The Mekano Set

I was going to post this on saturday but I was waiting for pictures of the evening, well, a picture of Finn's superb fake Cow Hide mini-skirt but it has not arrived yet. Sorry Finn. If, As, and When...

Meanwhile, here's Milk with the weather:

Hello it's saturday morning. I'm typing this while I try and wake up {or perhaps sober up} enough to venture out in search of food and films and stuff. I guess this is going to be as much a 'review' as a ramble and a few pages of notes, and I guess maybe this is how this blog has been shaping up anyway so here goes... no excuses.

So it was Friday night and we were back @ The Playroom in London. Just when everyone else was at Glastonbury, playing in the mud. We went on the train.

It was a very different experience to last time, last time being about bands that had nothing in common at all, this time being much more about bands who wear a lot of dark clothing.

There were some really interesting bands. Oh yes really. Sorry if I get some names wrong or miss anyone out:

Hannah the Band were up first: a trio of drums, bass and voice / acoustic guitar {through a delay unit apparently}. Really like the simplicity of their setup and the girl singer / guitarist {Hannah?} had a nice attitude and a really good voice - I say keep it that way, maybe even cut back on some of the guitar, leaves some gaps and let the voice come through. Nice. Good luck to yous!

Interestingly enough Hannah the Band and Sound Corruption seemed, to me at least, to have just as much going for them as headliners Amanda Ghost. Maybe I was just in the mood to see some fellow amateurs.

It's probably just my warped view of things {I've just discovered I've got something called 'Alice in Wonderland Syndrome' ???}, but they came across as youthful and fresh, us and Amanda Ghost perhaps were a bit more serious / cynical.

If you can get a balance between the two - between the freshness and the maturity, I think that's something that a lot of people would call 'professional' or 'a sign of quality'?

Justin Timebombloke

Amanda Ghost had a really full, rich sound - and it was really good to see and hear a mix of acoustic, triggered and sequenced drum sounds, but I found myself warming more to the less studied performances of Hannah and Sound Corruption. A.G. are heading in a much more dark synth-pop direction, but there's still the conventional guitar sound and song structures there.

In a way, there's 'not a lot in it' between what A.G. were doing and what we were doing - in terms of sound and vibe. I'm not saying that we're anything even close to their level of musicianship, or even that we want to be.

Our song structures are much less conventional {or apparent}, and we're still comparatively freeform {none of us have to stick to doing what we did last time, let alone sticking to 'this bit comes next'}. Although we've become less freeform as bit by bit our lovely live-sampley, live-loopey delays and laptop have started to give up the ghost.

"Must... but must not."

Yes, we shouldn't need to rely on technology so much. But we need and want to make sound, and strip the machines away and what are we left with? Are vocal chords not machines of sorts? Certainly, they're a part of the human machine {or the machine that has the potential to become human} and they even need a certain amount of electromagnetic N.R.G in order to remain interesting and interested.

In this day and age, making music without the aid of 'technology' or electricity doesn't necessarily make that music any more 'true' - it's just as much a bold statement as producing entirely sample-based music. On that level, there's no escaping artistic / political / ecological / environmental / psychological and even spiritual content and commentary. Dressing down is a statement as much as dressing up. Plugging in is no more or less contentious as pulling out the plug. So you may as well do exactly what you fancy musically.

"On is off and off is on."

Pull out the Plug

This dependence upon tech and electrickery is of course an unhealthy thing - but music full stop is unhealthy and has been for a very long time, and I don't just mean pop music. In all forms of music, we remember the shapes, the forms, the flavour, but we've long since lost the point, the process, the methodology, the meaning. It's all just guess-work, all of it, from Dylan to Dabrye.

But what do you do when your favourite music can do you just as much good as a good book, a good meal or a good play between the sheets?

What I mean is, once upon a time, people could use a song in the same way we use any other set of instructions: at some point we 'understood' sound {and visual art} in the same way we 'understand' words and numbers. If you think I'm talking shite here, then you need to go away and read something else, or at least do your homework.

Back on earth, it seemed like A.G. were taking quite a departure from their first album, and I have to say it's quite a brave direction because it's not the most commercial choice - it seems like what they started out doing {singer songwriter with voice} has become 'quite the thing' - so it says a lot for them that they are moving on.

Anyway - it's good for us to know that we're not the only people mixing up angry vocals, dirty beats, and live elements - even if the industry hasn't noticed yet!

Amanda Ghost's sound has made me think that maybe we need to fatten up some of our sounds a bit more.

{I could barely hear what we were doing - and that makes me turn what I'm doing down - which I get told off for... obviously I could hear 'something' but it was all so unclear. Patrick had as much trouble trying to keep the beat when he couldn't hear the drums. We really need to get ourselves some little monitors or something. Using a guitar amp can't be the answer cause that'll just kill the drums even more? Of course, most venues are set up for live drums... doh! Oh and hello and thanks to the nice bloke who offered his services as a live drummer by the way!!!!}

What I really want is for the vocals and the bass to come through, I don't care half as much about the guitar, or the synth parts. And Patrick's bass is getting nice and fat, and Finn's voice is big with or without the aid of fex... so it shouldn't be too hard.

Listening to some of our mixes this week - it all sounds so damned muddy and I really don't think we can get much more out of our dodgy old set-up. Too much going on, too many ideas at once.

I've got a load of .mpg videos on loop and I've just noticed how a lot of The Prodigy stuff has a load of samples and dirt but the nice fat kick drum still cuts through without having to be a 'metal click drum' type sound. I've said it before and I'll say it again, that Mr. H is going to make an ace producer one day. Oh - I've just worked out... he's panned the bass-line {leaving centre-stage for the kick drum to come through...}

FACES RAINING

A part of me thinks that finding your vibe and coming across in an honest way with it, is working out what you can get away with: i.e. being honest about your own ideas, your affectations, flirtations, influences. If it resonates with you, if you can honour it, you almost have to steal / affect / further any {uncool} stuff and it'll work - if you're honest and honourable. But it's just too easy now. It's too easy for rock bands. It's too easy for DJ's. All of us. And I really don't like the idea of stealing other people's ideas in order to further my own. Influence isn't the same thing?

But look at all these late 70's / early 80's metal and goth elements that are creeping back into pop and rock. The Beavery. Interplod. The Otters. Puddle of Piss. Nicklebloke. All your favourites. All with sh*t Flock of Seagulls hair or flappy trousers. Suck in those cheek bones, furrow those brows.

Back at the gig, yes, I'm fascinated by the way that Iron Maiden / Black Sabbath style riffage is creeping back into {teenage} rock band sounds. A certain chug a certain 'twin lead guitar' thing. Pre-punk in punk attire. What must sound a lot like their parent's record collection {which explains why Appropriate Agent's guitarist is also their Dad - or one of them at least}. Oh - their web site lists Maiden and Sabbath so there you go... I suppose the irony is that they, the kind of band you'd traditionally expect from a night of 'proper live music', were the odd one's out. But it didn't bother them, and it didn't bother anyone else, so there!

But you're still here.

Funny how it's perfectly acceptable to sing in an affected accent, but when you keep up the affectation between songs and you chat in some non-specific American accent, it sounds more obviously odd, or at least immature. You'd think it'd work the other way round. And before you track me down and pour your pint over me, or paw a pint out of me, my point here is that you'd think keeping up the pretense would be the right thing to do?

"What do you think?"
"I don't like it."
"What?! Fuck off! It's good, it's really good. Don't be such an arse."
"But you asked me what I THOUGHT! If you really want me to agree with you just say 'I think this, please tell me I'm right and cool."

Our set was trouble-free apart from a bit of feedback here and there, and I laughed my way through Probably NoT, but early on I kept thinking we were coming across as spiteful, pissed off, or taking the piss {I mean, we are, but still...} but as half of the bands were trying for that kind of vibe anyway I figured it didn't actually matter.

I took it as a good sign that some of the other bands were interested enough to say hello and ask some questions and we'd really really like to hear back from you chaps {you know who you are} about getting you down to Brighton for gigs.

There was a little more camaraderie amongst bands this time.

{And I couldn't help but feel a sense of deep, warm, slightly smug satisfaction when people who are old enough to remember punk and new wave spot our new-waveness and get excited by it. It was an unexpected pleasure to be compared to Killing Joke! 'Killing Joke?' you say - 'no way!' O.K.}

Sound Corruption only got to do one or two songs which was a total tragedy. They're definitely more of a pop band than we are {Lee N - you'd really like this band, check them out if we haven't scared you off completely}. And there's a certain brattish / snottiness about their vibe that I like a lot. I'd like to see more of that.

Also, in the post this morning I received a package from Al {CrackerDog / Elementary Productions} containing a video for / of The Next Monsoon.

Not sure how we'll be dishing this out but I think future copies of our first Cd / eP might contain a few videos / showreels?

There's also a possibility that we'll be playing up in Birmingham some point soon - be warned!

All in all then, a really rewarding night, in which Finn discovered that we don't have a single song that is 'nice about someone or something'.

"It's big, it's heavy, it's wood... it's Log!"

The Mekano Set