corpse bride exhibition

Dear all;

Just before I went on holiday to Cyprus, there was an exibibition in my local arthouse cinema of some of the making off of Tim Burton's "The Corpse Bride" as the puppets were created in Manchester.

Anyway, here are my favourites from it using my trusted digitial camera..

photographs from cyprus

Dear all;

Here are one or two pictures from my recent trip to Cyprus - I will write more about them more about them over the coming days and perhaps include a few more pictures..

22/11/05

22/11/05

Was too cold and tired after my 1st day at my new job to write anything… Manchester Housing is the major housing association in Manchester and my role is the un-inspiring role of Housing Assistant which is a glorified office junior.. Not something I am going to be happen doing long term, but it’ll get me through Christmas time and that is all I am bothered about at the moment but anyhow…

20/11/05

20/11/05

Sunday – Cyprus..

Home…

With two big bags of shopping (that were certainly over weight) and a fistful of notes for a whole host of poem about Cyprus.
I was dog tired caused by going out late on Saturday with Evi and a few others to a night club, which was cool but then knackered by a huge, nasty storm which almost wrecked the windows of my hotel which kept me awake most of the night and too tired to sleep on the airplane.

19/11/05

19/11/05

Saturday 19/11/05

Saturday is / was my last day in Cyprus and oddly enough it was the day I probably spent my most money in Cyprus probably helped by the fact I had delibatetely not spent a great deal of money over Wednesday, Thursday or Friday. On Saturday we started off towards our shopping with a little trip to a Cypritian boot sale.

A Car Boot Sale for those not aware of those sort of things is literally a cheap, cheap, cheap sale often where people sometimes sell literally rubbish from the back-side of their cars.

I first head off it myself back when I was 10 or 11 and so when Evi told me she had planned for us to go. I was immediately excited and wanted to go, just to compare more than anything to say how it was to the English Car Boot Sale.

In it’s own way, I guess it was as good expect to begin with it was a good deal bloody hotter, but reminding me of one or two others in England.

I bought a number of cheap CD’s by Greek / Cyrpritian acrs and a Japanese horror CD “A tale of Two Sisters” which I had wanted to watch for ages and ages – of course whether they are bootlegs or not I am not going to reveal of course, but I intend to review some soon.

The thing that really shocked me and sickened me too in a way when I saw some puppies placed in a box and sold at £10 Cypritian pounds per one. I’ll tell you for nothing when I saw that, I was nearly sick but I guess that was to be expected.

Afternoon, we went round one or two local supermarkets and it gave me a chance to get a few bits of food and compare it of course – what was interesting about that I guess ws with mass consumerism how many brands I know myself that were either British or American.

When I went to Brazil in 1995, I saw a bit off it but was kind of surprised how much the world has changed.

Who knows what it will be like next time I go abroad.
And oh we went to a lovely little Italian resturant on Saturday called “Little Venice” – lovely……..

19/11/05

19/11/05

Saturday 19/11/05

Saturday is / was my last day in Cyprus and oddly enough it was the day I probably spent my most money in Cyprus probably helped by the fact I had delibatetely not spent a great deal of money over Wednesday, Thursday or Friday. On Saturday we started off towards our shopping with a little trip to a Cypritian boot sale.

A Car Boot Sale for those not aware of those sort of things is literally a cheap, cheap, cheap sale often where people sometimes sell literally rubbish from the back-side of their cars.

I first head off it myself back when I was 10 or 11 and so when Evi told me she had planned for us to go. I was immediately excited and wanted to go, just to compare more than anything to say how it was to the English Car Boot Sale.

In it’s own way, I guess it was as good expect to begin with it was a good deal bloody hotter, but reminding me of one or two others in England.

I bought a number of cheap CD’s by Greek / Cyrpritian acrs and a Japanese horror CD “A tale of Two Sisters” which I had wanted to watch for ages and ages – of course whether they are bootlegs or not I am not going to reveal of course, but I intend to review some soon.

The thing that really shocked me and sickened me too in a way when I saw some puppies placed in a box and sold at £10 Cypritian pounds per one. I’ll tell you for nothing when I saw that, I was nearly sick but I guess that was to be expected.

Afternoon, we went round one or two local supermarkets and it gave me a chance to get a few bits of food and compare it of course – what was interesting about that I guess ws with mass consumerism how many brands I know myself that were either British or American.

When I went to Brazil in 1995, I saw a bit off it but was kind of surprised how much the world has changed.

Who knows what it will be like next time I go abroad.
And oh we went to a lovely little Italian resturant on Saturday called “Little Venice” – lovely……..

18/11/05

18/11/05 – Cyprus

Experienced my first bit of rain in Cyprus today.

And god, it threw it down.

Spent most of the morning reading Paul Auster’s Levithion which I recommened so far anyhow and precious little else, but it was nice in particular while listening to Post Rock favourites of Setting Sun” Amp”

Excellent.

17/11/05

17/11/05

Cyprus – Thursday…

Evi was working today, so it gave me an excuse to do some sight seeing myself in the morning.

However lovely it may be going to visit a friend in another country, sometimes I feel the most fun part is when you are trying to find where you are going yourself.

Take for today, although I was due to meet her today for lunch, it gave me an opportunuity to take off and do some exploring for myself. In the morning, I managed to walk almost up and down the full of the tourist bit (Well about two thirds off it) and then walk back and although it was too long (I easily walked a good 5 / 6 miles) – it opened up my eyes to the way life is in Cyprus.

I.e. – you need a bloody car.

But it’s fun

Projects Letter

16/11/05

Dear all;

Another little letter while having another late night writing in Cyprus (Evi has suggested I have started doing this more often almost like a diary) so I thought to myself I had better write next about what I have been up to music / creative projects etc.

First of all, I have been writing a few poems over the past few months, but not lots – perhaps one a month that I am really happy with, but they are coming slowly but surely including one particularly excellent Christmas Poem for this year’s Christmas Cards to friends.

Otherwise, I am still working slowly on the next DIH album “Suicide”. I think currently I have 10 songs / tracks completed – Keith Hicc has wrote and recorded 4 tracks this year which will be appearing on the CD and he and UK Dragon have recorded vocals for a track for myself also, with vocals from Lil Andy from M.A.N will also prove a interesting track if I can get it finished in time.

As thinking about Lil Andy, As I think I mentioned previously I went over to visit Lil Andy at the beginning of September in Brighton and conned him into doing a number of vocals for me – four of which will end up as tracks on my Christmas album for this year ( more on this later), most of the rest will end up as M.A.N. tracks on our long over-due second and probably final CD which I am aiming to start work on later on this year and maybe finish off later in 2006.

For those who may be interested in the shop section of Setting Sun, I have no more news about the forthcoming vocals only CD by Andy M, my vocalist in M.A.N.

The unmastered CD went over to him a few weeks back from him. When I get chance, I’ll follow him up over this – but I don’t expect it to be soon.

One other bit of news while writing this, that I forgot to mention previously about DIH is the fact that I believe we have three or four tracks coming out on some American compliation for some label (I have forgotten which) either later this year or maybe at the start of next year.

The sessions for these tracks came together incredibly quickly, almost proving that the next DIH album is not being wrote slowly because of writer’s block.

The sessions for these tracks resulted in five tracks simply called Hate 1, Hate 2, Hate 3, Hate 4 and Hate 5. Each track harking back to very early DIH circa. “Further” and “Forever” expect with more focused vocals and noise / beats seemingly more frightening.

Once I have an idea, which tracks will be released (which at the moment I think are 1, 3 and 5) I will release the reminder of the material as free downloads on Setting Sun itself, as I am really pleased with this session and feel that all of the tracks should be available.

The new DIH album however will be completely different as I want to expand on 2004’s “Internal Conflict” rather than these “Hate” tracks (though they were fun to do)

Otherwise, I have completed and posted my Same Actor / Hot Roddy remixes off to Chris Cook (who is them) the week before last and although I think he is somewhat confused by it, he has passed them onto my HMBC records, so who knows what will happen next there.

At the writing stage although coming along very slowly “Intermission” is still developing. I am writing this entry in Cyprus, and as I have forgot to bring it along with me – I haven’t touched it for a good week or two now, but at the moment I THINK it is about 68 pages long (16,500 words) or maybe 16 or so chapters.

It is looking good thou.

Perhaps over Christmas, I may start getting it ready to send to Agencies and Publishers.

on holiday

I am holiday til 21th November, folks in Cyprus... More on my return of course.. I have got tons of reviews and stuff to type up...

Andy N

General Letter Part 2

15/11/05

General Letter Part 2

Dear all;

Thought I would split this letter into two parts as it was getting quite long..

In other news, as hinted at in a note from two days ago, I am currently away on holiday in Cyprus for a week to visit my lovely friend, Evi.

I’ve known Evi for a long time now since 1999, when I first wrote to her through a FB (Friendship Book) and we both seemed to just carry on writing. It was never a profical letter writing friendship as both Evi and me both lived (and still do) incredibly busy lives, so I only tended to hear from her perhaps twice a year.

Then at the end of last year, I discovered Evi had MSN Messanger and we both really, really clicked and one thing lead to another and before I knew it, she had arranged to come over to visit me in Manchester.

I’m sure I covered this before, but we had a great time in Manchester and I offered there and then to visit her in Cyprus towards the end of the year – perhaps at the end of September / Start of October.

This got delayed until the middle of November and oddly enough it fell on 13 – 20 November 2005, the week after I left Dane Housing.

Cyprus itself, I’ll admit to you for nothing is a small country that is probably not much smaller than England but in contrast to England, it has a total population of probably no more than 8,000 people.

On the Cypritian side off I (which is responsible for just over two thirds of the island) is split into 5 major cities, of which I saw 3 – Paphos (which was the city I arrived in viva the airplane) and where Evi met me. On that first night, it was a case of driving down to Limssaol where Evi lived.

Over the next few days, Evi showed me the sights of where she lived. “Limassol” is a lovely, relaxed city. “Nicoisa” which is the capitol of Cyprus and also the city that is still partly occuptioned by the Turkish.

Now this is a interestinf rarity as I think it is the only capital in the world which is split into a border like Germany’s Berlin was with one half ruled by the Cypritian people – one half ruled by the Turkish people (who tried invading the country in 1974).

She also showed me the delight of Cypritian delicestens (Bakeries) where I can honestly admit I tasted such delights as Mango (Pumpkin) Pie, Olive Pie an various forms of cakes – some of which I hadn’t tasted before for example “Flauna” and others which I still don’t know what they are.

What did surprise me was the amount of shops that were in England but could also be found in Cyprus – Marks and Spencer being two but other, smaller shops of Next, Starbucks and of course McDonalds and Burger King etc.

I think after that I went to Brazil I was still expecting things to be as different as what they were.

But the world has moved on of course.

General Letter Part 1

15/11/05

General Letter Part 1

Dear all;

Sorry for the delay with general letters recently. I have found things very, very difficult with almost everything.

This has been caused mostly by work.

As most of you know that would know me would have known recently I have been working recently in a town called Congleton which is about thirty miles from the centre of Manchester for a small housing association called Dane Housing as a Supporting People Officer.

The job involved mostly technical data input of benefits every week and also monitoring rent accounts for temporary properties which we housed homeless people in on a temporary measure until they landed themselves somewhere more peremement to live in and supported housing for disabled people.

If I’m honest with myself, the job wasn’t really suited to my strengths as I found the input side bloody hard and as I had next to no training doubly hard but I did enjoy the rents side.

However, the job was only on a contract basis and was originally designed to run for at least the six months as the lad I was covering for had gone to another section to cover for a girl who had gone on maturnity leave.

Things changed however when a job became available in that section he was working in on a perm basis.

Fair play to the lad, he went for it and got it, so became apparent he was going to return. Eventually it became apparent that they were going to recruit that post on a perm basis, and if I wanted to satay there I would have to apply for it.

Truth be told, by this point I was having serious doubts. Like I said before, I was unhappy with a number of aspects of the job and the travelling was proving a nightmare.

Generally every day I was having to get up at 6AM and get the 6.30AM train into Manchester. I would usually arrive at Manchester Picadilly Train Station just turned 7am and would have to wait until 7.54am for the next train to Congleton.

I would then get that train to Congleton to arrive in Congleton around 8.25am and have a twenty minute walk to work.

Result = Travelling time of 2 ¼ hours.

Sadly on the way back, things were often little better. I would often leave work about 4.55pm to get the train back to Manchester at 5.23pm. If this thing bothered turning up on time, I would usually get back into Manchester just before 6.00pm and get the connecting train back home for about 6.20pm.

The problems frequently happened when this train got cancelled or arrived 20 to 30 minutes late. This would result in me sometimes not getting home until 7pm or if they cancelled it anything after 8pm.

Complete crap, I know.

But anyway, returning to the point………

I put my name forward for the post as I thought if the job went perm I would re-consider my options.

That was never to happen however.

I got offered a interview for the job – went for the interview and true to form with my luck – I came 2nd out of 6 people.

This was two and a half weeks ago.

Once this happened, I started looking for a new job and had a few interviews and got one of them much to my surprise working at Manchester Housing as a Housing Assistant.

Again this is only a temporary role, but the import thing it will get me past Christmas.

But we will see…

L'Apparition Demo CD Review

13/11/05

L’Apparition – Demo CD

(Contact details – lapparition@hotmail.co.uk / 0783 4954397)

It was ironic I got hold of this demo CD only days after hearing the leaked Elliott Smith album “From a basement to a hill II” on the internet.

The Elliott Smith CD without saying and wandering way from the quality of this review, is / was fantastic and sets the mood for this short demo which is a excellent follow on from that CD.

L’Apparation is Neil Wheatley, a young singer songwriter from Sheffield, UK who I have recently read somewhere else comparing to a mixture between Elliott Smith and Belle and Sebasation.

Now normally I have this fond habit of completely disagreeing with reviews, but on this review I found myself completing agreeing with it. Although sadly the first tracks “Mopper” did very, very little for me – several of the remaining four tracks on the CD are fanastic for example “So Long” and “Short Minor Blues” which despite the fact does have their own sound like a cross between both of the above also have their own personal charm and really do deserve checking out.

Setting Sun will hopefully be interviewing Neil aka L’Apparition fairly soon but in the meantime I would hearly recommend dropping him an e-mail and nagging him to put up a website for people to download / listen to his music.

Elise New Poem

14/11/05

Dear all;

Hi there! How are you? More later but I have had the following poem texted to me the other day by my god daughter and thought I would share it with you:

“I look to see the
slithering snake
and he starts
hissing
and gets into
a poisonous snake

It turns
Me into a snake”

A snake poem
By Elise aged nearly 8.

Johnny Depp Book Review

12/11/05

Book Review – Johnny Depp – a different kind of Illusion
By Denis Meikle

A lot of people who know me know I love Johnny Depp.

In my mind he is one of the best actors of his generation – far better than the Tom Cruises, Tom Hanks etc of his generation.

So when I picked up this book, I was hoping to read a book that would explore his relationship with director Tim Burton so far on “Edward Sissorhands”, “Ed Wood”, “Sleepy Hollow” and currently “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” as well as his relationship with Terry Gilliam on “Fear and Loathing” and the never finished “The Man who killed Don Quixode”

However, despite an clearly in depth knowledge of Mr. Depp, the book clearly fails to explore in more depth about the man himself, the man behind the person / persona and all we are left with is facts and facts and by the end of the book are we left with is questions?

Avoid.

10/11/05

Album Review: Encre

Title: Flux

Label available on: Clapping Music

This is a staggering album I’d make no bones about it and unlike some albums I may have claimed to you all in the past, I literally didn’t see it coming.

Encre is the other project aka Yann Tranbour who I first met earlier on this year when he supported the wonderful Matt Elliott (aka Third Eye Foundation) and Manyfingers under the name of Thee, Stranded Horse.

Three, Stranded Horse is / was a display which hovered perhaps closely to a wonderfully distorted Rufas Wainwright playing a Kora and Guitar at the same time and then some.

Encre is as different as it can almost be.

Recorded between June 2001 and June 2002 ad then mixed between July 2002 to May 2003, this is a stunning album which brings to mind Philip Glass Vs Matt Elliott Days as Third Eye Foundation.

The difference here is the use of these strings and the way the orchestra moves up and down the songs. The mood is menacing but never depressing, taunting but never dark.

Songs like “Marbles” demand repeated listenings to take in all of the levels that more forward the song. This is not a album which can be listened to just once.

It demands to be listened over and over to and over again, and is perhaps summed up clearly by it’s title “Flux” as the first time you listen to it – it almost leaves you in a state of Flux – a state that can be only removed by constant re-listenings.

Recommended.

Encre Review

10/11/05

Album Review: Encre

Title: Flux

Label available on: Clapping Music

This is a staggering album I’d make no bones about it and unlike some albums I may have claimed to you all in the past, I literally didn’t see it coming.

Encre is the other project aka Yann Tranbour who I first met earlier on this year when he supported the wonderful Matt Elliott (aka Third Eye Foundation) and Manyfingers under the name of Thee, Stranded Horse.

Three, Stranded Horse is / was a display which hovered perhaps closely to a wonderfully distorted Rufas Wainwright playing a Kora and Guitar at the same time and then some.

Encre is as different as it can almost be.

Recorded between June 2001 and June 2002 ad then mixed between July 2002 to May 2003, this is a stunning album which brings to mind Philip Glass Vs Matt Elliott Days as Third Eye Foundation.

The difference here is the use of these strings and the way the orchestra moves up and down the songs. The mood is menacing but never depressing, taunting but never dark.

Songs like “Marbles” demand repeated listenings to take in all of the levels that more forward the song. This is not a album which can be listened to just once.

It demands to be listened over and over to and over again, and is perhaps summed up clearly by it’s title “Flux” as the first time you listen to it – it almost leaves you in a state of Flux – a state that can be only removed by constant re-listenings.

Recommended.

neil gainman book launch review

10/11/2005

Book Review

Neil Gainman – Dancehouse Theatre, 08/11/05

Finishing off another busy week and reviews for Setting Sun, I also went out to see Neil Gainman.

I’d first heard of Mr. Gainman through his now legend like work on The Sandman back in 1992 or 1993 when I first got back into comics after a 10 to 12 year break after accidentally buying a few back issues of a comic called Swamp Thing, mistaking it for a comic called Man Thing which also focused on a swamp creature, however Swamp Thing was always much more fun for at its best, it talked about a Nature God which despite the fact it had the powers of a god frequently behaved more like a man.

Within these issues, I also picked up on a character called John Constantine and his series called Hellblazer (more on that another day) but also in another cameo Dream aka Morpheus aka The Sandman – The Lord of Dfreams and through that picked up on Neil Gainman’s stories of The Sandman, which at their best had a poetry and a cleverness that is all too rarely seen in comics nowadays.

In 1996 (?) Gainman finished off The Sandman and despite the occasional flurry back to comic (with the more prose based “The Dream Hunters” drawn by the creator of Final Fantasy and last year’s “Endless Nights” drawn by a whole host of artists( has mostly stuck to novels since “Neverwhere”, “Stardust” and the epic “American Gods” among others.

He was here tonight to read extracts from his new book, which I bought and then had my mother to put aside for Christmas and therefore sadly cannot remember the name off of the top of my head.

On first impressions I actually thought it was going to be one of his twisted children’s books but as his extract developed, it became apparent this was going to be a reading from a book which was a lot, lot darker.

And it was.

He read with a clarity which surprised me that without starting reading, he had the audience in the palm of his hand and he could have read out his shopping list for a half a hour and they would have loved it.

However, even better than that he spent about a hour answering all manners of questions about both past and present and future, which covered all kinds of projects, some of which I knew about – the forthcoming “Mirror Mask” film co-created with long term artist friendm, Dace McKean and funded by the Henson Company, at least three other films including a film version about Death (Dream’s sister) among others, all answered with clarity and charm you couldn’t help but smile.

An excellent night.

I can’t wait to start the book.

Bela, EMB, Music for one reviews

11/11/05

Album Reviews:

Bela Emerson – Live at the Marlborough 18-11-04
(Self released – http://www.cellobela.com/)

Bela Emerson – Scythe EP
(The slightly off kilter label – sok009)

Euphonious Murmur Blend – Emb 261005 / Emv 271005
(The slightly off kilter label)

Music for one – Outside In
(http://www.musicforone.com/)

Four releases for those who like their releases a little more experimental and purchased all at the Albert Road gig (see previous blogspot entry) but yet all contain an chilling ambience in them, which takes them all away from just plain noise.

The two releases by Bela Emerson for example are probably my favourite two releases by her so far – in particular the “Scythe” EP which shows a wonderful development in her sound, which previously shown Bela content to do 20 minute plus tracks with her impo cello drone delay tracks “Sycthe” shows Bela stripping these tracks down to 6 or so minutes and in the process show a very different development in her sound where she now clearly displays an ability also now to cram as much detail into the shorter tracks as her long epics.

The live CD “Live at the Marlborough” is perhaps more typical Bela for me, although it does come across as a lot more tighter and moodier in contrast to both of her previous releases with a much more seemingly crushing use of her live instrumentation, which is seriously certain to mess with your head unless played at the right mood.

Highly recommended.





Euphonious Murmur Blend aka Paul Morgan, also from Brighton is just a challenging CD with two incredibly long tracks both improvised on simple electronic equipment in Mezzaluna Studio, in Brighton in October 2005.

Like with Bela’s live CD, this is also an CD which has been tackled from beginning to end over two incredibly long tracks. It is not a easy listen by an stretch of thought, but in a way it makes a nice companion piece if anything to Bela’s live CD in the way both of the tracks float in and out of your head.



This CD is different in the way in the way the mechanics are operated. It lacks the excellent live use of a drone through instrumentation that Bela has and uses to such wonderful effect. It howevers makes up for that, by the always clever and thoughtful way the electronics are used. In less skilled hands this would probably feel like music that was soul-less and too clever for it’s own good.

I found it personally challenging and strangely beautiful.

Recommended (but be careful on the second track as bursts of white noise could deafen people on CD walkmans).

Canadian born but now London based Sherry aka One Person music is perhaps closer to Bela’s “Scythe” EP than Euphonious Murmur Blend’s as her CD is different to her lvie set with on this CD, the CD consisting of 10 tracks recorded mostly live between 2001 – 2002 in cotntrast to her live set, which I saw at Albert Road, which was a few challenging long guitar drone tracks.

“Outside in” is a lovely CD, I’ll make no bones about it as on each track is crammed with lovely bits of thought in every song. Take for example on song 5 “Funny Valentine” which is officially a cover version of a classic Rogers and Hart song, but only in the sense she uses that as a basis for the song and then takes it somewhere else altogether.

The feeling in places almost comes as Nick Drake (minus the vocals) jamming with the Aphex Twin – something that can beautiful and melodic – one minute and then comes crashing within a few seconds into white free form noise before then changing again into something else different.

Lovely.

The Red Sea, Bar 38 gig review

09/11/05

The Red Sea, Bar 38

Academy 3, 05/11/05

It is surprsising what sort of gigs as the editor / hack / editor / creator and lord only knows what else of Setting Sun I frequently end up.

Look at the last two ggis I have been to recently

Firstly, the mongolfier Brothers and secondly Bela Emerson.

Here are two acts that are as almost completely differenty as it is humanly possible.

Quietneess and Noise.

Meldies and terryifing.

I could almost write a university essay about the differences, so it would make sense almost to go and listen to something completely different.

How about Indie RockIndie Rock?

Sadly nowadays – Indie Rock is dominated by well too many bands that seem to be well interested in copying the past – speaking as a person from Manchester wich has all kinds of Indie rock bands over the years most recently The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, Oasis and more recently Badly Drawn Boy and Elbow which are often more influenced by most if not all of the above but lack the ability or the sense to make something really original from it, when the music scene is really crying out for it.

Chorlton’s “The Red Sea” hopefully are one of those sort of bands that will hopefully
Fall into that second camp rather than the first camp.

I’d first heard of them through the efforts of my friend, John Deacons who is their website editor and I ended up going with the drummer also called John to go and see one of my favourite groups “Purressence” and found him a particularly nice bloke.

During that gig, he mentioned his group “The Red Sea” and they had some mp3’s available for downloaded. I’d spoke to John, had a listen to them and found their tunes much to my surprise certainly quite enjoyable with elements of Oasis, The Stone Roses and Purressence among others into a perfectly reasonable nice sound.

So I agreed to go and after I got there and was even more surprised by the fact they were much much better than the demo suggested which was nice and held promise, this was something else altogether.

Songs like “The Libertine” despite possibly bordered a little bit too close to Oasis for my liking had single written all over it in particular live and the anthem based “Tonight’s the Night” which was perhaps close to the way The Stone Roses would be sounding today if Ian Brown and John Squire could be bothered making up and matching the hints of how good they could have been.

Good stuff.

There was also a couple of other acts on after that – we stayed around to caught most of the next act “Bar 38” who despite the fact played in a local band’s night asked did anybody know the Tottenham score (A football club – Ed) which hinted at the fact they were a London based act.

Either way, it didn’t make any difference as frankly they were pretty bog standard average stuff sounding like a cross between The Cure and Franz Ferinard minus both the hooks of Ferniard and the ghost like nature of good The Cure and in the process sounded sadly a mess.

After that we had had enough and went home to the memory one band which certainly had potentional to do something and another which were…

Another normal night on the local scene then.

But good luck to the Red Sea…………..

free prize

Hi all;

I'll do a free DIH mp3 cd to anybody who knows where the new picture for the front of "Setting Sun" is taken..

http://www.geocities.com/aen1mpo

Good luck

Andy N

Bela, A Middlesex, One Person Music, EMB Review

06/11/05

Gig Review:

Euphonious Murmour Blend
A Middlesex
One Person Music
Bela Emerson

67, Albert Road, Levenshulme 02/11/2005

To say this was an underground gig was almost literally the case.

Based literally in the underground cellar of an old Victorian House just off the main road in Levenshulme, which is a small district a few miles away from the centre of Manchester, it was without doubt the most underground gig I have been too ever (and people that know me would tell you I have been to some underground gigs).

But yet among this incredibly underground venue, was music, which certainly didn’t deserve to remain in just such an underground, which would look completely out of place in the current top 40, but would make it look a heck of a lot more interesting.

We arrived a few minutes later before the first act; the wonderfully titled “Euphonius Murmour Blend” came on. Comprised of Paul Morgan from Brighton, E M B as I will refer to in the rest of this review played a kind of wonderfully kind of experimental dance (which thankfully had almost nothing to do with dance music), which I find almost impossible to try and categorise what I heard, although it was excellent.

My friend, Phil compared him to Terry Riley, although I must admit I don’t know, but either way like me we both really enjoyed it. It was particularly excellent, mention must be made also of the part of the set where he used a ticking clock, which on one level added a pretty near beat but also on a different level almost added a heart beat or a sense of time ticking.

Excellent (and somebody Setting Sun will hopefully be interviewing soon)

We missed by chance by talking upstairs to Paul and the headlining act Bela Emerson by A Middlesex, who were in contrast to the rest of the acts were a two piece group (Noise / Vocals and Drums) but not a two piece group in the fashionable vein that is the White Stripes.

Instead me and Phil were both reminded of a cross between Can (with some of the manic drumming) and Third Eye Foundation (everything else) and my old buddies in Amp with the in-human, non language singing – it is heard to offer much more judgement on the rest of the set but in hindsight it did seem pretty good although it must have left some people a little deaf the next day.

Music for one aka Canadian born but now based London based Sherry, who followed next was a lot more chilled, although not necessarily in a relaxing way. Her music, like Bela Emerson who followed next and headlined the night was music, which started off with live instrumentation in her case a guitar and then often cut and mixed up as she went along…

Comparing like with the first act E M B is pretty bloody hard but it is kind of reminded of Nick Drake with it’s folksy instrumental beginnings minus his vocals, but then made me think of a more wildly experimental Mogwai in the sense silence would sometimes be one of the most vital instruments in music before almost blowing out your ear-drums within thirty seconds to a minute later. Terrifying but really well done.

The last time Bela Emerson was reviewed by Setting Sun, I actually got told off by her afterwards for using the word classical in it as she said herself to me afterwards she had spent the last 15 years trying to shred the comparison.

And in her own way – she has – playing music in this case a Double Bass or Cello (By this point I was sadly quite pissed so cannot recall exactly either way) that like music for one would start off in a sometimes quite traditional sense, but would then change gears often into free form noise.

I’ve seen Bela play on a number of occasions over the past year or so, so had a half a idea of what was to come next, but a number of the more student (I guess) based audience did not and looking at a few of them, it was almost worth the price of admission alone to see some of their faces.

And of course, they were hooked. My mate Phil has compared her twice now that I remember to almost like a evil cousin of Laurie Anderson.

I personally can’t help to have a knowledge of Ms Anderson, in fact the only song of hers I can calim to know is “Oh, Superman” and Bela’s set doesn’t sound a thing like that unless you compare it that way with the sheer dementedness off it.

Underground as hell I guess, but a fitting finale to a first rate gig that was almost, underground literally, but bloody excellent.