Monday, 10 September 2012
Wednesday, 22 August 2012
Interview | Grand Forever
When playing
live, these four Belfast to Bethnal Green based boys, Tim, Neil, Luke and Ian represent
youth and enthusiasm, and their particular blend of instrumental, wordless
tracks, pinging synthesizing beats are just the ticket for a grand party.
Allow me to
introduce you to the band. Neil is the taut and nimble drummer while Tim is the,
occasionally semi-naked, guitarist, Luke reins over the synth, and Ian drives
the melody via the bass. Together, they compose Grand Forever. However, even
though they are not new to the music scene, they haven’t yet garnered the
attention they deserve. Not sounding how you expect them to at first glance
they simply deploy a nonchalant cool garage-jam-demo aurora that we have
exclusively been invited to.
But Grand
Forever are working hard to get heard and their gigs are more than just
crowd-pleasing. The band have released three EP’s, entitled, Ace It, Kappillan
and Don’t Go Easy On Me. Grand Forever’s melodies’ are faithful to various
styles which have been ingeniously blended together: instrumental disco, hazy
electronica, post-punk, and alternative rock and roll which are all faithful to
the original textures. Their dexterity produces tracks that are crisp,
tranquilizing, disco-tech yet grungy.
The track Wild Man is an example of their clever music merging and “Half A
Hundred Kicks” is a dreamlike tune. Their variety of melodies is also shown
onstage. When the track calls for slinkiness, the boys of the band bend into
rippling curves. When it demands toughness, they adopt a hard-ass, fierce
posture. Although I can now draw comparisons between Grand Forever’s waves of
synthesizing sounds and guitar riffs, which are reminiscent of Joy Division’s
Ceremony or Incinerate by Sonic Youth and have more in common with M83, Grand
Forever’s equation of sound stands alone. Each instrument is played with force
and attitude and the band plays with authority and clarity.
I had a quick-fire chat with Tim from the band:
Q: What are
the 4 things people should know about Grand Forever?
Grand
Forever: Luke, Ian, Tim, Neil
Q: What's the best thing about being in a boy
band?
GF: The pussy. And all the attention from Louis
Walsh (can be considered one and the same).
Q: What's 'Grand' about your hometown, Ireland?
GF: You can't leave Dromore without going up a hill;
it's literally a hole
Q: What key sounds have influenced your style?
GF: Instrumental sex wave, streets of rage.
Q: How would you make a 'Grand' (as in £££)
Forever?
GF: Scratchcard. Don't live a little, live a lotto.
Wednesday, 18 July 2012
Monday, 6 February 2012
First Impressions?
“This is so joyous, it makes my heart sing” this was the first comment I overheard as I walked into the first of the thirteen galleries displaying David Hockney’s seasonal paintings. It was not the last complement I eavesdropped into either. Praise was splattered left, right and centre. And it was so easy to understand why.
One is immediately confronted with a painting composed of sixty canvases exploding a colour palette of red, orange, yellow and purple in Hockney’s A Closer Grand Canyon, 1998, which was an introduction to the exhibition.
Then it came to the showstoppers; Hockney’s Yorkshire paintings. Similarly to the landscape paintings of Claude Monet, Henri Rousseau and the realist painter Gustave Courbet, Hockney has painted like a master. Double East Yorkshire, renders the canvas with hypnotic swirls of overlapping tones of green creating a fierce and enchanting picture that can leave anyone dreaming of a cozy, wild country walk. This notion of mesmerising landscape is familiar to many of his paintings in this exhibition with undulating quiet lanes, which are all a leap away from Hockney’s Californian, poolside paintings.
Moreover, among artists today Hockney holds a unique position. In the 1960s he was the frontrunner of British Pop Art that had a sensibility of being cool and kinetic. Now, he has taken art to a new canvas. He has used an array of mediums ranging from the tradition oil on canvas, charcoal sketching, photocollage, watercolour, film to drawings on i-pads. The Arrival of Spring gave me time to breathe from Hockney’s abstractness in the previous galleries, with mystic and mellow ipad printed paintings. However, I preferred to witness Hockney’s dabbing and flicking of the paintbrush and following the slick strokes that have been eliminated with this modern technique.
The first two months of Hockney’s exhibition have sold out and those who want it see it should embrace the lingering queues.
Friday, 27 January 2012
Thursday, 24 November 2011
Private View: Wandering Comma...
Among photographers today, Ryan McGinley occupies a unique position. In the late 1990’s, his Vice photography came to be associated with a sensibility that was cool and measured- with pictorially minded artists such as Dan Colon and Dash Snow. Simultaneously, an American style of diaristic photography emerged that was kinetic and emotional.
Ryan's latest exhibition, Wandering Comma, is effortlessly pleasurable to the eye. I had the pleasure of meeting him at his private view at Alison Jacques’ Gallery and similarly to my first meeting with him in 2009 he is unconsciously the coolest person I’ve ever met. Exhibiting 6 photographs all of which are as enchanting as each other they are mesmerising, youthful and represent the notion of capturing the ecstasy of the instant.
He has guided us through the unworldly caves in his previous London exhibition ‘Moonmilk’. Now, he has embraced a naturally wild scene, with the photograph Taylor (Rushing River) the model is emerged in the water’s brutish waves. This exhibition is a must see. go! go! go!
Tuesday, 15 November 2011
Friday, 21 October 2011
Turkish Family Dinner
Sometimes I can't believe how much I can eat. Well, this night my stomach was taken to a whole new level. Mindless eating, that's what it was. Why do we eat more than we think we can? But, I'm not going to blame myself I'm going to blame the whiff of Turkish delights...chicken...roasted vegetables...baklava (well, I was distracted by the sight of it). Seriously though, the powerful allure of food is well....powerful...
But eat food. Eat at Mangal's its super!
Sunday, 9 October 2011
Monday, 3 October 2011
Wednesday, 13 July 2011
1...2...3...Gracias...
My only photo's of Barcelona taken with my Blackberry...the view from our apartment.
Tuesday, 14 June 2011
Wednesday, 9 March 2011
Jonathan Horowitz
I had no intention of liking Horowitz…this much. I had seen his work here, there and everywhere, and read an interview with him in Interview, who quite rightly regard him as the cleverest artist alive.
Anyway, this evening I decided to attend his private view. I walked into Mayfair's, Sadie Coles to find a candid elite artist hang out. Juergen Tellier was smoking indoors and Michael Stipe, who, by hastily approaching every piece, looked like he wanted to buy everything he saw.
Monday, 7 February 2011
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
