know as yet if he'll be DJing in capitals. That's his marvelous flyer above. There'll be the usual music from Giorgio Moroder to Mordant Music to Magma. It takes place at The Penthouse @ The Freebutt and it's FREE.

Derek Walmsley 26|05|2010

Tags: Uncategorized

If you're in NYC today, this talk/discussion/crate-digging session featuring Dave Tompkins (plus old hiphop sparing partner Hua Hsu), celebrating the launch of Dave's book How To Wreck A Nice Beach: The Vocoder From World War II To Hip Hop – The Machine Speaks. looks fantastic. A real one-off for sure... here's what Dave says:

I'll be doing a vocoder book reading TODAY, 7 p.m., at McNally Jackson on 52 Prince Street in Soho, near Lafayette. Expect missiles, Muppets, asthma attacks, and vanishing staircases.

It will be hosted by New York Times critic Jon Caramanica and Hua Hsu. Jon is a big fan of "Nasty Rock," the only vocoder hit out of Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina. Hua Hsu writes for the Atlantic Monthly and has been subjected to just about every freaking hare-brained scheme that went into this thing.

The legendary EMS-3000 Vocoder will also be in the house, still coherent after running around with the Cylons, Pink Floyd and ELO.

The reading will be followed by a party at Trophy Bar, at 351 Broadway, btwn 9th and Keap Streets, with classy boogie-disco-electro-hip-hop-assorted-hyphenated-whatnot provided by some of my favorite New York DJs.

Duane Harriott (Other Music/Negroclash/Bim Marx) did my favorite gospel disco edit from last summer. Veronica Vasicka runs the excellent Minimal Wave label and radio show. East Village Radio. Chairman Mao (ego trip) recently made it possible for me to hear about how Schoolly D's wife once kicked the 2 Live Crew out of Schoolly D's house. I've been collaborating with Monk-One (Wax Poetics) on the book mix which will be up next week and will include a special edit of Gary Numan's "Telekon."

Sponsored by the ghosts of those two Signal Corps officers presiding over the turntables in the photo. (SIGSALY Vocoder Terminal codenamed SAMPLE, Paris, 1945)

Be sure to say hi to the stop smiling/runner folks who worked so incredibly hard to make this book. Ask James Hughes why "Biters In The City" made him freak out.

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Thanks to Kevin at AnalogLifestyle for the McNally Flyer and the unstoppable Tina Ibanez for the party flyer.

Hope to see you there!

Derek Walmsley 03|05|2010

Tags: Dave Tompkins | events | New York | vocoder book

The big news doing the rounds of London club culture last week was concerning the future of Plastic People, the longstanding home of the FWD>> club and a key part of dubstep’s history. The Metropolitan Police have applied to review the license of the club, citing reasons of prevention of crime and disorder and public nuisance. DJs such as Kode9, Theo Parrish and Mark Ernestus have regularly appeared there, and it’s one of London’s most intimate venues, a small space designed for close listening. An organisation called The Friends of Plastic People has been formed, which aims to help the PP management to comply with the licensing conditions.

On a personal note, I find this disturbing and bizarre news. Plastic People is certainly one of the most welcoming and most trouble-free places I've ever been to. Compare with the rest of the Shoreditch area – one of the most densely populated places for strip clubs and brothels in the whole of the UK, due to the nearby presence of the City – and it's baffling how police could conclude that crime prevention would be well served by focusing their scrutiny on this intimate club, where you'll generally find 200 odd fairly well-behaved music fans.

To me, I find it part of a slightly unsettling trend – urban music events are being regularly cancelled on the whim of the police, it seems, from the UK tour of rapper Giggs to numerous grime events over the years. The notorious Form 696 is apparently used by police to monitor grime events in particular, which requires addresses and contact details for all artists appearing on the night (which for a grime event can be many, many MCs). I can't be alone in viewing this as a gross invasion of privacy.

The problem here is that the police are essentially the sole arbiter of what constitutes safety in the context of club culture. From the outside, it appears they're more comfortable with busy, boozy, pubs and superclubs than intimate and self-regulating underground events. At a time when binge drinking is seen as a serious public health threat, it seems that police are unwittingly whittling down events into just the kind of mainstream, mass-market entertainment channels that encourages conspicuous consumption.

On Saturday, I went to another London club, Proud Gallery in Camden. Truly one of the most unpleasant clubbing experiences I've ever had, it was dangerously packed to capacity, full of aggressive punters packed into close-quarters, and with unsmiling security guards moving crowds from pillar to post to stop people congregating in the quiet areas. Is this the terrifying future of clubbing, where security guards make sure there's no disruption to the surrounding neighbourhood by packing clubbers in like cattle? Perhaps that should be horses, given the building's history. I mentioned the dangerous amount of people in there to a black clad, baseball cap wearing security guard at the end of the night, who merely shrugged. We walked away from the club, feeling like we'd narrowly escaped from a mass bar-room punch-up. But at least there was no crime or disorder on the street, eh?

As things stand, there are two ways to help Plastic People. You can sign the petition at petitiononline.com/PP2010/petition.html . The most important action, though, is via local letters sent to Hackney Licensing from local residents and businesses. Details of Hackney Council's licensing section can be found here. A Facebook group is also distributing information on how you can help.

A hearing on the future of the club’s licence is due to take place before 31 March.

UPDATE AND RIGHT TO REPLY FROM PROUD CAMDEN:

I got an email in response from Alex of Proud Camden. Here's part of it he asked to be quoted:

We stick to police capacity and have done since we opened.
We don’t allow any AIS security guards to wear headwear and never have. We also don’t allow any form of military clothing.
We try to make all our staff polite and pleasant.
We have to stop people congregating in fire exits, it’s simply the law. This annoys people obviously, but it’s the law, not us!
We were not over capacity and it was not dangerous. There are 7 sets of double width fire exits, 2 or more to each room, a fire alarm that cuts out the music and over 17 floor staff who are on the radio and there to watch for everyone’s safety at all times.
It was hot on Saturday night and that made the club unpleasant for an hour until the ventilation was cranked back on for the first time since summer.
There never has been a punch up and we pride ourselves on how safe Proud is and will continue to be.

We will review all procedures , and I am sorry you had such a bad evening, we honestly hate it when people have a negative time!

Derek Walmsley 03|05|2010

Tags: Club | grime | license | london | Plastic People | Uncategorized