Hyde Park’s Wireless Festival, 2008: not the most vibrantly countercultural happening of the summer. That would be Glastonbury, or the July general meeting of Heckmondwike Women’s Institute.
On the main stage, Deadmau5 manfully attempts to rouse a chilled Saturday evening crowd politely awaiting the arrival of Fatboy Slim. Meanwhile, in a marquee behind it, several hundred wide-eyed hedonists are threatening to raise the canvas roof to the strains of Underworld’s Born Slippy.
Maybe it was the time, location, or the fact I had not been to a rave in 10 years, but there was a palpable feeling of last-chance abandon, as if a tent-full of thirtysomethings had all decided it was time to stop dropping tabs every weekend and grow up, but before that they wanted to go out with a bang.
Yet where does that leave the artists that soundtracked their thrills and spills? If you are The Prodigy, you are ridiculous enough to carry on dying your hair, dressing up as a punk and gurning in front of festival crowds until your Zimmer frame gets trapped in the mud.
Underworld, though, have always represented the more cerebral end of techno, thanks to Karl Hyde’s stream of consciousness poetry and the bookish demeanour of Rick Smith. Indeed, the group have mellowed over the years as they moved into composing soundtracks for Breaking And Entering and Sunshine, the latter continuing a productive relationship with Danny Boyle.
Yet the band would argue they have always been more than dance producers and as evidence they are set to release a peculiar mix CD entitled Athens from Underworld vs The Misterons. With a cover created by Hyde himself, early Roxy Music and some Soft Machine, it reminds us of their long-standing art school credentials. Also in the mix is a collaboration with former Roxy member Brian Eno (cue another rambling monologue from Underworld’s frontman). So the band have always been open-minded musicians first and dance producers second, though this sedate collection of Afrobeats and jazz fusion is not so ground-breaking - Kieren Hebden does it all the time when he is not reinventing electronica as Four Tet.
Moby, meanwhile, is taking his unplugged set back on the road. He introduced this back in June at Ornette Coleman’s Meltdown festival and is now offering fans the chance to choose the set list as he plays London’s Hard Rock Café for affable music mag Q. As if his live shows were that compelling anyway. More intriguing is the current project of Graham Massey. The 808 State founder has got together an all-female keyboard quartet named Sisters of Transistors.
Sleeve notes to their album At The Ferranti Institute (nice Oldham reference there) reveal much hokum about a Doreen Lang, her original organ foursome and a chance discovery at a disused air force base, but the important thing is Massey is having fun – he plays drums with them live and is credited with writing their music. SOT bring to mind the scuzzy analogue intensity of the sorely missed all-female outfit Electrelane, with nods to B-movie horror shows and library music. Many dance veterans at some stage in their career need to set themselves as serious artistes, but with nothing to prove and a heap of self-deprecation, Massey has come up with the most engaging answer as to what to do next.
revdosalores
2 months, 4 weeks ago
…although there may still be some detractors, I was still rather hoping to see a Massey Ferguson collaboration in the Duchy of Cornwall… re: deisel - it is a mixture of dark ale and coca cola popular in rural germany - but i think this answer is for a competition running on another site that you may not have entered and so it may not be of any current use to you - Nevertheless if you do win, I am off course willing to split the prize money with you [no kites]