Brandt Brauer Frick - Bop

With prepared piano, vibraphone, drums, various percussions, brass and string instruments, rhodes, bass guitar and analogue synthesizers the trio creates textures that may bring to mind Steve Reich as well as the oldschool loop techno. Yeah, we're sold!

A brilliant man.

Twin Stoke-on-Trent with a distant galaxy.

As put by the campaign manager, Carl Gent;

Town-twinnings often occur almost upon a subterfuge platform with little, if any, effect or benefit being transmitted to the people inhabiting the towns or cities being forcably tied together. We began our drive to twin Stoke with an astronomical body in a genuine effort to open up the minds of the inhabitants of Stoke-on-Trent to both the wonders of the cosmos and also the physical and social history of their city.

We identified Stephan's Quintet as being the best candidate for this twinning for two major reasons. Primarily we linked the age of the light coming from Stephan's Quintet and the age of the coal deposits beneath Stoke as being from a similar era - 304 million years old. Secondly, Stephan's Quintet is comprised of five, possibly six smaller galaxies that are slowly merging to form one super-galaxy - this holds parallels with Stoke's own multi-centred identity.

If the twinning were made official, it would enliven Stoke as an exciting place with real physical relationships with distant, exotic locations. The potential for public stargazing events and other educational opportunities would also increase.

I please ask you to consider this drive seriously and pledge your support by signing the petition.

Many thanks,
Carl Gent, Campaign Manager.

Here's the link:

http://www.gopetition.com/petition/38269.html

The Mirrors Tour Account, Part 2.

Berlin: Today's day off began in a fragile state, soothed somewhat by a bizarre yet somehow perfect mug of miso soup with bits of salmon floating in it. Ally and James have some sushi, would you believe? Both great hangover cures, as it happens, though neither of them match a scalding bowl of French onion soup fortified with a splash of cognac. That's the best. Anyway, seven hours and the length of Germany later, we arrive in Berlin.

If ever a city's name can carry a certain weight, can conjure a certain frisson of apprehension at its very utterance, it is Berlin. The history here is intense; you can smell it; you can see it everywhere you turn. For now though, we are hungry, and devour offensively large steaks in an establishment just across the road from our accommodation. Stu's weighs over a pound. Back at the flat, a game of poker begins, utilising a combination of teabags and Mirrors business cards for chips, but is abandoned within minutes. Tired, we sleep.

Strengthened by Sushi.

Berlin day 2: Drizzle. Partake in yet another wurst mit kartoffelsalat. We walk to the nearby Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. This vast undulating wave of uniformly grey concrete slabs of varying sizes is devoid of any obvious symbolism. Slowly walking its concrete alleys, I get the sense that the endless grey nothingness of it all is an aid to reflection upon something that is unimaginable. It is an incredible example of public sculpture.

The Jewish Memorial.

The museum beneath is heavy going, and we emerge into the pale wet air feeling somewhat defeated, and quietly walk off in the direction of the Brandenburg gate. This gate has so much history it is hard to take it in when just looking at it. Symbolic during its time of everything from Peace and Victory (when built), to Freedom (after the defeat of Napoleon), to Naziism (adopted by Hitler as a party emblem during the Second World War), and to Segregation (during the Cold War it was stranded, inaccessible to both sides, in the "Death-Strip" between the two worlds of Communism and Capitalism), it is now seen as a symbol of unified Germany. Walk onward to the gigantic Reichstag building. By this point, it is pouring and I am sodden. Walk onward still, past amazing building after amazing building. See Checkpoint Charlie. Odd.

The Reichstag.

The Berlin Tempodrome is the venue we are all looking forward to. Sold Out. Three thousand people, tiered seating above the standing room, this is probably the most impressive venue on the tour. The nerves flow prior to the gig, Andy McClusky's now traditional presence in the wings just before we go on stage only adding (in a nice way!) to the apprehension. We play quite well, but it is an amazing experience. OMD have a brilliant night and play a blinding gig to a rapturous audience. Partake in some locally brewed vodka after the show and head out into the city. We find a bar located beneath a neon-lit squat complete with a huge Banksy copy on the back wall (The original is apparently in Hamburg). The music is iffy and the gin and tonic expensive. We move on, though by this point it is very late and we crave some sustenance. Unwisely plumping for Berlin-style currywurst while others take a safer fast food bet, we stumble back and collapse into bed. A long day is over.

Mirrors on the Tempodrome's stage.

Ye Bar.

The World of Mirrors.

Hamburg: According to Stu the eighth largest city in the world. Hmm. The drive in is fascinating. Slowly sliding past the window is a grey procession of cranes, trains laden with shipping crates, and, when we reach the docks, implausibly large, steaming ships, coming and going from the widest reaches of the North Sea, possibly the world... Scenes of commerce on such a scale always fill me with admiration for humanity, but also a feeling of pitiful smallness. Maybe we should just all stay at home?

The venue tonight smells unmistakably of stale booze, which actually comes as a welcome change. All bands love the smell of a black beer-encrusted carpet. It is located on the infamous Reeperbahn, opposite, bizarrely enough, a McDonald's nightclub.

Our hotel is rather busy, with a studenty, youth-hostel air to it. We have a coffee in the absurdly hot reception area, and argue over what to write in an interview conducted via email. The lovely Dave Philpot of Skint Records, who is attending tonight's gig, happens also to be residing here, which is nice. Heading to the gig, spirits are up, and we are looking forward to playing to the sold-out and by many accounts "up for it" crowd. We perform really well, and the crowd are great, which is just as well, as some very specific people we aim to please are in attendance tonight.

Please Please Me.

After a very posh skyscraper-top after-party hosted by Panasonic during which we leave without paying our tab (accidently, I'll kindly wager) and the security man threatens, apparently, to send out a posse of heavies to scour the Reeperbahn for four be-suited English boys, we find ourselves being entertained by the very specific people we aim to please in a delightfully cosy little bar with great music and an exceedingly smoky atmosphere. I'm sure that before the smoking ban all bars in England were like this. So maybe I'm just too accustomed to the now crystal-clear spotless air (never a hint of B.O, is there?) of British bars, but I have to go out for some fresh air at one point because I can't breathe. I bet the Beatles never have had to go out for fresh air.

Alas, we never make it to the McDonald's club.

Pay for extra lie-in time at the hotel. Best money ever spent.

P.S. Thanks Duncan re the tab!

Hamburg Docks.

We Are Showroom Dummies.

Dortmund: Day off today. Lovely it was, to see Dave last night, but today he is gone, and we resume as normal on our lonesome toward Dortmund. Upon arriving at the hotel, located beside a field on the outermost fringes of the city, it is already getting dark, though the sky is cold and clear. A beautiful evening. We go for a walk and find a lovely Italian restaurant. Very hungry, we decide to start off by sharing a Salad Caprese, which is nice except for its being drizzled with the ubiquitous balsamic vinegar. No! Not on there! A spaghetti frutti di mare, complete with monstrous pink crustacean garnish, follows, and delicious it is. Despite now being very full up, a selection of tiny puddings, including a sponge cake literally sodden with booze, is served up and devoured between us. A whole slice and you could get drunk on this cake. It all made a welcome change from wurst. Have a whiskey in the hotel bar with Ally before retiring. Our sojourn with Germany is come to an end. Thank you for being such a fantastic host.

Luxembourg: I've always wanted to visit Luxembourg. It is a joy to see French on the road signs for a change, and to flex some francais at some of the various establishments visited here, in this tiny and distinctly odd Duchy (which boasts the highest GNP in the world). Unfortunately we see little of it. Not that you can see a lot, I suppose! It is freezing.

The gig tonight is in a comparatively small venue, and is not sold out, though the 600 odd people who attend make for possibly the best atmosphere of the tour so far. The show is amazing, and the crowd are incredible, especially considering we are only a support band. They go crazy for OMD. Coincidentally, we have Italian again for our supper, though this time it is a kindly buy-out from the promoter. Frutti di mare again, to boot. Such immense portions of soporific dough are they, that we succumb to tiredness and slip into sweet and heavy slumber.

Mirrors' backstage antics are legendary.

On stage in Luxembourg.

Brussels: Awake refreshed and ready for a trip to the place that sprouts are named after. Ready or not, the Brussels traffic is maniacally confusing and as KiIlling Joke once put it, the tension builds. We finally make it to the venue, though not before floundering for some time in a sulphuric piss-stained alleyway waiting for directions. Rank side streets aside, I haven't imagined Brussels right. Not having had to concentrate on the road, looking out of the window I was greeted with a beautiful, grand capital teeming with impressive buildings. I suppose the overriding association with European bureaucracy had projected a less than exciting image of the place. Anyway, after dropping off the suits in the dressing room, I wander the streets, and end up in the beautiful Grand Place, Brussels' central square. Flanked on all sides by wonderfully ornate buildings and complete with newly-erected Christmas tree, it is quite a place to be in the cold wintery air. The atmosphere is buzzing; touristy but not overly so, and there are lots of intriguing shops; chocolate, beer, and one particularly good record shop that I tragically do not linger in because I know I am already late for sound-check. I make a vague guess as to the location of the venue and strike lucky. I turn up as the bare metal desks are being loaded on to stage. Not bad! Only a few minutes late after all. The theatre is lovely, very plush, and it's sold out tonight. We await the show with excitement.

Le Grand Place, Brussels.

The catering today, seeing as we are in Belgium, is exemplary. Believe it or not the pre gig meal consisted of fillet of brill with a cockle beurre blanc, potatoes, and a mixture of courgette, french bean and petis-pois on the side. The local crew were supping a bottle of red wine which was offered over with impeccable politeness.

Another day, another great gig. We could get used to this.

End the night in a fairly tipsy manner having partaken in too many Kronenbourgs and some vodka.

In raptures in Brussels.

Amsterdam: Amsterdam is the most beautiful place. Those tall, thin houses, leaning their delightful flat ornately edged faces over the quiet canals, crooked, as if jostling for attention, never cease to charm. In the crisp autumn air you wander aimlessly the cobbled streets, waving to the boatmen, eavesdropping on lilting dutch conversations, smelling the flowers that festoon the deck of a passing barge. Turning a corner you might come across the perfect silhouette of a bicycle perched upon a bridge in the sunset, Rembrandt's incredible self-portrait gazing from the side of the Rijksmuseum, a garishly up-lit prostitute pouting vacantly at you from behind a glass door...

We check in to the hotel and drive to the Paradiso, an incredible venue in a converted church, before Stu heads off in town, not to be seen again until much later.

The gig is good, but the audience are so low down, the stage being so high, that the feeling is like that of presiding over a pit of captives.

Walking the city with James after the gig is much fun, and eventually we meet Ally, Stu and Joe in the pouring rain outside the Bulldog. Stu appears as a spectre, floating about as if carried by an invisible breeze. He is ludicrously contented. Drenched, we visit a bar and play pool, before wandering off again now that the rain has ceased. Passing the multitude of coffee shops heaving with motionless figures slumped in smoke-wreathed armchairs, and the stag parties gawping at row upon row of prostitutes bathed in ultraviolet light as if shopping for their sunday joint at the butchers, we muse on the fact that despite its beauty and history, Amsterdam is only though of by foreigners in terms of sex and drugs. So, if you didn't know, Amsterdam is also famed for its innovations in trade during the 17th century, that a boy once put his finger in a hole in the dyke thus saving the Nethelands from being flooded, that bikes outnumber people by a proportion of one million to 700 000, that Amsterdam boasts more museums per square metre than anywhere else in the world, that the city is built entirely on stakes driven into the ground, that its pea soup is particularly delicious, that before its legalised brothels, Amsterdam's only form of entertainment was a weekly fact-based quiz held in the local community centre...

The wonderfully wonky houses of Amsterdam.

Paris: Today's drive is pure hell. We leave Amsterdam at about eleven o' clock, and do not park until at least ten hours later. The last thing poor old Stu needed after an eight hour drive was a two hour long slog looking for for a parking space in Paris' clogged streets. At one point we drive under a barrier into an underground car park, relief flooding our veins, before encountering another, lower, barrier spitefully placed deep within its spiralling bowels. That was a challenge, getting back out of there. Anyway, eventually we spot a space almost exactly the length of the van. Inching into it is a delicate task more akin to keyhole surgery, involving a couple of traditional Parisian nudges to the adjacent car's bumper. When in Rome. Dazed, we take a taxi to the hotel, only to find that Joe has left his wallet in the van. Bad day.

We go in search of a much needed meal and end up in a picture-perfect Parisian bistro, straight out of the imagination. Perched at the bar before our meal we sip delicious Normandy beer and munch thick slices of deeply flavoured salami before sitting down to eat at midnight. All memories of grim driving are banished. The menu is quintessentially French. Oysters, snails, fois gras, quenelles of pike, steak, and even a veal's head served from a lidded pot are all wolfed down with no apology. Actually, I wouldn't say the globular mass of jellied fat, snout and brain that comprised the dish of tete de veau is wolfed down as such, more gingerly picked at with a fork. But, it's always noble to try new things, I say, and despite its difficult nature, there are some gloriously tender morsels of meat to be had amongst the morass of gore, and the delicious accompanying sauce gribiche provides an essential piquancy with which to cut through the veal's underseasoned, bland fattiness. I have ice cream for pudding. Best play safe. We don't leave until gone 1am. The glories of continental restaurantation for you. Retire to bed desperate for sleep but an ill-advised espresso keeps it at bay, whilst the oppressive heat in the room is replaced thanks to an opened window with the bustling sound of the nocturnal Parisian street.

Paris day 2: Awake early in order to move the van before it gains a parking ticket and drive to the venue to load in. It's not yet ten. OMD's crew give us perplexed looks. Later, pottering towards the Louvre, the city strikes me as mightily impressive. It really is a capital city. It knows it and it is proud of it. The avenue from the Opera House down to the Louvre is formidably grand, and everywhere you look there is something huge demanding your attention, but this is nothing compared to the actually gallery. It is vast. It is difficult to know where to begin, as you walk head up, aimless about its walls feeling distinctly miniscule, the weight of history, culture and art, let alone the sheer scale of the place beating you into submission. There are four gigantic galleries comprising the Louvre to experience. We wander three of them, not scratching the surface, of course, but a small collection of stunningly beautiful Ingres works stand out for me amongst the thousands of paintings. I dread to think how many supposed masterpieces we walk nonchalantly past, but what can you do? It is overwhelming. It is difficult to focus. We go and see the Mona Lisa, which is a must, if only for the bizarre spectacle of hundreds of rabid tourists snapping their cameras at what essentially is just another painting in a gallery of masterworks. We see the Venus De Milo too, before leaving the museum, weak with hunger and feeling distinctly drained, though wishing in part to go back and see those treasures we know we have missed.

Flagrant plagiarism in The Louvre.

A fortifying cheese baguette and an espresso later, we head to the incredible, futuristic Pompidou Centre, which looks a bit like those ridiculous coloured tube things you used to avidly install in your poor miserable hamster's cramped cage as a kid. As with the Louvre, I am infuriatingly one month too old to qualify for free entry, and so due to the fact that we are running out of time, I vow to visit properly another time, and wander back through the city in the vague direction of the venue. As time goes on, I realise I am a long way away, and begin to walk urgently back, getting faster and faster, as sleet starts to fall, and my face begins to sting with cold. I eventually arrive as OMD are sound checking, the usual melee of opportune business-types milling about cumbersomely on stage. The heat is absolutely stultifying, like a tropical rainforest. Complaining, I retreat to the side and we begin assembling the desks in our usual professional, efficient silence, sweating. There are nerves before the show, not just from us, but from OMD too, because tonight's all-seater venue has not sold as well as hoped. But as we go on stage, the place is filling up nicely, and in the end the gig turns out to be a success for all parties.

A famous icon.

I feel ill, which is unfortunate, especially as it's our last night. I spend such a long time sitting stock still in the dressing room surrounded by bustling friends and family that I begin to feel like I'm in one of those music videos where the singer's standing, mournfully singing alone whilst an anonymous city blurs, Koyaanisqatsi style, in high speed all around them. A couple of paracetamols later and I perk up, though not enough alas, to accompany Joe and Ally on a DJing expedition to a local club. The rest of us go with James' family for another late dinner. We first try to get into to last night's bistro, but it is too full, so search elsewhere, and, just as we are about to give up due to it being too late, we are admitted into a busy place by an absolutely frenzied waiter. He is a great man. I think he is probably filled to the eyeballs with cocaine, judging by his energy levels at this godforsaken hour, and we are gratefully seated. We were famished. Omelette and chips never tasted so good.

I am asleep. It is dark. All is calm. That is, until Ally and Joe pile into the room sometime in the early hours, proclaiming their DJ set to have been amazing, and the club to have been brilliant. Wishing I'd not been feeling so rank earlier, and that I had managed to go with them and play loads of amazing tunes, I eventually fall asleep as their drunken banter winds gradually down, before stopping abruptly, as sleep time banter is wont to do.

Instant Karma's gonna get you, and the next morning I awake bright and happy, while Ally and Joe creak out of bed feeling distinctly rank. Coffees and croissants all round, and then we leave, Stu cursing the Parisian traffic and the general poor manners on display left right and centre. Maybe it's just homesickness. I must say though, the thought of a proper brew and a nice hobnob is filling me with creeping excitement. And so we wind our way north to Calais, returning once again to that lovely service station where we met We Have Band, and roll quietly on to the train. Upon leaving the carriage, a glorious English sunset of gold greets us as we drive out on to the left hand side of the road for the first time in what seems like ages. Stu is in raptures as he cruises effortlessly down the tarmac toward Folkstone; "I promise to always appreciate English roads from now on, though I did love the autobahn" he exclaims.

The End: The tour has been a wonderful experience, and we have seen many great cities and played to the most amazing audiences we've ever played to, but as we wend our way through the East Sussex marshes, sheep munching that most green, pleasant, of grass, the Downs glowing blue in the distant mist, we can't help but feel gladdened to be home. Isn't that nice?

P.S the brew was incredible.

Mirrors and OMD tour account.

Not ones normally to bang on about the day-to-day proceedings of all things Mirrors, our recent tour supporting Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark was such a great journey that here, in two parts, is an unashamed tour diary documenting some of the highlights...

Folkstone: Helpfully guided by a large sign reading FRANCE, we drive gingerly into "le shuttle", and are conveyed under the sea to the continent in a ludicrously short period of time.

Calais: Lingering for a while at a service station sipping coffee and what have we? We Have Band. Of all the bands to run into in a Calais service station, it happens to be the exact band Mirrors are playing a couple of shows with upon our return to England. What a small world. Don't mention how much we are looking forward to the plummet in audience numbers, catering facilities and standards of monitoring awaiting us when we eventually re-unite.

Abandon all hope of decent tea all ye who enter France.

Cologne: Arrive shrouded in rain and darkness, tired, only to find our lodgings closed, dim and distinctly empty-looking. Finally on getting through to the owners we are let in. Hilarious confusion ensues due communication problems arising from the fact that the owners are two Chinese men with limited grasp of both German and English. Despite their being lovely blokes, we are glad for the eventual calm when we are let into the rooms. Room calm seems nice for a minute of two before we all decide bar-calm might be better, and head out in search of a premises. It doesn't take long, and before long we are lined up along a bar calmly sipping ridiculously refreshing, tiny, Cologne-style beers. Moving on, we stumble across a little gem of an establishment down a short flight of nine steps from the street. Many more tiny little beers. The barman is a fine fellow, and you would never believe he is seventy years old. Before the war, he told us, his bar was a climb of two steps up from the street. The post-war buildings around it were thus rebuilt upon 11 steps' worth of Bomber Harris' rubble, and the entrance has had to be dug down to to be reached. A sobering thought, regardless of any amount of tiny little beers.

Joe enjoys a smoke indoors in Cologne.

Cologne Day 2: Freezing cold is the air, and the walk across the bridge from the hotel provides us with red ears for the day. Today is the eleventh of November, and it happens to be Cologne's carnival day. The city is mayhem by eleven o' clock in the morning. Drunken revelers dressed in fancy-dress crowd the streets and the squares, singing hymns to the city and dancing like loons. It is quite a contrast to what we know is happening in London at the same time. The people of Cologne certainly know how to party.

Cologne's colossal cathedral is an astounding building. From the ground, staring up at it's heights it appears as a vast black cliff face, its gothic buttresses like mountain crags. I half-expect to see eagles circling its peak. Its hushed interior is a welcome oasis of calm away from the carnage outside, but eventually we climb the seemingly endless thin, winding staircase to the top. Our pathetically fatigued legs feel like clay. It takes forever, though passing the world's largest bell on the way up broke the journey. From the top, the most amazing spectacle is not that of the city-scape spread out before you, but the sight, looking back down, of the black, gargoyle-encrusted shards of masonry disappearing back down into the roof of the main cathedral. The sound, muffled and distant at this height, of the bustling city below is bizarre, like a dream of parties.

Cologne Cathedral.

Later, we are excitable, apprehensive. The crowd is filling up quickly and we can sense they are full of anticipation. A welcome change. The show goes like a dream, and we play well, especially for the tour's first gig. The reaction is so positive, so enthusiastic, we are so pleased. Big stage, big sound; that is what our sound is designed for. OMD are lovely blokes. They tell us Wolfgang Fleur was present tonight. A good day. To celebrate we head into Cologne's beer bottle-strewn streets in search of revelry, but everybody else is by this stage of the night so drunk that we have no hope of catching up. Probably for the best. Meet some incredible folk in a bar, resulting in a particularly wonderful photograph:

Hanover: It's a good thing for the duration of this diary that we don't see enough of some of the cities visited that I can't often write for as long as I did about Cologne. We see very little of Hanover, unfortunately, but once again, the gig is wonderful. Being cynical capitalist entrepreneurs we are selling our limited edition tour CD for ten euros but it is proving much more popular than we had accounted for so what are you going to do? By the way, OMD's tour is sponsored by Panasonic, who provide them with led lights, and during soundcheck, various "customers" get to stand awkwardly on stage with their idols, soaking up the lovely monitor mix. They are great monitors though, I have to say.

Leipzig: Breakfast today is a bockwurst mit brot . Dipped in the mildy piquant german mustard and bitten, this particular sausage pops satisfyingly in the mouth. It is remarkably fortifying as a roadside breakfast eaten standing up in the cold. Others have currywurst, which in this situation at least is a sausage coated in a cinnamon tinged curry sauce with a weirdly synthetic, fruity taste, and sprinkled with curry powder to finish.

An archetypal Currywurst.

Leipzig is behind what used to be the Iron Curtain, and as such is an example of the economic gap that largely still exists between Eastern Germany and its Western counterpart. It is run down and we see much dereliction. The air is grey, drizzly.

The venue is huge, and they pack in 3000 people (over capacity), all of whom are hugely enthused to watch Mirrors. It is a wonderful feeling to occasionally avert one's eyes from one's synth and stare enigmatically at thousands of people beaming back at one.

James finally takes in the size of the crowd he just sang to.

Post gig, we return to our accomodation on the edge of town, The Eros City gentleman's night club grimly glowing though the drizzle from across the roundabout...

A peculiarly odd Leipzig community mural.

Nurenburg: Day off. Nurenburg boasts a well preserved, beautiful mediaeval city-centre, we find out today. A long walk through its winding, hilly streets, bathed as they were in rare German autumn sunshine, was followed by another that evening, and dinner. Find a warm bar serving large frothing beers in glazed clay mugs, which keep the beer at a perfect temperature, even 'til the dregs.

A part of Nurenburg's disturbingly violent fountain.

A frothing Nurenburg beer.

Stuttgart: Yesterday's weather was a glorious blip. Today sees a return to rain, and as the grey miasma that lifts from the back of the juggernauts blasting down the autobahn hits our windscreen, the rumbling wheels, the whistling wind and the faint ghost of music trickling from the stereo sends us all to sleep. All except Stu, our driver, I can only assume, as we make it to Stuttgart safe and well. Thanks Stu.

Stu.

Have a grilled variety of wurst in the services today - not as good as the preferred poached bockwurst. And the accompanying fried potatoes make for an overly greasy meal, far from satisfying. No amount of delicious beige German mustard can perk it up, and I crave a boiled egg and soldiers with a pot of strong tea.

Tonight's show is proclaimed as the best so far by James and Ally, and the worst by Jo. For me, it flits between tight, electric zones of greatness, and moments of slack nothingness. Still, the reaction is wonderful again from a crowd for the first time not quite filled to capacity.

Munich: There is snow in the air as we make our way through the hillier areas towards Munich. Unfortunately, we do not see any of this apparently proud city to speak of, which is a shame. The venue is in a kind of huge converted industrial complex. It takes an age to find the load-in, but it gives us plenty of time to admire the impressive array of graffiti. The damp air is bitingly cold.

Archetypal view from the van window.

Some of the graffiti of Munchen.

Tonight's performance is being recorded for posterity. It is probably the knowledge of this that negatively affects our reasonably poor performance. I cannot get into the right mind-set. Despite this, the sound is actually much improved, apparently, by the new set up required for the recording. So in this respect, there is gladness.

After the gig Ally cracks open a bottle of dangerously nice vodka. The night ends in McDonald's, proclaimed by Ally as "better than Le Gavroche". Not good.

Delicious vodka.

Stay awake. Part two will follow shortly.

re. art

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6eSfKeJ_VM

Crackle

The world of electronic instruments is a bizarre and intruiging one. Michel Waisvisz is an explorer of the malleable aspect of electronics, and seeks to "touch" electricity and mould it into music with his hands. To this end, he has created a range of incredible instruments. To see them all, and to learn more about his many years of exploits, visit his website, Crackle:

http://www.crackle.org/instruments.php

the smallest chess game ever

Taken from the website:

The fines chess set the world over. The chessboard and chessmen are placed on a pinhead. Thez show an arrangement of chessmen from one of the games played between Alexander Aliokhin (black pieces) and Raul Capablanka. The chessmen are made of gold.

The size is enlarged.

The art and technique of Mykola Syadristy microminiatures challenge imagination regarding human potential, to bridge science, technology and the cosmos.

Squint and you still won't see it

There are a great many odd people in this world. They should be encouraged.

This man -

- is the proud sculptor of ludicrous miniatures such as the chess set perched upon a pinhead, pictured above.

Not only does it provide a detailed history of the artist and an extensive gallery featuring highly magnified photographs his incredible work, this official website is also teeming with incredible suits:

http://microart.kiev.ua/en/index.html

Let It Be, the definitive version

Egg frying no.2

Why does Chris Watson get all the glory? Lee Patterson's recording of an egg frying and then cooling down is just as immersive a sonic experience as any amount of tropical rainforest squall or cracking arctic ice.  

Buy it here for six pounds:

http://www.cathnor.com/Cathnor_New_CV006.html

If they've run out, the esteemable ReR Megacorp has some in stock. 

http://www.rermegacorp.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=RM&Product_Code=leePattersonEgg&Category_Code=CU

Patriotism has killed Europe

One might say: Patriotism has killed Europe...European culture is much older than the European nation states. Greece, Rome, Israel, Christendom and Renaissance, the French Revolution and Germany's eighteenth century, the polyglot music of Austria and the poetry of the Slavs: these are the forces that have formed Europe...All are naturally opposed to the barbarity of so-called national pride.

The imbecile love of the "soil" kills the love of the earth. The pride of being born in a particular country, within a particular nation, wrecks the feeling of European universality."

Joseph Roth, "Europe is Possible Only Without the Third Reich" (1934) from The White Cities

I stumbled upon this quote on http://bibliophilicblogger.blogspot.com/

Based

Like your hip hop drenched in an ambient miasma?

Lil B is a hardcore rapper with over 150 Myspace sites to his name. He is an odd man.

Check his bizzarre new album here:

http://boomkat.com/cds/336821-lil-b-rain-in-england

You can also buy it directly from Weird Forest, the label, here:

http://www.weirdforest.com/store/bandPages/lilb.html

Here's his website:

http://www.basedworld.com/

Godalming

Mirrors remixer extraordinaire Belbury Poly's split single homage to quiet Surrey town Godalming, with Mordant Music on the flip, is yet another bewitching piece of pastoral wonderment from the Ghost Box label.

Read about it here: http://blog.normanrecords.com/2010/09/09/4-study-series-03-welcome-to-godalming-by-belbury-poly-mordant-music/

Buy it here: http://ghostbox.greedbag.com/buy/study-series-03-welcome-to-godal-0/

This came out a while ago but I'm not pretending this is a fresh up to date hot off the press music blog. All I do is gather intriguing snippets of cultural shrubbery here that's all.

A choice selection from Chris Carter's 1980 tape release, The Space Between, has been re-released by Glasgow's Optimo, on vinyl for the first time ever. For the gear-fetishists out there, this recording is notable for featuring the 808 drum machine for the first time.

http://www.optimomusic.com/releases.php