Contrary to what I might have suggested in last week’s blog about the video for Luke Abbott’s ‘Melody120’, working in a zoo by day apparently “really isnt that much fun!”, if video-director-by-night Michael Page is to be believed…

Well frankly, I am not sure if I do believe him, but that won’t stop me from using this space to big up some of his other film work over on his Processed Films Myspace Channel. Mike’s homie Luke Abbott first drew my attention to this collaboration with illustrator Richard Dinnis entitled Sentimental Cat Poetry, and rather fine it is too (in a sick and twisted way):

“The greatest power lies with those who can make the world dance to a tune that nobody hears them whistling,” the film tells us, before going on to provide a dark illustration of the mind control mechanisms used by cats to drive their “owners” positively potty with running round after them. I speak of course as a confirmed dog person: but for balance I should probably add that I believe that horses are also in possession of very similar powers…

Continuing on the Zoo theme, I have just discovered that our old mate Ali the giant Perc is lucky enough to have bagged himself a set at a brand new festival-in-a-zoo taking place this summer in Kent, England.

The Zoo Thousand festival takes place on the weekend of 4th – 6th July at the Port Lympne Wild Animal Park near Ashford in Kent: a proper festival with camping and everything which offers an eclectic musical selection of indie, dance, UK hip-hop, breaks and drum and bass alongside the opportunity to visit the animal park itself, including their Palace of the Apes exhibit (which claims to be the biggest gorillarium in the world).

The line-up itself (the mighty Perc excluded of course!) looks a little five years ago to me – particularly the dance stages – but acts that might interest some of you include: Dizzee Rascal, Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip, Frank Turner, The Hives, Ida Maria, The Young Knives, Late of the Pier, Pendulum, Stanton Warriors, Evil Nine, Hannah Holland, Beans on Toast and the not-quite-the-same-as-the-real-thing offer of DJ sets from the Mystery Jets and Bloc Party. But as the Perc-man says, “It is worth doing just in case their logo proves prophetic and a 100ft chimp wearing headphones destroys the main stage, hopefully when Ronson is pedalling his diet-soul nonsense.” Quite:

And if you were at all worried about the welfare of the animals who live at the park the rest of the year round (we were!), the festival website states that “the animals will be kept at a safe distance from the crowds and artists in the 600-acre site”, with the following pledge:

“Don’t worry NO animals will be caused any distress whilst staging Zoo8. The festival will be taking place on the grasslands arena which is separate to the wildlife park and well away from the animals. We take animal welfare very seriously which is why this event is in partnership with the Aspinal foundation to help raise funds to help endangered species…. It also enables festival goers to visit the park and see the animals and the great work that is done at Port Lympne.”

In other animal-related news today: ‘Sex pest’ seal attacks penguin.

I might live in London nowadays, but I suppose I will always be a Northerner at heart (in fact, if you got any more northern than me, you would be Scottish…), and I would hate to have that age-old London-centric charge levelled at my blog-baby. So as part of my recent outreach campaign to also blog about events even if I can’t actually go to them myself, here is a little pointer to get your advance tickets to see the mighty Zombie Zombie when they stop by Manchester’s Ruby Lounge for a rescheduled gig for Wotgodforgot on January 26th (yes, next year). That may well seem like an awfully long way in advance to be planning your life, but apparently the Zombie men are also booked to play at White Heat @ Madame Jojo’s in London the day after (January 27th), and if the tickets for that particular outing had already been released, believe me I would be securing mine now…

Synthy-rockers Zombie Zombie’s A Land For Renegades album is quite a hit round these parts, and also made it into new boy Wesley Matsell‘s September AND October charts for online record shop par excellence Juno (handy reference tools for anyone who liked what they heard in Wesley’s recent Border Community DJ-debut and Allez-Allez guest mix). Zombie Zombie of course also have a guest mix lurking in the Allez-Allez archives, which Wes recently bigged up on his Myspace, and thus the circle of hyperlink-life is complete…

A guest blog from An’Unexpectacle, offering further enlightenment on his contribution to the The Holkham Drone Zone (24th September @ Corsica Studios), in his own inimitable way:

——————–

The Border Commune has always gathered a fellowship of open minds which is so much why it reaches the melodious delirium it always does.

I will never forget that marvelous occasion when I was approached on the dancing patch by a mysterious gentleman making a surprise offering to all around.

He murmured deep into my shell-like whilst summoning my frame closer to his own:

“Friend, there seems to be something of a porous overload tonight. I have given a number of buttock soilings this evening. How about you?”

“Buttock soiling?”, I quizzed.

Moments later, he had me in a corner, wriggling with the most delightful, platonic rub I’d never known. Not that I had been specifically burdened by the buttocks, but I indulged nevertheless.

Many others were taken that night by his discreet fondling, and I came to recognise a very particular relief worn across the face of Border Communers around me.

At this month’s event, your open mind is called upon to appreciate and join with a quite different feature of the Bordering landscape.

Corsica’s Room 2, usually a place of bumping, percussion and song, will take on a new sonic character. The rich textures of the BC sound will be examined and explored, minus drums and with an eye to the rough and fantastical environments evoked by noise and soundscape.

My own stirring in the space will be a challenging series of moments in which your assistance is crucial.

I will be attempting to conjour a Communal soundscape where as many folk as are present sit on the ground and join in a rousing drone by darkness.

Beginning with a hum, each droner aims to heighten the collective drone, keeping to the same initial frequency. Slight deviations from the frequency will occur and enrich the tapestry.

This is the sort of configuration that readily draws drawls of cynicism from critics perceiving hints of the new-age, forced interaction, experimentation-at-expense-of-enjoyment, or some other miserable assessment. For those, Room 1 will rumble on.

And for us in search of alternate sounds and experience, we will meet in the second.

——————–

Tickets for our next Border Commune event at Corsica Studios, featuring James Holden, Perc and Margot in Room 1 as well as An’Unexpectacle and various droning cohorts (Wesley Matsell, Dan Tombs, Luke Abbott, James Holden, Perc) in Room 2’s ‘Holkham Drone Zone’, are on sale now from WeGotTickets for just £10.

We’re off to Paris tomorrow, loaning out our own cool nerd James Holden to cool nerd brethren Joakim as a token of our appreciation on the occasion of the tenth birthday celebrations of his pet Tigersushi label (actually their second Paris-based celebration, following a year stuffed full of worldwide birthday parties).

In aid of what they describe as a “friendly rave” (the best sort), the Tigersushi crew have assembled quite a line-up for their Nouveau Casino takeover tomorrow night (17th September), with Krikor, Surkin, DJ Mehdi, Panico, Zombie Zombie, Cosmo Vitelli, Principles of Geometry, Dye, Tigersushi Bass System and Dirty Sound System all set to join Mr James Holden and Mr Joakim Bouaziz for the exciting festivities. And I do hope that some of you lot can join us too!

And as long as the Parisians don’t wear us out too much, the plan is to pop along to the RePhresh party at Corsica Studios on our return to London on Saturday – so we may bump into a few more of you there…

Details of the location for the We Love Border Community blowout in Paris this Saturday 5th July (featuring James Holden, Nathan Fake, Petter and Ricardo Tobar) have just been revealed: the We Love Art team have secured the La Chesnaie du Roy salon in the Bois de Vincennes park right on the edge of Paris as the site for this special one-off. This info comes hot from an email from press agency Phunk, whose rather poetic French language description of the place actually came out in pretty decent English when I shoved it through Google Translate:

“Dans un lieu digne des contes de fees, une pagode en verre avec vue sur le parc floral et le grand jardin, une nuit exceptionnelle entre reveries electronica et dancefloor minimal sous les arbres.”

“In a place worthy of tales of fairies, a glass pagoda overlooking the park and the large floral garden, an outstanding night between reveries dancefloor electronica and minimal under the trees.”

The Bois de Vincennes park in the 12th arrondissement is the largest green space in Paris, and We Love Art have held a couple of parties in La Chesnaie du Roy in the past, taking full advantage of its indoor dancefloor with a view to the garden and accompanying outdoor magical woodland space for dancing in. They kindly sent me a few sneak preview photos, taken at their We Love Fantasy and We Love Get Physical events:

So as you might expect, we are all pretty excited as we prepare to descend on Paris tomorrow for a weekend of fun! The weather on Saturday evening is supposed to be warm and rain-free, if perhaps a little on the cloudy side, so all the signs are good!

Scottish one-man-band and one-time BC artist Dextro has just released his second album Winded, and the purpose of this little note is to let you know that you can get your hands on your own copy from the man himself for just £10 (including postage to wherever you are in the world) via his website.

Dextro popped by the Border Community back in 2004 to release the sublime folktronic Do You Need Help, gamely remixed for the dancefloor by class clowns The MFA. He then went on to team up with illustrious krautrock stable Gronland (home to pillars of the Krautrock community Neu!, Roedelius and Harmonia and modern-day revivalists Fujiya & Miyagi alike) for debut album Consequence Music, and this time the ever-devastating Clark was drafted in for a remix of the Hearts and Minds single.

New album Winded is an admirably DIY affair, released on his own 16K label, and sold direct from his own website, with a digital remix package being assembled as we speak. For people who like their electronica lush, soaring and with an organic folky edge (dare I mention Boards of Canada?), Dextro’s music is life-affirming stuff. The pastoral textures perfectly soundtrack the contemplation of nature, a theme that keen hillwalker Ewan draws on repeatedly in his videos and artwork: his appropriately DIY video for album track Distance uses footage shot on the island of Eigg and the Ardnamurchan peninsula in the Scottish Highlands, and could well function as an advert for the Scottish Tourist Board, as it has just strengthened our resolve to pay a visit to the area very soon.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqgrK5bfGQ8]

You have already had not one but two warnings to secure your tickets for this year’s Field Day Festival on 6th August in London’s Victoria Park, thereby claiming your ringside seat for the grand Holden-Hebden DJ showdown that sees our own James Holden go back-to-back with his old co-host from that fabled Border Community residency at The End, none other than that there Kieran “Four Tet” Hebden. But if the reason why you are still hesitating happens to be a lack of raw and ready cash, then this post is for you, as those nice folks from Field Day have given us a pair of VIP tickets to give away to one lucky fanboy/girl, granting free entry to the Field Day festival (and associated backstage VIP area!). To stand a chance of winning, simply fire off an email as per the instructions below:

“Saturday 6th August 2011 will see the return of Field Day to London’s leafy green corner of Victoria Park. Want to be part of the festivities and see the likes of JAMES HOLDEN and many more? Then today is your lucky day, for Field Day are giving away 2 x VIP passes. Simply email info@fielddayfestivals.com with the header JAMES HOLDEN to be in with a chance. Entries must be received by 1st July.”

Head over to the Field Day website for the full too-numerous-to-mention line-up, suffice to say that the likes of Actress, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, Born Ruffians, Carl Craig, Connan Mockasin, Erol Alkan, Factory Floor, Faust, Glasser, Gruff Rhys, Huw Stephens, Hype Williams, James Blake, Jamie Woon, Jamie XX, Jon Hopkins, Konono No. 1, L-Vis 1990, Matthew Dear, Michael Mayer, Mount Kimbie, Omar Souleyman, Oneohtrixpointnever, SBTRKT, Skull Juice, Sun Ra Arkestra, The Horrors and Zola Jesus are already jostling for a place on our must-see list…

For a spot of post-work free Friday fun tonight (June 20th), head on down to the brand new Puregroove record shop that has just opened in Farringdon (6-7 West Smithfield) from 6pm to catch a pair of free shows from Lo-offshoot LOAF‘s great white hopes Gable and The Chap.

Oddball Frenchies Gable come highly recommended by LOAF’s own (and once-a-week BC rent boy) Vincent Oliver, and the favour is returned with a quick namecheck for Vince on album track ‘Drunk Fox In London’ (streamable here along with the rest of the 7 Guitars with a Cloud Of Milk album). On Wednesday night Gable played another special freebie hoover-recorder-guitar mash-up set at Lo’s own offices, and ideally we would have been there ourselves to report back, only post-Japan jetlag has had us yearning for our bed at around 9pm every night this week. So you will have to take Vincent’s word for it instead: “It was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! Everyone went nuts!”.

If you can’t make it to Puregroove, then you can also catch Gable later on tonight at Lark In The Park in Islington, or tomorrow night (June 21st) at The Grosvenor in Stockwell. Although I do hope that you have already assigned that particular slot in your diary to BC new boy Luke Abbott, who will be guesting at Ginglik in Shepherds Bush the same night…

I know I keep banging on about it, but the line-up (Nathan Fake, James Holden, Operator, Wesley Matsell, Dan “Caribou” Snaith and Allez-Allez, just in case it hadn’t quite sunk in yet!) for our Hard Islands launch party at Corsica Studios does look pretty unmissable to me. But just in case you haven’t got the good sense to get yourself down to Elephant & Castle on Friday 15th May, or if you simply can’t get enough of a good thing, there comes another chance to witness the Nathan Fake live onslaught on Monday 18th May (which just so happens to also be the album release date) at one of those wonderful free instore showcases organised by the mighty Pure Groove:

Click here to pre-order the new album from Pure Groove – instore show on May 18th

Proceedings kick off at 6.30pm in the rather different surroundings of the recently relocated Pure Groove record shop in Farringdon (which comes complete with its own bar!), and Nathan’s trademark wall of noise terror could well sound more than a little forbidding in the cold light of a May Monday evening. While you’re there, don’t forget to pick up your own copy of the album on vinyl or CD; Nathan might even sign it for you if you ask nicely enough!

Our old mucker Perc will also be on hand to help make an evening of things, with an odds-and-sods wide-ranging DJ set to take full advantage of the opportunity to play something a little different from your usual club fare. You may be familiar with the Perc name from his releases on an illustrious array of labels including Kompakt, Ovum and Drumcode as well as his own Perc Trax label, and his ensuing international DJ career, but we actually go way further back than all of that. Indeed, it is a little known fact that Ali “Perc” Wells is actually some kind of relation (cousin twice-removed? To be honest I’ve never quite got my head around the precise nature of the connection!) to our own Scott “Avus” Edwards, who has also naturally had his share of releases on the Perc Trax label. I think the clue ought to be in their extraordinary height: the pair once went on tour together in Japan, which must have made quite a sight to see them towering over the locals like two fairytale giants brought to life. I certainly wouldn’t mess with this particular branch of the techno mafia:

Beloved bearded Norwegian Lindstrom recently finally unleashed his solo debut album Where You Go I Go Too on the world, and a delightfully non-conformist beast it is too: composed of just three extended tracks which flow neatly into one another, Lindstrom pledges his allegiance to the long-player format with an album that is designed to be listened to in one go, not crudely subjected to the random play lottery or the selective hits-only approach to downloading. To accompany said release, Mr Hans-Peter Lindstrom has also recently submitted to the obligatory press blitz: the resulting interviews make for a rather interesting read, and struck quite a chord down here in the Border Community…

It was James who first stumbled across this interview with Fact, where reluctant dance producer Lindstrom reveals himself to be quite the kindred spirit to our own Mr Holden, although somewhat unbelievably their paths have yet to cross (unless the odd email exchange counts). As he champions melodies over DJ tools, at times it is like Lindstrom has somehow managed to channel the very spirit of Holden:

“What’s really important for me is that there’s no pressure to meet any one else’s expectations. I can’t really deal with other people telling me what to do!”

It appears that the pair have unwittingly been engaged in a simultaneous analogue equipment drive, and you may recognise in the Lindstrom interview the same kind of anti-computer sentiments that James wrote about recently on his own blog (scroll down to the post dated July 28th, if you missed it):

“Recently I’ve been buying lots of effects, old analogue synthesisers, flangers, ring modulators. It’s easier to do weird stuff with old equipment like that, and it’s also a reaction against using computers; all the keyboard lines on my old records were played on computers.”

And when Lindstrom talks about his bemusement at being booked to play at the wrong sort of club, I know that James and the rest of the Border Community family have been there too. A dance hit can be as much of a curse as it is a blessing, it seems, and popularity doesn’t always equate to an audience that “gets” exactly what you are trying to do:

“In dance music I’ve always felt to the left of everything. It’s weird, and it still surprises me, that I get so many offers to play clubs. Some times when I’m playing in clubs it’s great, because there are fans there who really want to hear that music, but some times it doesn’t go that well, and they’ll be people shouting ‘Louder! Faster!’. And I just think: Why didn’t the promoter ask someone else to play, who could give this crowd what they want? Why ask me?””

Then this morning I happened upon another Lindstrom interview, this time with Earplug, wherein he takes a similar melody over beats standpoint, but more importantly lets slip that he, like our own Mr Holden, spent his early teens supplementing his classical piano training with a diet of equally classic Queen. These similarities in mindset between Mr Holden and Mr Lindstrom are almost uncanny: if this blog were a dating service, I would totally set them up. But until destiny (or a clued-up promoter) brings them together, all I can do is urge you to order your own copy of ‘Where You Go I Go Too’ from Amazon today…

It is important to plan ahead if you are going to fill in that post-Christmas void that comes with the onset of cold, dark January, but those dependable veteran party people Bugged Out! (15 years and counting!) have just the thing to stave off the SAD: Butlins‘ Bognor Regis outpost has been duly reserved over the weekend of 20th-22nd of January for the inaugural Bugged Out Weekender takeover, boasting a line-up of truly ravetastic proportions.

Our boy James Holden brings his own personal free-wheeling hyper-arppegiated take on hedonism to the Friday night kick-off, joining Simian Mobile Disco, Casper C and Matt Walsh on one of the Bugged Out floors. Elsewhere across the holiday camp complex guest hosts like Numbers & Night Slugs, Bristol’s In:Motion, Dalston Superstore and Union have extended their invitations to pet favourites like Hudson Mohawke, L-Vis 1990, Ms Dynamite, Zinc, Shy FX and Joker, with plenty of the usual Bugged Out suspects popping up inbetween: Ivan Smagghe, Andrew Weatherall, Green Velvet, Erol Alkan, Inner City, Martyn, Joy Orbison, Sbtrkt, The 2 Bears, 2ManyDJs, Kevin Saunderson, Justin Robertson, Claude VonStroke, Maya Jane Coles, Eats Everything, James Holroyd and Stopmakingme. Click here for the full line-up.

Tickets can be secured for a deposit of just £50, with chalets ranging from 2 to 7 people denominations starting at £139 per person, as well as a VIP package option which houses you in a full-blown hotel for £199: click here for the full breakdown. Rally the troops and wrap up warm, because Bognor Regis in January doesn’t sound like the warmest location on earth!

Julie from Parisian promoters We Love Art just sent me a selection of photos from the special We Love Border Community soiree they organised for us in Paris a couple of weekends ago. The combination of the perfect location, an electric atmosphere and an all-Border Community line-up made for a wonderful evening for everyone involved: James Holden reckoned it was the highlight of his current mini-tour with Ricardo Tobar, and I reckon it was also coincidentally the gig where little Ricky got the most wasted, so it was probably one of his highlights too…

Anyway, on to those photos: the venue was a monumental seventies wooden building set in the Bois de Vincennes park right on the edge of Paris. Inside was your normal sweaty dancefloor with some hardcore lazer action:

Outside was a chance to cool off without missing any of the music in the wooded garden decorated with our ubiquitous clouds hanging from the trees:

A photo of Petter, who managed to open proceedings with a DJ set, in spite of Air France’s best efforts to lose his record bag “somewhere in Charles De Gaulle”:

When a particularly wasted stage invader took to grinding behind our little Chilean cutie Ricardo Tobar during his set, James’ paternal instinct immediately kicked in and we began to make our way back towards the stage to relieve poor Ricky. But when said stage invader took to swinging James’ DJ bag around by the handle before falling over into the lighting rig at the back of the stage, James’ walk soon turned into a run, and the fuck-up was forcibly manhandled from the stage by our little stick-like and confrontation-shy James himself: I have never seen anything like it! But if you ask me, it was his desire to protect the precious record bag that motivated him, rather than his concerns for poor Ricky as the much more charitable Rosana (my only corroborative witness that this actually happened!) was inclined to believe. Ricardo meanwhile carried on regardless, and didn’t seem phased at all:

Lapin lunatique Nathan Fake meanwhile was as unstoppable as ever:

A Nathan Fake live show really is a bit of an extreme sport, and the bizarre shapes that the techno contortionist throws during the course of a set always brings a smile to my face. I think these two photos rather ably illustrate my point – someone should turn them into one of those animated gif things, enabling a Nathan Fake live show simulation in the comfort of your own home:

Finally, James Holden handled the graveyard shift to round things off while the others got wasted, as is usual at these type of events:

Only for some reason tonight he decided to take his shoes and socks off to DJ, much to the entertainment of Petter and myself (and seemingly also the other photographer in this shot):

So there we have it: thanks to the We Love Art crew for everything, and thanks also to everyone who came along and embraced the full head-to-toe Border Community experience. We Love Paris too!

People always steal our ideas. First it was the “pff-pff-pff-pff-pff-pff-pff-dugga-dugga” rhythm from the Holden remix of The Sky Was Pink (and quite possibly every other sound and element of the arrangement from hereon to eternity). And now it is our Fondue Fun-Do concept…

Spotted in Flavorpill this morning (who were actually having quite a good day listings-wise, though the writing remains as pompously clueless as ever) was this announcement for a regular evening of cheese and tunes held in Clapham’s ostentatious Lost Society bar-restaurant. Fondue Thursdays promises to be a tribute to all things eighties, reviving the fondue, prawn cocktail, black forest gateaux and cocktail classics accompanied by an electro-disco soundtrack.

But if that all sounds a little too “exquisitely louche” for your tastes, fear not, for we are currently hatching plans for a Christmastime fondue revival in the heritage-filled rickety surroundings of Soho’s St Moritz. Though by that time there might well be a fondue night on every corner…

Today’s Flavorpill Daily Dose delves into the world of papercrafting – the construction of little 3d models out of paper as facilitated by sites like Cubeecraft – which eventually led me to an intriguing website calling itself We Don’t Need Fake. Apparently nothing to do with our own Nathan Fake, Shin Tanaka‘s We Don’t Need Fake project features printable paper model templates contributed by seven designers from around the world, collected together to drive home the importance of creative originality under the mantra:

“Creation is from inspiration and imitative learning, however don’t to be a fake of someone. Respect your own creativity.”

For it seems that the rip-off merchants have penetrated the cuddly world of papercrafting, just as they have done with almost every other creative discipline, including of course electronic music: and in this sense perhaps the We Don’t Need Fake website actually has more to do with Mr Nathan Fake than one might initially realise. Pretty much on a daily basis we are bombarded on all sides – via email, our demo box and the output of the world’s less imaginative record labels – with unsubtle, indelicate and downright plagiaristic reworks of our back catalogue masquerading as a new release: the perpetrators probably know who they are, but I am not going to go so far as naming them here as our current line on this is to just pretend that they don’t exist. But what the culprits may not understand is why we have no interest in adding any of their contributions to our roster, even though they make such similar-sounding “Border Community style” music: for your answer might I refer you to the originality-valuing We Don’t Need Fake website’s slogan as quoted above?

Only for our particular case we probably ought to adapt the somewhat ironic project title slightly: for we do need Fake, or Nathan Fake to be precise, but we definitely don’t need any more fake Nathan Fake knock-offs, or pale imitations of any of the rest of our back catalogue for that matter. And in answer to all of our prayers it is just as well that Nathan’s new ‘Hard Islands’ album is already visible on the horizon, stuffed full of fresh ideas: I dare say that his emulators are just as pleased about that fact as the rest of us are, as surely they must be starting to run out of things to copy by now?