THE CLEANING WOMEN Death Disco at the Arches. Glasgow. Fri 14 Feb
Anyone who's tried drumming with wooden spoons or beatboxing in the bath knows that, while DIY music- making is a lot of fun, it all-too- rarely results in anything worth actually putting down on record. Which makes the Cleaning Women’s debut album Pulsator a rather pleasant surprise. It’s not a perfect album but, when you bear in mind that it was made using amplified clothes lines and home-made guitars, it’s a pretty damn good one, a riot of pop, dub and industrial metal made by three men dressed as women known as CW04. CW03 and CW01.
‘We have a laundry rack — I think you would call it a clothes horse.’ says Tero Vanttinen (CW04), ‘and we have microphones to pick up the vibration and use FX to make it more Iistenable. And we have buckets and tools and self-made guitars and basses. The evolution has been quite long. One of the guys found that if you amplified the noise from a clothes horse it made quite a good sound. This was five or six years ago and he got some friends together and now there are three of us and we use quite a lot of different instruments.’
Appropriately, given that Death
Disco‘s name references Public Image Limited, the Cleaning Women recall the chaotic hubbub of PiL’s ambitious early work. The band hail from Helsinki and are currently composing music for a 19305 Russian film that’s about to be reissued. They're also, in case you hadn‘t guessed it, a little on the eccentric side. ‘We play at being cleaning women.‘ says Vanttinen. ‘We have this fiction that we are from the planet Clinus and we have come on a mission to clean up the earth. The best way to do that is to make music for people to clean to.’
There’s a strong thread of humour running through the
B O-RHY‘I'HM PRESENTS TAYO
The Honeycomb, Edinburgh. Sat 22 Feb
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‘We are from the planet Clinus’, CW04
Cleaning Women's approach, but Vanttinen insists they’re far from being a novelty act or an artistic statement. ‘People hear that we dress as women and play weird instruments and think that it is a joke and not good music. But for us it is serious. But we play
instruments no one has ever played so we have no limits.
We don’t have to think "this is heavy metal" or “this is techno”. It's not so much art as just good music — we start playing and people usually just stare - I suppose they think we are interesting or funny. But by the end of the show people are usually dancing.’ (James Smart)
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Word Up
The latest Club news
OUR COMIC STRIP OF
choice, Glasgow Fabulous. reaches its first birthday this issue, so we have a double helping in store for you. Also check out Insider (p9) for more info on what the plucky twosome are up to next.
COLOURSFEST IS BACK. OUR very own festival of dance culture is set to return on 25 May at Braehead Arena, Glasgow. Headlined last year by the likes of Dannii Minogue, X-Press 2. 808 State and Danny Rampling, expect a similarly star-studded line-up this year across five arenas, over 14 hours, and with a 10,000 capacity.
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SUBCITY RADIO GOES LIVE this issue broadcasting on 106.7FM, 16 February—15 March across Glasgow. DJs and acts such as Silicone Soul, Kinky Afro and indie types Biffy Clyro have been regulars on Subcity throughout the years. Watch out for rising stars on the club scene Turntable Scientists, Chocolate Milk and Cut the Crap this year, and Subcity promises some exclusive sets from the likes of Sasha, LTJ Bukem and DJ Plus One. Also launch party at the Arches, Thursday 13 Feb (check listings and www.subcity.org for more info).