Emerging Fervour

First of all, I’d like to dispose a persistent rumour of once and for all: the sauna was certainly not a Finnish invention. After last Saturday I believe devoutly that it has a Norwegian origin called “Kakkmaddafakka”. This was literally one of the hottest gigs I’ve ever been to.
The lovely Norwegian girls “Razika” supported Kakkmaddafakka with Ska influenced Indie Pop/Rock and proved again that the world needs more girl-bands. Check out their myspace site and bookmark it.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=74t603vtV0c&feature=related

Kakkmaddafakka did what I expected them to do: make the audience go crazy. It’s hardly possible to escape with their Rock/Pop/Funk/Disco music mix. They played a lot of songs from their recent album “Hest“, including “Restless”, “Self-Esteem” and “Gangsta”. The three piece backing vocal choir, dressed like triplets deserves a special mention here. The John Travolta workout choreographies were brilliant, especially for the song “Heidelberg”. Kakkmaddafakka are known for their rousing live shows by now. And rightly so.

Last weekend started off on the right foot, because I had my tickets for the perfect musical weekend foray. Düsseldorf, Albuquerque, Jönköping and Gothenburg. And again I had to realize that expectations are a funny thing. They rarely come up with what you expect them to.

First of all, I went to see Hauschka for the first time ever. I totally devoured Volker Bertelmann aka Hauschka‘s last album “Foreign Landscapes” and was really curious about his prepared piano show. There is just one word for this guy and his music: ace. He was using tape, little tambourine metal jingles, marbles and some other weird stuff I couldn’t identify, to put it on the piano strings. The sounds he created were savvy and magical, I haven’t seen anything like this before. Although he was “just” playing his instrument, watching him add and remove things to change the sound of the piano, felt like watching a scientist inventing something. His idea of making electronic music without using any electronic devices works quite perfect.

I’m not usually one for festivals. Having to pay £50+ to see someone I can’t actually see is a bit of a piss-take. And let’s not forget my height, at 5ft4 I need to be accompanied by a tall and strapping guy to pick me up when needed… and they’re difficult to come by. Gigs on the other hand are more for me, but I digress…

The Zurich OpenAir Festival was pretty awesome actually – check out our spotted post. And the mud I found hilarious…

Unfortunately we didn’t get to see all the bands that were up, which include Maximo Park, Adam Green, I am Kloot, The Soundtrack of our Lives and Autokratz (full line-up can be found here), but we managed to shake it to Mando Diao, Faithless, Underworld and The XX. We did take pictures, including the back of a lot of heads – so instead we’ve got some pictures from the nice people at tilllate.com and Usgang.ch did – check them out.

Mando Diao

This weekend, for it’s 19th time, a demonstration of a love, peace, freedom, generosity and tolerance, took  place in Zurich. The usually quiet city exploded as 650,000 people flocked into it to celebrate the Street Parade. And although it rained and many visitors had the tragic accident from the Duisburg Loveparade in mind, the atmosphere was exhilarating as hundred of thousands of people danced to stomping music.

The fashion motto was very quickly clear: Loud, shrill, neon, retro, as little as possible, or something you’d never every usually dare to wear in public. But pictures speak louder than words in this case:

And the shoe award goes to the lady in the photo below who danced away for hours on her towering heels – we salute you!

I guess Ben Eshmade and his Arctic Circle gave me some of the best musical experiences in my life. Whether the Daylight concerts at the Union Chapel in Islington, the Bubbly Blue and Green Festival at Kings Place or the Explorer’s Club compilation, it has always been and will always be something unique and absolutely brilliant. So when I had the chance to join one of his weekly radio shows at Resonance FM in London with Arch Garrison as a show guest, not even the TFL could have held me off getting there.

Not a promoter, not a record label, not a radio station…what exactly is the Arctic Circle and who is/are the face(s) behind?

Arctic Circle seems to be an ever-evolving entity that has taken the best parts of being a promoter, label and radio station. It’s a community of like-minded musicians and music lovers who I try and bring together to create new and wonderful projects. I suppose it is easiest to think of me (as in a play) as the director of Arctic Circle with an alternating cast of supporting musicians and friends.

What would you say is THE one exceptional thing about Arctic Circle?

I would say our penguin identity. Being a fan of animation and in particular Studio Ghibli films such as Spirited Away to have something that so identifiable as the Arctic Circle penguin is really important. This was designed originally by Miho Ashima of Pika Pika. It is also great to see how this has developed over time. Damian O’Harais taking the artwork to a whole new ‘3D’ level this year. He’s even building Tate Britain out of paper at the moment.

Tell us a bit about the beginnings of Arctic Circle. Was there something like an initial spark? Where did the idea come from?

Well that’s a long story. The idea evolved out of my experiences of producing a radio show called the Chiller Cabinet on Classic FM and from having a strong desire to see the artists I was playing perform live. I also suppose I was trying at this stage in my life to find a niche, something I could pour my heart and soul into.

Arctic Circle recently celebrated its fourth birthday. It all started in 2006 with a debut event at the Hayward Gallery. I reckon a lot of things have changed since then. So where did you start and where are you now?

Alongside the initial Hayward Gallery show, we were running monthly nights at the Notting Hill Arts Club even at this stage. The NHAC is where we learnt all the hard lessons on how to attract an audience, how much we could pay an artist (without going bankrupt) and how sweets can make people happy!

What is Arctic Circle’s musical vision?

To put together once in a lifetime concerts and promote music which helps to inspire and to make people dream of wonderful things.

Would you say there is something that unifies all of your artists in a musical sense?

A sense of fun or a huge amount of musical talent.

In December 2007 the first compilation named “That Fuzzy Feeling” in collaboration with Loaf Recordings was released. Would you say this was bound to happen?

I suppose most people have the secret desire to release a record and I am not any different. It meant that the Arctic Circle could say  – we are very serious about what we’re doing. And it also meant that we could shout ‘THIS IS AMAZING MUSIC’ and you should listen to it.

Your latest coup is the “Explorer’s Club”, also a collaboration with Loaf Recordings. With a subscription you get the Explorer’s Club Survival Bag with a cotton tote bag, calendar, poster and some other bits and bobs plus a monthly e-mail with songs and a digital booklet. I think it’s a brilliant and forward-looking idea.

Do you think it’s necessary to think of alternative ways and special offers to make people spending money on music?

The Explorer’s Club is a project that I’ve been working on with Loaf records for a few years. We both liked the idea of doing something that was a bit different to the usual way records are released. It is our spin on an idea that has been done before with 7inch records. It’s a great way of bringing some of the great artists we have worked with from around the world. Above all it’s about the music, we just try and make the delivery as fun and exciting as possible.

And the Arctic Circle Radio. Tell us a bit about it!

The International Troubadour Conspiracy is a prime example for how to transfer the surreal world of social networks into the real world of music. Singer and songwriters Svavar Knútur, Pete Uhlenbruch and Torben Stock “met” via myspace and actually managed touring Iceland together in 2006. The ITC was born and they decided to spread the idea of their own sense of coffeehouse folk called “Melodica Festival“.

First of all in their hometowns Reykjavik, Melbourne and Hamburg, you can find Melodica Festivals nowadays also in Brighton, Aarhus and soon Berlin. So obviously the idea of connecting musicians from different countries and giving them a chance of touring together, visiting each other and help with promotion, accommodations and booking, was something desperately needed.

Even if you’re not a musician you might have an idea of how much money and effort it takes to organize a tour when you’re an independent and mostly unknown artist. It’s a tough game and often impossible to go to others cities or actually other countries and play your music. The ITC proves that a network can solve a lot of these problems plus you’ll get to know more people who are passionate about the same thing: music.

I am back in London for the next three weeks, don’t worry I didn’t expect you to realise I was gone. In these modern times where everything is digital, were we’re living in an augmented reality and become friends via facebook on our iPhone, it’s all the more important to seize this short time and do something extraordinary and exciting (I’m not really sure, if these two words mean the same, but who cares, it’s all about rock and roll, hell ya!).

And I hope that you lovely people would like to join here and there. There are infinite opportunities, so here we go:

On wednesday the 7th you should take a look at the Dingwalls in Camden. For only 15£ you will live to see Gabby Young (usually with The Other Animals, but I think she’s playing a solo set) a singer with a voice as remarkable as her style. To describe her music I will just quote a quotation from her myspace site: “if Ani DiFranco had sex with Jeff Buckley in 1920 while on acid listening to Ella Fitzgerald…that would be the wonderful music of Gabby Young…” I agree.

And then there is Vieux Farke Touré a singer and guitar player from Mali, South Africa. He’s the son of Ali Farke Touré, also a guitar player and singer, highly respected in his home country and worldwide. He was often called the African John Lee Hooker, because he merged traditional African styles and the African language with American Blues elements. But for all that, he didn’t want his son to be a musician as well. Because he had suffered so much within the music industry he decided his son should become a soldier instead. Vieux Farke Touré defied his father’s wishes, studied guitar and released his debut album Fondo in 2007 (a year after his father died). And like his father he embraces all cultural influences from rock to blues to reggae always combined with his African roots. Pretty interesting.

April 9th 2010 at 7pm

I’m so there to support Chima’s launch of his album New Day. Kid Fury (our blogger, Franklin) will be there, providing us with a DJ set that’s sure to blow us away.

I can’t wait! Make sure you get your tickets well in advance from the Barfly site, or www.ticketweb.co.uk