The Lounge of Pleasure – Resonance 104.4fm
‘A free exotic, electronic, new breed event’
(free but donations welcomed)
Cargo, EC2, London
Tuesday 6 January
New year, new moans. What, from a gig hosted by trendy underground frequency abusers Resonance FM? Yep: insipid music, City-types proliferating, yeah-yeah-yeah-chat from the in-crowd, £3:80 for a bottle of Budvar. But our coterie of cullers was mostly left nonplussed by the event, the partial boon of the free entry long since forgotten.
Pedal steel guitarist BJ Cole, who first got recognition in the late ’60s band Cochise, was first on the bill. He may have worked with rock greats Marc Bolan, Scott Walker, John Cale, Spritualized, the Orb and Beck, but he has also done time with Kiki Dee and Leo Sayer! Indeed his fallow period was the late ’70s but since his collabo with Cornish experimenter Luke Vibert he has the ears of the leftfield dance community. It is mostly those compositions that waft unsuccessfully over the crowd tonight, the dreamy, cascading riffs and gentle ambient rhythms failing to hook the crowd in. To be fair that crowd was as described seemingly far more interested in ‘catching up’ post-crimbo, and the guest chanteuse (complete with stereotypical breathy vocals) on Cole’s last tune seemed to clock this, registering her rancour at the non-receptive atmosphere.
Space rock/free jazz outfit Voltage came on next and though described as a cross between Sun Ra and Sonic Youth delivered exactly what you’d expect from my generic description. Projected juxtapositions of white and black people, reversed and turned upside down, offered visual parallels but did little to augment the supposed freeform nature of the music.
Of course the problem may have been one of disadvantageous set and setting: BJ Cole/Vibert’s cheesy meanderings probably do appeal when suffusing a lounge of comedown casualties. Certainly their Astralwerks-released LP Stop the Panic won many admirers.
Perhaps I was misled by the fact that you can hear everything and nothing on Resonance Fm. So while I expected a far more diverse affair their headz, DJs Jim Backhouse, Magz Hall, Jonny Trunk and El Minko Peligroso, decided to adhere closely to the night’s title and played us inoffensive variations of the laidback techno blueprint. Maybe that’s what the bright young things organising Cargo nights wanted. It just goes to show the inevitable problems the slow process of commoditisation of a genuine anti-marketplace, avant-garde idea can bring.
‘A free exotic, electronic, new breed event’
(free but donations welcomed)
Cargo, EC2, London
Tuesday 6 January
New year, new moans. What, from a gig hosted by trendy underground frequency abusers Resonance FM? Yep: insipid music, City-types proliferating, yeah-yeah-yeah-chat from the in-crowd, £3:80 for a bottle of Budvar. But our coterie of cullers was mostly left nonplussed by the event, the partial boon of the free entry long since forgotten.
Pedal steel guitarist BJ Cole, who first got recognition in the late ’60s band Cochise, was first on the bill. He may have worked with rock greats Marc Bolan, Scott Walker, John Cale, Spritualized, the Orb and Beck, but he has also done time with Kiki Dee and Leo Sayer! Indeed his fallow period was the late ’70s but since his collabo with Cornish experimenter Luke Vibert he has the ears of the leftfield dance community. It is mostly those compositions that waft unsuccessfully over the crowd tonight, the dreamy, cascading riffs and gentle ambient rhythms failing to hook the crowd in. To be fair that crowd was as described seemingly far more interested in ‘catching up’ post-crimbo, and the guest chanteuse (complete with stereotypical breathy vocals) on Cole’s last tune seemed to clock this, registering her rancour at the non-receptive atmosphere.
Space rock/free jazz outfit Voltage came on next and though described as a cross between Sun Ra and Sonic Youth delivered exactly what you’d expect from my generic description. Projected juxtapositions of white and black people, reversed and turned upside down, offered visual parallels but did little to augment the supposed freeform nature of the music.
Of course the problem may have been one of disadvantageous set and setting: BJ Cole/Vibert’s cheesy meanderings probably do appeal when suffusing a lounge of comedown casualties. Certainly their Astralwerks-released LP Stop the Panic won many admirers.
Perhaps I was misled by the fact that you can hear everything and nothing on Resonance Fm. So while I expected a far more diverse affair their headz, DJs Jim Backhouse, Magz Hall, Jonny Trunk and El Minko Peligroso, decided to adhere closely to the night’s title and played us inoffensive variations of the laidback techno blueprint. Maybe that’s what the bright young things organising Cargo nights wanted. It just goes to show the inevitable problems the slow process of commoditisation of a genuine anti-marketplace, avant-garde idea can bring.
posted by Culla at 6:38 pm
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