Saturday 20th June
Sorry for last night’s brief grumpy post. I didn’t enjoy the journey to London and back much last night, mainly because I was very tired after five straight days of work, leading me to feel pretty unwell by the time I got home. I’m not feeling so bright today either so it took a lot of effort to heave my weary body from bed today to get anything done. As a result I won’t be attending tonight’s Cut ‘n Splice event, but then I was only really interested in the Lucier pieces and I am just too tired and as next weekend will be full of concerts again I am in need of the R&R.
As I mentioned last night I only saw two sets last night. I arrived too late to see the Lucier set, and because the organisers (sensibly) were not allowing latecomers into the main hall until the end of a performance I then had to wait in the bar the best part of forty-five minutes while Tape That performed some kind of Fluxus related event. As pretty much everyone else was in the hall I sat and relaxed after the rush from work with a beer before taking a look around the Wilton Music Room, which is the building that hosted the event. Its actually a pretty great place, a hall built specifically for music performance in 1859, but closed as a venue after just twenty years. The place then spent over a decade in and out of different ownership and used for a variety of purposes, including a role as a mission, serving food to those caught up in the first dockworkers strike of 1889, and in 1936 was the headquarters of those fighting Mosely’s fascists in the infamous Battle of Cable Street. It somehow survived the Blitz and also the widesweeping slum regeneration programs of the sixties, when a listing order was placed upon the hall, protecting it from demolishment, but not from dereliction, and as the years passed, despite it being used as a rag warehouse amongst other things the fabric of the building suffered. Although the Hall reopened as a place for music to be performed in 2004, unless funds are raised to renovate the building it will not be fit for this purpose within a few years, such is the state of disrepair. The second floor of the building is already sealed off and cannot be accessed by the public.
Wilton’s is however, as you might expect, a quite fascinating and equally beautiful place. Several installations, based around the theme of “Living Rooms” are set up about the building, but alas as I was viewing them whilst the music performances were taking place in the main hall their sound elements had been switched off so as not to interfere. The Cut ‘n Splice event continued the Living Rooms theme, and the two performances I caught dealt with two different readings of it. The Domestic Appliance Audio Research Society performance was in equal parts interesting and hilarious. Benedict Drew, Lee Patterson, Helena Gough, Simon Swatman and “chairperson” Karen Gwyer sat behind a long table, vaguely resembling some kind of comedy Last Supper. The performance was presented as the inaugural AGM of the society by Gwyer, who read a scripted narrative throughout the set. The musicians took turns turing on assorted household appliances and catching their sounds, which where then broadcast via the PA into the room. A fridge, a kettle, a coffee-maker, a food mixer, electric shaver, an iron, a handheld vacuum cleaner, electric toothbrushes and probably other items I have forgotten were used. Above the stage, texts explaining the origins of each appliance were projected, and Gwyer read passages that linked the invention of each to moments in history, some monumental, some hilariously irrelevant. Musically there wasn’t anything stunnign happening here, but as a partly amusing reminder of the everyday orchestra of sounds surrounding it us it was interesting and occasionally surprising. Ben wouldn’t let me have the coffee though. Even though I needed it 
Jason Lescalleet then took to the stage for a solo performance that used recordings he had been making for a week around Wilton’s Hall. Oddly, he put on a tie over his distinctive pink shirt just before walking on stage, an interesting touch. He used his trademark reel to reel tape set up alongside a laptop and other bits and pieces and built up the music slowly, as he tends to do as we watched him move around the stage putting things together. At the beginning of the set, which he announced was titled Meditation on a Room he taped a contact mic to a large beer glass and then filled it with sparkling water amplifying the sound around the room in Lee Patterson style. While the bubbles died slowly away Lescalleet took a small dictaphone and recorded himself stomping his considerable frame off of the stage, up around the frail wooden balcony, and back down the other side, crashing down the stairs making as much noise as possible. He then plugged the dictaphone into his mixing desk and used the loop of sound as the basis for the performance. He slowly added other sounds, including some (I think) recordings of the big storm that was over London in the week and other bangs, crashes and drones.
All of this sounds very interesting, and indeed watching Lescalleet build the sound in this distinctively physical manner makes for a good visual spectacle, but as with the previous occasions I have seen him perform I found very little of interest in the actual music he produced. The music built into a cloudy mass of slightly blurred sounds, very bass-heavy and often causing the four speakers placed at each corner of the hall to break up. It reminded me a lot of the English industrial music scene of the early eighties, all churning, murky loops with the occasional fuzzy chime and crash, switching at one point when Lescalleet began to touch the tape as it passed around the loop into a loud roar which didn’t last that long until he brought the music to an end by halting the tape manually. It was all just very predictable and (I hate to use this word) somewhat boring. Looping sounds generally interest me little, and music that slowly degrades in clarity as it rises in volume needs to have some real spark of energy to stop me switching off mentally but unfortunately I didn’t detect one. Maybe it was just my tiredness and the grumpiness caused by having to wait around that affected my ability to listen very well, but there just didn’t seem to be anything here that caused the music to gel into anything more than a collection of layered looping sounds, sorry.
Aki Onda was due to play last, and for the fourth time in my life I left before he played. This is incredibly unfair of me I know, and probably not a comment on Onda’s music (which I have never heard live, though it hasn’t interested me that much on CD) but I was just not in the right frame of mind for a late journey home and genuinely feared falling asleep on the train and missing my stop. As it happens I spent the train trip listening to the free downloads to be had from Sebastian Lexer’s website which are very good indeed and there was no danger of me drifting off.
I was anticipating with interest your review of Lescalleet, and your views are respected. By coincidence I just had another concentrated listen to Breadwinner this evening. One aspect that particularly interests me about this CD is how Lo Fi sounds are presented with such clarity, depth and scale. I really don’t know how Lescalleet and Lambkin achieve this; a sonic oxymoron. There are a few moments that really annoy, but like Philip Jeck’ best music, I hear something very beautiful; just like Autumn and decay are beautiful, how the everyday becomes strange. Wish I’d been there this evening – I have yet to hear Jason live. Anyone else experience this set?
interesting review. I have to admit that Jason’s stuff has always left me cold – live & on disc. I wasn’t at this event but I feel from Richard’s review & descriptions i’ve heard from other people (positive & negative) that the reasons I don’t get on with his work were present again. For me it is far too forced & there is a sense of the ‘artiste’ at play. I would like to be able to feel the way Graham does about his & Lambkins work but i’m afraid I don’t believe these two chaps make the everyday strange at all – in fact to my ears they subvert the everyday in a rather cold & cynical manner that often comes across as an in-joke. Perhaps I am far too fascinated by the actual sounds of everyday to be able to appreciate them when they are submerged underneath layers of artifice. Jesus, this sounds very negative doesn’t it ? well, perhaps the best thing that I can say is that following Graham’s comment above i’m going to go & listen to thier stuff again & see if I can find something else in there.
Hmm, I should say that I much prefer Lescalleet’s music on disc, Matresslessness is great, as is Love me two times. I didn’t get on that well with Breadwinner but then I haven’t played it very much. I’ll try to listen again soon. My problem is (I think) that there is a difference in his live material in that it has a strong chance of failure, possibly because of the way he builds it in front of the audience, using sounds he might have only just captured etc… It is quite possible I have just caught the wrong concerts, I’m not sure.
ha
this is a good illustration of how different perceptions can be. actually if there was a sense of possible failure live it would improve the experience for me but I don’t see that there is – or at least if there is then it is related to the noise ethos but from an experiences perspective – one of not caring if it fails (which therefore removes the sense of risk by rendering it as as succesful as non-failure). Still, heads down for another trawl through the Jason discs….
For what it’s worth, I think ‘the breadwinner’ is a really great recording. I spent a long time avoiding it, as I had a bad experience with Jason at a gig I put on a while back, that’s my own problem entirely, but when I got over my hump and actually had a proper listen, it really did make me smile.
I don’t think it’s an entirely original album, as many have stated in the past, as Foley artists have been doing that sort of thing for years and years, but I guess it doesn’t get realised on the CD format very often.
I even enjoyed the last track, I think mostly because it reminded me of Fire Walk With Me by David Lynch. I need to go back and listen to it again though, as as I’m typing this my recollective ability is sorely lacking.
Jez, what do you mean when you say, “submerged under layers of artifice”? I don’t think there is much trickery going on in the recording at all, most of the sources, to me, are in plain sight, and are all the more effective for being so… Within the few times I have actually listened to the album what struck me most was its simplicity.
hmmm ! good question. My comment wasn’t related to what has been (or not in this case) done to the recordings. perhaps it is in the intent or the attitude. It is only my personal view.
my view of Jason has also partly been affected by the story you refer to (& similar ones) & I think you taking on the blame for that is bonkers
I just listened through to The Breadwinner again, and yeah it is OK, some really nice parts (The first track is my favourite.) Despite the lo-fi techniques used the CD has a much more focussed, definite feel to it than the live set Friday, which just felt washed out and lacking in detail or significant event. That said, quite a bit of the CD just isn’t really to my taste. I’m not a fan of looping, reoccurring sounds used in the way they are on several of the tracks here, and they seemed to make up most of the live se too. I can see why a lot of people rate the album very highly, it is clearly very thoughtful and well made, but sonically it often just isn’t my cup of tea, that’s all.
I have no idea what Jez is talking about here, it’s 180 degrees away from the reality that I live in, but that’s pretty typical for me and him. Jason is as far from a self-conscious ‘artiste’ as anyone I’ve ever worked with, and his equipment is constantly on the verge of failure or actually failing.
I also don’t know about the stories going around about him mentioned above, but I can say that I’ve put on numerous concerts of his over the years as a promoter and have never had a speck of trouble.
Richard, you’re correct that his live shows and his records are very different, they don’t overlap much at all quite a bit of the time. I’ve also had some problems with his looping on occasion, one during the first ErstQuake that he left running in the back corner of the room drove me nuts to the point I wanted to scream, and I was pretty amused to learn afterwards it was Chris Wolf’s favorite part of the fest.
IMO the last, title track of The Breadwinner is the highlight of the record, probably my favorite piece Jason’s done thus far.
1) I think I should never try to write about music / sound I don’t like – I seem to come across as angry or imply that I don’t like the folks involved !
2) I’ve been thinking if there was a better way for me to express why I don’t get on with thier stuff & all I could come up with is for me it is like a sound version of Richard Billingham’s photo’s.
won’t comment anymore on this – will take my own advice !
The reason of Jason Lescalleet’s greatness, if you needed one: “The Pilgrim”. To this day I’m thanking Brian Olewnick’s fo this review:
http://www.bagatellen.com/archives/reviews/001449.html
…and for the second time in two posts here, I typed my words as a dyslexic…
i’ll try to track that down as reading Brian’s review makes it sound interesting ! in fact it is the lack of emotion that is the main reason I don’t get on with Jason’s work usually.
I’ve had quite the opposite repsonse to Jason Lescalleet, whose music I find consistently excellent, and fascinating in some ways, too. Haven’t yet heard The Pilgrim (which I intend to rectify), but his other recordings are among those I find myself spending long stretches with, and then frequently revisiting later, years on. I caught him in live performance for the first time only a couple of months ago and this only added to the interest. Something about his manner of performance brings further intrigue to what we hear on disc — I find it gratifying to see the music being physically constructed (with the risk of failure always evident) and built upon… a nice alternative to watching someone at a laptop from a distance. Graham’s comment (”One aspect that particularly interests me about this CD is how Lo Fi sounds are presented with such clarity, depth and scale”) states my interest in much of his music perfectly.
JrF – it’s funny how you mentioned Graham and Jason’s approach to sound as an inside joke in one post and then spoke of inside stories (and similar ones) that have impacted your views on Lescalleet’s music. Please share these similar stories so we can all benefit from your insight.
trying to ge out of this conversation really.
but as you asked what I will say is that the ‘in joke’ thing is a very different kettle of fish from knowing certain events that have taken place.
I don’t think it would do any good to repeat the incidents here. It would be a deliberate negative act against Jason for one thing.
I’m sure we’ve all had incidents of certain incidents affecting the way we view someones music.
Hmm yes while I would say it is fair to call out Jez for the “other similar” incidents he mentioned publicly I don’t think this is the right place to be airing that kind of thing please. I’m sure Jez’s email is easy to track down and the issue can be discussed in private. Thanks.
so, vague, likely untrue allegations are kosher for here, but if someone is asked to spell out specifically what they mean, so that it can possibly be determined if they’re factual or once again hallucinated in Jez’s alternate universe, let’s move that to private channels so no one else can see. got it.
if “Earache My Eye” (nice Cheech and Chong reference) is Jason, would that allow this conversation to continue (I don’t know if it is or not)?
Jon I was trying to stop this becoming a list of things wrong with Jason Lescalleet thread more than anything else. I didn’t like what Jez had to say and wish he hadn’t said it but I see nothing to be gained from blowing this up into anything else. If anyone wants to get the detail out of Jez about what he meant then they can email him, I am not having that kind of negative childish crap here. We are all adults, we have all read what he wrote, we can all make our own minds up about how much of it was or was not a figment of Jez’s “alternate universe” without your help and sideswipes thank you.
If Earache My Eye is indeed Jason (I suspect it actually isn’t) then maybe that would change things, but using a pseudonym hardly helps that.
I’d like to offer my sincere aplogies to Richard & everyone else viewing this (even Jason if he is !) for bringing a negative element into this conversation. I have no idea why I even bothered to post my first comment as no one was asking to start a ‘what’s with Jason’ chat. As I have communicated to Richard this morning I am puzzled as to why I am generally passionate about the positive things but still have ended up bringing the negative to the fore. I’m trying to detox myself !
The reasons I don’t get on with Jason’s stuff are about 80% to do with seeing him live It’s ok for me to not like whoever, but unless there is some wider public benefit from me sharing that then I shouldn’t share.
so, apologies all round – even to Jon !
….& especially to Richard & Jason !
OK, and with that I think it is better if we close this thread and move on. I don’t have the time to be worrying about this kind of crap so no more please.
Recent Comments
Archives
Meta
Visitor Count