Fraser Fiffeld
PREVIEW ()II II() (JONNE ()HUNS FOLLOW THAT! Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Wed 28 Jan
lhe title of this latest round of commissions inspired by the music of the late Martyn Bennett underlines the faireaching influence of his eclcctic. openininded approach to traditional music (while simultaneously suggesting that he was indeed a difficult act to follow).
In my last interView Willi Martyn, before his tragically premature death from cancer, he both encouraged exactly this kind of development. and warned against the pitfalls.
‘What I'd like next is for someone to come along and do it better than me. I think there does need to be a separation between pure traditional music and the kind of crossover that me and a number of others are doing. For me. the danger is that lots of people jump in and make a mess of it.‘
Judicious selection has ensured that no one involved in this event is likely to fall into that trap. The concert, organised by the Martyn Bennett Trust in association with the Scottish Arts Council, follows on from an earlier event in 2007 in which musicians from various strands of Scottish musical life are let loose to create new music. using Bennett's manuscripts and recordings as a catalyst for their own inventions.
Violinist Robert McFall, multi—instrumentalist Fraser Fifield, saxophonist Phil Bancroft and DJ Dolphin Boy have teamed up to work Jointly on the project. while keyboard player Bill Wells and saxophonist Laura MacDonald Will add their own contributions to what promises to be a fascinating evening of musical discovery. (Kenny Mathieson)
PREVIEW INDIE POP OF MONTREAL Oran Mor, Glasgow, Mon 26 Jan.
Although Athens-based concept-poppers Of Montreal have been active for over a decade now, their ninth and latest album Skeletal Lamping has seen the group reach their highest watermark yet. The record was a top forty entry in America, and the group’s singer and creator Kevin Barnes spoke to The List from New York, the night before his band played Letterman’s Late Show. Understandably, he was, ‘psyched’; adding, ‘it should be a lot of fun’.
It was fun, in the event, with Barnes emerging from a low-budget golden chariot at the start, various performers creating a papier maché dancing giant in the background and Dave looking suitably nonplussed by the end. This wasn’t an excessive affair by 0f Montreal’s usual standards, though. ‘Our live show’s very theatrical,’ says Barnes, ‘very glammy. We play with gender-bending; we’ll wear masculine clothes alongside feminine ones and take on the roles of different characters. It’s not that we do it to be polarising though, it just feels good to play around with these things’.
The same aesthetic applies to the band’s music, with Barnes now presiding over a quintet (although their line- up has altered over the years) who play a genre-crunching blend of indie-pop, punk-funk and disco that lies somewhere between Talking Heads, Sylvester and The Magnetic Fields. ‘We’ve made a kind of pop collage record,’ says Barnes of Skeletal Lamping, ‘which is basically one long composition with a bunch of different medleys. That fragmented style of arranging isn’t new to us, and neither are the album’s themes — it’s about gender roles, about sexual politics and identities, and all of this feeds together with the live show’. (David Pollock)
56 THE LIST 22 Jan—5 Feb 2009
PREVIEW M iv Pi Mk THE ALL AMERICAN REJECTS The Garage, Glasgow. Tue 27 Jan
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