MANifesto

Since December I've been working freelance on a project with French Connection with London digital media agency Poke. They contacted me with an idea to write a blog to accompany their new Menswear campaign for Spring/ Summer 2010. As part of the editorial team picked by Poke, we came up with the idea for MANIFESTO. I continue to work as copywriter on the project.

So far we've created a very considerable amount of web interest around our Chatroulette competition. French Connection are being seen as the first brand to take advantage of the internet phenomenon and visits to the site are high.

A few reports by Adverblog, Contagious, New Media Age and Perez Hilton!

Checkitoutnow

Being told off by Neu!

I've been standing in a bit at Clash a bit recently whenever their editorial staff have been away. I was asked to do their monthly Personality Clash section, so phoned up Neu!'s Michael Rother and Fujiya & Miyagi's David Best. All this involves is conference calling them and listening to them chat about Krautrock. Unfortunately I was a bit late for the interview so they'd already started. I asked if they wouldn't mind terribly to please start again. Mr Rother replied:

"Hardly! Ve have been speaking for minutes already and I vill never get zem back".

This refusal to accept any slight inadequacy during the interview goes some way to show what a perfectionist Mr Rother is. After all, only a perfectionist could have made music as beautiful as Neu! Read the interview here.

HEALTH

HEALTH are a genuinely original band from LA. I went to meet them for Clash and the interview's here. I forgot to ask them the one question I'd meant to, how does the front man get his hair so damned smooth?

HEALTH "DIE SLOW" from Lovepump United on Vimeo.

Girls

I met these two guys (but not the girls) on the roof of a bar in Shoreditch. I asked them some questions for Dazed and they obliged by answering them. CLICK ON THIS TO READ IT.

Sarah Maple

The above is 'Bananarama' by Sarah Maple. The below was printed in Issue 01 of WAR. 

Sarah Maple is a 23 year old practicing artist - and a practicing Muslim. She is as coquettish as Marilyn Monroe in her prime, and looks like Monica Bellucci if she lived in Dalston. Within these conditions lie the essence of her art. How do young Muslims, particularly women, express their identities in a culture that expects them to adhere to one of the most confusing stereotypes: the practicing Muslim living in the West?

 

Predictably she’s had crises with a blending these juxtaposing aspects of her character together. Through her art she’s creating a storm in the art world with an attempt to unite her religion and femininity into one proud unity.

 

Her last exhibition at Notting Hill’s SalLon Gallery featured a Muslim woman in a burka cradling a pig, and a self-portrait of Sarah in a hijab limbering up to (you would certainly presume) deepthroat a banana. There were a few members of the Muslim community who were so not down with this so they thought it best to smash the gallery’s windows and send Sarah some death threats.

 

With the political climate being such at the moment that many politicians have called for greater understanding of the Muslim community in the UK, we think Sarah’s work is an embodiment of how The West should understand the Muslim identity. An exploration of maintaining religious faith whilst portraying the bodily urges that transcend the barriers of religion.

 

You defend your work on the basis that you are a Muslim yourself so can’t be criticising the Islamic culture. Those you’ve offended say you can’t possibly be Muslim as you produce art so ‘offensive’ to the culture. What do you actually in your day-to-day life do to maintain your Muslim identity?

 

I don’t drink or smoke and I just try to be a nice person. I don’t pray five times a day, I pray once a day in my own kind of way. It’s an interpretational thing to me. Like in Arab countries Muslims have their own interpretations, so do I.

 

How did you react to the violent criticism you’ve received?

I was definitely scared when it first happened, and upset that people had misunderstood my work. Then you see these things like the Facebook group (I hate Sarah Maple, your art is degrading to the Muslim community) and think ‘Fuck you’, none of you are perfect. And I’ve tried to use criticism in a positive way too because I find it quite funny. On my publicity I use a quote someone wrote on my Myspace, ‘Sarah Maple’s art relies on her being attractive and Muslim’, and I was like ‘And?’. I like to use humour in my art so I use the good and bad for effect.

 

You’ve been compared with Tracy Emin, because you’re so open about your femininity. How do you feel about that?

 

I’m happy with those comparisons because she’s such an icon and I love her work. The thing is she’s a bit of a rebel and I’m not trying to be naughty, I’m just a bit of a geek. I don’t set out to provoke people, it just happens.

 

Sarah is currently working on her next exhibition. She doesn’t really know what it will include yet but is very excited that it will be in New York.

www.sarahmaple.com

Skweeel Like A Pig

The gentleman above is Eero Johannes. Here is an article about the kind of music he makes that I did for WAR:

So it turns out London’s not that creative after all. In our search for the most original bass wobbling music set to transcend Europe and get you all stomping, we found that it’s the darkest depths of Glasgow and Scandinavia that have their game in check and are bringing the noise.

 

The electro hyphy hiphop of Glasgow’s Aqua Crunk crew and the deconstructed R&B of Scandinavia’s Skweee are currently developing independently, but strikingly similarly, so much so that Skweee’s Pavan admits, “I’m not influenced or did what first but it doesn’t really matter: we’re making similar music that I’m really into”. And so it seems is everyone else. With these two scenes all ready to ‘fucking kick off’, as they say in the dance industry, we had a looksy at them to bring you the future.

 

Do you remember when you used to go to Ed Banger nights and the music was new and exciting? When you hadn’t yet realised that they play the same set every time? Back in the day it was OK, because they had a thing going on. A small community of Parisian friends had created their own genre of music and people really dug it. But it never moved on, they still do the same thing, and what was the most innovative clubbing sound is now stale.

 

Luckily enough an independent group of friends snuck away in Scandinavia have been ignoring the common misconception that making loud mash up beats is enough to get heads nodding and bodies moving, and have stuck to making music that they like, and bollocks to anyone else.  The rolling bass they produce with jerky squeaks riding over the top sounds simple but when the speakers are set to growling it creates a simultaneously banging, awkward, and funky beat.

Leading label Flogsta Danshall is run by Pavan, a nickname that translates to ‘Empty Bottle’, because he loves booze. He sees why people might compare the small community based electro movement to the Ed Banger scene but draws certain lines between the two. “They’re a bit more business minded and fashion conscious than us. Our fashion is really ‘out of fashion’ fashion. And they have really big DJs who act as faces for their label, whereas ours are not sure they’re ready to be seen like that yet. Nobody in Skweee has really come up and volunteered their ugly face yet, but we have artists who could, Eero Johannes and Daniel Savio have the talent".

 

Eero says, “People don’t really know how to dance to it at first but they just go along with it. But at Sonar last year the Spanish were so emotional: not knowing how to dance wasn’t a problem in Spain’.

 

Although the Skweee we’ve heard, particularly Johannes’ self titled album, sounds like it would go down in London’s clubs quicker than a be-tutued young beauty on DJ Mehdi, the Skweee fam aren’t keen on forcing it. ‘I’m touring the UK next year but I want to play the small places to get the atmosphere right, I’d like to cultivate a following like we have back home first’, says Johannes. But with such a powerful sound comes the responsibility to hype big crowds, so the British masses should be prepared to be swooned by his Skweee very soon.

Photo by Ville Varumo

Primavera Sound

Primavera Sound might well be the best festival in the world. The release of their line up each year is essentially an education in music, both classic and cutting edge. It was at Primavera that I decided Animal Collective are the greatest band in the world, first had the privilege of listening to Bon Iver and where I concluded that Art Brut are just awful. 

The above picture was taken at around 7AM on Sunday morning. We'd come straight from the festival (via a car park where I saw my first genuwine doggers, ole!) to the beach to watch the sun come up. I asked a Spanish chap for a lighter and as I walked off he shouted, 'Ey, you', at me. Convinced I was about to get mugged I reluctantly turned round to see him offering me a large beer. It definitely is the best festival in the world.

Here's my review for Clash