Todd Rundgren - Glasgow ABC

Todd Rundgren is a man of constant reinvention and his latest volte face has seen him eschew rock almost completely in favour of electronica. Rundgren has been a long term exponent of multimedia technology and his fascination with it can be traced as far back to his 1993 pop meets electronic meets rap misadventure,“No World Order”. His influence in the current day remains omniscient and new acts including the likes of Tame Impala (Rungren remixed the bands mammoth psych rock track ‘Elephant’ into a thumping house banger) and rapper Tyler the Creator (“Whoa, I Just Listened To This Dude Named Todd Rundgren Or Something, And Fucking Got Damn. This Is Amazing. Reminds Me Of NERD. Wow.”) have voiced their on-going appreciation. State, Rundgren’s latest album, however, feels less of an experimental artistic foray and more of an intentionally constructed, balls out attempt at cracking this apparently new-fangled thing called "EDM". Rundgren has said that he “researched” acts as disparate as Frank Ocean and Skrillex prior to recording.

 Rundgren bounces onto stage in skinny jeans and trainers while sporting bug eye glasses that can only be described as Phil Oakey-esque. In fact, if you marry his appearance to the stage set up –it is drowning in digital equipment and lights – you’d be forgiven for thinking you’d wandered into a New Wave show. Opening with “Imagination”, State’s 8 minute opening track and the most guitar prominent, he ponders “every day is the same old song over and over, no imagination” in a vocal that is bulked by heavy lashings of delay. Opening with this track is indicative of the angst still felt by Rundgren - the restless innovator - and an insight into the justification for this 'phase'. As the setlist progresses, with an unrelenting performance of ‘Time’ a particular highlight, Rundgren gets looser and looser in his dancing and at one point resembles a sort of slightly more rigid Hail to the Thief era Thom Yorke (it would all be so ridiculous if it wasn't for the fact he is 65 years old). With the dancing, bright lights and swamp of 50-somethings dancing carefree, you can’t help but get caught up in it all and this is perfectly surmised in the preposterous “angry bird”, a song which sees Rundgren bark the chorus of “she’s an angry bird!” while his guitarist points his headstock to the heavens and pretends to shoot at an imagined fowl. 

The fun stops when Rundgren comes out for the encore alone. Lost in the mirth and oddity of the State material it’s easy to forget that this man is responsible for some of the most beautiful pieces of rock music ever written. Mounting the stage, he gives the classics “Can We Still Be Friends/I Saw The Light/Hello It’s Me” an electronic makeover which feels part karaoke, part the nearest imaginable thing to a Todd Rundgren/DJ Tieso collaboration. The whole medley feels bizarre and slightly ham-fisted, the tracks crow barred to sound this way not on merit but purely to acquiesce with the rest of the set. As an album “State” works and is one of his best post 2000, but as an overall live show it lacks gravitas and feels too novelty all too often. That these tracks are reprised this way at the expense of the classic formula is ashame, but going to a Todd Rundgren show and holding such a cavil is a bit like going to an Italian restaurant and being disappointed when they serve up pasta - you know this attempt at boundary pushing comes with the territory, however right or wrong it may be. 

Chvrches - Gun

Criticism and the yardstick used for judging musical sapience has been debated long and hard for probably as long as the art-form itself has existed, but nothing shows craftsmanship quite like the ability to write a song in the major key without it being cheesy and on “Gun”, the au-courant Glasgow 4 piece CHVRCHES do just that. Brilliantly accessible yet not formulaic; “Gun” manages to be energetic but not in your face, maintaining a masterful level of subtlety throughout for a track that is so energized. As hyperactive synths bounce off each other like clattering lightsabres and 808 handclaps pound relentlessly, singer Lauren Mayberry desolately ponders “did you see another lifetime where I was not a part so far entwined?” in her sugary kawaii vocal. Taking into account the imminent summer festival circuit, a series of upcoming support slots with Depeche Mode and the antecedent success of electropop heavyweights such as La Roux and Little Boots in recent years, you can’t help but get the impression CHVRCHES are standing on the cusp of something big.

Tame Impala, Hammersmith Apollo, June 25th.

Tame Impala’s conquest of Britain has been more evolution than revolution. Prior to tonight’s sold out Hammersmith Apollo show, Kevin Parker and his cohorts have filtered through London’s smaller venues with a sort of blissful acquiescence, quietly assured that bigger and better venues would inevitably fall to their soaring, modernist take on psych rock.

Despite having recently conquered the Brixton Academy, tonight’s venue is a marked step-up and even Parker sounds slightly overwhelmed (if not abashed) as he thanks fans ‘‘all the way up in the back’’.The leap in crowd numbers apart, little has changed in the last 12 months, with new bassist Cam Avery’s arrival the only notable exception. Opening with an abridged version of Lonerism bonus track, Led Zeppelin, the band quickly storm into Innerspeak favourite Solitude is Bliss, in which Parker’s lyrical astral projections are only slightly marred by some volume issues. A new track, Auto-Prog, organ-heavy and reminiscent of the ’60s-inspired outings of Lonerism, sounds unrealized and nascent.


Despite the frenzy of sounds and effects, one of the most fascinating aspects of Tame Impala’s live show is their use of the oscilloscope, a box hooked up to the band’s instruments that translates the sound into a back-projected 90’s rave visuals. When paired with phased-out monoliths such as Enders Toi and Alter Ego, the end result is a quite stunning congruity of sound and vision.


Parker, pleading apathy, claims to have spared little thought to Lonerism’s follow up, far less what it might sound like, but on this evidence it can be whatever he wants it to be. On the ascent to a venue of this size, Tame Impala prove they can still prog out (Nothing That has Happened So Far Has Been Anything We Could Control), make crowds dance (Elephant/Half Full Glass of Wine) and sing along (Feels like We Only Go Backwards). Roundhouse, Brixton, Hammersmith, Glastonbury... Arenas next, for better or for worse? Tame Impala’s march to the top is seemingly inexorable.

Time is short. Japan can ill afford any further delay in preparing for the inevitable. In the next year or two, Japan will enter a phase of irreversible population decline. The time to act is now. (Matsutani)

Outside Tokyo and its other metropolises, Japan is dying a strange death. It's due to demographics. First: advances in medicine and a diet high in raw squid have helped to make Japan the oldest society that has ever existed in the long history of human societies. Second, because of its ridiculously low birth rate and frosty attitude to immigrants, Japan is now the first large industrialised country to experience a population decrease as a result of natural causes. In short, as its oldsters get even older, and its youngsters spend all their time commuting on packed trains in identical black suits instead of having wild unprotected sex, Japan's population is shrinking.

Richard Hendy was based in Tokyo for 10 years before deciding to up sticks into the Japanese hinterland to fulfill his 'lust for rust'. He documents and photographs the derelict and neglected sights of the country, offering up a blog that is a deeply melancholic yet wry read that gives a sometimes sad, sometimes eerie and sometimes hilarious insight into real life, contemporary Japan. His economically informed commentary married to his images turns the journal into a procrastinators best friend. I've killed hours on it already. Check it out below.

http://spikejapan.wordpress.com/

A few albums

Wire - Pink Flag (1977).

Punk/post punk/experimental
Recommended if you like; The Fall, Gang of Four, Television, Minutemen.

If i were to compile a list of my top 10 British albums, Pink Flag would effortlessly make the cut. This is one of the most influential post punk albums ever that's influenced everyone from the likes of MBV and REM to Blur, the Manic Street Preachers and Bloc Party. The album itself is a blitzkrieg attack that doesn't relent until the end, coming in at just over 35 minutes. The guitar tone throughout is outrageously good - single coils and fuzz boxes!

Edan - Beauty And The Beat (2005).

Hip hop/psychadelic
Recommended if you like; Kool Keith, Madlib, Percee P, Mr. Lif.

This record will only be 5 years old come the end of the month, but already it's a certifiable hip hop classic. Edan's intention when making it was to give the listener an LSD like, ethereal experience and with his 60's psych infused samples and spiritual style of lyric, he certainly delivers. It marries 60's psychadelica with underground hip hop and the result is a left of center classic. The man himself once expressed his musical goal to put Syd Barret's face on Biz Markie's body with Kool G's brain, and it's eclecticism like this which sets Edan apart from the rest.

Tangerine Dream - Phadera (1974).

Electronic/krautrock/ambient.
Recommended if you like; Popol Vuh, Brian Eno, Ash Ra Temple/Manuel Göttsching, Kraftwerk.

Brooklyn band Yeasayer are riding on the crest of a wave at the minute and are blowing up everywhere. I'm a massive fan of the 3-piece myself and so i thought it'd be cool to upload a record that left an indelible mark on the band when they were in their seminal stages. Phadera is a stunning record of (often) improvised cosmic rock and rich soundscapes that is soaked with emotion. The record never enjoyed commercial success in Germany (although attained a cult following internationally) on it's initial release, but thankfully it was never lost and it's influence can still be felt today. I have no idea why I didn't include this on my list of Krautrock records. 

Jaga Jazzist - A Livingroom Hush (2001).

Experimental/jazz/post rock.
Recommended if you like; Squarepusher, Tortoise, Herbie Hancock, Aphex Twin, Duke Ellington.

One of my personal favourites of the 00's. Jaga Jazzist's influences range from Mingus to more contemporary electronica stuff. They've come to be the posterboys of the early millenium Scandanavian 'nu jazz' movement, but i'd say they aren't necessarily genre specific. Their music is hardly inaccessible, but I once read that the band command a massive mainstream radio appeal in their native Norway, compare and contrast that with the Radio 1 bullshit we're subject to over here.

Telepathe - Dance Mother (2009).

Indie/electronica/synthpop
Recommended if you like; TV on the Radio, Gang Gang Dance, Julian Casablancas, Liars, Dirty Projectors.

Nice little indie debut from Brooklyn duo Telepathe with TV on the Radio's mad scientist Dave Sitek overseeing production. This is synth heavy avant-pop that features guest vocals from Sitek himself, fellow TVOTR bandmate (and majestically beareded) Kyp Malone and !!!'s Shannon Funchess.

Busdriver - Temporary Forever (2002).

Hip hop/alternative hip hop/abstract

Recommended if you like; Q Tip, Black Star, Kid Kudi, MF DOOM, The Cool Kids.Temporary Forever was Busdriver's sophomore release and for me, his magnum opus. It amalgamates everything he does so well, from abstract and non sequitur lyrics to hilarious freestyling (one track features BD rhyming off improv at the booth of a fast food drive-thru and another delivers a sardonic twit on the problems of spontaneous human combustion), all packaged in his own hyperactive idiosyncratic delivery.

The Foundry, RIP.

Was absolutely gutted when i read the news that Hackney council had finally went ahead with plans to demolish The Foundry. I only visited a couple of times but i adored this place and it was so much more than a pub - it was a fundamental component in the London underground art and poetry scene. Oh well, at least it's got the Astoria for company in building heaven.

FATE

Sometimes you have to go halfway around the world to come full circle.