HISTORY PAINTING
shows, music, words & pictures / historypainting@hotmail.com
’4TH002′ – Gerry Read
New on Ramp Recordings offshoot, Fourth Wave. Teasing out slowly. This one digs deep. Gerry Read.
‘DTF DADT’ – The return of Spank Rock
Naeem and Alex return right in the thick of high summer. Clouds roll, dust-like and dissipate. Sound systems bleed peaking drawls and aqueous synth. When the sky’s stuck on blue, look down and the heat baked pavements leak tar. Noir.
‘Sound storm’, Actress at CAMP, London
Storm of sound. Air shaken wildly. Werk it.
(video found here)
‘Light-speed, psychedelic’, Daedelus at The Rhythm Factory, London
Before commencing a late night set in one of the hottest London summers in recent memory, Alfred ‘Daedelus‘ Darlington with an ear-to-ear smile beamed into the mic, ‘this reminds me of LA… it’s crazy… thanks for coming out on such a hot night… ‘. He was right, 12.45am and still t-shirt weather outside. Lush day followed by balmy night. ’… we’re gonna have some fun’. Correct again. Mic down, faders up, East London’s Rhythm Factory was treated to a whole ridiculously generous hour and a half of pure bliss. His furious production blended with Beach Boys samples, snatches of Dilla beats and even a low-end-rich rework of East Flatbush Project’s’ ‘Tried by Twelve’. All delivered at a blistering pace and performed in Darlington’s inimitable style, never far away from a change-rabid rapid sonic shift. BPM nudged high to match the intensity of the summer heat. Every beat tripping over into the next. The stuttering intensity of the soundsystem-stretching set echoed by the flicking limbs of the beat hungry crowd, happily giving their minds and bodies up to a shattered, light-speed, psychedelic odyssey. London just got a few degrees hotter.
‘Speed smeared’, Visions of Trees – Sometimes it Kills EP
It’s early February. Snow has melted and the dull clouds are parting. Blue skies and sunshine reappear like a half-remembered video effect. Resolution up. HD. Serotonin floods back into hibernating minds. Spring is coming. Close your eyes for a moment & stand in the light. A passing car blares out indistinct murmurs of radio pop. The sound is a brief splash, speed-smeared and skewed, Doppler effect wonky & truncated. One bar melding idly into the next as displaced seconds & decades collide simultaneously as in the idle thoughts of a yet to be discovered particle. Today is the official release date of an EP called ‘Sometimes it Kills’ by London duo, Visions of Trees. This is that sound extended. Dreamt out in bullet time sonics.
Get the EP from Royal Rhino Flying Records
‘Stuff of dreams’, Animal Collective – What Would I Want? Sky
Three words…
1.Strength
2. to
3. strength
http://digital.dominorecordco.com/search/release.php?RELEASE_ID=815
‘Palm reading’, Tetine – Tropical Punk
The long-burning embers of summer may have just exhibited their final flicker, but only to be replaced by the skybound flashes of fireworks and the warmth of burning timber.
The late-year tropics not hibernating, but repositioned. Endless summer.
‘Work Work’ Pre-’Ministry-Ministry’ Ministry
Pre-’Ministry-Ministry’ Ministry is an altogether different kind of experience to ‘Ministry-Ministry’ Ministry. Both good I guess. Just different. No value judgement there. But given the choice personally, today (much of which was spent on trains, sun beaming across spreading smiles) it might have to be P-’M-M’M. Heard this (or rather, the 12″ dub mix) again recently on the Metro Area Fabric Mix and has been stuck in my head for a bit now. So I’m passing on the pleasant affliction.
‘Au or Gold’, Banjo or Freakout at The Macbeth, London
Photo ripped from BOF myspace – credited to Elly
Banjo or Freakout are an unmistakably vital live group currently doing the rounds in London’s clubs. On record, there’s a lush restrained, tense thing going on, but live, the whole thing’s exploding out. Peaking levels oozing forth from a couple of SP555s, overdriven guitar -made-alien through a bank of stomp boxes, insistently pounding drums, like a Native American drum circle, and the abstract swirl of Natalizia’s super-delayed vocals. Go see these after one of these hot summer days. They will make your evening. This is THE summer. Pure goldsounds. Au.
p.s. New record out too…
It’s called ‘Upside Down’
http://halfmachinerecords.bigcartel.com/product/banjo-or-freakout-upside-down-12
