Lawrence Upton, sound poet, artist and long time collaborator with Bob Cobbing interviewed at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in Autumn 2009.
Author Archives: jtreg
Wavelength – 2010 May 21st Beatlemania
Beatlemania. Klaus Beyer sings The Beatles (out of tune and in German), Rodney Graham’s version of Blue Jay Way, Those Were the Days (Mary Hopkin/Paul McCartney/Apple single) from Ground Zero plays Standards with Otomo Yoshihide and Vanilla Fudge’s rendition of Ticket to Ride.
Wavelength – Denise Hawrysio
Multi-disciplinary artist Denise Hawrysio in the studio talking about her Spotlight Project and artistic practice. Hawrysio:
Wavelength – Musics in the Margins
Musik Oblik; latest addition to the musics in the margins series by sub rosa. Anthology of outsider music with tracks by Adolf Wolfli, Carlo Gesualdo, Othin Spake, Klaus Beyer, Normand L’Amour, Jacques Brodier, Baudouin de Jaer, Baudouin Oosterlynck and the Wild Classical Music Ensemble.
Wavelength – Malcolm McLaren part 2
Tribute to Malcolm McLaren part 2: Malcolm told me once that he particularly liked Billy Fury so the show starts with a Billy Fury hit written by Goffin and King: Halfway to Paradise, 1961. Walking with Satie and Paris Paris from the CD Paris, 1994, the second track features Catherine Deneuve singing with Malcolm. More tracks from Buffalo Gals Back to Skool featuring the voice of Malcolm and the World Famous Supreme Team, sounds from 1982 and 1983 remixed etc. in 1998. A snatch of I Like you in Velvet from Waltz Darling by Malcolm McLaren and the Bootzilla Orchestra which includes Jeff Beck and Bootsy Collins from 1989. Remembrance Mix from the green vinyl single The Bell Song 1997 and Death of Butterfly (Tu Tu Piccolo) from Fans 1984.
Wavelength – Malcolm McLaren part 1
Today’s show is a tribute to Malcolm McLaren who died last week. Once upon a time I travelled down to London from Leicester to visit a shop on the King’s Road called Paradise Garage which was owned by Trevor Myles who was photographed by my friend David Parkinson, sitting on the bonnet of a zebra skin flocked car outside the shop. Another friend; John Cramphorn, bought some white overalls from the shop, with the word Firestone stitched in red across the back, slightly ironic as he later became a tyre fitter in Leicester. The next time we visited the shop it was under new ownership, renamed Let it Rock and that was the first time I met Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood. I remember bakelite radios on the pavement and I bought an American fleck jacket and some obscure singles on the King label. On subsequent visits the shop changed its identity to Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die and then Sex which is when I took some photographs of Vivienne in various rubber and leather garments posing in front of a sculpture of a severed leg with livid boils and blisters at the top of the thigh. One of these images signed in gold ink by Vivienne is coming up in the Resonance auction on May 1st. It was always possible to chat with Malcolm and Vivienne in the shop and then eventually David Parkinson told me he had encountered Malcolm one evening in Mayfair and he had adopted yet another persona; his hair was now up and permed and he was wearing tight black leather trousers with tassles and a small grey sports jacket, and he mentioned that he was now managing a band. So, one Sunday afternoon we found ourselves in a small strip club or porn cinema on Brewer Street and witnessed the Sex Pistols live on stage to a fairly bemused audience of about 40 people. At the time I thought it was some sort of hoax, like bad painting or something. The rest is well documented. The last time I saw Malcolm was about 2 years ago in Paris. He was having an argument with a woman in Place St. Sulpice. I passed within a few feet of him but decided not to encroach on what was obviously a private discussion. So, this programme is a tribute to an extraordinary character. The first track is Have Love Will Travel by The Sonics 1965 from Sex: Too Fast to Live Too Young to Die, a compilation of 20 records that were on the jukebox in the shop compiled by Marco Pirroni in 2003. Next is No Fun (unedited version Oct 76) from Spunk which featured the Sex Pistols before Sid Vicious joined and Glen Matlock left the band.
Followed by a mix of tracks from Revenge of the Flowers by Francoise Hardy and Malcolm McLaren including the title track and Driving into Delirium (extended version), and Buffalo Gals, Back to Skool.
Wavelength – Clive Graham on Max Eastley
Clive Graham comes into the studio to introduce the latest release on his paradigm label:
PARADIGM DISCS (PD 26) Max Eastley – Installation Recordings (1973 – 2008)
This 2CD is essentially a retrospective of Eastley’s installation work. As such, it updates and adds many new examples to the 1975 release “New and Rediscovered Musical Instrumentsâ€, which was released as a split LP with David Toop on Brian Eno’s Obscure Records. This is Eastley’s first solo CD. Of the 35 tracks, only the last 2 have any guests or ‘playing’ (the most virtuosic moment being George Lewis playing a grass blade). All the other pieces are either powered by the natural forces of wind and water, or else are motor driven gallery installations.
The ethereal sounds of the aoelian harp, the haunting aeolian flutes, and the violent tension of his aerophone installations are hallmark Eastley sounds. These sounds, and many others, sit amidst a wide range of acoustic settings, from windy hill tops to quiet brooks, residential street scenes to coastal shores. The indoor recordings are no less varied, ranging across a rich variety of acoustics and gallery spaces from tiny micro sounds to large scale amplification. Wood, metal and stone are brought to life with electricity. Although there are many photos in the 20 page booklet, much is left to the imagination to work out how the sounds are made. With this limited access to the visual, the focus is pulled towards the musicality of the sounds themselves. This musicality is reinforced by the slow crossfades of most of the pieces from indoors to outdoors to form a series of suites.
The recordings mostly date from the mid 70s, but there are pieces from later decades. Nearly everything was recorded either to Revox or Uher and occasionally cassette, using what microphones were available at the time. Recent recordings are digital. The varying quality of the recording set-ups across this 2CD adds yet another dimension to the shifting sound fabric of this anthology.
Wavelength – Radio Stimme + Microphone Stimme
Radio Stimme + Microphone Stimme by Konstatin Raudive from Musics in the Margin Sub Rosa SR254. Lee Ranaldo; Shibuya Displacement, and David Toop; Yanomamo Wayamou, both from the Sonic Arts Network CD Otherness curated by David Cotner in 2007. Then; Its not my fault and Going too far by Nihilist Spasm Band, Take on Me by Rank Sinatra and Cock! by Gwilly Edmondez, all from the Sonic Arts Network CD Smiling Through my Teeth curated by Vicki Bennett in 2008. Finally, the first half of Hymnos by Scelsi 1963.
Wavelength – John Smith
John Smith. John Smith
Wavelength – iPhone Apps Ensemble
iPhone Apps Ensemble live in the studio: Creator Tania Chen, Benedict and Nick Evans improvise on iPhones. Ensemble iPhone Apps: