Cubelog

Dave loved your last post capturing what had been happening at Cube recently, while in some cases not even being there, great! Made me think I should write a little something on the Fonal records night which included Islja and Es and due to illness an unexpected first act.

Fonal Records is a Finnish independent record label established by Sami Sänpäkkilä in 1995 and is a showcase for much of the so called Finnish ‘free folk’ which along with bands like Sunburned Hand of The Man and Magik Markers are making some of the most exciting music at the current time. This night was the final night off a three day tour showcasing some of the many talents currently assocated with the label and due to sickness KIILA had to drop out leaving only Islja and Es from the advertised line up but no matter the first act, whose name I do not know, was a performer who would later play as part of the duo Es. Well unexpected it might have been but a great performer he was and with a Finnish folk tale about the mothers off Lapland on ‘Mothers Day’ who could not be enchanted, to quote another blogger?

As the night progressed Islja, also full of what seemed like a very nasty cold, banged genlty on the Cube’s out of tune piano and slowly moved on to stage with the soft vocals of its lead singer, ending with a toy monkey banging its drum gently into its own stage microphone. I would recommend anyone taken to the this scene to check out their most recent record, Meritie, the packaging alone makes it worth it, not to mention the lovely music.

Finally, the night was closed with Es as the reverb of the catheral rang out from the vocals the sounds of the small keyboards and samplers made one think of Ariel Pink’s Haunted Grafitti although not the low-fi pop vision of LA but rather recast in the mistical land of folk tales.

Well, I’ve been in The Cube a bit more a bit recently, but I’ve also managed to missed a couple of things I’d meant to see . . .

Sadly didn’t make it in time for the many membered The Arctic Circle on Thursday, even after determinedly hot footing it with Amy from an informal film-makers’ meeting at Watershed arranged by Harriet Fleuriot of the Bristol branch of Future Shorts ( anyone interested in joining in email me and I can pass you on . . . ).

So yeah, missed The Artic Circle, but happily added to The Cube’s volunteers’ how-tall-wall . . .

. . . and became part of another impromptu oversized indie supergroup called The Hidesincoats, check us out . . .

. . . no songs to speak of, but the first video’s pretty much done . . .

I’m looking forward, as David Hidesincoats, to being invited to do obscure unmixed guest dj sets at indie clubs across the land . . .

The second thing I missed was the Plug58 nanoplex on Saturday - I was out of The Cube, but with ( some ) Cube people again - this time at Spike Island for a few talks and a few free pies. The final talk was given by Hogge and Kate . . .

. . . both talking generally about The Cube, including some interesting ideas about what the unpaid structure and what word the ‘amateur’ can actually mean in terms of the ‘professional’ ( or presumed no- or un- ) and the passionate - with it’s original meaning deriving from ‘amor’ Ð love, The Cube’s relation to Artists’ practice, Artists’ practice in relation to it, and specifically about Kate’s Feral Trade project, which was later in actual action for the evening Plug58 portion, which I did make . . .

Apperently there was a bit of a hoo-hah at the earlier Plug58 Nanoplex event for the kids - Patrick Duff and Duncan Fleming’s contribution was deemed too scary for some - I heard reports from Patrick ( not happy to be asked to comprimise ), Kayle ( uncomfortable but confident in her actions ( as event manager the onus was on her to ask them to tone it down ) ) , and Jem ( as a parent he, and more pertinently Milo, were at ease with a bit of scary in a kids’ story - though wary that some were under the 5 years and over suggested in the programme ).

As I wasn’t there it’s hard to tell what it was like, but hopefully it won’t scare off parents and kids from future Nanoplexes as I reckon it’s a brilliant, and in my experience, well executed idea.

I’m presently trying to work out how to work in some Singing Science for some future one ( I’m really love to see them performed by Tom Bugs in his labcoat, possibly as part of an ‘educational’ nanoplex, along with Fránçois teaching basic French ).

Like the earlier reports, the evening ‘adult’ audience were in for a bit of a, potentially scary, surprise too - while the predominate theme of the night seemed to be singer-songwriters with semi-acoustics with Leila Music, Joe McGann ( with Sam Kidel ) and Simon Breed . . .

. . . all performing intricate, beautiful, and in Simon Breed’s case quite funny, songs with a bit of that plug58 dark undertow, I wondered how was an audience that visibly flinched and audibly gasped at a bit of a click when swapping guitar leads would take to the mighty Team Brick when he took to the stage . . .

He wasn’t playing a semi-acoustic. Admittedly there was a bit of guitar in the mix, but his most impressive instrument, after his voice of course, was a contact miked wooden plank and file . . .

. . . too much for a few, but admirably most enjoyed it, if somewhat open mouthedly.

Well, that’s what I did and didn’t see recently - acutally I made the Fonal records night too, which was good - enchanting in fact - but I’m tired now and the pics I took weren’t too hot, so won’t say any more for now.

As always, I’m keen to encourage anyone involved in The Cube, at any level, including ‘mere’ audience members and long distance blog readers to contribute their perspectives on this place, so please comment if you have something to say, and also comment/email me if you would like me to set up a login so you can do some blog posting proper . . .

Oh, and there’s much coming up with Bluescreen on Wednesday, a night of improv involving the Orchestra on Thursday, and the unmissable Movieoke on Friday . . . all of which looks like it will be interesting, though what I/we will make or make of it we’ll have to see . . .

As promised pics of Lady Lucy’s preview at London’s Drawing Room gallery, featuring many supporting Cubesters, are now up on sparror . . .

Sorry for lack of recent posts ( now, how’s that for a familiar starter for ten ? ).

Uncharacteristically I haven’t actually been at The Cube too much recently, and last time I was, for the bi-annual Sparror Users meeting, I was so flustered by the impressive words of the tech team that I, very uncharacteristically, forget to photograph!

Broadly things discussed were whether the sparror server, from which you’ll be accessing this very page, should stay physically in The Cube now it could be cheaper and more efficient for it to be external, and as something needs to be done now the user group has grown with more demands for mp3, video and pics - basically it needs to be symmetrical rather than asymmetrical.

We decided it is better staying within The Cube ( while it lasts - one point by practical catastrophist Heath was how sparror will survive after the inevitable expiration of The Cube - only as inevitable as in all things eventually move to their end - burt even so we talked about what to do if this little misspelt bird’s death doesn’t come first ).

I’m glad to report that sparror will be kept inside The Cube, one reason being, “because it’s cute” ( (c) Dani Landau ).

Coming up inside The Cube we have March’s Movieoke . . .

. . . last one was a blast, for the audience at least ( which is of course the key, or one of the keys ). Hopefully with a bit of well placed prep we’ll have everything in place for all the team to fully enjoy it too ( I’m alluding to poor Hog who had to cue DVDs using a DV camera as a monitor - heroic, but hellish - I mean just think about that for a moment, it’s hard enough spending a night searching a succession of entire movies for particular scenes under pressure but when you can see what you’re doing and menu buttons aren’t just a couple of pixels wide, sheesh! ).

And coming up outside The Cube, outside Bristol even, our Lady Lucy has her drawing show at The Drawing Room . . .

. . . so carloads of capital supporters will be heading down ( or is it up ), hopefully including me . . . and my camera . . .

Oh, and in a me-mail stance, I was flattered to be described as a potentially professional level stuntist by our friend in the very north.

Hope I’m not jumping in and stealing his thunder, but original Cubester and Blog poster Ben Slater has just finished his book - for now here is a simple link.

He may be back here with more to say on the matter, or not - he’s pretty busy . . . but word on the wire is he’ll be in this country, and this part of it, very soon . . .