I bought a Bronica ETRsi camera when I was younger, and sold it a year later because I never really got on with it. This multiple exposure was the only thing I ever shot with it that was any good. The unfortunate thing about it is that there is a shot of a really nice old World War 2 vet mixed in there, and it kind of looks like he is on fire, which was certainly not my intention!

stuff

Album: Titus Andronicus - The Airing of Grievances
A bit like Los Campesinos doing Dropkick Murphys, with a bit of Tokyo Police Club thrown in, instead of hiring a lead singer, this band seem to have tape recorded the sound of a prisoner reciting the lyrics to a pop song whilst being horribly tortured. I cant see anything wrong with this.

Single: The Enemy - No Time For Tears
In fact, I think the above recording technique should be directly applied to The Enemy, except not recorded. This song starts off reasonably enough, to me the vocal is pretty much an attempt at Joe Strummer, which isn't a bad thing. Then the music kicks in. I imagine the band think they are an epic cross between the Clash, The Jam, and the Happy Mondays, with the chants and soul singing. Unfortunately they end up being a horrible amalgamation of U2 and Status Quo. The lyrics veer from laughably earnest calls to "get out the city" to bland Kate Nash type 'everyday' observations. Horrible.

Film: A Boy and His Dog (1975)
I watched this old sci fi film the other day, and really enjoyed it. From what I could make out, a civilisation destroying event has happened, and the cities of the world are buried under a thick layer of sand. The survivors live and look a lot like the people of Mad Max 3, and we follow the fortunes of a boy who can telepathically communicate with his dog. Brilliantly his dog is a lot more intelligent than he is, and helps him navigate this dangerous place. I wont go on anymore about it, but not only is it fun and interesting, but handles some quite controversial subjects. The last quarter of the film is a bit disappointing, but there is a dark twist right at the end that's really great.

Song: The Horrors: Sea Within a Sea
Anathema to anyone who didnt like skinny jeans and creative pretension in 2007, The Horrors were loved or hated. I think that a lot of people still wont be able to see past their ghost train looks, but this song has a new direction whilst keeping everything that was good about the band. Its not as hard edged and violent as the previous album was, but keeps the dark side beautifully intact. I cant wait for the new album, this is one of the best things I have heard in ages.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1lD5cE6Bwc

The Rakes - Klang!

The new Rakes album; Klang! is out, and is well worth checking out. I'm still not sure whether it quite matches up to their first album, or perhaps even their severely underrated second, but i'm liking it more with every listen. Part of me wishes though that they had let Paul Epworth, the man behind their first album, produce the record. While I loved the sound of producer Chris Zanes Les Savy Fav albums, I really miss the stripped down, punchy sound Epworth brought to The Rakes. But while Alan Donohoes lyrics have gotten a bit lost in the mix, eight of the ten songs on there are brilliant, as you would expect from the band behind Retreat, 22 Grand Job, and All Too Human.

This is my favourite: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXO3WqPR7F0

Overall i'm just pleased they havent gone the route of another band who's debut was brilliantly helmed by Epworth. Bloc Party have, save for a few songs, gone tragically down hill since 2005 and while its fine to say that (unlike the Rakes) they have tried to push their sound in drastically different directions, their latest album is all a bit gutless and dull.

The fact that its actually also partly produced by Epworth makes me think I should just be pleased The Rakes have put out another strong, if not classic album.

Mono Gig

Magazines like Guitar Player monthly and Total Guitar have always puzzled me a bit. In a way you could possibly equate their fetishising of guitars with the way people buy Car Monthly and Max Power, but really is a Band or an artist not the car, and the guitar just a small part of a greater whole? Are there magazines like Tyre Enthusiast? Brake Light Specialist? Classic Hub Cap Buyer?

Perhaps I'm just being narrow minded. Last night I was faced with a whole room of the type of people who buy these magazines, as I went to a Mono gig, a japanese post-rock band. I had gone to watch them at Scala in the hope that they would be a kind of new version of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, the legendary Canadian band, who no longer tour, or make albums.

Their music is a mixture of amazing percussion, with a lot of intricate and powerful guitar work from their three guitarists, building to crashing crescendos, and no vocalist in sight. Its the kind of majestic thing you could score a film with, or as Sigur Ros music has done in the past, a BBC Nature Documentary series. The only problem with this type of music and its drawn out atmospheric nature is that in performance, it needs to be supplemented by either a wealth of different instrumentation, a top notch light show, or hugely charismatic performers with real stage presence. Not two comatose guitarists sitting on stools and a third, female guitarist drugglily swaying along.

The people who had crowded to the front of the stage (an hour an half before anything even started) seemed to absolutely love watching the top strumming action that was happening before them, and were gasping in awe at the classiest fingering since Lady Chatterleys Lover (sorry I couldn’t resist.)

After opening with their latest single, Ashes in the Snow, which is genuinely brilliant and exhilarating, everything kind of took on a formulaic tone, and while good, wasn’t enough to really enliven the mood too much. On the plus side, their drummer was probably worth the price of admission, if only he wasn’t resigned to sitting at the back of the stage, whilst his less active band mates were pushed to the front. I guess Total Guitar has higher sales figures than Drum World.

Topshop In-house Mag shoots

Here's the layouts of the two shoots I did for Nicoles Topshop mag. The theme of the latest edition is New York, in celebration of the New York branch of Topshop opening. I based the look of the first shoot (Night Hawks) on the work of painter Edward Hopper, I wanted to get a cinematic 40s/50s type look, without resorting to the cliched black and white noir look of gangster/detective films. Hoppers paintings of night time in the city have a really distinct atmosphere and a certain palette of colour I wanted to bring to these images.

Many thanks to all the people who sent me New York images for the projections I did in the second shoot (The Calm and the Chaos), it was much appreciated. My Mums and Kambi's were the ones that got used in the final images.