Jeff Mangum ATP Part 7: THE FINAL PROGRAMME

I am still going on about the Jeff Mangum curated All Tomorrow's Parties Festival, in Butlins Minehead.

And then to Group Doueh. As noted in the Executive Summary, the SADR sensations were a bit less trippy than on the record I have, but they did serve up an appealing stew of desert guitar music. Mr Doueh took a relatively modest role (apart from when he nonchalantly played guitar behind his head), letting the band's two women singers front things. They also did a bit of getting down and dancing, which was endearingly odd considering that they a good bit more modestly dressed and round than is the case with western dancers.

After Group Doueh had finished we were about to drift off to see Sebadoh (largely for the want of anything better to do) when some excitable fellow said to us that he had heard that there was going to be an All-Star Jam taking place down here. At first we were unsure, but as the place started to fill up with hipsters – and as the supposedly finished venue made no efforts to throw people out –we wondered if maybe he was onto something. And yeah, he was. Members of bands such as the Sun Ra Arkestra, the American Contemporary Music Ensemble, a Hawk And A Hacksaw, Roscoe Mitchell and many many others appeared onstage and started banging out a chaotic yet enjoyable barrage of music that seemed largely to be based around an Arkestra groove. I felt a bit trend being there with all the people taking photos of everything to prove that they had been There, but it was one of the most fun ATP things ever.

That is largely that for me and the Jeff Mangum ATP. I did not see enough stuff on the ATP TV channel to say much about it except that i) the Rutland Weekend Television stuff reminded me of how impressive Eric Idle's technique is and ii) the production values in The Life of Brian were much higher than I expected; I particularly liked how they decorated the walls of Pilate's study with copies of the murals from the Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii [so called because the confusing audio guide makes finding its famous wall paintings a rather mysterious process].
I did find the lack of chalet-mate sociability a bit of a drag (my beloved can be so grumpy!), so I would not be too keen on the two-person chalet again, for all that they do the job. I must therefore give a shout out to ILX superstar Aldo Cowpat, his lovely wife and their friends (who all have names but it is more exciting on the internet if I make them sound mysteriously unnamed) for having us round for tea and cake. And vodka, they are Scottish after all. We watched a bit of that Sherman's March film (a documentary about this guy who starts off trying to make a film about Sherman's march through Georgia but ends up using the "Hi, I'm making a documentary" line as a way of meeting but not actually copping off with loads of women).

And so my account of this festival trails away…

An inuit panda production

New Favourites 2010

I have prepared a CD-R of my favourite new (to me) tunes of 2010. You can have a copy if you want; let me know and I will make one for you. Here is a list of the tunes with information on where they come from and links to where you can read more about the artist in question. Art Bears The Song of Investment Capital Overseas From a private compilation of music featuring Dagmar Krause called Some Questions About Dagmar Krause Veronica Falls Found Love in a Graveyard From the Indietracks Festival 2010 compilation Everybody Was In The French Resistance… Now Billie's Genes This riposte to Michael Jackson's 'Billie Jean' appears on the album Fixin' The Charts, Vol. 1 Lady Gaga Telephone From the album The Fame Monster The Blood Arm Suspicious Character From the album Lie Lover Lie Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes Home From the Rough Trade Shops compilation Counter Culture 2009, which I seem not to have reviewed online. The Duckworth Lewis Method Test Match Special From the untitled album by the Duckworth Lewis Method Electrelane To the East From the album No Shouts, No Calls Cate Le Bon Eyes So Bright From the brilliant album Me Oh My. I hope I have not buried this track here where people will not realise how great Cate Le Bon is. Cluster Heisse Lippen From the Soul Jazz compilation Deutsche Elektronische Musik: Experimental German Rock and Electronic Musik 1972-83 Fever Ray Seven From the untitled album by Fever Ray Cineplexxx Para Mi From the Indietracks Festival 2010 compilation Las Cuervas Chan Chan From the album De Mi Ciudad Te Traigo Omar Souleyman Hafer Gabrak Bidi (I Will Dig Your Grave with My Hands) From the album Jazeera Nights: Folk and Pop Sounds of Syria Group Doueh Ragsa Jaguar From the album Treeg Salaam Terrifying Tibetan Child and His Father Vocal with Erhu From the Sublime Frequencies album Streets of Lhasa Gerald Barry L'Agitation des Observateurs, le Tremblement des Voyeurs From the CD given away with the Irish Museum of Modern Art's Boulevard magazine. Trio Scordatura Invocation From the album Dubh The Streets of Lhasa From the Sublime Frequencies album Streets of Lhasa An inuit panda production

Group Doueh "Treeg Salaam"

Another rare Sublime Frequencies single artist release, this time from the Western Saharan sensations. In the vaguest conceptual terms they are not unlike Omar Souleyman, playing a music that manages to take traditional forms and radically update them with modern instrumentation. But the actual music is very different, with Group Doueh being heavily based around the electric guitar.

It has become rather commonplace recently to describe the odder ends of non-Western music as being somehow akin to the more avant garde reaches of our music. In Group Doueh's case, this seems more apt than with some others. The combination of the wacka wacka guitar virtuosity, the slightly random keyboard notes, the blissed out vocals, and the dog-rough production values here lend it all a strangely forward thinking vibe, for all that this is seems to basically be party music for the people of the embattled Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic.

I suppose Group Doueh bear some resemblance, in its guitar orientation, to the likes of Tinariwen from nearby* Mali. But Tinariwen, with their high production values and general slickness, seems almost like bloated prog rockers compared to Group Doueh**. If the Malians are Rush, then Group Doueh are Sonic Youth. But of course, they would not care for the comparison – as far as I can make out, in their own culture, they are not avant garde weirdoes, just people making tunes for parties. Or maybe they are more like the makers of gnaoua music in southern Morocco, making music that is meant to transport the listener into other realms of awareness. It certainly has that effect on me.

* Only a couple of thousand miles away

** That said, it is not acceptable to criticise Tinariwen, as they are awesome in their own way.

An inuit panda production