Skip to main content

Approximately Infinite Universe

CCA, Glasgow
4 stars
The parallel rise over the last couple of years of so-called free folk scenes in both America and Finland has thrown up a fantastically diverse array of acts, many of whom embrace 1960s hippy idealism alongside a primitive DIY aesthetic. Getting artists from both camps to collaborate is an inspired idea by the Contemporary Music Network in association with the low-level No-Fi and (No.Signal) organisations. While the first night of this short UK tour suggests compromises have been made as cultures don’t so much clash as tip-toe around each other, identities and influences nevertheless fuse in often unexpected ways.

Closest to folk in the conventional sense is the opening set by Es, aka film-maker and Fonal Records boss, Sami Sänpäkkilä, and Tara Burke’s Fursaxa project. Their fusion of wordless vocals with organ, guitar and FX creates a hauntingly spectral gush. Tampere based Jan Anderzen appears onstage twice. First up is his Kemialliset Ystavet band project, who are paired with Axolotl’s Karl Bauer on electronic percussion. Led by insistently repetitive bass and wigged-out guitars, the combination leans towards the rhythmic mantras of German Kosmische music.

Even more surprising is Helsinki diva Islaja, aka Merja Kokkonen. Aided by Blevin Blectum’s & Samara Lubelski, the trio take a beat-heavy foray into Teutonic gay disco. Finally, the lights are dimmed for Dream Triangle, in which Anderzen in his Tomutonttu guise joins Spencer Clark and James Ferraro’s Skaters duo for a blissed-out finale of insular chilled-out beauty. Overall, the spirit of a more themed version of the sadly lost Subcurrent festival, which ran in the CCA for a few years, is conjured up in a magical display of sonic alchemy.

The Herald, October 2008

ends

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Ron Butlin - The Sound of My Voice

When Ron Butlin saw a man who’d just asked him the time throw himself under a train on the Paris Metro, it was a turning point in how his 1987 novel, The Sound Of My Voice, would turn out. Twenty years on, Butlin’s tale of suburban family man Morris Magellan’s existential crisis and his subsequent slide into alcoholism is regarded as a lost classic. Prime material, then, for the very intimate stage adaptation which opens in the Citizens Theatre’s tiny Stalls Studio tonight. “I had this friend in London who was an alcoholic,” Butlin recalls. “He would go off to work in the civil service in the morning looking absolutely immaculate. Then at night we’d meet, and he’s get mega-blootered, then go home and continue drinking and end up in a really bad state. I remember staying over one night, and he’d emerge from his room looking immaculate again. There was this huge contrast between what was going on outside and what was going on inside.” We’re sitting in a café on Edinburgh’s south sid

Losing Touch With My Mind - Psychedelia in Britain 1986-1990

DISC 1 1. THE STONE ROSES   -  Don’t Stop 2. SPACEMEN 3   -  Losing Touch With My Mind (Demo) 3. THE MODERN ART   -  Mind Train 4. 14 ICED BEARS   -  Mother Sleep 5. RED CHAIR FADEAWAY  -  Myra 6. BIFF BANG POW!   -  Five Minutes In The Life Of Greenwood Goulding 7. THE STAIRS  -  I Remember A Day 8. THE PRISONERS  -  In From The Cold 9. THE TELESCOPES   -  Everso 10. THE SEERS   -  Psych Out 11. MAGIC MUSHROOM BAND  -  You Can Be My L-S-D 12. THE HONEY SMUGGLERS  - Smokey Ice-Cream 13. THE MOONFLOWERS  -  We Dig Your Earth 14. THE SUGAR BATTLE   -  Colliding Minds 15. GOL GAPPAS   -  Albert Parker 16. PAUL ROLAND  -  In The Opium Den 17. THE THANES  -  Days Go Slowly By 18. THEE HYPNOTICS   -  Justice In Freedom (12" Version) 1. THE STONE ROSES    Don’t Stop ( Silvertone   ORE   1989) The trip didn’t quite start here for what sounds like Waterfall played backwards on The Stone Roses’ era-defining eponymous debut album, but it sounds

Big Gold Dreams – A Story of Scottish Independent Music 1977-1989

Disc 1 1. THE REZILLOS (My Baby Does) Good Sculptures (12/77)  2. THE EXILE Hooked On You (8/77) 3. DRIVE Jerkin’ (8/77) 4. VALVES Robot Love (9/77) 5. P.V.C. 2 Put You In The Picture (10/77) 6. JOHNNY & THE SELF ABUSERS Dead Vandals (11/77) 7. BEE BEE CEE You Gotta Know Girl (11/77) 8. SUBS Gimme Your Heart (2/78) 9. SKIDS Reasons (No Bad NB 1, 4/78) 10. FINGERPRINTZ Dancing With Myself (1/79)  11. THE ZIPS Take Me Down (4/79) 12. ANOTHER PRETTY FACE All The Boys Love Carrie (5/79)  13. VISITORS Electric Heat (5/79) 14. JOLT See Saw (6/79) 15. SIMPLE MINDS Chelsea Girl (6/79) 16. SHAKE Culture Shock (7/79) 17. HEADBOYS The Shape Of Things To Come (7/79) 18. FIRE EXIT Time Wall (8/79) 19. FREEZE Paranoia (9/79) 20. FAKES Sylvia Clarke (9/79) 21. TPI She’s Too Clever For Me (10/79) 22. FUN 4 Singing In The Showers (11/79) 23. FLOWERS Confessions (12/79) 24. TV21 Playing With Fire (4/80) 25. ALEX FERGUSSON Stay With Me Tonight (1980) 1. THE REZILL