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Johnny Lynch and Adem, aka Silver Columns, with Malcolm Middleton
PREVIEW POP TRIBUTE NIGHT THE JD SET WITH MALCOLM MIDDLETON, CASIOKIDS, JAMES YUILL, SILVER COLUMNS AND COCKNBULLKID O2 ABC, Glasgow, Thu 17 Jun
‘Take an album like Madonna’s Immaculate Collection,’ says Johnny Lynch. ‘That’s basically exactly what it is; immaculate. It’s a perfect pop record in the same way as Erasure’s Pop, or Pet Shop Boys’ Discography are.’ Lynch, who you may also know as Pictish Trail; or the person who runs Fence Records, is here today as one half of Silver Columns, the techno-pop duo he formed last year with Adem. ‘Don’t get me wrong, Madonna’s done plenty rubbish songs too, but we’re ignoring those!’
Silver Columns are one of five acts – all Moshi Moshi labelmates – taking the works of the once lace-gloved, then conical bra-d, now leotarded and fish-netted Material Girl, and reworking them for a one-off gig this fortnight. So when I poked my head in on rehearsals in Glasgow last month, Scandie electro-poppers, Casiokids had just finished recording their Norwegian language version of ‘Holiday’ with laptop balladeer James Yuill. Next, it was the turn of Cocknbullkid, aka East London’s Anita Blay,
to sing with Silver Columns on ‘Get Into the Groove’. The day before, they’d all done a slow-pulsed and chillingly sexy cover of ‘Dress You Up’, and were back in the studio the next day to tackle ‘Like A Prayer’.
So what made Silver Columns want to get involved?
‘Madonna’s a pop icon,’ shrugs Lynch. He’s just finished tweaking a new, especially tender version of ‘Borderline’, featuring Adem on Tenori-on, miserablist troubadour Malcolm Middleton on guitar, and some heavily rolled Scottish ‘r’s on words like ‘darling’. ‘Adem and I were both fans growing up. I remember
listening to my sister’s copies of ‘Cherish’ and ‘Papa Don’t Preach’ when I was about five. Since then, she’s never been afraid to experiment with different electronic styles. I think a lot of people have enjoyed watching her progression over the years.’
And what can we expect on the night?
‘Some cowbell, some vocoder, some megaphone, some tears, some ‘La Isla Bonita’, some ‘Vogue’-ing and a bit ‘Frozen’?’ Lynch suggests. ‘We didn’t want to destroy the songs by changing them too drastically, but there are good pop lyrics in there, and some classic dance songs too. We hope the crowd likes what we’ve come up with.’ (Claire Sawers) ■ More info at www.thejdset.co.uk
Music PREVIEW CLASSICAL PHILIP GLASS Usher Hall, Edinburgh, Wed 23 Jun
If any show being staged in the grand old (but newly renovated) Usher Hall counts as being an intimate one, then this is it. The American composer Philip Glass, famed for his film scores, operas and popular collaborations, will be performing a set of chamber music here, playing on his own at the piano and then in collaboration with cellist Wendy Sutter and multi- instrumentalist Mick Rossi, both regular collaborators and the latter a member of the Philip Glass Ensemble.
Glass’ solo set will consist of
excerpts from the pieces Metamorphosis and Etudes for Piano, both of which are composed in the haunting, minimalist style with which his name is now synonymous. The former, from 1988, was a cycle of five movements adapted from Glass’ own scores for a theatrical adaptation of Kafka’s The Metamorphosis and from Errol Morris’ documentary film of the same year, The Thin Blue Line, while the latter was a set of ten movements composed between 1994 and 1995.
Subtitled Drift 2010, this evening will continue with excerpts from Glass’ 1981 Glassworks album, an attempt to tailor his work for a popular audience, and from Godfrey Reggio’s 2002 arthouse documentary Naqoyqatsi, the concluding third of Reggio and Glass’ almost twenty-year collaboration on the Qatsi Trilogy begun by 1983’s Koyaanisqatsi and continued in 1988 with Powaggatsi. Finally, the centrepiece of the show is 2007’s Songs and Poems for Solo Cello, seven movements written entirely for Sutter. Like most of this essential show, it will be a debut performance for Scottish audiences. (David Pollock)
PREVIEW 80S EXPERIMENTAL JAMES FERRARO Roxy Art House, Edinburgh, Mon 14 Jun; 13th Note, Glasgow, Tues 15 Jun
‘Don’t expect “bands” or straightforward “songs”. Just leave musical logic at the door and have some fun,’ advises Edinburgh promoter Nick Herd, the man behind grassroots endeavour Braw Gigs. He’s referring to the upcoming show from press-shy
underground idol James Ferraro, (aka Edward Flex, Lamborghini Crystal and countless other emblematic alter-egos), and his like-minded Skaters accomplice Spencer Clark, (aka Monopoly Child Star Searchers, Charles Berlitz, Black Joker and . . . you get the picture). See the publicity photo (left) incidentally, for evidence of the press-shyness.
P.I. Is that too much to ask?
‘Well, Spencer’s Monopoly guise is reminiscent of his
Vodka Soap material,’ offers Herd, realigning my fantasy. ‘Tropical tape delay and rhythmic keyboard syncopations’ will be the Californian’s order of the day, apparently. ‘James’ solo material flies into all sorts of different avenues,’ he continues. ‘Pick up Last American Hero and jam that: it sounds like Ry Cooder playing slide on a beat-up boombox.’ What it sounds like is Miami Vice on a badly-tuned telly
coming up through the floorboards – that is to say, brilliant – and for this I blame (or thank) the phenomenon known as ‘hypnagogic pop’. Rangers, Ducktails and Ferraro himself have come to illustrate the sub-genre’s mutant 80s pop-culture nostalgia and chromatic DIY aesthetic. Does its currency help sell a show like this?
I’m not expecting ‘bands’ or ‘songs’, I tell Herd. I’m ‘I’ve never used “hypnagogic pop” to describe
expecting palm trees, geometric blue cocktails, fluorescent signs, and a moustache affixed to Magnum anything,’ smiles Herd. ‘I take it at face value. Good music is good music.’ (Nicola Meighan)
10-24 Jun 2010 THE LIST 69