Epilepsy at Heathrow Airport

It's those bloody flashing lights that are doing my head in. In fairness though, there is a niggling doubt as to whether the advertisers really want their motion boards to be on the blink (literally) - it is quite clear that they are knackered to all, but the most energetic four-year-old.

Add to that, the fact that I am sitting in Heathrow's vast waiting area, whilst being bombarded on both sides by some of the most inane dance-lite shopping music imaginable and one can understand why a form of deep nausea is beginning to unfold. This trip is making me feel ill already and I have yet to fly...

The dry pain that is this airport on a calm Wednesday evening cannot merely be explained by the depiction of drying paint by magazine stands - it more closely resembles the slow stripping of skin from my hands. Clocks stop, breathing slows and free motion shuns conventional theory - things are always different at Heathrow Airport and all it makes me want to do is get completely fucked.

*Why is it that when I put "Heathrow fucking airport" into Google Images, I just get pictures of Posh Spice and Naomi Campbell?

Current listening:
Throbbing Gristle "Mission is Terminated"


Leigh

Sleep Thieves "City Lights"

Irish electronic band, Sleep Thieves, will be releasing their debut single City Lights this coming Friday (September 18th). The single, which is due to be a download only issue was recorded in their rehearsal rooms by guitarist Derek Murphy and was mastered by Chris LeDantec at Grand Canal Studios.

The band will officially launch City Lights on Saturday at the Underground in Kennedy's on Westland Row, Dublin with support from the Holy Roman Army and Nakatomi Towers.
A video for the song will follow in October.

Sleep Thieves MySpace
Holy Roman Army MySpace
Nakatomi Towers MySpace

Leigh

DJ Set (The Vic, Mile End, London)

Coming up

The Value of Sebastien

Without wishing to question the talent of Sebastien Bourdais, something has always struck me as troubling; but let it be known first, that these particular troubles are irrelevant!! However, this must be asked - what true worth are attached to Sebastien Bourdais' four Champ Car titles?
Seabass made his way to Formula 1 on the back of his fourth consecutive title with Newman / Haas / Lanigan Racing, yet failed to impress opposite Sebastian Vettel in the Toro Rosso team - a spectacular defeat against the young rookie.

Before all that though, Bourdais had won the 2002 Formula 3000 Championship after the original winner, Tomas Enge, failed a drugs test; however with no race seats available in formula 1 for the Frenchman, he headed to America to compete in CART - at this stage, a dying series.
With many of CART's star names gone (to other racing formula's such as NASCAR, IRL, variations of Sportscar's or even retirement) its big teams swiftly vacating the series, CART was a shadow of its former self. At their lowest ebb, teams began to refocus their efforts and resorted to hiring "pay" or "sponsorship" drivers in order to pay the bills - many still cite 2002 as the last season that CART had a large array of talent still active. By the following March, with the series' financial and political woes becoming more public, even CART's staunchest supporters were jumping ship.

2003 saw Paul Tracy finally win his first (and so far only) Open Wheel Racing title, but by then years of mismanagement finally saw the CART series bankrupt, eventually to be taken over by Open Wheel Racing Series and renamed Champ Car.

With the series "re-started" and featuring the likes of (an aging) Roberto Moreno, Alex Yoong, Mario Dominguez and Tiago Monteiro amongst others, it became difficult to take Champ Car as seriously as CART was in its 1990's heyday. Laterly Gaston Mazzacane and Tarso Marques would join its ranks and the reputation of the series would dip further still.
...and then in 2004, even I stopped caring.
The depth of talent that had existed in years previous had disappeared - Alex Zanardi had lost his legs, while Greg Moore had lost his life and names such as Andretti, De Ferran, Vasser, (Bobby) Rahal, Unser and Fittipaldi had now vacated the series long since and suddenly Champ Car had no stars to turn to and no public face with which to show the public.

While he was Rookie of the Year in 2003 and had taken three victories as well as pole position in his first race, it was here that Bourdais' run of success began and in 2004 he notched up the first of his four titles. From here on in the field began to shrink and the number of events each season grew smaller, before the series finally merged with the Indy Racing League in February of last year. There is no doubt that Bourdais is a talented racing driver; however there must be serious questions as to whether he would have taken four titles, 31 race wins and 27 poles in a stronger field.
When it comes to "raw" racing, then Bourdais is incredibly talented, but when he made the move to Formula 1 he was badly caught out by the speed of technical development - earlier this year, one Toro Rosso mechanic noted to F1 journalist James Allen that Bourdais was fast, but he spent his entire time chasing the car.

This week, the 30-year-old Frenchman secured a seat with Formula Superleague team Seville AFC - it's a series that may suit his style, with spec chassis and engine units designed by Panoz and Menard respectively; however one quick look at the entry list and thoughts of Champ Car era poor drivers rapidly return - Bourdais should win easily...

*(p.s. - I will try to get an article about the old Monza banking up in time for the Italian Grand Prix, but it's going to be a close call - also more reviews are to come soon too!!)

Current listening:
Johannes Brahms "Variations on a Theme (as performed by The Berliner Philharmoniker; conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt)"


Leigh

A Fine Frenzy "Bomb in a Birdcage"

I have to make a confession. Nothing makes me more angry than meandering acoustic singer-songwriters and aging men with hair metal fatigue trying to pull off Van Halen solo's in cover bands.
Seriously, both those things are wrong in every way imaginable. The conjure feelings of "intense red" and bring to the forefront memories of when I studied sound engineering some years ago.
The timing was all my fault though; my interest was touched at about the same time every dickhead in his wonderfully tooled two bedroom apartment in Dublin actually thought that they could be Damien Rice. Oh the foolishness...

There are three things that need to be referenced before I go ahead with this review though:

1. As stated above, I have found many singer/songwriters over the years to be deeply irritating knobs with intensely elevated sense of self-worth;
2. You loved, you lost - could I care?? No, I really, really couldn't - maybe you lost, because of the soft, spineless world you inhabit? Admittedly when it comes to certain forms of music, I become Davros from Doctor Who and in this case hair-metal and piss-poor sing-songwriters are Thals, while these typing digits and soldier-like words are the new Daleks (probably better if you just look it up).
   
3. In a not-very-interesting turn of events, I am somewhat partial to Lily Allen's first two albums, but does she qualify as a pop-starlet or singer-songwriter??
   

...but maybe that's just me.
Bomb in a Birdcage is the second album from LA-based 24-year-old Alison Sudol (aka - A Fine Frenzy). Let it be said now that A Fine Frenzy was made - built if you will, laboratory like - for Grey's Anotomy and it's ilk - with songs therein contain just the right amount of schmaltz to be perfect for "an emotional scene", while not being so spectacular to actually stand above a show.
Just imagine all the garbage that Coldplay have produced over the years and you get the idea. It's style is summery without resorting to sugar-coated bullshit, yet is still quite fine the likes TodayFM and the nation's office drones.

There are temptations to ring in comparisons with KT Tunstell (yes!) Jose Gonzales (very no!) in that every song is structured and performed very well; however the songs talk and talk and talk, yet say absolutely nothing memorable.
"What I Wouldn't Do" and "Electric Twist" are nice, jaunty upbeat numbers that play out pleasantly enough, although the outro to "Electric Twist" goes on for far too long. On the other hand, I have no memory of "New Heights" even though I only heard it few moments ago.
These are followed by the singles "Blow Away" and "Happier" - I have to admit that "Blow Away" surprised me as a choice for lead single as it simply does not stand out at all, while it does slot very neatly into the album itself. "Happier" is a little better, although still not a stand-out, but I could swear during the opening few bars, someone is attempting an acoustic version of the intro to "Kids" by MGMT.

Like "New Heights", "Swan Song" drifts under the radar in a way that I have no recollection of hearing it only moments after it finished; however that is followed by "Elements", which is easily the most impressive song on the album - if only because Sudol has widened the instrument range for this song. It is also - notably - the first time on the album she really lets her vocals rip.
Both "The World Without" and "Bid of the Summer" are nice enough songs without really drumming up any excess thought or excitement - it is only then that I realise that the album has drifted into its latter third. Yep, fillerville... Without being mean, it really is a struggle to see where a lot of these songs can go without eventually becoming a form of aural wallpaper. OK, scratch that, because "Stood Up" is a quite a good song and something of a departure from the rest of the album as it plays with it's instrumentation and dynamics in ways that the rest simply doesn't.
The album closes with "The Beacon" - a simple number which is mostly just Sudol's vocals over piano and synth (and a little bit of wandering trumpet) and in terms of closures, it is rather good in a TV-advertised way and is slightly reminiscent of "Motion Picture Soundtrack by Radiohead - only for Coldplay fans...

Sudol has been at pains to point out that Bomb in a Birdcage is more of "band" effort than a solo-work and it's quite correct. There is definitely much more going on in terms musical dynamics, as if two or three different people were involved in its arrangement and eventual execution (more than likely the case); however this isn't necessarily a good thing too as there are occasions when this just sounds like Keane with a different singer - and that is never a good thing.
This is (believe it or not) a pretty OK album; however if you have absolutely no imagination whatsoever, it'll probably be your album of the year, while more discerning folk will sweep it under the carpet in a vain hope that it'll cease to exist.
If there was a set genre for American-soap music, this would slot right in, but Bomb in a Birdcage may have to be content with swimming in a sea of pop-rock / radio-friendly brainless filler that BBC Radio is so fond repeating ad-finitum. It is music for the ER / Grey's Anatomy generation, but not so bad that it would ever warrant a place in Friends.
Have I mentioned yet that I despise the TV show Friends with such vigour and contempt that whenever I hear the theme tune, I vomit a little inside? No?? I'll save that one for later...

myspace.com/afinefrenzy
Rating: 3 out of 5


Leigh