38 Bido Lito! <strong>September</strong> <strong>2014</strong> Reviews DIGGING A LITTLE DEEPER with Dig Vinyl Bold Street’s latest wax junkies DIG VINYL know a thing or two about the weird and wonderful depths of people’s record collections, and each month they’ll be rifling through their racks and picking out four of their favourite in-stock records. Keep digging… bidolito.co.uk TERRY RILEY IN C This is one of the works that put minimalism on the map. TERRY RILEY's In C has been called The Rite Of Spring of our time. Drop the needle to hear a whole tapestry of interlocking sounds start to unfold, and find yourself slowly getting immersed in In C. You don't really listen to this piece; the effect is much more like immersion, as the very gradual shifting of patterns is more like organic growth, instead of the architectural jumps and skips found in the work of Philip Glass or Steve Reich. TANGERINE ZOO THE TANGERINE ZOO This classic album scores highly due to its great swirling organ – on occasion bringing Vanilla Fudge to mind – biting lead guitar playing and some great period psych tracks like Trip To The Zoo, Symphonic Psyche and Crystalescent Heaven. Gloria has probably been done a million times, but this is 1968 and quite an early cover version, and besides that their noisy garage psych version, with piercing lead guitar breaks and shimmering organ, is a worthy take on the old classic. NEW YORK DOLLS CAUSE I SEZ SO After finding themselves in the unenviable position of difficult second album for a second time, the rejuvenated NEW YORK DOLLS were always gonna be up against it. Apart from a naff cover pic, they deliver a solid, if a bit maverick and mature-sounding, New York Dolls album. At times it sounds as if it’s a blast from the past, but minus the heavy clouds of a drug-intoxicated group that set 1974 on fire, with Todd Rundgren this time keeping them in check. CEYLEIB PEOPLE TANYET This is the obscure, possibly studio-only, raga-psych band's sole album, originally released in 1968. It features Ry Cooder on guitar and, as expected, combines early Magic Band mutant blues playing with some well-thought-out psychsploitation. For 1967, this is definitely hippy experimental music, hopping from guitar riffs to sitar drones to mellotron rambling and back, with little regard for convention. Head to bidolito.co.uk now to stream the latest Dig Vinyl Podcast, featuring a mixture of new, old and half-forgotten classics. ever knowing who the person behind the decks is. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing of course, but there is something immeasurably powerful about a room full of people dancing towards the same beat, the same purpose, as the sounds permeating from the speakers create a tangible sense of being part of something bigger than yourself. Tom Trago is an icon among his houseleaning Dutch motherland and, like his recorded output to date, rhythm is central to his set tonight, concealing more immediate dancefloor anthems inside beats almost overwrought with intensity. The top-shelf productions of his own Use Me Again and Steppin’ Out and their instantaneous euphoria are usurped in favour of a deeper sound that looks to slowly nudge its audience towards that level of sonic bliss. DIXON steps in after an obligatory coolset-bro hug with Trago, with a slow-burning, progressive-leaning set more akin to the likes of Digweed rather than fellow Berliner Ben Klock and his Panorama Bar contemporaries. Holding back on the kickdrums and those widescreen, techno downpours, Dixon instead offers slow, gentle swells of gratification in a way that builds and builds but never quite releases. This exercise in restraint clearly has one eye on the clock, which, with over two hours remaining, is evidence of a DJ with an appreciation for the bigger picture of the clubnight experience in its entirety, rather than the short window of his own set. There is a reason he was named the best DJ in the world just a few months ago; it’s a testament to his own versatility that if he was on last tonight we would likely be treated to something almost entirely different. The eccentric Green Velvet approaches bearing a fittingly green Mohawk, smiling serenely behind his spherical glasses as if he has just stepped into a wedding reception. Employing his trademark, snarled vocals over the likes of Lazer Beams, Flash and the aforementioned Bigger Than Prince, he provides those moments of rapture the rest of the evening had been teasing at throughout a blistering two-hour performance. It seems staggering that these songs came out in the mid 90s, as they sound every bit like electronic music does in <strong>2014</strong> and hold their own alongside the likes Paul Woolford’s Erotic Discourse as if we are listening to one of those end-of-year podcasts. It’s telling that a recent Hot Since 82 remix has brought Bigger Than Prince back to a new generation of listeners so seamlessly, as Green Velvet proves that, as timeless as he is as a producer, he can absolutely keep up with the relentless forward momentum of electronic music and maintain his position as a truly world-class DJ. Mike Townsend / @townsendyesmate IMMORTAL TECHNIQUE East Village Arts Club Hip hop is a genre and a culture that is often plagued with negative preconceptions by casual observers. While this is unfair, it certainly can’t be said that those misconceptions come from nowhere. All you have to do is turn on 4Music at any time of the day or night to see some multi-millionaire flavour-of-themonth rapper reeling off the usual clichés – casual misogyny, advocation of mindless violence, glorification of money above all else. Thankfully, these mainstream anomalies aren’t at all representative of the culture, and in reality hip hop couldn’t be more different. Scratch the surface and you will find a rich, vibrant culture which more often than not promotes selfempowerment and investment in knowledge. Over the top of a phat beat, naturally. Tonight, EVAC is packed to the rafters, and there’s not a casual hip hop fan in sight. Almost everyone who is here couldn’t possibly have chosen to go anywhere else tonight, and all have been looking forward to this for months. As soon as IMMORTAL TECHNIQUE takes the stage and busts out the opening bars of The Martyr, it’s obvious the masses are not about to be disappointed. His vocal delivery is crisp and potent, and his ability to work the crowd is impressive. The audience is behind Technique 100%, singing their lungs out to the chorus of Harlem Streets, a grim, lyrical portrait of police corruption and the everyday struggles of the working classes. Musically, the beats are always on point, and provide a great canvas for his searing lyrics. Even when he throws in a tongue-in-cheek ABBA sample on Rich Man’s World, his craft as a lyricist is strong enough to make it work. “I heard Liverpool was a town full of madmen and soccer hooligans” he says after a few songs, baiting the crowd into becoming even louder. Inter-song speeches are a huge part of his performance, and at times this feels less like a hip hop show and more like a political rally with a DJ behind it. Immortal Technique is a self-described revolutionary, and he’s not afraid to make his case. No topic is off-limits – misogyny in the media, government coverups, the military-industrial complex: you name it, he breaks it down good and proper, and leaves you with no mistake over how he feels. Any other artist talking between songs about these wholly serious subjects to such an extent would risk coming across as overly earnest and pompous (Bono, I’m looking at you), but Tech speaks with such sheer conviction and depth of knowledge that you can only respect it. Whether or not music really can save the world is a point that can be argued until the cows come home. One thing that’s hard to dispute though - it’s reassuring that a few artists still try. Alex Holbourn / @AlexHolbourn
We Buy White Albums FACT and Liverpool International Music Festival Present: Rutherford Chang’s We Buy White Albums 15 August - 15 <strong>September</strong> FACT Loading Bay / 12pm - 5pm New York based artist Rutherford Chang, travels the world buying first edition copies of The Beatles White Album. His entire collection will be on show in our Loading Bay. fact.co.uk/whitealbum
Change language