Hokaben Festival 2008
This year’s inaugural Hokaben festival brought an impressively diverse range of experimental/noise/rock acts to three rooms of London's 93 ft East.»
Articles
alcxxk has written the following articles:
Thomas Truax - Songs From The Films Of David Lynch
Thomas Truax’s records have always had a hard time living up to the spectacle of his live shows, and he’s circumvented this by changing tack whilst retaining his character on this somewhat sinister but still heart warming record.»
Papier Tigre - The Beginning And End Of Now
There are some records that you just want to blow you away. Records by awesome live bands. Records with all the right influences. Records from unlikely places. Papier Tigre's The Beginning And End Of Now is one such record. »
Guitar Hero: World Tour - Some thoughts
Tom Perry and Christopher Alcxxk recently got a chance to play the new Guitar Hero game, and give their thoughts on it and its genre...»
Micachu at London The Macbeth, Thu 31 Jul
Micachu and The Shapes have the sort of colourful sonic ballsiness that we've not been lead to expect from London acts, let alone such pop-oriented ones»
Xiu Xiu, Chris Garneau at London ULU, Mon 19 May
Xiu Xiu’s most immediate moments take the pounding drums and guitar scree of post-punk as a starting point for something still-more unhinged»
Los Campesinos! up close: DiS catches the Brixton Windmill action
DiS dispatched a pair of our team members to the Brixton Windmill, London last night to catch Cardiff-based septet Los Campesinos! play to a tight-packed crowd in a venue far too small for them»
The Black Ghosts - The Black Ghosts Mixtape
If you'd said eight years ago that that the singer from fey psychedelic indie-pop troupe Simian and DJ Touché from The Wiseguys would team up to make credible, dark electro stuffz, laughs would have been flung in your face»
Maximum Black Festival Club Tour at London Forum, Fri 29 Feb
One has to feel sorry for the other bands: whilst Final Fantasy's Owen Pallett has done them a great favour in getting them to play here to so many people, there's little chance that they wouldn't have been outshone»
Les Savy Fav, Future Of The Left, Los Campesinos! at London Astoria, Sun 10 Feb
Les Savy Fav's Tim Harrington is unassailably the greatest frontman in the history of rock music. Iggy could out-antic him, and countless people have infinitely better voices, but who else can make people feel this good? It's almost spiritual»
Part Chimp, Chrome Hoof, Wet Paint at Hoxton Square Bar and Kitchen/Bar and Grill, Hackney, Thu 24 Jan
Part Chimp are as destructive as ever, but with a looser feel, befitting of the carnal bursts of noise coming from lead chimp Tim Cedar's guitar. Headliners Chrome Hoof are a Discworld Disco, Terry Pratchett's sci-fi universe made musical»
Enon, Ill Ease at London Brixton The Windmill, Sun 25 Nov
Whilst Ill Ease is fairly two dimensional, her set is over in just 20 minutes or so. What feels like two hours of one idea, though, just seems to drag on-enon-enon-enon»
Alexander Tucker, Vic Chesnutt at London Koko, Mon 19 Nov
'You Are Never Alone' is a lovely, loungey respite from the bloated booming, and showcases the beautiful range of Vic Chesnutt’s voice by easing up a bit and letting the song take centre place. Sadly, that aside, the most exciting thing about the set is seeing Guy Picciotto on stage, even if he isn’t playing anything interesting.»
Evan Parker, Tom Jenkinson and Evan Parker at Queen Elizabeth Hall, Lambeth, Mon 16 Jul
Like a computer vomiting out every note in its media library a millisecond at a time, it’s this huge, confusing but enveloping sound being exorcised from Evan Parker's sax...»
Music Is My Boyfriend w/ Gay Against You at Kilburn The Good Ship, London, South East England, Fri 08 Jun
Every gig should be like this - a whole room of people experiencing collective orgasm, spasming and screaming and laughing and drawing in crayons on the floor and crowd surfing and grinning so hard they can barely breathe...»
The Ting Tings - That's Not My Name/Great DJ
'That's Not My Name' sounds like a Pete Waterman production trying to rip off The Slits, or someone trying to remake The Flying Lizards' version of 'Money' and replacing all the android charm with banal GirlPower...»
Best Fwends - Alphabetically Arranged
Best Fwends make the type of music that journalists feel compelled to hyperbolise about - and it's certainly hyperbolic music - but at the centre of things it’s a bunch of pretty good pop songs with a wide eyed, excitable sense of optimism in the freedom of its production...»
Pharoahe Monch - Body Baby
If you consider yourself to have an arse, and it doesnt shake at least once during a listen to this, you should totally check that it is an arse, and not, like, a bit of your shoulder that's just slipped down there. Seriously, watch out for that...»
Show me the Money: Moneytree on tour now...
Former DiScover stars Moneytree have just embarked upon a tour, with similarly South Coast based rock tsunamis Caesura. And these are the dates of said tour...»
LCD Soundsystem, Prinzhorn Dance School at London Astoria, Wed 14 Mar
LCD Soundsystem's trick is to work out a near perfect ratio of repetition to variation, reminding you just how many great songs James Murphy has written in this guise...»
NeatPeople: OrganisedRelease/Gigs
Utterly joyous indiepop lovelies NeatPeople in 'releasing utterly joyous indiepop single' SHOCKER! 'Carry You Upwards' available on 7"/download on 23rd April via Rekabet Records.
»
DiS notices Make Believe tour dates. Remains sceptical
Following last year's cancelled Tim Kinsella (pictured) and Make Believe tours, DiS is starting to worry that publishing this will jinx our chances of ever actually seeing these people playing music in front of our faces...»
Arcade Fire at Westminster St John's Church, Mon 29 Jan
It seems almost redundant to point out the levels of anticipation surrounding these Arcade Fire gigs – if people have really been making such a fuss about it, then you, dear reader, would probably know about it. Then again, second guessing one’s readership is hella lame, and with such a subjective thing as a live review, a little context can go a long way...»
The Beatles - Love
You know those radio jingles in which they stick a bunch of current tunes into a big-beat mess? This has the same effect – a whizzbang confectionary, serving more to advertise the band’s back catalogue than to be any kind of durable document...»
Four Tet at London Plastic People, Thu 05 Oct
Whilst Four Tet's music does draw a lot from hip-hop, and would generally be categorised as 'dance', mainman Kieran Hebden really doesn't display nor grasp dancefloor dynamics in any fashion whatsoever...»
The Selector 5th Birthday at London Islington Academy, Wed 13 Sep
Guillemots are a freakish pop group, with a million elements that you could turn your nose up at. But have a little faith and they will astound you...»
GoodBooks - Turn It Back
I like to think of GoodBooks as the current indie scene's answer to Fleetwood Mac. Not that they're all doing each other, at least not to my knowledge, but in their unashamedly soft pop sound, thankfully unmarred by any slavish imitation of elders and/or betters...»
I'm From Barcelona - We're From Barcelona
Imagine Archetecture In Helsinki if they really sucked, or Belle and Sebastian committing creative suicide. Or don't. Go and listen to Forever Changes, the only positive thing that could come of this...»
The Rapture - Get Myself Into It
Upon the announcement that Paul Epworth was to produce the new material from The Rapture, all those months ago, tongues (such as mine) did wag at the thought. A man responsible for records by so many bands who had followed The Rapture's example of plundering the sounds of the post-punk era for a modern update (co-)taking the reigns of that selfsame band did suggest a certain level of selfparody, at least to my cynical mind...»
In Photos: Decemberists @ The Forum, London
In Photos: Dean & Britta @ St. Giles in the Fields, London
In Photos: Wolf Gang @ Hoxton Bar and Kitchen, London
In Photos: Gay For Johnny Depp @ The Engine Rooms, Brighton
Twitter
Facebook
Last.fm
SoundCloud
MySpace
Friendster
RSS
