[whorefrost]

We arrived slightly late which meant the Glasgow Improviser's Orchestra had already begun when we arrived. We were lead up a stairway and along a corridor, a door was unlocked (?!) and we were in a dim auditorium looking down on approximately a dozen players. Most of them were still except this one blonde lady who sat, hands clasped as she screeched and wailed into a microphone. Suddenly another lady holding an upright bass suddenly struck the low string quite forcefully and looked around meaningfully. It continued in this way, each player or, at most, two players taking a shot at improvising. Quite engaging although began to drag towards the end. At one point the pianist was lifting and setting down the lid of the piano and then jingling his car keys about. Players were also staming their feet on the ground and clapping their hands to contribute spontaneous percussive sounds. My friend reckoned the whole thing was a bit impotent and stifled but I have to say it was this impotence that sort of endeared me to the whole affair.

Next was a screening of a film about Cornelius Cardrew and the Scratch Orchestra. It was edited to give it a sort of punk rock/fluxus vibe that I found quite appealling. The Scratch Orchestra, it seems, ultimately became overly concerned with politics. Cornelius Cardrew's extreme leftist leanings alienated the more bourgeious members. Anyway, by the end the film had sort of painted a picture of these guys as self-indulgent pompous dickheads. It's like they struggled to get laid or something and directed all this misplaced energy into some sort of abstract, inconsequential psuedo-political movement. I guess that sounds sort of harsh.. there was something cool and admirable about their initial anti-consumerist approach to music, it just seemed to get all blown out of proportion.

Then there was a performance by Nagasti Ne Te. I think that's what they were called. They were.. an odd choice for a self-proclaimed experimental music festival. Two chicks on bass and drums and a dude on guitar with harmonised vocals. Sort of struck me as the Japanese equivalent of Yo La Tengo cept with less dissonant rock moments. Their music struck me as slightly straightforward and dull. However, they were really polite, mild-mannered people so it was hard to bear any ill will towards them. The dude seemed sort of awkward and clumsy, carefully activating his pedals. He announced one song as "Me on the Beach" cept he pronounced it so it sounded like "bitch." Hilarious. Later, we surmised that that was what made them experimental - the marriage of sacharine melody to obscenely crude vocals, a nuance that was unfortunately lost on an English speaking audience.

Next up was Justice Yeldham. Second time I've seen this fool. Seeing the sheet of glass sitting in an instrument stand before he came on was getting me pretty amped. We looked around at the audience of middle-aged, self-styled intellectuals and I speculated that mass hysteria might erupt with people getting stampeded as everyone rushed for the exit. Then it would turn into an orgy but it would be a really depraved sinister orgy. People getting held down and cut while everyone stood around masturbating and watching. People writhing around in pools of blood and semen, headbutting each other. Me and my pal rapped on this theme for a while. We may be completely immoral and insane.
Justice was totally great. Not much variation from last time I saw him but still absolutely captivating. Dude delivers a completely visceral performance, really cathartic. The sight of his face pressed flat against a sheet of bloodied glass as he writhes around frantically combined with the inhuman processed howling and moaning that it creates is really exhilirating.

Finally, we had the Thing + ZU which I was anticipating highly. Unfortunately it sucked.
OK, it didn't totally suck. First the Thing came out and started off as a trio for about 10 minutes. Real high energy free jazz. I was getting completely psyched thinking I was witnessing one of the best things ever. Then ZU came out. They looked like nu-metal dudes. The bassist sort of had a rock/metal sensibility which I found a tad crude. Same with the drummer. And the ZU saxophonist didn't really contribute much I felt. Mats was on fucking fire tho. And the Thing drummer was awesome as well.
They played all these rock covers including a Lightning Bolt tune which had everyone cheering. Shame it was quite clumsily executed. Then for the encore they did a more subtle improv thing that was sort of more interesting than their actual set.

I bought the Monster Movie LP by Can from the Monorail stall then we went home.

[Iain]

Neat write up. Did you just go to the one evening of Le Weekend?

[whorefrost]

aye. was the most appealing line-up. wouldn't have minded seeing Richard Youngs as well as Zeena Parkins + Ikue Mori on Saturday but not enough to make the journey to Stirling.

[Iain]

It's only an hour on the bloody train! I wish I lived close to such an appealing variety of festivals (I suppose Venn fest is pretty nice). The arts council of Scotland seem very generous towards experimental music what with Le Weekend, Kill Your Timid Notion, Install etc. Not sure how many of those get funding but I'm pretty sure some do don't they? And I think there's another Scottish fest I can't recall right now. Arts Counil of England fund some stuff (No-Fi) but Arts Council of Wales are a bunch of shitbags that pump all their money into the Welsh National Opera (seriously, about 70% of all their money goes straight to the WNO).

[Toilet & Bowels]

what's the deal with arts council's spunking away all that moneyt on the opera anyway? and for that matter, are any of the great opera composers british?

[Glice]

Originally Posted by Toilet & Bowels

what's the deal with arts council's spunking away all that moneyt on the opera anyway? and for that matter, are any of the great opera composers british?

If you were an appreciator of opera, you'd be entirely supportive of the WNO. Didn't they bring the ring to Britain? That's not something you'll see for another 10-20 years. Pretty important. There's as many British opera writers as anywhere else in Europe, they're just often not as good. Strokes/ folks, that sort of thing.

[Toilet & Bowels]

to be honest though, i'm not sure how much i approve of public money being spent on the arts in general, even though i would like stuff like all those scottish festivals happening in london, on the other hand, i'm not sure how much i agree with spending tax dollars on stuff 99% of the population would hate.
plus, i'm not keen on the idea of art relying on government handouts to exist, where there's a will there's a way. and if you're aiming beyond your means then tough shit.

Originally Posted by Toilet & Bowels

to be honest though, i'm not sure how much i approve of public money being spent on the arts in general, even though i would like stuff like all those scottish festivals happening in london, on the other hand, i'm not sure how much i agree with spending tax dollars on stuff 99% of the population would hate.
plus, i'm not keen on the idea of art relying on government handouts to exist, where there's a will there's a way. and if you're aiming beyond your means then tough shit.

That's the only truly interesting thing that I've read on here ever. If your art is really that good, suffer for it.

[Toilet & Bowels]

Originally Posted by sarramkrop

That's the only truly interesting thing that I've read on here ever. If your art is really that good, suffer for it.

well every single other poster on this board can put that in their pipe and smoke it!

[Iain]

Oh no, I feel a bit odd about funded art. Like porky said, if you really care about it you'll just do it. Opera is fair enough (well, it isn't..it is shit) but 70%??? Doesn't leave much room for other things and I doubt Opera is THAT popular or anything.

But then again, I'd cream in my pants if a Le Weekend type fest was happening on my doorstep. Without funding it just isn't going to happen around here

[Iain]

Originally Posted by Glice

If you were an appreciator of opera, you'd be entirely supportive of the WNO.

Yes, hello mr. State the Bleeding Obvious.

Glad I'm not the only one who thinks that opera is the most irritating form of music in existence. It's the pompous nature of it that I can't stomach, plus opera lovers tend to be as dull as stirring two sugar lumps in your coffee mug.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that only racists enjoy it!

[Toilet & Bowels]

wagner was a racist, so that proves it

[Glice]

Ha.

You can all cunt the fuck off. I'm sorry, but if you have even the slightest appreciation for pomp and absurdity - bearing in mind that I know that both T&B and 'marras appreciate some frankly preposterous metal (and I should add there's nothing wrong with that) - opera is entirely the most absurd, comical music out there.

You don't have to appreciate it, that's fair enough. And it is entirely an elitist musical form. I don't have a problem with that, I'm content in my social situation as an ex-working class appreciator of 'the fine arts'. Perhaps that makes me an elitist dick, a fair criticism. But I'm surprised that three of the least puritanical posters here preaching about an entire musical form, which, according to many great minds and me, marries the best of poetry, theatre, music and sheer length (I watched Strauss' Electra recently. It takes about 30 minutes to get three sentences in). Seriously, it's a wonderful artform. I understand if you can't be arsed to sit through it, but you really should give it a try. Especially as one of you doesn't need the libretto for the Italian stuff (which is subsurvient to German opera).

Opera wouldn't happen if it wasn't funded. It's an elitist art. But then again, the more sublime of art wouldn't happen were it not funded. You don't have to appreciate an Aneesh Kapoor [sp?] to understand that art works of that magnitude wouldn't happen without public funding. I don't think all art should be small and self-funded. I would rather art did what art needs to do to be good. Yes, there's lots of shit opera. There's lots of shit everything. But a blanket dismissal of it is plain ridiculous to my mind.

I should add that's it's only the last three years I moved from the opinion that opera was 'pompous, elitist bollocks' to my current stance.

And to Iain - just because you don't know anyone who's into opera doesn't mean it's not popular. It is, huge. Unlike a lot of the musical arts, it often makes its money back quickly - the unfortunate thing is that 'new' opera needs to be subsidised by a Wagner or a Mozart production which will sell out very, very quickly.