Border Commune @ Corsica Studios, London, UK : 24th September 2010
Our love affair with Elephant & Castle’s Corsica Studios continues on Friday 24th September, when the troops will descend on the uninhibited artspace for the latest in our Border Commune series of parties. Tickets are on sale now via WeGotTickets for just £10 (or a little more on the door), so do join us for what will be our final London Border Community party of 2010!
Heading up the mainroom will be our spiritual leader James Holden with his first extended London set since the beginning of the summer, revitalised, reinvigorated and raring to share his latest discoveries with you after the DJ Kicks touring marathon. Our longtime compadre Perc joins us with a special warm-up set, widening the techno brief to touch all of the eclectic bases covered in his recent spot-on podcast for the ever-astute Allez-Allez blog. And sandwiched in the middle are our honorary guests from Italy Margot with the debut UK outing for their unique DJ-and-live-set combo, building on the considerable success of their own label Margot Records to celebrate their conscription to the Border Community with a sneak preview of the delights contained within the ‘France 2 EP’ (out in October).
It falls to Room 2 to provide our beloved alternative flavour, which will this time find itself transformed into the cosy ‘The Holkham Drone Zone’, a celebration of drone-based music as inspired by the title of Mr Luke Abbott‘s debut album Holkham Drones. DJ Wesley Matsell presides over events with selections plucked from the noisiest depths of his record collection, peppered inbetween which you will find: James Holden and Luke Abbott’s own take on the loudness wars with their back-to-back Doepfer drone-off; an exercise in interactive choral concentrational hypnosis at the hands of An’Unexpectacle (bolstered by your own vocal involvement); audio-visual piece Telechromatic Distortion performed by Dan Tombs; and Perc’s temptation over to the noisy side for some analogue indulgences. Finally, that nice young man Wesley Matsell has one last monolithic beast of primal diginoise to unleash, to send you on your way with noise in your heart.
BC Drone Home
You have heard much of our plans to transform Room 2 of our next Border Commune night at London’s Corsica Studios (this Friday 24th September) into a cosy alternative space dedicated to a series of live performances around the theme of Drone, to be known as ‘The Holkham Drone Zone’ in tribute to the title of Luke Abbott‘s recent debut album. But in typically perverse fashion, the man himself (Luke!) has since realised that he won’t actually be able to attend this personal drone tribute thanks to a double booking, leaving James one droning partner short for his Room 2 live exertions…
By way of an apology for his unauthorised absence, Mr Luke Abbott has recorded his own improvised home-lone-drone entitled Forgive and Remember for your home listening delectation, which we have put up for free download over on our Soundcloud profile. Luke had the following to say on the subject:
“Although Border Community have dedicated a whole room to the Drone-theme of the title of my album, thanks to a double-booking and contrary to earlier advertisements I won’t actually be able to attend the drone-evening. To make up for it, I have recorded this home-drone session, and I strongly advise you to check out the other live performances from my brothers in drone Wesley Matsell, James Holden, Dan Tombs, Perc and An’Unexpectacle which will still be going ahead in my absence…”
Luke abbott – forgive and remember by Border Community
Luke may have let James down, but thankfully our lovely new signings from Italy Margot have stepped in to take his place for a threeway analogue drone-off as the clock strikes midnight. The drone must go on, naturally.
And if one free mp3 isn’t quite enough to get you over the mid-week hump, here is a list of extra listening resources from the artists who are actually playing to enable you to fully prepare for Friday’s entertainments like the music-swot you know you are:
Perc
Room 1 guest Perc has spread his name across the record boxes of the world with releases for the likes of Kompakt, Ovum and Drumcode as well as his own dependable Perc Trax label, but will be seizing upon our early doors slot to stretch his legs with the type of wide-ranging influence-spanning set as heard on his recent Psychic Animal Bandwagon Mix podcast for the ever-tasteful Allez-Allez.
Margot
We are pleased to welcome our new recruits Margot for the first UK showcase of their unique live+DJ hybrid set, a teaser example of which can be heard over on Mixcloud now. And if you can’t wait for us to release their Kraut-tastic ‘France 2 EP’ in October, explore the highlights of their Margot Records back catalogue right now using James Holden’s handy introductory guide.
Dan Tombs
The man usually on live visual duties is this time allowed to venture into the audio realm with a special audio-visual performance of a piece entitled Telechromatic Distortion; you can watch a preview excerpt over on Youtube.
Wesley Matsell
Wesley Matsell will be your drone-DJ host for the evening, serving up his own noisy selections between acts as well as sending you on your way with noise in your heart with a monolithic beast of live primal diginoise to bring the evening to a fitting climax. His noisy tendencies will come as no surprise to those who paid attention to the B-sides to his Bernwerk monster single (the abrasive Infinity Sentinel, for example), or to those internet detectives clever enough to track down Wesley’s Mixcloud Profile, where the noise-tinged Fibre-optic Pterandon DJ mix was first offered up as a decidedly-alternative soundtrack to Christmas 2009.
Advance tickets for Friday’s Corsica Studios blowout are still available from WeGotTickets for just £10!
An Invitation To Drone
Dear Border Communer,
You are invited to take part in an intimate session of choral droning, which will take place on Friday evening from 2am in Room 2 of London’s Corsica Studios club.
The room will be in darkness for the duration of the session. Please enter the room quietly, join the group sitting on the floor and sofas, and gracefully add your voice to the collective drone.
Consult the posters around the venue for further information.
Yours faithfully,
——————
An’Unexpectacle will be hosting an interactive group droning session from 2am in Room 2 of Corsica Studios during our next Border Commune party (this Friday 24th September) as part of ‘The Holkham Drone Zone’. Other entertainments revolving around the theme of Drone include live improvisations from James Holden, Perc and Wesley Matsell and a performance of Dan Tombs‘ audio-visual piece Telechromatic Distortion, all sandwiched between the noisy stylings of your host DJ Wesley Matsell. Meanwhile, over in the main room James Holden, Perc and our special guests from Italy Margot will direct their sonic presences directly towards the dancefloor. Get your tickets now from WeGotTickets for just £10, and RSVP here.
Pizza Margot-rita
As the date of our next Border Commune event at Corsica Studios (the last one this year! – so get your tickets here) edges ever-closer, you may be itching to know more about the mysterious Margot who we have lined up between Masters Perc and Holden to deliver a two-hour live+DJ hybrid set in the main room.
The most dedicated trainspotters amongst you will already be familiar with the Margot name from recent James Holden sets, as the select band of releases on their Margot Records label have become a key part of his DJ-staple-diet. (Ivan Smagghe is apparently also a Margot Records fan, recently dubbing them “the next generation of dancefloor electronica” on his notable A Few Things From Ivan Smagghe blog). Or going even further back to 2006, the Margot name may have already made its way into your record box via the release of their Soft Cell cover The Torch on Germany’s ‘Great Stuff, which was remixed by Border Community’s own Germanic dance duo Extrawelt to massive effect.
But for those of you who aren’t lucky enough to have turned your record collecting into a full-time hobby, consider this your own personal induction into the ways of our awesome new signings from Italy, Margot, whose Kraut-tastic ‘France 2 EP’ Border Community debut will find its way into your favourite record shops on 25th October (forming the second part of the collectable limited edition vinyl series that was kicked off with Avus‘ Poppy EP).
We begin by way of a special taster for Friday night, in the form of this example of their unique live+DJ hybrid set, freshly uploaded to our Mixcloud profile. Margot are already an established name on the club circuit in their native Italy, but this will be the duo’s first UK showcase of what happens when Pepe’s impressive DJ skills are modified by the addition of vocals and interactive dynamic live versions of their own material as provided by his partner-in-crime Giaga Robot. For more of an idea on how that works in practice, may I refer you to the following set:
But if that 25th October release date of the ‘France 2 EP’ still seems like a long way off, luckily Margot already have a healthy back-catalogue of Margot Records releases (by themselves and various hometown friends) which are available for you to snap up right now from Beatport or Juno to temporarily sate your desires. And here is a handy guide to the highlights, according to main-fan James Holden:
1. Margot – Goblin Think
“The wild free live-bass romp that first convinced me that Pepe & Giaga are geniuses…”
2. Margot – Punch
“Finely judged – driving and heads-down-powerful without straying into spiky-hair-white-boy territory.”
3. Vaghe Stelle – Ciclo 5
“Spiralling is one of my favourite music adjectives, and this song sounds like it was written just to fit that description.”
4. Margot – Vorticiccione
“Impeccably restrained and beautiful in just how simple it is, proof that i should have realised how good Margot were a long time ago..!!”
5. Matteo Scaioli – Blu
“Warm and delicately made work from a fellow analogue-o-phile.”
