December 31, 2007
POP MUSIC / Pop Music
But jungle is still too London-dominated. To seduce the North it’ll probably need “stars” to pave the way, faces people can latch onto. And few come more appropriate than Manchester’s A Guy Called Gerald (right). His name is synonymous with the last Eighties E-fuelled acid techno venture for one; most albums are of the compilation hits variety. But crucially it draws just as much from pulsey ambient techno as it does from the urban rumble of manic break-beats. The pair-up seems so natural, one wonders why there’s so much antipathy between techno and jungle scenes. A Guy Called Gerald’s appearance alongside other techno luminaries including Renegade Soundwave and Dread Zone at the NME Vibes night should help warm the friendship a bit. Here’s to 1995 - and techno and jungle finding more mutual shades of rhythm than ever before.
POP MUSIC / Pop Music
But jungle is still too London-dominated. To seduce the North it’ll probably need “stars” to pave the way, faces people can latch onto. And few come more appropriate than Manchester’s A Guy Called Gerald (right). His name is synonymous with the last Eighties E- fuelled acid techno venture for one; most albums are of the compilation hits variety. But crucially it draws just as much from pulsey ambient techno as it does from the urban rumble of manic break-beats. The pair-up seems so natural, one wonders why there’s so much antipathy between techno and jungle scenes. A Guy Called Gerald’s appearance alongside other techno luminaries including Renegade Soundwave and Dread Zone at the NME Vibes night should help warm the friendship a bit. Here’s to 1995 - and techno and jungle finding more mutual shades of rhythm than ever before.
Delmark Records CD Release Parties- Sabertooth, Brad - All About Jazz
San Francisco has a long tradition of pranksters. Back in the early Sixties, two guys in suits working for the local KGO station interviewed people on tape for their radio show. The archives are Coyle & Sharpe - the original San Francisco Pranksters
Craig Terrill CD Release Party
MUSIC
Yes, it’s Arcade Fire - led by Win Butler ( above) - versus Kaiser Chiefs at the top of this week’s chart.
CLASSICAL MUSIC / Classical Music
Considering that he used to be one of the terror names of 20th- century “difficult” composition, the scale of the tribute is astonishing. But while it will attract cynicism in Paris, where he has wielded power over the new- music scene to the point of paralysis, the attitude of Londoners is more relaxed. That’s because over here he has been conductor first, composer second. Now that his firebrand years in charge of the BBC Symphony Orchestra are well in the past, he is often regarded with genuine affection as a down-to- earth, non-maestro figure who can reveal the secrets of Stravinsky, Bartok and Berg. What he did for the performance of all these composers will not be lightly forgotten.
Advertisement
Each concert has a work of Boulez’s own, some of them tough going, some of them positively mellow, all of them sensuous, refined and quick-thinking. Significantly, though, it’s the repertoire of the early century that dominates the birthday series: Stravinsky’s Petrushka and Rite of Spring, Bartok concertos and the Miraculous Mandarin ballet, gorgeous early songs by Berg, brilliant scores by Debussy and Ravel. With the LSO offering generous rehearsal times, expect a feast for the ears.
MUSIC
At No 3, celebrating their fifth album and almost as many line-up changes, are the Sugababes with Overloaded. With only eight years in the business they are spring chickens compared to Michael, who released a previous best of… compilation in 1998, the year the ‘Babes first entered the charts.