‘Bedsit Disco Queen’ by Tracey Thorn.

"Women like Patti Smith and Chrissie Hynde were a godsend to someone like me, who was a natural tomboy in appearance, and at the moment when I was trying to forge a self-image they seemed to beam the empowering message that you didn't need to be 'pretty' or take your kit off in order to get attention"

A pop memoir that affectionately tells the tale of a sometimes reluctant pop star, Tracey Thorn’s ‘Bedsit Disco Queen’ reveals an artist who is all at once witty, intelligent, feminist, self-doubting, full of stage fright, but most of all likeable and modest. She talks of her wish to stay out of the limelight, to not play to the pop star machine, and with her prose that delves into old diaries to recount, you do believe her.

As half of ‘Everything But The Girl’ her relationship with trying to be a popstar starts in a garden shed with some school friends and runs alongside her later band mate Ben Watt (who I didn't know was her boyfriend/husband). Their relationship is written romantically yet without sentimentality, together from 19, mostly over a connection to make music colliding in an undergraduate bar at Hull, fusing his jazz with her indie, starting out with guitars and ending up electronic. There are little snippets of their personal life together, a first date where they saw different films after being unable to agree and had their date afterwards, to a spat in a hotel which left them in separate rooms, Ben’s near death from a rare condition and the birth of twin girls and a boy soon after. The trials and domesticity of their life accounted for without the mush of even a wedding picture that could leave you with a yuck feeling of the ‘Richard and Judy’ of pop.

The memoir starts with a very shy 14 year old, who on discovering punk ends up in a band, already having dabbled in the ‘token girl in a boy’s band’ mostly to get a boyfriend, awkwardly realising boys in bands don’t go out with girls in bands mostly,

‘It drove me mad to discover that the kind of female docility which I’d hoped had died out in about 1958 could still be appealing…I had assumed that the qualities I found attractive in boys - being clever and spirited and having a good record collection and being in a band - would work in reverse, but I was starting to wake up to the fact that, of course, many boys found those things threatening and unattractive in a girl’.

And now here's the bits that normally dominate the pop memoir. In the very early days, it reads as a sort of confessional of ways to fit in with a mostly male set up that left few female role models outside of Siouxsie Sioux or Poly Styrene. Tracey goes on to recount how she tried to shyly emulate Siouxsie during her first audition from behind a wardrobe door as the 'token' girl. This quickly led onto the formation of the all girl indie punk group, Marine Girls.

 A few years later, after juggling studies at Hull University in a relationship with her band mate, 'Everything But The Girl' was on the road, band crushing with Paul Weller between 'The Jam' and 'The Style Council' times, ending in a live collaboration and some embarrassingly penned fan letters, then on discovery of The Smiths, falling for Morrissey, a fellow melody maker and miserabilist. Tracey's ringlets were shorn off to an androgynous cut that left her adoring and emulating Moz, flowers on stage and all.  A few years on, a ‘Massive Idea’ would be scrawled on a cassette and an offer to support U2 on tour around America is left with Tracey saying to Ben,

'Actually, babe, d'you know what? I think I want to stop now'.

This pop memoir held my attention in the same way Marc Almond’s ‘Tainted Life’ did, mostly as these things only work if they get a bit ‘confessional’ and there’s nothing more boring than carefully worded industry talk and a who’s who of pop, plus the obligatory slanging matches and fall outs in music biography, (eg, ‘Morrissey and Marr, The Severed Alliance’ has been nothing more to me than something to dust on the bookshelf, even people that have borrowed it, have returned unfinished).

I think this is where Tracey’s book works, it’s no good writing a memoir unless there’s a story that universally appeals. What ‘Bedsit Disco Queen’ and ‘Tainted Life’ share is humour, humanity and the agonies of growing up, you don’t even have to be the biggest ‘Everything But The Girl Fan’ to enjoy it. Anything pre-Missing 95 is *whoosh* right over my head musically, (although of course I will now look over the back catalogue)  but does show how big that track must have been as I was at University at the time and was far too busy being (intellectual?) drunk to watch Top of the Pops and probably didn't have a TV… but I enjoyed all the reminiscing and the largest part of the book is those earlier years that any teen struggling to find themselves will relate to. There’s politics too, not too much, just enough to watch the young Tracey angrily boycott Top of The Pops for years on the ground that girls danced in cages, and then to her socialist and feminist leanings, I would find it hard not to love her on this alone.

In the latter part of the book, Tracy becomes a mother and suddenly finds herself loving the minutia of life around other women for the first time, after years of working within a mostly male dominated industry. Her musings of unconditional love and protectiveness, for the most part over her song writing and now replaced with real babies, will resonate with most mothers… minus perhaps the celeb-ish anecdotes like George Michael pulling over to say ‘hi’ on the school run and her little boys saying ‘mummy, you’re singing in the shop’ while pushing a pram through Gap, all that does is give it that personable edge with some incredible glamour.

And something I learnt while reading this, bands don’t have much power, so next time I get on my high horse about how un-live a gig is, I might just wonder if they didn't get much choice over it. Tracey describes many incidences of lack of control over their performances and albums and how even after a huge hit, they still ended up lip-synching with Ben pretending to play a keyboard that wasn't even plugged in against their better judgement. She even talks at one point of how she wished she'd invented twitter so they could have had a place to kick back rather than sit alone in hotel rooms brooding and frustrated at the industry.

Anyway, I recommend this book if you like music and pop culture, if you've ever wanted to be in a band (I haven’t so even that’s not required) or if you’re just interested in hearing about someone’s life. It’s just so readable, and could probably stand alone outside of the ‘Popstar Trace’ angle. Every chapter is interspersed with song lyrics making that EBTG karaoke night even more of a possibility!

So here they are, her voice is beautiful, this song is lovely. Go get the Bedsit Disco Queen’s book now.

http://www.traceythorn.com/

In other related news, I’ve spent about a million pounds on Bestival tickets and a tipi in the posh ‘glamping’ area *just* to see The Knife and the live reviews are SHOCKING so far. I exaggerate under stress of course. Blog love x

The Alcohol Years - Carol Morley

It’s been a bit of a pop memoir kind of week so far. I'm currently reading ‘Bedsit Disco Queen’ by Tracey Thorn, and then stumbled upon Carol Morley’s film ‘The Alcohol Years’ pre-dating the brilliant 'Dreams of A Life' and definitely worth a mention.

It’s a tale of five years of being quite lost yet right at the centre of an emerging music scene, hob- knobbing, quite literally, some of the movers and shakers and some not so, in and around The Factory of Hacienda. There’s a lot of mythologizing of said Madchester, the town you’re most likely to bump into someone buying Custard Creams at a corner shop, then see slumped in their own vomit outside a club and end up on Top of the Pops a week later. This film however is much more real, more interesting for me than '24 Hour Party People', which really did just send me to sleep if I'm honest, and as Morley points out in this interview, 

"...although it represented the time accurately in that there were no women in it, I criticised it for the fact that the only women who were in it were rubbish. [Tony Wilson’s] girlfriend has actually got much more to do with him being who he is than the film lets on."

So what did I like about this? It’s a bit uncomfortable to watch in places, a bit like her other docufilm ‘Dreams of A Life’; some of the people interviewed kind of make you cringe, particularly Alan 'club owner man' who talks of her pretty face and big breasts, just too many times really. Then there’s 'I'm still mad at you eyes' man who clearly still has anger issues firing in Carol’s direction, he’s basically tired of talking about her, gets interviewed by her to tell her he’s tired of talking about her and effectively wants to say ‘shut up, we don’t need to talk about you any more’. So he’s in love with her then.

Then there’s her best mate and on/off partner in crime on the promiscuous front, ‘Debby’, who’s debauched revelry (basically carrying on like most men which means some adore her and others hate her) involved picking up people here, there and everywhere and spending quite a lot of New Order’s money in hotels. And then there’s an ode to her band 'ToT', they had two songs and couldn’t play anything. Win. Here's a fab interview with her explaining her inspiration and influences, very much centred on the word 'actuality'.

How did this film start? Well mostly after a chance meeting with someone from her past who told her stories she could not remember happening that led to a journey of, well let’s see what else I’ve forgotten. This transgressed to an advert in a paper that said ‘if you knew me between 82-87, please get in touch’. The docufilm of  ‘Dreams of A Life’ came about with a similar advert asking for anyone who knew the mysterious Joyce. These films do link for me as it’s as if Carol is the missing or dead person in her own film, a tale of a young woman, bleached hair, red lipstick, infantilised and playing with rubber ducks and train sets in nightclubs before preying on men and women alike to take to bed relentlessly. There’s hints this is due to the suicide of her dad when she was 11, a drinking habit that took hold by 12 years old, and a growing obsession with missing persons as he was known to ‘wander’ through her childhood.

'The Alcohol Years', as did 'Dreams of A Life', feels like the script emanated from a social network wall of comments and albums of images of your worst and slightly better moments #confessional. Yet Carol professes not to like that word, it seems she is one for putting her own life under a difficult microscope. It did come across as the unromantic unravelling of the myth of Manchester that left her with enough people to want to say something about her years and years later after she escaped, you never see her as she’s behind the camera, but at times you hear a snigger.

Doesn’t everyone wonder how others see them, and especially in their darkest hours and in a *shudder* reunion kind of way? I reckon my equivalent ‘ The Liebfraumilch Through a Straw in a Spar Car Park Years’ wouldn’t be half as rock n roll though. It will be interesting to see where her filmmaking goes from here on, it's already evolving with 'Edge'...and will big brother Paul be dragged in at any point, seeing as he’s always got plentiful to say for himself. Not a beautiful film in a mainstream kind of way, but definitely worth watching; a reunion with a realistic difference in the construction of memory... by another brilliant lady.

In The Alcohol Years, one interviewee recalls a heartfelt letter from the young Morley bemoaning her "floundering". At the screening, the director explained her motivation in making Edge: "Something I am fascinated by is how, as a collection, a collective, we can make something of our lives beyond the isolation. So, I guess I always want to make some attempt in my films to bring people together."


Related Post: Dreams Of A Life

Ode to Olivia Colman…

So big smiles on Chris Chibnall’s face this week on the close of his crime drama ‘Broadchurch’ which has been more successful than he could have hoped. He sent out this tweet to inspire other writers;

‘Note to writers: #Broadchurch was a spec script. I wrote it for myself. It’s taken on a life I never dreamed. Get writing. Things do happen.

I remembered another writer telling me never to delete anything, which has set me in good stead recently, although I do sometimes wonder if knocking this blogging stuff on the head would also free up some time for ‘serious’ writing.  Anyway, Broadchurch is over now and although I think the ending was pretty obvious from at least the penultimate episode when DI Miller looks into Susan Wright’s face and says ‘How could you not have known?’ re her rapist husband, I knew this was going to mirror back at her. And it did when her friend Beth uttered the same words to her about her own husband, Joe the killer.

It did take me a little while to warm to it, mostly as I come from a very similar small seaside community and kept squirming, and it did take at least two episodes to not have ‘Doctor’ resounding in my head as David Tennant looked moodily into the distance in a long coat (but minus converse trainers)… but it caught me in the end. Well-written and cast, slightly iffy accents to the trained ear but it definitely captured a small community pulled apart from tragedy. Oh and the beacon burning at the end may have looked a bit blurry eyed sentimental but that’s a big deal down that way.

My only criticism is the scene that verges on abuse apologism, where Hardy explains Joe’s ‘love’ for the murdered boy as if it was hard to understand, and puts it to Miller as if it may actually have been the things we don’t understand about the heart. No. Paedophiles often romanticise their feelings and even from prison, try to send their victims (children that is) valentine cards. 

This highlighted perhaps a flaw in research as I don’t think a man ‘in-love’ with an 11-year-old boy would have made the leap from cuddles to killing without a background. Anyway, series 2 is on the cards so we shall see if it twists and turns any more. I have a feeling the back story of Tennant’s character ‘Hardy’ will be the focus as the flashbacks to his childhood and glimpses of another mystery child on the beach were never explained.

Olivia Colman has been quite rightly praised to the hilt for her portrayal of the detective who could not see what she was getting into bed with so well and twitter hashtagged her brilliance with excited squeals of ‘Give that lady a Bafta!’ Which reminded me of this film…

Tyrannosaur: directed by Paddy Considine (2011)

I would recommend this film with caution if I'm honest. It is hugely triggering for anyone that’s ever been in an abusive relationship and as grim as it is in places, it does show that violence and misery is not choosy of where it lurks in society. 

It rots relationships in impoverished or affluent households, but importantly, the little ray of light in this film is that unlikely friendship can be made in dark times.  Unlikely friendships are a big interest for me, which is why it may have clicked, I admit it is a film that leaves you a little pensive for a while after…I don’t think that’s a problem though.

There does seem to be a tradition of UK film writers that do the grim, the realism, the social comment, which isn't to everyone’s taste unless it’s light and dressed as a soap opera (*ahem* Eastenders) but I don’t think it fetishsizes the poor like perhaps something like 'Shameless' has been accused of. I like the grittier end of 'This is England' more than the cosiness of 'Love Actually'.  As difficult as some parts are to watch in places, it wasn't gratuitous and it did do a good job of revealing the multi faceted sides of domestic violence.

Anyway, the basic premise is an alcoholic, violent tempered man, shortly after kicking his beloved dog to death, kicks off in a post office, gets beaten up and ends up hiding in a charity shop run by a very faith trodden, Christian woman, played by Olivia Colman. There were times when the current climate of ‘privilege checking’ came into my mind as her life seems surfacely ‘happy’ and ‘comfortable’ to outsiders as Joseph (played by Peter Mullan) points out…but was, in fact, as horrendous and violent as the community he is part of.

Without wanting to give too much away, as the story unravels, their friendship deepens and the role of who is the ‘goody goody’ starts to blur as well as the old adage of ‘ behind closed doors’. Privilege checking is only really something you can do for yourself, as nobody really knows how difficult/easy another person’s life is.

So my only criticism, a strange pub sing-along scene that smacked of an Oasis video a bit, it was jarring and lost me for a moment. Other than that, there were amazing performances, particularly Olivia’s ‘ Hannah’ with heart wrenching pleas to her husband to ‘stop hurting me’. Little wonder she excelled at her portrayal of DI Miller in Broadchurch which in comparison was a bit Reader’s Digest. And on top of this, she can do comedy too.

So I recommend this film to those that like the work of Shane Meadows, Carol Morley, although this film won lots of praise from critics and awards, it has been a little overlooked. Oh and to save any disappointment, Tyrannosaur is the pet name of a dead wife who stamped on the stairs and probably a metaphor for inner monster, no dinosaurs to see here. Kudos to Peter Mullan, Eddie Marsan (may never be able to look at him again though) and Olivia Colman.

You can still watch Broadchurch here.

Tyrannosaur (2011) IMBd

Records among other things…

Right now, I want everything on vinyl, mostly as the minute I acquired (thanks to my brother *mwah*) a record deck, my CD player refused to play. Call me a serendipitous digital luddite type, but I took that as a sign, even if it means re-mortgaging my life to pay for it.


I’ve recently had a birthday so got some records, and used it as an excuse to buy a lot more records. Then Record Store Day loomed, mid month (think about that organisers) and I didn’t buy a single record because I'd run out of reasons/money to be that frivolous... but how cool was it to see all those music lovers wandering off to get their records and CDs. And how sad that record store day used to be every Saturday.

As music is momentous for me, I rarely replace music with a new format, I love that they way you have to play a song is indicative of the time you purchased it. Which is why I still play cassettes, I won’t confess to what ( *ahem* Suede), but the joy of that sort of clumsy noise and weird squeak as you put it in the stereo, and even better, the tape you remember sticking a pencil in to remedy it being chewed up, is all part of it. I’m much more a memory purist than music so I’m sure that there’s a few tracks I could play in a different format to how I originally got it, and it would leave me with memory loss of that school disco, that undergraduate house party where I offered up the first CD I’d ever bought (confession-The Levellers circa 1992).

So I’m not about to throw away all my CDs (and I will be getting my CD player fixed), I will continue to dust off my cassettes every now and then and may even put on my video recording of ‘Desperately Seeking Susan’ in a celebration at some point. I’m never going to buy that film on DVD. And if you say ‘that because it’s shit’, I will just put my hands over my ears and ‘la la la’ my way back to my ten-year-old self and remember arguing with my parents about whether I was allowed to watch it. And aside from all that, over the years, a lot of the music, films and books I’ve got have been gifts and call me sentimental, I can’t replace them.

So, in an itsy bitsy bit ironic way, I hope you had a lovely 'buying music in a proper and physical way, ie, you walked to a record shop and picked it up in your hands' but I will now share with you what have I listened to online like a complete Judas this week. I suppose what I'm saying is, I use online to preview but at the end of the day, I want something I truly love in my hands.

First off, a newbie band for me comprising a girl/boy duo from Belgium called Float Fall, beautiful voices that compliment each other in a very XX kind of way. This track was out there a few weeks back but they promoted the vinyl release of 'Someday' for Record Store Day and its very lovely. Listen and watch below...










Float Fall also have a super live session on Spoor 8 .

 I’ve also heard a couple more tracks off of Emika’s coming album 'Dva' and they are brill with a big ‘B’. Here’s ‘Sing To Me’ and jump on this link for my thoughts on ‘Searching’ where she partakes in a bit of drunk acting. It’s going to be a good album and it's out June 10.

Then, Daft Punk broke Spotify. I don’t have spotify, mostly as it insists on a Facebook account, or it used to, and being asked once is enough to make me prickly about it. Anyway, the song ‘Get Lucky’ isn’t bad at all, a very catchy disco-y tune about, well, bonking really. You can listen to it here. I like it at the moment but I fear it may become overplayed and be kissed with the curse of a summer anthem. I’m just going to let it play for now. Let’s see anyway. It features Pharrell Williams and Nile Rogers throwing shapes in glittery suits *swoon* ladies... and the daft ones are in shiny helmets.

And in other news, I watched Jools Holland this week, I don't usually as it just makes me wonder why other music shows are no more and his keeps going; he presents clumsily, his hootenanny is famously fake and everything he plays on the piano sounds the bloody same. That's probably his charm though. Anyway, I did watch it and Tracey Thorn was on there, she was absolutely lovely and I had kind of forgotten about her. She's written a pop memoir called 'Bedsit Disco Queen'.  I don't usually read such things but this one looks like it might be good. I will keep you posted on that one.

*I dedicate this post to the mysterious man who runs 'Records' down the road from my house . Once you get past all the Level 42 (urgh!), there's some real gems hiding in his disorganised second hand record store... and he plays the vinyl very loudly to test them as you purchase. This can be embarrassing.*

My next post will be an ode to Olivia Colman. X



Related Links:

http://floatfall.com/

http://www.emika.co.uk/

"Making a bedspring sound like a voice or a voice sound like a bedspring" (The Knife...of course)

http://theknife.net/

Back to music after a dabble in politics on the previous post, I so wish blogger was more comment friendly and I could share with you some of the *ahem* more interesting responses I got emailed.

Anyway, The Knife’s album, ‘Shaking the Habitual' has a short film, 'The Interview', an introduction to its politics. See image to the left, it all comes with an amusing comic strip too.







To sum up very quickly, it's about shaking up of the habit of the rule of the white middle class male, of capitalism, patriarchy and the institutions set up that do nothing but limit gender equality, the stereotypes within and without the nuclear family, and in society across the board. It's eccentric; it's all about masking identities and creating a space you feel you can exist. I love this kind of thing. 'The Interview' is directed by Marit Ostberg who did the brilliant 'Full of Fire' Watch below.

I don't think this album would be what it is without ' Tomorrow, in a Year', (featuring Planningtorock and Mt.Simms) a collaborative electro opera and ode to Charles Darwin. Now that album, conceptually and on the ears does challenge although there were a couple I played over and over, particularly 'The Height of Summer'. 'Shaking the Habitual' does have a similar evolutionary sound, tackling head on the societal expectations and perfunctory thinking within a mix of quite primitive and futuristic composing. I do think it 's a bit lazy to write it off as going off into a path that will lose people, and if it does, so what? That's the privilege Karin and Olaf talk of in their interview, a privileged point that they can do as they please which is part of their charm. Yes, there's an ambient thing going on for almost 20 minutes that will test the patience of some, but it's still good and could be used to meditate to (come on positive spin), it's no accident it's called 'Old Dreams Waiting To Be Realised'.

So I'm looking forward to the 21st of April for the vinyl release. I fear I may be ousted to a sound proofed room to listen to it but I will battle through that. There's screechy vocals, there's woodwind action, tribal beat and metallic drums, all mixed up with synths and bedsprings, voices that sound equally human and alien, industry and politics. Let's throw all formula on the big bonfire of burning formulaic norms on many levels. Also, 'Without You My Life Would Be Boring' is very Kate Bush in its eccentricities. 'Wrap Your Arms Around Me' definitely Bjork.   'Networking' sounds like really big spiders tap dancing and that is  *exactly* what networking sounds like in my head, unpredictable speeds and legs everywhere, you will know what I mean when you hear it. 'Fracking Fluid Injection' is a beautiful  insane thing and will definitely get me sent to my room if I try and play it around my people. It makes you want to scream, but 'Ready To Lose' the closer makes up for it and echoes Karin's solo project Fever Ray.





Like most projects from The Knife, the difficult moments are blown away when you click with a track, this one for me still 'A Tooth For An Eye' and 'Ready To Lose'. With tracks this long, you only need three goodies to feel you have an album anyway. (There's more than that though). I think it's quite accessible in places with a lot of dance and ambient influences. Maybe try listening to their collaborative opera from 2010 first, then put this on and it will feel like you're listening to a 'Now!' compilation. I love it more every time I hear it and I'm pretty sure that will grow especially as I'm getting it in a format that makes a 'skip' button an impossibility. I may be quite a loyal Knife fan but I never *pretend* to like something. If you never hear from me again, it may well be because I've been buried in a shallow grave with all my Knife LPs.

Admittedly I do have a special affection for The Knife as they are the first band I ever wrote something on. I probably couldn't have done it on anything else as if we're all honest, getting beyond the words, 'I like this, please listen' can be tricky. They do give you a bit more to ponder.

Related Posts:

A Tooth For An Eye
Full of Fire

Related Link:

http://theknife.net/

In other news, this weekend is defo disco time as my copy of Ssion's 'Bent' has arrived.  I *adore* this LP and Cody Cricheloe is certainly shaking some stuff up too. Luvvbazzar people X

Related Link:

http://www.ssion.com/

I couldn’t ignore this one…normal blogging business will resume soon.

This post has swear words...

On the subject of the death of a certain horrendous politician this week, I don’t feel that interested in her death in any respect or lack of, she was old and it was coming, and unfortunately her legacy lives on. Dance if you will when Thatcherism is dead. But not to ‘Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead’.

And that is because if you look at the history of the word ‘witch’, of its gendering, of its narrowness, of its innate misogyny, of those still being persecuted today as witches, of the estimated 9 million killed under the accusation of witchcraft historically, wrongly, it seems a little unfair to lump all those innocent women, men and children burnt at the stake in with ‘that bloody politician’. Just google 'European witch trials' and you may see beyond the rainbow of a joke and a fairy tale.

The vocalising of hatred at ground level has been very gendered, ‘an old bag’ ‘a hag’, ‘bitch’, ‘witch’; she was actually a bastard of a politician and it had very little to do with being a woman but more to do with being a politician getting ahead, not giving a shit about people or society. And so on ‘Ding Dong’ getting in the charts? Well think about it people? It’s a song from a great children’s film but are you really ever going to play it? Or is it going to charity? The miners damaged by her policy,  the gay people marginalised by clause 28, the travellers battered at the beanfield. ‘No, No, NO’ (did that in my best Margaret impression) Of course it's not going to charity, it's part of a facebook stunt, another institution that hates women.

If anything is interesting about her death, it’s the level of misogyny that a powerful woman in recent British history has evoked, a double-edged sword of shitty politics and female leadership.  Please watch Glenda Jackson MP on Thatcherism below. Dance for Glenda’s bravery with those jeering fools around her. And the passion with which she delivered it, particularly with the reference to how amazing women held this country together in the war. We can all argue about what a woman 'should' be, but let's just admire Glenda for sticking her neck out. Then vocalise your feelings about Thatcher, a damaging politician at the head of patriarchy, in language that is not sexist.

On feminism, Margaret Thatcher's words, if you want to argue she was an icon for the movement;

‘The feminists hate me, don’t they? And I don’t blame them. For I hate feminism. It is poison.’

Thatcher’s children? What about Cameron’s children? Nobody is ever going to say that though are they? As much as I hate her politics, her legacy, it was because she was a Tory, not a witch or a hag or any of those other gendered slurs, and unfortunately there are a lot of those bastard Tories still here.

Resurrecting some old loves with new music

Warning: contains long sentences and me which happens when I truly love something I hear.

Emika returns…

I have been a lazy blogger lately, however there’s a few other writery projects going on taking up my time. It’s taken the lovely Emika’s irresistibility to awaken my passion for sharing music, while also noting it’s been a bit The Knife Central around here, (the joy of blogging) you look back and your love affair with one band means the last ten posts are all on the same new release and you've morphed into a ghost town of a fan forum. 

Anyway, Emika is back with a new album and a London date too, big yay. Having resurrected her first album recently and noted how good it still sounds, she made this lovely cover of ‘Wicked Game’ available for free download on the back of the new album DVA so go back now and jump on the purple words to check it out.

The new, new track  ‘Searching’ (below)  starts off quite light but changes to a more recognisable Emika sound as it gets noticeably darker around a minute and a half in. Her story and star of her own video, sings with a  ‘shhh, look into my eyes’ as her slightly prickly, unpredictable distress call manifests to her unique brand of bleepy stuff, staggering through snow, swigging from a bottle, talking of jealousy in some ‘confessional’ pop. I liked this on first listen, loved it on the second and now getting a bit infatuated. Can’t wait to see her in June!

http://www.emika.co.uk/

Depeche Mode bounce back and it’s not too bluesy *phew*

I much prefer Emika’s snowy music vid melodrama to some of the stylised nonsense I’ve seen lately *ahem* Depeche Mode, with ‘Soothe My Soul’, great, great song but video, come on, someone must be able to teach the old dogs a new trick or two. Watch it here, has nipple action shot in black and white, waahey of course. ‘Heaven’ looks like it might have been inspired by a new age greeting card but these forays into visual tackydom are forgivable because the tracks are soooo good. 

Although video wise predictable so far, Delta Machine is a super duper comeback, nothing really surprising but good mode. Here’s my favourite…and someone please now petition for Dave to roll about naked in an artistic way with a kitten for this video.

For the serious Depeche fan: Five Vinyl Moments of 'Delta Machine' Magic. 

AlunaGeorge resurrect their original sound.

Talking of beauty, AlunaGeorge have a new track that sounds more like their early tunes, hooray! The video looks a kind of computer graphic fairytale of jiggery pokery. It passed me by the first time, but on second watch, it does seem to be making a critique of the norms of fairytales and using some subtly placed comment on black/white, good/bad imagery with ‘Little grey fairytales, little white lies’. 

 More importantly, it’s going back to their original sound while encompassing easy listening yet glitchy with very nice hooks. It will be interesting to hear the album. First two tracks from their new material had no effect on me whatsoever; this third one strikes a chord.

http://www.alunageorge.com/

A Goth Song For Europe: Tying Tiffany

And finally, super resurrection now with Tying Tiffany. She keeps coming back and she’s not giving up. I like this one and the video is kind of kitsch. A Goth song for Europe no less. I saw her live a couple of years ago and she does belt out a tune in an Italo collision of synths and guitar. Enjoy…she’s channelling Alice Glass lately. Lovelovelove it.



http://www.tyingtiffany.com/


With big thanking you to http://nydmusic.tumblr.com/ for the Emika reminder.

The Knife: A Tooth For An Eye

The second track from 'Shaking The Habitual' is already the best thing I've heard this year. It was so instant for me and the video just backs it up brilliantly with an urban tribal feel set in a gym. Choreographed with a young girl in the lead, the all male troop of dancers is certainly storming up ideas of gendered empowerment and limitations as she roars with stories to tell and demands their trust to let go of all consciousness of masculinity and leadership.




The video is directed by Roxy Farhat and Kakan Hermansson,  and it seems already that this long awaited follow up to the more obscure concept and collaborative electro opera  'Tomorrow, in a Year', and prior to that 'Silent Shout', will have a lot to say with its music and its visuals. So far, it's had a lot to do with patriarchy and power as in Roxy Farhat's statement released with the track ends;

The child is powerful, tough and sweet all at once, roaring "I'm telling you stories, trust me". There is no shame in her girliness, rather she possesses knowledge that the men lost a long time ago.

You feel the liberation of the men from the tenseness of a changing room shots at the beginning to the free flow of expression in dance as the girl remains their superior, executing her knowledge with a playful wink of knowing. As you watch this,  'A Tooth For An Eye' unravels in hook- laden and vibrant rebellion at what society expects of men and women... and pop music.

*Adore* basically.

The Knife Music

Planningtorock/Gazelle Twin : What’s with all the theatrics in female electronica lately?

 In an industry historically unfriendly to women in production roles, the growing amount of women adding knob twisting, producing and music video directing to their vocalist credentials has broadened the electronic music landscape in multiple directions. (Cultural Synthesis: Today's Women in Electronica)

I keep meaning to write on sexism and gender in the music industry, however life keeps distracting me so this is a comment piece, while also partially reviewing a few gigs (I know, bit messy but my blog, my rules) however, in this case, it did link. It’s also such a huge topic to cover so for now I’m just going to mention the ones confronting it more obviously.






It seems costume and in particular masks are in right now, it’s experimental, it’s artistic, it’s avant garde, it’s what, what exactly? It’s mostly women doing it, from Lady Gaga in the wackier end of mainstream to Elisabeth Walling of Gazelle Twin more underground. For some it's a point about gender, femininity and sexual politics to flesh out some good tunes, others it could be seen as a little gimmicky, but then that's entertainment and pop does vary from a bit of fun to the deadly serious.


I saw Fever Ray in the latter half of 2010, you could barely see her, it was all costume, dry ice, lasers and strange prosthetics (on her hands which was the only bit of her you could see), and there was little way to know if she was male or female or even human really, unless you equated the many lampshades on stages as overtly feminine of course.

I adore her ‘challenging’ debut album for its weirdness and sometimes gendered politicised tribal stampede of ‘I will sing about dishwasher tablets, I will put mature ladies in my videos, I will sing about high heels and I will also sound like a man just to confuse you people *says Karin Dreijer Andersson in my head*. Apparently she wrote most of the album while breastfeeding her baby, sat up late at night, so it really does ooze with femininity from track to track but at the same time plays around with it.

She and her brother/musical other half, Olof recently started up a project in Sweden to encourage young women into music production, yes that’s production, not just singing and looking pretty while a man stands behind pressing buttons.

In this article written a few years back, the writer states Bjork's annoyance when the women are downgraded to the singer alone in credits and also noted Alison Goldfrapp’s disgust when while interviewed, the interviewee talked about knobs for a while to the other male half of the band, and merely commented on her dress. Has much changed? Certainly how some of the female performers now dress up has. And is this part of the whole package of females challenging a patriarchal music industry from all angles? Or walking into a trap of covering up so as not to encourage such objectification, as if it's the responsibility of females to stop it and not the male gaze and assumptions to correct itself?

I love Gazelle Twin’s album ‘The Entire City’; the project behind it is a visual and musical feast of great influences, authenticity, and a ‘project’ no less. I know music is for listening, but I am always captivated when it’s coupled visually with originality and intelligence. A holistic approach that pushes many buttons and is why I am a fan of ‘good’ music videos (and sometimes bad ones if I’m honest). I did grow up, coming in from school and switching on MTV, when it was music and not idiots doing stupid tricks and people showing you around their cribs.

As much as I like putting on a crackly record, I also like flicking on a cinematic and visual interpretation of some great sound too. (Yes I know video killed the radio star, now digital killed the video star…or something) And the more mystery the better, I’m no happier than when I watch a video and wonder ‘what on earth did I just watch?’ How female performers/producers/ directors are putting their art forward is evolving.

Iamamiwhoami's projects have courted the mystery up until recently with the revelation of Jonna Lee. The band’s name never indicated gender but now we know for sure it’s Jonna, it’s all so female of course. And she’s brilliant. I know, having seen her live, there were no gimmicks, no disguises on stage, just a mesmerising performance with music that stood alone in the hearts of an audience really jumping about for her. After the elaborate and relentless releasing of videos, the musical and multimedia led by Jonna has a man co-writing and producing but it's been successfully pushed on equal terms.

In many ways women's  moment in electronic music has bought some warmth, some theatrics and a little less machine in comparison to the way up on that pedestal pioneers Kraftwerk in their sharp suits, and time will tell whether the current women making these waves will crack an industry to the same iconic level, an industry that is so male dominated in the music press mainstream, in the underground and in music blogging. It does seem to be the men listening and running the show on the bigger punching sites. (Pitchfork and friends)  I suspect most of them still want it female fronted, man button pushing backed up. Not that that is bad, it works, but it shouldn't be assumed that the woman just sings.

Gazelle Twin's set at the Roundhouse in February was maybe five tracks maximum; my attention, however, was taken up by her stage persona and the music that I find very intense. It was a short set by the average. Music is many things for me, but Gazelle Twin makes me feel an awful lot, her vocals captivate and a whole hour live would no doubt leave me slightly glassy eyed in a corner, possibly a bit claustrophobic. None of this is bad by the way, just that Elizabeth Walling’s music is all consuming. ‘I am shell, I am bone’ leaves you mesmerised and unable to doubt her.




I do wonder more why she’s covering her face in this way though, it’s not quite the same as the enhancing/changing/ gender blurring of some of her peers doing the same. Her costume this particular evening was very ‘burqa’ like, which while wanting to avoid the difficult area of whether it's an artistic or political choice in this case, that needs some explaining? I then made a mental note to look this up via her interviews (I rarely read interviews if I’m honest) I found it unclear, from shyness, to embracing and paradoxically distancing herself from the project to pagan costume... and I would think probably all of these things.

This performance did take on a more political stance for me, mostly in the way she was covered, but of course it could be argued that this was just a costume and in no way a comment on oppression or silencing women whatever their choice and whatever they wear, it was just what I was seeing.  Is it really about performing as ‘Gazelle Twin’ and distancing herself personally from it...or that as a woman, she doesn’t feel comfortable exposed in performance or able to put herself out there and chooses a curtain or veil. There’s a hint in interviews that she was ‘the odd one’ growing up and is now extremely shy, that to quote from an interview;

I have never felt more liberated on stage than when I am wearing a costume which covers my face and body. It's a strange paradox for me. The first time I tried wearing costume onstage I felt myself disappear inwards and allowed something else to 'take over'. It felt right. This is really what I had hoped to achieve from the beginning. It has never been about creating spectacle or having a 'quirk' to get noticed. Using costume is ancient, and for me, is a way to imbue the visual themes and allow myself to change freely. It also allows me to avoid the pitfalls of being a female performer - and there are a lot of them.

It’s the last line that sticks out for me, particularly the word ‘avoid’. It’s her choice to cover up of course to take on the persona of Gazelle Twin…but how many male performers feel the need to do the same (outside of freaky heavy metal death mask territory) Off the top of my head, I can think of one and that’s Monarchy and it’s certainly not done in the same way and much more gimmick and space...and those sharp suits of course.


Is it more of a time now, that rather than ‘avoid’, women ‘confront’ it? I find it problematic if the liberation of women, artistically, creatively, professionally is being equated with hiding your face, if not strictly identity, as we all know who Gazelle Twin is. I’ve written anonymously and under pseudonyms in the past, it is a tug of war of feeling liberated and repressed while trying to express a part of yourself. That sounds a little melodramatic of course, but if you are creating something, anything you care about, should you not embrace it as part of yourself and own your multi faceted artistry rather than creating distance?


The pitfalls of being a female performer are many, however you look, however you sound and whatever you want to achieve with your art will be disempowered and reduced to how you ‘look’ and many female performers and producers are tackling this head on. Although I love Gazelle Twin’s music, I still can’t quite embrace the whole ‘hiding’ because it doesn’t challenge enough about gender for me, you can still hear she’s a woman, and although its so she becomes the art, it’s  using the same ‘allure’ of all on show and could well fall back into the trap of being a mere figure head with little other input (something we know is not the case with her).

But at the same time, as I looked at another new female artist's track this evening on YouTube, comment after comment underneath was dissecting her appearance and very little was said about the track (which is a good tune I might add) So maybe Gazelle Twin's masks are challenging the online objectifying comment trend then? I'm not sure. Is it perhaps adjusting to accommodate (not challenge) misogyny and as I hinted at before, is it treading dangerously into the murky area where women are expected to be treated according to how they dress or look, you reveal yourself as sexually attractive, your right to be treated respectfully are renounced. Yes sounds to me like another form of repression.


Which brings me to Planningtorock, another female electronic musician, aka Janine Rostron, who, while blurring her identity, is doing anything but hiding in her challenge of gender and perception. Her persona seems less fearful, more confrontational and saturates the music to encompass vocal distortion that does leave you wondering whether she’s (we know now) a man or a woman; that for me is truly avoiding the pitfalls of being a female performer. In this interview, Janine puts it clearly as a way to maximise and not disguise when covering up;


No, not at all. It was like adding! What I liked about it was that it was an accident, it was 2005 and I was playing a festival called Fusion in Berlin, which is just the craziest festival, and the video didn’t work. I had my helmets with me because I had just done a shoot on my own, and I wore them onstage – it was incredible because nobody knew if I was a woman or a man for a start. They didn’t know what I was; this was hugely liberating, also for myself – “I don’t know what I am either” – I thought that was interesting. That’s how it began. Plus I had a lot of resistance from the press to not wear the helmet: “I want to see your real face”. I mean, what is a real face?


For me this is similar to the gender blending that The Knife have been known to do too, left reeling from a track that you’re really not sure who was singing what, the male/female vocals blurred while often the stage personas are confusing or androgynous.


So while not dismissing Gazelle Twin’s costumes as a ‘gimmick’ at all, I was very distracted while wondering the truth behind it. If I’m wrong completely on how I’ve interpreted it, one thing I’m sure of is that the decision for Elizabeth Walling to cover her face and body is anything but a staged prop and very much a response to a female dilemma over ownership of performance and art as well as challenging the music audience and press that might not like it.

I love all these new female musicians, all different, masked or unmasked, Emika, Grimes, Gazelle Twin, Planningtorock, and it is about time women were credited for more than just being the front women with no contribution to production or the visual art behind the music, but I do also really bloody wish there was no need for masks and that the music industry didn’t need to still be challenged on this level of sexism all these years later. After all, as Emika has pointed out a few times in interviews, while insisting that she herself is a composer, not a producer, the true pioneer of electronic music was a woman, Delia Derbyshire;

“There must be other things presented in the sphere of electronic music that aren’t just conceptual sound art or drones or dance music – there must be some other systems and possibilities and ways to touch people and make songs. I think she was very much from that school of thought and I think she was quite rebellious, with all the dudes around her. I am sure she was quite dominated by the job pressures and she seemed to really flourish with the limitations of equality, men, the BBC and all these kinds of things. It seemed to really inspire here – I mean she made that incredible Doctor Who piece.”



I leave you with Planningtorock and the lead from her new EP, Misxgny Drxp Dead.




MIsxgyny Drxp Dead - Planningtorock from planningtorock on Vimeo.



This video is somewhat delving into unknown territories and takes a few listens and views before it clicks and becomes clear.  I’m so disappointed I missed her DJ set at an Esben and the Witch gig recently. (Who by the way, if you like Interpol, sound like them but with female vocals to my ears)


The Planningtorock EP is out March 8th, which is also International Women’s Day, good timing Janine! May all you wonderfully productive women have an amazing day. It’s my birthday too so big *chink * of glasses ladies and gents.

Related Links:

Cultural Synthesis: Today's Women in Electronica

http://bullettmedia.com/article/gazelle-twin/

Why Bjork is right to stand up for female producer

TNS: Interview with Emika

Twitter: Planningtorock
Twitter: Emika
Twitter: Gazelle Twin

Niia - Made For You/Crystal Fighters - Separator

This is what I've been listening to this week. There's some live things I will be telling you about soon too...

But first...

Niia – Made For You

‘Made For You’ is a beautiful song, not my ‘usual’ of late as I’ve been a little impatient with these slow burning tunes. This one doesn’t take too long to hook you though; her voice is enigmatically drawing you into a tale of eerie and so-called societal perfection. There's a blurring of fantasy and reality and possibly a comment on the falseness and isolation of modern life.

Tony Kaye, who’s done a whole load of award winning music videos and the man behind ‘American History X’, directed this piece for Niia’s ‘Made For You’; it’s not a barrel of laughs, love and light. The creepy contrast of video and elegant music kind of works though and reveals tiny black mirrors (yes I will be writing a bit on that Brooker stuff later in the week) reflecting male gaze that could confuse real women with sex dolls and sex dolls with real women. More fool you man in the video.

And now for the warnings…the video is perhaps NSFW and a trigger in the VAW sense, also step away from the YouTube comments or your brain may explode with the f*cked up-ness of some that haunt the internet (unless of course, you want to buy a ‘realistic’, that is pube-less, ballooned boob sex doll, then you might find it helpful) The video is rather the 'classic' (or silly) film ‘Mannequin’ gone to the dark side in places.

Crystal Fighters - new track, new album, new tour. Hurry!

On a much lighter note, Crystal Fighters are back (finally!) with their banging brand of super catchy Balearic, tribal, indie, electronic fusion. Perfect festival music, so please, please get your beautiful crystal fightery selves to Bestival this year as I have tickets and a tipi on order… and the beginnings of lady pirate dress up.





http://www.niiamusic.com/

http://www.crystalfighters.com/