I have moved blogs to here now...
Cheers
Andy N
Friday, October 29, 2010
Monday, August 09, 2010
Hot Roddy - Six Lines of Separation / Same Actor - Kraftspiel reviews
Hot Roddy – ‘Six Lanes of Separation’ EP
Same Actor – Kraftwork cover versions EP
I first met Chris Cook aka Hot Roddy I think in 2004 or 2005 through my friend, Bela Emerson, a cello player from Brighton and was fascinated by his use of the traditional Indian instrument the sitar which is famous of course through Ravi Shankar.
Chris’s approach is totally different from this of course in the sense of he uses it often in conjunction electronica elements and touching on experimental, frequently making it sound totally different to what you would expect.
Both EP’s (which are free to download) are totally different with the Kratfwork one, firstly being a major surprise to start with Chris’s almost solo sitar playing over Kraftwork material which shouldn’t work, but the subtle nature off it transfers itself over to Kraftwork’s perfectly in particular probably because the original is quite minimal in places of most of these tracks in particular of ‘Computer Love’ which is beautiful and re-invents the track lovely.
Well worth a listen.
Six Lanes of Separation EP, his other new EP under the Hot Roddy name is very different with Chris himself saying the underlying theme for this electronic music is the hollow houses and the constant traffic of the north circular road that orbits London’.
Certainly listening to it is bleak certainly, almost sparse and quite disorienting which I think sums up London is some ways and is a experience alright in tracks like ‘The Quaint Noise Super Highway’ and the finale ‘Best Before 1997’ which is electronical music but in a minimal, and frightening way (and mostly free of the Sitar) and totally different from the Kraftwork covers EP.
Both are excellent, and even better free to download.
Hot Roddy – ‘Six Lanes of Separation’ EP
Is released on 09/08/2010 and can be downloaded FREE from:
http://www.bit-phalanx.com/#/releases
Same Actor - Kraftspiel’ EP is available for FREE download from:
Sunday, August 08, 2010
New Poetry
Dear All;
Read more:http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&bID=538021480#ixzz0w2nw85mJ
For those interested in reading new poetry, I have just posted two new poems on the
following links.. These cover a short break during my tour round Ireland recent with
my band...
Read more:http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&bID=538021480#ixzz0w2nw85mJ
Wednesday, August 04, 2010
Temporary Closed for Business
Not much planned for the rest of the month as my keyboardist is away for the next few weeks in my band ‘Wordmusic’, the guitarist is still away, one of the girl singers is getting married (Unclear if she will be coming back) and in general life is a lot more mellow, but that’s what August’s are for in my mind… A general time to chill.
Of course, even though I am not out performing I am still plotting and writing – this will involve the creation of a number of new pieces for the Wordmusic set when we start gigging again in September.
Other pieces are still being developed slowly for my second and third books (More details to follow) and maybe even further in the future books and I would like to write either a novel or a full length play.
Watch this space……….
Tuesday, August 03, 2010
Misery begins at home (Book Review)
‘Misery begins at Home’ by Rachel Bond, Marianne L Daniels, John Darwin and Winston Plowes, a review
Books like this I think in more than a few ways are like buying compilation records which feature new artists who do a few tracks each and can be used as a nice introduction to their work.
I did the other approach recently with my book ‘Return to Kemptown’ where I did it as a slim introduction to my works almost as a short album, but here in each of the 4 writer’s cases, each one a good writer (and with the expectation of Marianne who I haven’t seen yet but have heard she is excellent) excellent readers too, they all have selected a short selection of their own work so it comes together as 4 EP’s.
On the four writers, I first met Rachel Bond through Bolton Punk poet Jeff Dawson Aka Jeffarama last year, although she did also attend the writing workshop I used to co-run for a bit ‘Trio Writers’ and Rachel’s work has always impressed with it’s technical nature where she would often add very serious topics to her pieces which for me has always given it a very haunting feel.
Rachel’s poetry for me is possibly at it’s best during this short collection on pieces like ‘Barkless Trees’ which contains superb bits like ‘Pricks of lights fought for cover in that swell / Of a faraway deep near a land once I fell’ which contain that much detail in such a short bit, it makes you read over and over.
Other bits like ‘Death’ while on one first glimpses ‘death curls up to me as I sleep / and presses his skull into my temple’ is a adapt for a title with the collection title, but Rachel cleverly twists the piece at the end with a sense of freedom like memory, which is spellbinding I think.
The second poet out of the four, Marianne L Daniels is the only one out of the four I have never met or heard her perform, but I have being reading a blog where her writing is featured for some time and have always being impressed by what she has wrote for some time now, always found it filled with a lyrical content that is never pretentious.
Speaking as a person who has a BA Joint Honours in Creative Writing, I know from experience how many training and help it can give you with your writing, but I know also from experience that while doing a dissertation for example in Poetry, I know five other people at university who did poetry dissertations and totally failed to grasp the basic point of what is good and what is bad poetry, so whenever you mention you have a masters for example in poetry, it can have the counterbalance of putting people off a little from reading your work.
Marianne’s poetry however does not have that affect in particular on pieces like ‘Picking up a broken mirror’ which contains a incredible image right at the end of the piece ‘that curse of the feather stroking the chainsaw’ which made me shiver.
My favourite piece of hers from the ‘The house outside and other stories’ contains enough detail in it that could probably fill a novel or at least four or five poems, instead she contains detail in 19 lines that I could almost give my left arm for with lines like ‘and is a human in holocaust’ which is a harrowing last line.
John Darwin who follows after that is I met last summer again through Jeffarama (on his busking for beer tour) in Salford in the summer of 2009 and have always found a amazing gentleman who can do a amazing trick with a few pints of beer (worth watching believe me) and then step up onto stage and blow you away almost literally with his poetry.
John’s poetry often to me is miserable and bleak but in is summed up best in the introduction himself in his introduction as dealing with people’s extremes. Take for example ‘Heroine Heroin’ on first readings it seemed to be quite a hard hitting piece about the title in question, but the last line at the end of the piece had the sort of twist it completely changes the juxoposition of the piece and leave you thinking ‘oooooh’
‘Drenched’ is another example of John’s poetry that I love where nothing happens ‘your face still damp from your undried hair’ right up to the end ‘where the scent of last night lingers’, John is a master of poetry in the twilight of existence where nothing happens but everything touches, scratches in the distance..
Winston H Plowes I know as the juggling poet and have seen him do that on several occasions to an amazing response if you have ever seen him perform, and as the final Poet in the collection on initial thinking made me think he is a total contrast to John’s sometimes bleak verse but I then remembered Winston the first time I met him at Write Out Sale at the beginning of 2009 I think where he read out a track about abuse in relationships which although touched on the same kind of misery approached it from a different angle.
On pieces like ‘Ignition distraction’ – it is a natural follow on from John’s pieces with a beginning like ‘After the winter’s first scraping / I’m encased in the car, apprehensive’ – this is a poem set in darkness in a short time period where nothing happens but life is scratching on the car window.
This is contrasted by less miserable poems I felt, but just as skilfully wrote pieces such as ‘Oil & Cheese / Chalk & Water’ which seems to be talking about relationship difficulties with family (something I could relate to certainly). Excellent Stuff.
The book as you can see is not a book that will be full of light stuff, pixies and jolly dreams. This is a book that I think cuts under the underbelly of Modern day Manchester poetry and looks deeper and darker than is explored I think in a lot of other poetry but within its Misery is hope and where Freedom (like freedom of expression) is dangerous.
More details can be found here:
Saturday, July 31, 2010
The Decision, a play by Mia Darlone (Review)
Last time, I saw a play by the Manchester Poet Mia Darlone, it was full of very adult based humour that made me blush more than a few times in total.
Last time, I saw a play by Mia Darlone, ‘Below the Belt’ was without doubt for me one of the funniest but also dirtiest plays that I have ever seen but which was well worth going to watch.
Last time, the pace was so frantic if you blinked for more than a few seconds, you may have missed a stupidly funny line.
This time however, with her second play (I believe) the pace is totally different and filled with silences and live music interludes which were clearly wrote for the play (which was advertised as a dramatic comedy but if I am honest more of a drama to me although chunks of the audience did chuckle at little bits in the play) which was totally different from Below the Belt.
The story of the play itself started off quite simple focusing around the relationship of two characters Dan played by Paul Brandreth, a busker on Middlesbrough and his girlfriend Genna played by Rebecca Andrews who is as different to him as almost possible. Without giving too much of the plot away in particular the excellent second half, the crux of the play originally seemed to be the decision Dan would have to make when he got a better offer from a friend to come and perform in Manchester and leave his girlfriend behind.
The first half of the play started off strong with a nice use of multi media in the theatre with conversations on facebook and on mobile phones that I know confused more than one or two people but which I loved. Doing my degree in theatre studies some years back, I always enjoy seeing multi media used in the theatre and can most memorably at the Royal Theatre seeing flying toilets in an Ibsen version. In this play however, the two separate stories of the couple slowed down the pace of the play after they split but slowly began to click together when Genna became pregnant which may or may not have being Dan’s after a one night stand after a major row.
Without giving too much more of the plot away which thankfully did not go down the Gavin and Stacey route, the play in the excellent second half contained a twist which I didn’t see coming and found particularly brave although maybe a bit rushed bit for the theatre and, but no doubt would work brilliantly in the TV or Film field with a slightly larger budget.
Special praise must go to the backing cast, of who Parisa Nikkhah- eshghi who played the light, almost bimboesque (nicked from a review by Gus Johnson as I liked the term) character Michelle which made a nice contrast to Genna’s darkness very, very effectively and Jennifer Edwards who played Sally who Dan met in Manchester and was clearly used as a alternative to Gena subtly enough to leave me thinking whether there was more that could be said with that role.
Being honest, the play itself to me did have one or two minor faults, in particular when it felt it was 15 – 20 minutes too long for the theatre and one or two bits of the multi media bits (Some of the shorter scenes in the night-club for example) would have worked better on TV, Film or Radio better than the theatre, I did enjoy the play overall and can certainly see this getting made as a film or TV special.
And thankfully with a ending like they had, nothing to do with Gavin and Stacey whatsoever
Friday, July 30, 2010
Coll B Lue – Poetical Inspirations, a review
I first met Coll B Lue (Coll to me) at the end of 2007 after I got to know her through myspace which then led to me and some members of my then writing group doing a interview for her internet radio show ‘Literaryspot’ (Later Lit Media Reviews) on a number of occasions from 2007 to the end of 2009. I always remember her telling me at the time, she had published a few books but wasn’t aware until recently, they were both still in print.
The first one I got (the second has just being ordered) ‘Poetical Inspirations’ I think dates originally from 2007 for a first collection is perhaps a little longer than I have normally seen (with the exception of Charles Bukowski of which this is nothing like in the slightest) at almost 100 pages with something around 94 poems in it. Of course,
certainly reading that many poems is interesting as of course, so many poems in a book frame adds up to a lot off poetry to take in, but given patience I think the rewards are justified as poems like ‘Your Truly’ which has a subtle twist in it’s ending (‘So here lies my bed’) which is close, very close to William Carlos Williams.
Col lists her influences as of artists as much as writers as Van Gogh, Jacob Van Rusidael, Rembrandt’s ‘Sasha’ and Frans Hal’s ‘Laughing Cavilar’ which is interesting as her use of language throughout a lot of the poetry in the book is stripped down, often using just a few words per lines like ‘The airy light / gets lighter / when time is spent / and lent’ in Ethereal is sparse enough to be a painting with words and being painted under a Candle in the dim of night.
Certainly with poetry books like this, it would be interesting to see how the writer would project herself with poems like this on the stage, as a lot of the sounds in the book for me are possibly best read in late night softly, but it’s a book that certainly has layers and layers that require some exploring.
And that in my mind is always a good thing with books.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
