The Week in Books: Spontaneous poetry to interplanetary travel
Vision and Verse 4pm Monday 2nd
As part of The East London Film Festival, this afternoon boasts films, poetry and music. Expect the rarely seen ‘Wholly Communion’, ‘L’etoile de Mer’ and a live accompaniment between composer Donna McKevitt and poet Jan Noble.
Vibe Bar, 91-95 Brick Lane, E16QL. Free
Drinking and Thinking: OneTaste 7pm Wednesday 4th
Practice your quick-fire, spontaneous writing skills at this creative writing workshop. The award winning poet, Inua Ellams, will be on hand to offer advice and conjure up stimulus.
Book Club, 100 Leonard Street, EC2A 4RH. Tickets £10
Living in Space with Ken Hollings) 7pm Thursday 5th
The author, Ken Hollings talks about his difficulty of adapting to interplanetary travel. Visuals and a live synthesiser soundtrack are supplied by Asterism.
ICA, The Mall, SW1Y 5AH. Tickets £5
Writer’s Block 8pm Sunday 8th
Celebrating Writer’s Block’s third birthday tonight plays host to live literature from Warsan Shire, live painting and of course, cake.
The City Arts and Music Project, 70-74 City Road, EC1Y 2BJ. Tickets £5
London Word Festival Finale 3 – 5th May
The brilliant London Word Festival comes to an end this week, so make sure you see Christian Bok during his rare visit to the UK, check out Alan Moore’s Dodgem Logic and celebrate the festival’s close at Be Seeing You
03 May 2011
Brainlove Festival 2011 - Snorri Helgason
Our second interview in the Brainlove Festival 2011 series is with Icelandic singer Snorri Helgason, a former Snipe diarist who recently relocated to London.
1. Hello Snorri! We’re really happy you’re playing Brainlove Festival. Could you introduce yourself?
My name is Snorri Helgason and I’m an Icelandic musician. I recently moved to London. I’ve been touring and playing a lot for the last couple of years and I’m about to finish recording my sophomore solo album, that I hope to release later this year.
2. Tell us a bit about the song you’ve given us.
“Ólán” is a song I recorded in early 2010 live in a studio in Reykjavík, Iceland. It’s in Icelandic and the title translates to somethig like “misfourtune” or “bad luck”.
3. Do you have a favourite festival performance? Both from a festival you’ve played, and a show by another artist…
A few performances come to mind…. I saw Beck on the Midnite Vultures tour play at Roskilde festival in 2001. That was a fantastic show. Daniel Johnston at SXSW. And a lot of shows from Iceland Airwaves over the years. Fm Belfast and Retro Stefson’s joint slot at Airwaves 2008 was fantastic. The most fun show I’ve played at a festival is probably with my old band Sprengjuhöllin at Canadian Music Week 2009 at the Rivoli in Toronto. That was crazy stuff.
4. How about a few words for curious readers wondering what to expect from your performance at BRNLV Festival this May 28th?
Well as I said earlier I’m just about to finish recording my sophomore album so I will probably debut a lot of new songs at the BRNLV festival. I’m really looking forward to it but I’m also kind of nervous because I have no idea how the new songs will go down with the audience because they are quite different from my older stuff. It’s going to be interesting to see how people will respond to them. But you know, most of all I’m just going to have fun and try to catch some of the other bands playing there.
Get Your Tickets Now.
02 May 2011
David Thomas Broughton - Ain't Got No Sole
David Thomas Broughton embarks on a month-long tour of the UK & Europe today. Read more about his mind-bending take on folk performance in the forthcoming issue, and get a taster from his new album “Outbreeding” below.
02 May 2011
Baths
3 May | Cargo | 83 Rivington Street, EC2A 3AY
We’ve been head-over-heels in love with Baths (aka L.A. resident Will Wiesenfeld) since hearing the opening notes of his 2010 album Cerulean: a heavenly harmony that sounds like it’s wafted in on a breeze from some faraway dreamy wonderland. “Apologetic Shoulderblades” then explodes into life with palpitating beats and electronic burbling, at once disorientating and soothing. There’s an enlivening vein of inventiveness and character throughout the record, marking Wiesenfeld out from more distant and faceless electronica artists. He’s supported at Cargo by hyped solo artist Star Slinger.
01 May 2011
Blanck Mass - Land Disasters
Blanck Mass is a solo project of Fuck Buttons star Benjamin John Power. The album is a self-recorded vista of expansive, inspiring, textural drones, glistening with goodwill and rich emotion. The track below, Land Disasters, was released yesterday via Pitchfork as a free download, and the self-titled album will be out on Mogwai’s Rock Action label in June.
30 Apr 2011
Sacred Harp - Julie
We are utterly smitten by this beautiful debut album “Window’s A Fall” by Sacred Harp, out in Norway on Trust Me Records. The song isn’t super representative of the album, which segues between intoxicating dark prog jams, delicate slowcore ballads and stadium-sized indie-rock, in the best possible way.
30 Apr 2011
Did the Queen diss Camilla in front of two billion viewers? [Video]
Two Snipe* readers got married today — and it was quite exciting, it was all over the the telly.
But out of the hours and hours of video, two things stuck out in our royal watching. The first is in the video below. We can’t be sure, but it looks like the Queen shook off a greeting from the former Mrs. Camilla Parker Bowles.
Charles, Prince of Wales, leans in and gives his mum a kiss. Then his wife Camilla leans in — and, it seems to us, the Queen shakes her head ‘No!.’ leaving Camilla hanging. She eventually pulls off a curtsey. Pretty cold stuff, if true.
The second is Princess Beatrice’s hat. Here’s an awesome Tumblr devoted to it.
* They MIGHT be Snipe readers. They fit our psychographics and live about a ten minute walk from Snipe Fake HQ. It could happen.
30 Apr 2011
Brainlove Festival 2011: Multiphonic Rodent
Snipe will be partnering Brainlove Festival 2011 over the coming month and publishing tracks, pictures and Q&As with each of the performing bands and artists, culminating in a free download compilation and a festival guide.
First up, and all the way from Estonia, comes Multiphonic Rodent. A one-man-band using loops, guitar, drums, clarinet, and whatever else he can lay his hands on, Erkki Höbe makes lo-fi pop compositions with an exciting edge of improvisation. Read the Q&A after the jump.
Multiphonic Rodent – Princess & Page by snipelondon
29 Apr 2011
Royal couple bank on Boris's blue friends
So here’s what Boris Johnson billed as “London’s gift to the happy couple” – a tandem version of one of TfL’s hire bikes. There’s even a cutesy video to go with it. But what will Londoners make of this two-wheeled present?
29 Apr 2011
FM Belfast - New Year
After seeing 2000 Danish kids go absolutely batshit crazy to FM Belfast live at Spot Festival last year, it has been stuck in my head that they’re potentially the biggest pop export Iceland has ever seen. Explosively brilliant, smart, pretty and fun, their songs are at once like some kind of modern classic you’ve heard before but also like nothing else out there. This is the first song form their forthcoming new record “Don’t Want To Go Home” on Morr Music, out in June.
29 Apr 2011
Snipe Highlights
Some popular articles from past years
- Summer Camp: Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days
- Nice map of London's fruit trees shows you where to pick free food
- A unique collection of photos of Edwardian Londoners
- Number of people using Thames cable car plunges
- Random Interview: Eileen Conn, co-ordinator of Peckham Vision
- The best church names in London, and where they come from
- Margaret Thatcher statue rejected by public
- Silencing the Brick Lane curry touts could be fatal for the city's self-esteem
- Peter Bayley has worked for 50 years as a cinema projectionist in East Finchley
- Could red kites be London's next big nature success story?
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