sense of place

Sheffield Folk

Sheffield gets a shout out in the latest edition of pseudomuso bible The Wire. An eclectic mix of different sound creators written about collectively as an emergent 'sheffield scene' and as a result of their shared rootedness on old skool Sheffield music zone @ Little Sheffield. An initial listen to some of its output suggests sounds as diversely international and world tinged more than any distinctly 'local' influence. But also many local references as points of inspiration and sonic launch pads. Lots to get my ears around. 

Camp Cooking

Campfires are just brilliant. Very little beats sitting round a fire chatting, passing round beers and just watching the flames flicker. 

I love The Future is Unwritten, the recent Julien Temple film about Joe Strummer and the way he put campfires as the central theme of the film as a tribute to Joe's advocacy of them as an art form to rival his music:

"For Joe Strummer, the idea of a “campfire” - any loose assembly of people bonded by the rising flames and the advancing dawn - became an art form in itself. The campfire was the melting pot, the wisdom stone, the HolyGrail; the essential outdoor forum for constantly evolving ideas and conversations. First perfected backstage at Glastonbury Festival - where the nightly assembly was first dubbed ‘Strummerville‘ - Joe took his campfires, and his circle of friendships and voices, all around the world, and finally back home to Somerset, where a Stone Circle now commemorates the campfire" (Julien Temple interviewed by Craig Erpelding).

So almost the very first thing on our list of 'things to do when we finally move house' is to find the right spot in the woods for a fire area, cut some logs for seating, make a fire area, get some friends around and start passing the beers. And now we have all the tools we need for a full on campfire eating experience as well. Mrs sense of place came up with the perfect birthday gift in the form of a Danish mobile bonfire kitchen complete with tripod, hanging cook pot, bbq pan, long handle tools, fireproof gloves and the chains to hang it all from. I'm particularly taken with the 1.3m handled pancake pan. Campfire pancakes. Thanks Jacky.

The makers have thoughtfully provided a little youtube snippet to get potential buyers in the camp cooking mood. Personally I didn't find that the chosen soundtrack got me in the mood quite as much as say Revolution Rock by The Clash might have done. And clearly in Denmark they have a more tolerant attitude to people wandering down the local park to start a fire whilst patiently waiting for the current benchsitters to vacate it and free up a handy supply of firewood.  But anyway. Its still encouragement to follow Strummer's rallying cry and keep perfecting the fire as art form.

Warp or rock climbing

"It was either warp or rock climbing that was the two reasons that brought people to Sheffield."

So says Kid Acne in this great little film wherein Toddla T gives us the lowdown as tour guide to his highlights of the splendid Sheffield.Great to see some familiar places and great to see the more bass driven, multi-ethnic, multirhythmic electronica tinged aspects of Sheff's heritage referenced over the usual Jarvis Cocker, Arctics, Human League axis. Also good to see that The Washington seems to remain the hub of the independent in spirit in Sheffield across the generations. And I love the image Kid Acne conjures up of Sheffield residents with climbing boots at one end and Sennheiser cans pumping in warp electronica at the other. Interesting visual connection on Toddla T's website as well which seems firmly rooted in a style influenced by those other Sheffield heroes at Designer's Republic. More great Sheff shots here on Soundtap Killin and a general down to earth wittiness Sheffield stylee.

Soundtracking the city at night

I love 14 tracks. And I love the latest 14 tracks for the city at night.

"Inspired by the dark and magical view of industrial North Manchester from our office windows, this two and a half hour selection of tracks is intended to complement the mise-en-scene of the urban environment for insomniacs and night owls...We recommend experiencing this music with the lights down low and the subliminal hum of air vents, distant traffic and electrical appliances as your ambient surround sound."

I listen to a lot of this kind of stars of the lid / deaf center / Leyland Kirby home listening / modern classical stuff, often as a drifting off to sleep soundtrack. But I've never pegged it to a specifically urban aesthetic. One waft of Burial or somesuch into the headphones and I'm immediately immersed in a Nico Hogg-esque vision of a South London Borough or reminded of driving late night through London or Manchester. Machinfabriek seems rooted in Berlin (although I don't even know if he's from there). Somehow I've always had more pastoral, seascapey or even starscapey associations with this stuff. Which with much of this and certainly say Hilda Gudnadottir that is maybe appropriate. But the urban angle makes a lot of sense. Most contemporary music is after all the art form of the contemporary city. I'm going to enjoy recalibrating some of these sounds and imagining those North Manchester cityscapes.

Heartland

The sublimely ridiculously splendid Muse have got all conceptually geographical on their latest album and tour.

Broadly speaking they seem to be encouraging a certain amount of insurrection to create a unified Asia and Europe and have very kindly written a national anthem for the new global superpower to use once created.

 "And these wars, they can't be won, and do you want them to go on, and on and on. Why split these states, when there can be only one ... United States, Of Eurasia."

It is, I suppose, fairly unusual to be in a room of several thousand people leaping up and down and  grinning broadly in response to the bombast and spectacle of an extremely loud and virtuoso rock band, whilst being simultaneously prompted to consider the Eurasian Heartland geopolitical theories of Halford Mackinder.

In brief then (and with thanks to this recent argument re a Eurasian defence policy for Europe). The European / Asian subcontinent is the world's axial super-continent. It has 70% of the world's people, 2/3 of the inudstrial output, 3/4 of known energy reserves, twelve of the world's great military spenders and all the global superpowers excpet the US. It should therefore unify as a global politcial entity and immediately appoint Matthew Bellamy as Minister for Cultural Alignment. Discuss.

This Is England

This Is England
Originally uploaded by bossk

Saw Shane Meadow's latest bit of brilliance in the week. Very powerful. Really heartening to see 'British Cinema' worthy of the title.

Does a very good job of drawing you into the warmth and friendship of the group of Skins as led by funny charming Woody. Then leaving you feeling like you've had a 9hole emotional kicking as the warmth mutates into Combo's vicious racism.

Some great mash ups of imagery and film clips to set the nostalgia nodes buzzing and help evoke 80s smalltown East Midlands. Itself conjured up from various bits of Lenton, St Anns, the Lincolnshire countryside and a brilliantly used East Coast beachscape that Shaun seems to use to find / define himself and make decisions. "Maggie is a twat' graff gets the overall "recreate the 80s" award.

It's a great exploration of proximity. The multicultural hard knocks roots of skin culture starting to entwine with conflicting arguments of racialised Nationalism and the 'people's army' thug culture of the NF. The most powerful scene literally embodies this. Trapped in the confines of Combo's flat, Milky starts to feel a sense of camaraderie with Combo and his old skool ska roots. For Combo, trying to resolve his multicultural sense of cultural connectedness with the emergent Nationalism leads to a mental meltdown and the violent apex of the film. Conflicting discourse literally trapped in space.