Hi all, welcome to the latest update of what has happened around gigs and music around town. To start with I have a little rant around people and dance floors. Based on my apparently old school understanding dance floors are actually as the name would imply dance floors. It appears in Johannesburg anyway that is not so, posing and taking up space by holding chat sessions being the order of the day. It must be said that this also applies to live gigs where you can struggle to hear the lyrics above the noise of the inconsiderate who chat all around you drowning out the music. Worst thing is that these same people then claim to support local music for example and yet don’t bother to show any consideration to the artists. Right, enough around the rant bit lets get onto the gigs to be reviewed. Two fell into this time frame, Greenisforturbo and The Privates at a slightly dodgy venue, and then a whole lot of bands at the Uncaged benefit.
Onto the first gig and Greenisforturbo. They had a great set and to me were the better band on the night as the music they play is more my style than the privates. They sound like an amalgamation of Explosions in the Sky, Arcade Fire and basically a bunch of indie bands. Well worth giving a listen to them. The Privates are a more rock oriented band and while they do the indie rock thing well, its a bit formulaic for me. They did go down well with the crowd, and for a change there was actually a decent crowd at a local gig.
Uncaged had a number of bands playing in between animal rights speeches and presentations. All revenue at this concert/event were to go to animal charities so was worth supporting. A good crowd was there, and I got there in time to watch the later bands. Views on the bands were as follows: Us Kids Know were great, no vocals just a guitarist and drummer laying down sounds-capes reminiscent of Explosions in the Sky, Mogwai and the like. They’re worth a listen going forward and their closest local sounding band for comparison is Kid of Doom. Can’t quite recall this bands name but they had a sound dating back to the Pistols, unfortunately not a huge amount of variety so not my favourite. The One Night Stands did a bunch of covers of both old and new alternative classics and while some bands would probably die at the versions trotted out for consumption these guys had a lot of fun and managed to get the crowd going. Devils Cartel were professional and this was the first time I could here them properly. They were actually quite good and sound like a heavier version of Goldfrapp so a good interesting dance band. Vendetta Cartel who closed the concert side of things are a loud
punk band whose vocalist throws in some rap tinged vocals in Spanish every now and then. They are fast and energetic and if you enjoy punk they’re not to bad as they do have some variety.
Well thats all for the moment, next big event being the Cellardoor party on 30 June which should be a blast.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Soft Cell - Non Stop Erotic Cabaret
Rating out of 5 starts - ****
This was the debut album of Mark Almond and David Ball under the moniker Soft Cell and was released in 1981. Ball looked after all the electronics and sounds, while Almond did the writing and singing although Tainted Love which was the most successful song was written by Gloria Jones. The album whilst all poppy and bright musically speaking, great electro dance music being the musical background, had a dark and seedy side to it in Almonds lyrics which mainly went around sexual aberration although of course that depends on your interpretation of said behavior and relationships that couldn’t work. The album starts with Frustration which has a simple dance beat with added horns to fill out the sound in this tale of a boring suburban life. It kicks straight into Tainted Love which is an electro dance classic, from there we slow down into Seedy Films with its tale of blue movie’s and illicit self exploration and its bluesy type sound. From there its Youth with its tale of lost youth and lost beauty and then to end side one of the LP Sex Dwarf which is all sleaze lyrically, and a staccato type dance beat. Side two starts in high energy electro disco with Entertain Me which bounces along and segues straight into Chips on my Shoulder which is a bouncing beat with whistles galore, the odd shouted background repartee and a fast minimalistic dance beat - slowed down Postal Service sound. On to a slower beat in Bedsitter all about loneliness and the joys or lack thereof of self amusement by drinking clubbing and the like with the ultimate problem or not of being alone at the end of it all. Same slower dance beat pervades Secret Life, and then the best song on the album for me in Say Hello Wave Goodbye which is a bitter sweet love song with gorgeous synths in a slowish mood, true to life of course it doesn’t work out, the joys of the theory of being too different and then hiding the resulting relationship from the world. Almond’s voice with the synth background works really well in this song and its a fitting end to this great introduction to early 80’s electro dance music.
Favourite songs: Say Hello Wave Goodbye, the obligatory Tainted Love and Bedsitter
This was the debut album of Mark Almond and David Ball under the moniker Soft Cell and was released in 1981. Ball looked after all the electronics and sounds, while Almond did the writing and singing although Tainted Love which was the most successful song was written by Gloria Jones. The album whilst all poppy and bright musically speaking, great electro dance music being the musical background, had a dark and seedy side to it in Almonds lyrics which mainly went around sexual aberration although of course that depends on your interpretation of said behavior and relationships that couldn’t work. The album starts with Frustration which has a simple dance beat with added horns to fill out the sound in this tale of a boring suburban life. It kicks straight into Tainted Love which is an electro dance classic, from there we slow down into Seedy Films with its tale of blue movie’s and illicit self exploration and its bluesy type sound. From there its Youth with its tale of lost youth and lost beauty and then to end side one of the LP Sex Dwarf which is all sleaze lyrically, and a staccato type dance beat. Side two starts in high energy electro disco with Entertain Me which bounces along and segues straight into Chips on my Shoulder which is a bouncing beat with whistles galore, the odd shouted background repartee and a fast minimalistic dance beat - slowed down Postal Service sound. On to a slower beat in Bedsitter all about loneliness and the joys or lack thereof of self amusement by drinking clubbing and the like with the ultimate problem or not of being alone at the end of it all. Same slower dance beat pervades Secret Life, and then the best song on the album for me in Say Hello Wave Goodbye which is a bitter sweet love song with gorgeous synths in a slowish mood, true to life of course it doesn’t work out, the joys of the theory of being too different and then hiding the resulting relationship from the world. Almond’s voice with the synth background works really well in this song and its a fitting end to this great introduction to early 80’s electro dance music.
Favourite songs: Say Hello Wave Goodbye, the obligatory Tainted Love and Bedsitter
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