Alexander's Festival Hall - Upturned (Simon Bookish Remix)
After posting the wonderful “Upturned” last week, we now have for you a quite fantastic parcel of remixes.
The centrepiece is a remix by the phenomenally talented London musician Simon Bookish (pictured). He constructs a hypnotic composition based around that slippery, charming chorus melody, dousing it in choral harmonies, piano, pipes and an undertone that sounds a little like a musical saw, or ringing crystal. It’s a detailed, sensitive reworking, full of surprising, subtle arrangements. We await the next Simon Bookish album with baited breath.
This gem is backed with a lovely Vatican Motel remix that adds some sunny accordion flourishes:
And a Zachary Gray version that’s directed squarely at the dancefloor.
03 Apr 2012
Big Black Smoke by Joe Innes & The Cavalcade
London anti-folk troubadour and comic book fanatic Joe Innes has just released a new album with his band The Cavalcade, their first as a group in fact. Download it here. If today’s MPFree floats your proverbial boat, head down to the Slaughtered Lamb on April 28th for the album launch party.
02 Apr 2012
London agenda for Monday 2 April 2012
1. Visit the Soho Theatre for Jonny Woo’s Gay Bingo [Le Cool]
2. Solve the mystery of the Murder on the Nile [ Run Riot]
3. Hear the only show worth hearing tonight, When Saints Go Machine w/ Bleeding Heart Narrative + Helium Robots [Flavorpill]
4. Discover why East London councillors are revolting [Ian Visits]
5. Explore the formal gardens of Canons Park [Tired of London]
02 Apr 2012
A History of London in 10 Objects from the Museum of London hits number 3: Roman stuff
Some archaeological peeps at The Museum of London are ripping off the British Museum’s History of the World in 100 Objects with their own History of London in 10 Archaeological Objects. And why not? Was it not Tacitus in his Agricola who wrote: “A format once marketed is for all time a marketable format.”?
Anyhow, so far they have chosen a prehistoric flint from the Thames, then an Iron Age dagger from…the Thames, and third some Roman cereal (insert Weetabitticus joke here) from Fenchurch St.
Updates seem to be coming once a month or so, with the final 10 to be selected by the end of the year. Plague and fire I’m expecting to be well covered, but what other events and items will they pick out from their copious vaults?
This is interesting, people! Check it out.
02 Apr 2012
TfL's April Fool joke on night bus users - switch off 'next bus' displays
You can’t have failed to have seen the ads around London for TfL’s new service which allows you to get next bus times from your phone or desktop. Boris Johnson is certainly hoping they’ll help his re-election campaign.
If you’re a night bus user, you may well be a big fan of the system, which comes into its own when services are less frequent yet still prone to delays. Except in the early hours of Sunday morning, when TfL decided to take the whole system down…
Even the Countdown display boards at bus stops were showing nothing between midnight and 6am. If you’d had a late Saturday night out, tough.
With TfL rightly spending great sums of our money on campaigns persuading people not to get in dodgy geezers’ pretend minicabs, why on earth did it take down what’s a vital system in helping people decide what’s the safest way home?
It’s the latest in a series of Sunday shutdowns for the new service – picking the day when buses are less frequent and so next-bus information becomes more useful.
It might be better – and save a few stonking overtime payments – if TfL picks a Wednesday afternoon for its next spot of maintenance, when at least we’d be fairly sure the next bus is only a few minutes away, rather than the small hours of a Sunday when passengers aren’t sure if their bus will come at all.
02 Apr 2012
Boris Johnson to bring back "slammer" trains
Boris Johnson will bring back the much loved slam door trains to London if re-elected, he announced today.
The Mayor told a hustings in the City that he would introduce a 21st century fleet of “slammers” at no cost to the taxpayer:
“We should on day one, act one, scene one, hold a competition to get rid of the menace of electric guillotine slide-doors. They wipe out commuters, there are many commuters killed every year by them.
A spokesperson for Boris’s campaign said that passengers would feel “liberated” by the new hop-on hop-off facility provided by the trains:
“For too long Londoners have been restricted to only getting off of trains onto station platforms. If Boris is re-elected he will free Londoners to make their own choice as to where and when they should get off of a train.”
The last slam door trains were withdrawn from service in the 1990s, quite possibly by health and safety obsessed killjoys, at the behest of Ken Livingstone.
01 Apr 2012
London Review Bookshop
Nestled comfortably between Holborn and Tottenham Court Road, the London Review Bookshop provides a welcome oasis of calm from the bustling and tourist-ridden West End. It’s classy dark exterior beckons you in to a small yet spacious, light and well stocked bookshop. Complete with friendly, and more importantly book loving staff.
Opened nine years ago this month by the London Review of Books. Bookshop manager John Creasy tells me their aim was to “create a small, independent but well stocked bookshop offering a range of literary and academic titles which, at the time, were not being given much prominence by the largely dominant chain shops.” They have certainly achieved this. The usually dominant fiction section of a bookshop is somewhat overshadowed in London Review Bookshop, by vast and packed non fiction sections. This is a serious bookshop, one where a rouge Jilly Cooper novel would get bullied.
When i asked John what it was that he thought made the bookshop so special he told me, “I think it is the range that we offer that sets us apart. We cram a lot in to a relatively small shop so customers wanting the range we offer can find plenty to interest them in a small. friendly and easily negotiated space. We have very experienced and knowledgeable booksellers and a lovely cafe to meet friends or relax in.”
The cafe was added to the Bookshop three years ago. It’s a wonderful space, with seating in light, sunny (obviously not all the time, this is still London, in England) square, perfect for reading the books you’ve just brought or just meeting people for a relaxed catch up.
With such a fabulous space and location, it makes sense that the shop holds events. John tells me they are more panel discussions, rather than author readings. For upcoming events see here.
I found books here that I’ve never seen anywhere else on my bookshop travels, and an atmosphere that made me want to curl up in a chair and read till closing time. A must-visit for those looking for academic books, or simply those who don’t know what they’re looking for. There’s plenty to choose from.
London Review Bookshop, 14 Bury Place, WC1A 2JL
30 Mar 2012
London agenda for Friday 30 March 2012
1. Listen to Jacqueline Rose take on Marilyn Monroe [Le Cool]
2. Watch a hilarious programme of dramas, animations, mockumentaries and more at the Horse Hospital’s Whirlygig [Run Riot]
3. Start the The Rifles’ London Weekender early at the Troxy [Don’t Panic]
4. Eat chocolate in Southwark [Ian Visits]
30 Mar 2012
Alexander's Festival Hall - Upturned
Alexander’s Festival Hall, the project of one Alexander Mayor, has been on our radar for a while. His album is fast approaching, and this delightfully light-hearted, smart single brings to mind a distinctly English Magnetic Fields – we dare you not to lose your heart to the gorgeous liftoff of the chorus.
30 Mar 2012
Mat Riviere - Lamplight (Candy Empire Remix)
The third in our Estonia-UK remix series is Tallinn-based electro-pop act Candy Empire’s remix of UK solo artist Mat Riviere. Candy Empire have taken sounds from Riviere’s delicate, minimal composition and, basically, put a wonky donk on it. You can hear the catchy results below.
30 Mar 2012
Snipe Highlights
Some popular articles from past years
- A unique collection of photos of Edwardian Londoners
- 9 poems about London: one for each of your moods
- Could red kites be London's next big nature success story?
- Silencing the Brick Lane curry touts could be fatal for the city's self-esteem
- Nice Interactive timeline lets you follow Londoners' historic fight against racism
- Only 16 commuters touch in to Emirates Air Line, figures reveal
- The five best places in London to have an epiphany
- Peter Bayley has worked for 50 years as a cinema projectionist in East Finchley
- Nice map of London's fruit trees shows you where to pick free food
- An interview with Desiree Akhavan
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