Skip to main content
Read page text
page 4
The Masthead Stop press: 2010 is the year sound art broke. We were in the final throes of putting The Wire 2010 Rewind issue to bed when the news trickled in that Susan Philipsz had won the Turner Prize with Lowlands Away, in its original form a sound installation of herself singing a Scottish lament mounted under three bridges across the Clyde in her native Glasgow. Once again the prospect of art that is not pinned to a wall walking away with the UK’s ‘most prestigious award’ was all the mainstream media needed to intensify their sniggering campaigns against Difference, suspending their supposed impartiality to roll out parades of professional scoffers loudly blustering “This is not art” in cutglass, tweedy vowelled voices bespeaking the best education class privilege can buy against Philipsz’s accented, untrained, wobbly rendition of a timeworn ballad. Pardon me for stating the bleeding obvious, but “Is it art?” is the wrong question. Let’s try again with “Does it move me?” And something about that wavering voice, artfully projected in public spaces where it competes for your attention with traffic rumble, crowd mumble, the elements and whatever happens to be on your mind as you come within range of it, plants an earworm that carries on wriggling long after you have moved on, its threadbare weaves of word and melody entwining with memory traces of love and loss to spirit up a rare moment of true feeling that cannot be faked. Was it good for you too? Of course art is personal and it never works the same way for everyone, so please forgive the end of year indulgence of what follows. Here’s a few far from scientifically arrived at pros and cons of 2010, scrambled together to more accurately reflect the discomfiting, ambivalent reactions generated by all the things that compound my failures to lead an easy life. The 30th anniversary celebrations of Einstürzende Neubauten and Laibach were a bittersweet reminder of how long this has been going on. For the first time ever Blixa Bargeld appeared to be more energised by his extracurricular ANBB project with Carsten Nicolai than he was onstage amiably performing an artsong set with Neubauten. Under the shadows cast by Europe’s largest chimney and the Gothic cement works guarding the approaches to their hometown Trbolvje, Slovenia, Laibach’s re-enactments of a soot-encrusted handful of songs from their Industrial roots played on analogue synths by new recruits too young to remember their original struggles underlined the lesson that you can’t go home again. Returning to Poland for the first time in a decade, however, it was tremendously exciting to catch up on 20 years of outsider music activity, and releases from The Complainer, Wojtek Czern’s Obuh label, cellist Mikolaj Palosz, Robert Piotrowicz, Anna Zaradny and Scianka have since dominated much of my listening. Cieślak I Księżniczki, the self-titled album by Scianka leader Maciej Cieślak’s new group Cieślak And The Princesses, is a late contender for my album of the year. Driven by his female string trio, it’s a gorgeous set of melancholy neo-baroque pop songs that reopen paths not taken by artists associated with the Harvest label back in the early 1970s. Its arrangements also recall the artful pop side of Psychic TV Mk 1, the post-TG group Genesis P-Orridge and Peter Christopherson formed in 1981. In his personal tribute to Peter, who recently died in his sleep in Bangkok, Stephen Thrower vividly describes the unspeakably beautiful things Peter did to a string arrangement at the end of a marathon drug-binged recording session for Love’s Secret Domain (page 14). I recall a more sedate yet, for me, no less memorable an encounter with Sleazy in Tokyo on Christmas Eve 2006. I was queuing for an afternoon show by Merzbow when, from behind, a warm, thick arm coiled python-like around my neck and I felt a hand on my ass as a smiling voice whispered in my ear, “I bet you never expected to be goosed in Tokyo by someone you know.” The music he made in his late incarnation as Threshold Houseboys Choir was similarly seriousminded and mischievous, its dark sensuality pregnant with unknown pleasures. Chris Bohn Distribution News stands UK, Europe & Rest of World (excl USA) COMAG Specialist Division Tavistock Works, Tavistock Road West Drayton, Middlesex UB7 7QX Tel +44 (0)1895 433800 steven.ohara@comag.co.uk USA IPD (Source Interlink Fulfillment Div) 27500 Riverview Center Blvd Suite 400, Bonita Springs, FL 34134 Tel 239 949 4450 rsonnenberg@ucsinc.com Bookshops Worldwide Central Books (Magazine Dept) 99 Wallis Road, London E9 5LN Tel +44 (0)20 8986 4854 sasha@centralbooks.com Independent record shops UK & Europe Shellshock, 23A Collingwood Road London N15 4EL Tel +44 (0)20 8800 8110 Fax +44 (0)20 8800 8140 info@shellshock.co.uk USA Forced Exposure 219 Medford St Malden, MA 02148-7301 Fax 781 321 0321 fe@forcedexposure.com Rest of World Contact The Wire direct Tel +44 (0)20 7422 5022 Fax +44 (0)20 7422 5011 subs@thewire.co.uk NB The Wire can also supply record shops in Europe direct 4 | The Wire | Masthead Subscriptions Print Subscription 12 issues UK £40 Europe £56 USA/Canada US$90/£56 Rest of the World (Air) £66 Digital Subscription 12 months Worldwide £30 See page 96 for full details The Wire is published 12 times a year by The Wire Magazine Ltd. Printed by Wyndeham Heron Ltd. The Wire was founded in 1982 by Anthony Wood. Between 1984–2000 it was part of Naim Attallah’s Namara Group. In December 2000 it was purchased in a management buy-out by the magazine’s staff. It continues to publish as a 100 per cent independent operation. The views expressed in The Wire are those of the respective contributors and are not necessarily shared by the magazine or its staff. The Wire assumes no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts, photographs, illustrations or promotional items. Copyright in the UK and abroad is held by the publisher or by freelance contributors. Unauthorised reproduction of any item is forbidden. Issue 323 January 2011 £4 ISSN 0952-0680 The Wire 23 Jack’s Place, 6 Corbet Place, London E1 6NN, UK Tel +44 (0)20 7422 5010 Fax +44 (0)20 7422 5011 thewire.co.uk Publisher Tony Herrington tony@thewire.co.uk Editor Chris Bohn chris@thewire.co.uk Deputy Editor Anne Hilde Neset anne@thewire.co.uk Reviews Editor Derek Walmsley derek@thewire.co.uk Editor-at-Large Rob Young rob@thewire.co.uk Art Direction & Design Ben Weaver art@thewire.co.uk Design Patrick Ward patrick@thewire.co.uk Advertising Manager Andy Tait andy@thewire.co.uk Licensing Manager & Advertising Sales Shane Woolman shane@thewire.co.uk Advertising Production Rich Lucas design@thewire.co.uk Subscriptions & Administration Ben House subs@thewire.co.uk Special Projects, Listings & Subscriptions Lisa Blanning lisa@thewire.co.uk Web Editor Nathan Budzinski nathan@thewire.co.uk Archivist Edwin Pouncey edwin@thewire.co.uk Interns Katie Gibbons, Daisy Hyde, Maria Zazovsky Words Jennifer Allan, Steve Barker, Mike Barnes, Clive Bell, Marcus Boon, Michael Bracewell, Nick Cain, Philip Clark, Byron Coley, Julian Cowley, Alan Cummings, Sam Davies, Brian Dillon, Phil England, Kodwo Eshun, Mark Fisher, Phil Freeman, Louise Gray, Andy Hamilton, Adam Harper, Jim Haynes, Richard Henderson, Ken Hollings, Hua Hsu, David Keenan, Rahma Khazam, Biba Kopf, Alan Licht, Dave Mandl, Marc Masters, Bill Meyer, Keith Moliné, Will Montgomery, Brian Morton, Joe Muggs, Andrew Nosnitsky, Ian Penman, Richard Pinnell, Edwin Pouncey, Nina Power, Simon Reynolds, Nick Richardson, Tom Ridge, Bruce Russell, Peter Shapiro, Chris Sharp, Philip Sherburne, Nick Southgate, Daniel Spicer, Joseph Stannard, David Stubbs, Dave Tompkins, David Toop, Dan Warburton, Val Wilmer, Barry Witherden, Matthew Wuethrich Images Thomas Adank, Sébastien Agnetti, Shinya Aizawa, Will Bankhead, Florian Braun, Leon Chew, Tara Darby, Roger Deckker, Sean Dooley, Glen Erler, Aaron Farley, Marcelo Gomes, Nicholas Haggard, Jessica Haye & Clark Hsiao, Brad Harris, Pieter Hugo, Tom Hunter, Jak Kilby, Armin Linke, Mark Mahaney, Joss McKinley, Donald Milne, Chris Mottalini, Niall O’Brien, Fergus Padel, Leonie Purchas, Szymon Roginski, Gérard Rouy, Savage Pencil, Michael Schmelling, Na Seung, Bryan Sheffield, Will Sweeney, Olaf Unverzart, Daniëlle van Ark, Eva Vermandel, Muir Vidler, Kai von Rabenau, Henry Roy, Jake Walters, Jeremy & Claire Weiss, Henk Wildschut, Winni Wintermeyer, Mattia Zoppellaro
page 5
Out now Sissy Spacek ‘Sepsis’ CD Large ensemble recording featuring Damion Romero and Rick Potts of the LAFMS. Rock’n’Roll Jackie/Pain Jerk ‘Super Relaxed’ CD Collaboration between Japanese noise legend Pain Jerk and Jackie Stewart from Smegma. B a c k g r o u n d p h ot ob y E r i c St e w a r t The Rita ‘Predators’ 7” Limited 7” of processed underwater field recordings. Shop / Mail-Order / Label Coming soon Werewolf Jerusalem ‘Confessions Of A Sex Maniac’ 4CD box-set The definitive document of Richard Ramirez static wall noise project. Liner notes by Sam McKinlay of The Rita. New distro stock from Demdike Stare, Hype Williams, Forest Swords, Hieroglyphic Being, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Ghédalia Tazartès, Matrix Metals, Brainbombs, Kevin Drumm, Günter Brus, Rudolf Eb.er, Forest Swords, James Ferraro, Eric Lunde, Smegma, Ignatz, aTelecine, DJ Screw, Fennesz, Games, Graham Lambkin, Jason Lescalleet, Group Doueh, Bizarre Uproar, Vivenza, Holy Other, Deathprod, Emeralds, Nite Jewel, Macronympha, Catherine Christer Hennix and loads more... Come and visit the shop at 323 Archway Road, Highgate, London, N6 5AA Situated opposite Highgate tube on the Northern line. Buses: 134 from Tottenham Court Road, Camden or 43 from London Bridge, Old Street, Highbury & Islington. Nihilist Assault Group ‘Negation Is Freedom’ LP + DVD Opening hours:TUESDAY - FRIDAY. 12PM – 7PM SATURDAY. 12PM – 5.30PM FAST WORLDWIDE SHIPPING Sign up for our weekly mail-list to be kept up-to-date on all new releases. Tel. 07878 051 726 www.secondlayer.co.uk twitter.com/secondlayer

Page Text

View plaintext

The Masthead

Stop press: 2010 is the year sound art broke. We were in the final throes of putting The Wire 2010 Rewind issue to bed when the news trickled in that Susan Philipsz had won the Turner Prize with Lowlands Away, in its original form a sound installation of herself singing a Scottish lament mounted under three bridges across the Clyde in her native Glasgow. Once again the prospect of art that is not pinned to a wall walking away with the UK’s ‘most prestigious award’ was all the mainstream media needed to intensify their sniggering campaigns against Difference, suspending their supposed impartiality to roll out parades of professional scoffers loudly blustering “This is not art” in cutglass, tweedy vowelled voices bespeaking the best education class privilege can buy against Philipsz’s accented, untrained, wobbly rendition of a timeworn ballad. Pardon me for stating the bleeding obvious, but “Is it art?” is the wrong question. Let’s try again with “Does it move me?” And something about that wavering voice, artfully projected in public spaces where it competes for your attention with traffic rumble, crowd mumble, the elements and whatever happens to be on your mind as you come within range of it, plants an earworm that carries on wriggling long after you have moved on, its threadbare weaves of word and melody entwining with memory traces of love and loss to spirit up a rare moment of true feeling that cannot be faked. Was it good for you too?

Of course art is personal and it never works the same way for everyone, so please forgive the end of year indulgence of what follows. Here’s a few far from scientifically arrived at pros and cons of 2010, scrambled together to more accurately reflect the discomfiting, ambivalent reactions generated by all the things that compound my failures to lead an easy life. The 30th anniversary celebrations of Einstürzende Neubauten and Laibach were a bittersweet reminder of how long this has been going on. For the first time ever Blixa Bargeld appeared to be more energised by his extracurricular ANBB project with Carsten Nicolai than he was onstage amiably performing an artsong set with Neubauten. Under the shadows cast by Europe’s largest chimney and the Gothic cement works guarding the approaches to their hometown Trbolvje, Slovenia, Laibach’s re-enactments of a soot-encrusted handful of songs from their Industrial roots played on analogue synths by new recruits too young to remember their original struggles underlined the lesson that you can’t go home again.

Returning to Poland for the first time in a decade, however, it was tremendously exciting to catch up on 20 years of outsider music activity, and releases from The Complainer, Wojtek Czern’s Obuh label, cellist Mikolaj Palosz, Robert Piotrowicz, Anna Zaradny and Scianka have since dominated much of my listening. Cieślak I Księżniczki, the self-titled album by Scianka leader Maciej Cieślak’s new group Cieślak And The Princesses, is a late contender for my album of the year. Driven by his female string trio, it’s a gorgeous set of melancholy neo-baroque pop songs that reopen paths not taken by artists associated with the Harvest label back in the early 1970s.

Its arrangements also recall the artful pop side of Psychic TV Mk 1, the post-TG group Genesis P-Orridge and Peter Christopherson formed in 1981. In his personal tribute to Peter, who recently died in his sleep in Bangkok, Stephen Thrower vividly describes the unspeakably beautiful things Peter did to a string arrangement at the end of a marathon drug-binged recording session for Love’s Secret Domain (page 14). I recall a more sedate yet, for me, no less memorable an encounter with Sleazy in Tokyo on Christmas Eve 2006. I was queuing for an afternoon show by Merzbow when, from behind, a warm, thick arm coiled python-like around my neck and I felt a hand on my ass as a smiling voice whispered in my ear, “I bet you never expected to be goosed in Tokyo by someone you know.” The music he made in his late incarnation as Threshold Houseboys Choir was similarly seriousminded and mischievous, its dark sensuality pregnant with unknown pleasures. Chris Bohn

Distribution

News stands

UK, Europe & Rest of World (excl USA) COMAG Specialist Division Tavistock Works, Tavistock Road West Drayton, Middlesex UB7 7QX Tel +44 (0)1895 433800 steven.ohara@comag.co.uk

USA IPD (Source Interlink Fulfillment Div) 27500 Riverview Center Blvd Suite 400, Bonita Springs, FL 34134 Tel 239 949 4450 rsonnenberg@ucsinc.com

Bookshops

Worldwide Central Books (Magazine Dept) 99 Wallis Road, London E9 5LN Tel +44 (0)20 8986 4854 sasha@centralbooks.com

Independent record shops

UK & Europe Shellshock, 23A Collingwood Road London N15 4EL Tel +44 (0)20 8800 8110 Fax +44 (0)20 8800 8140 info@shellshock.co.uk

USA Forced Exposure 219 Medford St Malden, MA 02148-7301 Fax 781 321 0321 fe@forcedexposure.com

Rest of World Contact The Wire direct Tel +44 (0)20 7422 5022 Fax +44 (0)20 7422 5011 subs@thewire.co.uk

NB The Wire can also supply record shops in Europe direct

4 | The Wire | Masthead

Subscriptions

Print Subscription

12 issues UK £40 Europe £56 USA/Canada US$90/£56 Rest of the World (Air) £66

Digital Subscription

12 months Worldwide £30

See page 96 for full details

The Wire is published 12 times a year by The Wire Magazine Ltd. Printed by Wyndeham Heron Ltd.

The Wire was founded in 1982 by Anthony Wood. Between 1984–2000 it was part of Naim Attallah’s Namara Group. In December 2000 it was purchased in a management buy-out by the magazine’s staff. It continues to publish as a 100 per cent independent operation.

The views expressed in The Wire are those of the respective contributors and are not necessarily shared by the magazine or its staff. The Wire assumes no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts, photographs, illustrations or promotional items. Copyright in the UK and abroad is held by the publisher or by freelance contributors. Unauthorised reproduction of any item is forbidden.

Issue 323 January 2011 £4 ISSN 0952-0680

The Wire 23 Jack’s Place, 6 Corbet Place, London E1 6NN, UK Tel +44 (0)20 7422 5010 Fax +44 (0)20 7422 5011 thewire.co.uk

Publisher Tony Herrington tony@thewire.co.uk

Editor Chris Bohn chris@thewire.co.uk Deputy Editor Anne Hilde Neset anne@thewire.co.uk Reviews Editor Derek Walmsley derek@thewire.co.uk Editor-at-Large Rob Young rob@thewire.co.uk

Art Direction & Design Ben Weaver art@thewire.co.uk Design Patrick Ward patrick@thewire.co.uk

Advertising Manager Andy Tait andy@thewire.co.uk Licensing Manager & Advertising Sales Shane Woolman shane@thewire.co.uk Advertising Production Rich Lucas design@thewire.co.uk Subscriptions & Administration Ben House subs@thewire.co.uk

Special Projects, Listings & Subscriptions Lisa Blanning lisa@thewire.co.uk

Web Editor Nathan Budzinski nathan@thewire.co.uk

Archivist Edwin Pouncey edwin@thewire.co.uk

Interns Katie Gibbons, Daisy Hyde, Maria Zazovsky Words Jennifer Allan, Steve Barker, Mike Barnes, Clive Bell, Marcus Boon, Michael Bracewell, Nick Cain, Philip Clark, Byron Coley, Julian Cowley, Alan Cummings, Sam Davies, Brian Dillon, Phil England, Kodwo Eshun, Mark Fisher, Phil Freeman, Louise Gray, Andy Hamilton, Adam Harper, Jim Haynes, Richard Henderson, Ken Hollings, Hua Hsu, David Keenan, Rahma Khazam, Biba Kopf, Alan Licht, Dave Mandl, Marc Masters, Bill Meyer, Keith Moliné, Will Montgomery, Brian Morton, Joe Muggs, Andrew Nosnitsky, Ian Penman, Richard Pinnell, Edwin Pouncey, Nina Power, Simon Reynolds, Nick Richardson, Tom Ridge, Bruce Russell, Peter Shapiro, Chris Sharp, Philip Sherburne, Nick Southgate, Daniel Spicer, Joseph Stannard, David Stubbs, Dave Tompkins, David Toop, Dan Warburton, Val Wilmer, Barry Witherden, Matthew Wuethrich

Images Thomas Adank, Sébastien Agnetti, Shinya Aizawa, Will Bankhead, Florian Braun, Leon Chew, Tara Darby, Roger Deckker, Sean Dooley, Glen Erler, Aaron Farley, Marcelo Gomes, Nicholas Haggard, Jessica Haye & Clark Hsiao, Brad Harris, Pieter Hugo, Tom Hunter, Jak Kilby, Armin Linke, Mark Mahaney, Joss McKinley, Donald Milne, Chris Mottalini, Niall O’Brien, Fergus Padel, Leonie Purchas, Szymon Roginski, Gérard Rouy, Savage Pencil, Michael Schmelling, Na Seung, Bryan Sheffield, Will Sweeney, Olaf Unverzart, Daniëlle van Ark, Eva Vermandel, Muir Vidler, Kai von Rabenau, Henry Roy, Jake Walters, Jeremy & Claire Weiss, Henk Wildschut, Winni Wintermeyer, Mattia Zoppellaro

read next page

My Bookmarks

Buy this Book
Skip to main content