Mark Higginson

My musical listening history is dotted with artists who went from being the next great inspiration to just having one early album as the defining moment in their career. The mark of the true artist is not one of a discrete act of creation, but of development and ascendency. The Kleptones had that one great album, A Night at the Hip-Hopera, an exercise at once both thematically complete and diversely eclectic. This was an album so popular it was stolen from the hi-fi while it was playing at our house parties. What marks them out is that they have built on this success with each subsequent release.

Their latest work, Uptime / Downtime, scoops up a great armful of my most favourite tunes for a hug that delights as much as it surprises with a continuation of the double album concept of 24 Hours. As my friend Joe would say, so retro, so future... to a point where the vital feeling I had when I first listened to these old friends is recaptured in these multi-layered self-referential slices of pop (culture). The Kleptones are successful at recycling the inherently disposable into something greater than the sum of their parts; making the tunes that really meant something into genre and time-spanning dancefloor fillers, whether that floor is a club or your own front room.

A lot of stuff got resolved in 2007 which made it really nice to reflect on the year that was and look forward to 2008. Cindy organised a surprise birthday party for me in a bar on the Dials attended by pretty much all my good friends from Brighton and London. I was truly shocked when I walked in and spent a good portion of the night in a dazed state. It was really lovely that people turned up to say hello and I really appreciated the effort she and everyone else had gone to. Here's my news headline of the year:

Brighton's local newspaper is the home of consistently lamentable journalistic editorial standards. Which makes it very occasionally downright bizarre.

1 original comment:

You’re being a little unfair to some of the Argus scribblers there… Consistently lamentable *Editorial* standards would be more appropriate, imho ;)
Comment by Eric — 8 January, 2008 @ 12:08 pm

The collective consciousness seemed to have selected Bestival as one to go to this year so we all duly trooped off to the Isle of Wight. Overall it was a pretty good weekend though I think it was feeling the weight of numbers moreso this year. With thirty thousand people to get on-site on Friday morning there were big tailbacks. Stupidly we didn't figure that this would be the same on the way out so missed our ferry and ended up stuck for eight hours; not so bad as we went to Butterfly World for a few of them. A lot of effort had gone into making the site look lovely and the music was a whole lot more to my liking than The Big Chill. In fact with the way the Chill was going when I last went two years ago you'd choose Bestival, no contest, it was developing all the same problems as it grew but with the sense that the atmosphere they were trying to promote was at complete odds with their desire to rinse as many people for the price of a ticket as possible. Next year... more festivals of a smaller size.

Eric Kleptone tearing up the House of Bamboo

As it has been one of the hottest and driest Aprils on record what better way to spend a lazy day than having a picnic? The setting is all important so on Sunday Cindy, Joe, Rose and I went to Wakehurst Place on a recommendation (good work Zoe!). The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew manage the property on behalf of The National Trust and the Millenium Seed Bank is also on the site. The grounds are huge, much more than we could manage to cover in a lazy afternoon so if the weather is fine you may want to take an entire day slacking in the gorgeous countryside.

Following another tip-off (Joe's dad) we requested a permit to the Loder Valley Nature Reserve. You can ask for these when you get your tickets but they only issue 50 a day as they want to keep the site fairly undisturbed.

You can gain access through a gate with the keycode they issue you with and, compared to the rest of the grounds, wander undisturbed through woodlands and meadows. Cindy and I had to turn back but Joe and Rose saw Kingfishers on their travels.

The bluebells were out in full force for that proper woodland glade look.

Here's a chance to get in on the ground floor with a brand new comedy podcast from the talented mind of Helen Zaltzman and friends. They're on episode three now so get your questions in before their listenership goes global and you have more chance of the Dalai Lama calling you up with a sage response.

Disclaimer: Martin the soundman is a schoolfriend of mine. Known him years I have.

I should probably record for posterity that last Friday was the first Electric Playboys Club at the Pressure Point hosted by Sick lil Munkeez (Dan and Greg) with Ben, Grant and Gareth all on DJ duties. The entire messy incident can be viewed by following the link.

The next one is on Friday 24th November!

I don't need to tell you that free unpretentious nights out with good tunes and DJs who look they're having as good a time as the crowd are the way to go... so why not turn up and witness the spectacle for yourself? Better than paying a tenner for a mediocre night with a bunch of people who stand around looking like they're waiting for something to happen... this lot make it happen!

Tags: electric playboys club, sick lil munkeez.

I recently started learning Tai Chi. Matt, my teacher, is an all-round lovely person and the class size means we all get as much attention as we need. The great thing is that through the physical actions it complements and enhances a lot of what I feel are the more positive aspects of the way I think. I'd recommend it to anyone so check out the Wikipedia entries on Tai Chi Chuan. We're learning a style developed by Cheng Man-ch'ing which developed from Yang style as taught by Yang Ch'eng-fu.

The philosophy that surrounds this stuff is very interesting. This page on the Taiji at The Wikipedia goes as follows:

"...the Taiji is the infinite, essential, and fundamental principle of evolutionary change that actualizes all potential states of being through the self-organizing integration of complementary existential polarities. From their mutual existence a state of dynamic equilibrium comes into being, which is the expression of the Taiji."

Baguazhang also looks really interesting....

Update: It's a useful exercise to apply this to every situation that confronts you as it really benefits your critical faculties. Returning to this decade's most popular subject, the war on emotions, we have been told that there is to a be a war on terror which is also a fight against evil. To eliminate this 'terror' we have to understand that the source of this terror does in part originate from the hegemony imposed by the West on societies rich in resources whose leaders wish to resist exploitation as a springboard for their own will to power. In some sense this is therefore a war against ourselves; the forces that are seemingly in deadly opposition to each other are intrinsically linked as well as created by the 'other'.

We were bored last Saturday and looking for trouble so were happy to be invited to a party over Hampshire way where Sick lil Munkeez were DJing on the yInter soundsystem. This is Greg...

Update: more Barnival photos over on flickr. There are mixes available for download from the Sick lil Munkeez website if you want to hear what they do.

Oops. Realised it has been nearly three weeks since I've written an entry on here. Been a busy old month. There was Tif's birthday where dorp played, George and Simon's birthday's and my friend Jo back from Nairobi for a month. This led to a camping trip last weekend in nearby woods that a few friends showed up to that I haven't see for ages; some who I went to school with. On top of that there have been a load of good nights that have seemingly come from nowwhere which have led to lazy Sundays in the pub or park in the summer heat... yum!

Currently reading: Five Fists of Science by Matt Fraction. What if Nikola Tesla and Mark Twain were buddies and taking on the forces of evil who comprise J.P. Morgan and Thomas Edison among others? What! You mean to say Tesla and Twain were friends? How much of the rest of this story is true?

Film of the moment: Coffee and Cigarettes by Jim Jarmusch. Particularly enjoyed the Jack and Meg with a Tesla Coil scene and the GZA, RZA and Bill Murray having a chat.

It's that time. What to do, what to do? The Big Chill has been the fixture for the past three years and although last year was wicked it's all getting a little bit crowded. Which leaves us with a decision to make. What about Glade (14/15/16 July)? The Breaksday stage is definitely a draw and should have a spectacular line-up and is only four weeks away. The Chill is three weeks after (4/5/6 August) and two weeks after that is The Secret Garden Party (18/19/20 August). That looks like the one.

Until then, here's Flevans at last year's Chill: