I recorded Chief Willie Charlie of the Chehalis Band last week for The Current on CBC Radio (the piece ran last Friday and will hopefully be available to download soon). The subject was an altercation that occurred a couple of weeks back on the Fraser River between him and his brother on one side and a group of sports fishermen on the other. The Chief says he was shot by a BB pellet at nearly point-blank range. This shocking altercation was the result of a dispute over who has access to the now diminishing Sockeye salmon numbers on the West Coast. Some fear the salmon stocks on the West Coast could be heading for the same fate as the cod stocks on the East Coast of Canada. It seems to me that if the situation is this dire, then something has to be done, and fast!
One thing you won’t find in Max Brooks’ Zombie Survival Guide is what to do when one of these retched undead starts spewing out booty banging beats from your hi-fi. My advice is to drop everything and get freaky. I'm not talking about your typical brain eater, but rather a Zomby with a ‘y’ and not an ‘ie’. This Zomby hails from somewhere in Britain (he’s one of those elusive electronic types) and has had music aficionados arguing about how to categorize his style since 2007. Wonky, dubstep, and technicolour rave are a handful of labels tagged to this twenty-something super producer. I’d like to introduce some more: dub-candy, mash n’ beans, and chicken combo number three. These are every bit as descriptive as the aforementioned in trying to define Zomby’s sound. Best to listen for yourself.
I’m the sort of guy who likes to augment my moods with music. Like so many, I’ll crank the wattage while driving or on a Friday night after work as a release and hopefully an anthem to something bigger and more exciting to come. But I also like to take it down five notches sometimes. I picked up one of those sound looping bedside devices to help my sleep a while back. There’s nothing like the sound of water lapping a beach or a the bird in the rainforest to set your mind adrift during cold Canadian winters. In my waking hours, I often listen to ambient music, especially when I’m working and need to concentrate. If there are few BPM’s (beats per minute) or non at all and the music’s emotive, then I find I work interrupted and contently. Like a good work of fiction, a good piece of ambient music can conjure images and moods that are all your own. That’s the kind of feeling I get when I listen to the Vancouver musician by the name of Loscil. Whether it’s an underwater dream where I float amongst the iridescent coral or the conjuring of an image of a train lazily chugging forward into the night, Scott Morgan’s music lets you become part of the music. And if music without lyrics just doesn’t do it for you, then you might want to check his blog for new music he’s doing with Destroyer.
There’s an urban fire that flamed up in Vancouver this summer. It’s been extinguished for now, but believe me, the embers are still hot under the cement and asphalt of Vancouver’s Main Street. Some newer merchants in this trendy part of town don’t like one of the last remaining vestiges of what this area of town used to represent. What’s that you ask? Patrons going into large darkened room for the sole purpose of getting sexually aroused. Yes, The Fox cinema is a porno theatre, and the last one in the city. The theatre has been in operation for over twenty years with little controversy - at least in the last ten. But ten years is a long time in a quickly growing metropolitan. Where once there were shuttered doors and dodgy landlords, now there’s expensive clothing and coffee shops decorated to look like art galleries. What may finally close the doors to this house for trench-coat-wearing men might be the new community center opening up across the street. What will parents say when their kids ask, “Hey mom, can we go see a movie at that theatre across the street?” But there might be hope yet for this woman-run artifact. Some argue that The Fox theatre is an important piece of Vancouver’s history. It can also be argued that a city so young should hold onto its historical buildings. The obvious question is, does a 25-year-old building count as historical? I guess it is, in some sense of the word, but come on. And it could be said that porno theatres meet a very real demand in society, which if pushed underground could lead to less safety. I guess time will tell. The new community center is set to open in the fall.
Have you ever noticed that women don’t drive cabs? Well some do,but they seem few, and when they do, it’s usually only temporary. As a job, being a cabby isn’t the most glamorous profession. In fact, it’s considered to be a dangerous job. But times are a changin’. It appears in the Middle East and beyond cabs and the fairer sex are charting new territory. Women-run taxi services are breaking down barriers for women wanting to get into the trade. This new concept of taxi service is in response to the same problems women driving cabs seem to have the world over. There aren’t reliable figures on how many women are working in the industry compared to men. I haven’t heard of any women-run cab services in North America yet either. I wonder if that’s the way to go or if women should continue to break into this male-dominated industry and change things from the inside? Or perhaps there isn’t a need for more women in the industry in the first place? What do you think?
Throughout the heady days of late 90s and post-millennium English IDM, there was always Luke Vibert who managed to sound the same without sounding tired. Unlike Vibert, the flames of popularity of his counterparts and buddies Richard D. James and Mike Paradinas have burned brighter but have long been extinguished. Given the barrage of new music served up on the internet, I’d written the guy off, feeling the man’s sound couldn’t sustain my interest. But then, he released We Hear You, and I was transported to my college years listening to Throbbing Pouch. Like that slept-on release, Vibert still demonstrates a playful, yet masterly grasp of current trends in electronic music while making them sound distinctively Vibert.
Is August too early to make a Christmas wish list? I’m starting one today, and numero uno on the list is the Tenori-on! This Japanese wonder pad not only looks like some 80s light wall, it makes music too! According to The Guardian all you need to do is press the pretty lights, and sequences of beats and notes are produced. I’m sure it’s much more complicated than that, but if Little Boots, Atom Heart, and The Books use it, I’m sold!
If you want to hear something you probably haven’t heard about before, tune into the CBC Radio One show On The Coast this afternoon (or tomorrow…News can always bump something!) between 3:00 – 6:00 p.m. I’ll be chatting with host Stephen Quinn about one of Vancouver’s newest recording studios: the Vancouver Adapted Music Society (VAMS). VAMS was started by former Vancouver mayor and quadriplegic Sam Sullivan with friend Dave Symington back in 1988. The two were in a band together with the cheeky name of Spinal Cord. VAMS was a simple music room until late last year when it became a fully functioning sound recording studio. At first glance it looks like a typical bedroom studio with an Apple computer equipped with Pro Tools and some instruments lining the walls. At closer inspection you’ll find the table is hydraulic so people in wheelchairs can use it. You also find tools that make the studio accessible to those with limited mobility like a mouse controlled by a person’s breath. VAMS has put out a CD with some dramatically diverse artists on it, which some of you might find of interest. I got a kick out of the guy who set up the equipment in the room. His name is Bobbi Styles, and he’s been producing music for years, name-dropping Duran Duran among one of his clients during our interview. The man’s head is clean-shaven today, but check out his hairdo when he used to be in a band back in England. This video and track are extremely dated; nevertheless, I think it’s pretty rad that he didn't let his cerebral palsy and wheelchair get in the way of rockin' out this hard...and with that much hairspray.
I like to get my eco on like the next person. I recycle my containers, conserve water, and generally try to be sustainable. But I’ve always wondered where clothing comes into the debate. I guess others have too and for some time. This is a picture taken from a Wired magazine article that focuses on an educator and designer who’s taking the 100-diet ethos into the realm of clothes. Being a thrift shop fan, I certainly feel good buying recycled clothes, but making your own clothes from existing materials is taking preloved to a level few might be able to reach or want. Perhaps there’s another way to tread this lightly, but still look good?
So I thought I’d start off my first RA musical treat o’ the day with a group that’s relatively unknown but shouldn’t be. The fact that Andy Meecham is one of the men behind house legends Chicken Lips is reason enough to check out The Emperor Machine. A devotee of Can and collector of vintage synthesizers, The Emperor Machine are reminiscent of Stereolab with their shared love of recent past musical styles, technologies, and graphic design. The Machine’s third and most recent release, Space Beyond the Egg, is by far the most accessible release to date (there’s even the odd vocal thrown into the usually pure instrumental stew). Who knows, now that Meecham has found friends to play with live, perhaps we in North America can witness the Emperor’s spell in person some day.
