1. art and entertainment
2. music

DAILY N TE
THE DAILY NEWSPAPER FOR LONDON FROM THE RED BULL MUSIC ACADEMY
15/24
DAILY NOTE 02.03.10
TOP OF THE CLASS
WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE CALIBRE OF
MUSICIANS WHO HAVE GRADUATED FROM
THE ELLIOTT SCHOOL DURING
A ROLLER SKATING JAM NAMED
‘RED BULL MUSIC ACADEMY’
THE PAST DECADE OR SO, YOU HAVE
THURSDAY 4TH MARCH AT THE
RENAISSANCE ROOMS
TO WONDER IF DEVIATION FROM THE CORE
CURRICULUM MIGHT NOT BE SUCH
ROLLERSKATING JAM NAMED
'RED BULL MUSIC ACADEMY'
THURSDAY 4TH MARCH
8PM — 2AM
ADVANCE TICKETS SOLD OUT;
£12 ON THE DOOR, PLEASE ARRIVE EARLY
WWW.RENAISSANCEROOMS.CO.UK
A BAD IDEA. A COMPREHENSIVE THAT’S
PRODUCED A COMMON ROOM FIT TO
BURSTING WITH CRITICALLY LAUDED
ARTISTS, YOU’D HALF EXPECT
CHEQUEBOOK WAVING A&R MEN
Roller disco culture is a passion for mythical deep house renegade Moodymann.
Known for preserving the rich heritage of Afro-American (sub-)culture with the
utmost respect, he’s done more to keep the roller disco phenomenon alive than
any other human being on the planet with his Detroit regular Soul Skate. For this
very special session at South London’s Renaissance Rooms, he’ll not only bring a
box full of classic skating rink jams with him, but also some of the Motor City’s
most notorious four-wheeled dancers that have continuously supported him at
Soul Skate. Also on the bill: the frontrunners of London’s current disco revival, the
infamous Horse Meat Disco. More than just a damn good night out, this is a true
tribute to the soul we will never ever lose.
TO BE OFFERING TO HELP SERVE LUNCH
IN THE CANTEEN IN ORDER TO BE THE
FIRST ONE TO HEAR TOMORROW’S NEXT
MOODYMANN (MAHOGANI MUSIC, DETROIT)
JIM STANTON (HORSE MEAT DISCO, LONDON)
JAMES HILLARD (HORSE MEAT DISCO, LONDON)
RED BULL MUSIC ACADEMY ALLSTARS
BIG THING. IN TODAY’S DAILY NOTE,
WE GO BACK TO SCHOOL TO TALK
TO THE TEACHERS AND THE PUPILS
RENAISSANCE ROOMS
OFF MILES STREET, OPPOSITE ARCH NO: 8
VAUXHALL SW8 1RZ
AT SOUTHWEST LONDON’S ORIGINAL
MUSIC ACADEMY. IT’S ALMOST ENOUGH
www.redbullmusicacademy.com
www.myspace.com/horsemeatdiscolondon
TO MAKE YOU WISH YOU’D PAID MORE
ATTENTION IN CLASS...
RED BULL MUSIC ACADEMY IS...
Since it began in Berlin in 1998, the Red Bull
Music Academy has fostered musicians’ creativity
by bringing them together with a diverse and
talented group of peers. Here, aspiring artists
from around the world learn from and collaborate
with the musical pioneers who minted the genres
they themselves are now pushing to new levels.
It’s about mutual inspiration, helping them to
connect the dots and make their own contribution
to music. This year’s host city is London.
The Academy has landed.
RED BULL MUSIC ACADEMY PRESENTS
BYTE BOOGIE
A RED BULL MUSIC ACADEMY SPECIAL:
DEVIATION SESSIONS
A ROLLERSKATING JAM NAMED ‘RED BULL
MUSIC ACADEMY’
RESIDENT ADVISOR & THE RED BULL MUSIC
ACADEMY PRESENT...
RED BULL MUSIC ACADEMY PRESENTS:
A TASTE OF SÓNAR
Tuesday, March 2, at the Book Club
Wednesday, March 3, at CAMP
Thursday, March 4, at the Renaissance Rooms
Thursday, March 4, at T Bar
Friday, March 5, and Saturday, March 6,
at the Roundhouse
*""*( #-&'($)(
,)"
$/(
1%,.(
/$,.
GERD JANSON: “THE ACADEMY IS A
MUSIC LOVER’S WET DREAM!”
DAILY NOTE ISSUE 15 / 24
EDITOR ROBIN TURNER
DEPUTY EDITOR
PIERS MARTIN
MANAGING EDITOR
JUSTIN HYNES
CHIEF SUB-EDITOR
STEVE YATES
STAFF WRITERS TOM HALL,
FLORIAN OBKIRCHER
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
EMMA WARREN, STEVE YATES
ALL-SEEING EYE
TORSTEN SCHMIDT
ART DIRECTOR
HELEN NILAND
DESIGNER RICHARD MURRAY
PICTURE EDITOR
NEIL THOMSON
ARTWORK COMMISSIONER
DANNY MITCHELL
PHOTOGRAPHY
THOMAS BUTLER,
RICHIE HOPSON, DAN WILTON
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
MILES ENGLISH
PRODUCTION MANAGER
ADAM CARBAJAL
PRE-PRESS PRODUCTION
LEE LAUGHTON
SUB-EDITOR
ALISTAIR HAYES
Sunday 7 March
Todd Terje
Soundstream
RBMA Allstars
Giles Smith
James Priestley
#3$&-1
#,5.(
Paramount
Level 32, Centre Point
101-103 New Oxford Street,
2:00 — 11:00 This is a free event but capacity is limited,
email [email protected] for your chance
to get on the list
secretsundaze.net / redbullmusicacademy.com
This event will be recorded for red bull music academy radio
THANKS TO THE GOOD
PEOPLE AT ELLIOT SCHOOL,
TIM BURROWS, ABS, JOE
HOLLICK, SERENITY NOW!
SECRETSUNDAZE – RED BULL MUSIC ACADEMY SPECIAL
RED BULL MUSIC ACADEMY PRESENTS BRAINFEEDER LONDON
CDR – THE RED BULL MUSIC ACADEMY SESSION VOL 2
RED BULL MUSIC ACADEMY PRESENTS: 12X12
Sunday, March 7, at Paramount
Wednesday, March 10, at Fabric
Thursday, March 11, at Plastic People
Thursday, March 11, at the Scala
DAILY NOTE, C/O RED BULL, 155–171 TOOLEY STREET,
LONDON, SE1 2JP REDBULLMUSICACADEMY.COM
PLEASE DISPOSE OF THIS MAGAZINE RESPONSIBLY.
RAVE SAFE
FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TICKETS VISIT
REDBULLMUSICACADEMY.COM
THE VIEWS EXPRESSED IN DAILY NOTE ARE THOSE OF THE RESPECTED
CONTRIBUTORS AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE OPINIONS OF RED BULL
COMPANY LIMITED REGISTERED OFFICE: 155-171 TOOLEY STREET, LONDON, SE1 2JP
REDBULLMUSICACADEMY.COM
REDBULLMUSICACADEMY.COM
DAILY NOTE 02.03.10
/// FROM T HE AC A DE M Y///
DAILY NOTE 02.03.10
///STA RT I NG NOT ES///
/// T U N E IN, T U R N ON ///
TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED
FOR THE RECORD
EACH DAY WE ASK THE SAME QUESTIONS OF
YOUR FAVOURITE DJS AND PRODUCERS. TODAY,
ROB DA BANK OPENS UP TO THE DAILY NOTE
SKREAM IF YOU WANNA GO DISCO?
IT’S HAPPENING TOMORROW NIGHT. COME DOWN
“Our first-ever guest at Deviation Sessions
was Skream. The club was full, 200 people.
We were excited, the whole thing was an
experiment as we were still tuning the
soundsystem. And there’s no better person to
tune a soundsystem than Skream. I’ll never
forget the first record he played. It was one of
his own dubplates. There was an intro that
went: ‘Are you ready for DJ Skream?’ When
the bass dropped I remember looking out at
the crowd and people were physically blown
away, their hair just flew back. The system
was a little bit too powerful.
“I’m very fortunate to have grown up in
London with an amazing selection of club
nights to go to. I’m so fed up with people at my
age and above moaning about what the kids
are into. And I’m very much a believer that if
you put something out there that is of a certain
quality, then people will naturally gravitate
towards it. So really, it’s the same thing if a
producer makes a piece of music that he would
like to hear; I wanted to create a club that I
want to go to. And two and a half years later I
can honestly say that we’ve reached that goal.
“I wanted the club to be something new,
something special. And also, crucially,
something that you can’t be at by accident.
Some of the best club nights I’ve been to in my
life were on a Monday, a Thursday or a Sunday.
The professional night to go out if you’re a
music fan is not a Friday or a Saturday. What
that means is it separates two types of people:
people who are there by accident and people
who want to be there. So I thought to myself:
let me pick the hardest night of the week, let
me do it on a Wednesday. Which means every
single person has made an effort to be there.
“I looked for the venue for three years,
trying to find a place that hadn’t been used
before, off the beaten track. And I found this
venue, a very average bar upstairs but the
basement was perfect. The soundsystem was
unbelievably bad, though; they didn’t have a
proper DJ booth. Little by little we put the
venue on the map. We still bring our own
soundsystem every month. I’ve heard every DJ
playing there from Moodymann through to
Skream through to Flying Lotus, all of them
leave saying the same thing: ‘Oh my god, the
soundsystem is incredible!’
“Since that first night, Skream comes down
to the club regularly. On his nights off he can
often be found at Deviation Sessions. And he’s
been coming up to me over the past year going,
‘I really want to play a disco set at Deviation’.
What you need to know about him is when it
comes to Skream’s passion about music outside
the genre that he’s best known for, it’s not a
novelty thing. That guy knows his music inside
out. So in a way it’s nice for this special one-off
at CAMP to have our first guest coming back.”
PARTICIPANT PASS NOTES
MONTREAL’S ANDREW MACPHERSON
GREW UP IN NOVA SCOTIA, CANADA –
A PLACE AS ALIEN AS THE 25-YEAROLD’S MUSIC. THINK OF HIP HOP, POSTPUNK AND ELECTRONICA STUFFED IN A
BURNING BIN, ROLLED DOWN A SNOWY
HILL, CHEERED ON BY SIXTOO FROM
NINJA TUNE AND MC SONTIAGO
ANGO
Describe the type of music you make:
A hip hop beatmaker’s dream home, built
from recycled post-punk sounds on a
foundation of improvised soul melodies and
synth bass.
Where does your music come from?
It grows as fruit from the tree of my limbic
system before being juiced and diluted by
the water of my actual ability.
How has your environment shaped your
music?
I grew up 1,200km away from the next major
city. Everyone I looked up to made their
own scene, their own label, their own shows,
their own tours, without the support of any
industry. I was shaped by a DIY aesthetic
before anybody knew what that meant.
What one record in your collection would
you hate someone to discover?
Thee Silver Mt Zion record I kept after I broke
up with my ex.
Which Londoner would you most like to
hang out with?
Sean Connery’s James Bond.
What are you most looking forward to
seeing in London?
Architecture, because there’s nothing as old
in Canada as some of those buildings.
What is your favourite word in the
language you grew up with?
“Cochaleyva” is one of many words my dad
made up as a general exclamation.
Which cliché about your country or city is
true and which is false?
We pronounce a lot of words strangely, but
we don’t live in igloos.
Deviation: The Academy Session
at the CAMP, 70-74 City Road, EC1Y,
deviationmusic.net, £7, 9pm-3am
Would you sell your soul for rock’n’roll?
No. But I would sell everything for more soul.
REDBULLMUSICACADEMY.COM
WHAT RECORD WOULD YOU
RESCUE IF YOUR HOUSE WAS
ON FIRE?
THE COCTEAU TWINS’ HEAVEN
OR LAS VEGAS BECAUSE IT’S
ONE OF THE MOST PERFECT
RECORDS I OWN. LIZ FRASER
IS UP THERE WITH KATE BUSH
AS MY FAVOURITE-EVER VOCALIST.
BBC 1Xtra DJ Benji B’s Deviation Sessions
throws a one-off bash for the Academy
where dubstep heavyweight Skream dishes
out a special disco and house set. Benji B
explains what the night means to him
WHAT’S YOUR ULTIMATE
END-OF-THE-NIGHT RECORD?
I’VE GOT QUITE A FEW OF THEM.
THE THEME TUNE TO DELIVERANCE
WORKS FOR A REAL HOEDOWN.
I’D TAKE A RISK ON QUEEN’S
DON’T STOP ME NOW IF I’M
FEELING BRAVE.
WHAT’S THE STUPIDEST THING
ANYONE’S SAID TO YOU WHILE
DJING?
“CAN WE HAVE SOMETHING FUNKY,
PLEASE? ” WHILE I WAS PLAYING
JAMES BROWN. I DIDN’T EVEN
REPLY.
WHAT WAS THE FIRST
RECORD YOU BOUGHT?
FIRST ONE I BOUGHT WAS
THE THEME FROM ET BY JOHN
WILLIAMS AT THE RIPE OLD AGE
OF NINE. I COUNTER THAT BY
PRETENDING I GOT THE FRANÇOIS
KEVORKIAN MIX OF THE SMITHS’
THIS CHARMING MAN AT THE
AGE OF TWO FROM THE FAT CAT
RECORD SHOP.
TOO CLOSE TO THE EDIT
BESET BY DISCO DADS AND STOLEN
SOFTWARE, JO CARSTAIRS ON
WHY THE EDIT IS KILLING DANCE MUSIC
THE DEVIL’S PORTAL:
SITES FOR SORE EYES
Imagine a world tour set to a musical
backdrop in weekly instalments.
Whether it’s Luton or Lithuania,
Global Soundtracks is there to make
downloadable field recordings.
Their Adventures in Music podcast,
presented by John Peel’s son and
occasional 6 Music presenter Tom
Ravenscroft, offers a weekly grab-bag
from every corner of the world in this
Lonely Planet for the headphones.
Globalsoundtracks.com
VISION ON
ILLUSTRATION: JOE HOLLICK
EYE CONTACT
Benji B hypnotises dubstep don
Skream into playing a disco set
/// PROPPI NG U P T HE BA R ///
STARTING THIS WEEK, RED BULL
MUSIC ACADEMY COMES TO
YOUR LIVING ROOM. ALEX ZANE
SHOWCASES THE BEST OF
LONDON MUSIC
Wednesday night’s first show in the
three-part look at the Red Bull Music
Academy and its take on London sees
Alex Zane traversing the Academy’s
events and bringing you the highest
of the highlights, as well as accessing
an exclusive live gig with Academy
alumnus Mr Hudson. Stay up for this.
RED BULL MUSIC ACADEMY:
LONDON CALLING
Channel 4, Thursday,
March 3, 00:05 am
F
orget “here’s three chords, now form a band”.
At the moment, it’s more like: “Here’s an
Ableton crack and a K-Tel disco LP, now go
and forge a career in underground club music.”
Welcome to the weird world of disco edits – a magpielike DIY genre that has sprung up and swamped the
scene because of the ease with which record collectors
and DJs can access powerful music-editing software.
These days, you can rip a track, cut it up, fuck it up and
be playing it out to your Saturday night crowd all at the
same time. Creative jocks are making the most of this
development by presenting clubbers with unique
collages of music they won’t hear anywhere else.
Other, less imaginative, knob-twiddlers are exhuming
feeble disco obscurities that should have been left to
rest in peace, adding a few naff tweaks and then
pressing up a thousand twelves without so much as a
by-your-leave to the original artist. They are like the
paunchy uncles of the Noughties mash-up scene: the
software is similar but these guys are serious. This is
the rare disco mafia and they are here for your wallet.
Recently, the remaining DJ-friendly record shops
in the UK have been flooded with these modern-day
bootlegs. As well as the re-hashed rarities that fly out,
good or bad, because the originals are £50+ on the
second-hand market, there’s also a glut of reissued
classics being randomly hacked about in the hope of
providing a new slant on an ancient “anthem” no one
ever needs to hear again. These edits are often so bad
they can put you off your own record collection.
I recently stumbled across a version of Bowie’s
Moonage Daydream that sounded as though Edward
Scissorhands had gone postal on the Ziggy Stardust
reels before attempting to gaffer tape them all back up
again. Yours on a one-sided twelve, for a mere £9.99.
Choice items such as these are lapped up in the
shop I work in by a loyal customer base of Disco Dads
– a coterie of suave, Barbour-jacketed forty-somethings
who blanche visibly at the phrase UK Funky. One such
punter came in the other day to try out the latest edits
delivery. He’d been propping up the decks, bumping
REDBULLMUSICACADEMY.COM
through the new releases for about an hour before he
suddenly ripped off his headphones, asked for the time
and shouted, “Shit! I’ve left me toddler in the car!” Not to
worry, sir, at least you’ve secured your copy of the ultralimited, hand screen-printed and numbered Muffled
Sock Edits Vol 318 by Søme Scåndinavian Chåncer.
Dance music has a proud history of edits and mashups. This very practice has often ushered in new,
exciting times. Think of Tom Moulton’s first reel-to-reel
and razor-blade experiments or Grandmaster Flash’s
break-splicing turntablism, primitive edits by greenhorn
producer-DJs make up some of the world’s most-loved
club records. The DJ Erens mix of You Got the Love, for
instance, is an audacious mash-up that became a worldconquering classic way beyond its source material.
And there are some compositions that benefit from a
sensitive rework. George McCrae’s I Get Lifted and JJ
Cale’s Ride Me High are two examples of tracks
popularised by edits culture. In their original form both
fade harshly around the three-minute mark, leaving you
and your dancefloor wanting more. Mischief Brew,
Joakim and Todd Terje have all released arrangements
of these songs that don’t intrude on the original’s
atmosphere but artfully build the groove over many
minutes, allowing us humble bar DJs plenty of time to
nip off for that all-important midnight widdle.
Unfortunately, though, to some people, an edit
involves little more than hurling an innocent wav file
into Soundforge, hitting time-stretch and dropping in a
kick. And that’s why we’re drowning in mediocre
records by uncreative opportunists whose only real gifts
lie in the art of self-promotion and online myth-making.
The current accessibility of music software is a
wonderful thing. I love Ableton and have been known to
disappear into it for days at a time. But now that the
“perspiration” element has been removed from the
music-making equation, we all need to remember the
“inspiration” part of that old adage. Be discerning about
what you edit and how you edit it. And if you really can’t
do that, maybe it’s about time you sat down and learned
those three chords.
DAILY NOTE 02.03.10
DAILY NOTE 02.03.10
REICH HERE,
RIGHT NOW
FROM TWISTING THE WORDS OF
PREACHERS TO DOUBLING ALL
THE INSTRUMENTS, STEVE REICH HAS
INVENTED A NEW LANGUAGE IN MUSIC.
THE MASTER COMPOSER GRANTS
A RARE AUDIENCE TO THE ACADEMY
Daily Note: When were you introduced
to the idea of making tape loops?
Steve Reich: I was studying with Luciano
Berio, the Italian composer, and he was
working on a piece called Omaggio a Joyce,
about James Joyce. His wife, Cathy
Berberian, who’s a really good singer, was
reading bits of Joyce and he was cutting
up the tapes. This was very far-out
non-narrative writing. Basically you were
hearing the sound of letters and not really
focusing on their meaning.
And that influenced the concept for your
first major piece, It’s Gonna Rain. How
did that come about?
A friend said he’d heard the most amazing
black Pentecostal preacher in Union Square
in San Francisco. So I went down on the
Sunday and sure enough there was this
Brother Walter preaching about Noah’s
flood, the end of the world. This is 1964.
The Cuban Missile Crisis had just happened,
I’m in Union Square and this preacher is
laying it down about the end of the world.
It’s not abstract, it’s not abstract at all.
So you come back from Union Square
with your recording. How do you take
it from that to It’s Gonna Rain?
When you hear it, first thing you hear in
the background is “wha-wha-wha-wha”. It’s
a drummer, right? But it’s not a drummer. A
pigeon took off. And when I looped it, you
have a pigeon drummer. Didn’t have to pay
him extra! Then I’ve got a stereo loop with
both tracks saying “it’s gonna rain”, but
they’re offset, so “it’s gonna” is on top of
“rain” and “rain” is on top of “it’s gonna”.
STEVE REICH
STEVE REICH HAS BEEN CALLED THE US’ “GREATEST
LIVING COMPOSER” BY THE NEW YORK TIMES. TO NAME
ALL HIS AWARDS, PRIZES AND LECTURESHIPS WOULD
FILL A PHONE BOOK. BORN IN 1936 AND INFLUENCED
BY JOHN CAGE, HE FORGED A NEW ROUTE ALONGSIDE
OTHER AMERICAN MINIMALISTS, ALTHOUGH REICH
PREFERS THE TERM POST-MINIMALISM
FIVE REICH-STYLED RECORDS
1/KING CRIMSON DISCIPLINE 2/THE ORB LITTLE FLUFFY CLOUDS
3/GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR STEVE REICH
4/MICHAEL HEDGES AERIAL BOUNDARIES 5/RJD2 THE PROXY
INFLUENCED BY
STOCKHAUSEN: AVANT-GARDE DON DADA
INFLUENCE ON
APHEX TWIN: TECHNO PRANKSTER WITH
AN EAR FOR THE OFFBEAT
REDBULLMUSICACADEMY.COM
What did people make of it?
A few people came over the house and said:
“Man, that’s far out.” Then it was played at
the San Francisco Tape Centre and people
said: “Wow.” But there were maybe only
about 75 people there and the piece didn’t
really have an audience.
You were working as a cabbie and later in
a post office. What’s the benefit of having
that day job and how did you use that to
feed your music?
I had an MA in music and I could’ve pursued
it, applying to university x, y and z, teaching
theory, but I just felt I’d had it up to there
with the academic world. Anything can be
turned into academic trash – in my time it
was composers. There was this myth that
you teach during the day and compose in
the evening. But there’s a certain amount
of energy that goes into teaching people
and if you don’t give them that energy,
you’re immoral. If you do give, then you’re
wiped out, because there’s only so much one
person has. I’d rather drive a cab. I bugged
the cab and made a tape piece.
So you’re in a cab, interacting with street
culture. Was that street life influential
for you?
Maybe. I’m a native New Yorker, as you can
probably tell. I think all music comes from a
time and place. The Beatles come from ’60s
England, Kurt Weill comes from Weimar
Germany, Bach comes from eastern
Germany. I come from New York and
the west coast in the ’60s and ’70s. The
composers we know and love give honest
expression to that. Not by trying to write
the great American piece, but just by being
who they are.
I understand you went to see John
Coltrane something like 50 times.
I didn’t count, but it was a lot. Anyone with
a pair of ears should listen to Coltrane.
I recommend an album called
Africa Brass for musicians of
an extreme form. I think
there are French horns
playing like elephants coming
through the jungle. But
what’s interesting is that the
whole 30 minutes are in E.
You’d say, “No, that’s just too
boring.” But it’s not. There’s
incredible melodic invention,
sometimes gorgeous
melodies, sometimes
screaming noise. At the same
time there was a Motown
tune by Junior Walker,
Shotgun. We were hearing Ravi Shankar
from India, Balinese Indian music, African
drumming, Bob Dylan’s Maggie’s Farm.
There was something in the air about
harmonic stasis, and without that I never
would’ve done what I’ve done.
“IF A JOURNALIST
SAYS ‘MINIMAL’
TO ME, I SAY,
‘OK’. BUT IF A
MUSICIAN SAYS
IT, I SAY, ‘WASH
YOUR MOUTH OUT’.
IT’S BORING, IT’S
STUPID, IT’S SELFDESTRUCTIVE”
At first I was like, “I’m trapped, what have I
done? I can’t leave this tape-loop, phasing
thing, I can’t do it live.” Then other
people started doing it and I felt liberated,
exhilarated, the door had opened. That
led to Drumming, the last piece to use the
phasing technique, which was 1971. I’ve
never used it since. Why? Because it’s a
weird technique, if you go to a conventional
music school they will not teach you how to
phase – except maybe some teacher who’s
into my music.
You studied west African music and spent
time in Ghana. What was your experience
of it and how did it affect your music?
Most of the time their music’s for when
a new chief’s being installed; or a lot of
funeral music and what they call wakekeeping, meaning the anniversary of a
death. So it’s religiously oriented, it’s
politically oriented, historically oriented.
And it’s part of life, it’s not a concert. They
did a piece that took three days, with people
in boats and an incredible scene where they
go around and isolate individuals – it was in
their language so I couldn’t be sure, but they
seemed to be saying, “You’ve been doing so
and so. Now are you gonna stop doing that
and straighten out?” And the guy would nod
his head. It felt like a moral upkeep of the
community done in a judicial form.
So obviously it wasn’t possible to
replicate it. How did you incorporate
what you learned, taking inspiration
from something very locally specific
and making it yours?
A lot of people go wading in with a whole
lot of mistaken ideas and don’t really get
out of it. It became clear to me that I’m
not an African and I’m not gonna pursue
African music, it’s the weight of a culture
that’s not mine. I want to go to 48th
Street and Manhattan: anything in
that store, that’s mine.
of the city. I’m also getting the recordings
of NORAD (North American Aerospace
Defense Command), which is just “American
11, 40 miles north of Kennedy. Where’s it
going?” “I dunno”; just a lot of recordings
of the police and fire departments talking
to each other. These women came and said
psalms round-the-clock outside tents where
the bodies were stored until they were
buried. I’ve located one of the women and
I want to interview her about what she did.
In the early days when you were talking
about your music, how would you
describe it to people?
I’d get nasty and say... I don’t know what
I would say. Journalists want to label things,
and they did, but I don’t think it’s very
important. I think Phil Glass said “repetitive
music”. I didn’t like minimal, but it’s better
than trance or some other things. If a
journalist says that to me, I say: “OK.”
But if a musician says it, I say: “Wash your
mouth out with soap.” It’s your job to write
the next piece, it’s your job to not know
what’s happening. It’s your job not to put
yourself in a box and say: “I’m a
minimalist”: it’s boring, it’s stupid, it’s
self-destructive.
How would you advise people to move
from songs to symphonies?
I would never advise Radiohead or Stephen
Sondheim to write symphonies. When
certain well-known pop people try that,
it’s usually a disaster. They are geniuses as
it is, so the first question is: why bother? If
it’s burning a hole in you, then you have to
look into it. It may mean going to music
school, it may mean a conservatory rather
than a college, because instead of just
talking about it you’ll be able to write
something for a string quartet and they’ll be
able to play it. The biggest thing to decide is:
do I need to go through all this? Is this who I
am and something I ought to do? You should
be very sure of that before embarking on
something that could take several years.
How did New York sound around this
time?
Noisy. I used to walk around with ear-plugs.
What role does improvisation play in
your work?
I’m not much of an improviser, but it is an
ancient and honourable tradition. Johann
Sebastian Bach was a great improviser,
people were afraid to have an argument
with him. I don’t participate in that part
of the world, but I know it’s there and it’s
ancient and very real. Composition implies
there’s already a certain amount of thought
gone into it, but the bedrock of anything I’ve
ever done is musical intuition. The test is:
how do they sound on Monday, how do they
sound on Tuesday, how do they sound next
month? And do they keep sounding good?
And if they do, then they are good. And if
they don’t, then they’re not.
You began using musicians later,
especially on Music for 18 Musicians.
How difficult did you find that transition?
Interviewer: Emma Warren, London, 2010
For more Steve Reich, listen to his Fireside Chat:
redbullmusicacademyradio.com/shows/1388/
You’re working on a piece about 9/11.
Why do that after so many years?
I realised I had unfinished business. For
25 years I lived at 258 Broadway, about
four blocks from Ground Zero. When it
happened, my son, my daughter-in-law and
my granddaughter were in the apartment.
It was terrifying. So I’ve just got through
interviewing my neighbours who saved
my son and my grandson, got them out
REDBULLMUSICACADEMY.COM
DAILY NOTE 02.03.10
WHAT DO FLEETWOOD MAC, HOT CHIP, THE XX, FOUR TET AND SO SOLID CREW HAVE
IN COMMON? THEY ALL WENT TO THE SAME SOUTH-WEST LONDON SCHOOL. TIM BURROWS
FINDS OUT WHAT MAKES ELLIOTT SO SPECIAL. ILLUSTRATION JOE HOLLICK
pproaching an inner-city comprehensive
after the final bell has tolled on a Friday
afternoon, you wouldn’t normally expect to
encounter much pupil activity. By 4pm, shirts
have been untucked and buses caught, as the
kids head home for the weekend. But as I near
the Elliott School in Putney, south-west
London, which enjoys an enviable reputation
for nurturing and producing talented
musicians year after year, the area is filled
with the sound of jazz guitar, funk bass and
drums. This loose jam, which perfumes the
air of the surrounding estates and terraces,
comes from a music room where three
students are rehearsing.
The Elliott School is a rare thing indeed.
It is not exclusively music focused, nor does it
boast the funds of a private school, but it has
fostered a dazzling list of musical alumni,
such as the producer Kieran Hebden, aka
Four Tet, the musician Adem Ilhan, three
members of Hot Chip (Joe Goddard, Alexis
Taylor and Owen Clarke), indie darlings The
xx, dubstep mystic Burial (aka Will Bevan),
members of the Maccabees and So Solid
Crew, Fleetwood Mac’s Peter Green and
Mercury-nominated violinist Emma Smith of
the Basquiat Strings.
A composition graduate and long-time
music teacher, head of music Frank Marshall
arrived at Elliott in the 1990s. “Much of the
infrastructure was already in place when I
arrived,” he says, “but I made a few changes.
REDBULLMUSICACADEMY.COM
The pupils had a swing band but they all
hated it and said if we carried it on they
would refuse to do it. So I suggested setting
up an orchestra. Within 18 months they were
playing Haydn symphonies, because the
talent was there.” This is Marshall’s second
stint at the school and during his time away
The xx slipped through, suggesting that the
Elliott effect is ingrained far beyond any
individual teacher’s skill.
Hebden, an Elliott pupil during the 1990s,
PHOTOS: RETNA/ANDY LAMBERT/ELLIOTTONIANS.COM
DAILY NOTE 02.03.10
wasn’t taught by Marshall but does attest to
the effectiveness of the school’s enthusiasm
for artistic interests. “When I was at school,
drum’n’bass happened. Our teachers would
let us set up big soundsystems and have
drum’n’bass parties during lunchtime
breaks,” says Hebden. “There was a guy at
school who owned his own system and built
his own lights. We’d be in a drama room with
machines and strobe lights for half an hour,
dancing to Super Sharp Shooter or something
blasting out at huge volume.”
In the mid-’90s, Hebden formed the postrock group Fridge with Ilhan, who is
currently in the duo Silver Columns, and Sam
Jeffers. He suggests it was the exposure to
older bands that was key to the emergence of
so many quality acts from this one school.
“When I started, there was a band there
called Jackknife Baby, who were beginning
to do shows beyond the school – playing
local community halls and pubs and things
like that. It meant that when I arrived I was
given the message that you can form a band
and do concerts and things at a very young
age.” At Elliott, the influenced often become
the influential. “By the time I was in the sixth
form, Fridge were setting the same example,”
says Hebden. “We signed to Output Records,
Trevor Jackson’s label, as I was doing my
A-levels. As soon as a few people start getting
out there and doing something you think, OK,
this is do-able.”
Around the same time, Hot Chip were
taking their first steps and Herman Li, of
arguably Elliott’s most underrated group, the
power-metal band Dragonforce, was playing
guitar every day. “We were really given lots of
respect,” Hebden adds. “I didn’t study music
GCSEs or A-level and was probably doing
terribly in my music classes before then, but I
still had total respect from the teachers if I
wanted to pursue my ideas outside of the
lesson. I’d play every lunchtime and every day
after school. They still had equipment left
over from Inner London Education Authority
days – big, powerful amps from the late ’70s
and electric guitars there for anybody to use
at any time. Miss Collinson, who was the head
of music then, would put a timetable up and
let us work it out for ourselves.”
The Elliott approach can be traced back to
REDBULLMUSICACADEMY.COM
BACK TO THE OLD SCHOOL
From top: The xx contemplate double
geography; Kieran Hebden takes it
to the Putney Bridge; Hot Chip wonder
where the girls have gone
DAILY NOTE 02.03.10
DAILY NOTE 02.03.10
DREAMING SPIRE OF PUTNEY
Elliott School, where ’60s modernism
never goes out of style
’60s idealism. “It came out of people who
were taught by the Hornsey School of Art,”
says Marshall. Hornsey, now part of
Middlesex University, earned a reputation
for producing free-thinkers, dissenters (it
had its Paris 1968 moment when the students
occupied the college in the same year), and
some fine musicians – Ray Davies, The
Raincoats and Stuart Goddard, aka Adam
Ant, to name three. “A lot of the teachers up
there are either influenced by their ideals
or were taught by people at Hornsey,” says
Marshall. “Or they’re old enough to have
been there themselves.”
Marshall points to the jazz improvisation
each student is encouraged to do as a possible
reason for Elliott’s impressive track record.
“George Adie, who teaches jazz, has been
here 35 years. With him, they improvise and
learn their way through the jazz scales. The
girls next door are doing their R’n’B singing
because that’s what they want to do,” he says,
gesturing to the wall, behind which three
14-year-olds are busily working on their
singing in the next room. “They’ll learn
their way through the jazz piano and trad
harmony as well.”
No type of music is dismissed or sneered
at: every student’s passion, whether it’s slick
R’n’B or Dark Side-era Pink Floyd noodling, is
encouraged. “There is a classic saying in
teaching that goes: ‘If they don’t learn the way
I teach, then I must teach the way they
learn,’” says Marshall. “It is a simple way of
looking at it, but it is effectively saying
teachers should take a look at where their
pupils’ interests lie, and adapt. Those girls
hear R’n’B all the time – from TV shows like X
Factor and so on – and they perform that kind
of music in concerts here. But they are also
singing close jazz harmonies, learning piano
and composing minimalist pieces for GCSE,
influenced by Steve Reich, Terry Riley and
Philip Glass. So there’s complete breadth, as
much exposure to as many different sorts of
music as possible.”
He leafs around his desk and produces a
folder. “That is the only photo I have got of
Alexis,” he says, letting out a chuckle as he
points at a picture of the Hot Chip singer in
his awkward teen years, sitting at a piano in a
T-shirt, performing at a Princess Diana
Memorial Fund event in September 1997. It is
the kind of embarrassing photo that could
destroy a pop star’s cool factor within
seconds. Yet it is a touching document,
another reminder, preserved by Marshall, of
SCHOOL PHOTO
BEST LAID PLANS
The architect’s original
drawings, 1904
From left: Hot Chip and I was a boy
from school, and so was I, and so was... ;
pillars of the community; let’s do the
show right here
the rewards reaped by the school’s passion
for arts. “I can remember teaching Alexis
Taylor at A-level,” he says. “He was into
everything, took guitar lessons, studied jazz
and Bach-style harmony. It is just what you do
here. I won’t claim that you can hear Bachstyle harmony in Hot Chip but he ended up
making extremely original music, there’s no
doubt about it.”
Hebden recently revisited Elliott, and
was shocked at the lack of change. “It was a
bit depressing,” he says. “They don’t have the
money to maintain the building properly –
some windows are broken and a lot of the
fixtures are the same as when I was there. ”
Marshall, though, is more positive about
the state of things. “I just walked you through
£20,000-worth of recent investment,” he says.
“When I came three years ago we had three
different versions of [computer programme]
Cubase working and the keyboards were not
up to scratch. Now all computers run Cubase.
We have new keyboards, new percussion:
there has been a massive investment in the
arts and in music at this school. The theatre
has just been redecorated, and we are going
to redo the lighting rig. I don’t think the arts
are threatened at this school. If anything,
the arts are being promoted.”
Places such as Elliott seem fragile. Its
operating method is so rewarding to the
creatively inclined, problems with the
bureaucratic box-tickers seem almost
inevitable. Last year, Ofsted put the school on
“special measures” after two critical
REDBULLMUSICACADEMY.COM
inspections and Marshall admits the staff
have felt the strain. Yet, when asked who the
next big band to come out of Elliott might be,
he relays a story that suggests that, for him,
the job will always be satisfying. “When I was
here the first time round there was a yearnine kid who was a complete terror. I didn’t
know what to do with him, but one day he
came to me and said: ‘I want to learn guitar.’ I
very nearly refused as he was so awful in my
lessons, but something in me said I should
help him. Within six months that had totally
turned the kid round as a person. His band is
now signed and recording material,” he says,
his voice quivering slightly. “You think, God,
it could have gone the other way. I could’ve
given the other answer to him. That’s why
you do this job. It just touches you.”
Before I leave, Marshall shows me his
goldfish, all named after members of The
Beatles and Queen. “Paul McCartney is the
last survivor of the Beatles – he is eight years
old so has done very well. Weirdly, John was
the first to go,” he says. “We bought Queen
quite recently. Unfortunately all of them have
died apart from Roger Taylor. And Freddie
was the first to go there, too.” At Elliott, even
the fish know their music history.
Four Tet – On The Floor! – Live at Warp Pure,
Elysee, Montmartre, Paris
redbullmusicacademyradio.com/shows/2256
The XX – Headphone Highlights
redbullmusicacademyradio.com/shows/1955
Hot Chip – Train Wreck Mix
redbullmusicacademyradio.com/shows/569
DAILY NOTE 02.03.10
DAILY NOTE 02.03.10
TODAY I WANT...
THE THINGS WE’RE AFTER MOST FOR TUESDAY, MARCH 2
MARCELLUS PITTMAN
ERASE THE PAIN
(FIT SOUND)
TODAY’S ESSENTIAL
NEW RELEASES FROM
THE SHOP FLOOR
Merciless, raw-as-shit Detroit house
from the don. Three cuts on here,
but it’s all about the eight-minute
A-side, Erase the Pain. It starts off
with a bending 303 synthesiser
build-up that trips up on itself and
stumbles into a bounced-up
bassline. By the time the synth pads
come in it’s already a head-down,
lost-in-rhythm affair. A beautifully
lo-fi arrangement, this might
soundtrack millionaire footballers
cheating on their wives. It’s dirty, it’s
street, it abuses you while being
your best friend, but it also brings
out a side of you nothing else can.
MR DIBIASE
CAKEOLOGY (FAT CITY)
Mr Dibiase has been cutting up
tunes on the LA circuit since
a teenage FlyLo was cutting down
on arcade games to save up for his
THIS WEEK, DEREK
MILLER PROFILES THE
UNCONVENTIONAL
SOUNDS OF THE
CIRCUS COMPANY
IMPRINT, PARIS’ BESTKEPT TECHNO SECRET
For a city with such a vibrant and
eclectic musical history, Paris isn’t
the first — maybe not even the 12th
— European city to spring to mind
when you think of experimental
electronic music. So it makes sense
that one of Paris’ foremost dance
labels has a long-standing affiliation
with one of the city’s more central
musical genres: jazz.
Circus Company, the Parisian
imprint co-owned by Mathias
Duchemin (aka Sety) and Nicolas
Sfintescu (half of the deranged jazz
house duo Nôze), has made no
secret of its love for jazz and funk.
Much of the duo’s output since they
began in 2001 could fill the floors of
Parisian jazz cafés as swiftly as any
of its younger, night-draining dance
clubs. The primary importance for
the label’s music seems to be club
exotica, a kind of genre nondenominationalism.
If that unconventional spirit is
something you notice in a quick trip
through the artists in the label’s now
first pieces of studio gear.
Cakeology, released on the brilliant
Fat City imprint, is hip hop in its
broadest sense. While the
panoramic boom-bap of Be Fly,
syrupy modulations of Brazilian Lady
and biting drums of Keep On
Runnin’ will have you reminiscing on
the masterful brilliance of Pete Rock
and Dilla in their heyday, the electric
boogie of Atomic Slop and jagged
sample play of Cosmo Boppin’ force
you back to the here and now. In
short, a whistle-stop tour of hip hop
from its golden past to off-kilter
present. Get on the bus.
THE REVENGE
LOOKING UP TO YOU
(MCDE)
The Revenge (Graeme Clark to his
close friends) first came on our
disco radar two years ago with
a Stevie Wonder edit which,
alongside Mark E, sparked the
widespread surge for slo-mo discoid
chuggers. A lot has happened
since, but Clark’s ear for a cheeky
edit is still there. Looking Up To You,
pressed on the Motor City Drum
Ensemble imprint, is a 2010
reworking of Michael Wycoff’s track
of the same name. It’s slow, it’s
deep, it’s hypnotic, with soul and
oodles of oomph. Play it and watch
the dancefloor melt.
JAMES PANTS
I LIVE INSIDE AN EGG
(STONES THROW)
It’s Pants’ Spokane, Washingtonbred direct line to lunacy that makes
his inspired ravings sound like an
idiot savant cutting directly to wax in
his mum’s basement. And though
he’s moved on from being an afterschool hip hop pimp to the worldly
psychedelic disco nut we now know
and love, every record still feels like
a hidden gem stolen from a garage
sale. Normal on the outside, but
hiding crazy eclectic secrets inside.
I Live Inside an Egg is a dream of
psychedelic fuzz beamed straight
from Pants’ home address: The Egg,
WTF Avenue, Spokane.
Drew Lustman, aka Falty DL, is best
known for making a nice gooey
mess of crackly British bass music,
descriptions. When I refer to one of
the Homewreckers’ recent releases
as flirting with “tribal” sounds, he
quibbles. Actually, he returned to
question the characterisation, twice.
Duchemin seems to shrink, puzzled,
from genre signifiers and labels.
Any listener with even a passing
interest in the label would
acknowledge this diversity, though.
Circus has always played more to
the cross-eyed than clear-eyed,
often offering material only nominally
dance-oriented. Funneling in jazz,
funk, avant-garde skronk and deeper
house touchstones, the label is
perhaps difficult to pigeonhole by
genre, but its aesthetic sensibilities
have always been shrewdly guided.
Like many longstanding dance
labels, you know a Circus Company
track when you hear it, mainly
because you’re uncertain just how
you spent the past 11 minutes and
wound up with paint under your
fingernails. Delirium: Circus has
“batshit” down pat.
Talking with any of their artists,
the thing that stands out is the
collectivity. You sense the kinship
and similarity of musical tastes
among them — one that has enabled
Circus to continue to gather material
from the same producers now six,
seven years later.
Marc Barrite, aka Dave Aju,
was attracted by the label’s flair
for “exotic sounds or unique
FALTY DL
ALL IN THE PLACE
(RUSH HOUR)
Proof that the animals have
taken over the Circus
REDBULLMUSICACADEMY.COM
I’M ALSO
AFTER...
GAME
ALICE IN WONDERLAND
OUR GUIDE TO THE
GREATEST TIMEFILLERS IN LONDON,
THE UK, THE WORLD,
AND EVERYWHERE
This week sees the release of Tim
Burton’s take on Lewis Carroll’s
dark fairytale. The story influenced
everything from ’60s psychedelia to
the Matrix trilogy, but if you were late
for the very important date and
missed the rush on cinema tickets,
no worries, just hunker down in your
very own rabbit hole with the game
instead. Back in Carroll’s day, he
didn’t entrust the Mad Hatter with
a pause button. What kind of
Wonderland was that?
SPA LONDON
Splashing out on a pampering after
a weekend’s hard partying seems
like a really good idea, until you
realise you splashed out already on
a weekend’s hard partying. Time for
the nanny state to wade in. Spa
London in Bethnal Green is a joint
venture between Greenwich Leisure
and Tower Hamlets Council. It offers
treatments that won’t break the
bank, so you can still break it the
following weekend on something
shockingly unhealthy.
spa-london.org
DEER
PROJECTIONIST’S
NIGHTMARE
(BENJAMIN BRUNN
REMIX) (GIEGLING)
The fifth release on the Giegling
imprint is a new project from Martin
Hirsch called Deer. Projectionist’s
Nightmare is a captivating
combination of electronica,
clicks’n’cuts (remember them?) and
post-Basic Channel dub techno.
Complete with a solid remix from
Benjamin Brunn, better known for
his collaborations with Move D, it’s
a dancefloor monster that comes
with some damn fine packaging, too.
The screen-printed artwork arrives
on inverted, recycled old record
sleeves, reggae stylee. Authentic,
yet otherworldy brilliance.
TANGOS IN PARIS:
lengthy discography — Circus just
celebrated its tenth anniversary —
then it’s even more apparent when
speaking to Duchemin.
Though he’s quick to admit that
being influenced by momentary flux
is only natural, Circus doesn’t trendspot. Duchemin can’t even really
describe their music. More
importantly, he gets pretty
uncomfortable with one of my
some swirling two-step stompers
and a few wonky hip hop wonders
sprinkled with bleepy hundreds and
thousands. But here he adds house
and boogie to the mix in high
concentrations. Vocal snippets fight
their way to the surface, competing
with heavy synth and bass to give
the tunes identity. Even though so
much seems to be happening in
a Falty DL track, the energy is
balanced and, as part of a healthy
musical diet, this is a messy treat
worth working for.
LOCK 7
So you’re feeling the burn of too
many Saturdays swanning about
London’s eateries. Probably time to
get on your bike. But what if you
could combine being a slob and an
exercise freak at the same time?
Lock 7 is the answer. Part cycle
shop, part café, you can come to
Broadway Market and fill up on
pastries while they figure out what
load made your wheel buckle again.
You can hire a ride too, so no
excuses for getting the bus home.
lock-7.com
WEBSITE
LOOK AT THIS FUCKING
HIPSTER
Nerd glasses – check. Painfully
aware side-parting – check. Plaid
shirt – check. But enough about the
Daily Note staff. We all know a
tragic hipster when we see one.
People who put a lot of thought into
looking like they never think. This
site is a tad judgemental, a bit silly –
and all the funnier for it. Even if we
thought some photos were rocking
pretty awesome looks. Like, totally.
latfh.com
PULL MY FINGER:
Barrite prepares to make
some interesting sounds
REDBULLMUSICACADEMY.COM
HOW TO
BUY...
ELLIOTT
SCHOOL
Keiran Hebden is a class boffin
when it comes to making seriously
progressive music. The Four Tet
maestro attended Elliott School in
the ’90s and it was from there that
his first band, Fridge, learned to
string a tune together. The postrockers comprised Hebden, Adem
Ilhan and Sam Jeffers and
combined twinkling melodies with
stuttering drum patterns to make
a kind of music that, while not
exactly unfamiliar in today’s
glitch-pop saturated world, is still
pleasing to hear. And props go to
Fridge for inventing the genre
their members have long moved on
from. Check out debut album
Ceefax and 1999’s Eph to dig up
the seed of a varied dynasty.
Hebden is, of course,
everyone’s favourite folktronicapioneering, jazz-noodling enigma
these days. His latest effort, There
Is Love in You, is a good place to
start, but landmark album Rounds
from 2003 is the one that made
everyone sit up and pay attention.
Under his first name of Adem,
Ilhan also releases albums of
pretty folk songs bathed in strange
electro quirks. His album Takes
from 2008 is a worthy organic foil
to Hebden’s digital mastery.
Elliott School’s metalheads
formed Dragonforce, possibly the
most ridiculous (in an ace way)
metal band these isles have. This
isn’t some ironic farce, song titles
such as Heartbreak Armageddon,
When Dragons Rule and Fury of
the Storm are Dragonforce’s very
reason for living. Their latest
album, Valley of the Damned, is
the perfect place to shake loose
and bust out a seven-minute,
zillion-note power solo. Guessing
these kids met in detention.
Will Bevan, better known as
dupstep artist Burial, doesn’t like
to shout about his fame. His album
Untrue topped many end-of-year
lists in 2007 but he remained
anonymous until 2008, letting his
soulful techy beats do the talking.
But his classmates at the Elliott
School had the scoop on him
a few years before – classmates
such as Joe Goddard of Hot Chip.
The indie electro darlings
formed what’s now become a
critic-wowing, chart-busting
behemoth at the school. Band
members Alexis Taylor and Owen
Clarke also attended. They’ve
been producing synth-based floorshakers and tear-jerkers since
2004’s Coming on Strong, and
their new album, One Life Stand,
is doing no harm to a cool
reputation. Hot Chip are making
music that wears influences
proudly on its sleeve. Early single
And I Was a Boy From School
should’ve tipped us off, really.
arrangements”. Starting out in San
Francisco doing a weekly club night,
he discovered the unconventional
minimal house cuts Circus was
turning out. The label quickly
became a go-to for the young
producer. “I think they’ve always
struck a good balance between
reverence for dance music culture,
which keeps them rooted and
adaptable, and maintaining their
own vision of music as art and as
a life essential,” he elaborates. “We
were born and raised halfway round
the globe from each other, but grew
up on a lot of the same music,
started out as b-boys and graf
writers and eventually arrived at
the same place.”
But the balancing act is tricky,
trying new edges and angles while
maintaining a track’s floor presence;
it’s something the Circus family
takes great pride in negotiating.
“Experimentation is the best way to
entertain yourself and put yourself in
a dangerous position,” says
Duchemin. “That’s often how you
end up with unexpected, tasty
results. But we wouldn’t say we
definitely look for a balance all the
time because some of the tracks
can seem a little ‘tooly’.”
It’s a process about which
Barrite is clearly conscious:
“I don’t disregard the need to make
a track work for the floor as I’ve
been a dancer all my life, but
there’s a lot of great music and
ideas to be incorporated so I’m fine
attempting that balance, even if it
confuses some of the more
conventional clubheads at first.”
Barrite also makes note of the
label’s support for releases to
which other, more orthodox dance
labels might be less receptive.
When he fell in love with the drum
sounds he was able to create with
his mouth and decided to make
2008’s Open Wide album using
his own beats as the sole source of
sound, he knew insitinctively that
Circus would love it.
WITH BANDS SUCH AS
THE XX AMONG THE
SOUTHWEST LONDON
SCHOOL’S ALUMNI, IT’S
TOP OF THE CLASS FOR
INTERESTING SOUNDS.
SO SWOT UP ON SOME
OF THE BEST
DAILY NOTE 02.03.10
DAILY NOTE 02.03.10
THE LAST WORD IN… STYLE
SMILEY CULTURE
FROM CORPORATE MORALE BOOSTER TO SYMBOL OF LOVE, SMILEY WAS THE
IMAGE OF WHOLESOME FUN – UNTIL ACID HOUSE CAME ALONG. CHRIS SULLIVAN
TELLS THE STORY OF THE FACE THAT LAUNCHED A THOUSAND RAVES
I
LAST PICTURE SHOW
REDBULLMUSICACADEMY.COM
PHOTO: REX FEATURES
When Primal Scream’s Screamadelica tour
pulled into Manchester’s Haçienda in July
1991, it was a homecoming of sorts. The
Glaswegians had previously been confined
to the weekly indie bibles, also-rans from the
C86 generation. Manchester, though, had long
shaken off such strictures, losing itself in the
flared groove of hometown favourites Happy
Mondays (signed to Factory, owners of The
Haç) and The Stone Roses, as well as the
distant rumbles from Detroit, New York and,
especially, Chicago.
The Scream took some persuading.
Initially sceptical of acid house, it wasn’t
until Andy Weatherall remixed their I’m
Losing More Than I’ll Ever Have that they
experienced their Damascene conversion.
Loaded, as it was rechristened, was an end-ofnight anthem, ticking boxes from indie-dance
to balearic, and providing a clarion call
(“We wanna get loaded, we wanna have a
good time”) for a new generation of pillpoppers. With Weatherall on production, the
subsequent album was a world-conquering
masterpiece. Ironically, it was local heroes
Happy Mondays whom Bobby Gillespie and co
supplanted as kings of the new dance. This
was their coronation.
PHOTO: PETER J WALSH/PYMCA
Shout to
the top
n 1980, concerned individuals began returning
from the US with tales of all-night, alcohol-free
clubs such as New York’s Paradise Garage, a new
brand of disco, and pocketfuls of a mad-arsed powder
called MDA. By about ’86, certain types were growing
their hair and dressing in a somewhat hippy fashion. DJs
such as Hector Heathcote and Morris Watson showcased
cassettes full of music by the likes of Juan Atkins
and Frankie Knuckles that was not only minimal and
electronic, but also fresher than a dozen daisies.
And so it went until May ’87 when Kym Mazelle, Ce
Ce Rogers and Marshall Jefferson played The Wag club
in Soho. In that summer, DJs Eddie Richards and Colin
Faver put on London’s first official rave at Staples Corner,
followed by Gary Haisman (later the singer of We Call It
Acieed! by D. Mob) and Paul Oakenfold’s seminal event
in a car park on Marble Arch playing full-on Chicago
acid, including an appearance from Knuckles and his
protégé, Jamie Principle, who sang their influential Baby
Wants to Ride. And so the goose was cooked. In acid.
Yet it took a little while for the bird to reach the
table. After a trip to Ibiza (where curiously little house
music was played) DJs Danny Rampling, Oakenfold and
Nicky Holloway came back with a mission. In November
’87, Rampling started Shoom in Bermondsey; weeks
later, Oakie opened Future in Heaven, Charing Cross,
while yours truly started Afters in Clink Street – all of
which played house in its gloriously mind-melting acid
incarnation. Of course, the appearance of said fowl on
the London party animal’s menu had been facilitated
by the arrival of a HUGE batch of ecstasy that, in tablet
form, had doves stamped on them, were outrageously
potent and sold for a massive £20 a pop.
Suddenly everyone was E’d off their trolley and,
hand-in-hand with the music and the Doves, came the
attitude and the garb. Punters began growing their hair
into ponytails, sporting dungarees and Kickers, garments
that allowed them to move freely and, if truth were told,
sweat their bollocks off. But the one signature garment
was the Smiley t-shirt.
The first version of the Smiley face we now know was
designed by the freelance artist Harvey Ball (who earned
$45 for the job) in 1963. He created it for the State Life
Assurance Company, who used it as a badge to boost the
morale of their workforce. By 1971, more than 50 million
Smiley badges had been sold in the US, while in the UK it
was adopted by the Windsor Free Rock Festival in 1972.
Second-time round, the first person I saw with a
Smiley t-shirt was Barnzley Armitage, now co-designer of
A Child Of The Jago label with Vivienne Westwood’s son,
Joe Corre, who wore it as an ironic nod to the Summer
of Love in ’67. “I was into all this ’70s rare groove stuff
[in about ’86],” recalls Barnzley, “so I thought I’d do
something ’70s American and printed up all these Smiley
t-shirts that me and Tim Simenon used to wear. Next
thing I know, Danny Rampling nicked it and used it as
the logo for his club, Shoom.”
Shoom’s graphics designer, George Georgiou,
explains: “Danny insisted I use the Smiley-face symbol,
which I wasn’t that keen on. So I made the Smileys
tumble down the page either side of the text. Of course
they looked like pills, which people picked up on.”
Consequently, Simenon, of Bomb The Bass, put it on
the sleeve of his record Beat Dis, i-D magazine put it on
their cover and, suddenly, the t-shirt became the uniform
for millions of ravers. “When you saw someone in a
Smiley t-shirt you knew exactly what you were getting,”
recalls DJ/producer/writer Terry Farley. “It signified acid
house and everything that went with it.”
What else should a gurning, loved-up, sweaty,
spaced-out club monster wear other than a t-shirt with
a big smiling face on it? In short, it said it all.
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