Posts Tagged ‘ room 40 ’

Lawrence English @ The Judith Wright Centre

November 29th, 2011

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Event: “The Evening”
Date: November 17, 2011
Venue: The Judith Wright Centre for Contemporary Arts
Acts: Lawrence English

There are generally two parts to any Lawrence English-curated performance. The first is a short welcome where he provides a introduction to the work about to be performed. The second is, of course, the performance itself.

The above might sound like dull trivia, but it’s one of the things I appreciate the most about English. Listening to him speak, you quickly realise English is not simply there to perform. He truly wants you to grasp the authorial inspiration and purpose behind the music he’s about to perform.

It’s something most artists — largely blessed with all the loquacity of a brick — just don’t attempt. What makes English’s mission trebly difficult is the nature of his works — typically synth-driven instrumental drones that tend to evolve at a glacial pace.

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Frankly! @ Brisbane Powerhouse

September 14th, 2009

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Date: September 12, 2009
Venue: Brisbane Powerhouse
Acts: Peaches, I Heart Hiroshima, Tenniscoats

Maybe it’s the pricey tickets. Maybe it’s the slightly outre nature of the acts on offer. Either way, the black, marine-ply main floor and upper-level balconies of the Turbine Room have a lot of empty spaces as Room 40’s Frankly! mini-festival kicks off. For the adventurous few, the mish-mash line-up offers gems: the cutely twee guitar pop and cheesey flash animations of Hong Kong-based The Pancakes disarms the crowd; the oh-so-earnest Jamie Stewart pulls fans of Xiu Xiu in close to coo over every electronic blib, strangled guitar chord and moaned note.

Tenniscoats‘ husband-and-wife duo recently wowed all with their transcendental folk-minimalism on the top floor of this very venue. I doubted they could better that gig. I was wrong. With the aid of fellow-countrywoman Nikaido Kazumi, Saya and Ueno Takashi turn their sights from their usual melange of poignant Gymnopedie-styled ambience to a more whimsical world of bright echoing guitar notes and playful layers of soprano glossolalia. In some ways, it’s a paradoxical performance — one moment all serious faces and concentration, the next full of child-like joy and impish bunny hops. Should avante acts involve getting down among the crowd like you’re a Wiggles performer and getting everyone to wave their arms back and forth We Are The World-style? When it’s this beautiful and this much fun, who cares?

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Tenniscoats @ Brisbane Powerhouse

February 28th, 2009

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Tenniscoats -- Totemo Aishimo

Tenniscoats -- Totemo Aishimo

Date:  February 20, 2009
Venue: Brisbane Powerhouse
Act: Tenniscoats, Gudrun Gut, The Deadnotes

Post-storm shenanigans at Queensland Rail delay all the trains. This means I miss the angular instrumental haikus of Brisbane experimental outfit The Deadnotes.

Thankfully there’s still sufficient room to squeeze past scores of bright young things into the claustrophobic confines of the Powerhouse’s Rooftop Terrace. Terrace is a misnomer — a low, gently curved ceiling, coupled with the bleakness of the un-rendered concrete walls, generates a distinctly bunker-like atmosphere.

It’s an ambience emphasised by the near-zero lighting for German electronica auteur Gudrun Gut. And, with nearly everyone seated (some even reclining against cushions on the floor), the whole affair quickly assumes the lazy air of a listening party as Gut unleashes approximately half-a-dozen tunes from her laptop, including an impish cover of Smog’s Rock Bottom Riser. Read more