Wednesday 20 May 2009

Out Of Head Experience



This summer when wasted in a field, you need to prepare yourself to experience everything that's in your head falling out and floating around you.

Nope - no-one's slipped you an evil herbal high, the chances are you've stumbled into NOVAK's 360 degree 3D disco.

The DJ/art collective have been hitting their 3D club nights across the UK (including their pre-Chems show in Trafalgar Square), where virtual visuals are beamed behind the bands and DJs, but they're taking it to whole new levels with their new show.

The 360 degree 3D set takes you through a whistlestop tour of fads from the Lichtenstein 50's right through to the Amstradtastic 80's. On top of this, massive winking eyes, kicking legs and strange heads fade in, out and right around your line of vision, making it a much better clubbing experience than staring a fat guy spinning tunes in a booth.

NOVAK are taking it to Glastonbury this summer as well. Just a gentle warning for those close to the edge when you find it.

Wild Horses

This is one of loveliest songs I've heard in a while:



It's by a French/German duo called Appaloosa, who were in London to play a tiny show in Selfridges last week. I think Anne-Laure's Nico-esque act was a little lost on the hoards of Middle-Eastern women loading up on expensive teapots and towels, though.

She looked super cool in a sequined, vintage minidress on stage but told me she had been very close to flashing us a few times. I think the crowd were more shocked by her merman companion though.

Friday 8 May 2009

'SUP Mag issue 19 release party


Yeah, Wednesday's probably a leeetle early to start the weekend's downward spiral, but when the line up's this good, who are you to deny it?

'SUP Mag are taking over central boite Maddox on Wednesday 13th, and bringing crates of fun in the shape of Nadia Ksaiba (Our Disco/Say Yes!/*GIRLCORE*), Andy Blake (Dissident), punctuation fascist Stopmakingme (Kill 'Em All) and Oli Isaacs (This Is Music) to fire electro bullets of joy into your hearts.

8.30 - late. Come down before 10pm, free booze!

Saturday 2 May 2009

Hello Lenin


You can't keep a good party don down. Gary Fairfull, the guy behind art/music/immense nighttime fuckery venue Found, has opened up a new pop-up venue in Shoreditch this week.

Lenin's Promise feels a little bit like someone's front room (anyone say HOUSE PARTY?) and Gary's employed the talents of Le Gun to design Edgar Allan Poe/Russian inspired wall panels to balance against the windows, keeping the party firmly locked down inside. 

Poet Murray Lachlan Young was due to perform when we dropped by, and there's some almighty sounding Latino night going down tonight, complete with 9 piece brass band.

We're planning a 'SUP Party there later this month - will keep you posted with details....

Sunday 19 April 2009

Right Royal Rave Up



It’s not often you’re invited to rave in a cave, much less with one of London’s top DJ’s, and even more unlikely in a middle-Eastern restaurant on Dalston’s high street.

But this was never going to be a standard club night. As one of the 10 venues participating in new music festival Land Of Kings, the Rave In A Cave event was always going to be the crowd puller for the Friday night.

Essentially all the tables and chairs were ripped out of one of Dalston's best loved eateries to make way for a huge soundsystem and the mighty Erol Alkan and Rory Phillips, who were also supported by super-disco-blogger Todd Hart and Lou and Nova.

This is what happened. You REALLY needed to be there. It was seven levels of AMAZING.

Tuesday 7 April 2009

Encore Paris Encore






There's obviously some kind of electrolytes being pumped into the Seine. How else can you explain Daft Punk, Justice, Phoenix, Anaraak, Surkin, Yelle, Fred Falke, Alax Braxe, Busy P, Mehdi and all the other acts of Electro musical greatness from one place?

There's no sign of it stopping either with new band Housse De Racket who tore it up on Saturday night at the super cool Pop-Up Bar in Paris. Housed in a old cabaret theatre and with only a capacity of only 70 we were rammed in, rubbing shoulders with the Parisian elite (who unlike us, had no problems with the door guy).

Clearly massively talented, the guys stormed through a range of genres in their songs, from the poppy Oh Yeah to the banging Synthetiseur, which wouldn't have sounded out of place on Justice's stage.

AH OUI.

Here's Oh Yeah, which their manager told us was about white tennis boys wanting to be black:

Oh La La Chapelle



Paris, as well to being home to some of the most amazing bands around (see up there ^^^) is also hosting one of the best modern photography exhibitions ever.

Our lucky French pals have been able to feast themselves on a retrospective of David La Chapelle since February. Best known for his work sexualising lil ol' Britney Spears, subverting Kanye West as Jesus and making a muse of tranny Amanda Le Pore, the exhibition looks back at some of his most controversial and creative work.

Housed in the very fitting Musee De La Monnaie (think guilded, grandiose rooms laden with crystal chandeliers) the show features massive pop-up shots, including his incredible biblical tales of epic disaster and man-made hell told through his celebrity pals.

Glossy, powerful images of fantasies from a not-too distant future, the pictures seem to highlight the problems of capitalism, fame and greed. Hmmm, sounds familiar. A Nostradamus of our times, but much prettier, perhaps.

The show's due to come to London in a couple of months. Book now before we all perish!

Thursday 26 March 2009

Lights Kamera ACTION



Topshop's new music experience Topman CRTL kicked off last night in Hoxton with Metronomy at the helms.

By helms, I mean they 'curate' the night by selecting a couple of bands they like the sound of for our pleasure.

Your Twenties opened and were an average preppy indie-pop band. So far, so blah. What we weren't expecting was Kamerakino.

Like a Germanic version of The Commitments and with a lead singer who looked like a younger, prettier version of Shane McGowan the audience stopped dead in their Topshop tracks as the lead singer announced "Ello, we're from Munich" in a thick brogue. The guy in front of me whispered "Er, he's joking right? They can't be for real?"

Turns out they were. They started their nu-folk attack armed with violins, keyboards and a shouty Munichian front man. And they were AMAZING. Finger of Love had the wacky keyboard girl dancing around, led by said finger and their follow up tracks got everyone dancing, albeit with a bemused grin on their faces.

Munich - the new music revolution.

Tuesday 24 March 2009

Waiting For E.T.


Whatever happened to crazy cults? Time was in the 90s you couldn't go a few weeks without some wackos in the Bible Belt holding hostages or offering themselves up for sacrifice for the secret of eternal life.

The classic cult story was the UFO-obsessed Heaven's Gate group in 1997, where 38 people clad in black shirts, jogging bottoms and brand new Nike trainers committed suicide as they believed the Earth was going to be wiped. They also wore armbands that said 'Heaven's Gate Away Team'.

Nike's Just Do It never seemed so apt.

The Heaven's Gate story is the inspiration for Tim Phillips' exhibition at Vyner St gallery Boys School at the moment. Heaven's Gate is a hulking great structure; part totem pole, part altar that looks at the misguided revery the group had for their supposed afterlife.

The mix of wooden panels and shiny black plastic contrast with the Swarovski crystals and gold detailing, presumably to illustrate the flashy, false ideas the group were fed. All that it was lacking was a JD Sports black trackie suit and Nike kicks. Hey, those dogs gonna look F_L_Y next time around, y'all!

Sunday 22 March 2009

I'll pencil it in the diary, yeah? Email me to confirm, yeah?


Until you’ve worked in an office, you'll never truly understand the soul-crushing manner in which you’re expected to conduct your day-to-day life.

‘The Meeting’ is a new theatre show at Invisble Dot theatre, Camden, by two of the guys from the brilliant The Inbetweeners (seriously, why don’t more people watch this?). You actually sit round the boardroom table while your ‘bosses’ lead a company meeting that’s so well-observed it basically makes you want to bore your eyes out with the biro in front of you.

The show is full of the cringing mannerisms that senior management employ, seemingly unaware that it makes them look like utter dicks. Slideshows pictures of the company’s ‘Robin Hood away day’, over-stressed points about the whereabouts of a manager’s mug (“It’s blue and white checked, I brought it from home. Someone must have seen it?”) and a blazing row with the obtuse IT guy make you want to weep for the 9 to 5ers.

But thank fuck you’re not one of them.

Saturday 7 March 2009

All the King's Horses


It's officially festie time. Time to start planning which festival promoter's pockets to line and how far you're willing to travel for the ultimate weekend of musical joy and fuckery.

What would be amazing would be a festival that's right on your doorstep, has loads of cool acts from the local area, in venues up and down one street and costs just over a tenner a night.....Oh, we're in luck you say?

Land of Kings is a brand new music festival taking place in Dalston on the 16th and 17th April. Basically think a street worth of incredible house parties taking place along the Kingsland Rd in all the little basement bashment bars, little cafes and other hot spots. Camden Crawl? Nah, more like Dalston dance-off.

I'll be getting my dancing shoes on for Greco Roman, Allez Allez, Nathan Fake, Todd Hart, New Family and Skill Wizard, who're some of the first names released for the line-up.

It's also the return of Make It Stop, Mum! as we're hooking up with Filthy Few to put on a 'All The Kings Horses' night as part of the festival. Think DJ sets from New Young Pony club (synergy, yeah?) and us, bales of hay, nosebags, rosettes, jodhpurs, whips and plenty of cracking tunes to get you neigh-ing for more.

You need to buy tickets here , one night wristband will give you entry to more than 10 clubs for £12 and a two night wristband for double the pleasure will be £20. Or early birds can get both nights for £15 if you buy, like, this instant.

And you don't have to camp. AFFIRMATIVE.

WhoMadeHeroes

Sometimes you don't realise what's missing from your life until it arrives. Turns out I was lacking three Danish men in very tight all-in-one clown suits playing the electric guitar with a glass of champagne.


The incredible WhoMadeWho were back in town on Thursday at the tiny Hoxton Bar and Grill for the launch of their new album, The Plot, and totally rocked the place. They know FUN should be a massive part of a live act which is why they had everyone dancing manically and beaming at each other.


Here's the track of the night, Space To Rent, which the guys seemed super happy that everyone knew the words:





I spoke to lead singer Jeppe from the band earlier this week about why his dream collaboration would be with Michael Jackson. Read the interview here.

Friday 27 February 2009

"It's Not A Party Til You've Puked"

Rex The Dog packed them in at the Star last night, which unfortunately also meant a hoard of over-enthusiastic European dancers with no concept of personal space.


Still, how could you sit still when he was banging out his classic tracks like Prototype, Circulate and the still euphoria-inducing remix of Heartbeats? He packed in just over an hour of electro greatness AND threw in Ghostbusters and The Beastie Boys as well, which, in my books is pretty much the best ever set heard in Bethnal Green.


The party was for the launch of his new single, Bubblicious, and included Dog Shake cocktails (vodka, kahlua, milk and marshmallows, if you want to try it at home). The man (dog...machine) should be made some sort of MBE for services to electro noises and small dogs and you should be listening to him daily.


Here's his new video just to re-affirm his awesomeness.

Wednesday 25 February 2009

Fashion Fall Out




Jesus. Seems like ankle scaffolding an/or plaster casts are going to be the hot looks for Autumn/Winter if PPQ's after party was anything to go on Sunday night.


Vertiginous heels that would have had mere mortals floored left the models either clutching on to the bannisters of Cafe De Paris or firmly planted in one spot for the night.


The dancing was obviously stilted as a result when The Noisettes played (yes, them that do this annoying one) but liquid lubrication was provided by granny's favourite, Harvey's Bristol Cream, the 'flavour of 2009' apparas....hmmmmm.

Tuesday 24 February 2009

Dog Off A Leash


WOOF! Have just heard Rex The Dog (the only canine DJ you need to know about) is back and doing a free little party at the Star in Bethnal Green on Thursday from 7. This is causing immense excitement. Mid-week free electro joy, lovely.

Bill Oddie, Bill Oddie, Put Your Hands All Over My Body


It was the launch party of 'Simply Madonna: Materials From The Girl' exhibition at the Truman Brewery on Friday night.

Remember that awful waxworks world in like, Great Yarmouth, where all the 'famous' figures looked like they'd been left by a radiator but retrieved just before their features hit the floor? It was a bit like that, but with fiercer clothing.

All her classic gear was there, including the amazing Material Girl dress, the conical bra and all her Evita threads, which were probably the best of the lot. Shame the mannequins looked like they'd spent the last decade in a Mile End cut-price clothing store. Jodie Harsh was lapping it up.

Worth dropping by if you're a massive Madonna fan, but a tenner entry is pretty steep.

Sunday 22 February 2009

2ManyDicks

Condemned to a month chained to the sofa, January really only had one appeal: the return of the Flight of the Conchords. 


But apparently HBO's website wasn't keen on non-Stateside fans getting a preview of the Kiwi boys, leaving me reduced to watching the first few shows in 10 minute, grainy batches on YouTube. A couple of 'meh'-funny episodes I began to think it wasn't worth jumping on my neighbour's wifi for.


But WAIT. Michel Gondry directed last week's show, resulting in not only one of the best songs this season (or ever?) but also featured Brett as a human amp, shiny disco (mans) balls and the line 'the only boobs I'll see will be made from origami'.





On repeat, forever.