Roll The Dice – In Dust

The new album from Swedish duo Roll the Dice is really quite stunning; an epic journey through a vast industrial dystopia, created purely with analogue equipment that seems analogous to the beating heart of the world it describes. It’s bold, stark and, although purely instrumental, forms a rich narrative arc that conjures a vivid, emotive world replete with rattling chains, churning gears, dripping oil and the rhythmic thud of an eager yet desolate enterprise. Unsurprisingly, one of the two composers scores music for film and television, and the strong vein of storytelling that the album conveys seems well suited to accompanying something like Metropolis, Blade Runner or 1984. Fingers crossed a collaboration will be imminent: we’d really love to see that film.

To quell our impatience for that project, the good people at God Don’t Like It have thankfully scheduled them in to play at Cafe OTO (the only place we ever seem to bloody talk about!) tomorrow, the 20th of September. Should be a pretty great night.

To get you in the mood, here’s their awesome album – available to stream in full.

Image is by László Moholy-Nagy, many of whose best pieces you can currently see at the fantastic exhibition of Hungarian photography, currently showing at the Royal Academy of the Arts.

Paul Clipson

For those that attended the Jefre Cantu-Ledesma gig at Café Oto last night, please forgive us for trying to re-create what happened in this post. We know that all we are able to provide is a cheap facsimile, but providing even a homeopathically-scaled percentage of events is something still totally worthwhile.

For those that weren’t at the Jefre Cantu-Ledesma gig at Café Oto last night, please forgive us for what must seem like a slightly obtuse opening gambit. But bear with us; it’ll definitely be worth it.

Last night, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma’s gig at Café Oto (I suppose you’ve figured that bit out already) was accompanied by the Super 8 projections of Paul Clipson. Or, more accurately – in my mind at least – Paul Clipson’s Super 8 projections were accompanied by Jefre Cantu-Ledesma. He showed some of the most beautifully captured fragments of film that I think I’ve ever seen, all flowing in and out, penetrating deep within, floating on top and swimming around each other in what seemed perfect, serendipitous harmony with the engulfing music. Images ranging from the stark, geometric angles of industrial cityscapes to undulating, amorphous patterns to silhouettes of trees and fences and ghostly apparitions of colourful faces all moving and shifting incessantly with a gurgling, immersive fluidity. The subject – light – was utterly singular, but its treatment through texture, rhythm and pattern was phenomenally complex and it recalled so many of the most powerful and moving video art that’s ever been created (László Moholy-Nagy, Bruce Nauman, Len Lye, William Klein, Kenneth Anger, Fernand Léger – to name a few) whilst being in itself something totally new and, quite literally at some points, jaw-droppingly breathtaking (I think I may have even dribbled).

Unfortunately the excerpts provided below, as stated above, only provide a suggestion of last night’s events. But hopefully some of the effect might rub off and a few people, somewhere, will be persuaded to catch him next time he shows his work. If so, we will see you there.

Game of Light

A couple of years ago I woke up one morning and saw a patch of light on my bedroom wall. The sun’s rays had reflected off a puddle in the street, been filtered through the leaves of a tree and were casting a shifting abstract pattern that I couldn’t take my eyes off. One of my flatmates was playing a kalimba in his room as well and it made a really perfect soundtrack to it. They were both inconsistent, directionless, relentlessly mobile and had this beautiful hypnotic, calming effect. I thought to myself that I’d really like to make a film like that. And then a while later I came across this and took my hat off to the man.

Someone should do a soundtrack to this. All silver shimmering semi-drones. It’d be gorgeous.